A kastighur is a type of demon found in the plane of Mabar, the Endless Night. Wicked and sadistic, kastighurs act as prison wardens and hunters among demonkind. They teleport around the field of battle and use their devastating charges to stun and horrify their enemies.[1]
Description[]
A kastighur is huge, standing 15‒20 feet (4.6‒6.1 meters) tall and weighing up to 10,000 pounds (4,500 kilograms). Ancient, veteran kastighurs can grow to even greater sizes, however. In form, the demon is roughly humanoid, with a body rippling with muscles under a tough blue hide, powerful legs standing on cloven hooves, and thick arms ending in strong claws. Its visage is hideous, its head large and weighty, bearing long horns. Their horns grow slowly but continually, and they adorn them with carvings of symbols or words.[1]
For further protection, a kastighur "wears" armor, of a fashion—enormous steel pieces bolted directly to its body. A helm is bolted to its neck, a breastplate to its torso, and other pieces to its shins, forearms, and shoulders.[1]
Personality[]
Kastighurs are invariably chaotic evil, being depraved, cruel, and driven by whim and impulse. Their chief enjoyment is to break the wills of others through torture, whether physical torment or exhaustion after relentlessly hunting them. They also have an immense love for melee combat and take to battle with great joy.[1]
Combat[]
A kastighur charges its enemies as often as it is able, attempting to stun and then rain deadly blows upon them. Combat starts with the kastighur charging its target, stopping at the limit of its swing (15 feet or 4.6 meters). If the target is stunned, then the demon will make another charge, closing the gap between kastighur and victim. In close melee, it will go all-out, goring, slamming, and dealing out catastrophic injuries at full force.[1]
In battle, it will sometimes use a quickened teleport to appear closer to a target so it can charge it. They are so battle-hungry they will even try to teleport above a flying target, to then try to grapple it and take it down to the ground as they fall.[1]
As a kastighur takes to the field of battle so quickly, it rarely has time to become familiar with the battleground and thus attempts to keep its teleports as close as possible. Kastighurs use their teleporting ability with a bit of trepidation because they don't enjoy the same greater teleport that many other fiends possess.[1]
Abilities[]
As a tanar'ri demon, the kastighur shares many of the same traits and abilities, but with some differences. In particular, it is immune to acids, but lacks the ability to summon other demons and use greater teleport. Instead, the kastighur can only use teleport, but this is limited by range and has a risk of going awry. In return, three times a day, a kastighur can teleport in the blink of an eye to surprise victims. It can also use feather fall at will, which is a boon at those times it teleports too high into the air.[1]
The kastighur has a terrifying aura whenever it charges or attacks and, in turn, the kastighur grows more aggressive against fearful opponents. Like many other fiends, kastighurs don't need to feed or drink—at least not in the same way as most mortal races. Instead, they feed off the fear, panic, and hopelessness of the creatures they hunt or imprison. They take great joy in the hunting and torturing of others, prolonging their deaths as long as possible so they can savor the delicious emotions a little longer.[1]
It uses its strong arms to slam foes, and its long horns allow it to gore its victims. The kastighur trains to charge, knock over, and overrun its enemies, and to deliver wild, brutal attacks. A gore attack inflicted on a charge can leave a foe stunned, if they still lived.[1]
Kastighurs are also skilled trackers and hunters, on the planes and above and below ground. They have keen senses, and can even track prey by scent.[1]
Society[]
Kastighurs dwell in the plane of Mabar, the Endless Night. Here, they run prisons and torture their victims under the cover of the eternal darkness. On their own, they wander the plane as they will, hunting and killing what they like, from a damned soul to another kastighur. They despise others of their kind, seeing them as competition in the hunt and for the services of more powerful creatures to serve. Thus, they mostly serve more powerful and intelligent demons, working as jailers and hunters, tasks they find quite fulfilling. When one of the tanar'ri needs to track down a creature, but lacks the ability to create a retriever, they summon one or two kastighurs instead.[1]
Kastighurs are not very intelligent and lack a reliable means of traveling to other planes like other demons do. So, to reach new hunting grounds and places to spread pain and torment, they depend on other demons, magical items, and potent evil mages summoning them to the Material Plane via a gate or greater planar ally spell. When they got the chance to go to the Material Plane, they hunted in the very depths of Khyber.[1]
However, a kastighur's appetites and impulsiveness make them unreliable. Sometimes, a kastighur will let a prisoner escape so it can then hunt them down. In battle, kastighur units regularly break ranks to pursue enemies who appear frightened or fleeing. When two or more kastighurs have the same master, they put aside their mutual hatred but their rivalry becomes a competition, and they seek always to outdo each other.[1]
A veteran, elder kastighur can grow to humongous size. They seek ways to enslave and torture more advanced creatures, such as dragons, more powerful outsiders, and mighty mortals.[1]
Possessions[]
Kastighurs prefer to travel light, and what riches they find usually go to their masters, so they are not wealthy. Their most valuable possessions are their +2 breastplates, which are bolted directly to their bodies. However, they look for magical items that grant other ways to move, such as the ability to burrow in the ground, climb with ease, or fly. Most prized are means of crossing to other planes, such as plane shift.[1]
Appendix[]
References[]
External Links[]
- Kastighur article at the Forgotten Realms Wiki, a wiki for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.