The Sleepless Queen
One-Shot · 6 Players · Level 12 · ~3–3.5 Hours · 3 Encounters · Delphi / Crisa / Mount Cirphis · Finale Deadly
📜 Session Summary
| Style Investigation with two interchangeable middle acts, into a vampire-coded lair assault and hostage rescue |
| Win Condition Get Sibyl Herophile out of the Sleepless Cave alive — she is nine, she is not caged, and she will not leave her mother for nothing — and deny Queen Lamia the bier she needs to reform |
| Loss Condition The taken children of Crisa are drained dry, or Lamia’s smoke reaches an intact Bier of Shed Skins and the treatment resumes in a new valley |
| Players 6 × Level 12 · Duration 3–3.5 hrs · Structure 3 encounters (Enc. 1 and Enc. 2 run in either order) |
| Setting Delphi’s Castalian spring → the shingle shore of the Crisaean Gulf or the threshing-floor terrace above Crisa → the sea-cut Sleepless Cave in the flank of Mount Cirphis |
| Atmosphere Greek daylight on top and a drained hush underneath · wool threads tied across every doorway in Crisa · livestock found dry, not torn · a cave where nothing has slept for a season |
| Materials Amber eye prop (a glass marble in resin works), three white wool fillets for the Garlands, a 6-token Draught Clock, a 3-step Choice track, a 4-step Rite Track, clue tokens |
| Tone Greek vampire story — charm, thralls, shapechange, and a coffin that is a pile of shed skins. The monster is a mother who has not lost anybody and is killing a valley to keep it that way |
| Maguffin The Sleepless Eye · QG: Theoxena, Senior Pythia · Allies: Acheilus (Enc. 1) · Alcyoneus (Enc. 2) |
| The Family Queen Lamia’s three children are Acheilus, Herophile, and Scylla — all three are alive, and Scylla never appears in this session |
| Override The finale is Deadly by design (APL-12 library convention). Encounters 1–2 are Hard. |
Session Mural — The Drinking Floor
Three registers of Hera’s long wrath: the garlanded boy on the altar at Crisa, the draught drawn off in the dark, and the cave where the queen keeps her cages and her daughter. Hover the thumbnail to preview it, open the table version in a new tab, or print the clean handout. All artwork lives in the Murals gallery.
Description
Queen Lamia of Crisa and her three children went missing at the end of last summer. Crisa mourned them, elected a regent, and moved on. Then the disappearances started — first goats and calves, found dry and unmarked in the morning grass, then a shepherd, then children, taken from their sleep in ones and twos across the whole Crisaean plain. The bodies that come back are not torn. They are emptied. Crisa’s elders assume a beast. Crisa’s elders are wrong in the specific way that will get more children killed.
The oracle at Delphi has already named the cause and refused to name the name: a creature, made by the wrath of Hera, who does not strike randomly and never has. Theoxena, Senior Pythia, meets the party at the Castalian spring with a thing she found in a votive basket three nights ago and has not slept properly since — a human eye, whole and unclouded, set in hardened amber resin. She will tell the party that answers exist in exactly two places: something enormous and shark-marred has been hauling drained bodies out of the surf on the shore below, and something is being covered up inside Crisa itself. She will not tell them which to visit first, because she does not know, and she says so.
Neither road leads where the party expects. The thing on the shore is not the killer, and the thing in the cave did not lose her children. Hera’s wrath did not kill this family. It changed it, and left it walking around.
The family. Queen Lamia of Crisa was Libyan-born and beloved by Zeus, and Hera’s wrath landed where it always lands — on the exact wound the infidelity made. In one night the household changed. Her eldest, Acheilus, became fifteen feet of grey muscle and jaw and took to the Crisaean shoals, where he lives now as a pariah, telling strangers a polished lie about insulting Aphrodite. Her middle child, Scylla, became something that could not stay in shallow water and went out into open ocean and has not come back. Nobody died. Nobody is coming back either, which is worse.
The youngest. Herophile is nine and looks untouched, and her mother has staked a valley on that. What came for Herophile came as prophecy: she speaks true things in her sleep and cannot stop. Lamia has decided this is the change arriving slowly, and that it can be held off — and every drained calf, shepherd and child on the plain has gone into holding it off. She does not keep what she drinks. It goes into her daughter. And she is wrong: the change already finished, months ago, and the prophecy is what Hera left. Herophile has told her so, once, and been disbelieved, and stopped trying.
Why Herophile is still there. She is not bound, caged, or drained. She can walk out any night she likes. She stays because she is nine and will not leave her mother alone with this. The finale is not a cage to break — it is an argument to win, and the party can win it (Herophile’s Choice), win the fight, or both.
The levers. (1) The Sleepless Eye — one use, three choices: the Bier (she cannot reform), her socket (stunned, regeneration offline), or Herophile’s hands (the Choice completes at once). (2) The Clue Track — 3+ clues unlocks Name Them, speaking all three children aloud and what became of each. (3) Acheilus himself, if recruited and if the party brings him where she can see him.
Do not stage Hera. Offstage cause, never a combatant. Do not stage Scylla — she is in open ocean, she is not coming, and that is the point of her. The Yoke-Sworn in Enc. 2 are wrong mortals, not villains.
Key NPCs
Theoxena, Senior Pythia — Quest Giver
Human oracle, eighteen years in Apollo’s service, formal and precise — she treats every statement as testimony and listens for internal consistency the way other people listen for tone. She frames the commission as a hunt and then immediately complicates it: Apollo named a creature and a cause, and stopped. Secret: the word she was given was changed, not killed. She has worked out what that implies — Hera does not tidy a household away, she leaves it walking around — and she will not say it inside the sanctuary. Insight DC 15: she is withholding out of fear of the goddess, not the monster. Persuasion DC 16 or a second patient ask outside the temenos gives the party the word — and Clue 1.
Acheilus, the Shark-Marred — Enc. 1 Antagonist / Recruitable Ally / Lamia’s eldest
Fifteen feet of grey muscle and a jaw that does not shut properly, living off the Crisaean shoals as a pariah because there is nowhere else a thing like him is allowed to be. Secret: he is Queen Lamia’s son, and he knows exactly what is in that cave. The drained wash out of his mother’s sea-mouth; he has spent a month hauling them above the waterline and folding their hands, because he cannot stop her and cannot turn her in. He attacks armed strangers on his shingle because the last three groups down from Delphi came for his head — and because his little sister is still in there. RP Hook: strangers get the Aphrodite story (he told the goddess she had competition, she made him this). It is a good story and he has had years to polish it. The truth means saying his mother’s name out loud, and he will not, until the parley earns it.
Alkippe, Hierophant of the Yoke — Enc. 2 Antagonist
Priestess of Hera Teleia, the Lady of the Marriage House. She is wrong, not evil, and she is not lying: a verse was delivered, just not at Delphi and not by Apollo. Her reading is that Hera unmade a household and will be quieted by a household restored — a son given back for a family taken. Secret: the verse came to her in her own sleep, and she has never once considered who else in this valley has trouble sleeping. Insight DC 17: she is terrified, and the terror predates the rite. Tell her the queen is alive in a cave with her own daughter (Clue 5) and the rite loses its premise in front of her. She surrenders at 0 HP and will not let her Acolytes fight to the death.
Alcyoneus of Crisa — Recruitable Ally (Enc. 2)
Sixteen, son of Diomus and Meganira, chosen by lot and garlanded three days ago. He has had three days to decide how to hold his face and he has decided on calm, and the calm is much worse to watch than crying would be. Secret: he does not believe it will work. He agreed anyway, because refusing meant another house’s son. He ran goats on Cirphis for four years and knows the upper crack into the cave — and he knew Herophile, a little, before. They are close in the way children of the same small city are close.
King Krisos of Crisa — Clue Source (optional)
Lamia’s husband and the children’s father, regent in his own city because the assembly will not declare a queen dead without a body. Secret: he was in the room. Hera’s wrath took his wife and all three children in one night, in front of him, and it did not kill them — it changed them, and he ran. He has watched for his family ever since from a window he will not admit to sitting at. He is not an antagonist. He is the reason the elders are still saying beast, and that is enough damage for one man.
Sibyl Herophile — The Rescue (Enc. 3) / Lamia’s youngest
Nine years old, and the only one of the three the change appeared to miss — which is what her mother has staked a valley on. What came for Herophile came as prophecy: she speaks true things in her sleep and cannot stop, and Lamia has decided this is the curse arriving slowly and can be held off with enough stolen life. She is not bound, caged, or drained. She can walk out of the cave any night she likes. She has not, for a season, because she is nine and she will not leave her mother alone with this.
The Clue Track — What Hera Actually Did
Six clues across the hook and Encounters 1–2. Every one of them points at the same conclusion and the party can reach it in any order: nobody in this family died. Track it openly; it is the party’s second weapon in the finale and it is what gets a nine-year-old to walk.
| # | Clue | Where / How |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | “Changed, not killed.” Apollo named a maker and a method: Hera does not tidy a household away, she leaves it walking around. | Delphi hook — free on a second ask (Insight DC 15 / Persuasion DC 16) |
| 2 | The Eye is human. Adult, recent, and set aside on purpose — by a queen who did not want to watch something. | The Sleepless Eye — History DC 16, Religion DC 15, or Arcana DC 15 |
| 3 | “I have a mother.” Acheilus is the queen’s eldest, the Aphrodite story is a lie, and his little sister is still in that cave. | Enc. 1 — parley only. He does not say this to anyone holding a weapon |
| 4 | The bites are human. Two punctures, adult jaw spacing, no tearing — and the bodies are emptied, not fed on. Something is taking the life somewhere. | Enc. 1 or Enc. 2 — Medicine DC 16 on a drained body or a dry calf |
| 5 | Krisos was in the room. The chamber is untouched, the wool on its doorway is knotted from the inside, and the king watched his family change and ran. | Enc. 2 — Investigation DC 15, or Persuasion DC 18 / Insight DC 17 on Krisos |
| 6 | Acheilus, Herophile, Scylla. Three names, three fates — the shoals, the cave, and open ocean. The Acolytes of Hera arrived the month after. | Enc. 2 — Meganira, any Crisan grandmother, or History DC 14 in the temple rolls |
Thresholds
- 0–2 clues: the party fights a lamia holding a child. Nobody in the cave explains anything, the Choice has to be argued cold, and carrying her out is probably the answer. This is a valid outcome — do not fudge it.
- 3–4 clues: they know the monster is the queen and that her children are alive. Name Them becomes available once.
- 5 clues: Name Them twice, and step 3 of Herophile’s Choice completes automatically — they can prove to her that nothing was ever coming.
- 6 clues: three uses, and Herophile confirms the whole shape of it the moment anyone asks.
- Name Them (action, Enc. 3 only): speak all three children aloud and what became of each — Acheilus is on the shoals, Scylla is in open water, Herophile is standing right there. Queen Lamia must succeed on a DC 18 Wisdom save (Legendary Resistance may be spent) or lose her legendary actions and her Sleepless Regeneration until the end of her next turn. A creature wearing the Sacrificial Garlands raises the DC to 20. It is not a spell. It is the sentence she has spent a season refusing to finish.
Running Order — Either Path First
Encounters 1 and 2 are written to be run in either order. The party chooses on the Sacred Way and the DM adjusts two dials.
| Sea first (1 → 2) | City first (2 → 1) | |
|---|---|---|
| Opening | The shore is quiet and Acheilus is mid-haul; he sees the party first | The terrace is mid-rite and the Rite Track starts at step 1 |
| Second act is warned | Crisa has had a day: the Rite Track starts at step 2, and the Wardens already stand on the terrace | Acheilus has heard hunters are on the shore: he opens submerged, no surprise for the party, and the tide floods on round 1 |
| Extra pressure | Alkippe gains a fourth Yoke-Cord charge | Two extra Ichthyan Raiders enter from the sea-stacks on round 3 |
| Clue 4 is easiest | On the shore bodies | On a dry calf in the olive terraces |
| What that act is worth | Clue 3 — the only place anyone says the family is alive out loud | Breaking the rite is what Herophile sees from the cave mouth — it auto-completes Choice step 1 |
| Enc. 3 approach earned | Sea-mouth (Acheilus) — flooded back entrance | Upper crack (Alcyoneus) — goat-path above the Drinking Floor |
- Both recruited? The party may split the approach — two PCs by sea-mouth, the rest by the upper crack, both acting on round 1. This is strong, and it is meant to be: it is the reward for doing both middle acts well.
- Neither recruited? They come in the cave mouth, into the Threshold, in the dark, with four Hollowed already awake. Also fine. Also survivable.
Major Beats
- Mist-line at Misthaven opens onto the Sacred Way; Theoxena hands over The Sleepless Eye and names two roads — a monster on the shore, and a cover-up in the city.
- Sea path: the monster on the shore is not the killer. He is the queen’s son, he has been laying the drained out with their hands folded, and he has a sister he cannot reach.
- City path: Alkippe is four steps from throwing a garlanded boy off the Leap to appease a goddess who never took anybody. The Garlands are the off-switch.
- The clue count decides whether the party walks into the dark knowing the shape of this family — or finds out from a nine-year-old at the worst possible moment.
- Finale: the Sleepless Cave — charm, thralls, a shapechanging queen mid-treatment, three taken children on a six-round Draught Clock, and a daughter who is not tied up and will not leave.
- A spring rises where the body falls; Crisa names it Sybaris. Herophile goes to Delphi and stays — and Theoxena is the one who tells her nothing was ever coming.
Session Rewards
Keepable prizes earned by completing (or excelling at) this session. One character claims each reward unless noted. Full cards are under Reward Cards.
| Reward | Description | Criteria |
|---|---|---|
| Sleepless Fangs of Lamia | Drawn fangs that can be set into a weapon to make it drink. | Destroy Queen Lamia for good — smoke denied, bier burned — and draw the fangs before the body cools. |
| The Sleepless Eye | Amber-set eye that stuns shapechangers and refuses to let a lie hold its shape. | Leave Mount Cirphis with Herophile alive — by her own choice or in someone's arms — and the amber eye still in the party's keeping. |
Creature / Enemy List
| Creature | Easy | Med | Hard | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ichthyan Raider | 2 | 3 | 4 | Enc. 1 (+2 if city-first) |
| Ichthyan Brineseer | 1 | 1 | 2 | Enc. 1 |
| Reef-Hound | 1 | 2 | 2 | Enc. 1 |
| Acheilus, the Shark-Marred | 1 | 1 | 1 | Enc. 1 elite · recruitable |
| Yoke-Sworn Acolyte | 4 | 5 | 6 | Enc. 2 |
| Peacock-Eyed Warden | 1 | 2 | 2 | Enc. 2 |
| Bronze Yoke-Heifer | — | 1 | 1 | Enc. 2 |
| Alkippe, Hierophant of the Yoke | 1 | 1 | 1 | Enc. 2 leader |
| The Hollowed | 2 | 3 | 4 | Enc. 3 (+2 in Phase 2) |
| Strix Flock | 1 | 1 | 2 | Enc. 3 (+1 in Phase 2) |
| Empusa | 1 | 1 | 2 | Enc. 3 lieutenants |
| Queen Lamia of Crisa | adj | 1 | 1 | Boss · Deadly |
Miniatures
Deep-sea monster (angler/shark hybrid) → Acheilus · Sahuagin ×4 → Ichthyan Raiders · Kuo-toa or jellyfish caster → Brineseers · Shark ×2 → Reef-Hounds · Pirates & bandits ×6 → Yoke-Sworn · Storm spirit constructs ×2 → Peacock Wardens · Minotaur (large) reskin or any bronze bull token → Yoke-Heifer · Skeletons ×4–6 → The Hollowed · Harpies ×2–3 → Strix Flocks · Amazon captains or mermaids ×2 → Empusae · Scylla (serpent body, two arms) → Queen Lamia in Serpent-Coil form.
Encounter 1 — The Shark-Marred Tide
Overview
The shingle below Kirphis is grey and loud and smells wrong. Above the waterline, laid out in a careful row with their hands folded, are eleven bodies. Every one of them is dry — not bloodless the way a wound leaves a body, but reduced, the way a fig is reduced. Standing over the row with a twelfth across his shoulder is fifteen feet of grey muscle, a jaw that does not shut properly, and two black eyes that were beautiful once and know it. Behind him, in the shallows between three sea-stacks, other things are watching, and they have tridents. He puts the body down first. Then he comes.
1× Acheilus, the Shark-Marred + 4× Ichthyan Raiders + 2× Ichthyan Brineseers + 2× Reef-Hounds. Acheilus is not the killer, and the row of bodies he laid out is the best evidence in the session that he is not — a creature that drains people does not fold their hands. He is Queen Lamia’s eldest son, the bodies wash out of his mother’s cave, and his nine-year-old sister is still in it. He will not say any of that to anyone holding a weapon.
- Style: Mistaken-identity shore fight with a fully supported talk-down
- Win Condition: Learn what the tide has been giving up — and, if the party can put their weapons down long enough, who has been laying it out
Encounter Roster (Hard)
- 1× Acheilus, the Shark-Marred (CR 10 · 5,900 XP)
- 4× Ichthyan Raider (CR 3 · 700 XP each)
- 2× Ichthyan Brineseer (CR 5 · 1,800 XP each)
- 2× Reef-Hound (CR 3 · 700 XP each)
XP / Notes
- 5,900 + 2,800 + 3,600 + 1,400 = 13,700 XP ≈ Hard for 6×L12 (14,400)
- The parley path pays the same XP — say so at the table if asked
- Short Rest available on the shore afterward, whichever order the party runs
🗺 Terrain & Features
Shingle shore & sea-stacks — 80×60 ft.
- Three sea-stacks, 10–20 ft (half cover; Athletics DC 12 to climb)
- Tide pools along the south edge (difficult terrain); the row of bodies above the high-water line, north-west
- Tide clock: at the end of rounds 2, 4, and 6 the water advances 10 ft. inland. The flooded band is difficult terrain for the party and open water for everything with gills
- Acheilus regains HP while at least a foot deep — the tide is his ally and the party’s problem
Harder: the tide advances every round from round 2; Acheilus opens submerged with Undertow already charged.
Mechanics
- Round 1 — he talks first. Acheilus announces himself before attacking (“I have killed four of you this season. I remember every face. Do you want to be five?”). A party that answers instead of rolling initiative gets the parley path without a check.
- Parley path (non-combat): any one of — show the Sleepless Eye (automatic — he has seen it before, wet, on his own sand, and he knows whose it is); sheathe all weapons and let him speak first; or Persuasion / Intimidation DC 16 with a real argument. Then a group check, 3 successes before 3 failures, DC 15 (Persuasion, Insight, History, or Performance — flattering his old face is explicitly allowed and gives advantage once, and is also the cruellest thing in the encounter, because the face is a lie he tells).
- What the parley actually buys — CLUE 3. He gives up the Aphrodite story and says the true one: “I had a mother. I still do. She is in a cave on that mountain and she has my sister.” Three names, three fates, and the single fact the whole session turns on — Hera changed this family, she did not kill it. Nowhere else in the session does anyone say it out loud.
- Combat-to-parley: he breaks off at 60 HP or fewer if offered terms (Persuasion DC 14; no check if the Eye is shown). The Ichthyans follow his lead in both directions. Killing him closes Clue 3 and the sea-mouth permanently — and the party has killed the queen’s son without ever learning they did.
- Tide clock: end of rounds 2 / 4 / 6, water advances 10 ft. Ichthyans in water have advantage on attacks against a creature standing in the flooded band; Tide-Fed only works while Acheilus is in it.
- The bodies: Medicine DC 16 on the row yields Clue 4 — human jaw, two punctures, adult spacing. This can be done mid-combat with an action by someone not otherwise engaged; reward the player who tries.
- RECRUITMENT — Acheilus: parley, or spare him after he breaks off. Recruited, he holds the sea-mouth, granting (a) a flooded back entrance with a surprise round, and (b) Ferry Out — hand him his sister and she is out of the cave and safe, immediately. He also auto-completes step 2 of Herophile’s Choice: nobody has to convince her that her brother is alive if he is forty feet away in the water.
- He will not fight his mother. Say it plainly when he joins. He comes as far as the water and no further — unless a PC asks him to come in, which is a real option with a real price: see Her Son in the Water on Lamia’s card. She has been looking for him for a season.
Resolution
- 400 gp of salvaged votive bronze in the tide pools.
- One potion of water breathing per two PCs from a wrecked pilgrim skiff — worth more than it looks if they take the sea-mouth.
Creature Cards
Acheilus, the Shark-Marred
Large Monstrosity, Chaotic Neutral · CR 10 (5,900 XP) · Enc. 1 elite · recruitable · Lamia’s eldest
AC 17 (natural) | HP 184 (16d10+96) | Speed 30 ft., swim 60 ft.
Saves: Str +9, Con +10 · Skills: Athletics +9, Perception +6 · Senses: blindsight 60 ft. (water only), darkvision 60 ft. · Languages: Common, Primordial
Amphibious. Breathes air and water.
Blood Frenzy. Advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature that does not have all its hit points.
Tide-Fed. While standing in water at least 1 foot deep, he has advantage on Strength checks and saving throws and regains 10 hit points at the start of his turn.
Her Son (DM). Acheilus is Queen Lamia’s eldest child. Hera’s wrath did not kill this family — it changed it. He has been hauling the drained out of the surf for a month, because they wash out of his mother’s cave, and laying them above the waterline with their hands folded because it is the only thing left he can do for them. He knows exactly what is in that cave and who. Play the row of folded hands as the clue it is.
The Story He Tells. Strangers get the Aphrodite version — that he told the goddess she had competition and she made him this. It is a good story and he has had years to polish it. The truth requires saying his mother’s name out loud, and he will not, until the parley earns it.
Multiattack. One Bite and two Harpoon-Claws.
Bite. +9 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 22 (4d8+5) piercing. A Large or smaller target is grappled (escape DC 17).
Harpoon-Claw. +9 to hit, reach 10 ft. Hit: 16 (2d10+5) slashing, and the target must succeed on a DC 17 Strength save or be pulled 10 ft. toward him.
Undertow (Recharge 5–6). 30-ft cone of driven surf. Dex DC 17: 36 (8d8) bludgeoning, pushed 15 ft. and knocked prone; half damage and no push on a success.
Surge. If he starts and ends in water, swim up to his speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
Bite the Spear. When a creature within 10 ft. hits him with a melee weapon attack, he makes one Bite attack against it.
RECRUITMENT. Parley (see Enc. 1) or spare him at 60 HP or fewer. Recruited, he holds the sea-mouth in Enc. 3: a flooded back entrance with a surprise round, and Ferry Out — hand him his sister and she is out, safe, immediately.
He Will Not Fight His Mother. Say this plainly when he joins. He comes as far as the water and no further; he is there for Herophile, not for the kill. If a PC brings him onto the Drinking Floor anyway, see Her Son in the Water on Lamia’s card — and understand that he came because they asked.
If He Dies (DM). The party has killed the queen’s son and does not know it. Do not soften this. If it is said aloud in the cave, Lamia has advantage on attack rolls for 1 round and immediately uses Call the Strix.
Ichthyan Raider
Medium Monstrosity, Lawful Evil · CR 3 (700 XP) · Sahuagin reskin
AC 16 (scale, shield) | HP 60 (8d8+24) | Speed 30 ft., swim 40 ft.
Skills: Perception +3 · Senses: darkvision 120 ft.
Amphibious. Breathes air and water.
Blood Frenzy. Advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature that does not have all its hit points.
Shark Kinship. Can magically command any Reef-Hound within 120 ft.
Multiattack. Two attacks: bite and trident, or two tridents.
Bite. +5 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 6 (1d6+3) piercing.
Trident. +5 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft. Hit: 10 (2d6+3) piercing.
Net (1/turn). Ranged 5/15 ft. Large or smaller target restrained (escape DC 13; net AC 10, 5 HP, cut free with 5 slashing damage).
Ichthyan Brineseer
Medium Monstrosity, Lawful Evil · CR 5 (1,800 XP) · Tide-priest
AC 15 (coral scale) | HP 82 (11d8+33) | Speed 30 ft., swim 40 ft.
Skills: Perception +7, Religion +5 · Senses: darkvision 120 ft.
Amphibious. Breathes air and water.
Brine-Bound. Allied Ichthyans within 20 ft. have resistance to cold damage.
Spellcasting. Wisdom, save DC 15, +7 to hit. At will: thaumaturgy, brine-spark (below). 3/day each: hold person, spiritual weapon. 1/day each: tidal wave, insect plague (staged as a stinging swarm of jellies).
Multiattack. Two Brine-Spark attacks.
Brine-Spark. Ranged spell +7 to hit, range 60 ft. Hit: 14 (4d6) cold.
Barbed Staff. +4 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 7 (1d8+1) bludgeoning + 5 (2d4) poison.
Reef-Hound
Large Beast, Unaligned · CR 3 (700 XP) · Shark mini
AC 14 (natural) | HP 76 (9d10+27) | Speed 20 ft., swim 50 ft.
Skills: Perception +3 · Senses: blindsight 60 ft. in water
Amphibious (limited). Can hold its breath out of water for 1 hour; slow and furious on land.
Pack Tactics. Advantage on attacks against a creature within 5 ft. of an ally.
Blood Frenzy. Advantage on melee attacks against a creature that does not have all its hit points.
Bite. +6 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) piercing, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength save or be dragged 5 ft. toward the water.
The Sleepless Eye
Wondrous Item (maguffin), Unique · Given by Theoxena at the Castalian spring
Appearance: a human eye, brown and entirely unclouded, set in a lens of hardened amber resin about the size of a plum. Warm. It does not track, but people keep checking.
Handout (21 words). “She gave up her eyes so she could sleep. It did not work. Make her look.”
Clue 2. History DC 16, Religion DC 15, or Arcana DC 15: the eye is adult, human, and recent — and a Libyan queen was once granted the setting-aside of her eyes so she could rest. She set them aside the night her household changed, so she would not have to watch. It did not spare her any of it.
Enc. 1 (Sea). Shown to Acheilus it opens the parley automatically with no check — he has seen it before, wet, on his own sand.
Enc. 2 (City). Held up as an action before the Yoke-Sworn: the eye is unmistakably a person’s and the rite’s premise wobbles. Every Yoke-Sworn makes the Morale save at disadvantage for the rest of the encounter, and Alkippe loses one Yoke-Cord charge.
Enc. 3 — one use, three choices. Into the Bier (action, adjacent): her Night-Smoke cannot enter it, and 0 HP destroys her. Into her socket (action; she must be grappled, restrained, stunned, or within 5 ft. and unaware): DC 18 Wis or stunned until the end of her next turn, with Sleepless Regeneration offline until then. Into Herophile’s hands (action, adjacent): she looks into her mother’s own eye and sees what was actually done and what was never coming — every remaining step of Herophile’s Choice completes at once.
DM note. Make the party choose out loud and do not warn them which is “correct.” The Bier is the one that ends the monster; the socket is the one that buys a round; the girl’s hands is the one that ends the session without a body. All three are right answers to different questions.
Encounter 2 — The Garlanded Boy
Overview
The threshing floor above Crisa has been swept, chalked, and hung with scarlet wool. Two hundred people stand at the edges of it, and not one of them is looking at the boy in the middle, which is how you can tell they all know exactly where he is. Alcyoneus is sixteen, garlanded at throat and wrists and brow in white wool and laurel, and standing very straight about forty feet from the cliff-lip the Crisans call the Leap. Alkippe is chanting, and there are four things left in the chant. Behind her, a bronze heifer with no eyes stands absolutely still in a way that no cow stands.
1× Alkippe + 6× Yoke-Sworn Acolytes + 2× Peacock-Eyed Wardens + 1× Bronze Yoke-Heifer. The crowd is not a combatant and must not become one.
- Style: Four-step ritual clock, stoppable by force, by object, or by argument
- Win Condition: Alcyoneus does not go over the Leap
Encounter Roster (Hard)
- 1× Alkippe, Hierophant of the Yoke (CR 9 · 5,000 XP)
- 6× Yoke-Sworn Acolyte (CR 2 · 450 XP each)
- 2× Peacock-Eyed Warden (CR 5 · 1,800 XP each)
- 1× Bronze Yoke-Heifer (CR 6 · 2,300 XP)
XP / Notes
- 5,000 + 2,700 + 3,600 + 2,300 = 13,600 XP ≈ Hard for 6×L12 (14,400)
- The full talk-down resolves at the same XP; Wardens and Heifer still activate if the altar is desecrated
- Short Rest available in the temple precinct afterward
🗺 Terrain & Features
Threshing-floor terrace above the olive plain — 70×70 ft.
- The Leap along the south edge: a 200-ft drop, no rail, 10 ft of loose chalk before it (Acrobatics DC 13 or slide 5 ft toward the edge)
- Altar-block centre, waist-high, half cover; colonnade north (Wardens’ start, half cover)
- The crowd rings the terrace two deep east and west — no area effect within 10 ft of the crowd line
- Standing braziers at the four corners, each a shovable 5-ft square of open flame
Harder: Alkippe opens with spirit guardians already up; the Heifer starts adjacent to Alcyoneus.
The Rite Track — 4 Steps
Advance one step at the end of every round
- It also advances if Alkippe is incapacitated but three or more Yoke-Sworn are still chanting within 30 ft of each other (Chorus).
- 1 · The Naming — Alcyoneus is named to Hera.
- 2 · The Anointing — oil and barley; from here Alcyoneus will not move on his own.
- 3 · The Yoke-Cord — scarlet wool brow to wrists; he is restrained and Alkippe regains one Yoke-Cord charge.
- 4 · The Leap — he walks off the cliff. The omen “holds” for exactly nine days, and the party has lost an ally and gained a city that will do it again.
Mechanics
- THE GARLANDS ARE THE OFF-SWITCH. The Sacrificial Garlands mark the rite’s claimant and nothing else does. Tear them off (action, Sleight of Hand or Athletics DC 14, automatic if adjacent and unopposed): the Rite Track drops back one step and the Heifer is stunned 1 round. Wear them yourself (action): the rite pauses — Yoke-Sworn cannot attack you, Alkippe attacks you at disadvantage, the Heifer will not charge you, and you become the mark. Destroy them (off the Leap or into a brazier): every Yoke-Sworn makes a DC 16 Wisdom save or flees for 1 minute; the Heifer is stunned 1 round; Alkippe loses her remaining Yoke-Cord charges.
- Non-combat path — the actual verse: produce Theoxena’s token or Religion DC 17 to recite the Delphic verse correctly, then Persuasion DC 16 (advantage with 3+ clues). Alkippe reads it herself, goes grey, and stops the rite. She will not apologize, and she will not stand down her Wardens until the party leaves the altar untouched.
- Non-combat path — the shorter one. Her whole rite rests on Hera having taken the royal household. Tell her it is alive — the queen in a cave on Cirphis with her own daughter — and back it with Clue 3 or Clue 5, and she stops with no check at all. She sits down on the altar step to do it. “Then what, exactly, am I giving her back?”
- THE CROWD. Two hundred Crisans. Any area effect within 10 ft of the crowd line, or any attack that hits a civilian, turns the crowd hostile-panicked: the terrace becomes difficult terrain everywhere and the party forfeits Clue 5 and Clue 6 for the session. Say this out loud as a warning the first time a player lines up a fireball.
- Clues here: Clue 5 (the royal chamber or Krisos), Clue 6 (Meganira or the temple rolls — three names and three fates), and Clue 4 on a dry calf in the terraces. All three are available before, during, or after the fight; a party that stops the rite in round 2 has forty minutes of excellent investigation ahead of it.
- She is watching. The terrace is visible from the cave mouth on Cirphis, and Herophile spends her evenings at it. Breaking the rite here auto-completes step 1 of Herophile’s Choice — she has already seen, with her own eyes, that somebody came for this valley without being asked. Do not tell the party this; let them find out when she says so.
- RECRUITMENT — Alcyoneus: free him without stripping his dignity (let a player actually ask), or take the Garlands onto your own shoulders. He joins for Enc. 3 and brings the upper crack approach.
- The Sleepless Eye here: held up as an action, the amber eye is visibly a person’s. Every Yoke-Sworn makes the Morale save at disadvantage for the rest of the encounter, and Alkippe loses one Yoke-Cord charge.
Resolution
- Temple offering of 600 gp.
- A periapt of health on Alkippe’s belt — she hands it over if turned.
Creature Cards
Alkippe, Hierophant of the Yoke
Medium Humanoid (priest of Hera Teleia), Lawful Neutral · CR 9 (5,000 XP) · Enc. 2 leader
AC 18 (bronze scale, aegis-band) | HP 150 (20d8+60) | Speed 30 ft.
Saves: Con +7, Wis +9, Cha +8 · Skills: Insight +9, Persuasion +8, Religion +6 · Senses: passive Perception 15
Hera’s Regard. Advantage on saves against being charmed or frightened. Magic that would compel her to break a sworn oath fails automatically.
Yoke-Cord (3 charges; 4 if Enc. 2 runs second). Bonus action, spend a charge: one creature she can see within 60 ft. must succeed on a DC 17 Strength save or be restrained by a coil of scarlet wool until the end of its next turn. She regains one charge when the Rite Track reaches step 3 and none otherwise.
Rite-Bound. She will not leave the terrace while the rite is unfinished. She has disadvantage on attack rolls against a creature wearing the Sacrificial Garlands and cannot willingly harm Alcyoneus.
Not a Monster (DM). She is wrong, not evil. Her reading is that Hera unmade a household and will be quieted by a household restored — a son given back for a family taken. She surrenders at 0 HP, and immediately if shown the true Delphic verse. Tell her the queen is alive in a cave with her own daughter (Clue 5) and the rite loses its premise in front of her; she will stop without a check.
Spellcasting. Wisdom, save DC 17, +9 to hit. At will: sacred flame, guidance, thaumaturgy. 3/day each: hold person, spirit guardians (hundred-eyed peacock wings), guiding bolt (3rd level). 1/day each: flame strike (a column of eyed light), banishment, mass cure wounds.
Multiattack. Two Yoke-Rod attacks, or one Yoke-Rod and one cantrip.
Yoke-Rod. +6 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 9 (2d6+2) bludgeoning + 10 (3d6) radiant.
Call the Wardens (1/day). Both Peacock-Eyed Wardens step out of the colonnade and act on her initiative.
The Vow Answers (3/day). When an ally within 30 ft. drops to 0 hit points, she casts healing word (3rd level) on it.
Yoke-Sworn Acolyte
Medium Humanoid, Lawful Neutral · CR 2 (450 XP) · Enc. 2
AC 15 (bronze scale) | HP 45 (7d8+14) | Speed 30 ft.
Skills: Religion +2, Persuasion +3
Chorus. While three or more Yoke-Sworn are within 30 ft. of each other, each has advantage on saves against being frightened, and the Rite Track advances at the end of the round even if Alkippe is incapacitated.
Morale. If the Sacrificial Garlands are destroyed, claimed by a PC, or thrown from the Leap, each Yoke-Sworn must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom save or be frightened for 1 minute and flee the terrace. At disadvantage if the Sleepless Eye has been shown.
Multiattack. Two Sickle attacks.
Sickle. +3 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 6 (1d6+1) slashing + 3 (1d6) radiant.
Hymn-Bolt. Ranged spell +5 to hit, range 60 ft. Hit: 10 (3d6) radiant.
Peacock-Eyed Warden
Medium Construct (temple bronze), Unaligned · CR 5 (1,800 XP) · Enc. 2
AC 18 (bronze plate) | HP 95 (10d8+50) | Speed 30 ft.
Immune: poison, psychic · Condition Immunities: charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned · Senses: darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 18
Hundred Eyes. The bronze fan on its back is eyed on every side. It cannot be surprised, has advantage on Perception checks, and attack rolls against it never gain advantage from the attacker being unseen.
Argus Watch. Any hidden or invisible creature that starts its turn within 10 ft. is revealed — its outline shows in the fan’s eyes.
Multiattack. Two Bronze Glaive attacks.
Bronze Glaive. +7 to hit, reach 10 ft. Hit: 14 (2d10+4) slashing.
Eye-Flare (Recharge 5–6). 30-ft cone. Con DC 15: 18 (4d8) radiant and blinded until the end of its next turn; half damage and no blindness on a success.
Bronze Yoke-Heifer
Large Construct, Unaligned · CR 6 (2,300 XP) · Enc. 2 · Hera’s sacred cow, cast in bronze
AC 17 (natural bronze) | HP 126 (12d10+60) | Speed 40 ft.
Immune: poison, psychic · Condition Immunities: charmed, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned · Senses: blindsight 60 ft. (it has no eyes)
Bound to the Rite. While the Sacrificial Garlands are worn by a living creature, the Heifer has advantage on all attack rolls. The moment the Garlands leave a living wearer it is stunned for 1 round as the rite’s claim lapses.
Trample Charge. If it moves at least 20 ft. straight toward a target and hits with Gore, the target must succeed on a DC 16 Strength save or be knocked prone; if the target is prone, the Heifer can make a Hooves attack as a bonus action.
Multiattack. Two Gore attacks.
Gore. +8 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 16 (2d10+5) piercing.
Hooves. +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., prone targets only. Hit: 18 (3d8+5) bludgeoning.
Brazen Lowing (Recharge 6). 60-ft radius. Wis DC 15 or frightened until the end of its next turn. The sound is a cow calling a calf that is not there.
The Sacrificial Garlands
Ritual Object (encounter item) · Crisa · Three fillets of white wool and green laurel
What they are: the rite’s claim, worn at throat, wrists, and brow. Whoever wears them is the claimant. Nothing else marks the rite and nothing else can.
Tear them off Alcyoneus. Action. Sleight of Hand DC 14 or Athletics DC 14, automatic if adjacent and unopposed. The Rite Track drops back one step; the Bronze Yoke-Heifer is stunned for 1 round.
Wear them yourself. Action. The rite pauses: Yoke-Sworn cannot attack the wearer, Alkippe attacks the wearer at disadvantage, the Heifer will not charge them. You become the mark — in Enc. 3 Queen Lamia opens The Queen’s Welcome on you, and Name Them spoken by you raises her DC to 20.
Destroy them. Off the Leap or into a brazier. Every Yoke-Sworn makes the DC 16 Wisdom Morale save or flees; the Heifer is stunned 1 round; Alkippe loses her remaining Yoke-Cord charges.
DM note. This is the beat the encounter exists for. Do not require the party to find it — if they stall, Alcyoneus looks at the garlands, then at them.
Alcyoneus of Crisa
Medium Humanoid, Neutral Good · CR 1/2 · Recruitable Ally (Enc. 2)
AC 13 (leather) | HP 32 (5d8+10) | Speed 30 ft.
Sixteen, son of Diomus and Meganira, chosen by lot and garlanded three days ago. He has decided on calm, and it is far worse to watch than crying would be.
RECRUITMENT. Free him without stripping his dignity — let a player actually ask him — or take the Sacrificial Garlands onto your own shoulders. He will not be left behind afterward.
Goat-Path. Four years running goats on Cirphis. He can bring the party in through the upper crack above the Drinking Floor: a surprise round on the Hollowed, and a 20-ft drop or climb down (Athletics DC 12).
Carry Her Out. In Enc. 3 a freed Herophile can be handed to Alcyoneus; he spends his turns running her to the crack and is clear of the cave in one round. No PC has to babysit.
Sling. +5 to hit, range 30/120 ft. Hit: 6 (1d4+3) bludgeoning.
Shout Down (1/encounter). Bonus action: one ally within 30 ft. has advantage on its next saving throw against being charmed.
Encounter 3 — The Sleepless Cave (Boss)
Overview
The cave mouth on Cirphis’s seaward flank is not hidden and never was. Somebody set a doorway into it — two uprights and a lintel of dressed stone, a household’s threshold built into a hole in a mountain — and across that lintel, tied and retied hundreds of times in scarlet wool, are the threads a Greek house uses to say this is a home, and you were not invited. Every thread is knotted from the inside. Past the threshold the cave opens into three rooms. The first has three biers cut into the wall at child height, swept clean, with fresh olive on each — and they are not graves, they are beds, and one of them has been slept in this week. The second is the Drinking Floor: forty feet of translucent shed serpent-skin layered like fallen leaves, and eleven wicker baskets hanging from the ceiling on ropes. Three of them have living children in them. The rest are empty and have been emptied. The third room is the sea-mouth, and something is breathing in it.
Standing in the middle of all of it, in a clean wool dress, not tied to anything, is a nine-year-old girl watching her mother work.
1× Queen Lamia of Crisa + 2× Empusae + 4× The Hollowed + 2× Strix Flocks. She opens in Queen form — poised, unhurried, wearing the face Crisa put on its coins — and she will talk, because she has not had an adult to explain herself to in a season and because she genuinely believes she can make them understand.
⚠ Read this before you run it
- Herophile is not a prisoner. She is not bound, caged, drained, or hidden. She can walk out of this cave any night she likes and she has chosen not to, for a season, because she is nine and will not leave her mother alone with this.
- The rescue is an argument, not a jailbreak. There are three things she needs to hear, and the party can also simply pick her up — which always works and is always worse.
- The clock is on the other children. Three living Crisans hang in the baskets, and the night’s draught is running. That is the timer; Herophile is the objective.
- Style: Vampire-coded lair assault wrapped around a custody argument, with a coffin made of shed skin
- Win Condition: Herophile leaves the cave alive. Lamia at 0 HP with the Bier denied is the complete victory
Encounter Roster (Deadly)
- 1× Queen Lamia of Crisa, the Sleepless (CR 15 · 13,000 XP)
- 2× Empusa of the Drinking Floor (CR 6 · 2,300 XP each)
- 4× The Hollowed (CR 2 · 450 XP each)
- 2× Strix Flock (CR 3 · 700 XP each)
- Phase 2 wave: +2 Hollowed, +1 Strix Flock
XP / Notes
- 13,000 + 4,600 + 1,800 + 1,400 = 20,800 XP, rising to ≈22,400 with the Phase 2 wave ≈ Deadly for 6×L12 (22,800)
- No Long Rest inside. Nothing in this cave has rested in a season and it will not start now
- Budget this as more than half the session’s table time — a third of it is talking
🗺 Terrain & Features
The Sleepless Cave — 120×90 ft, four zones, no natural light.
- The Threshold (east, 20×30) — the built doorway, wool threads across the lintel. Lamia cannot cross this line in either direction while the threads are intact and she has not been invited. She tied them herself, around the last of her household. Cutting them is an action and a terrible idea; a player will do it anyway.
- The Nursery (north, 30×30) — three child-sized biers, swept, olive-dressed, made up as beds. Any creature that takes the Search action here learns three names off the stone (Clue 6, free, if never found) and that two of the beds have not been used in a season. Lamia’s Night-Smoke cannot enter.
- The Drinking Floor (centre-south, 50×50) — layered shed skins, difficult terrain in two 15-ft patches, eleven hanging baskets 20 ft up, three of them occupied. The Bier of Shed Skins is the deepest drift, against the south wall. Herophile stands here, unrestrained.
- The Sea-Mouth (west, 20×40) — flooded to chest depth, open to the sea at low water. Acheilus’s post if recruited; 60 ft of underwater passage to swim out.
- Ceiling 25 ft. Basket ropes are AC 12, 5 HP; cutting one drops a basket 20 ft, which is fine for wicker and not fine for the child in it (Dex DC 12 to catch, or 2d6 falling damage).
- Shed-Skin Drifts (standing terrain). The two 15-ft patches are difficult terrain and they grab: a creature that enters a drift or starts its turn in one makes a DC 16 Dexterity save or is restrained until it escapes (DC 16 Athletics or Acrobatics). The skins do not need Lamia's attention and keep working after she is down.
- The Sleepless Dark (standing terrain). The cave eats light. Nonmagical flames gutter to dim light at half their normal radius, magical light of 3rd level or lower is suppressed while inside, and the whole cave is heavily obscured beyond 30 ft regardless of any light source. Darkvision sees normally within its range; nothing sees to the far wall.
Harder: Lamia HP 350 and Legendary Resistance 4/day; the Phase 2 wave also arrives in Phase 1; Douse the Light suppresses darkvision beyond 30 ft for one round.
The Draught Clock — the Taken Children
Start at 6 · one removed at the end of every round · track it in the open
- Starts at 5 instead if Alcyoneus died in Enc. 2. Three living Crisan children hang in baskets over the Drinking Floor; the night’s draught is already running through them.
- At 3: one child stops moving. Lamia does not pause, and Herophile watches the party notice.
- At 0: every child still in a basket dies. Each death restores 30 hit points to Queen Lamia — she is not hoarding it, she is passing it on, and the party can watch where it goes.
- Saving one: reach the basket (Athletics DC 13 to climb, fly, or cut the rope) and spend an action — Sleight of Hand DC 15, Athletics DC 16, or any slashing damage to the wicker. A child cut free is out of the draught permanently and can be left in the Nursery, which Lamia cannot enter in Night-Smoke form.
- Getting them out: Alcyoneus carries one per round to the upper crack; Acheilus ferries from the sea-mouth without limit. With neither ally, the Nursery is the answer.
- She will not stop you. Lamia spends no action defending the baskets and does not attack a PC carrying a child — she is not cruel and she does not think she is doing anything wrong. She simply needs more, and there is a whole plain of it.
Herophile’s Choice — the Actual Rescue
Three things she needs to hear, each from a different source, one action apiece. She listens; she does not interrupt; she has clearly thought about all of this more than the party has.
1 · That it does not stop when she leaves
- Persuasion or Insight DC 16.
- Automatic if the party broke the rite at Crisa — she watched it from the cave mouth.
- She already suspects. She needs someone else to say it.
2 · That her brother is alive and waiting
- Automatic with Clue 3, or with Acheilus at the sea-mouth.
- A lie does not work. She will know, she will say so, and this step is closed for the rest of the encounter.
3 · That it was never coming for her
- Religion, Medicine, or Arcana DC 18.
- Automatic with 5+ clues, or if she is handed the Sleepless Eye to look into.
- This is the one she has been trying to tell her mother for months. Hearing it back is what breaks her.
- When the Choice completes: she takes the nearest offered hand and walks. Queen Lamia must succeed on a DC 20 Wisdom save or be stunned until the end of her next turn. Herophile becomes a freed ally and can use A True Word.
- Carrying her instead is always available and always worse: half speed, she screams for her mother, and Lamia has advantage on attack rolls against the carrier until Herophile is out of the cave. It is a win. It is not the win, and the epilogue should say so.
- If Acheilus is dead and anyone says so in front of her, step 2 closes permanently and she stops speaking to the party for the rest of the encounter. Do not let a player discover this by accident — let them discover it by choosing to be honest.
The Two Levers and the Bier
The Sleepless Eye — one use, three choices
- Into the Bier — she cannot reform. 0 HP becomes final. This is the win against the monster.
- Into her socket — DC 18 Wis or stunned to the end of her next turn, Sleepless Regeneration offline until then.
- Into Herophile’s hands — she looks into her mother’s own eye and sees what was actually done and what was never coming. Every remaining step of the Choice completes at once. This is the win without a body.
- Make the party choose out loud. Do not hint which is “correct” — all three are.
Name Them — action, 3+ clues
- Speak all three children and what became of each. Usable once per clue above 2.
- DC 18 Wisdom save, or DC 20 if spoken by the garland-wearer.
- On a failure she loses her legendary actions and her Sleepless Regeneration until the end of her next turn.
- She may spend Legendary Resistance. Let her — it is one fewer for the Eye, and she is spending it to not hear her own children’s names.
The Bier of Shed Skins — AC 12 · HP 40 · vulnerable fire and radiant
- Her resting place, and the win condition against the monster. About one round of committed effort with an open flame. Anyone who looks closely sees it is arranged as a bed, with room in it for four.
- If Lamia drops to 0 HP and the Bier is intact and Eye-free, she collapses into Night-Smoke, streams to it, and reforms in 1 hour with 50 HP. The party can still leave with Herophile — a win on the rescue, a loss on the monster. It is a legitimate ending; say so in the epilogue.
- If the Bier is destroyed or holds the Eye, 0 HP is final. She comes apart into a season’s worth of shed skin and one very old diadem.
- She will defend it. From the moment it takes any damage she spends every available legendary action on whoever is nearest to it — unless Herophile is what is nearest, in which case she cannot, and a party that has worked out A Mother’s Blindness can hold the south wall with a nine-year-old and a torch.
Phase Rules
- She does not attack first. She greets them, by name if the party has been loud in Crisa, and explains — calmly, in detail, like a physician describing a regimen. She is not taunting them. She wants a second opinion and has not had one in a season. Insight DC 16 catches the worst part: she is not enjoying any of this.
- Opens The Queen’s Welcome on the garland-wearer if there is one, otherwise the highest-Charisma PC.
- Hollowed rise from the skin-drifts on round 1 and grapple; Strix Flocks hold the ceiling near the baskets and punish anyone climbing to a child.
- Empusae hold the Nursery entrance in their false forms and do not reveal until a PC tries to enter or Searches there. They are not her daughters and will not be mistaken for them by anyone paying attention.
- She uses Drinking Bite only on a grappled, charmed, restrained, or incapacitated target. Make the grapple economy the threat.
- She cannot touch Herophile, or anyone within 5 ft of her, with an area effect. Let the party find this out and then abuse it.
- Transition (free, immediate): she reverts to Serpent-Coil permanently and cannot resume Queen form. Every creature that can see her makes a DC 18 Wisdom save or is frightened until the end of its next turn. +2 Hollowed and +1 Strix Flock arrive from the tunnels.
- Drinking Bite necrotic rises to 8d6. Call the Strix recharges on 4–6. She gains +2 to hit.
- She stops explaining. The argument is over and she has decided she does not need them to agree — she needs them out of the room, and she will take the draught out of them if that is faster.
- If the party has Named Them even once, she says one thing in Phase 2 and it is “She is still small.” Let the table sit in that for a beat before rolling initiative again.
- Win: Herophile out of the cave alive. Lamia at 0 HP with the Bier denied is the complete victory.
Resolution
- The taken children. However many came out of the baskets go home, and Crisa gets to see them go home. This is the beat the city needed and the elders will still call it a beast.
- Delphi. Herophile, brought up the Sacred Way, walks straight past Theoxena to the tripod and says something about one of the party members’ futures that is specific, unprompted, and correct. Theoxena names the gift on the spot — and says the sentence the girl has needed for a season: nothing is being held off, and nothing ever was. She is adopted into the sanctuary the same afternoon. She will be a Pythia, and everyone present knows it, including her.
- Acheilus, if he lives. He cannot come to Delphi and does not ask to. Somebody has to go down to the shingle and tell him how it ended. Let a player do it.
- Scylla is still out there and is not a hook the party can pull on tonight. Leave it exactly that unresolved.
- Loot: the Sleepless Fangs of Lamia drawn from the body (see Reward Cards), the queen’s diadem (900 gp, and Crisa will pay double to bury it), 1,200 gp in old votive silver under the Nursery biers, and the Sleepless Eye stays with the party unless spent.
Creature Cards
Queen Lamia of Crisa, the Sleepless
Large Monstrosity (Shapechanger), Chaotic Evil · CR 15 (13,000 XP) · BOSS · Deadly
AC 18 (natural) | HP 310 (27d10+162) | Speed 40 ft., climb 40 ft., swim 30 ft.
Saves: Dex +9, Wis +9, Cha +11 · Skills: Deception +11, Perception +9, Stealth +9 · Resist: necrotic; nonmagical B/P/S · Condition Immunities: charmed, exhaustion, frightened · Senses: darkvision 120 ft., blindsight 30 ft. · Languages: Common, Sylvan · LR 3/day
Shapechanger. Bonus action to change between three forms; statistics are otherwise unchanged, and she reverts to Serpent-Coil at 0 HP. Queen (Medium) — the woman on Crisa’s coins; advantage on Deception against anyone who has seen them. Serpent-Coil (Large) — her true shape, woman to the hips and serpent below; Claws gain reach 10 ft. Night-Smoke — fly 40 ft. (hover), passes through any 1-inch gap, immune to nonmagical B/P/S, advantage on Dex saves; cannot attack, speak, or manipulate objects, and cannot enter running water or the Nursery.
Sleepless Regeneration. She regains 20 hit points at the start of her turn if she has at least 1 hit point and has taken no radiant damage and no damage from running water since the end of her last turn.
Sleepless. She cannot sleep, cannot gain exhaustion, and cannot be charmed or frightened. She has not rested in a season and it shows in everything she does.
Threshold-Bound. She cannot cross a doorway hung with a household’s wool threads unless invited across by someone who lives there. This is why she takes children out of doors. The threads on her own cave mouth are knotted from the inside — she tied them, around the last of her household.
A Mother’s Blindness. She cannot willingly harm Sibyl Herophile, cannot target her with any attack or effect, and will abort a cone, line, or area effect rather than catch her in it. A creature within 5 ft. of Herophile is inside that blind spot and cannot be included in her area effects either. Players will work this out. Let them.
Her Son in the Water (1/encounter). The first time Acheilus is visible to her inside the cave, she must succeed on a DC 20 Wisdom save or be stunned until the end of her next turn. She has been looking for him for a season, and he has been forty feet away the whole time.
Serpent Climb. She can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without an ability check.
Multiattack. Three attacks, only one of which may be Drinking Bite.
Claw. +11 to hit, reach 5 ft. (10 ft. in Serpent-Coil). Hit: 16 (3d6+5) slashing, and a Large or smaller target is grappled (escape DC 17). She may hold two creatures at once.
Drinking Bite. +11 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature that is grappled, restrained, incapacitated, or willing. Hit: 12 (2d6+5) piercing + 21 (6d6) necrotic (8d6 in Phase 2). The target’s hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage and Lamia regains that many hit points; the reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. A creature reduced to a hit point maximum of 0 dies and rises 24 hours later as one of The Hollowed under her control. (DM: she does not keep what she drinks. It goes into Herophile.)
The Queen’s Welcome (Recharge 6). One creature within 30 ft. that can see her makes a DC 19 Wisdom save or is charmed for 1 hour. The charmed creature regards her as a trusted friend to be heeded and protected, and is a willing target for Drinking Bite. It repeats the save whenever Lamia or her allies do anything harmful to it, ending the effect on a success and becoming immune for 24 hours.
Call the Strix (Recharge 5–6; 4–6 in Phase 2). She summons 1 Strix Flock or 2 Hollowed into unoccupied spaces within 60 ft. They act on her initiative.
Shift Skin. Change form. Unavailable in Phase 2 except to enter Night-Smoke at 0 hit points.
Legendary Action Uses: 3 (4 in Lair). Immediately after another creature's turn ends, she can expend a use to take one of the following actions. She regains all expended uses at the start of each of her turns. All of Encounter 3 is her lair, so she runs at 4.
Drift (1). Move up to half her speed without provoking opportunity attacks; full speed in Night-Smoke.
Hungering Gaze (1). One creature within 30 ft. makes a DC 19 Wisdom save or has disadvantage on the next saving throw it makes against her before the end of her next turn.
Child-Voices (1). The cave answers in the voices of children. Each creature that can hear her within 60 ft. makes a DC 16 Wisdom save or is frightened of the sound until the end of its next turn; on a failure by 5 or more it also moves its full speed toward the deepest tunnel. A deafened creature is immune — including one she deafened herself with Owl-Cry.
Owl-Cry (2). Each creature of her choice within 30 ft. makes a DC 18 Constitution save or takes 14 (4d6) psychic damage and is deafened until the end of its next turn.
Drink (2). She makes one Drinking Bite attack against a valid target.
What She Wants (DM). Hera changed her family and did not kill it. Acheilus took the sea. Scylla went further out and has not come back. Herophile is the one Hera has not finished — or so her mother believes — and every drained calf, shepherd, and child on the Crisaean plain has gone into holding that off. She is not grieving. She is treating. She is also wrong: Herophile’s change already happened, and it was the prophecy.
Phase Thresholds. Phase 1: HP 310–156 — she is a hostess and a doctor, all charm and grapple economy. Phase 2: HP 155–0 — The Skin Comes Off: permanent Serpent-Coil, DC 18 Wis fear pulse on transition, +2 Hollowed and +1 Strix Flock arrive, Drinking Bite 8d6, +2 to hit. She stops arguing and starts feeding.
At 0 Hit Points. She collapses into Night-Smoke and streams for the Bier of Shed Skins. Intact and Eye-free → she reforms there in 1 hour with 50 HP. Destroyed or holding the Sleepless Eye → she is destroyed.
Persistence. Lamias are a species in this library, not a singular Olympian fixture — she may be killed. Hera never appears. Do not stage the goddess. Scylla never appears either — she is in open ocean, she is not coming, and that is the point of her.
Empusa of the Drinking Floor
Medium Fiend (Shapechanger), Chaotic Evil · CR 6 (2,300 XP) · Enc. 3 lieutenant · not her daughters
AC 15 (natural) | HP 104 (16d8+32) | Speed 30 ft.
Skills: Deception +7, Stealth +7 · Resist: fire; nonmagical B/P/S · Senses: darkvision 60 ft.
Shapechanger. Bonus action: take the form of a beautiful young woman, or revert. In false form her bronze leg and ass’s hoof are hidden. Insight DC 18, or any light cast low across the floor, reveals them.
Flame-Hair. A creature that ends its turn grappling her, or grappled by her, takes 7 (2d6) fire damage.
Bound to the Queen. While Queen Lamia is within 60 ft. and conscious, the Empusa has advantage on saving throws.
Not Her Children (DM). These are the first women Lamia drank, in the first month, before she learned to finish the job. They did not die properly. Lamia has exactly three children and none of them is in this stat block — do not let a player conflate the two, and do not let an Empusa speak for her.
Multiattack. Two Claw attacks, or one Claw and one Draining Kiss.
Claw. +7 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) slashing.
Draining Kiss. One charmed, grappled, or incapacitated creature within 5 ft. takes 17 (5d6) necrotic damage, its hit point maximum is reduced by half that amount until it finishes a long rest, and the Empusa regains hit points equal to the necrotic damage.
Beguiling Word (Recharge 5–6). One creature within 30 ft. that can hear her makes a DC 15 Wisdom save or is charmed until the end of its next turn and must use its movement to approach her.
The Hollowed
Medium Undead, Neutral Evil · CR 2 (450 XP) · Enc. 3 · what the treatment costs
AC 13 (dry hide) | HP 52 (8d8+16) | Speed 30 ft., climb 20 ft.
Resist: necrotic · Immune: poison · Condition Immunities: charmed, exhaustion, poisoned · Senses: darkvision 60 ft.
Empty. When reduced to 0 hit points it collapses into dry skin. If Queen Lamia is within 60 ft. and conscious, roll a d6: on a 6 it rises at the start of her next turn with 15 hit points. Once per Hollowed.
Remembering. If a creature within 10 ft. speaks this Hollowed’s living name aloud, it is stunned until the end of its next turn. Herophile knows four of the names, because she was made to watch, and she has kept them.
Multiattack. Two Grasp attacks, or one Grasp and one Dry Bite.
Grasp. +5 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 10 (2d6+3) bludgeoning, and the target is grappled (escape DC 13). Queen Lamia’s Drinking Bite treats a creature grappled this way as a valid target.
Dry Bite. +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., grappled targets only. Hit: 7 (1d8+3) piercing + 7 (2d6) necrotic.
Strix Flock
Large Swarm of Tiny Beasts (screech-owls), Unaligned · CR 3 (700 XP) · Enc. 3
AC 13 | HP 66 (12d10) | Speed 10 ft., fly 40 ft.
Resist: bludgeoning, piercing, slashing · Condition Immunities: charmed, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, prone, restrained, stunned · Senses: darkvision 120 ft., keen hearing
Swarm. Can occupy another creature’s space and move through any opening large enough for a Tiny owl. Cannot regain hit points or gain temporary hit points.
Blood on the Beak. A creature that starts its turn in the swarm’s space makes a DC 13 Constitution save or has disadvantage on its next attack roll.
Beaks. +5 to hit, reach 0 ft., one target in the swarm’s space. Hit: 14 (4d6) piercing + 3 (1d6) necrotic, or 7 (2d6) piercing if the swarm has half its hit points or fewer.
Screech (Recharge 6). Each creature within 20 ft. makes a DC 13 Constitution save or is deafened until the end of its next turn. A deafened creature is immune to her Child-Voices legendary action — the party can use this on purpose.
Sibyl Herophile
Medium Humanoid (child), Neutral Good · Nine years old · Lamia’s youngest · Enc. 3 objective
Not bound, not caged, not drained. Standing on the Drinking Floor in a clean wool dress, watching her mother work.
She Is Not a Prisoner (DM). Read this before you run the finale. Herophile is Queen Lamia’s daughter and she can walk out of this cave whenever she likes. She has not, for a season, because she is nine and she will not leave her mother alone with this. The rescue is not a cage to break. It is an argument to win.
What Was Done to Her. Hera’s wrath took the household in one night. Acheilus went to the sea. Scylla went further. Herophile was the youngest and the change that came for her came as prophecy — she speaks true things in her sleep and cannot stop. Her mother has decided this is the change arriving slowly and can be held off with enough stolen life. Her mother is wrong. It already finished.
She Has Already Told Her. Herophile prophesied her own ending months ago and said it out loud, and her mother did not believe her. She has stopped trying. She will tell the party, once, in a flat voice, and it is the single most useful thing anyone says in this cave.
HEROPHILE’S CHOICE — 3 things she needs to hear. Each from a different source; no repeats; an action apiece. (1) That it does not stop when she leaves — Persuasion or Insight DC 16, or automatic if the party broke the rite at Crisa (she saw the smoke off the terrace). (2) That her brother is alive and waiting — automatic with Clue 3 or with Acheilus at the sea-mouth; a lie does not work and she will know. (3) That it was never coming for her — Religion, Medicine, or Arcana DC 18, automatic with 5+ clues, or automatic if she is given the Sleepless Eye to look into.
When the Choice completes. She takes the nearest offered hand and walks. Queen Lamia must succeed on a DC 20 Wisdom save or be stunned until the end of her next turn. Herophile is now a freed ally and can use A True Word.
Carrying her instead. Always available and always worse. She is a grappled unwilling Small creature: half speed, and she screams for her mother, which grants Lamia advantage on the carrier until Herophile is out of the cave.
A True Word (1/encounter). Once she has chosen, as a reaction when a creature within 30 ft. rolls an attack or saving throw against Queen Lamia, she speaks — that roll is made with advantage.
She Knows the Names. Asked, she gives her brother’s and sister’s names, her own, and four of the Hollowed’s living names, whether or not the party earned Clue 6.
Epilogue. At Delphi she walks past Theoxena to the tripod and says something specific, unprompted and correct about one of the PCs. Theoxena names the gift on the spot — and says, plainly, that nothing is being held off and nothing ever was. She stays. She will be a Pythia.
The Bier of Shed Skins
Environmental Feature (Enc. 3) · The deepest drift against the south wall
AC 12 | HP 40 | Vulnerable fire, radiant | Immune poison, psychic
A season’s worth of translucent shed serpent-skin, layered forty deep, with a very old diadem near the bottom.
Why it matters. At 0 hit points Queen Lamia becomes Night-Smoke and streams here. Intact and Eye-free → she reforms in 1 hour with 50 HP. Destroyed, or holding the Sleepless Eye → she is destroyed.
Burning it. About one round of committed effort with an open flame. She will defend it: from the moment it takes damage she spends every available legendary action on whoever is nearest.
DM note. Telegraph it. Perception DC 13, or any inspection of the drifts, shows the diadem and the way the skins are arranged rather than shed — and, if anyone looks closely, that the arrangement is a bed with room in it for four. Players who work it out on their own have earned the whole ending.
⚖️ Difficulty Scaling
As Written ★ — 6 Players, Average Level 12
- Baseline for this guide. Encounters 1–2 are Hard; the finale is Deadly for six PCs at average level 12.
- XP budgets (6×L12 thresholds): Hard ≈ 14,400 · Deadly ≈ 22,800. Prefer charm pressure, grapple economy, and the Draught Clock over adding more bodies.
Library Standard — 6 Players, Average Level 8
- Lamia to HP 200, Legendary Resistance 2/day, Drinking Bite necrotic 4d6 (6d6 in Phase 2), Regeneration 10.
- All save DCs −2; skill DCs −2 (including Herophile’s Choice). Cut one Empusa, two Hollowed, and one Strix Flock; drop the Phase 2 wave.
- Enc. 1: Acheilus to CR 7 (HP 130, no Undertow) and cut one Brineseer. Enc. 2: 4 Yoke-Sworn, 1 Warden, no Heifer.
- Draught Clock starts at 8 with two children instead of three. The finale reads as Hard, not Deadly.
Easier (table still high-tier)
- APL 10–11: Lamia HP −15% and Regeneration 15; cut one Empusa; Draught Clock starts at 7; Enc. 1–2 lose one elite each.
Harder
- APL 13–14 or seven PCs: Lamia HP +15%, Legendary Resistance 4/day, and a third Empusa that opens in the sea-mouth; Douse the Light suppresses darkvision beyond 30 ft for one round; Draught Clock starts at 5. Do not raise the Choice DCs — the argument is the session, not the challenge.
🏛 Aftermath — The Spring Called Sybaris
Crisa does not hold a funeral for its queen, because Crisa has not admitted, and will never officially admit, what was found on Cirphis. What Crisa does is this: within a year there is a spring at the foot of the seaward cliff that was not there before, and a shrine beside it with no name on the stone, and a habit — never written down, never explained to visitors — of tying scarlet wool across a doorway when there is a child inside.
King Krisos abdicates in the spring. If the party told him his daughter was alive he does not ask to come to Delphi; he asks whether she is still small, and then he goes somewhere quiet and stays there. Alkippe, if she lived, spends the rest of her career on the unglamorous end of Hera’s work — marriage disputes, household oaths, the sanctity of a threshold — and is very good at it, and never once explains why she took that posting.
Acheilus stays on the shoals. He is not cursed out of anything except company, and the shingle below Kirphis is quieter than it was; the drained stop washing out, and he stops laying them above the waterline, and it takes him some weeks to work out what to do with his mornings. A party that goes back down to tell him how it ended will find him waiting, because of course he is.
Scylla is in open ocean and is not coming. Nobody in this session finds her. Nobody in this session was ever going to.
Herophile is nine, and then she is not, and in about thirty years people will travel a long way to ask her things.
📋 Appendix — Cards
Full stat blocks for every creature, NPC, and item in this session, including optional and difficulty-adjusted entries.
Creature Cards
Acheilus, the Shark-Marred
Large Monstrosity, Chaotic Neutral · CR 10 (5,900 XP) · Enc. 1 elite · recruitable · Lamia’s eldest
AC 17 (natural) | HP 184 (16d10+96) | Speed 30 ft., swim 60 ft.
Saves: Str +9, Con +10 · Skills: Athletics +9, Perception +6 · Senses: blindsight 60 ft. (water only), darkvision 60 ft. · Languages: Common, Primordial
Amphibious. Breathes air and water.
Blood Frenzy. Advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature that does not have all its hit points.
Tide-Fed. While standing in water at least 1 foot deep, he has advantage on Strength checks and saving throws and regains 10 hit points at the start of his turn.
Her Son (DM). Acheilus is Queen Lamia’s eldest child. Hera’s wrath did not kill this family — it changed it. He has been hauling the drained out of the surf for a month, because they wash out of his mother’s cave, and laying them above the waterline with their hands folded because it is the only thing left he can do for them. He knows exactly what is in that cave and who. Play the row of folded hands as the clue it is.
The Story He Tells. Strangers get the Aphrodite version — that he told the goddess she had competition and she made him this. It is a good story and he has had years to polish it. The truth requires saying his mother’s name out loud, and he will not, until the parley earns it.
Multiattack. One Bite and two Harpoon-Claws.
Bite. +9 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 22 (4d8+5) piercing. A Large or smaller target is grappled (escape DC 17).
Harpoon-Claw. +9 to hit, reach 10 ft. Hit: 16 (2d10+5) slashing, and the target must succeed on a DC 17 Strength save or be pulled 10 ft. toward him.
Undertow (Recharge 5–6). 30-ft cone of driven surf. Dex DC 17: 36 (8d8) bludgeoning, pushed 15 ft. and knocked prone; half damage and no push on a success.
Surge. If he starts and ends in water, swim up to his speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
Bite the Spear. When a creature within 10 ft. hits him with a melee weapon attack, he makes one Bite attack against it.
RECRUITMENT. Parley (see Enc. 1) or spare him at 60 HP or fewer. Recruited, he holds the sea-mouth in Enc. 3: a flooded back entrance with a surprise round, and Ferry Out — hand him his sister and she is out, safe, immediately.
He Will Not Fight His Mother. Say this plainly when he joins. He comes as far as the water and no further; he is there for Herophile, not for the kill. If a PC brings him onto the Drinking Floor anyway, see Her Son in the Water on Lamia’s card — and understand that he came because they asked.
If He Dies (DM). The party has killed the queen’s son and does not know it. Do not soften this. If it is said aloud in the cave, Lamia has advantage on attack rolls for 1 round and immediately uses Call the Strix.
Ichthyan Raider
Medium Monstrosity, Lawful Evil · CR 3 (700 XP) · Sahuagin reskin
AC 16 (scale, shield) | HP 60 (8d8+24) | Speed 30 ft., swim 40 ft.
Skills: Perception +3 · Senses: darkvision 120 ft.
Amphibious. Breathes air and water.
Blood Frenzy. Advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature that does not have all its hit points.
Shark Kinship. Can magically command any Reef-Hound within 120 ft.
Multiattack. Two attacks: bite and trident, or two tridents.
Bite. +5 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 6 (1d6+3) piercing.
Trident. +5 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft. Hit: 10 (2d6+3) piercing.
Net (1/turn). Ranged 5/15 ft. Large or smaller target restrained (escape DC 13; net AC 10, 5 HP, cut free with 5 slashing damage).
Ichthyan Brineseer
Medium Monstrosity, Lawful Evil · CR 5 (1,800 XP) · Tide-priest
AC 15 (coral scale) | HP 82 (11d8+33) | Speed 30 ft., swim 40 ft.
Skills: Perception +7, Religion +5 · Senses: darkvision 120 ft.
Amphibious. Breathes air and water.
Brine-Bound. Allied Ichthyans within 20 ft. have resistance to cold damage.
Spellcasting. Wisdom, save DC 15, +7 to hit. At will: thaumaturgy, brine-spark (below). 3/day each: hold person, spiritual weapon. 1/day each: tidal wave, insect plague (staged as a stinging swarm of jellies).
Multiattack. Two Brine-Spark attacks.
Brine-Spark. Ranged spell +7 to hit, range 60 ft. Hit: 14 (4d6) cold.
Barbed Staff. +4 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 7 (1d8+1) bludgeoning + 5 (2d4) poison.
Reef-Hound
Large Beast, Unaligned · CR 3 (700 XP) · Shark mini
AC 14 (natural) | HP 76 (9d10+27) | Speed 20 ft., swim 50 ft.
Skills: Perception +3 · Senses: blindsight 60 ft. in water
Amphibious (limited). Can hold its breath out of water for 1 hour; slow and furious on land.
Pack Tactics. Advantage on attacks against a creature within 5 ft. of an ally.
Blood Frenzy. Advantage on melee attacks against a creature that does not have all its hit points.
Bite. +6 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) piercing, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength save or be dragged 5 ft. toward the water.
Alkippe, Hierophant of the Yoke
Medium Humanoid (priest of Hera Teleia), Lawful Neutral · CR 9 (5,000 XP) · Enc. 2 leader
AC 18 (bronze scale, aegis-band) | HP 150 (20d8+60) | Speed 30 ft.
Saves: Con +7, Wis +9, Cha +8 · Skills: Insight +9, Persuasion +8, Religion +6 · Senses: passive Perception 15
Hera’s Regard. Advantage on saves against being charmed or frightened. Magic that would compel her to break a sworn oath fails automatically.
Yoke-Cord (3 charges; 4 if Enc. 2 runs second). Bonus action, spend a charge: one creature she can see within 60 ft. must succeed on a DC 17 Strength save or be restrained by a coil of scarlet wool until the end of its next turn. She regains one charge when the Rite Track reaches step 3 and none otherwise.
Rite-Bound. She will not leave the terrace while the rite is unfinished. She has disadvantage on attack rolls against a creature wearing the Sacrificial Garlands and cannot willingly harm Alcyoneus.
Not a Monster (DM). She is wrong, not evil. Her reading is that Hera unmade a household and will be quieted by a household restored — a son given back for a family taken. She surrenders at 0 HP, and immediately if shown the true Delphic verse. Tell her the queen is alive in a cave with her own daughter (Clue 5) and the rite loses its premise in front of her; she will stop without a check.
Spellcasting. Wisdom, save DC 17, +9 to hit. At will: sacred flame, guidance, thaumaturgy. 3/day each: hold person, spirit guardians (hundred-eyed peacock wings), guiding bolt (3rd level). 1/day each: flame strike (a column of eyed light), banishment, mass cure wounds.
Multiattack. Two Yoke-Rod attacks, or one Yoke-Rod and one cantrip.
Yoke-Rod. +6 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 9 (2d6+2) bludgeoning + 10 (3d6) radiant.
Call the Wardens (1/day). Both Peacock-Eyed Wardens step out of the colonnade and act on her initiative.
The Vow Answers (3/day). When an ally within 30 ft. drops to 0 hit points, she casts healing word (3rd level) on it.
Yoke-Sworn Acolyte
Medium Humanoid, Lawful Neutral · CR 2 (450 XP) · Enc. 2
AC 15 (bronze scale) | HP 45 (7d8+14) | Speed 30 ft.
Skills: Religion +2, Persuasion +3
Chorus. While three or more Yoke-Sworn are within 30 ft. of each other, each has advantage on saves against being frightened, and the Rite Track advances at the end of the round even if Alkippe is incapacitated.
Morale. If the Sacrificial Garlands are destroyed, claimed by a PC, or thrown from the Leap, each Yoke-Sworn must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom save or be frightened for 1 minute and flee the terrace. At disadvantage if the Sleepless Eye has been shown.
Multiattack. Two Sickle attacks.
Sickle. +3 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 6 (1d6+1) slashing + 3 (1d6) radiant.
Hymn-Bolt. Ranged spell +5 to hit, range 60 ft. Hit: 10 (3d6) radiant.
Peacock-Eyed Warden
Medium Construct (temple bronze), Unaligned · CR 5 (1,800 XP) · Enc. 2
AC 18 (bronze plate) | HP 95 (10d8+50) | Speed 30 ft.
Immune: poison, psychic · Condition Immunities: charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned · Senses: darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 18
Hundred Eyes. The bronze fan on its back is eyed on every side. It cannot be surprised, has advantage on Perception checks, and attack rolls against it never gain advantage from the attacker being unseen.
Argus Watch. Any hidden or invisible creature that starts its turn within 10 ft. is revealed — its outline shows in the fan’s eyes.
Multiattack. Two Bronze Glaive attacks.
Bronze Glaive. +7 to hit, reach 10 ft. Hit: 14 (2d10+4) slashing.
Eye-Flare (Recharge 5–6). 30-ft cone. Con DC 15: 18 (4d8) radiant and blinded until the end of its next turn; half damage and no blindness on a success.
Bronze Yoke-Heifer
Large Construct, Unaligned · CR 6 (2,300 XP) · Enc. 2 · Hera’s sacred cow, cast in bronze
AC 17 (natural bronze) | HP 126 (12d10+60) | Speed 40 ft.
Immune: poison, psychic · Condition Immunities: charmed, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned · Senses: blindsight 60 ft. (it has no eyes)
Bound to the Rite. While the Sacrificial Garlands are worn by a living creature, the Heifer has advantage on all attack rolls. The moment the Garlands leave a living wearer it is stunned for 1 round as the rite’s claim lapses.
Trample Charge. If it moves at least 20 ft. straight toward a target and hits with Gore, the target must succeed on a DC 16 Strength save or be knocked prone; if the target is prone, the Heifer can make a Hooves attack as a bonus action.
Multiattack. Two Gore attacks.
Gore. +8 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 16 (2d10+5) piercing.
Hooves. +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., prone targets only. Hit: 18 (3d8+5) bludgeoning.
Brazen Lowing (Recharge 6). 60-ft radius. Wis DC 15 or frightened until the end of its next turn. The sound is a cow calling a calf that is not there.
Queen Lamia of Crisa, the Sleepless
Large Monstrosity (Shapechanger), Chaotic Evil · CR 15 (13,000 XP) · BOSS · Deadly
AC 18 (natural) | HP 310 (27d10+162) | Speed 40 ft., climb 40 ft., swim 30 ft.
Saves: Dex +9, Wis +9, Cha +11 · Skills: Deception +11, Perception +9, Stealth +9 · Resist: necrotic; nonmagical B/P/S · Condition Immunities: charmed, exhaustion, frightened · Senses: darkvision 120 ft., blindsight 30 ft. · Languages: Common, Sylvan · LR 3/day
Shapechanger. Bonus action to change between three forms; statistics are otherwise unchanged, and she reverts to Serpent-Coil at 0 HP. Queen (Medium) — the woman on Crisa’s coins; advantage on Deception against anyone who has seen them. Serpent-Coil (Large) — her true shape, woman to the hips and serpent below; Claws gain reach 10 ft. Night-Smoke — fly 40 ft. (hover), passes through any 1-inch gap, immune to nonmagical B/P/S, advantage on Dex saves; cannot attack, speak, or manipulate objects, and cannot enter running water or the Nursery.
Sleepless Regeneration. She regains 20 hit points at the start of her turn if she has at least 1 hit point and has taken no radiant damage and no damage from running water since the end of her last turn.
Sleepless. She cannot sleep, cannot gain exhaustion, and cannot be charmed or frightened. She has not rested in a season and it shows in everything she does.
Threshold-Bound. She cannot cross a doorway hung with a household’s wool threads unless invited across by someone who lives there. This is why she takes children out of doors. The threads on her own cave mouth are knotted from the inside — she tied them, around the last of her household.
A Mother’s Blindness. She cannot willingly harm Sibyl Herophile, cannot target her with any attack or effect, and will abort a cone, line, or area effect rather than catch her in it. A creature within 5 ft. of Herophile is inside that blind spot and cannot be included in her area effects either. Players will work this out. Let them.
Her Son in the Water (1/encounter). The first time Acheilus is visible to her inside the cave, she must succeed on a DC 20 Wisdom save or be stunned until the end of her next turn. She has been looking for him for a season, and he has been forty feet away the whole time.
Serpent Climb. She can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without an ability check.
Multiattack. Three attacks, only one of which may be Drinking Bite.
Claw. +11 to hit, reach 5 ft. (10 ft. in Serpent-Coil). Hit: 16 (3d6+5) slashing, and a Large or smaller target is grappled (escape DC 17). She may hold two creatures at once.
Drinking Bite. +11 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature that is grappled, restrained, incapacitated, or willing. Hit: 12 (2d6+5) piercing + 21 (6d6) necrotic (8d6 in Phase 2). The target’s hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage and Lamia regains that many hit points; the reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. A creature reduced to a hit point maximum of 0 dies and rises 24 hours later as one of The Hollowed under her control. (DM: she does not keep what she drinks. It goes into Herophile.)
The Queen’s Welcome (Recharge 6). One creature within 30 ft. that can see her makes a DC 19 Wisdom save or is charmed for 1 hour. The charmed creature regards her as a trusted friend to be heeded and protected, and is a willing target for Drinking Bite. It repeats the save whenever Lamia or her allies do anything harmful to it, ending the effect on a success and becoming immune for 24 hours.
Call the Strix (Recharge 5–6; 4–6 in Phase 2). She summons 1 Strix Flock or 2 Hollowed into unoccupied spaces within 60 ft. They act on her initiative.
Shift Skin. Change form. Unavailable in Phase 2 except to enter Night-Smoke at 0 hit points.
Legendary Action Uses: 3 (4 in Lair). Immediately after another creature's turn ends, she can expend a use to take one of the following actions. She regains all expended uses at the start of each of her turns. All of Encounter 3 is her lair, so she runs at 4.
Drift (1). Move up to half her speed without provoking opportunity attacks; full speed in Night-Smoke.
Hungering Gaze (1). One creature within 30 ft. makes a DC 19 Wisdom save or has disadvantage on the next saving throw it makes against her before the end of her next turn.
Child-Voices (1). The cave answers in the voices of children. Each creature that can hear her within 60 ft. makes a DC 16 Wisdom save or is frightened of the sound until the end of its next turn; on a failure by 5 or more it also moves its full speed toward the deepest tunnel. A deafened creature is immune — including one she deafened herself with Owl-Cry.
Owl-Cry (2). Each creature of her choice within 30 ft. makes a DC 18 Constitution save or takes 14 (4d6) psychic damage and is deafened until the end of its next turn.
Drink (2). She makes one Drinking Bite attack against a valid target.
What She Wants (DM). Hera changed her family and did not kill it. Acheilus took the sea. Scylla went further out and has not come back. Herophile is the one Hera has not finished — or so her mother believes — and every drained calf, shepherd, and child on the Crisaean plain has gone into holding that off. She is not grieving. She is treating. She is also wrong: Herophile’s change already happened, and it was the prophecy.
Phase Thresholds. Phase 1: HP 310–156 — she is a hostess and a doctor, all charm and grapple economy. Phase 2: HP 155–0 — The Skin Comes Off: permanent Serpent-Coil, DC 18 Wis fear pulse on transition, +2 Hollowed and +1 Strix Flock arrive, Drinking Bite 8d6, +2 to hit. She stops arguing and starts feeding.
At 0 Hit Points. She collapses into Night-Smoke and streams for the Bier of Shed Skins. Intact and Eye-free → she reforms there in 1 hour with 50 HP. Destroyed or holding the Sleepless Eye → she is destroyed.
Persistence. Lamias are a species in this library, not a singular Olympian fixture — she may be killed. Hera never appears. Do not stage the goddess. Scylla never appears either — she is in open ocean, she is not coming, and that is the point of her.
Empusa of the Drinking Floor
Medium Fiend (Shapechanger), Chaotic Evil · CR 6 (2,300 XP) · Enc. 3 lieutenant · not her daughters
AC 15 (natural) | HP 104 (16d8+32) | Speed 30 ft.
Skills: Deception +7, Stealth +7 · Resist: fire; nonmagical B/P/S · Senses: darkvision 60 ft.
Shapechanger. Bonus action: take the form of a beautiful young woman, or revert. In false form her bronze leg and ass’s hoof are hidden. Insight DC 18, or any light cast low across the floor, reveals them.
Flame-Hair. A creature that ends its turn grappling her, or grappled by her, takes 7 (2d6) fire damage.
Bound to the Queen. While Queen Lamia is within 60 ft. and conscious, the Empusa has advantage on saving throws.
Not Her Children (DM). These are the first women Lamia drank, in the first month, before she learned to finish the job. They did not die properly. Lamia has exactly three children and none of them is in this stat block — do not let a player conflate the two, and do not let an Empusa speak for her.
Multiattack. Two Claw attacks, or one Claw and one Draining Kiss.
Claw. +7 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) slashing.
Draining Kiss. One charmed, grappled, or incapacitated creature within 5 ft. takes 17 (5d6) necrotic damage, its hit point maximum is reduced by half that amount until it finishes a long rest, and the Empusa regains hit points equal to the necrotic damage.
Beguiling Word (Recharge 5–6). One creature within 30 ft. that can hear her makes a DC 15 Wisdom save or is charmed until the end of its next turn and must use its movement to approach her.
The Hollowed
Medium Undead, Neutral Evil · CR 2 (450 XP) · Enc. 3 · what the treatment costs
AC 13 (dry hide) | HP 52 (8d8+16) | Speed 30 ft., climb 20 ft.
Resist: necrotic · Immune: poison · Condition Immunities: charmed, exhaustion, poisoned · Senses: darkvision 60 ft.
Empty. When reduced to 0 hit points it collapses into dry skin. If Queen Lamia is within 60 ft. and conscious, roll a d6: on a 6 it rises at the start of her next turn with 15 hit points. Once per Hollowed.
Remembering. If a creature within 10 ft. speaks this Hollowed’s living name aloud, it is stunned until the end of its next turn. Herophile knows four of the names, because she was made to watch, and she has kept them.
Multiattack. Two Grasp attacks, or one Grasp and one Dry Bite.
Grasp. +5 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 10 (2d6+3) bludgeoning, and the target is grappled (escape DC 13). Queen Lamia’s Drinking Bite treats a creature grappled this way as a valid target.
Dry Bite. +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., grappled targets only. Hit: 7 (1d8+3) piercing + 7 (2d6) necrotic.
Strix Flock
Large Swarm of Tiny Beasts (screech-owls), Unaligned · CR 3 (700 XP) · Enc. 3
AC 13 | HP 66 (12d10) | Speed 10 ft., fly 40 ft.
Resist: bludgeoning, piercing, slashing · Condition Immunities: charmed, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, prone, restrained, stunned · Senses: darkvision 120 ft., keen hearing
Swarm. Can occupy another creature’s space and move through any opening large enough for a Tiny owl. Cannot regain hit points or gain temporary hit points.
Blood on the Beak. A creature that starts its turn in the swarm’s space makes a DC 13 Constitution save or has disadvantage on its next attack roll.
Beaks. +5 to hit, reach 0 ft., one target in the swarm’s space. Hit: 14 (4d6) piercing + 3 (1d6) necrotic, or 7 (2d6) piercing if the swarm has half its hit points or fewer.
Screech (Recharge 6). Each creature within 20 ft. makes a DC 13 Constitution save or is deafened until the end of its next turn. A deafened creature is immune to her Child-Voices legendary action — the party can use this on purpose.
NPC Cards
Theoxena, Senior Pythia (Quest Giver)
Medium Humanoid, Neutral · Oracle of Apollo · Delphi
Castalian spring → the Crisaean plain; carries the amber eye in a votive basket
Motivation. Apollo named a cause — the wrath of Hera — and then stopped. Theoxena wants the name Apollo would not give, before another Crisan household wakes up one child short.
Secret. The word she was given was changed, not killed. She has worked out what that implies — Hera does not tidy a household away, she leaves it walking around — and she will not say it inside the temenos. Insight DC 15: she is withholding out of fear of the goddess, not the monster. Persuasion DC 16 outside the sanctuary, or a second patient ask: she gives the party the word (Clue 1).
Handout. She presses the Sleepless Eye into a palm: “She gave up her eyes so she could sleep. It did not work. Make her look.”
RP Hook. Formal, precise, treats every statement as testimony. Accepts correction from evidence without a flicker; despises flattery. Quote: “I was given a cause and denied a name. You are being sent to collect the name.”
Epilogue. She adopts Herophile into the sanctuary the afternoon the party brings her up the Sacred Way, and does not pretend it was a hard decision. She is also the one who can say the sentence the girl has needed for a season — that the gift is not a curse arriving, it is a curse already spent, and there was never anything to hold off.
Alcyoneus of Crisa
Medium Humanoid, Neutral Good · CR 1/2 · Recruitable Ally (Enc. 2)
AC 13 (leather) | HP 32 (5d8+10) | Speed 30 ft.
Sixteen, son of Diomus and Meganira, chosen by lot and garlanded three days ago. He has decided on calm, and it is far worse to watch than crying would be.
RECRUITMENT. Free him without stripping his dignity — let a player actually ask him — or take the Sacrificial Garlands onto your own shoulders. He will not be left behind afterward.
Goat-Path. Four years running goats on Cirphis. He can bring the party in through the upper crack above the Drinking Floor: a surprise round on the Hollowed, and a 20-ft drop or climb down (Athletics DC 12).
Carry Her Out. In Enc. 3 a freed Herophile can be handed to Alcyoneus; he spends his turns running her to the crack and is clear of the cave in one round. No PC has to babysit.
Sling. +5 to hit, range 30/120 ft. Hit: 6 (1d4+3) bludgeoning.
Shout Down (1/encounter). Bonus action: one ally within 30 ft. has advantage on its next saving throw against being charmed.
Sibyl Herophile
Medium Humanoid (child), Neutral Good · Nine years old · Lamia’s youngest · Enc. 3 objective
Not bound, not caged, not drained. Standing on the Drinking Floor in a clean wool dress, watching her mother work.
She Is Not a Prisoner (DM). Read this before you run the finale. Herophile is Queen Lamia’s daughter and she can walk out of this cave whenever she likes. She has not, for a season, because she is nine and she will not leave her mother alone with this. The rescue is not a cage to break. It is an argument to win.
What Was Done to Her. Hera’s wrath took the household in one night. Acheilus went to the sea. Scylla went further. Herophile was the youngest and the change that came for her came as prophecy — she speaks true things in her sleep and cannot stop. Her mother has decided this is the change arriving slowly and can be held off with enough stolen life. Her mother is wrong. It already finished.
She Has Already Told Her. Herophile prophesied her own ending months ago and said it out loud, and her mother did not believe her. She has stopped trying. She will tell the party, once, in a flat voice, and it is the single most useful thing anyone says in this cave.
HEROPHILE’S CHOICE — 3 things she needs to hear. Each from a different source; no repeats; an action apiece. (1) That it does not stop when she leaves — Persuasion or Insight DC 16, or automatic if the party broke the rite at Crisa (she saw the smoke off the terrace). (2) That her brother is alive and waiting — automatic with Clue 3 or with Acheilus at the sea-mouth; a lie does not work and she will know. (3) That it was never coming for her — Religion, Medicine, or Arcana DC 18, automatic with 5+ clues, or automatic if she is given the Sleepless Eye to look into.
When the Choice completes. She takes the nearest offered hand and walks. Queen Lamia must succeed on a DC 20 Wisdom save or be stunned until the end of her next turn. Herophile is now a freed ally and can use A True Word.
Carrying her instead. Always available and always worse. She is a grappled unwilling Small creature: half speed, and she screams for her mother, which grants Lamia advantage on the carrier until Herophile is out of the cave.
A True Word (1/encounter). Once she has chosen, as a reaction when a creature within 30 ft. rolls an attack or saving throw against Queen Lamia, she speaks — that roll is made with advantage.
She Knows the Names. Asked, she gives her brother’s and sister’s names, her own, and four of the Hollowed’s living names, whether or not the party earned Clue 6.
Epilogue. At Delphi she walks past Theoxena to the tripod and says something specific, unprompted and correct about one of the PCs. Theoxena names the gift on the spot — and says, plainly, that nothing is being held off and nothing ever was. She stays. She will be a Pythia.
King Krisos of Crisa
Medium Humanoid, Lawful Neutral · Regent of Crisa · Enc. 2 clue source
Lamia’s husband. Regent in his own city because the assembly will not declare a queen dead without a body.
Motivation. To not say the thing out loud. Declaring them dead would require explaining what he actually saw.
Secret. He was in the room. Hera’s wrath took his wife and all three children in one night, and it did not kill them — it changed them, in front of him, and he ran. He has watched for his family ever since from a window he will not admit to sitting at. He knows Lamia is alive. He suspects Herophile is with her. He has said neither thing in a season.
Clue 5. Investigation DC 15 in the royal house (the chamber is untouched: three children’s beds, scarlet wool still knotted across the doorway from the inside), or Persuasion DC 18 / Insight DC 17 on Krisos, who breaks open in about four sentences and is relieved to do it. If Alkippe was killed he will not receive the party at all and the chamber is the only route.
RP Hook. No fight here. He is the reason Crisa’s elders are still saying beast, and that is enough damage for one man. Quote: “A beast can be hunted. Say the other thing and you are asking me to hunt my daughter.”
If told Herophile is alive. He does not ask to come. He asks whether she is still small. Answer him.
Item Cards
The Sleepless Eye
Wondrous Item (maguffin), Unique · Given by Theoxena at the Castalian spring
Appearance: a human eye, brown and entirely unclouded, set in a lens of hardened amber resin about the size of a plum. Warm. It does not track, but people keep checking.
Handout (21 words). “She gave up her eyes so she could sleep. It did not work. Make her look.”
Clue 2. History DC 16, Religion DC 15, or Arcana DC 15: the eye is adult, human, and recent — and a Libyan queen was once granted the setting-aside of her eyes so she could rest. She set them aside the night her household changed, so she would not have to watch. It did not spare her any of it.
Enc. 1 (Sea). Shown to Acheilus it opens the parley automatically with no check — he has seen it before, wet, on his own sand.
Enc. 2 (City). Held up as an action before the Yoke-Sworn: the eye is unmistakably a person’s and the rite’s premise wobbles. Every Yoke-Sworn makes the Morale save at disadvantage for the rest of the encounter, and Alkippe loses one Yoke-Cord charge.
Enc. 3 — one use, three choices. Into the Bier (action, adjacent): her Night-Smoke cannot enter it, and 0 HP destroys her. Into her socket (action; she must be grappled, restrained, stunned, or within 5 ft. and unaware): DC 18 Wis or stunned until the end of her next turn, with Sleepless Regeneration offline until then. Into Herophile’s hands (action, adjacent): she looks into her mother’s own eye and sees what was actually done and what was never coming — every remaining step of Herophile’s Choice completes at once.
DM note. Make the party choose out loud and do not warn them which is “correct.” The Bier is the one that ends the monster; the socket is the one that buys a round; the girl’s hands is the one that ends the session without a body. All three are right answers to different questions.
The Sacrificial Garlands
Ritual Object (encounter item) · Crisa · Three fillets of white wool and green laurel
What they are: the rite’s claim, worn at throat, wrists, and brow. Whoever wears them is the claimant. Nothing else marks the rite and nothing else can.
Tear them off Alcyoneus. Action. Sleight of Hand DC 14 or Athletics DC 14, automatic if adjacent and unopposed. The Rite Track drops back one step; the Bronze Yoke-Heifer is stunned for 1 round.
Wear them yourself. Action. The rite pauses: Yoke-Sworn cannot attack the wearer, Alkippe attacks the wearer at disadvantage, the Heifer will not charge them. You become the mark — in Enc. 3 Queen Lamia opens The Queen’s Welcome on you, and Name Them spoken by you raises her DC to 20.
Destroy them. Off the Leap or into a brazier. Every Yoke-Sworn makes the DC 16 Wisdom Morale save or flees; the Heifer is stunned 1 round; Alkippe loses her remaining Yoke-Cord charges.
DM note. This is the beat the encounter exists for. Do not require the party to find it — if they stall, Alcyoneus looks at the garlands, then at them.
The Bier of Shed Skins
Environmental Feature (Enc. 3) · The deepest drift against the south wall
AC 12 | HP 40 | Vulnerable fire, radiant | Immune poison, psychic
A season’s worth of translucent shed serpent-skin, layered forty deep, with a very old diadem near the bottom.
Why it matters. At 0 hit points Queen Lamia becomes Night-Smoke and streams here. Intact and Eye-free → she reforms in 1 hour with 50 HP. Destroyed, or holding the Sleepless Eye → she is destroyed.
Burning it. About one round of committed effort with an open flame. She will defend it: from the moment it takes damage she spends every available legendary action on whoever is nearest.
DM note. Telegraph it. Perception DC 13, or any inspection of the drifts, shows the diadem and the way the skins are arranged rather than shed — and, if anyone looks closely, that the arrangement is a bed with room in it for four. Players who work it out on their own have earned the whole ending.
Reward Cards
Post-session keepables. Reward is the first tag. Mechanics below are for ongoing use after this oneshot.
Sleepless Fangs of Lamia
Reward · Crafting Component · Wondrous
Mechanics. Kept whole, the pair are a crafting component. Over a long rest, a character proficient with smith's tools or leatherworker's tools can set them into one weapon (DC 15 check; on a failure the attempt costs the rest but not the fangs). The weapon becomes a Fangbound Weapon: once on each of your turns when you hit a creature that is not a construct or undead with it, you deal an extra 1d6 necrotic damage and regain hit points equal to half that amount. Three times per long rest, when you hit a creature that is grappled, restrained, incapacitated, or unable to see you, you can instead deal an extra 4d6 necrotic damage, regain hit points equal to half that amount, and reduce the target's hit point maximum by the necrotic damage dealt until it finishes a long rest. A creature reduced to a hit point maximum of 0 by this weapon dies. Unset, the fangs alone let their bearer sense any creature within 60 feet whose hit point maximum is currently reduced.
Appearance. Two curved fangs the length of a finger, ivory going to amber at the root, warm in the hand and very slightly damp however long they are left to dry.
Lore. Drawn from the Queen of Crisa where she came apart on the Drinking Floor — the teeth that emptied a valley to keep one child unchanged, put to a use their owner would have understood.
Quote. "They do not bite. They ask, and the answer is always yes." — a Delphic armourer, declining the commission
Earn when: Destroy Queen Lamia for good — smoke denied, bier burned — and draw the fangs before the body cools.
The Sleepless Eye
Reward · Wondrous · 1/Long Rest
Mechanics. While you hold the eye, you have advantage on Wisdom (Insight) checks to detect a disguise and you automatically know whether a creature you can see within 30 feet is in a form other than its true one. Once per long rest, as an action, hold the eye up to a shapechanger within 30 feet that can see it: it must succeed on a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw or be stunned until the end of its next turn, and any regeneration or similar trait it has does not function until then. Once per long rest, as an action, press the eye to a creature that is unconscious at 0 hit points: it is stable and cannot lose hit points for 1 minute.
Appearance. A human eye, brown and entirely unclouded, set in a plum-sized lens of hardened amber resin. It is always slightly warm and it does not track, though people keep checking.
Lore. Set aside by a Libyan queen on the night Hera changed her household, so that she would not have to watch, and kept afterward by the sanctuary that could not give it back.
Quote. "She gave up her eyes so she could sleep. It did not work. Make her look." — Theoxena, Senior Pythia
Earn when: Leave Mount Cirphis with Herophile alive — by her own choice or in someone's arms — and the amber eye still in the party's keeping.
