Eternal Refrain
The Cantor continuously sings a sorrowful, unbroken melody. This song persists even if the Cantor is stunned, restrained, reduced to 0 hit points, or dismembered. If reduced to 0 hit points, the Cantor collapses but continues singing faintly for 24 hours before becoming inert scrap—still humming softly.
Creatures within 30 feet of the Cantor can hear the song, even through walls up to 1 foot thick.
Song-Bound Existence
The Cantor cannot be silenced by nonmagical means. Magical silence suppresses its song only for the duration of the effect; once the effect ends, the song resumes immediately at full volume.
If the Cantor is destroyed while its song is magically silenced, its remains emit a psychic wail at the end of the silence: each creature within 30 feet must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or take 4d10 psychic damage and be frightened for 1 minute.
Resonant Frame
Whenever the Cantor takes thunder damage, it instead takes half damage and immediately releases a discordant pulse. Each creature within 10 feet must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be deafened until the end of its next turn.
Immutable Form
The Cantor is immune to any spell or effect that would alter its form.
Multiattack
The Cantor makes two Resonant Slam attacks.
Resonant Slam
Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 11 (2d6 + 3) bludgeoning damage plus 7 (2d6) thunder damage.
Verse of Endless Lament (Recharge 5–6)
The Cantor intensifies its song into a soul-rending verse. Each creature of the Cantor’s choice within 30 feet that can hear it must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw.
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On a failure: The creature takes 27 (6d8) psychic damage and is incapacitated until the end of its next turn as the melody drowns out thought.
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On a success: The creature takes half damage and isn’t incapacitated.
Unbroken Chorus
When the Cantor is reduced to half its hit points for the first time, its song swells violently. Each creature within 20 feet must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or take 13 (3d8) psychic damage and suffer disadvantage on its next attack roll before the end of its next turn.
Description
The Cantor of the Endless Refrain is a tall, hollow figure of brass and dark iron, built in the vague shape of a robed humanoid, its proportions slightly wrong, as if the artisan cared more for acoustics than anatomy. Its torso is ribbed like a massive instrument, plates overlapping in curved slats that vibrate faintly with every note it sings. Thin seams glow dimly from within, leaking soft light in time with the melody, as though the song itself is what keeps the construct standing.
Where a face should be, there is a smooth mask of polished metal, split only by a narrow grille across the mouth. From behind that grille comes the song: clear, mournful, and impossibly steady. The voice never wavers, never catches for breath. Even when the Cantor is struck, the note bends but does not break, metal dents, joints crack, yet the melody continues, perfectly on pitch.
Its arms end in heavy, articulated hands, fingers tipped with blunt caps designed not for finesse but for keeping rhythm against stone and flesh alike. Etched into its limbs are tiny runes and musical notation, scratched and re-scratched over the years by the vibrations of its own performance. Some symbols are worn smooth, others fractured mid-measure, frozen on notes that will never resolve.
When damaged, the Cantor does not scream. Instead, its song grows more complex harmonies emerging where there was once a single line. Broken plates rattle in counterpoint, loose components chiming softly as they fall away. Even shattered on the ground, separated into twisted pieces, the sound persists: a faint humming from the chest cavity, a lonely echo from a severed arm, a final refrain whispered through bent metal.
Those who listen too long often swear the song is trying to finish something, ~a final verse, a closing chord that never comes. And when the Cantor finally falls still, the silence feels wrong… because somewhere in the wreckage, beneath the dust and rust, the melody is still playing.
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