Corrupted Vines. Any creature that hits the mound with a melee attack takes 1d4 necrotic damage.
Absorb Blood. When the mound deals necrotic damage, it regains 3 HP.
Multiattack. Two Slam attacks.
Slam. +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage + 1d6 necrotic damage.
Engulf (Recharge 5–6).
The mound attempts to engulf a Medium or smaller creature it has grappled.
The target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength save or be pulled inside the mound’s mass, taking 2d6 bludgeoning damage at the start of each of its turns.
A creature can escape with a DC 14 Strength check.
Death Burst
When the mound dies, it explodes in a spray of necrotic blood and thorn fragments.
Creatures within 10 ft. must make a DC 13 Dexterity save or take 2d6 necrotic damage.
Description
Blood‑Rot Shambling Mound
A heaving mass of corrupted vines, roots, and necrotic‑soaked plant matter, animated by the castle’s ritual energies.
The creature rises as a towering, sodden bulk of blackened vegetation, its form barely cohesive as ropes of vine and clotted root slough off and reknit themselves. Thick mats of moss and decomposing leaves cling to its surface, all of them slick with dark red sap that pulses like blood. Its interior glows faintly with dull crimson bioluminescence, as if some malign heart beats deep within the mulch.
Its “face” is only a suggestion—an indentation of knotted roots that split open when it roars, revealing a dripping cavity lined with fibrous tendrils. Every movement leaves behind smears of necrotic sludge, and the air around it carries the heavy, metallic scent of rotting vegetation mixed with old blood.
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