Rutterkin

The rutterkins were demons low on the pecking order of the Abyss.

Description
The rutterkins were grotesque and disfigured demons with backward-pointing ears.

Personality
Wild, rough, and bestial, these creatures respected nothing but brute force. Even though they were feral and monstrous creatures some of them were intelligent enough to understand concepts like value and trade.

Combat
The rutterkins would overwhelm the intruders in their realms with a paralyzing wave of fear while surging forwards in a mob.

Abilities
Some individual rutterkins were able to create unnatural darkness, desecrate an area, and magically summon their kin. In extremely rare cases, they could fly and use telekinesis.

These deformed creatures were carriers of the Warping Plague, infecting the victims with a bite. The bitten experienced debilitating symptoms such as pain and tremors, while their bodies were warped and disfigured by the Abyss's taint. The victim's flesh was twisted and shifted around the bones, transforming them into abyssal wretches.



Society
Rutterkins generally roamed the layers of the Abyss in vicious murderous mobs. The deformed demons were capable of using man-made tools, seldomly wearing armor as well as using longswords and battleaxes. They preferred to use weapons rarely seen anywhere else but in their grotesque hands: snap-tong (a short pole arm ending in a spike with crescent-shaped pincers designed to close around it) and a tri-blade (a thrown weapon with a three-bladed wedge).

Ecology
Rutterkins were created when a demon lord needed stronger soldiers and used raw mane demons. The process of creating rutterkins was described as gut-wrenching, so unholy and disgusting that witnessing the ritual was akin to inviting blindness.

Chaotic evil mortals occasionally reincarnated as manes, dretches, or rutterkins after dying in Thanatos, one of the layers of the Abyss.

The process of transformation, be it via the Warping Plague or being molded from a demon, did not cease being painful even long after the mutation was complete. The continuous excruciating pain made these demons howl and shriek in pain.

Activities
They dwelled in the Abyss and hunted in mobs in search of victims to devour. The rutterkins were foot soldiers of many Abyssal armies and subservient to tanar'ri lords.

These demons' main purpose was hunting down non-demons that ended up in the Abyss.

History
In 1370 DR, rutterkins along with other tanar'ri were found in the Dungeon of Death on its Habitat Level, where they were subservient to the adolescent nabassu Visceris.

In the 14 century DR, Vheod Runechild read of an ancient tower and wished to find out more. He gifted a rutterkin a hefty amount of gold and a magical cloak to determine the tower's location.

Locations
These creatures could be found in dungeons, such as in the Habitat Level of the Dungeon of Death. Along with other tanar'ri, many rutterkins made this their home.

Appearances

 * Adventures:
 * The Dungeon of Death
 * Dungeon #54: "The Fiends of Tethyr"
 * Novels:
 * The Glass Prison