Gehreleth

Gehreleths roam the prison plane amid the killing fields of the endless war between demons and devils, yet take no part in it, wandering as random agents of ruin. They speak a guttural tongue of their own and use their tongues power with others. Farastu are the commoners, kelubar the middle class and shator the nobles.

A forbidden drow treatise, known to humans only in fragments, says they revere the Three-Sided One, a patron who wears any caste's form and animates those who die in the lower planes. Each gehreleth bears his obsidian triangle, its sole loyalty, and will fight to recover it; the triangle may share the race's memory, letting them track who summoned their kin and pursue revenge for generations. The text claims farastu and kelubar can melt into tar or slime, bottled for centuries as an instant army; unbanished farastu crown themselves kings of dim locals so their patron can spy on other planes; kelubar hoard wands; and shator write summoning texts or bleak tracts of despair behind a doomed human poet, and pamper pet chimerae like kittens.

Tall and long-limbed, with 19 Strength (+7 damage) and 420 pounds, farastu attack any non-gehreleth, ignore morale and favor two claws (1d6+1) and a bite (3d4). After six rounds, or at half hit points, they frenzy, doubling normal attacks at +2. Their tarry sweat has a 5% chance to stick: a farastu stuck to its foe gives the foe a free attack sequence, while a foe stuck to it loses initiative and is hit at +4. A stuck weapon has a 25% chance to be pulled away and takes a round to free.

At 11th level, one per round, they use ESP, detect magic, invisibility, detect good, fear, tongues and detect invisibility, dispel magic twice a day, and fog cloud and weakness three times a day. Once daily a farastu has a 40% chance to gate 1-2 more. Only +1 weapons harm it; acid and poison fail, cold and fire do half, and it is immune to fear, illusions and phantasms. Infravision 120 feet.

Shorter, slimy, black and bottom-heavy, with big hands and wide oval heads, kelubar have Strength 20 (+8 damage) and weigh nearly 500 pounds. Their stench forces anyone within 30 feet in combat to save vs. poison or be helpless for 1-10 rounds. Nails (2d4) and bite (4d4) each add 1d6 acid, halved by a save vs. poison. They have all farastu powers plus spider climb and a daily ray of enfeeblement at 13th level, and can gate 1-2 kelubar (40%) or 1-2 farastu (60%) once a day. Immune to fire, acid, cold and poison, harmed only by +2 weapons, infravision 120 feet.

Six feet tall, squat, shaggy and bulldog-jawed, shator have Strength 21 (+9 damage) and weigh 560 pounds. The smartest caste, they prefer magic, retreat from superior foes and gain +2 on surprise. They claw twice (1d8+1) and bite (5d4) or use weapons (45% magical), with Strength bonuses. At 15th level they add beguiling (as the rod) and cloudkill once a day plus ray of enfeeblement and stinking cloud three times a day. Once a day a shator surely brings either 1-4 kelubar or 1-6 farastu, or tries a 30% chance for 1-2 shator. Nonmagical attacks, mind-affecting magic and illusions fail; only +3 weapons hurt it, edged weapons take -1 to hit and damage. Infravision 120 feet.

Merciless to intruders, they have never been seen to turn on one another, a puzzle no theory explains. Despite their chaos they obey a power-based class system. Summoners often get one by accident, and pay for it: gehreleths resent servitude, may disobey (farastu especially) and plot vengeance for years.

An unknown evil power raises them from the rotting bodies of those who die on the lower planes; they create nothing of value. New corpses become farastu, and lesser gehreleths rise to replace fallen superiors. Each kind numbers 3,333, doubling when the war of baatezu and tanar'ri peaks, likely for safety since they serve neither side.