Horrid Skittering. When the skelepede moves, until the start of its next turn, any non-undead creature that can hear the skelepede and starts its turn within 60 feet of the skelepede must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or take 5 (1d10) psychic damage.
Many Heads. The skelepede has advantage on saving throws against being blinded, deafened, stunned, or knocked unconscious.
Spider Climb. The skelepede can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
Turn Resistance. The skelepede has advantage on saving throws against any effect that turns undead.
Multiattack. The skelepede can use its Paralyzing Gaze. It then either uses its Paralyzing Gaze again, or it makes one attack with its claws and one attack with its bite.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (3d6 + 5) piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 16 Constitution saving throw, taking 19 (3d12) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. If the poison damage reduces the target to 0 hit points, the target is stable but poisoned for 1 hour, even after regaining hit points, and is paralyzed while poisoned in this way.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) slashing damage and the target is grappled (escape DC 16). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the skelepede can't attack another target with its claws. Any creature that ends its turn while grappled in this way takes 16 (3d10) bludgeoning damage.
Paralyzing Gaze. The skelepede targets one creature it can see within 60 feet of it. If the target can see the skelepede, it must succeed on a DC 16 Charisma saving throw or be frightened of the skelepede until the end of the skelepede's next turn. A creature that is frightened in this way is also paralyzed unless it is within 5 feet of the skelepede.
Description
Clever necromancers in ages past have invented a wide variety of strange undead monsters. One more common form of undead abomination is the conglomeration of humanoid skeletons known as a skelepede. A skelepede controlled by magic is as obedient as a regular skeleton, but it has difficulty understanding commands.
Cursed Fusion. Skelepedes are crafted by taking a few dozen skeletons and fastening them together by physical and magical means into a form that resembles a gigantic skeletal centipede. Each skeleton's spine is joined to the spine of the next skeleton. Each skull can be seen inside the ribcage of another skeleton, or some-times off to the side, usually if the particular skelepede is dense with skeletons. Each skeleton's arms and legs are splayed out to the sides of the creature, creating its many skittering centipede-like legs. They are often given massive, venomous jaws to crown the front of the body, made out of a sharpened ribcage.
Independent Minds. Unlike other kinds of undead or constructs made from multiple sets of bones, these skeletons are each imbued with their own intelligence and malevolence. Each skull and every set of limbs act independently, giving the creature an unsettling rhythm of motion and making it extremely difficult to command. The skelepede's surplus of negative energy also imbues its many eyes with dark energy. If it settles too many of these eyes upon a single creature, the energy becomes too much to bear and terror seeps into the victim's soul.
Dreadful Sounds. The limbs of a skelepede create a terrible sound as they move. The bones are sharpened into wicked claws that scrape across any surface the skelepede climbs or crawls across. In combination with the strange rhythm by which skelepedes move, these sounds transform into a maddening chorus of clicking, scraping, and skittering. The echoing sound made by a skelepede's crawling has been known to drive even the most salient and wise of sages utterly insane.
Undead Nature. A skelepede doesn't require air, food, drink, or sleep.
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