Daemon, Raum
Image © deviantArt user N0k7urne, accessed at her gallery here
[One of the sub-tasks in writing a monster for me is looking for art. Sometimes this is very difficult; Vepar recently was one where it took me hours to find something that only sort of fit what I had in mind. With Raum, though, DA immediately showed me something excellent and I was off to the races. Initially, I had thought about making Raum an obsicidaemon, but they're Gargantuan in size, which didn't fit well with the mental image I had of him being the ultimate battlefield looter. I suspect I was hesitant to make him a purrodaemon, which I eventually did, because PF1e purrodaemons are pretty mechanically boring. PF2e gives purrodaemons fun abilities around their steeped weapons besides just free enhancements--they can launch them like missiles, recall them into their own bodies, and even disarm enemies who stab them by wrenching the blade into their own flesh.
Unlike Raum, I don't have piles of gold and golden bones. If you'd like to help keep me out of the crushing jaws of poverty, please join the Creature Codex Patreon here]
Daemon, Raum CR 22 NE Outsider (extraplanar) This humanoid figure has the head of a crow and black feathered wings. A crown of horns grows from its forehead, and its torso is open, revealing ribs and vertebrae. Its horns, bones and beak are all golden.
Raum is the living embodiment of greed as a motivation for war. As a purrodaemon, he is a leader of armies and a cunning strategist, and he chooses his targets based on what he can extract the most value from. Unlike most other purrodaemons, he can assume the form of a human, which he uses to conduct his own appraising reconnaissance. Of course, he is looking for treasuries and vaults as much as he is for weaknesses in fortifications, ensuring that such structures are not destroyed. Raum pockets especially valuable objects he does not think will survive the attack in order to make sure they retain their value. And when the battle is over and the damage is done, Raum personally picks through the fallen looking for jewelry, gold fillings or other small valuables to loot.
Raum leads from the front lines, fighting alongside his troops and using flanking in order to deal extra damage with his sneak attack. Raum does not use his weapon steep ability in a showy way in order to maintain his human disguise. The only weapon he regularly steeps in his own flesh is a spiked chain, which he wraps around himself like a necklace. In combat, Raum favors tactics to disarm opponents, and when he has taken a weapon plunges it into his own body as a trophy. Raum knows the value of a tactical retreat, but he may overextend himself if in pursuit of a prize he especially wants.
Being immensely powerful even by the standards of purrodaemons, Raum has occasionally been floated as a possible candidate for advancement to the ranks of the harbingers. Raum himself does not have much interest in the position—he is loyal to Szuriel, and feels that having to answer prayers and petitioners, even to a limited extent, would take time away from his passion for plunder. He joined the Pandaemonic Parliament at Szuriel’s behest, and in that capacity works on the financial committee in order to better focus their efforts on obtaining and retaining wealth. Getting closer to the vast treasury of Hell was also a motivating factor, and Raum has been steadily, stealthily, embezzling from the Parliament in order to funnel more money directly into Szuriel’s coffers. Forever war is expensive, after all. The amount stolen has escaped the notice of Hell’s own accountants. So far.
