Lemure

Lemure
(Creature)
Common LE Medium Devil Fiend Mindless Level 0 Alignment LG NG CG LN N CN LE NE CE Images of lemures Source: Bestiary, pg(s). 86 Type Outsider (devil, evil, extraplanar, lawful) CR 1 Environment Any (Hell) Alignment LG NG CG LN N CN LE NE CE Images of lemures Source: Bestiary, pg(s). 79

Lemures are one of the lowest of devil-kind, seemingly nothing more than ambulatory mounds of melting fiendish flesh and hatred.

Appearance

The lemure appears as a vaguely human shaped mound of flesh around four feet in height. Its saggy flesh runs and drips like candle wax as if some foul creator had forgotten to give it a permanent form. It has facial features in only the vaguest sense of the word, with a horrible black pit passing for a mouth and dark eyes that hint at the centuries of torture it has had to endure. Its limbs, like the rest of it, look crudely formed but serve as its only weapons. This humanoid form is only used while moving—when still, a lemure looks like a bulging mound of flesh. Some lemure do not even take humanoid form, appearing as just a small mountain of writhing flesh. Many lemures have the disconcerting habit of altering their faces to look like that of those they are fighting or those that are around it. Lemures normally weigh around two hundred pounds.

Habitat and ecology

Lemures can be found on any of Hell's nine layers, though they are most common on the first layer, Avernus. Lemures can also often be found on the Material Plane, since as the weakest of devils they are also the easiest to summon, bind, and control. Lemures form the vital bottom rung of Hell's ecology: when a soul is banished to Hell, it first arrives in Avernus, from whence it is shepherded to one of the other layers, either the one that is the most suitable punishment for the soul's crime or the layer most in need of new slaves.

Once the soul reaches the appropriate layer, it suffers centuries of torment that drives it mad. The soul is eventually stripped of any memories it had of its life before Hell, creating a mindless servant driven by hate and fear. After centuries of existing in this state the soul becomes a lemure, the building block of all devil-kind. Lemures roam in fleshy hordes destroying and tormenting anything weaker than themselves. More powerful devils can spot the most fiendishly evil of lemures and often chose to promote them to become more powerful types of devil.

The actual creation of lemures from the damned is dependent on the unknowable qualities of infernal planes, not from diabolic interference. Although this makes direct transformation from shade to lemure impossible, it has not stopped diabolical lords from experimentation to duplicate the process.

Abilities

Unlike most devils, lemures possess no supernatural abilities whatsoever, relying solely on their muck-encrusted claws and sheer numbers to bring down enemies.