Leukodaemon

The name Leukodaemon might be considered a little on the nose, given that the Greek "leukos" means "white," or "clean". Even more interesting, it appears to share the word root with leukocytes, the human body cells responsible for protecting it against diseases. As you'll find, the Pestilence Daemon is the exact inverse.

With a skull for its head and wings of a vulture, the leukodaemon is a manifestation of evil, a being who previously succumbed to sickness. As such, it works relentlessly to spread any plague wherever it can, being much more inclined towards working with others of its kind than most daemons.

Its abilities fit the creature thematically quite well. It can sense any diseased creature and know what kind of sickness ails it. It has an aura that makes everyone within it more susceptible to contract an illness. Most of its attacks inflict the Daemonic Pestilence on the target and, better yet, the daemon can speed up the progression of any malady currently affecting a creature.

All things considered, the leukodaemon is a good choice for when you need a plague-themed monster to center your game around.

- Max

Hook 1 (Max) - The Plague Within

Something was afoul in the air for a long time. No one was willing to admit it, but everyone felt it. Now, it is too late.

It started with the animals. They fell silent and catatonic in unison, all overnight. They refused food, didn't move, and not long after, they started dying by the hundreds. There were far too many carcasses to manage, so soon they started rotting. Then the crops failed. And reserves began to spoil.

The buzzing of flies became constant, as their fat little bodies clouded the skies. Starvation followed. Now bodies of men, children, and women littered the streets, as fights for what meager food anyone might have left ensued.

Scavengers are circling the cities, towns, and villages, feasting on the cadavers. Prime among them are pale vulture-like monsters, putrid flesh peeling off their bones, the stench of death and decay following where they go, carried by the winds as they beat their dark wings.

More and more of them appear by the day. With each new arrival, they seemingly grow hungrier, eager to make sport of the remaining survivors. For things are about to get much worse. In five days, the black moon will rise, and they shall bring forth their greatest gift.

A plague unlike any seen before.

Hook 2 (Nemanja) - A Benevolent Nightmare

A thousand and one years ago, several spirits of the forest, young demigods, and other such powerful entities, decided to do an experiment: could a society guided by extreme fears prosper? Thus was Isla Dittatora born in the secluded archipelago of San Ovejas. The "gods" took on horrible forms and started haunting a town that had just begun to grow, as the advent of new irrigation technologies promised an Age of prosperity. The deities would appear before the locals when they were about to drink infected water, dye their clothes with toxic compounds, tame beasts that can not be tamed...

And the locals learned to respect their gods' guidance as wise and infallible. Over time, the mighty polis of Tonta grew into an advanced society, that traded with faraway lands and was well respected.

Tonta's golden age would abruptly end in one fell swoop, however. A barbarian from the Northlands was on his way to the city-state when he saw a dark, twisted creature with the skull of a horse in place of a head appear before him and speak to him in a raspy voice, telling him something about his method of curing meat. The barbarian did as any man worth his salt would do and split the fiend's head in two without blinking.

Unfortunately, said fiend was an entity known as The Lord of The Flies, a spirit of the earth that fought against the advent of plagues and diseases within the city. Soon enough, the ships from Tonta started bearing plague rats and the stench of deaths, and a certain barbarian was said to be on a quest to revive a god...

Hook 3 (Reece) - The Plaguesingers

As the Yellow Plague strikes down one in every four that catches it, the food crisis grows ever more urgent. Without farmers to collect the crops in the outskirts, the capital is struck with both plague and starvation. Those that are able to gather their meager crops are devastated to find much of the grain spoiled and ridden with weevils. The Church no longer attempts to send its clergy to treat the sick and dying, preferring instead to sequester themselves within their monasteries, away from the disease.

There is a story or a herald of this new end times. A bird-headed creature is seen out in the fog of the early mornings each time before the plague strikes a new city or town. Hearing tales of the creature, some have begun to craft masks after the creature's likeness. These fanatics have begun to worship the creature, hoping to find salvation in appeasing it.

Just as the plague worsens, a tide of people wearing these masks roves from city to city, singing The Plaguesong and turning the people against The Church, killing the clergy in retribution for abandoning them.

Little do the Plaguesingers as they are called know, the creature they seek salvation from is the cause of these nightmarish times. A demon hunter and a rogue priest of The Church wishes to stop further destruction, though they must face off against both the Plaguesingers, the angry commoners, and lesser fiends in service of the creature that is the cause of all the strife.

They could use some help.

Ceustodaemon

The ceustodaemon, the mook by design, always obedient but never subservient foot soldier of the daemonic armies.
The fluff suggests using these evil outsiders as guardians is common, and its statblock does support the idea - it has a decent reach, some nice supernatural senses to keep it alert.

While three ceustodaemons are a tough combat encounter on their own, it is not F'Nuk, G'Nuk, and Ch'Nuk's job to kill intruders - rather, it is to keep them from running away, while their conjurer master comes back. The conjurer needs merely a minute to dimension door back once the alarm in the tower has been set off - but a lot can happen in a minute.

Ceustodaemons might be obedient, but they aren't exactly loyal. A ceustodaemon named Blagnach is in the market for a new master - as he stands no chance breaking the bonds created by his summoner, Ser Mortimer The Vile, on his own. While a valuable ally, Blagnach is almost certain to eventually betray his new master(s) as well.

The Bloodbath is a gory, bloody event in the arenas of the warlock-run emirate of Thuum. The unlucky men who participate in it are tasked with defeating a ceustodaemon without ever drawing a weapon - instead relying on the fiend's vicious wounds ability to wear it down as the fight goes on. While only a rare few contestants pull of this insane and suicidal feat, the reward is a wish granted by the emirate's dark and enigmatic patron deity.
The fact that many of the contestants end up in the event twice - once as mortals, and once as daemons (as these vile creatures are often formed from the souls of those who intentionally hasten their own demise) doesn't seem to bother the general populace, only out to see more blood spilled in the arena.

Cacodaemon

Can i just say how much i appreciate everything about this angry little dude's design? He has enough going for him to be solid nightmare fuel if the GM desires to go that route, but he also looks... kinda cute? And the multiple eyes and weird proportions make it pretty clear that we're not in Middle Earth any more, this is weird fantasy territory and bless it for being so.

A shepherd's daughter has been going on about a lizard that speaks to her for weeks, but everyone ignored her. When a passing knight jokingly asks to see the lizard, the child puts it in his armored palm. Immediately, the lizard changes form into that of a little bulb of eyes and teeth, and offers the knight the soul of a virgin queen in exchange for its life.

A cunning cacodaemon has a new favourite strategy to gain souls - he appears before unsuspecting travelers, and threatens to call forth his master, an old and sadistic crucidaemon, unless the travelers are willing to trade one soul - be it one of theirs or otherwise acquired - for their freedom.
Those who see through the ruse, though, realize that the little fiend is working alone, and poses no real threat to experienced adventurers.

Salazar Salienza is a masterful tiefling assassin, always trailed by a cacodaemon he made a pact with long ago. The daemon gets to do whatever he wants to with the soul gems created from the many, many targets of his master partner's skills, and in exchange is expected to act as a scout, as well as a scholar of the planes if the need arises. If encountered together, Salazar is likely to apply a dose of hunting spider venom onto the daemon's teeth, making the little thing even more of a nuisance, while the assassin himself moves towards the least armored opponents he sees.

Astradaemon

Before i get to this entry, there's something I'd just like to address quickly, and that I maybe should have mentioned back when i covered the arbiter:  this blog and it's relation to the pathfinder2 cosmology. While obviously i can't namedrop Lost Omens planes by name (at least some of them? I'd hazard a guess that names like Nirvana and Abbaddon are probably public domain) i decided to take this blog a step further, and just... Ignore d&d-like cosmology (at least nine planes, each responding to one alignment, +the material plane, +probably some dream and primal/fey planes...) as a whole, sometimes referring to it, sometimes using something a bit but not not exactly like it, and sometimes explicitly having a single plane setting. All as the story demands. I'm sure if you happen to use any of these encounters, you'll be able to find a way to fit them in your story regardless.

Trillbog of Ten Thousand Teeth is an oddity among astradaemons - one who makes his home in the Prime Material Plane. There, he usurped a cult of a minor monstrous deity, convincing the scared cultists he was it's avatar. If any of the many daemonhunters of the region do encounter him outside his dark lair, he is bound to be followed by a dozen cultists. While the cultists make for poor combatants, they are more than willing to die in the service of their god, willingly sacrificing themselves so that Trillbog drains their essence, negating any wound he may have been dealt.

The chthonic gods are not allowed to directly extend their influence outside of Hades. Unfortunately, the river Styx and its lonely ferryman Charon technically fall under the Olympians' jurisdiction. When a weird, serpentine monstrosity appears on the shores of Styx, and starts devouring the souls of the recently departed as they try to make their way to the afterlife, Lord Hades himself has no choice but to release several long dead heroes to deal with it, having no choice but to trust their oaths that they will not go back to the lands of the living after slaying the beast and discerning whence it came from.

Yoglun Borak is a warrior from an ancient time, the Last Hyberian. He has stood guard at the Veiled Gate for millennia, guarding the world from the entities that lurk beyond. When he helps two young knights pass beyond to save their friend's soul, they make an oath to answer when he calls them. Several years later, he does. They are to guard the gate for a hundred and one days, while he goes beyond, on whatever business a demigod like him may have.
They honorably accept, and the first hundred days pass fairly uneventfully - the occasional imp or poltergeist try to break through, but those are easily pushed back. On the last day, though, a Night Hag appears, threatening to pull forward an Astradaemon unless she is given a human soul of pure heart. While the female knight is willing to test her resolve against such an adversary, the young male fears they would not best it, and considers offering his soul to the hag.