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When Tharizdun first planted the cosmic Seed of Evil in the Elemental Chaos, he ordered his seven most powerful angels to stand guard over it. The angels’ oaths and sense of duty compelled them to obey. However, they all had some serious personal misgivings about this whole “corrupt and destroy the universe” business, so they were reluctant guardians.

When the seed inevitably corrupted them, it seized on this reluctance and turned the seven into two-headed Molydeus demons. They have a wolf’s head symbolizing their fierceness, and a snake’s head symbolizing their uncertain loyalty. They also carry the same axes they wielded as angels, which in a surprising twist contain a bit of the unspoiled light of creation. The demons are bound to their weapons - when one dies, the axe dissolves into sludge. If it’s stolen or lost, the molydeus will not rest until it has been recovered.

The seed of evil hasn’t needed guarding for a long time now, and the molydeus have scattered. They wander the Abyss alone, or followed by small retinues of other epic-level demons. They usually prefer Mariliths, but will also work with Balors or Klurichirs. Very rarely you’ll find one of them doing a demon lord’s dirty work, but these relationships rarely last long. I mean, if anyone is really at an “almost demon lord” level of power it’s the molydeus, so I guess they don’t like being the junior partner.

The Numbers

There’s only one stat block in this entry, which is okay because there are only seven molydeus demons in all the universe. They’re Large Elemental Humanoids with the Demon tag, and Level 29 Elite Soldiers with 544 HP. Stronger than balors and pit fiends, and on par with primordial colossi. They have Blindsight 5, a ground speed of 8, and are immune to fear.

Mechanically, molydeus share some similarities with Ettins, due to their two heads. They have All-Around Vision and therefore can’t be flanked; Double Actions allows them to roll Initiative twice and take two full turns per round; and Dual Brain allows them to automatically save against dazing, stunning or charm effects at the beginning of each of their turns.

Like all demons, the molydeus has Variable Resistance, and since it’s epic the trait is at its most powerful: 30 resistance to an element, switchable 3 times per encounter.

In a fight, it’ll probably open up with its Dread Word encounter power, a fear attack that targets Will in a Close Burst 5, affecting only enemies. A hit dazes them (save ends); a miss slows them and inflicts a -2 attack penalty (save ends both). If it needs to mark someone, it will attack with its Reach 2 axe, which is a pretty beefy attack already. Otherwise it will alternate between Wolf Bites and Snake Bites.

Wolf bites are Reach 2 do about as much damage as the axe and slide the target 6 squares to a square adjacent to the demon. Snake Bites are weaker, but have Reach 3, make the target grant combat advantage, and inflict 20 ongoing poison damage (save ends both). Both the axe and the bites count as basic attacks.

The wolf bite is an excellent positioning tool, so I guess the demon might use if a few times to set the party up for the Dread Word.

Final Impressions

Now here’s some proper epic demon lore! Mechanically, it has a suite of attacks that’s both thematic and varied, and indeed pairs well with mariliths and klurichirs. The klurichir stat block works better as a demon created to serve the molydeus than as a demon lord contender itself.