Voice Thief. The Borrowed can perfectly reproduce the voice of any creature it has heard speak for at least 1 minute. It can mimic accents, breathing, cadence, and conversational habits. It cannot read minds or automatically learn memories, passwords, or private information.
Threshold Stalker. The Borrowed cannot cross the specific protected threshold beneath the Abbey while its supernatural boundary remains intact. It can speak through the threshold and imitate voices on the other side. This protection does not extend to other thresholds.
False Familiarity. As a bonus action, the Borrowed imitates a voice it has heard, drawing attention toward a location within 60 feet. Each creature that hears it and understands the voice must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom (Insight) check or have disadvantage on its next Wisdom (Perception) check to locate the Borrowed before the end of its next turn. This is auditory deception, not magical charm.
Multiattack. The Borrowed makes two Claw attacks.
Claw. Melee Attack Roll: +7, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage.
Borrowed Scream (Recharge 5–6). The Borrowed emits a shriek assembled from the voices of its victims. Each creature of its choice within 15 feet that can hear it must make a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 13 (3d8) psychic damage and cannot take reactions until the start of its next turn. On a successful save, it takes half damage only.
Wrong Voice. When a creature the Borrowed can see targets it with an attack, the Borrowed reproduces the voice of an ally of that attacker from a different direction. The attacker must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom (Insight) check or have disadvantage on the triggering attack roll.
The Borrowed can use this reaction once per round.
Description
Pale and gaunt, the Borrowed resembles a humanoid corpse stretched into a grotesque parody of human anatomy. Its elongated limbs bend at unnatural angles, supporting a narrow torso stripped of nearly all flesh. Its skull-like head bears hollow, sunken eye sockets and a vertical maw lined with jagged teeth. Beneath its translucent, sickly skin, ribs and sinew stand starkly visible, while its long fingers terminate in hooked claws capable of rending flesh with terrifying ease.
Despite its monstrous appearance, the Borrowed is not a mindless predator. It is a patient and calculating hunter that stalks its prey through darkness, climbing walls and ceilings with disturbing ease. It favors confined spaces, abandoned structures, and subterranean passages where escape routes are limited and every sound carries.
The creature's most unsettling ability is its power to reproduce the voices of those it has heard. It can imitate speech, accents, breathing, and familiar mannerisms with near-perfect accuracy, using these stolen voices to lure victims away from safety or turn allies against one another. It possesses no voice of its own, and though it can convincingly repeat another creature's words, it cannot read minds or automatically acquire the memories of those it imitates. Its deceptions become more convincing the longer it observes its prey.
The Borrowed prefers to isolate its victims before striking, relying on surprise, misdirection, and sudden bursts of violence rather than prolonged confrontation. When threatened, it unleashes a horrific chorus of stolen voices that assaults the minds of those nearby, leaving them disoriented and vulnerable to its claws.
Survivors of an encounter with a Borrowed often report hearing familiar voices long after the creature has vanished. Whether these sounds are lingering echoes or evidence that another predator is near remains uncertain.
A word of caution: When a familiar voice calls from the darkness, do not answer. The Borrowed may already know what you sound like.
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