Dredgenaut

Huge construct, unaligned

Armor Class 18 (natural armor)
Hit Points 207 (18d12 + 90)
Speed 40 ft., burrow 50 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
23 (+6) 16 (+3) 20 (+5) 3 (-4) 10 (+0) 8 (-1)

Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks that aren’t adamantine
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned
Senses truesight 120 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages
Challenge 14 (11,500 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +5

SPECIAL TRAITS

  • Constructed Nature. The dredgenaut doesn’t require air, food, drink, or sleep.
  • Innate Spellcasting. The dredgenaut’s innate spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 13). The dredgenaut can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
  • Temporal Trauma. When condensed, burned as fuel, and vented, evidence collected by a dredgenaut washes over a living creature as a wave of psychic trauma and a disruption to the flow of time itself. When the dredgenaut inflicts psychic damage on a creature, the creature ages 1 year for every 2 psychic damage taken (for instance, 10 years for 21 psychic damage taken). The aging effect can be reversed with a greater restoration spell.

ACTIONS

  • Multiattack. The dredgenaut makes three attacks: one with its claw, one with its kick, and one with its chrono beam. Alternatively, it makes three chrono beam attacks, each against a different target.
  • Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 19 (3d8 + 6) bludgeoning damage. If the target is a Large or smaller creature, it is grappled (escape DC 21) if the dredgenaut isn’t grappling another creature.
  • Kick. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 25 (3d12 + 6) bludgeoning damage.
  • Swallow. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature the dredgenaut is grappling. Hit: 19 (3d8 + 6) piercing damage, the creature 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 dredgenaut, and it takes 28 (8d6) bludgeoning damage at the start of each of the dredgenaut’s turns. If the dredgenaut takes 25 damage or more on a single turn from a swallowed creature, or if the dredgenaut dies, it regurgitates all swallowed creatures, which fall prone in a space within 5 feet of the dredgenaut.
  • Chrono Beam. Ranged Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, range 120 ft., one creature. Hit: 21 (6d6) psychic damage, and the target is subjected to the dredgenaut’s Temporal Trauma trait.
  • Calamity Vent (Recharge 5-6). The dredgenaut releases fiery, time-infused energy from vents all over its body. Each creature within 30 feet of the dredgenaut must make a DC 18 Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, the creature takes 21 (6d6) fire damage and 21 (6d6) psychic damage and is subjected to the dredgenaut’s Temporal Trauma trait. On a success, the creature takes half as much damage and avoids Temporal Trauma.
  • Inexorable March. The dredgenaut moves up to its speed. Each time it tries to enter the space of a Large or smaller creature during this movement, that creature must make a DC 19 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the creature takes 25 (3d12 + 6) bludgeoning damage and is forced prone, and the dredgenaut enters its space. On a successful save, the dredgenaut’s turn ends.

ABOUT

A dredgenaut is a powerful construct made of scrap metal and fueled by arcane toxic runoff. Powerful nations and private companies use dredgenauts to trawl for criminal evidence-either their enemies’ or their own-in battlefields and ruined cities. To collect evidence, the dredgenaut picks up noteworthy items or creatures and drops them into the aperture on its face, swallowing them for later deposit. For reasons not entirely understood, dredgenauts are particularly prone to collecting supernatural or psychically resonant evidence that, when destroyed, can have dramatic aging effects on nearby living creatures.

Though its primary objective is to gather evidence, sometimes a dredgenaut must temporarily forego this mission in order to ensure its own safety. By reconfiguring various internal gears and tubes, the dredgenaut can funnel collected evidence from its storage compartments into its engine core, causing the engine to overheat as magic items, trapped spirits, and other occult phenomena break down in the construct’s body. The dredgenaut can then release this excess energy either via a chrono beam from its face or by venting the energy from its body in a sudden burst.

The first dredgenaut was supposed to be the last. It was made by a desperate community whose corrupt leadership had long denied its people justice for some ancient crime. Yet, the leaders managed to steal the dredgenaut and use the powerful construct to track down its creators. The screams of these talented inventors could be heard for miles around.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Battlezoo Bestiary (5E) © 2022, Skyscraper Studios, Inc.; Authors: William Fischer, Stephen Glicker, Paul Hughes, Patrick Renie, Sen.H.H.S., and Mark Seifter.

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