The lowest rank of demon, dretches are at the bottom of the demonic pecking order. What they lack in strength, ability, and intelligence, they make up for in numbers. They are sometimes known as sloth demons, or simply "the wretched".
Apperance
A dretch looks like a small, overly fat, very ugly humanoid. Dretches are short creatures, not even as tall as a dwarf and reaching only four feet in height, but their fat bulges from their frames and makes them appear larger than many other creature of a similar height. They weigh a surprising 180 pounds, about as much as an average human. Despite their bloated appearance, they move with surprising agility and speed.
Abilities
Dretches can summon other members of their kind but this ability has a low rate of success. When it does succeed however, the newly summoned companion can in some cases try to summon more dretches until a small horde is accrued, but this requires astonishing luck. Their other common power is the ability to release a cloud of noxious gas every day that spread throughout the nearby vicinity and sicken regular mortals caught within it, a substance they also usually release upon death.
Dretches can telepathically communicate but can only do so to those who also understood Abyssal.
Habitat and Society
Dretch are the most numerous kind of demon, with a single damned soul potentially being able to spawn dozens and dozens of the horrid creatures. As such, they can be found on almost every layer of the Abyss. They are also relatively common on the Material Plane as they are the easiest demon to summon and are easy to bully and cajole. They can often be bound for long periods of time with little motivation, and just the opportunity to vent their boundless rage on weaker creatures can be enough.
When there are no mortals nearby in the Abyss to torment and destroy, most other demons settle for tormenting dretches. As such, few dretches are lucky enough to survive to evolve in to greater demonic forms and are normally forced to live in the parts of the abyss no other demon wants. When free on the Material Plane, dretches also tend to dwell in the most undesirable places, like sewers or swampland. More intelligent dretches sometimes aspire to more than their meagre status allow by becoming pauper-kings amongst their own kind; their kingdoms consist of stretches of abandoned sewer, and their subjects are even weaker and more wretched dretches, vermin, or mindless undead.
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