Hellcat

The bezekira, better known as the hellcat, is a feline beast from the hells with none of a cat's charm and all of its nastiness, and then some. It moves more quietly than velvet on skin and seldom makes a sound, preferring telepathy with a 9-yard reach. Worst of all, it is nearly invisible in any light. Creatures that can see invisible things spot it normally; for everyone else the trick is to put the lights out, at which point a glowing, tiger-sized cat shape appears, with spiteful red eyes that may be the last thing they see.

Its attacks are ordinary, two claws and a bite; its defenses make it deadly. It has 20% magic resistance, is completely immune to mind-control magic thanks to its stubborn feline independence, and can be hit only by magical weapons, which even then add no bonus to damage (a long sword +4 does 1d12, not 1d12+4). It suffers 1d8 damage from bless or holy water, and holy symbols firmly presented hold it at bay.

Hellcats serve as companions and familiars to baatezu and live mostly on the nine layers of the hells. It leaves home only when called up by a wizard of the Prime, or by some equally foolish being. Typically it is then turned loose in the mortal world, where it may stay a year and a day before returning to its gloomy lair, wreaking a great deal of havoc meanwhile.

Fickle and capricious, it attaches itself to whichever master offers the most power and food, and it trades up freely. Its standards come from life in the hells: it accepts only an intelligent, lawful evil master. A special sense lets it judge how powerful a lawful evil being is, and if it chooses that being it serves him faithfully, speaking telepathically to him alone and guarding him as he does his evil work. Between two candidates of equal level it prefers, in order, a priest, then a cleric, a mage, a specialist wizard, a fighter, and finally a rogue; between equals of the same class it picks at random. Any baatezu, however weak, outranks any mortal, however mighty.

If a more powerful lawful evil prospect comes along, the hellcat first checks telepathically whether he would accept it. If so, it abandons its old master on the spot, thrilled at the chance to do greater evil, and will gladly attack the old one should its new lord request it. Its exact place in the infernal hierarchy is unclear; it serves the fiends somehow, but even a law-obsessed faction of sages cannot say how, or will not.

Hellcats breed like ordinary animals, but their numbers grow in two other ways. A baatezu being punished, a common event in the hells, may be turned into one, though not all are. Much more rarely, a petitioner who commits a monstrous evil in sight of a lesser or greater baatezu is 'rewarded' with the form. How long either stays a hellcat depends on performance. A petitioner who serves well usually keeps the shape, which beats being a lemure or mindless devil. A punished fiend faces a grim choice: perform badly and it stays a hellcat until it learns to use the form properly; perform well and it will probably be kept that way anyway, for punishment in the hells is long.

A hellcat must eat a live human or demihuman supplied by its master once a week, and a master who cannot provide one may become the meal. It eats every scrap, but first terrifies its prey so the flesh tastes of fear.