Labyrinth Bestiary

AC 13 (bare bone, quiver-harness) | HP 39 (6d8 + 12) | Speed 30 ft.

Skills Perception +2 · Vulnerable to bludgeoning · Immune to poison damage, exhaustion, poisoned · Darkvision 60 ft.

Holds Its Peg. It will not voluntarily move more than 5 ft from the nearest Bronze-Tooth Hoplite. If no hoplite stands within 15 ft of it at the start of its turn, it spends that whole turn walking to the nearest one instead of shooting.

No Good at Arm's Length. It has disadvantage on attack rolls against any creature within 5 ft of it, and it carries no blade. Close the distance and it is a bundle of sticks.

Counts Its Arrows. It rises with ten bronze-headed shafts, which is five rounds of shooting. After that it walks the field gathering them, one turn for every two arrows recovered, and it does not shoot while it stoops — a long fight has a round in it where the archer is harmless.

Multiattack. Two shots with the horn bow.

Horn Bow. Ranged, +5 to hit, range 80/320 ft, one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) piercing damage, and 2 more if the target is within 5 ft of a Bronze-Tooth Hoplite.

Pitch Arrow (3/Day). Ranged, +5 to hit, range 80/320 ft, one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) piercing damage, and the target is smeared with burning pitch: it sheds bright light in a 10-ft radius and cannot benefit from being invisible or lightly obscured until it or an adjacent creature uses an action to smother the pitch.

Loose Over the Wall. When a Bronze-Tooth Hoplite it can see shoves a creature or knocks one prone, the archer makes one Horn Bow attack against that creature.

AC 16 (linothorax, hoplon) | HP 45 (6d8 + 18) | Speed 30 ft.

Skills Perception +1 · Vulnerable to bludgeoning · Immune to poison damage, exhaustion, poisoned · Darkvision 60 ft.

Shield Wall. While within 5 ft of another Bronze-Tooth Hoplite it gains +2 AC and has advantage on saves against being shoved or knocked prone. Break the line and this vanishes.

Steps Into the Gap. When an adjacent hoplite is destroyed, it may move 5 ft, without using its reaction, to take that space.

Sown Again. When destroyed, its teeth scatter into the nearest groove or seam of earth. Where a sowing mechanism is still turning, they count toward its spawn clock.

Bronze Spear. Melee or thrown, +5 to hit, reach 10 ft or range 20/60 ft, one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 2) piercing damage, and 2 more if another hoplite is within 5 ft of the target.

Shield Press. Shove a creature within 5 ft: Athletics contest, on a success push 5 ft or knock prone.

AC 17 (bronze cuirass, hoplon) | HP 78 (12d8 + 24) | Speed 30 ft.

Saves Str +6, Con +5 · Skills Athletics +6, Perception +3 · Immune to poison damage, exhaustion, poisoned · Darkvision 60 ft.

Planted Standard. While the Serjeant is standing, hoplites within 30 ft add +1 to attack rolls and cannot be frightened.

Formation Fighter. The Serjeant has advantage on attack rolls against any creature that is not adjacent to an ally.

Multiattack. Two attacks with the bronze kopis, or one kopis and one thrown spear.

Bronze Kopis. Melee, +6 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 10 (1d10 + 3) slashing damage.

Sowing Horn (recharge 5–6). Every groove or seam of sown earth within 30 ft sprouts at once: two Bronze-Tooth Hoplites rise and act at the start of the next round. Deafening — every creature in the room must make a DC 13 Constitution save or be unable to hear until the end of its next turn.

Sow the Teeth (3/day). Scatter a fistful of teeth into bare earth within 10 ft. One Bronze-Tooth Hoplite rises there at the start of the Serjeant's next turn.

Hold the Line. When a creature within 5 ft tries to move past it, the Serjeant makes one kopis attack; on a hit the creature's movement ends.

AC 14 (boiled hide, bull mask) | HP 39 (6d8 + 12) | Speed 30 ft.

Skills Animal Handling +5, Intimidation +4, Perception +3 · Speaks Greek · Passive Perception 13

Brave in a Crowd. It has advantage on saving throws against being frightened while it can see two or more allies within 30 ft. The moment it is the last Bull-Kin standing within 30 ft it breaks: it spends its turns running for the nearest way out and will surrender if cornered.

Will Not Strike the Herd. It never willingly damages a bull, a minotaur, or any Bull-Kin creature, even a maddened or charmed one; it steps out of the lane and lets the beast pass. Against a creature wearing a bull's mask it hesitates: the first attack it would make against that creature each fight is spent shouting instead.

Multiattack. Two attacks with the bronze goad.

Bronze Goad. Melee, +4 to hit, reach 10 ft, one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage.

Drive the Herd (recharge 5–6). It cracks the goad on stone. One Bull-Kin creature within 30 ft that can hear it uses its reaction to move up to its speed in a straight line; if that movement ends within 5 ft of a hostile creature, the driven creature may make one shove attempt as part of the same reaction.

Mark the Beast's Eye. It daubs a target with ochre or simply screams a name: one creature it can see within 30 ft is marked until the start of the cultist's next turn, and Bull-Kin creatures that can see the mark have advantage on shove attempts against it.

Behind the Horns. When it is targeted by an attack while within 5 ft of a Large or larger Bull-Kin ally, it ducks behind the beast and gains half cover (+2 AC) against that attack.

AC 17 (bronze plates lashed to hide) | HP 184 (16d10 + 96) | Speed 40 ft.

Saves Str +9, Con +10, Wis +6 · Skills Athletics +9, Perception +6, Survival +6 · Darkvision 60 ft.

Legendary Resistance (2/Day). If it fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.

Legendary Actions (3/Round). It spends 3 legendary actions each round, one at a time at the end of another creature's turn, and regains them at the start of its own.

Reckless Charge. At the start of its turn it can choose to charge recklessly: it has advantage on melee attack rolls this turn, and attack rolls against it have advantage until the start of its next turn. Below half hit points it does this every turn without being asked.

Trailing Chain. Forty feet of bronze chain runs from the collar at its neck and drags behind it. A creature within 5 ft of any part of the chain can use an action to jam it into a ring, crack, or wheel with a DC 16 Strength (Athletics) check. While jammed the Champion cannot move more than 40 ft from that point and cannot use Reckless Charge; it clears the jam with one action and a DC 16 Strength check.

Will Not Gore the Still. It ignores a creature that is prone and motionless. It snorts over a fallen enemy and turns to whatever is still moving, so a downed character is not finished off and playing dead works exactly once per creature.

Sun-Starved. It has been penned in the dark since it was calved. In bright light it has disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.

Multiattack. Three attacks: two with the labrys and one gore.

Labrys. Melee, +9 to hit, reach 10 ft, one target. Hit: 18 (2d12 + 5) slashing damage.

Gore. Melee, +9 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) piercing damage, and a Large or smaller target must succeed on a DC 17 Strength saving throw or be pushed 10 ft.

Gore-Toss (recharge 5–6). It hooks one Large or smaller creature within 10 ft, which makes a DC 17 Strength saving throw. On a failure it is thrown 30 ft in a straight line, takes 21 (6d6) bludgeoning damage, and lands prone; if a wall or pillar stops the throw short it takes a further 10 (3d6). Any creature in the flight path makes a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 10 (3d6) bludgeoning damage and falling prone on a failure.

Chain Sweep. When a creature it can see moves out of its reach, it whips the loose chain around: DC 17 Dexterity saving throw or take 12 (2d6 + 5) bludgeoning damage and have its movement end.

Turn (costs 1). It moves up to half its speed in a straight line without provoking opportunity attacks.

Stamp (costs 2). Each creature within 10 ft makes a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw or is knocked prone.

Labrys (costs 2). It makes one labrys attack.

AC 15 (bronze-scaled hide) | HP 85 (10d10 + 30) | Speed 40 ft.

Saves Str +7, Con +6 · Skills Athletics +7, Perception +4, Survival +4 · Darkvision 60 ft.

Charge Lane. If it moves at least 20 ft in a straight line toward a creature and hits it with a Gore in the same turn, the target takes an extra 9 (2d8) piercing damage and must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be pushed 10 ft and knocked prone. It spends its first round of most fights finding a lane rather than swinging.

Cannot Stop. If it charges and the Gore misses, it keeps going in the same straight line to the end of its movement. If a wall, pillar, or hazard stands in that line it takes 7 (2d6) bludgeoning damage and falls prone. Step aside and the room hits it for you.

Will Not Cross Water. It refuses standing water deeper than its hoof, and any surface whose bottom it cannot see — mud, oil, a grate over dark. It goes around, or it waits on the dry side and bellows.

Labyrinth Sense. It cannot be lost while underground and follows a scent trail up to an hour old, so it pursues a fleeing party through two or three rooms before losing interest.

Multiattack. Two attacks with the maul, or one gore and one maul.

Bronze-Shod Maul. Melee, +7 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage.

Gore. Melee, +7 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage.

Shove With the Horns. Shove a creature within 5 ft: Athletics contest with advantage. On a success, push it 10 ft or knock it prone. It always pushes toward a drop, a hazard, or its own charge lane, never simply backward.

Answer the Goad. When a creature it can see moves out of its reach, the brute moves up to 10 ft toward that creature and makes no attack. It is buying itself a run-up.

AC 17 (riveted bronze plate) | HP 76 (8d10 + 32) | Speed 40 ft. (rail only)

Skills Perception +1 · Immune to poison damage, psychic damage · Immune to charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned · Darkvision 60 ft.

On Rails. Its speed exists only along the bronze rail sunk into the floor. It cannot leave the rail, climb, open a door, or attack a creature standing more than 5 ft from the rail's line. Two feet to one side and it is an ornament with a boiler.

Predictable. It runs a fixed circuit at a fixed cadence, roughly three rounds to the lap. A creature that watches one full lap has advantage on Dexterity saving throws against the ox and knows the round on which Trample comes back.

Will Not Crush Bronze. It halts rather than run over bronze. A shield, a helm, a bell, a handful of coin laid across the rail stops it dead where it stands until a creature adjacent to the obstruction uses an action to clear it. The ox cannot clear the rail itself.

Pitch-Belly. Its boiler seam gapes at the flank. A creature within 5 ft can wedge it with a spike, a blade, or a wooden peg: DC 14 Dexterity check using thieves' tools, or DC 14 Strength (Athletics). While wedged the ox cannot use Trample and its speed is halved; it works the wedge free with one action.

Ram. Melee, +6 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 15 (2d10 + 4) bludgeoning damage, and a Medium or smaller target is pushed 10 ft along the line of the rail.

Trample (recharge 5–6). It moves up to its speed along the rail without provoking opportunity attacks. Each creature whose space it enters makes a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw, taking 18 (4d8) bludgeoning damage and falling prone on a failure, or half damage and no fall on a success.

Low. It lows through the stone, audible 300 ft. Every Daedalan automaton that hears it turns toward the sound and comes at its own unhurried pace; the DM should decide now what is one room away.

AC 19 (atelier plate) | HP 207 (18d10 + 108) | Speed 30 ft.

Saves Con +10, Int +7, Wis +7 · Skills Insight +7, Perception +7 · Immune to poison damage, psychic damage · Immune to charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned · Darkvision 120 ft. · Speaks Greek and the workshop's cant

Legendary Resistance (2/Day). If it fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.

Legendary Actions (3/Round). It spends 3 legendary actions each round, one at a time at the end of another creature's turn, and regains them at the start of its own.

Speaks the Rule Before It Strikes. On its first turn, and again whenever a creature it has not yet addressed comes into sight, it states aloud the rule that creature is breaking. It does not attack a creature that is not, at that moment, breaking a rule it has spoken. It warns, it repeats itself, and it waits — which is a whole round the party can spend on something else.

Bound by Its Own Words. If a creature argues that two rules the Warden has spoken contradict each other, and the argument is honest — a DC 17 Intelligence or Charisma check, plus the DM's judgement of what was actually said — the Warden recalculates: it takes no actions, bonus actions, or legendary actions until the end of its next turn. Each rule can be turned against it only once.

Wax Seal of Commission. A palm-sized seal of wax and red thread on its chest holds the commission that animates it. The first time it takes 20 or more fire damage in a single turn the wax slumps and it loses Legendary Resistance and all remaining uses of it. An adjacent creature can pry the seal away instead with a DC 18 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check, to the same effect.

Multiattack. Two attacks with the rule-arm.

Bronze Rule-Arm. Melee, +9 to hit, reach 10 ft, one target. Hit: 18 (3d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage.

Measure and Cut (recharge 5–6). It snaps a plumb-line taut along a 60-ft line 5 ft wide. Each creature in the line makes a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw, taking 36 (8d8) force damage and being pushed to the nearest edge of the line on a failure, or half damage and no push on a success. It will not draw the line through a fixture of the workshop, which is a shape the party can stand behind.

Cite the Violator. It names one creature it can see as being in violation. Until the start of its next turn it attacks no other creature, and it has advantage on attack rolls against the named one.

Objection. When a creature it can see damages, moves, or unmakes any part of the workshop within 60 ft, the Warden moves up to its speed toward that creature. It will cross the whole room to protect the work and abandon a kill to do it.

Step of the Compass (costs 1). It moves up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.

Amend the Rule (costs 1). It speaks a new clause aloud. One creature it can see becomes a violator, or ceases to be one; say the clause at the table so the players hear the loophole open or close.

Strike the Line (costs 2). It makes one rule-arm attack.

Shutter the Way (costs 2). A bronze shutter drops across one doorway within 60 ft. Raising it is a DC 18 Strength (Athletics) check. It will not shutter a doorway a creature is standing in.

AC 18 (bronze carapace) | HP 85 (10d8 + 40) | Speed 30 ft.

Skills Perception +3 · Resistant to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks · Immune to poison damage, psychic damage · Immune to charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned · Darkvision 120 ft.

Fixed Patrol. It walks a set circuit and returns to it. It pursues no further than 60 ft from that route, then turns back by the shortest path and leaves whatever it was chasing behind. Outrun the circuit and the fight simply stops.

Logged as Staff. It reads tread and burden, not faces. A creature carrying an atelier tally-token, or one that matches the sentinel's pace and stride for a full round (DC 15 Dexterity (Stealth) or DC 15 Charisma (Performance)), is logged as staff and ignored until it attacks, runs, or opens something sealed.

The Winding at the Nape. A key-drum turns behind a grille at the back of its neck. A creature that can reach it may foul the drum with a DC 15 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check as an action, or with one melee attack made at disadvantage that hits. While fouled it loses Multiattack and its speed is 15 ft; it spends one action to rewind itself.

Will Not Break the Work. It never damages Daedalan fittings, inlay, or machinery, and will not strike across them. A creature standing inside a floor inlay or up on a workbench is attacked at reach only, never stepped over, never shoved into the mechanism.

Multiattack. Two attacks with the glaive-arm.

Bronze Glaive-Arm. Melee, +6 to hit, reach 10 ft, one target. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) slashing damage.

Lantern Eye. It turns the lamp set in its faceplate: a 30-ft cone of bright light and 30 ft more of dim. A creature hiding within the cone is revealed, no check.

Halt. When a creature moves out of its reach it makes one glaive-arm attack. On a hit, that creature's speed becomes 0 until the end of its turn.

AC 15 (bronze chitin) | HP 110 (20d8 + 20) | Speed 5 ft., fly 50 ft. (hover)

Skills Perception +4 · Resistant to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage · Immune to poison damage, psychic damage · Immune to charmed, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, prone, restrained, stunned · Blindsight 60 ft. (hearing), blind beyond

Swarm. It can occupy another creature's space and move through any opening a thumb fits through. It cannot be grappled or shoved, and it cannot regain hit points or gain temporary hit points.

Woken by Sound. It hunts by ear alone and hangs dormant on the comb until a noise louder than a whisper is made within 60 ft. A creature that moves at half speed and keeps quiet (DC 14 Dexterity (Stealth)) is not attacked even while standing in the swarm's space; the swarm drifts around it like weather.

Smoke-Stalled. In heavy smoke, or within 10 ft of a smoking brand or censer, its speed is halved, it cannot use Boil Out, and it drifts back toward the comb at the end of each of its turns. One torch and a handful of green rushes is a real answer to it.

Comb-Bound. It will not fly more than 60 ft from its comb, and it goes first for whichever creature carries wax, honey-gold, or comb. Set the loot down on the floor and the swarm will attend to the loot.

Stings. Melee, +7 to hit, reach 0 ft, one creature in the swarm's space. Hit: 22 (4d8 + 4) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) poison damage, or half the piercing damage if the swarm has half its hit points or fewer.

Boil Out (recharge 5–6). The swarm bursts apart to fill a 15-ft cube it can reach. Each creature in the cube makes a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 21 (6d6) piercing damage and being blinded until the end of its next turn on a failure, or half damage and no blinding on a success.

AC 15 (woody stems) | HP 67 (9d8 + 27) | Speed 20 ft., climb 30 ft.

Skills Perception +3, Stealth +5 · Immune to petrified, blinded, deafened · Tremorsense 60 ft.

Blind to Stone. A vine grown fat in the gorgons' soil, threading the statues. It senses warmth and motion and nothing else: it does not perceive petrified creatures at all, nor any creature that has not moved since the end of its own last turn. A party that stops dead among the statues is not attacked, and the creeper will glide between them feeling for something that twitches.

Laced Through the Statues. While wound around a statue, pillar, or plinth it strikes from behind the stone: attack rolls against it have disadvantage. Topple the stone and the protection goes with it.

Sap of the Garden. Its cut stems weep the pale sap that softens fresh stone. A creature can harvest one dose from a dead creeper with a DC 13 Wisdom (Medicine) check; one dose frees a creature restrained by any brood venom, or a creature petrified within the last minute.

Multiattack. Two lashes. Only the first lash each turn carries a thorn.

Stiffening Thorn. Melee, +5 to hit, reach 10 ft, one target. Hit: 8 (1d10 + 3) piercing damage, and the target makes a DC 13 Constitution saving throw. On a failure it is restrained as the flesh greys and stiffens; it repeats the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success and becoming petrified on a second failure.

Withdraw. It disengages and moves up to half its speed, back to stone if there is stone to reach.

AC 17 (bronze corselet) | HP 204 (24d8 + 96) | Speed 30 ft.

Saves Dex +9, Wis +7, Cha +9 · Skills Deception +9, Insight +7, Perception +7, Stealth +9 · Darkvision 60 ft. · Speaks Greek

Legendary Resistance (2/Day). If she fails a saving throw, she can choose to succeed instead.

Legendary Actions (3/Round). She spends 3 legendary actions each round, one at a time at the end of another creature's turn, and regains them at the start of her own.

Petrifying Gaze. If a creature starts its turn within 30 ft and can see her eyes, she can force a DC 16 Constitution saving throw if she is not incapacitated. On a failure the creature is restrained as it turns to stone; it repeats the save at the end of its next turn, ending the effect on a success and becoming petrified on a second failure. A creature can avert its eyes at the start of its turn: it cannot see her until its next turn and has disadvantage on attacks against her, but if it looks in the meantime it saves at once.

She Has Not Seen Her Own Face. If she sees her own reflection within 30 ft in bright light she makes the same DC 16 saving throw against her own gaze, and she may not avert her eyes from it. While she is restrained by her own gaze she cannot use Legendary Resistance. Every mirror in the room is a weapon, and she knows it — she fights with her back to polished stone.

Sleeps Coiled, Her Hair Does Not. She sleeps most of a day at a stretch, and the serpents keep watch while she does: passive Perception 17, and they wake her if a creature comes within 15 ft, strikes a light within 60 ft, or makes a noise louder than a footfall. Waking costs her one turn, in which she can still take legendary actions.

Will Not Break Her Statues. She will not damage a petrified creature in her keeping and will not permit another to. A creature that raises a hammer over one has her whole attention and one round of her talking, which is one round in which nobody has to save.

Multiattack. Three attacks: one with the snake hair and two with the kopis. She uses the horn bow for all three instead if every enemy is beyond her reach.

Snake Hair. Melee, +9 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 8 (1d6 + 5) piercing damage plus 14 (4d6) poison damage.

Bronze Kopis. Melee, +9 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 9 (1d8 + 5) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) poison damage.

Horn Bow. Ranged, +9 to hit, range 150/600 ft, one target. Hit: 9 (1d8 + 5) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) poison damage.

Coronal Strike (recharge 5–6). Every serpent of her hair strikes at once. Each creature within 10 ft makes a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw, taking 22 (4d10) poison damage and being poisoned until the end of its next turn on a failure, or half damage and no poisoning on a success.

Slither (costs 1). She moves up to half her speed without provoking opportunity attacks.

Turn of the Head (costs 1). One creature she can see within 30 ft that is not averting its eyes immediately makes a saving throw against Petrifying Gaze.

Coil and Strike (costs 2). She makes one snake hair attack.

AC 15 (stone-crusted hide) | HP 82 (11d8 + 33) | Speed 20 ft.

Skills Perception +2 · Immune to petrified · Darkvision 60 ft.

Petrifying Gaze. If a creature starts its turn within 10 ft of the basilisk and the two can see each other, the basilisk can force a DC 14 Constitution saving throw if it is not incapacitated. On a failure the creature is restrained as it begins to petrify; it repeats the save at the end of its next turn, ending the effect on a success and becoming petrified on a second failure. A creature can avert its eyes at the start of its turn: it cannot see the basilisk until its next turn and has disadvantage on attacks against it, but if it looks in the meantime it saves at once. Ten feet is the whole creature — beyond that it is a slow lizard.

Its Own Reflection. If it sees itself within 30 ft in bright light — a mirror, polished bronze, still black water — it makes the same DC 14 saving throw against its own gaze, and it cannot avert its eyes, because it does not know what it is looking at.

Slow and Certain. Its speed is 20 ft and it cannot Dash. Once it has chosen a target it walks toward that target every round until the target is stone, gone from the room, or the basilisk is dead. It does not flank, feint, or flee.

Leftovers. It eats the stone it makes. If a creature was petrified within the last hour and lies within 30 ft, the basilisk breaks off to gnaw at it instead of attacking on roughly one turn in three. That statue is buying the party a round, and the DM should say so with the sound of teeth on marble.

Bite. Melee, +6 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) poison damage.

Turn and Fix. When a creature it can see moves within 10 ft of it, the basilisk turns its head and that creature immediately makes a saving throw against Petrifying Gaze. Once per round.

AC 15 (bronze plumage) | HP 82 (11d8 + 33) | Speed 20 ft., fly 60 ft.

Skills Athletics +6, Perception +4, Performance +6 · Darkvision 60 ft. · Speaks Greek, badly

Will Not Fight Grounded. Netted, webbed, or otherwise brought to the floor, she spends her turns getting airborne again — Disengage and Dash — rather than attacking, and takes the openings that costs. On the ground her talons do not grapple.

Drops the Prize. When she takes 15 or more damage in a single turn while carrying a creature, she loses her grip and it falls at once, taking 1d6 bludgeoning damage per 10 ft fallen. Concentrated fire is the answer to a snatch, and it costs the snatched character something.

Answers the Nest. If a Storm-Crow or a nest within 120 ft cries out, she breaks off whatever she is doing on her next turn and flies toward the sound. Threaten the eggs and you choose where she stands.

Multiattack. Two attacks with the talons, or one talon and one beak.

Talons. Melee, +6 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) slashing damage. A Medium or smaller target is grappled (escape DC 14); she carries only one creature at a time and her fly speed is halved while she does.

Bronze Beak. Melee, +6 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage.

Carry Off. With a creature grappled, she flies up to 30 ft and lets go. The creature falls, taking 1d6 bludgeoning damage per 10 ft, and lands prone. She will not lift more than 250 lbs, and she will not carry a victim out of the room: she wants it broken on the floor she is circling, where the others can see.

Song of the Ledge. Each humanoid and giant within 60 ft that can hear her makes a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or is charmed until the song ends. A charmed creature must spend its movement each turn walking the shortest route toward her, ignoring difficult terrain, opportunity attacks, and edges — it will step off a ledge and take the fall. It repeats the save at the end of each of its turns and whenever it takes damage from another source; on a success it is immune to her song for 24 hours. She must use a bonus action on each of her turns to keep singing, and she cannot sing while carrying a creature.

Rise on the Draught. When a creature she can see moves within 10 ft of her, she flies up to 20 ft without provoking opportunity attacks.

AC 14 (bronze feathers) | HP 45 (7d8 + 14) | Speed 10 ft., fly 60 ft.

Skills Perception +3, Stealth +5 · Resistant to piercing damage from nonmagical attacks · Darkvision 60 ft.

Never Lands. It does not fight from the floor. It ends every turn airborne and, where the ceiling allows, at least 10 ft above the tallest creature it can see. Grounded, it spends its turns getting back into the air rather than attacking.

Flyby. It provokes no opportunity attacks when it flies out of a creature's reach.

Scatters at Noise. A sudden loud noise within 60 ft — a shield beaten, a thunderclap, a bell — forces a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure it flies 30 ft directly away and cannot come within 30 ft of the noise until the end of its next turn. Panic is contagious: while one crow is scattered, every other Storm-Crow within 30 ft has disadvantage on that save.

Drops What It Holds. When it takes 10 or more damage in a single turn it lets go of whatever it is carrying. The object falls into the space below; a creature there makes a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw or takes 3 (1d6) bludgeoning damage.

Multiattack. One beak attack and one talon attack.

Bronze Beak. Melee, +5 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage.

Talon. Melee, +5 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) slashing damage.

Loosed Feather. Ranged, +5 to hit, range 30/90 ft, one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage. It rakes a bronze quill loose in flight and throws it underwing.

Snatch. One unsecured object held or loosely worn by a creature within 5 ft — a torch, a coil of rope, a hat, a wand in hand: the creature makes a DC 13 Strength saving throw or the crow takes it and flies. It prefers whatever is brightest, whatever is burning, and whatever rattles.

Wheel Away. When it is hit by a melee attack, it flies up to 20 ft.

AC 15 (bronze-studded leather barding) | HP 110 (13d10 + 39) | Speed 50 ft.

Saves Dex +6, Wis +5 · Skills Athletics +7, Perception +5, Survival +5 · Darkvision 60 ft.

Open Ground. It will not willingly end its turn in a space from which it cannot move 20 ft in a straight line. It breaks formation, abandons an ally, and gives up a flank to keep a running lane open. Corridors, rubble, and caltrops are worth more against it than armour.

A Fair Word. Any creature may spend an action to offer wine, a true name, or safe passage and make a DC 13 Persuasion check. On a success the centaur withdraws 30 ft, lowers the bow, and hears one round of terms, and it holds to any bargain struck exactly and literally, including the parts the party did not think through. On a failure its next volley is aimed at the speaker with advantage, and no centaur of the herd will hear that speaker again this session.

Split Herd. It counts the party's numbers before it commits: if the revel is outnumbered on the field at the start of its turn, it uses Wheel Away and shoots rather than closing, every turn, until the numbers change.

Multiattack. Two attacks with the horn bow, or one pike attack and one hoof attack.

Horn Bow. Ranged, +6 to hit, range 150/600 ft, one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) piercing damage.

Pike. Melee, +7 to hit, reach 10 ft, one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) piercing damage.

Hoof. Melee, +7 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 9 (2d4 + 4) bludgeoning damage.

Trample (recharge 5–6). It moves up to its speed in a straight line through the spaces of other creatures. Each creature whose space it enters makes a DC 14 Dexterity save, taking 17 (5d6) bludgeoning damage and falling prone on a failure, or half as much and staying up on a success. It provokes opportunity attacks as normal, and it knows it.

Wheel Away. It takes the Disengage action and moves up to half its speed. This is the first thing it does whenever a melee combatant closes to 5 ft.

AC 13 (unarmoured) | HP 52 (8d8 + 16) | Speed 30 ft.

Skills Acrobatics +5, Performance +5 · Immune to charmed, frightened · Resistant to poison damage

Only the Standing. She will not attack a creature that is prone, unconscious, or empty-handed. She steps over it, without using her reaction, to reach the nearest creature still on its feet. A party that goes down and stays down is stepped over.

Carried Out, Not Killed. At 0 hit points she drops unconscious and stable rather than dying, laughing, and takes no further part. Only a deliberate coup de grace kills her, and her sisters remember which of the party struck it.

Answers Only in Song. She cannot be reasoned with: Persuasion and Intimidation fail automatically against her. A creature that spends its action drinking with her, or matching her dance with a DC 13 Performance check, becomes a reveller in her eyes. She will not attack that creature until it attacks her or another maenad.

Keeps the Beat. While she can hear a Satyr Piper playing within 60 ft, her speed increases by 10 ft and she has advantage on Acrobatics and Athletics checks. Stop the pipes and she is merely fast.

Multiattack. Two attacks with the thyrsus, or one thyrsus and one with her nails.

Thyrsus. Melee, +5 to hit, reach 10 ft, one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) bludgeoning damage, and if she moved 20 ft or more this turn, 3 (1d6) extra.

Rending Nails. Melee, +5 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 8 (2d4 + 3) slashing damage. Against a creature she has already hit with the thyrsus this turn, she has advantage.

Drink Deep. She drains the skin at her hip: she gains 5 temporary hit points, and until the start of her next turn attack rolls against her have advantage. She does this whenever she is bloodied and whenever the pipes change key.

AC 14 (goat-leather jerkin) | HP 71 (11d8 + 22) | Speed 40 ft.

Saves Dex +5, Cha +6 · Skills Performance +8, Persuasion +6, Stealth +5 · Advantage on saves against spells · Darkvision 60 ft.

While the Pipes Play. If the piper played on its last turn, every allied creature within 60 ft that can hear it adds 10 ft to its speed and has advantage on saves against being charmed or frightened. The buff ends the instant the tune does, and the tune ends if the piper is killed, deafened, silenced, grappled, or made to move at speed.

Broken Tune. When the piper takes 15 or more damage from a single source, it must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution save or the reed splits from its lip: the tune stops and it must spend an action to start again. The pipes themselves are AC 12, 5 hit points, and it will not fight for them if they fall.

Terms Between Verses. While it is above half its hit points, a creature may spend an action to offer wine, a boast, or a song the maze has not heard and make a DC 14 Persuasion check. On a success the piper stops playing for one round and names its price aloud. On a failure it plays louder: the speaker is the revel's target of choice until the end of the next round, and every ally that can hear the pipes moves toward that speaker first.

Never the First to Bleed. At or below half hit points it will not stand in melee. It moves behind the largest ally it can reach and keeps playing, and it will abandon a fight it is losing without a word to anyone.

Pipes of the Long Revel. Every creature of the piper's choice within 30 ft that can hear it must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom save or be charmed for 1 minute. A charmed creature will not attack the revel, and repeats the save at the end of each of its turns and whenever it takes damage. On a success it is immune to these pipes for 24 hours.

Ram. Melee, +5 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 8 (2d4 + 3) bludgeoning damage, and a Medium or smaller target must succeed on a DC 13 Strength save or be pushed 10 ft.

Horn Bow. Ranged, +5 to hit, range 80/320 ft, one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage. It shoots only when it is not playing, which tells the party the tune has stopped.

Goat's Leap. It moves up to 20 ft without provoking opportunity attacks, and may make this move while playing.

AC 16 (natural armour, bronze barbs) | HP 144 (17d10 + 51) | Speed 30 ft., fly 50 ft.

Saves Dex +7, Con +6 · Skills Perception +4 · Darkvision 60 ft.

Twenty-Four Spikes. Its tail carries twenty-four bronze barbs and no more. Every spike attack and every spike loosed by Barb Volley or a reaction spends one, and the volley spends four. Count them out loud where the party can hear the tail rattle. Spent, it must land and fight with claw and bite, and it hates that.

Will Not Land. While it can fly it will not fight from the ground, and it will not end a turn within reach of a creature holding a spear or a polearm. Grounded by a net, a web, or a low ceiling, it spends its whole action getting airborne again and shoots nothing that round. Ceiling height is the single most important number in any room it is in.

Old Grudge. While it can see a Chimera of the Yard, at least one of its attacks each turn must be spent on the chimera, and it takes the shot even through allies. A party that persuades one to strike the other, or that stands so a stray barb lands on the chimera, has started a fight it does not have to finish.

Multiattack. Three tail spikes, or two claws and one bite.

Tail Spike. Ranged, +7 to hit, range 100/200 ft, one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) piercing damage, and the barb stays in. Drawing it out costs an action and 3 (1d6) piercing damage; left in, it deals 3 (1d6) piercing damage the first time that creature Dashes each round.

Claw. Melee, +7 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 9 (2d4 + 4) slashing damage.

Bite. Melee, +7 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) piercing damage.

Barb Volley (recharge 5–6). It fans its tail and looses four spikes in a 30-ft cone. Each creature in the cone makes a DC 15 Dexterity save, taking 22 (4d10) piercing damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. Spends four spikes.

Barbed Rebuke. When a creature it can see hits it with a ranged attack or a spell from more than 30 ft away, it makes one tail spike attack against that creature. Spends one spike.

AC 14 (natural armour) | HP 85 (10d10 + 30) | Speed 40 ft.

Saves Con +6 · Skills Perception +3 · Darkvision 60 ft.

Mismatched Parts. Roll 1d4 when it is first seen: 1 fire, 2 cold, 3 lightning, 4 acid. It is resistant to that damage type and its second head deals it. No two of these things are stitched from the same donors, so roll separately for each one on the field.

Nearest Thing. At the start of each of its turns it moves toward and attacks whichever creature is closest to it, ally or enemy, with no preference at all. Break a tie in favour of whatever damaged it last. Party positioning is the whole fight: leave it a manticore to reach and it will take the manticore.

Two Minds, One Spine. It has advantage on saves against being charmed or frightened. Each time it succeeds on such a save the heads tear at each other and it takes 5 (2d4) piercing damage from itself.

Fear of the Gate. It will not pass through a barred opening, a portcullis, or any doorway narrower than 10 ft, even to pursue. It stops at the threshold and rages there. A shut pen gate is a full defence against it, and it knows how to wait.

Multiattack. One bite and one attack with the second head.

Bite. Melee, +7 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) piercing damage.

Second Head. Melee, +7 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 9 (2d4 + 4) piercing damage plus 5 (2d4) damage of its mismatched type.

Snap at the Nearer Hand. When a creature within 5 ft of it makes an attack against anyone other than the hybrid, it makes one bite attack against that creature.

AC 16 (natural armour) | HP 199 (21d10 + 84) | Speed 30 ft., fly 50 ft.

Saves Con +8, Wis +6 · Skills Perception +10 · Darkvision 60 ft.

Three Heads, One Throat. It has advantage on saves against being blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, or stunned, and it cannot be surprised. Two of the three are always awake.

The Heads Do Not Agree. As an action, a creature within 30 ft may set the heads against each other with a DC 16 Animal Handling or Deception check: a tossed scrap of meat, a mimicked hiss, the smell of another predator. On a success the chimera makes one fewer attack on its next turn, and if any creature that is not a party member is within 30 ft it must spend its Multiattack on that creature instead. This is the intended way out of any room it is in, and it works as often as the party can keep it up.

The Ash Sac. In the round before Fire Breath is available the goat's throat swells and glows bronze under the hide, visible with a DC 13 Perception check and explicable with a DC 15 Nature check. The first time it takes cold damage while the sac is lit, it makes a DC 16 Constitution save; on a failure the breath is lost, the recharge starts over, and the chimera takes 14 (4d6) fire damage from its own ruptured throat. This is the vulnerability the party is meant to find.

Will Not Be Herded. It refuses to fly out of a room while there is meat on the floor in it, living or dead, and it will not pursue a fleeing party past the last body. Leaving something behind buys the retreat.

Multiattack. One lion bite, one goat gore, and one serpent bite. It may replace the gore with Fire Breath when that is available.

Lion Bite. Melee, +9 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) piercing damage.

Goat Gore. Melee, +9 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 11 (1d12 + 5) bludgeoning damage, and a Large or smaller target must succeed on a DC 16 Strength save or be pushed 10 ft and knocked prone.

Serpent Bite. Melee, +9 to hit, reach 10 ft, one target. Hit: 9 (1d8 + 5) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) poison damage.

Fire Breath (recharge 5–6). The goat head vomits a 30-ft cone of burning ash. Each creature in it makes a DC 16 Dexterity save, taking 33 (6d10) fire damage on a failure, or half as much on a success.

Snap. It makes one serpent bite attack. It has 2 legendary actions, spent one at a time at the end of another creature's turn, and regains them at the start of its turn.

Beat of the Wings (costs 2 actions). Each creature within 10 ft makes a DC 16 Dexterity save or takes 9 (2d8) bludgeoning damage and is pushed 10 ft; the chimera then flies up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.

AC 18 (natural armour) | HP 231 (22d12 + 88) | Speed 40 ft., climb 30 ft., swim 40 ft.

Saves Dex +5, Con +9, Wis +8 · Skills Perception +13, Stealth +5 · Immune to poison damage, poisoned · Blindsight 30 ft. · Darkvision 120 ft.

Slow to Wake. She sleeps coiled and warm, and she does not come up fast. For the first round after she is woken she has disadvantage on attack rolls, takes no legendary actions, and cannot use Poison Breath. A party that spends that round leaving has left. A party that spends it stabbing her has chosen the fight.

Will Not Leave the Clutch. She will not move more than 60 ft from her eggs, and she will let quarry walk out of sight rather than lose the nest from her senses. Threaten the clutch and she abandons every other target on the board to come back; take one egg out of the room and she stops at the sixty-foot line and screams.

Cold Blood. Her blindsight is heat, and a creature that has taken cold damage since the end of its last turn is invisible to it. While she is below half her hit points she is also vulnerable to cold damage, as the slow blood stops moving in the coil. Both halves of this are learnable in one round of watching her hunt.

Multiattack. One bite and two coil attacks, or one bite and one use of Swallow.

Bite. Melee, +11 to hit, reach 15 ft, one target. Hit: 22 (3d10 + 6) piercing damage plus 9 (2d8) poison damage.

Coil. Melee, +11 to hit, reach 10 ft, one Large or smaller creature. Hit: 17 (2d10 + 6) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 19) and restrained. She can hold two creatures at once. A creature that deals 20 or more damage to her in a single turn while grappled forces a DC 17 Constitution save; on a failure she lets that creature go.

Swallow. She makes one bite attack against a Medium or smaller creature she is grappling. On a hit the creature is swallowed, blinded and restrained, has total cover against attacks from outside, and takes 17 (5d6) acid damage at the start of each of her turns. If she takes 30 damage or more in a single turn from a creature inside her, she must succeed on a DC 17 Constitution save or vomit that creature prone into a space within 10 ft.

Poison Breath (recharge 5–6). A 60-ft cone of green fume. Each creature in it makes a DC 17 Constitution save, taking 56 (16d6) poison damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. A creature that fails is also poisoned for 1 minute, repeating the save at the end of each of its turns.

Tongue. She tastes the air and learns the exact position of every creature within 60 ft that has not taken cold damage since the end of its last turn. She has 3 legendary actions, spent one at a time at the end of another creature's turn, and regains them at the start of her turn.

Tighten (costs 2 actions). Each creature she is grappling takes 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage.

Tail Sweep (costs 2 actions). Each creature within 15 ft makes a DC 17 Strength save or is pushed 10 ft and knocked prone. She will use this to clear the floor around the clutch and nothing else.

AC 16 (natural armour) | HP 75 (10d8 + 30) | Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft.

Saves Dex +4, Con +5 · Skills Perception +2, Stealth +4 · Immune to poison damage, poisoned · Darkvision 60 ft.

No Discipline. It breathes the moment the breath is available, and it places the cone to catch the greatest number of bodies without caring whose. Allies in the cone save and suffer normally. Put the whelps behind their own serpent-hounds and let the party watch what happens.

Nest-Bound. It will not move more than 30 ft from the clutch it hatched beside, and it will break off any pursuit at that line. Everything outside that circle is somebody else's business.

Wet Scales. It is three weeks out of the shell and its belly plates have not hardened. While it is prone its AC is 13, and the first attack that hits it while prone each round deals an extra 5 (2d4) damage.

Multiattack. One bite and one tail attack.

Bite. Melee, +5 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 8 (1d10 + 3) piercing damage plus 3 (1d6) poison damage.

Tail. Melee, +5 to hit, reach 10 ft, one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) bludgeoning damage.

Venom Breath (recharge 5–6). It coughs a 15-ft cone of green vapour. Each creature in it makes a DC 13 Constitution save, taking 18 (4d8) poison damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. The vapour hangs for one round as lightly obscured air that smells of hot brass.

Coil and Hiss. It wraps a pillar, a stair rail, or a clutch of eggs and rears. Until the start of its next turn it has half cover and cannot be knocked prone.

AC 14 (natural armour) | HP 60 (8d8 + 24) | Speed 40 ft., climb 20 ft.

Skills Perception +3, Stealth +4 · Immune to poison damage, poisoned · Blindsight 30 ft.

Tastes the Air. Its blindsight is scent carried on moving air. In still air, with no draught, no open shaft, and no fire, the blindsight drops to 10 ft and it has disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks. Closing a door or damping a vent is worth more than a Stealth roll here, and the pack will hunt the wrong corridor for a full minute.

Pack Tactics. It has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one other serpent-hound is within 5 ft of that creature and not incapacitated.

Drives, Does Not Kill. It will not attack a prone or unconscious creature. Instead it moves to the far side of that creature and holds, cutting off the route back. A pack works a party toward the nest and does not understand why they will not go.

Multiattack. One bite and one tail lash.

Bite. Melee, +5 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 8 (1d10 + 3) piercing damage plus 3 (1d6) poison damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution save or be poisoned until the end of its next turn.

Tail Lash. Melee, +5 to hit, reach 10 ft, one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) bludgeoning damage, and a Medium or smaller target must succeed on a DC 13 Strength save or be knocked prone.

Cut the Line. When a creature within 10 ft moves away from the pack, the hound moves up to 20 ft to a space that ends between that creature and its route out. It makes no attack. It is herding.

AC 12 (unarmoured) | HP 55 (10d8 + 10) | Speed 30 ft.

Skills Perception +3 · Resistant to cold, necrotic · Immune to poison damage, exhaustion, charmed, frightened, poisoned · Darkvision 60 ft.

The Last Hour. It walks the last hour of its life on a fixed route and repeats it forever. It does not see the party, does not attack, and cannot be spoken to. It turns hostile only if a creature stands in its path, touches it, takes or moves an object on its route, brings a light within 5 ft of its face, or speaks its name aloud. Read that list to yourself before the party goes anywhere near it, because everything else they do is safe.

Begins Again. Once hostile it fights for 1 minute, then stops mid-swing, turns, and resumes its route from the start at its full hit points if it was not destroyed. Killing one costs the party resources and buys them nothing at all.

Laid to Rest. It is destroyed for good, without a fight, if its errand is completed: the jar set down where it was going, the message delivered, the door it was walking to opened. A creature that watches one full circuit and succeeds on a DC 13 Insight check works out what the errand is. A creature that guesses wrong and acts on it makes the wanderer hostile.

Multiattack. Two grave-cold touches.

Grave-Cold Touch. Melee, +4 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) cold damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom save or see the wanderer's last hour from inside and have disadvantage on its next attack roll.

Do Not Take That. When a creature within 10 ft picks up, moves, or destroys an object on its route, the wanderer moves up to 10 ft toward that creature and makes one grave-cold touch attack against it. It uses this reaction even while it is not yet hostile, and then it is.

AC 13 (unarmoured) | HP 88 (16d8 + 16) | Speed 0 ft., fly 40 ft. (hover)

Saves Wis +5, Cha +6 · Resistant to acid, fire, lightning, thunder, and bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks · Immune to cold, necrotic, poison damage, charmed, exhaustion, grappled, paralysed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained · Blindsight 60 ft. (hearing only)

Deaf to the Silent. It has no eyes and no sense but hearing. A creature that makes no noise — no speech, no spellcasting with a verbal component, no movement above half speed, no loose metal — is invisible to it and cannot be targeted by it at all. A party that agrees to shut up before opening the door does not have this fight.

Will Not Cross Salt. It cannot enter a space marked by a poured line of salt or hearth ash, though it can reach and attack across one. A handful of salt is a wall. Sweeping the line, or a strong draught, opens it again in one round.

Answers a Name. If a creature speaks aloud the name of someone the shade loved in life, it spends its entire next turn drifting to that speaker and makes no attack. It can be strung along this way once per name, and it remembers which names have been used on it.

Incorporeal Movement. It moves through creatures and objects as difficult terrain, and takes 5 (1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.

Multiattack. Two cold grief attacks.

Cold Grief. Melee, +6 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 13 (3d6 + 3) necrotic damage. The target feels this as somebody else's grief, not as cold.

The Sigh (recharge 5–6). It lets out a breath it has been holding since the maze was built. Each creature within 20 ft that can hear it makes a DC 14 Wisdom save, taking 14 (4d6) psychic damage and having its hit point maximum reduced by the same amount until it finishes a long rest on a failure, or half as much damage and no reduction on a success. A creature reduced to 0 hit point maximum this way does not rise; it simply stops.

AC 15 (unarmoured) | HP 204 (24d8 + 96) | Speed 0 ft., fly 60 ft. (hover)

Saves Dex +9, Wis +7, Cha +8 · Skills Perception +7, Stealth +9 · Vulnerable to thunder · Resistant to acid, cold, fire, lightning, and bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks · Immune to necrotic, poison damage, charmed, exhaustion, grappled, paralysed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained · Blindsight 120 ft. (hearing only), blind beyond 5 ft.

Blind Hunter. It hunts by sound and by nothing else. A creature that makes no noise is invisible to it and cannot be targeted by it. It is not immune to being deafened: a deafened wraith perceives nothing past 5 ft, attacks everything at disadvantage, and drifts. Thunderwave, a shattered amphora, or a struck shield is worth more here than a greatsword.

Follows the Loudest. On each of its turns it must move toward and attack whichever creature made the loudest noise since the end of its last turn: a shout, a spell with a verbal component, mail on stone, a loosed crossbow. The DM adjudicates ties in favour of metal. A thrown helmet is a legal, deliberate, and extremely effective tactic, and it works every single time.

Held by a Ringing. While a continuous sound it can hear is sustained within 60 ft — a struck bronze bell, a running water clock, a jammed door scraping — it must spend its action each turn tearing at that source and cannot move more than 30 ft from it. It cannot leave the room while the sound lasts. Anything that keeps ringing without a hand on it buys the party the whole corridor behind them.

Struck Silence. The first time it takes thunder damage in a round, it cannot take reactions or legendary actions until the end of its next turn and its flying speed is halved. It is made of a held breath, and thunder is the thing that lets the breath go.

Incorporeal Movement. It moves through creatures and objects as difficult terrain, and takes 10 (3d6) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.

Multiattack. Two silent grasps.

Silent Grasp. Melee, +9 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 22 (4d8 + 4) necrotic damage, and the target's hit point maximum is reduced by the same amount until it finishes a long rest. A humanoid killed by this rises one minute later as a Lost Wanderer, under no one's control, walking the last hour it had.

The Hush (recharge 5–6). A 30-ft radius of absolute silence, centred on itself, lasting 1 minute or until it drops concentration. No sound is made or heard inside it and verbal components are impossible. Each creature inside when it falls makes a DC 16 Wisdom save, taking 22 (5d8) psychic damage and being frightened of the wraith for 1 minute on a failure, or half as much damage on a success. Inside its own hush the wraith is as blind as everyone else and attacks only what it is already touching, which is exactly the trade the party wants it to make.

Drift. It moves up to 30 ft without provoking opportunity attacks. It has 3 legendary actions, spent one at a time at the end of another creature's turn, and regains them at the start of its turn.

Listen. It learns the position of every creature within 120 ft that has made any sound since the end of its last turn, including creatures behind total cover.

Grasp (costs 2 actions). It makes one silent grasp attack.

AC 15 (bronze leg, unnatural grace) | HP 84 (13d8 + 26) | Speed 30 ft.

Saves Dex +6, Cha +6 · Skills Deception +6, Insight +5, Perception +5, Persuasion +6 · Resistant to fire · Immune to charmed · Darkvision 60 ft.

Guest-Right. A creature that has accepted food, drink, or a seat from the court is a guest. While a guest has not drawn a weapon in the hall, stolen, lied to a direct question, or refused a cup, the attendant cannot attack it, cannot use Sweet Word on it, and must answer one direct question a round truthfully, though never completely. This binding is not a choice she is making and it does not end because the fight is going badly. It ends for one guest, and only that guest, the instant that guest breaks a term.

And What She Will Do For You. A guest in good standing may ask her to fetch, pour, carry, guide, or open a door, and she will. She will not leave the court's rooms, will not give up her own name or her mistress's, and will not let anyone through to the bath-hall unbathed. Ask her for the fourth of those and she says no and keeps smiling.

Cannot Enter Uninvited. She cannot cross a threshold she has not been asked across. A closed door and a party who keep their mouths shut is a complete defence, and any invitation from anyone inside is invitation enough, including one made in jest.

Fire Hair. A creature that grapples her, or hits her with a melee attack while within 5 ft, takes 3 (1d6) fire damage from the burning coil of her hair. Her hair is the only warm thing about her and it smells of scorched myrrh.

Multiattack. One hot bite and one bronze heel.

Hot Bite. Melee, +6 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 8 (2d4 + 3) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) fire damage. Against a creature that is charmed by her, or that has eaten at the court's table within the last day, the fire damage is 14 (4d6): the meal was the preparation.

Bronze Heel. Melee, +6 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 8 (1d10 + 3) bludgeoning damage.

Sweet Word. One creature within 30 ft that can see and hear her must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom save or be charmed for 1 minute, treating her as a beloved host and refusing to attack the court. It repeats the save at the end of each of its turns and whenever it takes damage from a court creature. On a success it is immune to Sweet Word for 24 hours and she knows it, and she will be perfectly polite to it thereafter.

Hide the Hoof. She smooths her chiton over the bronze leg and the ass's leg and passes for human. A creature within 30 ft that is listening rather than looking notices the bronze foot ring on stone with a DC 12 Perception check; a creature relying on sight needs DC 17.

AC 17 (bronze scale beneath the robe) | HP 218 (23d8 + 115) | Speed 30 ft., swim 30 ft.

Saves Dex +9, Con +9, Wis +8, Cha +9 · Skills Deception +13, Insight +8, Perception +8, Persuasion +9 · Resistant to cold, fire · Immune to charmed, poisoned · Darkvision 120 ft.

The Contract of the Bath. Any creature washed, fed, and given a cup by the court is a guest until dawn. The five terms are: no weapon drawn in the hall, no theft, no lie to a direct question, no cup refused, no false name given. While a guest keeps all five, the Bath-Mistress cannot harm it, cannot order it harmed, and cannot permit it to be harmed under her roof — and that last clause has teeth. She will spend her own action, her own legendary actions, and her own hit points putting down a court creature that breaks it, in front of the party, and she will not thank them for noticing.

What the Bath Is Owed. In exchange she may put one question to each guest each night, and the guest must answer it truthfully or forfeit guest-right. She knows automatically when a creature within 30 ft speaks a deliberate falsehood; no check, no save, no exception. Her questions are the real danger in her hall, and they are about the party's way out.

Breaking the Terms. When a guest breaks a term, guest-right ends for that guest at once and the Bath-Mistress attacks it on her next turn. Every other guest must drink again — one action, one cup — before the end of their next turn, or lose guest-right too. A party that keeps drinking while one of them fights alone is doing the correct and cowardly thing.

Regeneration. She regains 10 hit points at the start of her turn while any part of her is in contact with the hot water of the bath. She does not regenerate on dry stone, and she will not be moved onto it willingly.

The Cold Sluice. Her strength is in the heat. Draining or cooling the pool — a DC 15 Strength check at the sluice gate, a fouling of the channel with salt, or 20 or more cold damage dealt to the water — ends her regeneration, denies her Steam and Perfume, and gives her disadvantage on attack rolls while she stands on dry stone. The gate is visible from anywhere in a bath-hall and she never looks at it. That is the tell.

Multiattack. Two talon attacks and one scalding bite.

Talon. Melee, +9 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) fire damage.

Scalding Bite. Melee, +9 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) piercing damage plus 10 (3d6) fire damage.

Steam and Perfume (recharge 5–6). The bath boils and the myrrh burns off it in a cloud. Each creature within 20 ft makes a DC 17 Constitution save, taking 27 (6d8) fire damage and being blinded until the end of its next turn on a failure, or half as much damage and no blindness on a success. She has never once used this on a guest in good standing.

The Long Cup (recharge 6). One creature within 30 ft that can see and hear her must succeed on a DC 17 Wisdom save or be charmed for 1 hour, treating her as its host and spending its action each round attending her rather than fighting. It repeats the save whenever it takes damage from a court creature.

Pour. She fills a cup and holds it out. One creature within 30 ft must succeed on a DC 17 Wisdom save or use its reaction to take the cup and drink, taking 5 (1d10) fire damage and becoming a guest bound by the five terms. She has 3 legendary actions, spent one at a time at the end of another creature's turn, and regains them at the start of her turn.

Slip the Steam. She teleports up to 30 ft to an unoccupied space she can see that is touching water or standing steam.

Talon (costs 2 actions). She makes one talon attack.

AC 15 (scorched hide, leather apron) | HP 157 (15d12 + 60) | Speed 40 ft.

Saves Str +9, Con +7 · Skills Athletics +9, Perception +3 · Resistant to fire · Darkvision 60 ft.

Poor Depth Perception. It has disadvantage on attack rolls against targets more than 30 ft away, and it knows it: it closes rather than reaches.

The Eye. One eye, unlidded, no bone above it. A creature may aim for it; that attack is made with disadvantage, and on a hit the cyclops must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution save or be blinded until the end of its next turn. Blinded, it does not grope for whoever hit it — it squeezes whatever is already in its fist.

Will Not Drop the Work. While it is grappling a creature it will not release to grab another, and it ignores every other enemy until the one in its hand is unconscious or it takes 30 or more damage in a single round.

Bound to the Coals. It answers a smith's voice over any threat. An order shouted in Giant by a creature it believes to be forge-staff costs it its action while it obeys, once per encounter per speaker.

Multiattack. Two Forge Hammer attacks, or one Forge Hammer and one Grab.

Forge Hammer. Melee, +9 to hit, reach 10 ft, one target. Hit: 19 (3d8 + 6) bludgeoning damage plus 4 (1d8) fire damage while the head is still glowing.

Grab. Melee, +9 to hit, reach 10 ft, one Large or smaller creature. Hit: 13 (2d6 + 6) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 17) and restrained.

Hurl the Held (recharge 5–6). It throws a creature it is grappling up to 30 ft. That creature takes 16 (3d10) bludgeoning damage and lands prone. Any creature in the landing space makes a DC 17 Dexterity save, taking 11 (2d10) bludgeoning damage and falling prone on a failure, or half as much and staying up on a success.

Crush. One creature it is grappling takes 13 (2d6 + 6) bludgeoning damage.

AC 14 (hide, forge apron) | HP 76 (9d10 + 27) | Speed 40 ft.

Saves Str +6, Con +5 · Skills Athletics +6, Perception +2 · Darkvision 60 ft.

Wants the Range. It has disadvantage on attack rolls against creatures within 10 ft. On its turn it moves to at least 30 ft from the nearest enemy before it throws, and it will eat an opportunity attack to do it.

Gang Law. It will not throw at a target within 5 ft of another Cyclopean Gang creature; the gang beats a slinger who marks its own. With no clear lane it spends the turn walking for an angle and shouting for the big ones to shift.

Sack of Twelve. It carries twelve stones and spends one on each Hurled Stone. Empty, it has only the sack itself, and a slinger that has run dry will leave a fight to find gravel.

Multiattack. Two Hurled Stones, or one Sack Swing.

Hurled Stone. Ranged, +6 to hit, range 60/240 ft, one target. Hit: 9 (1d10 + 4) bludgeoning damage. The first creature it hits on its turn must succeed on a DC 14 Strength save or be knocked prone.

Sack Swing. Melee, +6 to hit, reach 10 ft, one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage and the target is pushed 10 ft away.

Scoop Rubble. Where loose stone lies within 5 ft, it refills the sack to twelve.

Shy Back. When a creature ends its move within 10 ft of the slinger, the slinger moves 10 ft away without provoking opportunity attacks.

AC 15 (natural armour) | HP 67 (9d10 + 18) | Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft.

Skills Perception +3, Stealth +7 · Immune to poison damage, poisoned · Blindsight 10 ft. · Darkvision 60 ft.

Spider Climb. It climbs any surface, ceilings included, without a check, and it fights from the ceiling by preference.

Web Sense. While in contact with a web it knows the exact location of every other creature in contact with that web, invisible or not.

Web Walker. It ignores movement restrictions caused by webbing, its own or anyone else's.

Bite and Withdraw. It will not spend two turns in a row within reach of a creature that has damaged it. It bites, goes up the strand, and drops back the round after. A party that cannot reach the ceiling fights it four times.

Anchor Strand. Each spider hangs from one visible strand: AC 10, 5 HP, immune to poison and psychic damage, vulnerable to fire and slashing. Cut it while the spider is aloft and the spider falls, taking 1d6 bludgeoning damage per 10 ft and landing prone, and it cannot use Up the Strand until it spends an action spinning a new anchor.

Bite. Melee, +5 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage, and the target makes a DC 12 Constitution save, taking 9 (2d8) poison damage on a failure or half as much on a success.

Web (recharge 5–6). Ranged, +5 to hit, range 30/60 ft, one Large or smaller creature. Hit: the target is restrained by webbing. A creature can free itself or an adjacent creature with an action and a DC 12 Strength check, or destroy the web (AC 10, 5 HP, vulnerable to fire, immune to bludgeoning, poison, and psychic damage).

Up the Strand. It climbs up to 25 ft along its anchor strand. Opportunity attacks provoked by this movement have disadvantage.

AC 16 (spun silk) | HP 84 (13d8 + 26) | Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft.

Saves Dex +7, Wis +5 · Skills Acrobatics +7, Deception +6, Perception +5, Stealth +7 · Darkvision 60 ft. · Save DC 14

Web Walker. It ignores movement restrictions caused by webbing and never falls from a strand by accident.

Weaver's Ground. At the start of each of its turns the room changes: one 10-ft square within 30 ft becomes webbed difficult terrain, and one already-webbed square unravels. It never webs the square it stands in, so the clean square is where it is going next.

Guest-Right. It offers a strand of its silk aloud, with terms. A creature that takes the strand and does not attack will not be attacked by the Spinner, and no Weaver Spider under her will touch it either. Break the terms and she has advantage on attack rolls against that creature for the rest of the fight, and she says why.

Multiattack. Two Shear-Claw attacks, or one Shear-Claw and one Cut the Strand.

Shear-Claw. Melee, +7 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) slashing damage. Against a restrained creature she may instead cut it loose, which she does when she wants it to fall rather than to bleed.

Snare (recharge 4–6). Silk bursts across a 20-ft cube within 60 ft. Each creature in it makes a DC 14 Dexterity save or is restrained. Escape is an action and a DC 14 Strength check, or destroy the web (AC 10, 10 HP, vulnerable to fire, immune to bludgeoning, poison, and psychic damage).

Cut the Strand. One anchor within 60 ft parts. Everything hanging from it falls — bridge, cocoon, spider, climber. Each falling creature makes a DC 14 Dexterity save to catch a neighbouring line; on a failure it drops, taking 1d6 bludgeoning damage per 10 ft and landing prone.

Line Walk. She moves up to 30 ft along webbing without provoking opportunity attacks.

Give Way. When hit by a melee attack, she cuts her own footing and drops up to 20 ft to a lower strand, halving the damage. She lands standing.

AC 16 (bronze scale) | HP 105 (14d10 + 28) | Speed 30 ft.

Saves Str +7, Con +5 · Skills Athletics +7, Perception +4 · Immune to fire · Vulnerable to cold · Darkvision 60 ft.

Forge Heat. A creature that touches it, hits it with a melee attack from within 5 ft, or ends its turn within 10 ft takes 7 (2d6) fire damage. Standing water within 10 ft boils off; that square is heavily obscured by steam until the salamander moves.

Quench. While it is wet — submerged, drenched by a bucket or a burst waterskin, standing under a leak — Forge Heat is suppressed and its weapons deal no fire damage. Cold damage suppresses Forge Heat until the end of its next turn. Fully submerged it takes 11 (2d10) damage at the start of each of its turns and spends that turn getting out.

Will Not Leave the Anvil. While a forge, brazier, or heated anvil within 30 ft is still lit, it will not move more than 30 ft from it. Bait it away and it disengages and walks back rather than pursue. Put the fire out and that limit is gone, and so is any reason for it to stay polite.

Multiattack. One Molten Mace attack and one Tail attack.

Molten Mace. Melee, +7 to hit, reach 10 ft, one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage plus 7 (2d6) fire damage.

Tail. Melee, +7 to hit, reach 10 ft, one Large or smaller creature. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage plus 7 (2d6) fire damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 15). Until the grapple ends the target takes 7 (2d6) fire damage at the start of each of its turns, and the salamander cannot use its Tail against anyone else.

Slag Spit (recharge 5–6). It spits the crucible's skim in a 15-ft cone. Each creature in the area makes a DC 15 Dexterity save, taking 21 (6d6) fire damage on a failure or half as much on a success. Unattended flammable objects in the area ignite.

AC 15 (natural armour) | HP 52 (7d8 + 21) | Speed 50 ft.

Skills Perception +3, Stealth +4 · Immune to fire · Vulnerable to cold · Darkvision 60 ft.

Ember Coat. A creature that touches the hound or ends its turn within 5 ft of it takes 3 (1d6) fire damage. Rope, oil, tallow, and dry cloth in that space catch light.

Quenched. When it takes cold damage, or a creature empties a waterskin or larger vessel over it, Ember Coat and the fire damage on its bite stop until the end of its next turn and its speed is halved. It gives ground while wet and comes back the moment it steams dry.

Will Not Wade. It will not enter water deeper than its hocks and will not follow prey into a pool or a channel, even to finish a dying creature. Standing water is a wall to it.

Death Pyre. When it drops to 0 HP it comes apart in a gout of flame. Each creature within 10 ft makes a DC 13 Dexterity save, taking 10 (3d6) fire damage on a failure or half as much on a success. Killing the pack in a huddle kills the party's front line with it.

Bite. Melee, +5 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) fire damage.

Ember Cough (recharge 5–6). It coughs cinders in a 15-ft cone. Each creature in the area makes a DC 13 Dexterity save, taking 14 (4d6) fire damage on a failure or half as much on a success.

Drive. After it hits with a bite it may shove the target 5 ft toward the nearest open flame, hot metal, or heated floor: DC 13 Strength save to hold ground. The pack would rather stand a body in the coals than bite it twice.

AC 14 (brine-hardened linothorax, hoplon) | HP 52 (7d8 + 21) | Speed 20 ft., swim 40 ft.

Saves Str +5 · Skills Athletics +5 · Immune to poison damage, exhaustion, poisoned · Does not need to breathe · Darkvision 60 ft.

Slow Ashore. On dry ground it moves 20 ft and cannot Dash; every step sluices water out of its armour. In water it moves 40 ft and has advantage on attack rolls against creatures without a swimming speed.

Undertow. It has advantage on Athletics checks made to grapple or shove a creature standing in water, or within 5 ft of water at least 3 ft deep.

Dead Weight. A creature it is grappling moves when the hoplite moves, downward included. While the hoplite is submerged and grappling, the grappled creature is submerged too: it can hold its breath for 1 + its Constitution modifier minutes, minimum 30 seconds, and when that runs out it drops to 0 HP at the start of its next turn and begins making death saves. Healing does not help a creature that is still under. Air does.

Will Not Leave the Water. It will not pursue more than 30 ft from water it can submerge in. It wades back, sets its spear at the waterline, and waits where the footing is bad for you.

Multiattack. Two Corroded Spear attacks, or one Corroded Spear and one Drag Under.

Corroded Spear. Melee or thrown, +5 to hit, reach 10 ft or range 20/60 ft, one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage.

Drag Under. Melee, +5 to hit, reach 5 ft, one Medium or smaller creature. Hit: the target is grappled (escape DC 13), and the hoplite immediately moves up to half its speed toward the nearest water at least 3 ft deep, taking the target with it.

Sink. While grappling, it drops straight down through water up to 40 ft, carrying the grappled creature with it. It does not let go on the way down; killing it or beating the escape DC is the only release.

AC 17 (natural armour) | HP 210 (20d12 + 80) | Speed 20 ft., swim 60 ft.

Saves Str +9, Con +8, Wis +6 · Skills Athletics +9, Perception +6 · Immune to lightning · Resistant to cold · Vulnerable to thunder · Amphibious · Darkvision 120 ft.

Legendary Actions. It takes 3 legendary actions per round, one at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn, and regains them at the start of its own.

Gorged Sleep. A fed spawn sleeps. While asleep it is unconscious, its passive Perception is 11, and it wakes on any damage or any sound louder than a raised voice within 60 ft. On the round it wakes it can move or act, not both. That round is the only free one the party gets.

Soft Mantle. The pale ring behind the beak carries no hide worth the name; a DC 15 Intelligence (Nature) check, or one good look while it feeds, finds it. An attack aimed there is made with disadvantage and treats the spawn's AC as 13. Thunder rings the mantle like a struck bowl: whenever the spawn takes thunder damage it must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution save or lose its reaction and its legendary actions until the start of its next turn.

Hold Fast. Everything it holds moves when it moves. A grappled creature dragged underwater holds its breath for 1 + its Constitution modifier minutes, minimum 30 seconds; when that runs out it drops to 0 HP at the start of its next turn and begins making death saves. Healing a drowning creature that is still under buys one round and no more.

Multiattack. Three Tentacle attacks, or two Tentacles and one Bite.

Tentacle. Melee, +9 to hit, reach 20 ft, one target. Hit: 18 (3d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage, and a Large or smaller target is grappled (escape DC 17) and restrained. It can hold three creatures this way.

Bite. Melee, +9 to hit, reach 10 ft, one target. Hit: 23 (4d8 + 5) piercing damage. If the target is Medium or smaller, already grappled by the spawn, and the spawn has nothing swallowed, the target is swallowed: blinded, restrained, with total cover against attacks from outside, taking 10 (3d6) acid damage at the start of each of the spawn's turns. If the spawn takes 25 or more damage in a single turn from a creature inside it, it must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution save or vomit that creature into a space within 10 ft, prone.

Ink Cloud (recharge 5–6). Underwater only. Ink fills a 30-ft radius around it; the area is heavily obscured for 1 minute or until a strong current clears it. Each creature that needs to breathe and starts its turn in the cloud makes a DC 16 Constitution save or is blinded until the end of its next turn. The spawn then swims up to its speed without provoking opportunity attacks, taking everything it holds with it.

Tentacle Lash. It makes one Tentacle attack.

Drag Down (costs 2 actions). It swims up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks; every creature it is grappling goes under with it.

Churn the Water (costs 2 actions). The pool heaves. Each creature within 20 ft of the spawn makes a DC 17 Strength save or is pushed 10 ft toward the deepest water and knocked prone.

AC 16 (natural armour) | HP 142 (15d10 + 60) | Speed 20 ft., swim 50 ft.

Saves Str +8, Con +7 · Skills Athletics +8, Perception +5, Stealth +5 · Amphibious · Blindsight 30 ft. underwater · Darkvision 60 ft.

Six Necks. It can hold up to four creatures grappled at once, one to a head, and grappling with one head does not stop the others attacking.

Fights From the Water. While at least half submerged, attacks made against it by creatures standing on dry land have disadvantage. It will not come more than 15 ft from water; forced further it disengages and goes back, and it drops what it is holding only if it must.

Hold Fast. Every creature it is grappling moves when it moves. A grappled creature pulled underwater holds its breath for 1 + its Constitution modifier minutes, minimum 30 seconds; when that runs out it drops to 0 HP at the start of its next turn and begins making death saves. A creature underwater without a swimming speed attacks with disadvantage unless it is using a dagger, javelin, shortsword, spear, or trident.

Takes It Home. It does not finish a kill in the open. Given anything in its grip it spends its turns hauling rather than biting, and it will let go of a bleeding enemy to keep hold of a whole one.

Multiattack. Three Grasping Head attacks, or two Grasping Heads and one Haul Under.

Grasping Head. Melee, +8 to hit, reach 15 ft, one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) piercing damage, and a Large or smaller target is grappled (escape DC 16).

Haul Under. It drags every creature it is grappling up to 20 ft toward itself, then swims up to 25 ft with all of them. No attack roll and no save — being held was the failed roll.

Rasping Chorus (recharge 5–6). Six throats scream at once in a 30-ft cone. Each creature in the area makes a DC 15 Constitution save, taking 18 (4d8) thunder damage and being deafened until the end of its next turn on a failure, or half as much damage and no deafness on a success.

Snatch. When a creature it can see moves out of its reach, it makes one Grasping Head attack against that creature.

AC 15 (coral scale) | HP 82 (15d8 + 15) | Speed 20 ft., swim 40 ft.

Saves Wis +6, Cha +6 · Skills Deception +6, Perception +6, Performance +9, Stealth +6 · Amphibious · Darkvision 60 ft. · Save DC 14

Song of the Undertow. Singing is her action and she will spend every turn on it. Each creature within 60 ft that can hear her makes a DC 14 Wisdom save at the start of its turn or is charmed until the start of its next turn. A charmed creature must spend all its movement reaching the deepest water it can see, will not step out of water it is already standing in, and does not register that it is drowning. It repeats the save at once if it takes damage; a creature that succeeds is immune to her song for 24 hours.

Silence Undoes Her. She has no hold on a creature that cannot hear her — deafness, wax, sixty feet of distance, a silence spell. Silenced outright, she stops fighting and withdraws into deep water rather than trade knife-work.

Answering Voice. A creature that spends its action singing back and wins a Charisma (Performance) contest against her compels an answer: she must spend her next action replying and cannot use Song of the Undertow that turn. She cannot make herself ignore a voice.

Court Manners. She will not strike a creature that is still under her song. Anyone charmed is walking to her anyway, and the Sunken Court does not damage its own guests before they arrive.

Multiattack. Two Coral Knife attacks. She resorts to this only once the singing has failed.

Coral Knife. Melee, +6 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) cold damage from the brine on the blade.

Undertow Call (recharge 5–6). She names one creature within 60 ft that can hear her and is in or within 10 ft of water. The target makes a DC 14 Strength save or is dragged 20 ft toward that water and knocked prone. If the drag ends with it in water 5 ft deep or more it is submerged and starts holding its breath: 1 + its Constitution modifier minutes, minimum 30 seconds, and then 0 HP and death saves.

Slip Beneath. She enters water within 5 ft and Hides. While submerged she has advantage on Stealth checks, and attacks made against her from above the surface have disadvantage.

AC 17 (natural armour) | HP 161 (17d10 + 68) | Speed 40 ft., fly 60 ft.

Saves Dex +6, Con +8, Int +7, Wis +8 · Skills Arcana +7, History +7, Insight +8, Perception +8, Religion +7 · Immune to psychic damage, charmed, frightened · Truesight 60 ft. · Darkvision 120 ft. · Save DC 16

Legendary Actions. It takes 2 legendary actions per round, one at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn, and regains them at the start of its own.

Magic Resistance. It has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Inscrutable. No magic can read its thoughts or sense its feelings, and Insight checks made to judge its intentions have disadvantage.

It Says So First. It never strikes without warning. Before its first attack in any encounter it states aloud, in plain words, which term was broken and what it intends to do about it. Until a term is broken it will not attack and will not permit a Riddle-Hound to.

Weight of the Question. A creature that attacks anyone while a question the sphinx has asked stands unanswered makes that attack roll with disadvantage and takes 11 (2d10) psychic damage. The sphinx does not count this as an attack of its own and its terms remain unbroken.

Bound by Its Own Rule. It must attempt any riddle put to it. A riddle it cannot answer — the DM's judgement, or a DC 16 Charisma (Performance) check for a party improvising one — stuns it until the end of its next turn, and it must then grant one honest answer or safe passage for one creature before it resumes. Cut it down while it is stunned and the passage it owed dies with it.

Multiattack. Two Claw attacks.

Claw. Melee, +8 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 18 (4d6 + 4) slashing damage.

Roar of Judgement (recharge 5–6). Only creatures that have broken its terms hear it as sound. Each such creature within 60 ft makes a DC 16 Wisdom save, taking 27 (6d8) thunder damage and being deafened until the end of its next turn on a failure, or half as much damage on a success. Anyone who kept the bargain hears a lid closing and nothing else.

Riddle-Magic (3/day). It casts zone of truth, dispel magic, tongues, or locate object, requiring no material components, with a spell save DC of 16.

Claw Swipe. It makes one Claw attack.

Ask (costs 2 actions). It puts a question to one creature within 60 ft that can hear it. That creature makes a DC 16 Wisdom save; on a failure its next action must be spent answering, and it cannot attack the sphinx until it has.

AC 15 (natural armour) | HP 76 (9d8 + 36) | Speed 40 ft.

Saves Con +6, Wis +5 · Skills Athletics +5, Insight +5, Perception +5 · Immune to charmed · Darkvision 60 ft.

Will Not Interrupt an Answer. It cannot attack, and will not move to attack, any creature that is speaking an answer to a question one of the Sphinx & Riddlers put to it. Rambling counts. Stalling counts. Wrong counts. The protection ends the instant that creature stops speaking, attacks, or says it will not answer.

Truth-Scented. It knows when it hears a deliberate lie, though never what the truth is. Against a creature that has lied to it, its bite deals an extra 5 (2d4) psychic damage until that creature says something true aloud.

Keen Hearing and Smell. It has advantage on Perception checks that rely on hearing or smell, and it cannot be surprised by anything that breathes.

Multiattack. Two Bite attacks.

Bite. Melee, +5 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) piercing damage.

Baying Question (recharge 5–6). It barks a question in a voice like a dragging hinge. Each creature within 30 ft that can hear it makes a DC 13 Wisdom save; on a failure it cannot take reactions and has disadvantage on attack rolls until it speaks an answer aloud, which costs it nothing but the words.

Circle the Speaker. It moves up to 20 ft to end within 5 ft of whoever is answering, without provoking opportunity attacks. Move the miniature every time the speaker changes; the party should be able to see who it is listening to.

Punish the Interruption. When a creature within 30 ft makes an attack while a question stands unanswered, the hound moves up to its speed toward that creature and makes one Bite attack against it with advantage.

AC 14 (fibrous bark) | HP 82 (15d8 + 15) | Speed 5 ft.

Saves Wis +6, Cha +6 · Skills Deception +6, Insight +6, Perception +6, Stealth +7 · Vulnerable to fire · Resistant to bludgeoning and piercing from nonmagical attacks · Immune to psychic damage, charmed, exhaustion, frightened, prone · Tremorsense 60 ft. · Save DC 14

One Crown Among Many. Until it has spoken, it is indistinguishable from an ordinary laurel, and there are always ordinary laurels. While its speaking crown is unlocated, attacks against it have disadvantage and it cannot be targeted by any effect that requires the attacker to see its target. A creature that spends an action listening and succeeds on a DC 15 Perception check fixes which crown is speaking; that attacker ignores the disadvantage until the voice moves.

One Lie. Everything it says is true, once per encounter excepted. It may state exactly one falsehood, and it cannot decline a question that has been put to it three times in the same words.

Caught Out. When a creature proves the lie false — with evidence found at the table, or by winning an Insight check against its Deception after the lie is spoken — the laurel's leaves fall silent: it is stunned until the end of its next turn and loses all its damage resistances for 1 minute. That is the fight the party is actually meant to win.

Rooted. It cannot be moved against its will, shoved, or knocked prone, and it never leaves the soil it grew in.

Multiattack. Two Whispered Answer attacks.

Whispered Answer. Ranged, +6 to hit, range 60 ft, one creature that can hear. Hit: 13 (3d8) psychic damage, and the target cannot take reactions until the end of its next turn.

Riddling Chorus (recharge 5–6). It asks one question in eleven rustling voices at once. Each creature within 30 ft that can hear makes a DC 14 Wisdom save, taking 16 (3d10) psychic damage and being incapacitated until the end of its next turn on a failure, or half as much damage on a success. A creature that has spoken an answer aloud since the end of its last turn has advantage on the save.

Pass the Voice. Its voice moves to any laurel crown within 30 ft — its own or an ordinary tree's — and comes from there afterwards. Its speaking crown becomes unlocated again. It does this the moment anyone fixes it.

AC 18 (marble, bronze fillet) | HP 136 (16d10 + 48) | Speed 20 ft.

Saves Wis +6, Cha +7 · Skills Performance +7, Insight +6, Perception +6 · Vulnerable to thunder · Immune to poison damage, psychic damage, charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned · Darkvision 120 ft.

Conductor's Beat. While the Choirmaster stands on its plinth and can be heard, every Clay & Marble creature within 60 ft that can see or hear it adds +2 to attack rolls and acts on the Choirmaster's initiative count. The round the beat stops — plinth broken, Choirmaster silenced, dismounted, or destroyed — those creatures halve their speed until the end of their next turn and lose the bonus.

The Plinth. Its wheeled plinth is a Large object: AC 15, 40 hit points, immune to poison and psychic damage, vulnerable to bludgeoning. A creature within 5 ft can attempt to topple it instead of attacking: DC 16 Strength (Athletics). Broken or toppled, the Choirmaster falls prone in an adjacent space and must spend one action to remount before Conductor's Beat and Cue work again.

Broken Time. Each time it takes 15 or more thunder damage from one source, it loses the beat: it cannot use Cue or Conductor's Beat until the end of its next turn, and Crescendo does not recharge that round. This is the vulnerability the party is meant to find — bells, shattered marble, a shatter spell, or a hammer on the plinth.

Will Not Descend. It never voluntarily leaves the plinth and never pursues beyond 60 ft of it. Run past it and it conducts at your back rather than following.

Multiattack. Three attacks with the ivory baton, or two attacks and one Cue.

Ivory Baton. Melee, +7 to hit, reach 10 ft, one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage, and the target cannot take reactions until the end of its next turn.

Cue. One Clay & Marble creature within 60 ft that can see or hear the Choirmaster uses its reaction to make one weapon attack.

Crescendo (recharge 5–6). Every statue in the room strikes the same chord. Each creature within 20 ft makes a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 22 (5d8) thunder damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. On a failure the creature is also deafened until the end of its next turn.

Downbeat. When a creature it can see moves within 60 ft, one Clay & Marble creature within 30 ft of that creature moves up to half its speed without provoking attacks of opportunity.

AC 17 (polished marble) | HP 76 (9d8 + 36) | Speed 20 ft.

Saves Con +6 · Skills Performance +5, Perception +3 · Vulnerable to bludgeoning and thunder · Immune to poison damage, psychic damage, charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned · Darkvision 60 ft.

Sung in Threes. While two other singing Marble Choristers are within 30 ft, all three act on the same initiative count — the highest of the three — and each has +2 AC (19) and a marble fist that deals an extra 3 thunder damage. Break the chord and every part of this ends at once.

Re-Forms the Rank. On its turn it spends its whole movement closing to within 30 ft of two other choristers if the chord is broken and it can be re-formed, even through an attack of opportunity, before it attacks anything.

Will Not Sing Alone. If no other chorister is within 30 ft, it falls silent: it takes no action and no movement until a creature attacks it, touches its plinth, or a Choirmaster of the Plinth cues it.

Marble Dust. A creature that reduces it to 0 hit points, or that hits it with a bludgeoning weapon, is dusted white — disadvantage on Stealth until it washes.

Multiattack. Two attacks with the marble fist.

Marble Fist. Melee, +6 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage.

Held Note (recharge 5–6). It holds one note without breath. Each creature within 15 ft that can hear it makes a DC 13 Constitution saving throw; on a failure it is deafened and cannot cast a spell with a verbal component until the end of its next turn.

Take Up the Line. When a Marble Chorister within 30 ft is destroyed, it moves up to its speed toward that chorister's space without provoking attacks of opportunity.

AC 16 (fired clay plate) | HP 52 (7d8 + 21) | Speed 20 ft.

Skills Athletics +5, Perception +1 · Vulnerable to bludgeoning and thunder · Immune to poison damage, psychic damage, charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned · Darkvision 60 ft.

Kiln-Fired. Piercing and slashing damage from any single attack against it is reduced by 3. Bludgeoning and thunder ignore this reduction, and it is vulnerable to both — a hammer beats six knives.

Dead Weight. It weighs 500 lb. While it stands on stone it has advantage on saves against being shoved or knocked prone; on sand, rubble, mud, or a tilting floor it has disadvantage on the same saves. It cannot swim and sinks in water deeper than 5 ft. Any fall of 20 ft or more destroys it outright.

Rank and File. While another Terracotta Soldier is within 30 ft, it never ends its turn more than 5 ft from the nearest one, it never takes the Dash action, and it will not leave the rank to chase a creature that flees.

Shattered Ground. When it drops to 0 hit points it bursts. Its space and every space within 5 ft becomes difficult terrain until an hour is spent clearing the shards.

Multiattack. Two attacks with the clay spear.

Clay Spear. Melee or thrown, +5 to hit, reach 10 ft or range 20/60 ft, one target. Hit: 8 (1d10 + 3) piercing damage, and 2 more if another Terracotta Soldier is within 5 ft of the target.

Set the Shoulder. Shove a creature within 5 ft: Athletics contest against +5, on a success push 5 ft or knock prone. It always pushes toward the nearest shards, drop, or water it can see.

AC 15 (laced bronze plates) | HP 76 (9d10 + 27) | Speed 40 ft.

Saves Str +6, Con +5 · Skills Perception +2 · Resistant to nonmagical piercing · Darkvision 60 ft.

Strapped Plates. Bronze scales laced over its hide give it its AC and its resistance to nonmagical piercing damage. A creature within 5 ft can use an action and a bladed weapon to cut a lace: DC 14 Dexterity check, with disadvantage unless the boar is prone, restrained, or stunned. Two cuts drop it to AC 12 and end the resistance. Arrows are wasted on it; knives are not.

Charge. If it moves at least 20 ft in a straight line toward a target and hits it with a gore attack that turn, the target takes an extra 9 (2d8) piercing damage and makes a DC 14 Strength saving throw or is knocked prone.

No Brakes. If a charge attack misses, it keeps running in the same straight line until its movement is spent. If a wall, pillar, or statue is in that line it takes 7 (2d6) bludgeoning damage and is stunned until the end of its next turn. Fight it in the open and it never pays this.

Forward Only. It never takes the Dodge or Disengage action and never makes attacks of opportunity. Anything not in front of it is beneath its notice; a creature that steps aside is simply no longer part of the charge.

Relentless (recharges after a long rest). If it takes damage that would reduce it to 0 hit points, it drops to 1 hit point instead and gores once more.

Multiattack. One gore and one hoof stamp.

Gore. Melee, +6 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage.

Hoof Stamp. Melee, +6 to hit, reach 5 ft, one prone or Medium-or-smaller target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage.

AC 14 (matted hide) | HP 58 (9d8 + 18) | Speed 40 ft.

Skills Perception +4, Survival +4 · Darkvision 120 ft.

Two-Headed. It has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks and on saving throws against being blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, stunned, and knocked unconscious. One head sleeps at a time; the pack is never fully asleep.

Pack Hunter. It has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if another Two-Headed Death Dog is within 5 ft of that creature and not incapacitated.

Nose First. It tracks by scent, with advantage on Survival checks to follow a trail. Within 10 ft of thick smoke, spilled vinegar, pepper-dust, or a burst bag of spice it loses Pack Hunter and has disadvantage on Perception checks and on attack rolls against creatures it cannot see.

Split Attention. If meat, offal, or a fresh corpse lands within 20 ft, it makes a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw at the start of its turn. On a failure one head takes the meal: it moves to the food and makes only one bite attack this turn, and only against a creature within 5 ft of the food.

Kennel-Bound. It breaks off pursuit 60 ft past the last blood it smelled and returns to the ground it marked. It does not hunt a party that leaves quietly and downwind.

Multiattack. Two bites, one from each head.

Bite. Melee, +5 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) piercing damage. The target makes a DC 12 Constitution saving throw; on a failure its hit point maximum drops by 5 (1d10) until it finishes a long rest, as the wound goes grey and will not close.

Drag Down. If both bites hit the same target this turn, that creature makes a DC 13 Strength saving throw or is knocked prone.

AC 15 (bronze scale) | HP 84 (13d8 + 26) | Speed 30 ft.

Saves Wis +6, Cha +6 · Skills Insight +6, Persuasion +6, Religion +5, Perception +6 · Passive Perception 16 · Passive Insight 16

Blessing of the Weave. While the priest is conscious and can speak aloud, every Cult of the Thread creature within 30 ft adds +2 to saving throws and cannot be frightened. Gag it, silence it, or drop it and the blessing stops on the spot.

Terms. The priest counts the fight. When it falls below half hit points, or when two of its wardens are down, it raises an open palm and calls terms: it takes no hostile action, nor does any Cult of the Thread creature within 30 ft that can see the palm, while the party listens. It asks for one thing — a name, a debt, an object, a promise to walk out and not return — and it offers the true way. If the party attacks while the palm is up, it does not offer terms again, and no priest in the maze will.

Will Not Kill the Bound. It will not strike an unconscious or surrendered creature. It stabilises them instead and has them carried deeper. The cult wants the maze witnessed, not fed.

Multiattack. Two attacks with the sacred thread.

Sacred Thread. Ranged spell attack, +6 to hit, range 60 ft, one target. Hit: 14 (3d6 + 3) force damage as a drawn cord snaps taut across it.

Curse the Cutter (recharge 5–6). It names a creature that has cut, burned, or unravelled a thread within the last minute — any creature it can see, if none has. That creature makes a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, for 1 minute, it takes 5 (2d4) psychic damage at the start of each of its turns and has disadvantage on attack rolls and on any check to find its way. It may repeat the save at the end of each of its turns.

Bind the Wound (3/day). One creature within 30 ft regains 12 (2d8 + 3) hit points, or ends one condition of the priest's choice on itself.

Redirect the Strand. When a Cult of the Thread creature within 30 ft takes damage, the priest draws half of it into itself; that creature takes the other half. The priest cannot use this while at 20 hit points or fewer.

AC 16 (patched linothorax, hoplon) | HP 55 (10d8 + 10) | Speed 30 ft.

Saves Str +4 · Skills Athletics +4, Perception +2, Survival +2 · Darkvision 60 ft. (dark-grown eyes)

Still Drilling. While another Lost Cohort Hoplite is within 5 ft it has +1 AC (17) and its spear deals an extra 3 piercing damage. It spends its whole movement re-forming the line before it attacks, and it accepts an attack of opportunity to do so.

Hunger. If food, a waterskin, or a fresh kill is visible within 30 ft, it makes a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw at the start of its turn. On a failure it moves toward the food and attacks nothing that is not between it and the food. Half a day's rations breaks a line of these men more reliably than a spell does.

Obeys a Voice. It still answers the old Knossian drill. A creature that knows the calls — DC 15 Intelligence (History), a Cult of the Thread member, or a recovered order-standard — can use an action to give one command: Halt, Dress the Line, Ground Arms. The hoplite makes a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw and on a failure obeys until the end of its next turn.

Forty Years Lost. At the start of its turn, if it is below half hit points, or if the last other hoplite within 30 ft has fallen, it makes a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure it grounds its spear and asks for water, for news of the king, and for the way out, in an accent two generations old. It does not fight again unless it is attacked or a Thread-Warden it can see orders it back into the line.

Multiattack. Two attacks with the bronze spear.

Bronze Spear. Melee or thrown, +4 to hit, reach 10 ft or range 20/60 ft, one target. Hit: 7 (1d10 + 2) piercing damage.

Ration Snatch. It grabs at food or a waterskin carried openly by a creature within 5 ft: DC 11 Dexterity saving throw or the item is in its hands, and it spends its next turn eating.

Hold the Line. When a creature within 5 ft tries to move past it, the hoplite makes one spear attack; on a hit the creature's movement ends.

AC 16 (linothorax, buckler) | HP 71 (11d8 + 22) | Speed 30 ft.

Saves Dex +5, Wis +3 · Skills Acrobatics +5, Athletics +4, Sleight of Hand +5, Survival +3 · Passive Perception 11 · No darkvision: it carries no lamp because the thread is its light

Thread-Sense. It knows the direction and distance of every tied thread within 120 ft and can move at full speed along one while blinded or in darkness. It is never lost in the maze and it never needs a light.

Forbidden Cut. It will not sever a thread tied to a living person's wrist, and it moves to stop anyone who tries. A party that ties itself into the maze's threads can pull a warden off its ground and onto theirs.

Oath, Not Death. At the start of its turn, if it is below half hit points and no Knossian Priest of the Thread is within 60 ft, or if half or more of the wardens who began the fight have fallen, it makes a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure it grounds its weapons and surrenders, and offers to walk the party out along a true thread. A surrendered warden does not fight again unless it is attacked.

Multiattack. Two attacks with the bronze kopis and one with the thread-hook.

Bronze Kopis. Melee, +5 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) slashing damage.

Thread-Hook. Melee or thrown, +5 to hit, reach 5 ft or range 20/40 ft, one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) piercing damage, and the warden has advantage on its next attack against a target whose speed is 0.

Cut and Re-Tie. It severs a guiding thread within 5 ft and knots it to a different anchor. Any creature that was navigating by that thread makes a DC 13 Wisdom (Survival) check to keep its bearings; on a failure it does not notice until the thread leads it somewhere it did not intend. A re-tied thread takes 1 minute and a DC 13 Sleight of Hand check to prove false.

Snare-Line. It flicks a weighted line at a creature within 15 ft, which makes a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw. On a failure its speed is 0 until it or an adjacent creature uses an action to cut the line free (the line is AC 10, 5 hit points).

Slip the Line. When a creature it can see moves out of its reach, it makes one thread-hook attack against that creature.

AC 17 (ash-scale) | HP 136 (16d8 + 64) | Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft.

Saves Dex +7, Wis +6, Cha +7 · Skills Insight +6, Intimidation +7, Perception +6 · Resistant to fire, poison · Immune to poisoned · Truesight 60 ft.

The Guilty First. When it enters a fight it names the Adjudged: the creature present whose worst unatoned deed is the greatest. The DM picks one, out loud, from a player character's history or from something the party did in this maze. While the Adjudged is conscious and within 60 ft, the fury attacks only that creature, makes no attacks of opportunity against anyone else, and does not respond to damage from anyone else.

Honours a Confession. If the Adjudged uses its action to say the deed plainly and name the wronged party, the fury has disadvantage on attacks against it until the end of the fury's next turn. If the Adjudged deals it no damage before then, the fury names the next-guiltiest creature present and turns on them instead. It cannot be lied to — it has truesight and it knows the deed already.

Will Not Strike the Innocent. It does not attack a creature it judges guiltless. A creature that attacks it, or that heals, shields, or bodily blocks the Adjudged, is complicit and becomes a lawful target for the rest of the encounter.

Grave-Ash and Salt. It cannot willingly cross a poured line of salt or of ash from a funeral fire. This means a line laid deliberately as a boundary, not the loose ash these halls are usually floored with, which it crosses freely. It waits at the line for as long as the vigil lasts, which is longer than the party's rations.

Multiattack. Three attacks with the ash scourge, or two attacks and one use of Brand.

Ash Scourge. Melee, +7 to hit, reach 10 ft, one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) slashing damage, and an extra 7 (2d6) fire damage if the target is the Adjudged.

Brand (recharge 5–6). It burns the charge into flesh. One creature within 10 ft makes a DC 15 Charisma saving throw, taking 14 (4d6) fire damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. On a failure it is branded for 1 hour: it sheds dim ash-light in a 5-ft radius, cannot benefit from invisibility, and every Erinyes & Ash creature within 120 ft knows where it is through stone.

Judgment Falls. When the Adjudged deals damage to another creature, the fury makes one ash scourge attack against it.

AC 18 (ash and bronze) | HP 210 (20d10 + 100) | Speed 40 ft., fly 60 ft.

Saves Dex +8, Con +9, Wis +9, Cha +9 · Skills Insight +9, Intimidation +9, Perception +9 · Resistant to cold, fire, poison · Immune to poison damage, charmed, frightened, poisoned · Truesight 120 ft.

Declares the Charge. Before initiative she states the charge aloud: one creature, one deed, in the voice of the person it was done to. That creature is the Adjudged. The DM names a real deed from a player character's history or from this run. She strikes the Adjudged first and does not use Sentence of Ash where it would drop a creature she has not charged.

Honours a Confession. If the Adjudged uses an action to confess the deed truthfully and names a penance she accepts — carry his ashes to running water, give the name back, go out and tell the widow — she stops attacking it for 1 minute and speaks the penance as a rule. If it breaks the penance, ever, she has advantage on every attack against it for the rest of the encounter and pursues it past everything below.

The Unspoken Name. She keeps vigil for one dead person and does not say the name. A creature that learns it — DC 17 Intelligence (History) on the tombs, a Sign-tier clue, or a shade who remembers — can speak it aloud as a bonus action. Until the end of her next turn she loses Magic Resistance, all her damage resistances, and her legendary actions. This is the vulnerability the party is meant to find. She grieves for one round each time she hears it, once per round.

Vigil-Bound. She does not leave the ground she keeps. Withdraw past her threshold and she returns to her post, folds her wings, and waits, and she will be waiting on the way back.

Grave-Ash and Salt. She cannot willingly cross a poured line of salt or of ash from a funeral fire. This means a line laid deliberately as a boundary, not the loose ash her halls are usually floored with, which she crosses freely. She waits at the line for as long as the vigil lasts, which is longer than the party's rations.

Magic Resistance. She has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Legendary Actions. She has three legendary actions, spent one at a time at the end of another creature's turn, and regains them at the start of her turn.

Multiattack. Three attacks with the brazen scourge.

Brazen Scourge. Melee, +9 to hit, reach 15 ft, one target. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) fire damage.

Sentence of Ash (recharge 5–6). She reads the sentence and the air burns grey. Each creature in a 30-ft cone makes a DC 17 Constitution saving throw, taking 35 (10d6) fire damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. The Adjudged has disadvantage on this save; a creature that has completed a penance she set is not affected at all.

Ash Step. She dissolves and re-forms in an unoccupied space she can see within 30 ft, leaving a 5-ft cube of hanging ash that is lightly obscured until the end of her next turn.

Complicity. When a creature heals, shields, or takes damage for the Adjudged, she makes one brazen scourge attack against that creature.

Name the Deed. Costs 1 action. One creature within 60 ft hears its own worst act in her voice and makes a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw or is frightened of her until the end of its next turn.

Wings of Ash. Costs 1 action. She flies up to half her speed without provoking attacks of opportunity.

Scourge. Costs 2 actions. She makes one brazen scourge attack.

AC 13 | HP 44 (8d10) | Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft.

Skills Perception +2 · Vulnerable to fire · Immune to charmed, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, prone, restrained, stunned · Darkvision 30 ft., keen smell 60 ft.

Swarm. It can occupy another creature's space and can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny beast. It cannot regain hit points or gain temporary hit points.

Nothing to Cut. A weapon attack deals a maximum of 5 damage to the swarm, however much is rolled. Area effects, fire, and thunder deal their damage in full. A soldier with a sword takes nine rounds; a torch and a jar of oil take one.

Smoke Scatters It. While any part of the swarm is in heavy smoke, burning oil, or thick incense, it cannot take the Bites action and must use all its movement to leave that area by the shortest path.

Follows Meat. On its turn it always moves toward the largest quantity of food within 30 ft — carrion, spilled blood, rations, honey, anything sweet — preferring a downed creature or a thrown meal to a standing target. It attacks whatever is nearest to that, not whatever hurt it last.

Carrier. While a Plague-Thing is within 60 ft, its bites also expose the target to that spirit's sickness — the target makes the same saving throw the Plague-Thing's Contagion calls for.

Bites. Melee, +5 to hit, reach 0 ft, one creature in the swarm's space. Hit: 14 (4d6) piercing damage, or 7 (2d6) if the swarm has half its hit points or fewer.

AC 9 (a slow surface) | HP 126 (11d10 + 66) | Speed 20 ft., climb 20 ft.

Saves Con +9, Wis +5 · Resistant to necrotic, poison · Immune to poisoned, exhaustion, blinded, prone · Vulnerable to fire · Blindsight 60 ft., blood scent 300 ft.

Grave-Sweet. A century of votive burial honey soured into one slow body, engorged with its keeping. While engorged its speed is 10 ft, it makes one attack instead of Multiattack, and it has disadvantage on Dexterity saves. It stops being engorged after a minute undisturbed, or on taking 25+ damage in a round — it sheds a sheet of itself (difficult terrain) and then it is fast.

Will Not Leave Its Dead. It keeps bodies the way a grave does, never moving more than 30 ft from the largest body it holds. Move the body a hundred pounds' worth elsewhere and it follows the body, not the party.

Sweet Tooth. It knows the location of every creature within 60 ft that is below half its hit points, and of any corpse or open wound within 300 ft, and it has advantage on attack rolls against a creature below half its hit points.

Cloying Air. A creature that starts its turn within 10 ft makes a DC 15 Constitution save or is poisoned until the start of its next turn. On a success it is immune to the reek for 1 hour.

Multiattack. One wave attack and two grasping-strand attacks.

Wave. Melee, +7 to hit, reach 10 ft, one target. Hit: 15 (2d10 + 4) bludgeoning damage plus 7 (2d6) poison damage.

Grasping Strand. Melee, +7 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage.

Pull Under. If both grasping strands hit one Medium or smaller creature this turn and the flow is not engorged, that creature is grappled (escape DC 15) and dragged up to 15 ft through the honey, retching and half-swallowed.

Guard the Dead. When a creature within 15 ft moves, burns, or takes a body the flow is keeping, the flow makes one wave attack against that creature.

AC 14 (unarmoured, thin as steam) | HP 82 (15d8 + 15) | Speed 30 ft.

Saves Wis +5 · Skills Stealth +6, Perception +5 · Resistant to cold, necrotic · Vulnerable to radiant · Immune to poison damage, poisoned, disease · Darkvision 60 ft.

Feeds on the Sick. At the start of its turn, if any creature within 30 ft is poisoned, diseased, or carrying a level of exhaustion, it regains 10 hit points. Clean the party up — lesser restoration, a healer's kit and an action, a jar of clean water — and it starves.

Rides the Swarm. While a Gnawing Swarm is within 30 ft, the Plague-Thing may make Fevered Touch attacks from any space that swarm occupies, and the swarm's bites carry its Contagion. It hides inside the swarm and will not step out of one while it has a choice.

Shuns the Clean Flame. It cannot enter or willingly remain within 5 ft of an open flame larger than a torch, and while within 5 ft of one it has disadvantage on attack rolls. Braziers, lamp-oil, and a lit doorway are walls to it.

Kills Nothing Quickly. It will not attack an unconscious creature; a dying host spreads further than a dead one. It moves past the fallen to reach whoever is still walking.

Multiattack. Two Fevered Touch attacks.

Fevered Touch. Melee, +6 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) necrotic damage, and the target makes a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or is poisoned until the end of its next turn.

Contagion (recharge 5–6). It breathes out the sweating sickness. Each creature within 15 ft makes a DC 13 Constitution saving throw, taking 10 (3d6) poison damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. On a failure the creature is also infected: it cannot regain hit points and has disadvantage on ability checks, repeating the save at the end of each of its turns to end the infection.

Miasma Step. It moves up to its speed through other creatures' spaces. The first creature whose space it passes through this turn makes a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or is poisoned until the end of its next turn.