Baernaloths are tall, gaunt yugoloths who keep to the Gray Wastes of Hades. Their gray, desiccated skin stretches over their bones, and their heads resemble horned equine skulls with ember-like eyes. Sages endlessly debate the nature of baernaloths, and the Books of Keeping—ancient tomes detailing the true names of the first yugoloths—report no mention of baernaloths within. Some posit that these enigmatic yugoloths were created by a primal evil power before other yugoloths or that they come from an epoch before the current manifestation of the planes. Baernaloths refuse to say, but most obsess over secrets and obscene lore regarding the far-flung past and inscrutable future of the multiverse. Many of these rare scholars of the profane seek to manipulate reality on a grand scale, while others unleash horrific experiments on the planes. It's said the first demodands of Carceri were created by baernaloths.

Baernaloths spread discord and despair among any creatures they meet. They use their breath, thick with the gloom of Hades, to turn friends against each other and then savor the horror that rises when their victims realize how they've betrayed one another. Baernaloths use their wicked power to keep mortally wounded foes alive, sometimes indefinitely, to prolong their suffering. Even striking against a baernaloth brings misery—they can cause an attacker's old wounds to painfully reopen. All the while, baernaloths are disturbingly detached, observing their victims' agony without emotion.

!!A Baernaloth's Lair

Whether in the hopeless realms of Hades or on the rare occasion they lurk on some other plane, baernaloths lair in remote mountain crags and secluded caves. Their lairs have ample places to house and restrain "guests," particularly those the baernaloths keep hovering at death's door.

The challenge rating of a baernaloth is 18 (20,000 XP) when it's encountered in its lair.