Cursed Nature. The bairn is immune to all weapon attacks from creatures that are not cursed in some way. Additionally, the bairn does not require food, drink, air, or sleep.
Dismemberment. When the bairn deals a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, it hacks off a random limb of the creature as well, with the effect of such loss determined by the DM. If the creature has no limb to sever, you lop off a portion of its body instead.
Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the bairn fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Magical Weapons. The bairn's weapon attacks are magical.
Scourged Form. Any creature that can see the bairn that starts its turn within 30 feet of it must make a DC 22 Charisma saving throw or suffer one level of exhaustion and be frightened of it. If a creature fails this saving throw three times within 1 minute, it is permanently blinded. If a creature fails the saving throw with a 10 or less, they are reduced to 0 hit points.
Unless surprised, a creature can avert its eyes to avoid the saving throw at the start of its turn. If the creature does so, it has disadvantage on attack rolls against the bairn until the start of its next turn. If the creature looks at the bairn in the meantime, that creature must immediately make the saving throw.
Wicked Vitality. The bairn regains 4d12 hit points at the start of each of its turns; this regeneration does not function on a given turn if it has been targeted by the spells greater restoration, lesser restoration, and remove curse. The bairn only dies if it begins its turn and does not regenerate.
If targeted by spells like greater restoration, lesser restoration, or remove curse, the bairn must make a Charisma saving throw against the caster's spell save DC or suffer damage equal to 1d10 per level of the spell.
If the bairn is subject to a cursing effect (as determined by the DM), it immediately regenerates 4d12 hit points. Otherwise, if the bairn's regeneration feature is not functioning, the cursing effect reverses this instead of granting regeneration.
Multiattack. The bairn makes three bone cleaver attacks.
Bone Cleaver. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 25 (4d8 + 7) slashing damage. The target must succeed on a DC 21 Constitution saving throw or be subject to a random effect of the contagion; it must still make the saving throws as listed in the spell's description. Additional failed saving throws from this attack count towards the total number required to be afflicted.
Umbilical Lash. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 20 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (6d4 + 7) slashing damage. If the target is large or smaller, it is grappled (escape DC 22). When a creature begins its turn grappled by the umbilicus, its hit point maximum is reduced by 3d10 points. The bairn has the same amount added to its own hit point maximum and regains that many hit points as well. The bairn has 1d4-1 (minimum of 1) umbilical cords, each of which can only grapple one creature at a time.
Orphan's Wail (Recharge 5-6). The bairn shrieks out with a piercing keen, ripping the area around it with lashes of cursed energy. Any creature within 60 feet of the bairn that can hear it must make a DC 22 Constitution saving throw or take 65 (10d12) psychic damage and be paralyzed until the end of their next turn. On a successful save creatures take half damage and are not paralyzed.
Insidious Teleportation. The bairn teleports to the location of a cursed creature within 120 feet of it, causing it to take 7 points of necrotic damage.
The bairn can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The bairn regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Hack. The bairn makes one bone cleaver attack.
Umbilicus. The bairn makes an attack with its umbilical lash.
Cursewrithe (Costs 3 Actions). The bairn howls an unearthly wail, causing the curses within creatures around it to writhe and wound their victims further. Any creature suffering from one of the effects of bairn's contagion must make a DC 22 Constitution saving throw or suffer one level of exhaustion.
Description
Formed of innumerable curses and malignant hexes, the cursed bairn is a brutal and indiscriminate killer. It takes the form of a tall humanoid with many bony protrusions and grayish brown rotting flesh; one or more slimy umbilical cords hang from its abdomen, and its arms end in deadly bony cleavers. Some cursed bairns are born with a twin protruding from their back; these bairns were especially deadly as the beating hearts of both had to be destroyed to kill the thing.
Cursed bairns fight with brutal, bony arms with sword-like blades extending from them. Each blow from a bairn weakens the body of the victim, an affliction that kills just as readily as the blades. Even viewing a bairn is enough to kill outright, or drain the vitality of those who resist it. If the bairn is twinned, the deformed twin on its back has a variety of spellcasting abilities. A bairn cannot be slain unless a remove curse spell is cast on it after being defeated; it will endlessly regenerate otherwise.
The only known method of producing a bairn is to incubate within the body of a suitably powerful cursegaol. The trait was only inherited through certain sorceries bloodlines and was extremely rare. Curses would build up in the uterus of the host, slowly developing the horrid beast. The number of curses needed to produce a true bairn varies. An especially powerful curse steeped in blood and hate could produce a bairn on its own, while thousands of smaller curses could take years to accumulate. Birthing one kills the cursegaol, though a slain bairn leaves a newborn female of the same race as the mother.
The Curseaters were the first to discover the horror of the bairn, a being of utter, wicked horror. The horror of the beast was such that the Curseaters hid themselves away so as to control the number of bairns birthed; especially powerful curses were awaited, even at the cost of smaller curses being allowed to persist. Most bairns take centuries to incubate, so the Curseaters, a tribe of drow, were some of the only who could see the pregnancy through. Some cursegaols of other races have produced bairns, but the number of incidents can be counted on two hands.
The ritual magic required to transfer cursed energy is ancient and scarcely known. The benefit of producing a bairn is that it completely removes a curse from any item, creature, or even place. Theoretically even artifacts of archdevils and demon princes could be wielded with impunity after being cleansed by a cursegaol; the caveat being that doing so would kill the bearer, and produce an extremely powerful bairn.
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