| Mod | Save | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| STR | 20 | +5 | +5 |
| DEX | 8 | −1 | −1 |
| CON | 21 | +5 | +5 |
| Mod | Save | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| INT | 3 | −4 | −4 |
| WIS | 15 | +2 | +2 |
| CHA | 10 | +0 | +0 |
Charge. If the catoblepas moves at least 20 feet straight toward a target and then hits it with a gore attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 9 2d8 piercing damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be pushed up to 10 feet away and knocked prone.
Keen Smell. The catoblepas has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.
Stench. Any creature other than a catoblepas that starts its turn within 10 feet of the catoblepas must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the start of the creature’s next turn. On a successful saving throw, the creature is immune to the Stench of any catoblepas for 1 hour.
Multiattack. The catoblepas makes one hooves attack, one gore attack, and one tail attack.
Gore. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit,, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8+5) piercing damage.
Hooves. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8+5) slashing damage.
Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 21 (5d6+4) bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be pushed 10 feet away from the catoblepas and knocked prone.
Poison Breath (Recharge 5–6). The catoblepas exhales its horrid, stinking breath in a 60-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw, taking 36 (8d8) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. If the saving throw fails by 5 or more, the target instead takes 63 (14d8) poison damage. The target dies if reduced to 0 hit points by this breath.
Description
CATOBLEPAS
Even in its most docile moments, the catoblepas is an aggressive and imposing beast. Though it prefers swamps, the catoblepas has been know to forage in plains and forests for short periods, leaving behind hunting grounds tainted by its foul breath and noxious waste that other predators and prey alike avoid for days or even weeks thereafter. The catoblepas bullies those creatures it believes are a match for it, and eats everything weaker. This quadrupedal monster looks vaguely like a longnecked elk, yet its hide and antlers are covered in mosslike growth, and a ridge of bony spines runs along its back. Its eyes are a baleful red, and its underslung jaw is filled with sharp, tusk-like fangs. The creature is often accompanied by a buzzing cloud of flies. A catoblepas is 15 feet long and weighs 2,200 pounds.
The catoblepas is as loathsome as the vile swamplands in which it lives, a conglomeration of bloated buffalo, dinosaur, warthog, and hippopotamus parts. Despite its ungainly physiology, a catoblepas resembles a natural animal in its behavior, ambling through its marshy home, munching choice vegetation, eating the occasional bit of carrion, and wallowing in mire. A catoblepas might be found with the one mate it chooses for life and, on occasion, with a calf. A catoblepas attacks anyone that moves too close, especially if guarding its young.
A catoblepas’s stink, like the stench of death mixed with swamp gas and skunk musk, gives it away as being much more ghastly than its appearance suggests. When it is on the attack, a catoblepas reveals the extent of its horrific nature. The creature’s serpentine neck has trouble lifting its head, but one glare from its bloodshot eyes can rot flesh. At the end of its tail is a club that can rattle body and soul if it strikes true, leaving a victim unable to act while the catoblepas feasts on its body.
Blighted Territory
A catoblepas’s nature as a creature of disease and decay brings out similar characteristics in the creature’s swampy habitat. Such a wetland becomes gloomy, tangled, and more fetid than it was before. Beneficial qualities of the environment, such as healing herbs and clean water, become degraded, and swamp gases take on a hint of the catoblepas’s foulness. Animals in the area are more aggressive and liable to be diseased. Degenerate creatures are likely to take up residence near a catoblepas’s territory, as are those seeking to avoid notice.
Catoblepases in Folklore
Ordinary folk rarely see a catoblepas, but the creature has such a feared reputation that stories about it are ingrained in the popular culture. Any rumor of a catoblepas taking up residence nearby is taken to be a bad omen, even if the rumor is proven false. In some lands, the silhouette of a catoblepas, with its tail extended over its body and its head held low, is a baleful heraldic figure signifying death or doom.
Sages say that gods of pestilence and rot created catoblepases as embodiments of their influence, while other stories link them to misfortune. Some such tales claim that swamp-dwelling hags tend catoblepases like cattle, drinking the monsters’ milk and using them as guardians or pets. Other legends say that those of impure heart can tame a catoblepas and whisper of malevolent warlocks and wicked knights who ride them into battle.
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