Hezrou

Legacy canon content This article contains information of uncertain canon status due to changes made in the Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster Project. Additional context might be available at Meta:Hezrou.

Hezrou

(Creature)

2E1E

Common

CE

Large

Amphibious

Demon

Fiend

Level

11

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Images of hezrous

Source: Bestiary 2, pg(s). 67

Type

Outsider
(aquatic, chaotic, demon, evil, extraplanar)

CR

11

Environment

Any swamp (Outer Rifts)

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Images of hezrous

Source: Bestiary, pg(s). 62

Ⅰ

Ⅱ

Prodigiously strong, hezrous serve as the brutish muscle for stronger, more cunning demons, but these reptilian fiends are far from stupid and are considered to be dangerous opponents. They are sometimes known as toad demons or swamp demons.

Associated sin

Poisoning, pollution of the body, pollution of the world.

Appearance

The most prominent feature of a hezrou is its build, a veritable bulging wall of muscle that has vastly outgrown its meagre humanoid frame. While its general frame is that of a bipedal humanoid with two arms and two legs, a hezrou's appearance more resembles a giant, armored toad. Its skin is covered in slimy scales, and its bulging size resembles a giant bullfrog. Its face is its most reptilian feature, looking like a frog's face but with a far larger, more sinister mouth lined with row upon row of sharp teeth. Its body constantly leaks horrid, noxious fluid that severely sickens any who get to close to the monstrous demon.

Habitat and ecology

In the Outer Rifts, hezrous inhabit all places where water collects, from swamps and oceans to pockets of the plane filled by the waste of areas of the Outer Rifts more alive than others. When on the Material Plane, hezrous tend to dwell in swamps, where their mere presence is a blight on the land and causes the plants to become gnarled and sickly while turning the surrounding water thick and brackish. Over time this corruption can even spread to living creatures, the children of nearby, isolated communities becoming deformed and twisted. Boggards, being fellow favored children of Gogunta, generally avoid the negative effects of living in close proximity to a hezrou, and the demon hulks are often sent to lead their marshy communities.

Hezrous do not make the greatest leaders, though, as they are rather unambitious, often wasting their intelligence on base pursuits like torture, destruction, eating, and sleeping. The monstrous and bestial hezrous are formed in the abyss from damned souls of evil mortals who poisoned themselves, their kin, or their surroundings, such as assassins, drug addicts, and careless alchemists who gave no concern for the environmental side-effects of their experiments.

On Golarion

An armored hezrou.

Boggards view hezrous as sacred creatures. Boggard conjurers generally lack the power to control such powerful creatures, but are content to simply call them to Golarion and let them run amok.

Gogunta also sends hezrous to areas of Golarion populated by boggard tribes, such as the Mushfens of Varisia, the Sodden Lands, and the River Kingdoms. A few boggard tribes of the Sodden Lands are ruled by hezrou.

In the Great Beyond

Hezrous dwell in the vast swamps, mires and waterways of Mephizim, the realm of their patron demon lord Gogunta. Several hezrous also live in Moonbog, where they compete with Jezelda's demonic wolves for control of their territories, and in the oceans and seashores of Ishiar.

Notable hezrous

See also: Category:Hezrou/Inhabitants

• Balingorg, Bloody Hands
• Lalizarzadeh, Mother Papule
• Tentagard, the Face in the Flask
• Uthu, Tempest Mistress
• Vamollaroth, the Rancorous Wrath
• Wulgrood, the Bilious Baron
• Balravnus, Lord of Deep Pools
• Ghenegettas, master of the Temple of the Toad
• Velixiys of the Worldwound

References

Paizo published a sourcebook about demons called Demons Revisited, which includes a chapter about hezrou demons.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.