Devil, Flayer

Family: Devils

Tiny fiend (devil), lawful evil

Armor Class 12
Hit Points 13 (3d4 + 6)
Speed 30 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
10 (+0)	15 (+2)	14 (+2)	11 (+0)	12 (+1)	14 (+2)

Damage Resistances cold; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks that aren’t silvered
Damage Immunities fire, poison
Condition Immunities poisoned
Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 11
Languages Infernal, Common
Challenge 1 (200 XP)

SPECIAL TRAITS

• Devil’s Sight. Magical darkness doesn’t impede the devil’s darkvision.
• Magic Resistance. The devil has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
• Pact of the Flayer. While the flayer devil is bound to a master by a pact, the devil’s master can flay the bodies of the dead in order to wear their skin and take on their appearance. The master can flay the skin off of the body of a medium humanoid creature that has died within the last hour. Doing so takes 10 minutes, and is a vigorous activity that cannot be completed while attempting to rest. The master can wear the skin of a flayed body in order to take on the semblance of that creature as if by the change appearance effect of the alter self spell. The flayer devil’s master retains these abilities even if the flayer devil dies.

ACTIONS

• Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (2d4 + 2) slashing damage.

ABOUT

Repulsed by their own appearance, flayer devils seek to hide their shame behind a disguise of humanoid flesh. As their name suggests, flayer devils are infamous for leaving a trail of skinless corpses behind, never fully satisfied with the face they wear.

Flayer devils have small imp-like bodies, the glossy red tapestry of their exposed muscles only broken by the bone-white claws ripping through their flesh and the mask of mortal skin clumsily stitched over their face. Like their archdevil creator, flayer devils will become feverishly murderous towards any who expose the face they hide behind these masks.

Archdevil Narcissus. Hauntingly beautiful, Narcissus the Archdevil of Flesh is renowned through the Nine Hells as a master of torture. Narcissus appears as an attractive human, claws and horns protruding from skin he wears that is clearly not his own, their lacerations revealing bits of the true infernal flesh that lies beneath the facade. The archdevil wears a cloak made of stitched skin he can don whenever he wishes to change form, though he never does so while observed. Narcissus does not accept the truth of possessing any appearance other than the flesh he is currently wearing, unable to acknowledge the horror of his true face. It is said that any who look upon the true countenance of the archdevil will die instantly, though such rumors are only ever spoken in hushed whispers. Narcissus can become blinded with rage should any speak of his true countenance.

Bargain of Flesh. Narcissus is drawn to uniquely beautiful mortals with a fervor that can only be described as obsessive, seeking out such prizes personally in hope of one day wearing their forms.

The archdevil accepts only one payment in exchange for his gifts, whether in the form of the flesh of the bargainer or the assured acquisition of even more exquisite skins. The souls of flayers as well as the flayed enter into Narcissus’s domain as flayer devils when they die, their souls only able to be freed when their skin is put to rest. Cults of Narcissus make pacts with the archdevil in return for his gift to wear the skins of others. Members of such cults ritualistically flay their own skin in supplication to Narcissus.