Amphibious. The scylla can breathe air and water.
Wakeful. While the scylla sleeps, one her heads stays awake.
Freedom of Movement. The scylla ignores difficult terrain, and magical effects can't reduce its speed or cause it to be restrained. It can spend 5 feet of movement to escape from nonmagical restraints or being grappled.
Reactive Heads. For each head the scylla has beyond one, it gets an extra reaction that can be used only for opportunity attacks.
Multiple Heads. The scylla has six heads. While it has more than one head, the scylla has advantage on saving throws against being blinded, charmed, deafened, stunned, and knocked unconscious.
Whenever the scylla takes 50 or more damage in a single turn, one of its heads dies. If all its heads die, the scylla dies.
Multiattack. The scylla makes as many bite attacks as it has heads.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (1d10 + 5) piercing damage + 4 (1d4 + 2) poison damage.
If the target is a Large or smaller creature grappled by the scylla, that creature is swallowed, and the grapple ends. While swallowed, the creature is blinded and restrained, it has total cover against attacks and other effects outside the scylla, and it takes 10 (3d6) acid damage at the start of each of the scylla's turns.
If the scylla takes 25 damage or more on a single turn from a creature inside it, the scylla must succeed on a DC 25 Constitution saving throw at the end of that turn or regurgitate all swallowed creatures, which fall prone in a space within 10 feet of the scylla. If the scylla dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse using 15 feet of movement, exiting prone.
Tentacle. Melee Weapon Attack: + 8 to hit, reach 20 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (3d6) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 15). The scylla has twelve tentacles, each of which can grapple one target.
Fling. One Large or smaller object held or creature grappled by the scylla is thrown up to 30 feet in a random direction and knocked prone. If a thrown target strikes a solid surface, the target takes 3 (1d6) bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet it was thrown. If the target is thrown at another creature, that creature must succeed on a DC 18 Dexterity saving throw or take the same damage and be knocked prone.
Description
Scylla, according to one Greek myth, was a nymph (naiad) who was claimed by Poseidon. Poseidon's wife Amphitrite grew jealous and turned Scylla into a monster by poisoning the water she bathed in. She has four eyes and six long snake heads, each with three rows of sharp teeth. Her body consists of twelve tentacle-like legs and a cat's tail while six dog heads ring her waist. As a result of her curse, she hunger is nigh unsatiable.
A 9th level use of Remove Curse will allow Scylla to regain her original nymph form, but she will have aged.
Lair and Lair Actions
The scylla resides by the rocky shoal on the Italian side of the Strait of Messina between Sicily and the Italian mainland. Adapted for 5e, the scylla resides anywhere near a rocky shore.
Lair Actions
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the scylla takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects; the scylla can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:
- A strong current moves through the scylla's lair. Each creature within 60 ft of the scylla must succeed a DC 20 Strength saving throw or be pushed 60 ft away and take 3d6 bludgeoning damage from the rocky shoal surrounding her lair. On a success, the creature is pushed 10 ft away and takes no damage.
- Inky blackness diffuses through all water within 30 ft of the scylla and vision is obscured. The darkness is nonmagical.
Regional Effects
The region containing a legendary scylla’s lair is warped by the monstrosity's cursed nature, which creates one or more of the following effects:
- Water elementals coalesce within 6 miles of the lair. These elementals can’t leave the water and have Intelligence and Charisma scores of 1 (−5).
- Aquatic creatures within 6 miles of the lair that have an Intelligence score of 2 or lower are charmed by the scylla and aggressive toward intruders in the area.
If the scylla dies, these effects fade over the course of 1d4 days.
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