#baboulas

“Scissorman” © Heather Frazier, accessed at her deviantArt page here

[The name is again based on a bogey, this one Greek. These were written back before Paizo cemented all of their kytons as mad flesh-artists a la Hellraiser.]

Kyton, Baboulas (Scissorman) Tall, lean and ashen-skinned, this man is dressed in fine clothes and carries a sharp pair of long scissors. His eyes gleam sinisterly as two long barbed chains slither from under his coat.

The middlemen of the kyton race, baboulas use their ability to traverse the planes in order to infiltrate human settlements and leave a wide trail of pain and fear. Baboulas fill a role in kyton society something like knights and petty nobles do in human ones, managing armies, overseeing rank-and-file citizens, and freeing up the more powerful and monstrous of kytons to tend to their own business. With their plane-hopping abilities, they often serve the role of ambassador, dealing with devils and other power groups with whom the kytons share interests.

A baboulas kyton left to its own devices enjoys the same brutal pleasures as its peers—pain, torture and terror. Their human-like appearance and plane shifting allow them unparalleled opportunities to indulge in this sport. Baboulas kytons are notorious for donning the clothing and artifice of men and joining human society in the guise of tailors, butchers, inn-keepers or any other job with an opportunity for gossip. And at night, while their human hosts sleep, the baboulas get to their true work—punishment. Slipping into their victim’s homes at night, the baboulas inflict grievous wounds and tortures on wrong-doers. The wrongs that trigger a baboulas’ wrath may be as great as murder and treason, or as petty as lying to a friend, sucking your thumb or keeping an unclean house. The baboulas does not seek to kill its victims, merely cripple and mutilate them as a warning to others. Some communities under the watchful eye of a “scissorman” wither away and others remain populous, but all become haunted, fearful places.

Baboulas kytons range in size as do humans, but tend towards the tall and gaunt end of the spectrum. The chains with which they are bound are smaller and lighter than those of ordinary kytons, allowing them to fit under clothing with minimal fuss. All baboulas kytons carry a pair of cunningly sharp shears, capable of inflicting bleeding wounds. Unusually for fiends, baboulas kytons possess magical healing abilities—all the better to prolong the suffering of their victims.

New Weapon—Combat Shears Light melee exotic weapon; 10 gp; dmg 1d4 (Small)/ 1d6 (Medium); critical 19-20x3; damage slashing and piercing.