Chapter 6

Necrophore

The Lazaret classes the pupating brood as Necrophore; common folk call it wakelight, for the light its adults carry. It is the only brood that wants nothing from the living, and the one a party leaves behind, in its dead. The Lazaret’s standing instruction for it: make no light, make no dead.

How a necrophore works

The brood is three lines of moths on one closed loop: adults lay in fresh corpses, larvae climb out and eat the dead, and a larva killed by the wrong damage seals into a husk and opens as an adult. Nothing is implanted in the living, nothing infects, and nobody catches anything. What the brood needs is bodies, and a party moving through its territory produces them faster than anything else in the world.

NOTE

Nothing a line leaves behind hampers that line. Gravewax is Difficult Terrain for everything except the tallow line that laid it down, and a lychfield — every line’s leavings at once — is Difficult Terrain for everything except Necrophores.

Reproduction

An adult lays in any fresh corpse it can reach. It never gets inside a body — a moth the size of a fishing boat could not — so it settles over the corpse and lays through its ovipositor, and 1d6 + 2 hours later 1d4 larvae climb out of it:

Adult	Lays in	Larvae
Emberwing	Any fresh corpse	Cinder Nits
Tallow Imago	Any fresh corpse	Gravewax Grubs
Reliquary Imago	Any fresh corpse	Crypt Instars

DESIGN NOTE

Three hours is short enough that a party resting where they fought wakes to it, and long enough that a party that kills something and keeps walking is gone before it matters. A corpse carried out of a dungeon is usually carried for longer than eight hours, which is the third case.

NOTE

Adults lay outside a fight as well. The Reaction on each stat block is the version that happens in front of the party. A colony’s territory is full of bodies seeded days ago, and a battlefield, a barrow, or a plague pit inside one has been seeded unless something prevented it.

Pupation and the husk

Three creatures in this chapter pupate: the cinder nit, the gravewax grub, and the sepulchre nymph. Each is the last larval stage of its line, and each carries the Pupation trait on its stat block. The trait always works the same way: reduced to 0 Hit Points by anything except the damage its line cannot survive, the larva seals where it stands as a husk, and 1 hour later the husk splits and the adult takes its first turn.

Each husk has a stat block of its own, at the end of this chapter:

Line	Husk	Destroyed by	Opens as
Ember	Cinder Nit	Cold	Emberwing
Tallow	Gravewax Grub	Cold or Thunder	Tallow Imago
Reliquary	Sepulchre Nymph	Radiant	Reliquary Imago

Nothing else husks: instars and masses are destroyed at 0 Hit Points like anything living, and an adult, once opened, never seals again. During its hour a husk is immune to every condition, takes no actions, and keeps its Vulnerability to its line’s damage the whole time.

NOTE

Failed husks. Not every husk opens. In a rare few the change halts partway, and the light that should have flown stays where it is and roots. What that becomes is the Lych Lantern.

A colony’s territory

A Necrophore colony has no den and no center. Its territory is wherever corpses are.

Inside a colony’s ground, any corpse that is not a necrophore and dead longer than 3 hours has been seeded unless something prevented it — burned, frozen, sunk in running water, or sealed from the air.

The adults navigate by warmth and by one another’s light, and fresh death draws them from miles away. When creatures die in a colony’s territory, 1d4 adults arrive within 1d6 + 2 hours of the first death. They come to lay, and they fight whatever interferes.

The interval between death and hatching is the window. Corpses burned or frozen inside it produce nothing, and a party willing to spend the hours can starve a colony out of a region one battlefield at a time. The Lazaret pays for exactly this work, by the field.

Reading the ground

The signs are leavings: split husks beside old bones, runnels of gray wax down a stair, scorch-rings in grass nothing ever burned, small carcasses wedged into thorn trees at head height — the last being not the brood but the thing that hunts it. A creature that succeeds on a DC 13 Intelligence (Nature) or Wisdom (Survival) check reads the signs, and the age of the oldest husk dates the colony.

Resting and light in a colony’s ground

Fire after dark in a colony’s ground is a beacon, and so is a lantern. A party that keeps a cold, dark camp passes the night beneath the colony’s notice unless something nearby dies.

The diseases

The Necrophore has no disease and no counter: nothing in this chapter infects a living creature, and nothing here is cured. Of the spells in What magic does, two have a use against this brood:

Detect Poison and Disease marks every seeded corpse in range.
Gentle Repose prevents a corpse from being seeded. An already seeded corpse’s clock stops for the spell’s duration, and a body can be carried home through the brood’s own territory.

The creatures

The ember line

The ember line runs hot: its larvae hatch warm, its adults carry a banked-coal heat instead of a lamp, and its territory smells of ash where nothing ever burned. Cold is what it cannot survive:

Cinder Nit

Tiny Monstrosity, Unaligned

The first stage of the ember line: a hot, restless mite the color of a banked coal, hatched from eggs laid in a fresh corpse. It feeds on carrion and warmth. Killed by anything but cold, it seals where it stands and finishes becoming an emberwing.

AC: 12
Initiative: +2 (12)
HP: 7 (3d4)
Speed: 20 ft., Climb 20 ft.

Ability	Score	Mod	Save	Ability	Score	Mod	Save
STR	6	−2	−2	INT	2	−4	−4
DEX	14	+2	+2	WIS	8	−1	−1
CON	10	+0	+0	CHA	3	−4	−4

Resistances: Fire
Immunities: Poison; Poisoned
Skills: Stealth +4
Senses: Darkvision 30 ft., Passive Perception 9
CR: 1/8 (XP 25; PB +2)

Traits

Pupation. When the nit drops to 0 Hit Points, it isn’t destroyed unless the damage was Cold damage. Instead it seals itself where it stands, becoming a Cinder Nit Husk with its full Hit Points.

Actions

Nip. Melee Attack Roll: +4, reach 5 ft. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) Piercing damage plus 2 (1d4) Fire damage.

Running it. A nit reduced to 0 Hit Points by anything except Cold damage is an emberwing an hour later, somewhere the party is probably no longer standing. The husk is weak, so a single cantrip finishes it. Evidence placed early — a split husk beside old bones — hands the party the cycle before the first husk forms.

Cinder Swarm

Medium Swarm Of Tiny Monstrosities, Unaligned

Where one corpse held many eggs, the nits stay together: a rustling, glowing carpet that moves like poured coals and strips a body to the bone in a night. A swarm is not a pack. It is a nursery that has learned to walk.

AC: 12
Initiative: +2 (12)
HP: 27 (5d8+5)
Speed: 20 ft., Climb 20 ft.

Ability	Score	Mod	Save	Ability	Score	Mod	Save
STR	6	−2	−2	INT	2	−4	−4
DEX	14	+2	+2	WIS	8	−1	−1
CON	12	+1	+1	CHA	3	−4	−4

Resistances: Bludgeoning, Piercing, Slashing, Fire
Immunities: Poison; Charmed, Frightened, Grappled, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned, Prone, Restrained, Stunned
Senses: Darkvision 30 ft., Passive Perception 9
CR: 1 (XP 200; PB +2)

Traits

Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature’s space and vice versa, and it can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny mite. It can’t regain Hit Points or gain Temporary Hit Points.

Husking Mass. When the swarm drops to 0 Hit Points, unless the damage that reduced it was Cold damage, 1d4 husks form in its space, each as described in the Cinder Nit’s Pupation trait.

Actions

Bites. Melee Attack Roll: +4, reach 5 ft., one creature in the swarm’s space. Hit: 7 (2d4 + 2) Piercing damage plus 3 (1d6) Fire damage, or 4 (1d4 + 2) Piercing damage plus 2 (1d4) Fire damage if the swarm is Bloodied.

Running it. The swarm is the nit’s arithmetic at scale: weapons half-work, its space is the party’s space, and killing it without Cold damage converts one problem into 1d4 scheduled ones. A swarm crossing a camp at night is the classic first meeting with this line — loud, survivable, and instructive, provided somebody counts the husks.

Emberwing

Small Monstrosity, Unaligned

The winged adult of the ember line: a moth of ash and smoldering wing that hunts by its own dim glow and lays its eggs in the newly dead. Everything it lands on, it scorches.

AC: 14
Initiative: +3 (13)
HP: 45 (7d6+21)
Speed: 20 ft., Fly 40 ft.

Ability	Score	Mod	Save	Ability	Score	Mod	Save
STR	12	+1	+1	INT	4	−3	−3
DEX	16	+3	+3	WIS	11	+0	+0
CON	16	+3	+3	CHA	7	−2	−2

Resistances: Fire
Immunities: Poison; Poisoned, Prone
Skills: Perception +2, Stealth +5
Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., Passive Perception 12
CR: 2 (XP 450; PB +2)

Traits

Heat Shimmer. The emberwing has Advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made while in Bright Light or within 10 feet of an open flame.

Actions

Multiattack. The emberwing makes two Searing Bite attacks.

Searing Bite. Melee Attack Roll: +5, reach 5 ft. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) Piercing damage plus 3 (1d6) Fire damage.

Ash Plume (1/Day). Dexterity Saving Throw: DC 13, each creature in a 15-foot Cone. Failure: 10 (3d6) Fire damage, and the target has the Blinded condition until the end of its next turn. Success: Half damage only.

Bonus Actions

Flit. The emberwing moves up to half its Fly Speed without provoking Opportunity Attacks.

Reactions

Seed the Dead. Trigger: A creature the emberwing can see dies within 30 feet of it. Response: The emberwing moves up to half its Fly Speed toward the corpse without provoking Opportunity Attacks. If it ends that movement within 5 feet of the corpse, it settles over the body and lays through its ovipositor. After 1d6 + 2 hours, 1d4 Cinder Nits climb out of the body.

Running it. The emberwing wants a body on the ground and does not distinguish whose: it breaks off to finish a dying creature rather than press a healthy one, and it seeds whatever falls, including its own. Flit lets it strike and withdraw without Opportunity Attacks, and Heat Shimmer covers it in Bright Light and beside open flame — including fires its own Ash Plume starts.

Pyre Matron

Large Monstrosity, Unaligned

An emberwing that has outlived enough layings: heavy as a warhorse, wings like sheets of beaten char, the air above her shimmering with body heat. Matrons roost where the dying has been steady for years — border forts, plague towns, roads the wars keep using — and the ground beneath a roost never frosts.

AC: 16
Initiative: +3 (13)
HP: 127 (15d10+45)
Speed: 20 ft., Fly 50 ft. (hover)

Ability	Score	Mod	Save	Ability	Score	Mod	Save
STR	18	+4	+4	INT	5	−3	−3
DEX	16	+3	+6	WIS	14	+2	+5
CON	16	+3	+3	CHA	12	+1	+1

Resistances: Necrotic
Immunities: Fire, Poison; Blinded, Charmed, Exhaustion, Frightened, Poisoned
Skills: Perception +5, Stealth +6
Senses: Darkvision 120 ft., Passive Perception 15
CR: 7 (XP 2,900; PB +3)

Traits

Furnace Body. A creature that touches the matron or hits it with a melee attack while within 5 feet of it takes 3 (1d6) Fire damage.

Actions

Multiattack. The matron makes two Searing Bite attacks.

Searing Bite. Melee Attack Roll: +7, reach 5 ft. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) Piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) Fire damage.

Cinder Storm (Recharge 5–6). Dexterity Saving Throw: DC 15, each creature in a 30-foot Cone. Failure: 28 (8d6) Fire damage, and the target has the Blinded condition until the end of its next turn as the ash takes its eyes. Success: Half damage only.

Bonus Actions

Flit. The matron moves up to half its Fly Speed without provoking Opportunity Attacks.

Reactions

Seed the Dead. Trigger: A creature the matron can see dies within 30 feet of it. Response: The matron moves up to half its Fly Speed toward the corpse without provoking Opportunity Attacks. If it ends that movement within 5 feet of the corpse, it settles over the body and lays through its ovipositor. After 1d6 + 2 hours, 1d4 Cinder Nits climb out of the body.

Running it. Furnace Body taxes every melee round, and Cinder Storm blinds the ranks that keep back. A matron’s presence is information: the region’s dying has been steady enough, for long enough, to keep her fed — and removing her without removing the cause leaves the roost open for the next.

The tallow line

The tallow line renders the dead: its larvae turn a corpse’s fats into gravewax, its adults carry the corpse-light, and everything it holds long enough ends up sheeted in gray. Cold cracks it and thunder shakes it apart:

Gravewax Grub

Small Monstrosity, Unaligned

The larva of the tallow line: a fat, slick, candle-pale worm that feeds on the fats of the dead and renders them into gravewax. Killed by anything but cold or thunder, it hardens into a husk and opens as a tallow imago.

AC: 13
Initiative: +1 (11)
HP: 22 (4d6+8)
Speed: 20 ft., Climb 20 ft.

Ability	Score	Mod	Save	Ability	Score	Mod	Save
STR	12	+1	+1	INT	2	−4	−4
DEX	12	+1	+1	WIS	8	−1	−1
CON	14	+2	+2	CHA	3	−4	−4

Resistances: Necrotic
Immunities: Poison; Blinded, Charmed, Frightened, Poisoned
Skills: Stealth +3
Senses: Blindsight 60 ft., Passive Perception 9
CR: 1/2 (XP 100; PB +2)

Traits

Pupation. When the grub drops to 0 Hit Points, it isn’t destroyed unless the damage was Cold or Thunder damage. Instead it seals itself where it stands, becoming a Gravewax Grub Husk with its full Hit Points.

Slick Hide. The grub automatically escapes the Grappled condition at the end of its turn.

Actions

Chew. Melee Attack Roll: +3, reach 5 ft. Hit: 5 (1d8 + 1) Piercing damage plus 3 (1d6) Necrotic damage.

Wax Spit (1/Day). Dexterity Saving Throw: DC 12, each creature in a 15-foot Cone. Failure: 7 (2d6) Bludgeoning damage, and the target’s Speed is 0 until the end of its next turn. Success: Half damage only.

Running it. The gap between the grub and its adult is the widest in the library — CR 1/2 against CR 5 — so a nest of grubs is costed against what the nest becomes. Slick Hide removes the workaround of grappling one and carrying it somewhere safer, and Wax Spit is most dangerous beside a husk that is about to open.

Gravewax Mass

Large Monstrosity, Unaligned

In a rich larder — a plague pit, a sealed barrow, a battlefield plowed under — the grubs of several corpses meet, and rather than compete they fuse under a shared coat of their own wax. The mass moves like slow porridge and eats like a tide.

AC: 12
Initiative: −3 (7)
HP: 68 (8d10+24)
Speed: 10 ft., Climb 10 ft.

Ability	Score	Mod	Save	Ability	Score	Mod	Save
STR	16	+3	+3	INT	1	−5	−5
DEX	5	−3	−3	WIS	8	−1	−1
CON	16	+3	+3	CHA	2	−4	−4

Resistances: Bludgeoning, Necrotic
Immunities: Poison; Blinded, Charmed, Frightened, Poisoned, Prone
Senses: Blindsight 30 ft., Passive Perception 9
CR: 3 (XP 700; PB +2)

Traits

Rendered Store. When the mass drops to 0 Hit Points, unless the damage that reduced it was Cold or Thunder damage, it collapses and 1d4 Gravewax Grubs emerge from the ruin with their full Hit Points.

Slick Mass. The mass automatically escapes the Grappled and Restrained conditions at the end of its turn, and it can squeeze through any opening at least 1 foot across.

Actions

Pseudopod. Melee Attack Roll: +5, reach 10 ft. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) Bludgeoning damage plus 3 (1d6) Necrotic damage.

Wax Slough (Recharge 5–6). Dexterity Saving Throw: DC 13, each creature in a 10-foot Emanation originating from the mass. Failure: 10 (3d6) Bludgeoning damage, and the target’s Speed is 0 until the end of its next turn as the wax sets on it. Success: Half damage only.

Running it. The mass is a door problem: slow, unwilling to chase, and never met in the open — it fills the stair down to the crypt the party needs. Killing it with sword or fire converts the door problem into 1d4 grubs at full Hit Points in a confined space. Cold or Thunder damage ends it clean, which is the line’s lesson in one creature.

Tallow Font

Large Monstrosity, Unaligned

A mass that stopped moving. Anchored over a deep larder, it turns entirely to rendering: a pale, breathing hummock that sheets its chamber in gravewax and feeds the line's young the way a spring feeds a valley. The Lazaret classes fonts as infrastructure rather than fauna, and burns them with the same priority as bridges.

AC: 14
Initiative: −5 (5)
HP: 90 (12d10+24)
Speed: 0 ft.

Ability	Score	Mod	Save	Ability	Score	Mod	Save
STR	16	+3	+3	INT	1	−5	−5
DEX	1	−5	−5	WIS	10	+0	+0
CON	14	+2	+2	CHA	2	−4	−4

Resistances: Bludgeoning, Necrotic
Immunities: Poison; Blinded, Charmed, Frightened, Poisoned, Prone
Senses: Blindsight 60 ft., Passive Perception 10
CR: 4 (XP 1,100; PB +2)

Traits

Rooted. The font can’t move and can’t be moved against its will.

Waxen Ground. The ground within 15 feet of the font is sheeted in gravewax and is Difficult Terrain for creatures other than Necrophores of the tallow line. A creature that takes the Dash action while on it must succeed on a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw or have the Prone condition.

Font. A Necrophore larva that starts its turn within 30 feet of the font regains 5 Hit Points.

Rendered Deep. When the font drops to 0 Hit Points, unless the damage that reduced it was Cold or Thunder damage, it collapses in a wave: each creature within 15 feet of it makes a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw, taking 14 (4d6) Bludgeoning damage on a failed save or half as much damage on a successful one, and 1d4 Gravewax Grubs emerge from the ruin with their full Hit Points.

Actions

Multiattack. The font makes two Scald attacks.

Scald. Ranged Attack Roll: +5, range 30 ft. Hit: 7 (2d6) Bludgeoning damage plus 4 (1d8) Fire damage, and the target’s Speed decreases by 10 feet until the end of its next turn as the wax sets.

Running it. The font makes fights around it attritional: Waxen Ground slows the party, Scald slows them further, and every Necrophore larva within 30 feet heals 5 Hit Points a round. The intended order of operations — the font first, by Cold or Thunder damage — is backward from the instinct to clear the small things before the large one. A chamber sheeted in gray had a font in it once, or still has one, deeper in.

Tallow Imago

Large Monstrosity, Unaligned

The flying adult of the tallow line: a heavy, greasy moth shedding a sick corpse-light. The wax held only the grub; the wings open as it rises, which is how it ends up spanning a cart. It drains the living with its bite, lays in whatever dies near it, and keeps the last hour of every creature its larva ate, pantomiming them without a voice.

AC: 15
Initiative: +3 (13)
HP: 105 (14d10+28)
Speed: 20 ft., Fly 50 ft. (hover)

Ability	Score	Mod	Save	Ability	Score	Mod	Save
STR	16	+3	+3	INT	6	−2	−2
DEX	17	+3	+6	WIS	14	+2	+5
CON	15	+2	+2	CHA	14	+2	+2

Resistances: Necrotic
Immunities: Poison; Blinded, Charmed, Exhaustion, Poisoned
Skills: Perception +5, Stealth +6
Senses: Darkvision 120 ft., Passive Perception 15
Languages: understands Common but can’t speak
CR: 5 (XP 1,800; PB +3)

Traits

Corpse-Light. The imago sheds Bright Light in a 30-foot radius and Dim Light for an additional 30 feet. A creature that starts its turn in that Bright Light and can see the imago makes a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature has the Charmed condition until the start of its next turn, and it must move toward the imago on its turn if able.

Inherited Memory. The imago retains the final hour of memory of every creature its larval stage consumed. It can pantomime those memories but can’t speak them.

Actions

Multiattack. The imago makes two Proboscis attacks.

Proboscis. Melee Attack Roll: +6, reach 10 ft. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) Piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) Necrotic damage, and the target’s Hit Point maximum decreases by an amount equal to the Necrotic damage taken. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a Long Rest.

Scale Cloud (Recharge 5–6). Constitution Saving Throw: DC 13, each creature in a 20-foot Emanation originating from the imago. Failure: 18 (4d8) Poison damage, and the target has the Blinded condition until the end of its next turn. Success: Half damage only.

Bonus Actions

Guttering. The imago extinguishes or reignites its Corpse-Light, or it moves up to half its Fly Speed without provoking Opportunity Attacks.

Reactions

Seed the Dead. Trigger: A creature the imago can see dies within 30 feet of it. Response: The imago moves up to half its Fly Speed toward the corpse without provoking Opportunity Attacks. If it ends that movement within 5 feet of the corpse, it settles over the body and lays through its ovipositor. After 1d6 + 2 hours, 1d4 Gravewax Grubs climb out of the body.

Running it. Guttering makes Corpse-Light a choice each round: lit to draw a spread-out party into reach, dark when the glow becomes an aiming point — the imago’s own Darkvision reaches 120 feet either way. Inherited Memory has no mechanical effect: the imago silently acts out the last hour of creatures its larva consumed, one of which can be whoever the party came looking for.

Catafalque Moth

Huge Monstrosity, Unaligned

The tallow line's elder: a moth the size of a fishing boat that no longer bothers to fly far, draping itself over biers, gatehouses, and charnel-chapel roofs like a pall laid by an enormous hand. Its corpse-light is the softest in the brood and the hardest to look away from. What it remembers, it remembers in crowds.

AC: 17
Initiative: +10 (20)
HP: 178 (17d12+68)
Speed: 20 ft., Fly 50 ft. (hover)

Ability	Score	Mod	Save	Ability	Score	Mod	Save
STR	20	+5	+5	INT	8	−1	−1
DEX	15	+2	+6	WIS	16	+3	+7
CON	18	+4	+8	CHA	16	+3	+3

Resistances: Necrotic
Immunities: Poison; Blinded, Charmed, Exhaustion, Frightened, Poisoned
Skills: Perception +7, Stealth +6
Senses: Darkvision 120 ft., Passive Perception 17
Languages: understands Common but can’t speak
CR: 10 (XP 5,900; PB +4)

Traits

Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the moth fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.

Corpse-Light. The moth sheds Bright Light in a 30-foot radius and Dim Light for an additional 30 feet. A creature that starts its turn in that Bright Light and can see the moth makes a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature has the Charmed condition until the start of its next turn, and it must move toward the moth on its turn if able.

Inherited Memory. The moth retains the final hour of memory of every creature its larval stage consumed. It can pantomime those memories but can’t speak them.

Actions

Multiattack. The moth makes two Proboscis attacks.

Proboscis. Melee Attack Roll: +9, reach 10 ft. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) Piercing damage plus 9 (2d8) Necrotic damage, and the target’s Hit Point maximum decreases by an amount equal to the Necrotic damage taken. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a Long Rest.

Wing Pall (Recharge 5–6). Constitution Saving Throw: DC 16, each creature in a 30-foot Emanation originating from the moth. Failure: 27 (6d8) Necrotic damage, and the target’s Speed is halved until the end of its next turn as settling wax coats it. Success: Half damage only. Failure or Success: Nonmagical flames in the Emanation are extinguished.

Bonus Actions

Guttering. The moth extinguishes or reignites its Corpse-Light, or it moves up to half its Fly Speed without provoking Opportunity Attacks.

Reactions

Seed the Dead. Trigger: A creature the moth can see dies within 30 feet of it. Response: The moth moves up to half its Fly Speed toward the corpse without provoking Opportunity Attacks. If it ends that movement within 5 feet of the corpse, it settles over the body and lays through its ovipositor. After 1d6 + 2 hours, 1d4 Gravewax Grubs climb out of the body.

Legendary Actions (3/round)

Immediately after another creature’s turn, this creature can expend a use to take one of the following actions. It regains all expended uses at the start of each of its turns.

Drift. The moth moves up to half its Fly Speed without provoking Opportunity Attacks. The moth can’t take this action again until the start of its next turn.

Wax Fall. Dexterity Saving Throw: DC 16, each creature in a 10-foot Emanation originating from the moth. Failure: 9 (2d8) Bludgeoning damage, and the target’s Speed decreases by 10 feet until the end of its next turn. Success: Half damage only. The moth can’t take this action again until the start of its next turn.

Seize. The moth makes one Proboscis attack. The attack deals only its Piercing damage, with no Necrotic damage. The moth can’t take this action again until the start of its next turn.

Running it. Wing Pall snuffing nonmagical flames is the fight’s hinge: torches die, the dark closes, and the only light left in the room is the moth’s — the light that charms. A party with magical light or Darkvision fights a Huge monster; a party with torches fights the dark. Somewhere in the crowd of gestures it endlessly performs may be the one death the party came to ask about.

The reliquary line

The reliquary line remembers: its young feed slowest and grow largest, its adult speaks in the voices of everything it has eaten, and its territory is wherever the dead were laid with care. Radiance is the one thing it cannot pass through:

Crypt Instar

Small Monstrosity, Unaligned

What climbs from a corpse the reliquary line has seeded: a hand-length burrower, translucent as church glass, that spends thirty days eating before it is anything worth a file. Instars work in broods, dragging the newly buried down through the floors of their graves.

AC: 14
Initiative: +2 (12)
HP: 44 (8d6+16)
Speed: 25 ft., Burrow 10 ft., Climb 25 ft.

Ability	Score	Mod	Save	Ability	Score	Mod	Save
STR	14	+2	+2	INT	3	−4	−4
DEX	14	+2	+2	WIS	12	+1	+1
CON	14	+2	+2	CHA	5	−3	−3

Resistances: Necrotic
Immunities: Poison; Charmed, Frightened, Poisoned
Skills: Perception +3, Stealth +4
Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., Tremorsense 30 ft., Passive Perception 13
CR: 3 (XP 700; PB +2)

Traits

Grave-Fed. Whenever the instar reduces a creature to 0 Hit Points, the instar regains 5 Hit Points.

Growth. An instar that feeds on the dead for 30 days becomes a Sepulchre Nymph.

Actions

Multiattack. The instar makes two Rake attacks.

Rake. Melee Attack Roll: +4, reach 5 ft. Hit: 7 (2d4 + 2) Slashing damage plus 3 (1d6) Necrotic damage.

Bonus Actions

Burrow Away. The instar burrows up to half its Speed without provoking Opportunity Attacks.

Running it. The instar is the reliquary line’s only affordable encounter, and affordable on purpose: with no Pupation trait it simply dies when killed. The ground it is fought on is the warning — instars mean an imago laid here, and something in the crypt has been feeding them toward nymphs.

Sepulchre Nymph

Medium Monstrosity, Unaligned

The ground stage of the reliquary line, grown from an instar that fed well: a burrower strong on the dead it drags under. Killed by anything but radiance, it seals into the hardest husk the brood makes and opens as a reliquary imago.

AC: 16
Initiative: +2 (12)
HP: 127 (15d8+60)
Speed: 30 ft., Burrow 15 ft., Climb 30 ft.

Ability	Score	Mod	Save	Ability	Score	Mod	Save
STR	18	+4	+4	INT	7	−2	−2
DEX	15	+2	+2	WIS	13	+1	+4
CON	18	+4	+7	CHA	8	−1	−1

Resistances: Necrotic
Immunities: Poison; Charmed, Frightened, Poisoned
Skills: Perception +4, Stealth +5
Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., Tremorsense 60 ft., Passive Perception 14
CR: 8 (XP 3,900; PB +3)

Traits

Pupation. When the nymph drops to 0 Hit Points, it isn’t destroyed unless the damage was Radiant damage. Instead it seals itself where it stands, becoming a Sepulchre Nymph Husk with its full Hit Points.

Grave-Fed. Whenever the nymph reduces a creature to 0 Hit Points, the nymph regains 10 Hit Points.

Actions

Multiattack. The nymph makes three Rake attacks.

Rake. Melee Attack Roll: +7, reach 10 ft. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) Slashing damage plus 5 (2d4) Necrotic damage.

Barrow Breath (Recharge 5–6). Constitution Saving Throw: DC 15, each creature in a 30-foot Cone. Failure: 27 (6d8) Necrotic damage, and the target can’t regain Hit Points until the end of its next turn. Success: Half damage only.

Bonus Actions

Burrow Away. The nymph burrows up to half its Speed without provoking Opportunity Attacks.

Running it. Grave-Fed makes a winning nymph progressively harder to finish, and Barrow Breath shuts off healing across a 30-foot Cone. Its husk is the hardest in the library and an hour is long enough to break it only for a party that stays and works at it. A party that leaves has scheduled a Reliquary Imago, on ground of its choosing.

Reliquary Imago

Huge Monstrosity, Unaligned

The apex of the reliquary line: a vast, luminous moth that carries the final memories of everything its larva ate and speaks in their voices. The husk held only the body; the wings come out folded and open as it rises, which is how it ends up shading a road. A creature that has eaten the right corpse knows things nobody living knows.

AC: 18
Initiative: +13 (23)
HP: 253 (22d12+110)
Speed: 30 ft., Fly 60 ft. (hover)

Ability	Score	Mod	Save	Ability	Score	Mod	Save
STR	22	+6	+6	INT	12	+1	+1
DEX	16	+3	+8	WIS	18	+4	+9
CON	20	+5	+10	CHA	17	+3	+3

Resistances: Necrotic
Immunities: Poison; Blinded, Charmed, Exhaustion, Frightened, Poisoned
Skills: Perception +9, Stealth +8
Senses: Darkvision 120 ft., Passive Perception 19
Languages: Common, Deep Speech
CR: 13 (XP 10,000; PB +5)

Traits

Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the imago fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.

Reliquary Light. The imago sheds Bright Light in a 30-foot radius and Dim Light for an additional 30 feet. A creature that starts its turn in that Bright Light and can see the imago makes a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature has the Charmed condition until the start of its next turn, and it must move toward the imago on its turn if able.

Inherited Memory. The imago retains the final hour of memory of every creature its larval stage consumed, and it can speak in any of their voices.

Actions

Multiattack. The imago makes three Proboscis attacks. It can replace one attack with a use of Charnel Shroud.

Proboscis. Melee Attack Roll: +11, reach 15 ft. Hit: 17 (2d10 + 6) Piercing damage plus 13 (3d8) Necrotic damage, and the target’s Hit Point maximum decreases by an amount equal to the Necrotic damage taken. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a Long Rest.

Charnel Shroud. Constitution Saving Throw: DC 18, each creature in a 20-foot Emanation originating from the imago. Failure: 27 (6d8) Necrotic damage, and the target has the Blinded condition until the end of its next turn. Success: Half damage only.

Bonus Actions

Guttering. The imago extinguishes or reignites its Reliquary Light.

Reactions

Legendary Actions (3/round)

Immediately after another creature’s turn, this creature can expend a use to take one of the following actions. It regains all expended uses at the start of each of its turns.

Drift. The imago moves up to half its Fly Speed without provoking Opportunity Attacks. The imago can’t take this action again until the start of its next turn.

Wing Dust. Dexterity Saving Throw: DC 18, each creature in a 10-foot Emanation originating from the imago. Failure: 10 (3d6) Poison damage. Success: Half damage only. The imago can’t take this action again until the start of its next turn.

Seize. The imago makes one Proboscis attack. The attack deals only its Piercing damage, with no Necrotic damage. The imago can’t take this action again until the start of its next turn.

Running it. Reliquary Light walks failed saves into Charnel Shroud’s Emanation and Proboscis reach. What it does to a party is subtraction — Hit Point maximums walked down hit by hit — and what it does to everything the fight kills is Seed the Dead: the bodies are the battle it is actually fighting. Inherited Memory speaks fluently in the voices of the dead its larva ate, and a creature that has eaten the right corpse knows things nobody living knows.

The husks

A husk is an hour of work left undone. It does nothing, it cannot be moved, and only its line’s damage reaches what is sealed inside:

Cinder Nit Husk

Tiny Monstrosity, Unaligned

A nit that died of anything but cold, sealed where it stood: a knot of hardened ash the size of a walnut, warm to the touch and faintly lit from inside. It has an hour’s work to do and no way at all to defend itself while it does it.

AC: 14
Initiative: −5 (5)
HP: 10
Speed: 0 ft.

Ability	Score	Mod	Save	Ability	Score	Mod	Save
STR	6	−2	−2	INT	1	−5	−5
DEX	1	−5	−5	WIS	3	−4	−4
CON	16	+3	+3	CHA	1	−5	−5

Vulnerabilities: Cold
Immunities: Acid, Bludgeoning, Fire, Force, Lightning, Necrotic, Piercing, Poison, Psychic, Radiant, Slashing, Thunder; Blinded, Charmed, Deafened, Exhaustion, Frightened, Grappled, Incapacitated, Invisible, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned, Prone, Restrained, Stunned, Unconscious
Senses: Passive Perception 6
CR: 0 (XP 10; PB +2)

Traits

Sealed. The husk can’t take actions, and its Speed can’t be increased. Nothing reaches what is inside it except Cold damage.

Opening. One hour after the husk forms, it splits and an Emberwing emerges in its space with its full Hit Points and takes a turn immediately. Destroying the husk before then ends the line’s cycle here.

Running it. The cheapest husk to finish and the easiest to walk away from: 10 Hit Points and Vulnerability to Cold, so one cantrip does it. Six nits killed with steel are six husks, and six emberwings loose in the region by evening.

Gravewax Grub Husk

Small Monstrosity, Unaligned

A grub sealed inside its own rendered wax, pale and smooth and warm as a living body. The surface sets hard enough to turn a blade and stays soft enough to hold a thumbprint, which is how a Lazaret officer tells this hour from the next.

AC: 17
Initiative: −5 (5)
HP: 15
Speed: 0 ft.

Ability	Score	Mod	Save	Ability	Score	Mod	Save
STR	6	−2	−2	INT	1	−5	−5
DEX	1	−5	−5	WIS	3	−4	−4
CON	16	+3	+3	CHA	1	−5	−5

Vulnerabilities: Cold, Thunder
Immunities: Acid, Bludgeoning, Fire, Force, Lightning, Necrotic, Piercing, Poison, Psychic, Radiant, Slashing; Blinded, Charmed, Deafened, Exhaustion, Frightened, Grappled, Incapacitated, Invisible, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned, Prone, Restrained, Stunned, Unconscious
Senses: Passive Perception 6
CR: 0 (XP 10; PB +2)

Traits

Sealed. The husk can’t take actions, and its Speed can’t be increased. Nothing reaches what is inside it except Cold, Thunder damage.

Opening. One hour after the husk forms, it splits and a Tallow Imago emerges in its space with its full Hit Points and takes a turn immediately. Destroying the husk before then ends the line’s cycle here.

Running it. Two damage types open it, which is the tallow line’s whole lesson: a party with Cold or Thunder in reach never meets a Tallow Imago it did not choose to meet.

Sepulchre Nymph Husk

Medium Monstrosity, Unaligned

The hardest thing this brood makes: a case of packed grave-earth and fused casings, the size of a curled person, that rings like fired clay when it is struck. Light is the only thing it was never able to keep out.

AC: 19
Initiative: −5 (5)
HP: 40
Speed: 0 ft.

Ability	Score	Mod	Save	Ability	Score	Mod	Save
STR	6	−2	−2	INT	1	−5	−5
DEX	1	−5	−5	WIS	3	−4	−4
CON	16	+3	+3	CHA	1	−5	−5

Vulnerabilities: Radiant
Immunities: Acid, Bludgeoning, Cold, Fire, Force, Lightning, Necrotic, Piercing, Poison, Psychic, Slashing, Thunder; Blinded, Charmed, Deafened, Exhaustion, Frightened, Grappled, Incapacitated, Invisible, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned, Prone, Restrained, Stunned, Unconscious
Senses: Passive Perception 6
CR: 0 (XP 10; PB +2)

Traits

Sealed. The husk can’t take actions, and its Speed can’t be increased. Nothing reaches what is inside it except Radiant damage.

Opening. One hour after the husk forms, it splits and a Reliquary Imago emerges in its space with its full Hit Points and takes a turn immediately. Destroying the husk before then ends the line’s cycle here.

Running it. Armor Class 19, 40 Hit Points, and one damage type that touches it, so a party without Radiant damage cannot finish this inside the hour however hard it swings. Leaving is a legitimate choice and a scheduled Reliquary Imago.

Strays of the wake

Two creatures belong to no line and to all three. The Lazaret files them under malformations, which is accurate for one of them:

Wakelight Wisp

Tiny Monstrosity, Unaligned

A scrap of living wing that peels from an adult in flight and drifts on its own, dim and warm and searching. Wisps are how a colony finds the dead it did not make: they ride the wind until they cross a corpse, then settle and brighten.

AC: 12
Initiative: +2 (12)
HP: 5 (2d4)
Speed: 5 ft., Fly 40 ft. (hover)

Ability	Score	Mod	Save	Ability	Score	Mod	Save
STR	1	−5	−5	INT	2	−4	−4
DEX	15	+2	+2	WIS	12	+1	+1
CON	10	+0	+0	CHA	4	−3	−3

Resistances: Necrotic
Immunities: Poison; Charmed, Exhaustion, Frightened, Grappled, Poisoned, Prone
Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., Passive Perception 11
CR: 1/4 (XP 50; PB +2)

Traits

Wakelight. The wisp sheds Dim Light in a 20-foot radius.

Death Sense. The wisp knows the location of any dead creature within 300 feet of it.

Actions

Scorch. Melee Attack Roll: +4, reach 5 ft. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) Fire damage.

Beacon. The wisp settles on a dead creature within 5 feet of it and brightens, shedding Bright Light in a 30-foot radius and Dim Light for an additional 30 feet until it moves or is destroyed. Every Necrophore adult within 1 mile knows the location of a corpse a wisp has beaconed.

Bonus Actions

Snuff. The wisp extinguishes its light or rekindles it.

Running it. A wisp is intelligence, in both directions: a dim light drifting downwind means a colony is near and hunting; a bright one standing still means it has found something, and where. Swatting wisps blinds a colony a little at a time — and a wisp following the party means the colony has marked them as a source of dead.

Lych Lantern

Small Monstrosity, Unaligned

Not every husk opens. In a rare few the change halts partway: the thing inside dies, the light it was growing does not, and the sealed case roots where it stands. What remains is a lantern of shell and wax, glowing softly, forever — and the glow calls to whatever is close to death.

AC: 15
Initiative: −4 (6)
HP: 45 (7d6+21)
Speed: 0 ft.

Ability	Score	Mod	Save	Ability	Score	Mod	Save
STR	14	+2	+2	INT	2	−4	−4
DEX	3	−4	−4	WIS	12	+1	+1
CON	16	+3	+3	CHA	6	−2	−2

Resistances: Necrotic
Immunities: Poison; Blinded, Charmed, Deafened, Frightened, Poisoned, Prone
Senses: Blindsight 60 ft., Passive Perception 11
CR: 2 (XP 450; PB +2)

Traits

Rooted. The lantern can’t move. Uprooting it requires a successful DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check; an uprooted lantern dims and dies within 1 hour.

Grave Glow. The lantern sheds Bright Light in a 20-foot radius and Dim Light for an additional 20 feet. A creature that has fewer than half its Hit Points remaining, starts its turn in that Bright Light, and can see the lantern makes a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature has the Charmed condition until the start of its next turn; while Charmed this way, it must move toward the lantern by the most direct route on its turn, and if it ends its turn within 5 feet of the lantern, it has the Incapacitated condition until the start of its next turn.

Actions

Root Lash. Melee Attack Roll: +4, reach 10 ft. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) Bludgeoning damage plus 3 (1d6) Necrotic damage.

Reactions

Flare. Trigger: The lantern takes damage. Response: Constitution Saving Throw: DC 13, each creature within 10 feet of the lantern that can see it. Failure: The creature has the Blinded condition until the end of its next turn.

Running it. Grave Glow works only on the hurt — whole creatures walk past it untouched — so the lantern does nothing until a fight is nearly over, and then it collects the losers. Animals in its territory die around it in rings, and a colony treats an old lantern as a larder that fills itself.

Their hunter

The brood has a predator, and the Lazaret’s files on it are unusually warm:

Mort Shrike

Large Monstrosity, Unaligned

A gaunt, hook-beaked bird the size of a pony that feeds almost entirely on the wakelight brood: it hawks adults out of the air, cracks husks like nuts, and wedges its surplus into thorn trees at head height. Where the brood is thick, shrikes follow, and their larders mark a colony's borders more reliably than any survey.

AC: 14
Initiative: +3 (13)
HP: 93 (11d10+33)
Speed: 20 ft., Fly 60 ft.

Ability	Score	Mod	Save	Ability	Score	Mod	Save
STR	18	+4	+4	INT	4	−3	−3
DEX	16	+3	+3	WIS	14	+2	+2
CON	16	+3	+3	CHA	6	−2	−2

Skills: Perception +5
Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., Passive Perception 15
CR: 5 (XP 1,800; PB +3)

Traits

Husk-Cracker. The shrike deals double damage to objects and to Necrophore husks.

Wake Sense. The shrike knows the location of any Necrophore creature within 300 feet of it.

Actions

Multiattack. The shrike makes one Beak attack and one Talons attack.

Beak. Melee Attack Roll: +7, reach 5 ft. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) Piercing damage.

Talons. Melee Attack Roll: +7, reach 5 ft. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) Slashing damage, and if the target is a Medium or smaller creature, it has the Grappled condition (escape DC 14). The shrike can fly while carrying a creature Grappled this way.

Impale. The shrike slams a creature it is Grappling onto a spike of wood, stone, or bone within 5 feet of it. The target takes 15 (2d10 + 4) Piercing damage, the grapple ends, and the target has the Restrained condition until it or another creature within reach of it succeeds on a DC 14 Strength (Athletics) check made as an action to work it free.

Running it. The shrike is a competitor, not an ally, and its instincts classify a badly wounded party member as a husk that has not sealed yet: it strafes a fight between the party and the brood, taking whichever side is losing. It is also the best guide in this chapter — Wake Sense keeps it oriented on the nearest colony, and its larders date and border the territory. The Lazaret’s field manual on it is three instructions long: do not feed it, do not fight it, and go where it goes.

The old ground

Lychfield

Gargantuan Monstrosity, Unaligned

Some killing grounds are used too often. Seeded and hatched and seeded again, year over year, the ground stops being ground: husk casings pack into strata, gravewax runs the seams, cinder warms the deep layers, and the field closes over its dead like a mouth. A lychfield is no line's work. It is sediment — all three lines' leavings grown into one organism the size of a churchyard.

AC: 19
Initiative: +6 (16)
HP: 297 (18d20+108)
Speed: 10 ft.

Ability	Score	Mod	Save	Ability	Score	Mod	Save
STR	24	+7	+7	INT	6	−2	−2
DEX	3	−4	−4	WIS	17	+3	+8
CON	22	+6	+11	CHA	18	+4	+4

Resistances: Bludgeoning, Piercing, Slashing
Immunities: Poison; Blinded, Charmed, Deafened, Exhaustion, Frightened, Grappled, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned, Prone, Restrained
Skills: Perception +8
Senses: Blindsight 120 ft., Passive Perception 18
CR: 16 (XP 15,000; PB +5)

Traits

Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the lychfield fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.

The Field Itself. The lychfield is a stretch of ground up to 60 feet on a side. Other creatures can enter and move through its space, which is Difficult Terrain for all of them but Necrophores, and the lychfield’s attacks can originate from any point of its space.

Teeming. At the start of each of its turns, the lychfield regains 15 Hit Points unless it took Cold, Thunder, or Radiant damage since the end of its previous turn. If it drops to 0 Hit Points, it is destroyed, and nothing hatches from it.

Seeded Ground. A creature that dies in the lychfield’s space is taken into it and laid in at once, no Reaction required. After 1d6 + 2 hours, 1d4 larvae of a line of the Game Master’s choice climb out of the ground where it died.

Actions

Multiattack. The lychfield makes three Grave Surge attacks.

Grave Surge. Melee Attack Roll: +12, reach 15 ft. Hit: 20 (3d8 + 7) Bludgeoning damage plus 9 (2d8) Necrotic damage.

Exhale the Wake (2/Day). The field splits along old seams. 1d4 Cinder Nits, 1d4 Gravewax Grubs, and 1d4 Crypt Instars emerge in unoccupied spaces in or within 10 feet of the lychfield’s space. They act on the lychfield’s Initiative, taking their first turns immediately after this one.

Legendary Actions (3/round)

Immediately after another creature’s turn, this creature can expend a use to take one of the following actions. It regains all expended uses at the start of each of its turns.

Close Over. Strength Saving Throw: DC 20, one creature in the lychfield’s space. Failure: The ground closes on the target’s legs, and it has the Restrained condition (escape DC 20). The lychfield can’t take this action again until the start of its next turn.

Husk Burst. Dexterity Saving Throw: DC 19, each creature in a 10-foot-radius Sphere centered on a point in the lychfield’s space. Failure: 13 (3d8) Piercing damage as buried casings shatter upward. Success: Half damage only. The lychfield can’t take this action again until the start of its next turn.

Wakelight. Buried lights kindle under the surface. Wisdom Saving Throw: DC 19, one creature in or within 30 feet of the lychfield’s space that can see it. Failure: The target has the Charmed condition until the start of its next turn and must move toward or into the lychfield’s space on its turn if able. The lychfield can’t take this action again until the start of its next turn.

Running it. The lychfield is fought standing on it: the arena is the monster, every square of retreat is within reach of Grave Surge, and anyone dropped to 0 Hit Points is being pulled at by the ground while their friends work. Teeming makes the party’s damage types the clock — without Cold, Thunder, or Radiant damage, the field grows back what they cut. A field this old required generations of steady dying in one place, and through Seeded Ground it is the only archive of everyone the place ever took.