Rutterkin

From Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Mulriverse (2022):

Rutterkins are warped demons that roam the Abyss in mobs, constantly searching for intruders to surround and devour. These Fiends protect the Abyss from non-demons. When they spot any interlopers, they gather in a crowd and surge forward, emitting a wave of fear in advance of their attacks that leaves their victims terrified and rooted in place.

Creatures bitten by rutterkins are exposed to a terrible disease that infects them with the corrupting influence of the Abyss. Victims afflicted with the disease experience tremendous pain as their bodies become disfigured, flesh twisting around the bones, until they transform to join the mass of manes demons (see the Monster Manual) that follow in the wake of the rutterkin mob that laid them low.

From The Book of Vile Darkness (2002):

Rough, crude, and bestial, rutterkins understand nothing but brute force. These bullying demons are mean and cruel, trapped in a life of never-ending pain, unhappy unless they are inflicting violence. They roam the Abyss in gangs, avoiding those more powerful and hunting those weaker (or even a solitary powerful creature if they can gang up on it). These demons are outcasts eveni nthe Abyss. Of all other demons, only the chasmes treat them as allies, and that is only because they find rutterkins easy to master and dominate.

Rutterkin are the misshapen results of the foul and chaotic energies that course through the Abyss, formed in a process not unlike the disease known as warp touch. As such, they are always in pain and frequently howl and grimace, writhing and contorting as their corrupted bodies mutate with no rhyme or reason. The forms the rutterkins are cursed with are not always the most efficient, and about 10% of the time, a rutterkin encountered is so malformed that one of its arms does not work, or its limp actually slows its speed by 10 feet.

From Planescape: Monstrous Compendium Appendix I (1994):

Rutterkin are tanar’ri mutated by energies unknown. They are complete outcasts, not even cannon fodder in the Blood War.

However, rutterkin do unwittingly serve the tanar’ri. Rutterkin so hate their position that they wander the Abyss in solitude. There, they never attack any tanar’ri save for least tanar’ri. However, they savagely attack non-tanar’ri they see. Although the rutterkin are usually far too weak to stop intruders, these pathetic creatures try to gate in reinforcements, thereby spreading the alarm.

The nalfeshnee might create the rutterkin directly from the life forces of evil but incompetent beings who come before them for judgment. Rutterkin more truly represent chaos than their kin, for they are bound to no cause, have no society, and serve no master. Even the chasme ignore them.

Ancient stories of the origin of the rutterkin say that many millennia ago, a race of humans in a distant corner of the Prime Material Plane experimented with plane and probability travel. These cerebral beings explored the Prime Material Plane and eventually expanded into the Inner and Outer Planes. When they discovered the Abyss, they were enslaved by the tanar’ri, who had never before encountered beings other than themselves. Originally, tanar’ri abuse changed the rutterkin into what they are, but now other types of creatures can become rutterkin as well.

Combat: Rutterkin are known for the strange weapons they carry. Some of their favorites include: a snap-tong device that inflicts 2d4 points upon hitting and then continues to inflict like damage each round until the opponent breaks free by scoring a hit on the weapon (AC 5); a polearm with a double crescent head; a saw-toothed flatchet (broad-headed sword that is +1 damage versus unarmored opponents); and a 3-armed blade thrown from a sling-like device.

A rutterkin can also attack with two claws (1d6+1 damage each). They dislike this attack because their malformed bodies feel pain if they strike (as one with a sprained wrist would feel pain from punching). Rutterkin groan and yelp when they attack with their claws.

In addition to those available to all tanar’ri, rutterkin have the following spell-like abilities: fear (by touch), fly, and telekinesis (3 times per day). Rutterkin can gate in 1-8 least tanar’ri once per day with a 50% chance of success.