Amphibious. The lurker can breathe air and water.
Innate Spellcasting. The lurker's innate spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 16). The lurker can innately cast the following spells, requiring no components:
At will: blood boil (new), blood reading (new), carnage blast (new), hemokinesis (new), spasm (new)
2/day each: blood extraction (new), hemorrhage (new)
Magic Resistance. The lurker has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Magic Weapons. The lurker's weapon attacks are magical.
Size Changer. The lurker can use its action to polymorph into a Tiny leech (speed 5 ft., swim 20 ft.) or back into its true form. Its statistics, other than its size and speed, are the same in each form. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn't transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.
Multiattack. The lurker makes two bite attacks.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) piercing damage, or 1 piercing damage in leech form, plus 16 (3d10) necrotic damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 16). Until this grapple ends, the lurker can't bite another target. The target's hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken, and the lurker regains hit points equal to that amount. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0. The corpse of a beast or humanoid slain in this way bursts open and releases 1d4 swarms of leeches and one swarm of insects after 1d4 hours unless it is incinerated.
Belch Blood (Recharge 5–6). The lurker belches toxic, caustic blood mist in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 16 Constitution saving throw, taking 13 (3d8) acid damage plus 13 (3d8) necrotic damage and 13 (3d8) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Any creature that is grappled by the lurker has disadvantage on the saving throw.
Description
The Blood Lurker is a massive leech-like creature that reigns over all the parasites of nature, as well as worms, bugs, and crawling vermin of all kinds. It swims through its murky domain in the Spirit World, a pool of infected blood, slime, and fetid water deep underground, always searching for new hidden passages to sneak into other primal domains and plunder their resources.
The Lurker rarely takes champions, and many believe that only madmen would entreat with such a being. Still, some reckless archdruids enter its domain and offer up their bodies as tribute, hoping that once it has infested their entire being, it may find them worthy as champion.
Fell Primal Spirits. Some primal spirits are known as fell spirits among the mortals of the Material Plane. These spirits are not dangerous to nature itself, but the environments and creatures they have power over are dangerous to the survival of mortalkind and civilization, even those civilizations that attempt to exist in harmony with nature. They might still be worshipped, but prayers given to them usually ask for mercy, not protection.
Primal Spirit Avatars
The wilderness in all its many forms — tundra, forest, desert, and other biomes — is not without awareness or agency. The land itself gives birth to mighty spirits, fey and elementals that are so ancient that they are largely forgotten except by the oldest in the multiverse. These primal spirits are all connected to a form of land, taking the shape of a plant or animal from their domains.
Though they are composed of powerful magic, these mighty spirits struggle to physically leave their ancient realms in some of the oldest parts of the Feywild: the savage wilds called the Spirit World. If their domains on the Material Plane are threatened, they project a weak reflection of their true nature, an avatar, to defend the land. These avatars take little effort for a primal spirit to control, and the spirit is not harmed if the avatar is slain.
Incarnations of Ancient Titans. The primal spirits are ancient beings that traversed the Feywild and the Material Plane when the world was young and the land was still forming. The spirits are each representations of the lands themselves. The majority of these spirits keep their ancient, true names a secret, though some are known by nicknames they have adopted for the benefit of mortals, such as Coyote or Greatmother Oak. Those nicknames have been used so often that they are now applied to any coyote or any oak tree, instead of merely the primal spirit, and the original names of these animals and plants have been lost.
Druids Serve as Champions. Primal spirits often require the aid of druids and archdruids to help defend their lands against despoilers. Druids can be trusted to act more swiftly and in more places than a spirit could possibly manage from their realm in the Feywild. Arch-druids can wield powerful enough magic to summon an avatar of the spirit without effort from the spirit itself, but primal spirits trust very few with this privilege. They entreat carefully with archdruids and only select their favorite among them as a champion who can conjure their avatar to aid both their goals.
Hatred for Despoilers. The spirits of nature despise those that would despoil nature in any of its forms. Not all forms of consumption earn the spirits' ire: the spirits themselves are often predator or prey, and understand that survival often means destruction. They despise the reckless and sometimes gleeful destruction of nature that has nothing to do with survival and too much to do with mortal flaws such as greed, pride, or ambition. This is what the spirits consider to be "despoiling."
Primal Nature. A primal spirit avatar doesn't require air, food, drink, or sleep.
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