Retriever

Retrievers are living constructs, creatures of nightmare manufactured by the tanar’ri lords to act as their emissaries and enforcers. They are bound to obey their tanar’ri masters and relentlessly pursue their diabolical objectives until they’ve accomplished their master’s commands or died in the attempt. This streak of loyalty and determination makes retrievers especially valuable to the Abyssal Lords. Retrievers are known by that name because they’re commonly ordered to find enemies or misguided subordinates of the Abyssal Lord and bring them back to face the music.

A retriever resembles a huge spider the size of an elephant, with a black, chitinous exoskeleton and six insectile eyes. The creature’s four rearmost limbs actually carry most of its weight; its front four limbs end in cleaverlike blades that aren’t used for walking.

Despite the monster’s bloated appearance and hideous bulk, it’s frighteningly fast and nimble. The retriever can’t speak, but it sometimes gives voice to insidious whisperings and clickings that can’t quite be understood.

Combat: Retrievers can attack with each of their cleaverlike forelimbs in a round, inflicting 3d6 points of damage with each limb. Although its mandibles and jaws are terrifying in appearance, the retriever doesn’t normally bite its opponents. Instead, it uses its mandibles to pin a victim it’s been sent to fetch. If the retriever scores hits with 2 or more of its cleavers on the same man-size victim, it can automatically restrain him in its mandibles, gripping the sod with an effective Strength of 21.

Despite the retriever’s fearsome physical attacks, these aren’t its deadliest weapons. Four of the retriever’s yes are smaller than its primary ones and can unleash magical rays against its prey. Up to 2 small eyes can fire in a round, but once fired an eye must recharge for 6 rounds before it can be used again.

The retriever can’t make eye attacks in the same round it uses its physical attacks. The four rays are:

• Eye One: 12d6 fireball, with a 5’ blast radius (30-yard range)
• Eye Two: 12d4+12 cold ray, one target (30-yard range)
• Eye Three: 12d6 lightning bolt, 5’ wide and 20 yards long
• Eye Four: flesh to stone, one target (30-yard range)

Victims are allowed saves versus breath weapons for half damage with the fire, cold, and lightning effects. Victims of teh flesh to stone ray may attempt a saving throw versus petrification to avoid the effects; if successful, they are only slowed for 3 to 8 (1d6+2) rounds).

Retrievers can be damaged by any weapon, but they regenerate damage caused by nonmagical or silver weapon at the rate of 2 hit points per round. The mere sight of a retriever causes creatures of fewer than 4 Hit Dice to make a save versus spell; if it fails, they are stricken by fear, fleeing for 2 to 12 rounds.

Habitat/Society: Retrievers don’t have an existence independent of their abyssal masters. It’s extremely unusual to encounter one that isn’t following some set of orders. When a retriever doesn’t have orders to follow, it’s probably waiting near the palace or fortress of its creator for a new set of instructions. Given the chance, a retriever’ll look for ways to introduce acts of petty malice or cruelty into the execution of its instructions, but above all it exists to do what it’s told.

Since retrievers are the living extensions of the will of the Abyssal Lords, they can enter any other plane at will, and have free travel throughout the Abyss. Only the most powerful and daring tanar’ri interfere with a retriever that’s engaged in the pursuit of its duty.

Ecology: Retrievers are somewhat similar to golems. Their bodies are shaped from the stuff of the Abyss by a powerful tanar’ri lord and imbued with a spirit of evil to animate them. Therefore, retrievers exist outside of nature and neither eat, sleep, nor reproduce. However, spells that affect living creatures (such as charm, sleep, or enfeeblement) affect a retriever normally.

Not every Abyssal Lord has mastered the making of retrievers. It’s thought that Demogorgon was the first tanar’ri to do so, modeling the retriever’s design on the form of the bebilith, or “creeper of the Abyss”. Graz’zt and Pazrael are known to have retrievers in their service too, but it’s impossible to say if they made the creatures themselves or were given retrievers by Demogorgon in exchange for some service or bargain.