Rutterkin

Rutterkins were a warped breed of deformed tanar'ri and among the weakest of demons. In a sense, they were true representatives of chaos, for the pathetic mutants were held in utter contempt by all others and completely unbound by masters, societies or causes.

Description
Rutterkins were tall, disfigured demons that resembled hideous humans. Their skin was mottled green and blue-violet, and if not completely hairless had only the occasional patch or two of uncomfortable-looking wiry bristles. They had backward-pointing ears on either side of their pointed, elongated skulls, and tiny, red eyes swollen with vicious hatred.

Every rutterkin was deformed in its own unique way, their misshapen limbs and bodies making them universally asymmetrical. Most were hunched and frequently howled in pain as their bodies continued to warp and contort at random. Sometimes (about 10% of the time), they'd be so badly mangled that an arm would no longer function or their already staggered or limping gait would get even worse.

Personality
Rutterkins were wild, undisciplined savages, crude and rough members of demonkind that respected only brute force and destroyed anything weaker than themselves with savage delight. The vicious creatures were known for being cruel and bullying whenever the opportunity presented itself. Whether they actually believed in the superiority they acclaimed over certain other demons or if they only did so due to an inferiority complex was unclear but irrelevant; they felt trapped in a life on ceaseless pain and weren't happy unless they were making someone else suffer.

Though they were feral and monstrous creatures, they weren't exactly stupid, most having average human intellect and relatively high cunning, and at least some of them being intelligent enough to understand concepts like treasure, value, and trade.

Abilities
As a whole, rutterkins were utterly incompetent, unwilling to attack with their natural armaments (claws or fists) since doing so caused them physical pain akin to punching with a sprained wrist. As far as demons went, they had few magical abilities; they were limited to the creation of small areas of darkness, flight, telekinesis and, once per day, teleportation.

They could also generate fear, either by touch or by emitting a wave of crippling terror when several of them grouped together, although their fear didn't cause others to run away, but stand rooted in place. Like other tanar'ri, they could summon more of their kind, but were limited to summoning other rutterkin, least demons like manes and dretches or, on rare occasions, chasmes.

Combat
Rutterkins lacked creativity in combat, rarely using the few abilities at their disposal to interesting effect. When they spotted enemies, they gathered together in an overwhelming mob and descended upon them. Though only a few donned armor, they had a preference for wielding weapons, and they were well-known for the exotic arms they employed. When forced, rutterkins wielded longswords or battleaxes, but even these weapons were strange for their type and rarely seen anywhere outside of grotesque, rutterkin hands.

Their serrated broadswords were known as flatchets and were especially effective against the unarmored and usually wielded alongside shields or other weapons. Their most frequently wielded weapons were the axes, similar to those of orc double axes but with crescent-shaped blades. Rather than a battleaxe however, many rutterkins wielded a snap-tong, a polearm ending in a sharp spike with one or more crescent-shaped pincers on the end that allowed the wielder to ensnare and continue to injure their enemies. For ranged fighting, they wielded about five tri-blades, wide, three-bladed wedges flung from sling-like deviced called atlatls.



Society
Rutterkins generally roamed the layers of the Abyss in vicious murderous mobs.

Ecology
Rutterkin 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.

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.

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.

Like manes and dretches, chaotic evil mortals occasionally reincarnated into rutterkins after dying in Thanatos, one of the layers of the Abyss.

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 &bull; Dungeon #54: "The Fiends of Tethyr"
 * Novels:
 * The Glass Prison