Div, Apaush

Image © @chimeride

[Sponsored by @crazytrain48, based on the "sun demon" from Arduin. Why these are sun demons is somewhat obscure to me; their scales and boluses suggest they should be iron demons, right? The art does an excellent job making it more sunny, with the solar disk head, which I love. I leaned into it by giving them the name of one of the Zoroastrian daevas of drought, and some of their spell-like abilities.]

Div, Apaush CR 9 NE Outsider (extraplanar) This creature is a vaguely avian humanoid, with a beaked head ringed by a structure halfway between a sunburst and an owl’s facial disc. It has fan-like wings, metal talons on its hands and feet and a long whip-like tail. Its body and wings are covered with overlapping metal scales that screech horribly as the creature moves.

The apaush are sometimes known as “sun divs” or “sun fiends”, as they are devotees of drought. They are native to the hottest, driest parts of Abaddon. An apaush on the Material Plane makes sure to use its weather controlling abilities to keep things sunny and hot, and the droughts they provoke lead to widespread starvation and thirst. The head of an apaush resembles a solar disk and some apaush work with clerics of evil sun gods and archfiends. An apaush constantly emits a rasping, screeching noise from the metal scales on its body and wings. Like all divs, the apaush have a psychological weakness; in their case, apaush hate silence. They make noise almost compulsively in quiet places, and in the area of a silence spell are edgy and uncomfortable.

Apaush are incredibly fast fliers, and prefer to attack from the sky. They make hit and run attacks while airborne, spitting boluses of molten iron that entangle and scorch enemies, casting destructive spells, or merely tearing into foes with their claws. An apaush’s metal scales provide it with supernaturally powerful protection against ranged attacks, and the screeching of its metal body is so loud as to be painfully distracting up close.  If forced to land, they usually cast defensive spells like fire shield and wall of fire, to punish melee combatants as much as possible.

An apaush is tall for a Medium creature, being taller than seven feet tall on average. Their whip-like tails are often that length again, but too weak to be used in combat.

Apaush               CR 9 XP 6,400 NE Medium outsider (div, evil, extraplanar) Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +15, see in darkness Aura screeching (30 ft., Will DC 19)

Defense AC 23, touch 12, flat-footed 21 (+2 Dex, +11 natural) hp 114 (12d10+48) Fort +10, Ref +10, Will +8 DR 10/good and melee; Immune fire, petrifaction, poison, sonic; Resist acid 10, electricity 10; SR 20 Defensive Abilities fiery body,healing petrifaction

Offense Speed 30 ft., fly 120 ft. (average) Melee 2 claws +15 (1d10+3 plus 1d6 fire), bite +15 (1d6+3 plus 1d6 fire), 2 wings +13 (1d6+1 plus 1d6 fire) Ranged molten bolus +14 touch (3d10 fire) Spell-like Abilities CL 12th, concentration +15 At will—detect good, dimension door, heat metal (DC 15) 3/day—cup of dust (DC 16), empowered searing light, stinking cloud (DC 16) 1/day—control weather (cannot cause precipitation), fire snake (DC 18), wall of fire

Statistics Str 16, Dex 15, Con 18, Int 13, Wis 10, Cha 17 Base Atk +12; CMB +16; CMD 28 Feats Empower SLA (searing light),Flyby Attack, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Multiattack, Power Attack Skills Bluff +18,Fly +17, Intimidate +18, Knowledge (geography, planes) +16, Perception +15, Stealth +9; Racial Modifiers -8 Stealth Languages Abyssal, Celestial, Ignan, Infernal, telepathy 100 ft.

Ecology Environment any land and underground (Abaddon) Organization solitary or flock (2-6) Treasure incidental

Special Abilities Fiery Body (Ex) An apaush is so hot that it deals 1d6 points of fire damage to any creature touching it or striking it with a melee touch attack, natural weapon or unarmed strike. It deals an extra 1d6 points of fire damage with all of its natural weapons. Healing Petrifaction (Ex) Any attempt to petrify an apaush heals it of 1d10 points of damage, plus 1 per HD of the creature for supernatural petrifaction effects, or caster level of the effect for spells and spell-like abilities. Molten Bolus (Su) As a standard action, an apaush can vomit up a blob of molten metal. Treat this as a ranged touch attack made with a thrown weapon with a range increment of 15 feet. A creature struck is entangled for three rounds, takes 3d10 points of fire damage, then takes 2d10 points of fire damage the next round and 1d10 fire damage on the third round. The blob can be scraped off by dealing 10 points of damage to it with a slashing weapon, or cooled down with a chill metal or quench effect (but the entangling still lasts the full duration). An apaush can use this ability once every 1d4 rounds. Screeching Aura (Su) Whenever an apaush moves more than 5 feet in a round, it produces an awful noise. All creatures within 30 feet of the apaush must succeed a DC 19 Will save or take a -4 penalty to attack rolls for 1 round from distraction. This is a sonic mind-influencing effect, and the save DC is Charisma based. Wings (Su) The wings of an apaush are lined with razor sharp scales and deal slashing and bludgeoning damage on a successful hit.

WILDER APAOSHA (妖獣 アオパシャ): The Avestan language name of Zoroastrianism's demon of drought. He is the epitomized antithesis of Tishtrya, divinity of the star Sirius and guardian of rainfall. In Zoroastrian tradition, Apaosha appears as Aposh or Apaush. In the mythology of Yasht 8.21-29, Tishtrya, as a mighty white horse with golden ears and golden tail, rushes towards the cosmic sea Vourukhasha. On his way, he is confronted by Apaosha as a horrible black horse with black ears and black tail. They battle for three days and nights until Apaosha drives Tishtrya away. Tishtrya then complains to Ahura Mazda that he was weakened because humankind did not give him his due of proper prayers and sacrifices. Ahura Mazda then himself offers sacrifice to Tishtrya, who now strengthened reengages Apaosha in battle at noon and conquers the demon of drought. Tishtrya then causes the rains to fall freely upon the earth and all is well again. --Wikipedia Chefei 1, Jelly Man, Willy, Holy Ghost Melusine Faun Buer Hanako Vine Caim Vesta Kuchisake Parasite

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