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The Abyss is home to several powerful demon lords, each of whom has their own ruinous designs on the rest of the universe and is building an army to enact those designs. Yet these armies rarely seem to leave the Abyss to start their invasions. One of the reasons for this is that the demon lords hate each other as much as they hate everything else, and spend much of their time locked in eternal bloody warfare. Another one is that you have huge hordes of “unclaimed demons” who prefer to pursue their own personal goals instead of organizing into a large force.

Well, it looks like the seed of cosmic evil at the bottom of the Abyss has had enough of this lack of focus, so it started producing a special brand of demon from pure elemental evil energy and sending them to the upper layers to clean house. These are the klurichirs.

Every klurichir is a contender for the rank of demon lord, and has a real shot at it given enough time. They differ from the existing demon lords in that they were never primordials, but were instead born as demons.

These demons are quick to take control of those unclaimed hordes, and use them to shake things up in the Abyss. They do this by throwing them against the forces of the incumbent demon lords as they fight each other. They surround themselves with other epic-tier officers like balors and nafelshnees, and spend the lives of their lesser underlings freely because there are always more where those came from.

The Numbers

We only get a single stat block for klurichirs. They’re Huge Elemental Humanoids with the Demon tag, and Level 28 Soldiers with 258 HP. They have Blindsight 5, and are immune to fear. Their ground speed is 8, and they fly at speed 12 with clumsy maneuverability, meaning they fight on the ground.

Klurichirs project a Malign Influence aura (2) that prevents enemies inside from regaining HP by any means. They fight with gigantic Reach 3 axes that do more damage when the demon is bloodied and mark for a turn. They can make occasional Savage Hew attacks (recharge 5+) that hit everyone in a Close Burst 3 for the same damage and effects.

When a marked enemy moves, the klurichir can try to grab then with its Reach 2 pincers a reaction. This does some initial damage on a hit, and from that point on the demon can spend minor actions to sustain the grab and deal the same amount of damage automatically. Only one victim can be grabbed at a time.

When the klurichir is first bloodied, it speaks a Blasphemous Utterance that deals necrotic damage and dazes (save ends) in a Close Blast 5.

Final Impressions

Huh, it turns out klurichirs are actually a bit weaker than Balors, who are Level 27 Elite Brutes. So I have a bit of a hard time believing the text that says they’re “on the cusp of becoming demon lords”.

Maybe that also applies to balors, and you can reskin klurichirs into “baby balors” wielding axes instead of the classic sword and whip combo. It’s also relatively easy to make klurichirs into elites via the usual rules.

Mechanically, I like the “no healz” aura and the pincers, which combine to put grabbed PCs in a very unfortunate situation. Damaging a grabbed PC is a minor action and the demon can still attack them with that high-damage axe.