Magic Weapons. Anthraxus the Decayed's weapon attacks are magical.
Limited Spell Immunity. Unless he wishes to be affected, Anthraxus the Decayed is immune to spells of 5th level or lower. he has advantage on saving throws against all other spells and magical effects.
Innate Spellcasting. Anthraxus the Decayed's innate spellcasting ability is charisma (spell save DC 20). Anthraxus the Decayed can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components :
at will: alter self, clairvoyance, darkness, detect magic, detect thoughts, dispel magic, invisibility (self only), ray of sickness
3/day: Ray of Enfeeblement, Blight, Contagion
1/day each: Mass Suggestion, Harm, Sickening Radiance
Staff of The Lower Planes. Anthraxus the Decayed wields "The Staff of The Lower Planes" which has the following effects:
Spells. The staff has 8 charges and regains 1d4 + 4 expended charges daily at dawn. While holding it, Anthraxus the Decayed can use an action and expend 1 or more of its charges to cast one of the following spells from it (save DC 17): dominate beast (1 charge), dominate monster (3 charges), dominate person (1 charge), geas (2 charges), giant insect (2 charges), insect plague (2 charges), suggestion (1 charge), or mass suggestion (3 charges). Spells cast from the staff that impose the charmed condition can affect fiends normally immune to that condition.
Styx Master. While he is holding the staff, Anthraxus the Decayed is immune to the feeblemind effect of the River Styx (see chapter 2 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide). If he drink from that river, he knows the location of all creatures currently on or within its waters, and can read the memories of any creature whose name he knows and which has been subject to the river’s feeblemind effect within the last 24 hours.
Master of the Lower Planes. While Anthraxus the Decayed is holding the staff, he can use an action to focus and sense the direction to any portals leading to, from, or between the Lower Planes within 1,000 feet of himself. He can also sense the specific plane that each such portal leads to.
Punish Fiends. If Anthraxus the Decayed reduces a fiend to 0 hit points with a weapon attack made using the staff, that fiend is permanently transformed into a larva when it returns to its home plane. (See the larva statistics block in chapter 2 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide.) All intelligent fiends know and fear this power of the staff.
Final Wish. While Anthraxus the Decayed is holding the staff, he can cast a wish spell as an action. Doing so causes him to lose his attunement to the staff, and is stricken by a feeblemind effect as if he had drunk from the River Styx . Only another wish or similar effect can cure this affliction.
Staff of The Lower Planes (Melee Attack). Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., 1 target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) Bludgeoning damage, In addition, any creature hit by the staff is affected as if it had been hit by the contagion spell (save DC 17).
Staff of The Lower Planes(spells). As an action Anthraxus the Decayed uses 1 or more charges from the "Staff of The Lower Planes" to cast one of the spells it provides from the staff.
Teleport. Anthraxus the Decayed magically teleports, along with any equipment he is wearing or carrying, up to 120 feet to an unoccupied space he can see.
Teleport (Costs 2 Actions). Anthraxus the Decayed uses his Teleport action.
Spell (Costs 1 Action). Anthraxus the Decayed casts a spell from his Innate Spellcasting feature with a casting time of 1 action.
Description
Anthraxus was once an unenhanced ultroloth, but a coven of night hags transformed him into an altraloth, tasking him with destroying a crusade of paladins. Once he had fulfilled his contract with the hags, in approximately −1522 DR, Anthraxus violently wrested the Wasting Tower from his predecessor to become the reigning Oinoloth of the yugoloth race. His predecessor is rumored to have been imprisoned in the Underdark on the world of Oerth.
In approximately 1357 DR, an arcanaloth called Yrkhetep became unusually obsessed with the Vilhon Reach, seeking to usurp Anthraxus and take over the Siege Malicious of Khin-Oin through an artifact called the Infinity Train. To stop Yrkhetep's plans, Anthraxus subtly intervened on the side of Good. When he uncovered Yrkhetep's full plans, he lured the arcanaloth to his home plane to confront him directly.
Anthraxus was ousted by the ultroloth Mydianchlarus at some point between 1357 DR and 1369 DR not through violence, but by Mydianchlarus whispering a secret in Anthraxus's ear so profound and disturbing that he was compelled to leave Khin-Oin and move on. As of 1369 DR he was wandering the Fiendish Planes, petitioning the various gods of evil to serve as their proxy, using riches hidden in keeps and safehouses throughout the Fiendish Planes to finance his schemes, and hoping to employ a team of adventurers to force their way into Khin-Oin and keep Mydianchlarus distracted while he confronted the usurper directly. These schemes must have worked, because by approximately 1379 DR he had regained his throne.
Lair and Lair Actions
The tower looked like a spinal column. That's because it was—it was made from the backbone of the first god who moved against the yugoloths.
The tower was twenty miles high with another twenty miles of underground levels. Smaller towers were built out of the vertebra on the above-ground levels, while the structure of the underground levels was not known.
In the top chamber of the tower was the Siege Malicious, a magical throne on which a prospective Oinoloth sat to be accepted as the future Oinoloth after killing its predecessor.
The interior of the tower is seemingly an infinite number of rooms inside the tower and, apart from halls where the ultroloths fought each other, the tower had drill fields and battle fields, laboratories, suites for the ultroloths, orreries, spawning vats, meditation chambers, interplanar map rooms, and so on.
Lair Actions
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the Anthraxus the Decayed takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects; the Anthraxus the Decayed can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:
- 1d4 Yugoloths from elsewhere in the tower are made aware of your presence and tempararly put aside their differences to join the fight.
- Anthraxus uses power from his throne, the Siege Malicious, to sap the force personality of one creature he can see, that creature has disadvantage on charisma saving throws, skill checks, and attack rolls from attacks using their charisma until the end of Anthraxus the Decayed's next turn.
Regional Effects
The region containing Anthraxus the Decayed’s lair is infected with disease, which creates one or more of the following effects:
- Living things become ill and slowly dying.
- Diseases within 1 mile of Anthraxus the Decayed's lair are not cured by otherwise working cures.
If the Anthraxus the Decayed dies, these effects fade over the course of 1d10 days.
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