Barbed Hide. At the start of each of its turns, the bladeling deals 6 (2d6) piercing damage to any creature grappling it.
Paranoid. The bladeling has advantage on all insight checks.
Multiattack. The bladeling makes two melee attacks.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) slashing damage.
Scimitar. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) slashing damage.
Razor Storm (Recharges 5-6). The bladeling can expel shrapnellike bits of its skin in a 15-foot cone. each creature in that area must make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw, taking dealing 9 (3d6) piercing damage a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
Parry. The bladeling adds 3 to its AC against one melee attack that would hit it. To do so, the bladeling must see the attacker and be wielding a melee weapon.
Description
Bladelings are xenophobic beings of humanoid shape. Though they hail from Acheron, most scholars believe that the race emigrated there from another plane, possibly the Nine Hells of Baator, the Bleak Eternity of Gehenna, or even some unknown metal-based plane. A bladeling has skin of a dull metallic hue, spotted with patches of metallic spines. Its eyes gleam like shards of purple ice, and its blood is black and oily.
Zoronar, the City of Shadows. Most bladelings live in the city of Zoronor, on Ocanthus, a layer of Acheron defined by constant storms of razor-thin shards of ice. Zoronor is surrounded by the Blood Forest, a spherical shell of wood that prevents the flying shards from destroying the city; the entire outer surface of the Forest is nothing but a thick layer of embedded shards. The city proper is made from the dead gray wood of the Blood Forest, and its roofs are tiled with chunks of unmelting black ice. The buildings bend and sway whenever the city is struck by a large chunk of razor ice.
Superstitious Xenophobes. Bladelings are superstitious and xenophobic creatures, so it’s no surprise that they abhor intrusions into their home territory. (Of course, as residents of Ocanthus—a place of flying storms of blades—they rarely have visitors.) Their society is prone to internal strife, but they immediately band together against external dangers. Bladelings that travel the planes are reasonably amiable toward strangers, perhaps because they have picked up a degree of tolerance for other beings through constant contact. Even so, they tend not to trust anyone they do not know.
Ironguards. Within Zoronor bladeling ironguards serve as peacekeepers and police, patrolling the streets and the outskirts of the Blood Forest, keeping watch for potential threats to the City of Shadows. Outside of the city these same ironguards lead expeditions or bands of mercenaries, keeping their companies under control with an iron fist.
Comments