Black Serpent

Huge monstrosity, chaotic evil

Armor Class 17 (natural armor)
Hit Points 161 (14d12 + 70)
Speed 40 ft., climb 20 ft., fly 60 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
23 (+6)	63 (+1)	11 (+5)	52 (+1)	14 (+2)	22 (+1)

Saving Throws Str +10, Con +9
Skills Athletics +10, Perception +10
Damage Resistances cold, fire, and lightning; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities poisoned
Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 20
Languages Abyssal
Challenge 10 (5,900 XP)

SPECIAL TRAITS

• Magic Resistance. The black serpent has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

ACTIONS

• Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d10 + 6) piercing damage plus 10 (3d6) poison damage. If the target is a creature, it is grappled (escape DC 20). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the black serpent can’t bite another target.
• Swallow. The black serpent makes one bite attack against a Medium or smaller creature it is grappling. If the attack hits, that creature takes the bite’s damage and is swallowed, and the grapple ends. While swallowed, the creature is blinded and restrained, it has total cover against attacks and other effects outside the black serpent, and it takes 21 (6d6) poison damage at the start of each of the black serpent’s turns. If the black serpent takes 30 points of damage or more on a single turn from a creature inside it, the black serpent must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw at the end of that turn or regurgitate all swallowed creatures, which fall prone in a space within 15 feet of the black serpent. If the black serpent dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse using 20 feet of movement, exiting prone.
• Poison Breath (Recharge 5-6). The black serpent exhales poison gas in a 60-foot cone. Those caught within the cone must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw, taking 35 (10d6) poison damage on a failure, or half as much on a success.

ABOUT

A serpent of this sort, a minor one, is a very nasty thing indeed. The serpent’s head resembles a cross between a snake’s and crocodile’s with long front fangs like a snake and rows of lesser teeth besides. The creature has an ophidian body some 50 feet long and about two feet in diameter at its thickest part. Set along the middle third of its body, the thickest portion, are three pairs of legs of the sort that enable the serpent to move at either a sprawling or erect gait, or slither noiselessly along ways no bigger than two feet in diameter. It has wings but does not actually use them to fly (relying on its magic instead).