Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the Maestro fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Hidden In Plain Sight. The pipe organ acts as the Maestro's phylactery. If the Maestro is defeated but the organ has taken less than 75% damage, it rebuilds itself in 1d10 days, at which point the Maestro re-emerges.
Spellcasting. The Maestro is an 18th-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 20, +12 to hit with spell attacks). The Maestro has the following bard spells prepared:
Cantrips (at will): mage hand, prestidigitation, vicious mockery
1st level (4 slots): detect magic, hideous laughter, faerie fire, dissonant whispers
2nd level (3 slots): blindness/deafness, cloud of daggers, enthrall, see invisibility
3rd level (3 slots): animate dead, dispel magic, fear, hypnotic pattern
4th level (3 slots): sickening radiance, compulsion
5th level (3 slots): cloudkill, danse macabre
6th level (1 slot): guards and wards, mass suggestion
7th level (1 slot): mirage arcane, forcecage
8th level (1 slot): dominate monster, maddening darkness
9th level (1 slot): power word kill
Turn Resistance. The Maestro has advantage on saving throws against any effect that turns undead.
Paralyzing Blade. Melee Spell Attack: +12 to hit, reach 10 ft., one creature. Hit: 10 (3d6) cold damage. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or be paralyzed for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
The Maestro summons a spectral scythe to strike at a single target in range, rending the air with frost and shadow.
The Maestro 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 lich regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Cantrip. The Maestro casts a cantrip.
Paralyzing Blade (Costs 2 Actions). The Maestro uses its Paralyzing Blade.
Frightening Presence (Costs 2 Actions). The Maestro fixes its gaze on one creature it can see within 10 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw against this magic or become frightened for 1 minute. The frightened target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a target's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the target is immune to the lich's gaze for the next 24 hours.
Maestro's Magnum Opus (Costs 3 Actions). Each non-undead creature within 20 feet of the lich must make a DC 18 Constitution saving throw against the magic of the Maestro's playing, taking 21 (6d6) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
Maestro's Dissonant Call (Costs 3 Actions). The Maestro plays a dissonant crescendo on his pipe organ, raising six zombies or two ghouls to defend him.
Description
The Unquiet Maestro was once a bard. Famous musician, venerated conductor, a performer without peer, the Maestro has played for kings, gods, and arch-fey. A demon may have stayed their hunger to hear their music, and a being from beyond the stars may have hummed to their tune.
But these bards were arrogant. None could match their art, and in their arrogance was a twisted passion for ever greater heights. They forgot they were mortal. They forget they were less.
Though few in number, the Unquiet Maestro's share one thing in common: They offended an arch-fey. This fey punished them in the most ironic fashion they could, by binding them, body and soul, to their massive pipe organs. These organs, with the undead body draped over the keys, were loaded and bolted into massive carts, pulled by spectral steeds, and sent into the planes. Now the venerated bard played to dissonance and mayhem. Now the celebrated conductor could wake only the undead.
The Unquiet Maestro gathers other undead to them. Raising skeletons and zombies to haul their stage, ghouls to raid for more numbers, vampires to bark their music, and even a few bound fey to witness their art. The Unquiet Maestro craves a grand audience, and their army grows in number with each performance they play.
Lair and Lair Actions
An Unquiet Maestro's Lair
A Maestro often haunts the abode it favored in life, such as a broken village tavern, haunted cathedral, or derelict castle of a long-dead Baron. Alternatively, some Maestro's equip their carriage with a variety of unique traps, features, or even travel with a grand stage carried by their thralls.
Everything about a Maestro's lair reflects its keen mind and wicked cunning, including the magic and mundane traps that secure it. Undead, constructs, and bound fey lurk in shadowy recesses, emerging to destroy those who dare to disturb the Maestro’s work.
A Maestro encountered in its lair has a challenge rating of 22 (41,000 XP).
Lair Actions
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the Maestro can take a lair action to cause one of the following magical effects; the Maestro can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:
- The Maestro rolls a d8 and regains a spell slot of that level or lower. If it has no spent spell slots of that level or lower, nothing happens.
- The Maestro targets one creature it can see within 30 feet of it. A crackling cord of negative energy tethers the Maestro to the target. Whenever the Maestro takes damage, the target must make a DC 18 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the Maestro takes half the damage (rounded down), and the target takes the remaining damage. This tether lasts until initiative count 20 on the next round or until the Maestro or the target is no longer in the Maestro's lair.
- The Maestro calls forth the spirits of creatures that died in its lair. These apparitions materialize and attack one creature that the Maestro can see within 60 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw, taking 52 (15d6) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a success. The apparitions then disappear.
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