Amphibious. Bantryss can breathe both air and water, and has a swim speed equal to her fly speed.
Call Reinforcements. As a bonus action, Bantryss can summon two Frozen spearmen or one Frozen swordsman from her castle grounds to assist her. They arrive immediately from an entrance and act on initiative 15.
Legendary Resistance (2/day). If Bantryss fails a saving throw, she can choose to succeed instead.
Paranoid. Bantryss has a +5 bonus to her passive Perception and Initiative, and has advantage on saving throws against illusions and attempts to deceive her.
Spellcasting. Bantryss' innate spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 17, +9 to hit with spell attacks). She can innately cast the following spells without requiring components:
At will: absorb elements, ice knife, pass without trace, ray of sickness
3/day each: vampiric touch, sleet storm, slow
1/day each: antilife shell, blight, contagion
1/day: bones of the earth
Multiattack. Bantryss makes one attack with her staff, Blackspine, then targets a creature with Murkfrost.
Blackspine. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., up to two adjacent creatures. Hit: 11 (1d12 + 4) bludgeoning damage, and the target(s) must succeed on a DC 16 Charisma saving throw or have one random ally become the target of a grudge for one turn. That ally cannot be the recipient of any spell, feature, or ability of the target's.
Murkfrost. Ranged Signature Ability: DC 17 Dexterity save, range 60 ft., one target. Failure: 7 (1d12) cold and 7 (1d12) acid damage, and the target is restrained until the end of its next turn. If the target is the subject of an ally's grudge, they have disadvantage on this saving throw.
Caustic Frost-breath (recharge 5-6). Bantryss exhales a churning storm of snow, acid rain, and hail in a 60-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 19 Constitution saving throw, taking 27 (6d8) cold and 27 (6d8) acid damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one.
Consume Grudge. Bantryss consumes a grudge from a creature that attacks her, gaining 14 (2d8 + 5) temporary hitpoints. If she takes no hitpoint damage from the attack as a result, she regains a spent Legendary Action.
Bantryss can take 2 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. Bantryss regains spent legendary actions at the beginning of her turn.
Begrudge (1 action). A creature of Bantryss' choice within 60 feet of her must succeed on a DC 16 Charisma saving throw or gain a grudge against a random ally for one turn. That ally cannot be recipient of any spell, feature, or ability of the target's.
Obliterate Ally (2 actions). A Frozen within 60 feet of Bantryss is obliterated by acidic magic, triggering its Shard Flurry trait. Any creature that fails their save against the flurry also takes 7 (2d6) ongoing acid damage at the beginning of their turn.
Description
Bantryss is the unfortunate offspring of a black dragon native to the plane of water, and she lived her entire young life in the shadow of its cruelty and petty anger. In time, her servitude and penchant for vindictive violence earned her a modicum of respect from the wyrm. After that, it was only a matter of patience.
When she was in her early twenties, the half-dragon stumbled upon a dao in desperate straits, facing an eternity trapped in an iron flask. At this point in her life, Bantryss was already an accomplished sorcerer and a cunning assassin, and she realized immediately the imminent threat the dao posed to her draconic parent. With the wishcraft of the dao fueling her ambition, Bantryss claimed total draconic ancestry, wished for a domain in the plane of water for her own, and freed the dao. This final act freed the elemental from servitude and, once it reported back to Etristus on the plane of earth, is what led him to reach out to Bantryss with the offer of joining the Clade.
In the meantime, Bantryss crept back home and vanquished her parent, killing it with her newfound abilities; her dragon blood and likeness to the realm of water manifested as control over ice and acid. The rumor goes that Bantryss still keeps the frigid statue of her parent somewhere in Arguiloch, her domain.
As a member of the Clade, Bantryss wants mortals to wedge open portals between her realm and that of the material world. However, she is also incredibly controlling, and any attempt to force a rift open between Arguiloch and the mortal world is likely to be met by her personal presence and a painful end for the trespasser. Only those rifts she herself opens, or sanctions, are tolerated except in the most extreme of circumstances.
Bantryss is untrusting, wisely, of the living, and has no special means of exerting control over large groups like Andekeer. Her personality is so toxic that she cannot sway or charm as Etristus does, and as a result she relies on necromancy to satisfy her need for warriors and servants.
Lair and Lair Actions
Arguiloch is a region of the plane of water that draws close to both the planes of earth and air. As a result, it resembles a wide, sparse mire of half-thawed pools and swamps, while the earth varies between boot-sucking muck and hardpacked permafrost dirt. The loch itself, a huge swamp whose banks are overhung by rotting mangroves and seeping willows, is a maze that makes navigation all but impossible. Above the loch, the wind blows cold and wet and quickly forces flying creatures from the air for fear of frostbite or useless wings.
An enormous ruined castle sits at the center of the loch, half submerged in the murky water and coated in a thin layer of dark ice. The frozen undead wander the loch and the castles lower halls, but the central tower is enclosed and only Bantryss dwells there.
Lair Actions
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), Bantryss takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects; Bantryss can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:
- The hard-packed ground gives way with a crunching *snap* as skeletal arms clamber forth to rake at Bantryss' foes. The ground becomes difficult terrrain for the round, and any creature that attempts to jump, fly, or otherwise leave the ground suffers 2d4+2 points of slashing damage.
- The ground slicks over with ice, and all creatures must succeed at a DC 17 Acrobatics check in order to start and stop their movement. A creature that begins to move but fails to stop slides an additional 1d6x10 feet, taking 1d4 bludgeoning damage for every ten feet they involuntarily moved. A creature that fails to start moving slips and falls prone.
Bantryss and the Frozen are immune to these effects.
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