False Appearance. While the burlwight remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from a chunk of fallen wood.
Tree Stride. Once on its turn, the burlwight can use 10 feet of its movement speed to step magically into a dead tree. The burlwight emerges within five feet of a second dead tree up to 600 feet away. Both trees must have enough wood remaining to count as Medium or larger (but it can be beneath the ground).
Innate Spellcasting. The burlwight's innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 12). It can cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
At will: infestation, thorn whip
3/day each: entangle, snare
1/day each: barkskin, spike growth
Multiattack. The burlwight makes two puncture attacks. It can use its Life Drain in place of one puncture attack.
Puncture. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage.
Life Drain. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) necrotic damage. The target must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or its hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the damage taken. This reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0.
A humanoid slain by this attack rises 24 hours later as a zombie under the burlwight's control, unless the victim is restored to life or its body is destroyed. The burlwight can have no more than twelve zombies under its control at one time. It can de-animate any of them at will (from any range) as a non-action.
Description
As axes clear space to fuel civilization's wars and expansions, forests cry out in anger. The Shadowfell hears. Where the boundaries between realms are thin, dark energy seeps into the roots of dead trees -- pulling them into balls of hatred and rage.
Resembling driftwood sculptures shaped like spiders, burlwights stalk settlements near the roots that birthed them. They use their false appearance, stealth, and diverse movement options to ambush lone victims.
Animating zombies judiciously, a burlwight depopulates settlements by walking the dead into surrounding woods. The zombies dig their own graves beside stumps, lie down, and cover themselves with dirt. The Shadowfell consumes their corpses in 1d3 days. One time out of six, a new burlwight emerges the following night.
All burlwights in an area coordinate efforts. Occasionally, they direct zombies to fall into water supplies, start fires, release livestock, or commit other acts of sabotage. Rather than immediate revenge, burlwights strive to build a sense of unfocused dread, and de-animate zombies quickly to hide what is really happening.
As fear, unease, and suspicion sink their own roots into a population, boundaries between realms grow thinner still. Blights appear in previously cleared fields, Yeth Hounds howl at night, and planks used to build houses and shops twist into haunting shapes.
Slowly, residents come to accept their well-deserved fate. Lycanthropic afflictions break out, murders follow, and what may once have been a bustling town reduces to a pack of werewolves huddled in a dilapidated inn surrounded by malignant trees.
Previous Versions
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8/13/2020 2:07:24 AM
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