Lava's Wrath. The Ash-Crowned Devourer radiates intense heat, making it harder for creatures to resist its grasp. Creatures within 20 feet of the Devourer have disadvantage on Strength saving throws and Strength (Athletics) checks made to avoid being grappled, restrained, or moved by the creature. The blistering heat saps their strength, making it more difficult to break free from the Devourer’s powerful attacks or environmental hazards.
Surprise Attack (Once per Encounter) If the Ash-Crowned Devourer is hidden and a creature is unaware of its presence, it can use its Surprise Attack feature. The first attack that deals damage to a surprised creature automatically scores a critical hit and deals double damage. This applies to the Bite attack or any other attack that deals direct damage, such as Lava Spray or Lava Burst. Additionally, creatures that are surprised have disadvantage on their first saving throw against the Devourer’s Lava Spray or Lava Burst attacks.
Molten Aura. The Ash-Crowned Devourer exudes an intense heat within a 25-foot radius. Any non-magical item within this radius, including weapons, armor, and tools, begins to melt and become useless. Non-magical weapons that are not in the hands of a creature are completely destroyed after 1 minute of exposure. Non-magical armor becomes soft and fragile, providing no AC benefit to the wearer and falling apart after 1 minute. Additionally, any non-magical item the Devourer directly touches with its body or attacks is instantly melted or ruined, and its magic properties are neutralized if it is enchanted.
Legendary Resistances (3/Day)
If the Ash-Crowned Devourer fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Echoes of the Swallowed
If a creature is swallowed by the Ash-Crowned Devourer, it is consumed in the lava inside the Devourer’s stomach. The Devourer can mimic the voice of any creature it has swallowed within the last 1 hour. The Devourer can speak in the voice of that creature, but it cannot mimic their abilities or use any special features.
Creatures that hear the Devourer speaking in the mimicked voice must succeed on a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw or be deceived into thinking it is the creature they once heard. If a creature interacts with the voice directly (e.g., speaks to it or tries to follow it), they realize the deception on a failed Wisdom (Insight) check against the Devourer's Deception check.
Bite: Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3d10+6 piercing damage. If the target is grappled by the Devourer, the damage is maximized (3d10+6 becomes 30 damage). The target must succeed on a DC 17 Strength saving throw or be grappled by the Devourer. Until the grapple ends, the creature is restrained, and the Devourer can’t bite another target.
Swallow (Recharge 4-6): The Ash-Crowned Devourer swallows a creature it is grappling. The creature is blinded, restrained, and unable to breathe while inside the stomach. The Devourer can have only one creature swallowed at a time. If the Devourer takes 20 damage or more on a single turn from a creature inside it, the Devourer must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or regurgitate the swallowed creature.
Lava Spray (Recharge 5-6): The Devourer spits molten lava in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in the area must make a DC 19 Dexterity saving throw, taking 6d6 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The lava lingers, turning the area into difficult terrain for 1 minute.
Lava Tongue (Recharge 4-6): The Devourer extends its lava tongue, made of obsidian-coated hands from creatures it has swallowed. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 30 ft., one target. On a hit, the target is pulled up to 20 feet toward the Devourer, and it is grappled. If the target is a creature, it is pulled into the Devourer’s mouth and automatically takes the Bite attack as part of the same action. If the creature is swallowed, it is blinded, restrained, and unable to breathe while inside the stomach. On a successful Strength (Athletics) check (DC 20), the creature can escape the grapple.
Flame Burst: The Devourer releases a burst of flame from its body. All creatures within 10 feet must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw, taking 4d6 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful save.
Lava Shield (Recharge 4-5): When a creature within 20 feet hits the Devourer with a melee attack, it can use its reaction to create a shield of molten lava around itself. The attacking creature must make a DC 18 Dexterity saving throw or take 4d6 fire damage.
The Ash-Crowned Devourer 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 Devourer regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
- Lava Burst (Costs 2 Actions): The Devourer releases a burst of molten lava from its body. All creatures within 10 feet of the Devourer must make a DC 18 Dexterity saving throw, taking 4d6 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
- Move (Costs 1 Action): The Devourer moves up to its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
- Lava Tongue (Costs 1 Action): The Devourer uses its Lava Tongue attack as a bonus action.
-
Ashen Roar (Costs 2 Actions)The Ash-Crowned Devourer lets out a bone-chilling roar. All creatures within 30 feet must make a Wisdom saving throw (DC 18) or become frightened for 1 minute. While frightened, creatures have disadvantage on saving throws against the Devourer's fire-based abilities. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If the Devourer is damaged, it cannot use Ashen Roar until the end of its next turn.
Description
Description
Lurking in the blistering silence of lava pools and volcanic rifts, the Ash-Crowned Devourer is a hulking, salamander-like aberration cloaked in scales as dark as cooled obsidian, veined with molten light. Its enormous body moves with slow, deceptive grace, half-submerged in magma. Molten trails bubble in its wake, and the air around it distorts from the heat it exudes.
Rather than fangs alone, its cavernous maw hides a terrifying tongue—formed of gnarled, blackened arms and hands from its consumed prey. These clawed appendages reach and writhe, pulling victims into its hellish mouth to be incinerated in the living furnace it calls a stomach. Its body glows faintly from within, its hunger eternal, its intelligence cold and calculating.
Though it does not hunt often, when it does, it does so with horrifying precision—mimicking voices of its past victims to lure the curious or kind-hearted into its grasp. When it screams, it is not its own voice you hear, but the agonized echoes of those it has consumed.
Lore
The Ash-Crowned Devourer is an ancient predator born of primal hunger and volcanic chaos, believed by some scholars to be a mutation of the Moss-Crowned Devourers—creatures of decay and bogs—twisted by fire, ash, and pressure deep within the world.
Where its mossy cousins lurk in swamps to protect ruin and rot, the Ash-Crowned Devourer resides in the harshest volcanic regions. Some believe it feeds on a rare mineral found only near geothermal vents—its diet is not flesh for nourishment, but for the ash, bone, and lingering essence found in its victims, especially giants, whose mineral-rich bodies make for prime meals.
Among fire newts, the Ash-Crowned Devourer is more than myth—it is worshipped as a living avatar of volcanic fury. These cults offer sacrifices of fire-forged weapons, molten gems, and even living beings in hopes of appeasing the great beast. In return, they claim to hear its voice in the flames, or see visions of its will in the bubbling magma. They often dwell near its domain, protecting it with fervent zeal and guiding outsiders toward its waiting maw.
It rarely leaves its molten lairs unless desperate, and even then, it leaves only devastation in its path. Entire expeditions have vanished in places where a hand was seen reaching from lava, or where a familiar voice echoed from behind a wall of heat. Survivors tell stories of a terrible scream—mimicking a lost friend—that still haunts them in dreams.
To the few fire-worshipping cults that know of it, the Ash-Crowned Devourer is revered as a harbinger of cleansing destruction—divine fire made flesh. To all others, it is simply a nightmare born of the world’s deepest wounds.
Lair and Lair Actions
Enter a description of your monster's lair here.
Lair Actions
On initiative count # (losing initiative ties), the [monster name] takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects; the [monster name] can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:
- Enter a description for a lair action.
- Enter a description for a lair action.
Regional Effects
The region containing a legendary [monster name]’s lair is [enter the effect description], which creates one or more of the following effects:
- Enter a regional effect description.
- Enter a regional effect description.
If the [monster name] dies, these effects fade over the course of #d# days.
Comments