Babaus are demonic assassins. Their coating of red slime means babau are sometimes referred to as blood demons. Babau demons are formed in the Abyss from the souls of solitary killers. Not merely mass murderers, but those who killed with deliberation and intimacy. They delight in well-planned murders and think nothing of waiting in ambush for decades if necessary; such stealth and patience sets them apart from most other demons. They might even adopt a "calling card", typically of a grisly nature, to leave behind at the scenes of their crimes.
Appearance
A babau looks like a thin, horned human covered in a tight-fitting hide of slimy leather. A typical specimen is 6 feet in height and weighs 140 pounds. Their bodies are so gaunt that they appeare skeletal. A thick, dark red paste is secreted from their odorous pores that's both slippery and acidic but their talons specifically are coated in blood, filth, and rotten flesh, resulting in their terrible stench. Like the rest of them, their skulls are tall and long, with pointed ears and jaws filled with so many jagged teeth that they take up half its head. Jutting out from the back of their skulls is a single, long horn-like growth that curve forward and downward. A babau's glare is particularly menacing, causing their eyes to start glowing red.
Abilities
A babau prefers to fight using its teeth and claws, but often carries a weapon such as a longspear to enable it to strike foes that would otherwise be outside its reach.
The slime that coats their bodies is acidic and can damage weapons and injure flesh that touches it. Their eyes can produce an effect similar to a ray of enfeeblement, sapping the strength from any nearby target. Adding to their supernatural repertoire is their array of magical spell-like abilities including darkness, dispel magic, fear, heat metal, and levitate.
Habitat and Society
The deviousness of babaus is a trait valued by nearly every demon lord within the Abyss, with almost every one having a small gang of babaus to serve as secret agents. Espionage, sabotage, and assassination are all common tasks for them, with their cunning stratagems compensating for their relative weakness and deceptiveness. However they also serve another role within the Abyss, roaming the layers to find low level demons to draft into the Blood War. Babaus corrall other demons together in exchange for their own relative freedom, and failing to fill the ranks with other demons would require the babau in question to fill it themselves.
They revere the Demon Lord Shax as the creator of their race. Shax can create the most powerful of the babau demons by skinning living victims and filling them with the energy of the Abyss. Some Balor Lords have the ability to inhale a living creature's soul, killing the victim instantly and transforming its corpse into a babau or other demon of similar power.
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