Demon, Alpha Yek

Family: Demons

With a flattened, lupine face and skin pulled taut over its skeletal frame, the creature is terrible to behold. It wears entrails and bones of previous victims over its dark red fur and has black spikes jutting from its spine.

Medium fiend (demon), chaotic evil

Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 129 (16d8 + 48)
Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
16 (+3) 16 (+3) 16 (+3) 15 (+2) 13 (+1) 10 (+0)

Saving Throws Strength +7, Dexterity +7, Constitution +7, Intelligence +6
Skills Perception +5, Stealth +7
Damage Resistances cold, fire, lightning; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities poisoned
Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 15
Languages Abyssal, telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge 9 (5,000 XP)

Special Traits

  • Magic Resistance. The yek has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
  • Pack Tactics. The yek has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of the yek’s allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.

Actions

  • Multiattack. The alpha yek makes one bite attack and two claw attacks. It can make a bone shard attack in place of a claw attack if it has a bone shard available.
  • Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (4d6 + 3) piercing damage.
  • Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (4d4 + 3) slashing damage.
  • Bone Shard. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (2d4 + 3) piercing damage and the target must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, a piece of the bone breaks and sticks in the target’s wound. The target takes 5 (2d4) piercing damage at the start of each of its turns as long as the bone remains lodged in its wound. A creature, including the target, can take its action to remove the bone by succeeding on a DC 15 Wisdom (Medicine) check. The bone also falls out of the wound if the target receives magical healing. A yek typically carries 3 (1d6) bone shards, which are destroyed on a successful hit. It can use its action to tear a bone shard from a corpse within 5 feet.

About

Pack of Cannibals. Yek are loathsome fiends, hated by other demons because of their cannibalistic tendencies. They are creatures that do not care what flesh they feed upon but prefer it to be raw and wriggling. Though vicious fighters alone, they are rarely encountered without their pack. Even the most powerful of fiends can be brought down by a pack of yek.

Pack Loyalties. The lesser yek demons are completely subservient to their pack leader, sometimes called the alpha yek, and follow that leader’s direction in all things. This includes targets to attack, to which demon lord to swear obeisance, and when to betray one demonic warlord for another. They always move together as a group, directed by the strongest. When a yek pack leader is slain, the lesser yek scatter in complete disarray.

They choose another leader within a few days, celebrating the occasion with an unholy feast. Some demonologists have confirmed that the weakest member of the pack is devoured by the new leader during this feast.

While yek demons usually choose their own masters, they are among the most mercenary of demons and can be bargained with to a greater degree than most. An evil spellcaster can perform a yek summoning ritual (its details shared among malign warlords and wizards) offering “blood and bone and a stream of rich and constant plunder” to the demons’ pack leader, in exchange for service against a particular foe. If the plunder and cartloads of bone are not forthcoming (as, for instance, when a foe withdraws from the battlefield), the yek demons invariably take their fee out of their summoner or that summoner’s troops and followers.

This practice sometimes spreads to merely rapacious and opportunistic armies seeking an edge. For instance, in a controversial move, the armies of the Dragon Empire have begun using yek as shock troops, summoning the fiends behind enemy lines and letting them do the dirty work.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Creature Codex. © 2018 Open Design LLC; Authors Wolfgang Baur, Dan Dillon, Richard Green, James Haeck, Chris Harris, Jeremy Hochhalter, James Introcaso, Chris Lockey, Shawn Merwin, and Jon Sawatsky.