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The Shroud-Mother - AI-generated fantasy Monster

The Shroud-Mother

Legend speaks of a high priestess who refused to leave her flock even after a plague decimated the city. As she died, she inhaled the spores of a rare grave-mold. Instead of passing on, she became the Shroud-Mother, bound forever to the bones of those she failed to save.

Monsters
Medium undead · CR 6 · Unique

The Shroud-Mother

A spectral matron fused with parasitic necrotic fungi, serving as the weeping source of an ossuary's unnatural mist.
AC15
HP97/97
CR6
Init
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
ConditionsNone

Combat

AC 15 · HP 97 · CR 6

The Shroud-Mother

Medium undead (spirit), neutral evil
Armor Class15 (Natural Armor)
Hit Points97 (15d8 + 30)
Speed
0 ft. walk,
40 ft. fly (hover)
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
Saving ThrowsWISCHA
SkillsStealthPerceptionInsight
Damage Resistances
Acid,
Cold,
Necrotic,
Thunder,
Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from nonmagical attacks
Immunities
Poison,
Condition: Charmed,
Condition: Exhaustion,
Condition: Grappled,
Condition: Paralyzed,
Condition: Petrified,
Condition: Poisoned,
Condition: Prone,
Condition: Restrained
Weaknesses
Vulnerability: Fire,
Weakness: Radiant (Radiant damage ignores Resistances)
Senses
Darkvision 60 ft.,
Blindsight 30 ft. (within mist),
Passive Perception 15
Languages
Common,
Abyssal
Challenge6
Proficiency Bonus+3
Misty Presence. A 20-foot radius sphere of thick mist moves with the Shroud-Mother. This area is heavily obscured for creatures other than the Shroud-Mother or her fungal undead.
Fungal Displacement. Whenever a creature hits the Shroud-Mother with an attack while she is in mist, roll a d6. On a 4 or higher, the attack hits a fungal mirror-image instead, and the Shroud-Mother takes no damage.
Incorporeal Movement. She can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. She takes 5 () force damage if she ends her turn inside an object.
Sunlight Sensitivity. While in sunlight, she has disadvantage on attack rolls and Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.

Actions

Multiattack. The Shroud-Mother makes two Grave-Spore Touch attacks.
Grave-Spore Touch. Melee Weapon Attack: to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 () necrotic damage plus 7 () poison damage. The target must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1 minute.
Mist-Walk. The Shroud-Mother magically teleports up to 40 feet to an unoccupied space she can see that is also within mist or dim light. She can take the Hide action as a bonus action after teleporting.
Release Spore-Thralls (1/Day). The Shroud-Mother exhales a cloud of black spores. Up to 3 Skeletons or Zombies (DM's choice) rise from the ground in unoccupied spaces within 30 feet. These undead are covered in moss and have resistance to necrotic damage.

Reactions

Misty Fade. When the Shroud-Mother takes damage, she can use her reaction to dissolve into mist and teleport 20 feet to an unoccupied space. She becomes invisible until the start of her next turn or until she attacks.

Legendary Actions

Grave Chill. The Shroud-Mother targets one creature within 30 feet. The target must succeed on a Constitution save or take 9 () cold damage and have its speed reduced by 10 feet until the end of its next turn.
Command Thrall. One fungal undead under her control can use its reaction to make a melee attack.
Suffocating Veil (Costs 2 Actions) (costs 2 actions). The mist around her thickens. Each creature within 20 feet must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be Blinded until the end of its next turn.
Role
Area Controller Skirmisher
Built for
Level 5

Gear

  • Veil of the Ossuary (Wondrous Item, Non-tradable)Tattered silk that smells of ancient earth. While worn by an undead, it provides resistance to necrotic damage.

Feats

Mobile
Skulker

Notes for the game master

Fire damage is key. If she takes more than 15 fire damage in a single turn, her Fungal Displacement trait is suppressed until the end of her next turn.
Bright light (like from a Daylight spell) counts as sunlight for her Sunlight Sensitivity.

Tactics

  1. Opening

    She starts the combat heavily obscured in her own mist, using Release Spore-Thralls to clutter the battlefield and force the players to engage her minions first.

  2. Mid-fight

    She uses Mist-Walk every turn to stay out of melee range, picking off glass cannons with Grave-Spore Touch and using Misty Fade to escape if cornered.

  3. End of the fight

    When low on health, she uses Suffocating Veil to blind the party and focuses all legendary actions on moving and hiding to drag the fight out and let the poison damage tick.

  4. Retreat

    She will not leave the Ossuary. If reduced to 10 HP, she attempts to merge with the central pillar of skulls to regenerate, becoming a stationary target that must be burnt out.

How it fights

Stay within 20ft of at least one enemy to keep them inside the Misty Presence sphere.
Use incorporeal movement to hide inside the floor or walls if the party uses area-of-effect fire spells.
Target healers or fire-casters first.

Who it attacks first

Wizards or Druids using Fire spells.
Clerics using Radiant Light.
Rogues trying to use the mist against her.

Works well with

Gas Spores: Having these floating in her mist adds extra risk to fire spells (explosions).
Shambling Mounds: Can act as the 'muscle' while she provides the obscurement.

How to beat it

Control Water (Fog Cloud variants) to disperse the mist.
Continual Flame or Daylight spells to counteract her displacement and inflict disadvantage.
Paladins with Divine Smite (Radiant damage).

Ways to avoid a fight

The Shroud-Mother can be reasoned with if a player offers a significant relic belonging to one of the people buried in the ossuary.
She may share secrets of the dungeon if her fungal infestation is cured through a high-level Greater Restoration or ritual.

Ecology

A tall, unnaturally slender figure draped in translucent, tattered burial veils. Her skin is a pallid grey, marbled with pulsing black fungal veins. Thick, white shelf-mushrooms grow from her shoulders and crown. Her feet never touch the ground, and the heavy mist of the Ossuary seems to bleed directly from the hems of her tattered robes.

Behavior

She oscillates between mournful sobbing and sudden, shrieking outbursts of violence. She protects the remains in the Ossuary with a twisted maternal instinct, viewing intruders as nutrients for her 'garden' of lesser undead.

How it lives

The Shroud-Mother is a symbiotic horror. She feeds on the lingering souls of the dead while her fungal half consumes their physical forms, recycling the energy into a thick, necro-toxic fog that sustains her and her skeletal brood.

Lair

The Heart of the Ossuary, a chamber filled with knee-deep mist and walls made of neatly stacked skulls overgrown with bioluminescent necro-fungus.

Habitat
Underground Ossuaries, Ancient Catacombs, Fog-Choked Ruins

Signs that it is near

A sudden drop in temperature accompanied by a thick, sweet-smelling fog.
Bones covered in a rapidly growing, grey velvet mold.
The sound of a woman weeping from several directions at once.
White spores floating in the air like slow-falling snow.

Tags

Spectral,
Fungal,
Mist-Walker,
Boss

Lore

Legend speaks of a high priestess who refused to leave her flock even after a plague decimated the city. As she died, she inhaled the spores of a rare grave-mold. Instead of passing on, she became the Shroud-Mother, bound forever to the bones of those she failed to save.

What drives it

To expand the reach of her mist and ensure no bone in her care is ever disturbed by the living.

After the fight

Once defeated, the mist in the Ossuary dissipates over 24 hours. The fungi on the walls wither and turn to grey ash, leaving the bones brittle but finally at rest.

“As she died, she inhaled the spores of a rare grave-mold.”
From its lore

Variants

The Blighted Mother: CR 9, her spores inflict the Rotting Disease (deals necrotic damage over time).
The Frozen Matron: Appears in arctic tombs, dealing Cold damage instead of Poison.

Hooks

Plot hooks

The local graveyard has become encased in a permanent fog that is slowly creeping toward the village.
A nobleman's family crest was buried in the Ossuary, and he needs it retrieved from 'The Weeping Mist'.
Fungal growths on local livestock match a strange moss found only in the ancient catacombs.

How to use it

End-of-Dungeon boss for the Ossuary level.
A recurring ghost that haunts a misty graveyard until her fungal 'heart' is found and burned.

Treasure

Matron's Locket (contains a faded portrait and a gem worth 500gp)
3x Essence of Grave-Mold (used to brew Potions of Poison Resistance)
A Cloak of Elvenkind that looks like tattered grey silk

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