Maurezhi

The maurezhi are horrifying demons that consume the souls of mortal creatures and have the ability to take the forms of those they’ve consumed. Thus, they make perfect spies and assassins, usually. Unfortunately (or fortunately), most maurezhi never make it out of the Abyss and never get a chance to feed on any hapless mortal creatures, thus most of them never get a chance to become the perfect spy or assassin before the babau or the molydeus ship them off to the Blood War frontlines. Those maurezhi that do manage to get out of the Abyss to eat some mortals, usually return to become small abyssal powers or specialized servants of the Blood War effort. Maurezhi are 6 foot tall and weigh 180 pounds.

Physical Description
In its natural form, a maurezhi strongly resembles an ordinary ghoul. Its hunched and gaunt body has the pallor of death. Its ears are long and pointed, and its mouth is full of serrated teeth for rending flesh. Its elongated fingers end in wicked claws, and its muscular legs, which resemble those of a big cat, allows it to run quickly and pounce on its prey.

Combat
In its natural form, maurezhi prefer to slay an opponent as quickly as possible so that it can escape to feed. When it assumes the form of creatures it has devoured, it seeks to maintain its disguise as long as possible until it has the perfect chance to strike. However, most maurezhi are simply too stupid to keep up anything but a fairly simple disguise. A maurezhi’s natural weapons, as well as any weapons it wields, are treated as chaotic-aligned and evil-aligned for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Abilities
Assume Shape (Su): A maurezhi can assume the form of any creature’s corpse that it has consumed. This ability functions like a polymorph spell (caster level equals the maurezhi’s Hit Dice, normally 7), except that the maurezhi can remain in this form indefinitely. The maurezhi can switch between its normal form and any form it can take as a standard action.

Consume Soul (Ex): When a maurezhi consumes the corpse of a living (non-outsider or elemental) creature with an Int of 3 or higher, it gains additional powers (see below). The maurezhi can only gain these additional powers if it begins eating the creature’s corpse within 10 minutes of its death. The process takes 30 minutes to complete. If the maurezhi is interrupted before it can complete this process, it can’t completely consume the corpse and gain the additional benefits. Feeding in this manner destroys the victim’s body and prevents any form of raising or resurrection that requires part of the corpse. There is a 50% chance that a wish, miracle, or true resurrection spell can restore a devoured victim to life. Check once for each destroyed creature. If the check fails, the creature cannot be brought back to life by mortal magic.

Paralysis (Ex): Any creature hit by a maurezhi’s claw or bite attacks must make a Fort save (DC 18) or be paralyzed for 1d6+4 rounds. The save DC is Constitution based.

Pounce (Ex): If a maurezhi charges a foe, it can make a full attack.

Spell-Like Abilities: At will – blur, chill touch, command undead (DC 15), darkness, detect good, greater teleport (self plus 50 pounds of objects only), invisibility (self only), scare (DC 15). Caster level equals Hit Dice (normally 7). The save DC’s are Charisma based.

Summon Tanar’ri (Sp): Once per day a maurezhi can attempt to summon 3d4 manes or 2d4 dretches with a 50% chance of success. This is the equivalent of a 3rd level spell.

Summon Undead (Sp): Once per day, a maurezhi can automatically summon either 1d6 ghouls or 1d4 ghasts. The undead remain for 1 hour before returning from whence they came. This is the equivalent of a 3rd level spell.

Deathwatch (Su): A maurezhi is under the constant effect of a deathwatch spell. Caster level equals Hit Dice (normally 7).

Skills: A maurezhi has a +8 racial bonus on Jump checks. When using its assume shape ability, the maurezhi gains an additional +10 bonus on disguise checks to assume the consumed creature’s identity.

Advancing a Maurezhi
The maurezhi only advances by consuming the corpses of creatures whose Hit Dice or levels are equal to or greater than its own current total. A maurezhi advances in Hit Dice by consuming corpses in this fashion. For every suitable corpse a maurezhi devours, it gains 1 Hit Die, and its Strength, Intelligence, and natural armor increase by +1. Its attack bonus and saves improve as normal for an outsider of its Hit Dice, and it gains skill points, feats, and ability score improvements normally. Additionally, the maurezhi gains the memories of the creature it consumed, including the ability to speak any languages the creature knew. It also gains the ability to assume that creature’s shape (see above). Its damage reduction, spell resistance, spell-like abilities, and challenge rating improve based upon its Hit Dice. If a maurezhi consumes the corpse of a creature with less Hit Dice or levels less than its own current total, it still gains the creature’s memories and the ability to assume its shape, however it gains none of the other benefits.