Shrieking, flapping, and hideous to behold—with a body like a severed head and wings in place of ears—vargouilles boil out of the Abyss to infest other planes of existence, such as Carceri, where they are a menace. Each vargouille carries a disease that creates more of its kind; a flock of vargouilles on the wing is a plague of chaos and evil.

Swarms of vargouilles flap through the caverns and skies of the Abyss. They are given little regard by powerful and intelligent demons since vargouilles can do them no harm. Even the weakest demon, such as a manes or a dretch, fears vargouilles only if they appear in great numbers. In the Lower Planes, vargouilles rarely get the chance to eat live prey other than vermin. More often, they lap up the ichor left behind when one Fiend kills another.

Because of their hunger for living prey, vargouilles are eager to escape the Lower Planes. On rare occasions, summoning a demon to another plane can bring a vargouille along for the ride, attached like a tick. The precautions a mortal takes to control a summoned demon rarely account for a stowaway, enabling the vargouille to escape into the world.

Vargouilles that roam free on the Material Plane are a dire threat to all creatures. Their awful shrieking can paralyzed||paralyze other creatures with fear, which also makes the creatures susceptible to the vargouille's curse. If the curse is allowed to run its course, an abyssal spirit invades the person's body, causing a gruesome transformation. Over a period of hours, the victim's head takes on fiendish aspects, such as fangs, tentacles, and horns. At the same time, the person's ears grow larger, expanding into wing-like appendages. In the final moments, the victim's head tears away from the body in a fountain of blood, becoming another vargouille, which often then eagerly laps up the blood spilling from its former body. Sunlight or the brilliant illumination of a daylight spell can delay this transformation; otherwise, only magic can overcome the curse.

Shrieking, flapping, and hideous to behold-with a body like a severed head and bat-like wings in place of ears—vargouilles boil out of the Abyss to infest other planes of existence, such as Carceri, where they are a menace. Each vargouille carries a disease that creates more of its kind; a flock of vargouilles on the wing is a plague of chaos and evil waiting to happen.

Abyssal Nuisances

Swarms of vargouilles flap through the caverns and skies of the Abyss. They are given little regard by powerful and intelligent demons since vargouilles can do them no harm. Even the weakest demon, such as a manes or a dretch, fears vargouilles only if they appear in great numbers. In the Lower Planes, vargouilles rarely get the chance to eat live prey other than vermin. More often, they lap up the ichor left behind when one fiend kills another.

The World Awaits

Because of their instinctive hunger for living prey, vargouilles are eager to escape the Lower Planes. On rare occasions, the summoning of a demon to another plane can bring a vargouille along for the ride, attaching itself like a tick. The precautions a mortal takes to contain and control a summoned demon rarely account for a stowaway, and thus a vargouille enters the world unbidden.

Until ye've seen a king's head tear off his shoulders and flap aloft amid fountaining blood, only to turn and lap his own dying gore as his body totters and falls, ye haven't lived. And if ye want to go on living, ye might want to stop watching in favor of fleeing.

Ghastly Reproduction

Vargouilles that roam free on the Material Plane are a dire threat to all creatures, especially humanoids. Their awful shrieking can paralyze other creatures with fear, and such victims are helpless to resist a vargouille's accursed kiss.

The kiss of a vargouille infects a humanoid with a fiendish curse. If allowed to run its course, the curse brings about a gruesome transformation as an abyssal spirit invades the person's body. Over a period of hours, the victim's head takes on fiendish aspects such as fangs, tentacles, and horns. At the same time, the person's ears grow larger, expanding and transforming into wing-like appendages. In the final moments, the victim's head tears away from the body in a fountain of blood, becoming another vargouille, which often then eagerly laps up its own life fluids. Sunlight or the brilliant illumination of a daylight spell can delay this transformation, and vargouilles instinctively shun bright light as a result.