Fairy Ring

Large swarm of Tiny plants, chaotic neutral

Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
Hit Points 342 (36d10 +144)
Speed 5 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
1 (-5)	6 (-2)	18 (+4)	15 (+2)	14 (+2)	19 (+4)

Saving Throws Dex +6, Wis +6, Cha +8
Skills Perception +6, Stealth +6
Damage Vulnerabilities fire
Damage Resistances bludgeoning and piercing from nonmagical attacks not made with cold iron weapons
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned, prone, restrained, stunned
Senses truesight 60 ft., passive Perception
Languages Sylvan (can’t speak)
Challenge 10 (5,900 XP)

SPECIAL TRAITS

• Distraction. Creatures that are in the fairy rings space become distracted on a failed DC 16 Intelligence saving throw. Distracted creatures cannot maintain concentration spells and have disadvantage on attack rolls.
• Dreaming Glade. Creatures coming within 30 feet of a fairy ring become drowsy and inattentive on a failed DC 16 Wisdom saving throw. Affected creatures have disadvantage on Wisdom saving throws and ability checks. If the saving throw is a critical failure the creature is drawn to the ring becoming enchanted with the place and being unwilling to leave it. If the creature is then successful on a saving throw it must save again 10 minutes later or return to the fairy ring as if it had critically failed the saving throw. Fey creatures are immune to this effect. If a creature saves, it is immune to the dreaming glade ability of that fairy ring for 24 hours.
• Faerie Ripple. A fairy ring’s allies share the benefit of its indistinct ability as long as they remain within the fairy ring’s space. In addition, as an action a fairy ring can create a thinness between worlds that brings Faerie closer to The World. This acts as a bless spell centered on the fairy ring, but affecting only fey and plants. A fairy ring can spend one use of its legendary actions to grant allies within its space the benefits of blink in addition to bless and indistinct for 1 minute. When legendary actions are used in this way the fairy ring losses that action for 24 hours.
• Indistinct. Hostile creatures can’t quite make out the location of the fairy ring and have disadvantage on attack if they rely on sight.
• Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature’s space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a tiny plant. The swarm can’t regain hit points or gain temporary hit points.
• Speak with Beasts and Plants. The fairy ring can communicate with beasts and plants as if they shared a language.
• Innate Spellcasting. The fairy ring’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 16, +8 to hit with spells). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components.
  • At will. dancing lights, hideous laughter, meld into stone, prestidigitation, unseen servant
  • 3/day: sleep (as a 9th level spell), dimension door
  • 1/day: dream, mirage arcane, call woodland beings (as a 6th level spell with the additional option of calling a single unicorn).
  • 1/week: gate (the spell only opens to Faerie. Non-fey creatures that use the gate suffer crushing despair as they long to return, gaining disadvantage on Wisdom saving throws for a week).

ACTIONS

• Multiattack. The fairy ring can attack every hostile creature in its space with selective swarm.
• Selective Swarm. Creatures beginning their turn in the area of a fairy ring take 7 (2d6) psychic damage from strange whirling lights, unseen hands, snatches of song, and rippling in the very fabric of reality. Blind or deaf creatures take half damage from a fairy ring’s swarm attack and gain advantage to save against its distraction ability. A fairy ring may choose to deal no damage or even to exclude some creatures from damage but not others. Creatures damaged by the fairy ring’s swarm attack are afflicted with the curse of the ages. Curse of the Ages. On a failed DC 16 Wisdom saving throw the target creature age 1 year. A creature that saves is immune to that fairy ring’s curse of the ages for 24 hours.
• Fey Mound. A fairy ring can create an extradimensional refuge in the ground within its space which lasts 1 hour. The space can hold as many as eight Medium or smaller creatures. Attacks and spells can’t cross through the entrance into or out of the extradimensional space, but those inside can see out of it as if through a 3-foot-by-5-foot window. A fairy ring can move and reshape itself while maintaining the fey mound, but it cannot move from the square without ending the effect and causing all creatures within to emerge from the entrance. The entrance is difficult to find due to the rippling of reality within the fairy ring’s space, requiring a DC 19 Wisdom save to penetrate the illusion covering the entrance, followed by a DC 19 Wisdom (Perception) check to locate it, though a fairy ring can reveal the entrance to any creatures it chooses within 30 feet without revealing it to others. Creatures inside the fey mound regain 1 hit point per round as long as they remain within. This is natural healing and not regeneration (that is, limbs will not grow back). A fairy ring can spend one use of its legendary actions to create a faithful hound to guard the entrance to the fey mound. Alternatively, it can spend all its legendary actions to create a fairy mound identical to magnificent mansion. If it uses its legendary actions in this way it loses access to those actions for 24 hours. If the fairy ring is killed, all effects of this ability are immediately ended and creatures within are expelled into a random open square within 30 feet of the entrance. Creatures ejected in this manner must save against the fairy ring’s curse of ages ability.

LEGENDARY ACTIONS

The fairy ring can take 2 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 fairy ring regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.

• Cast a Spell. The fairy ring casts a spell.
• Disenchantment. A fairy ring can attempt to drain the magic from one magical item carried by a creature within its space. The creature wielding the magic item makes a DC 16 Charisma saving throw on behalf of the magic item adding +1 to the roll for each level of rarity. If the magic item fails the saving throw, the fairy ring suppresses the item’s power for 1 minute, healing the fairy ring a number of hit points equal to 10 times the number of chargers or plusses the item had or 10 points per level of rarity. If the saving throw fails by 5 or more, the item’s power is drained completely, rendering it permanently nonmagical, and heals the fairy ring twice the normal number of hit points. This power has no effect on artifacts; items made of cold iron; or items carried by fey and plants.

ABOUT

Mysterious lights and echoes of music and tinkling laughter can be heard at times in a shadowy glade full of multicolored mushrooms growing in a circle. These may be fairy rings, magical mushroom colonies that grow (and are often planted and cultivated) in places where there is a thinness in the veil between worlds, where the Faerie Realms and the Material Plane grow close together. In fact, fairy rings embody that closeness and help serve as bridges between the worlds, bringing fey and mortal alike into the world of the other. A fairy ring’s mushrooms are rarely seen to move, instead disappearing into the loaming earth or ancient cromlechs and dolmens they guard only to reappear nearby several nights later.

Fairy rings are subtle creatures of surprising intelligence and insight, understanding much of what they observe and able to communicate quite effectively with the things of the natural world, though rarely revealing their mind to any.

They do not speak, but those who spend sufficient time around them claim to be able to read their moods and their wishes through the subtle interplay of colors within them, the shifting rainbow hues of the mushrooms themselves, and the tittering sounds of magical laughter a fairy ring creates when pleased with itself or its guests.

Queer Passage. Creatures passing within a fairy ring, or awakening to find themselves within one, often report strange dreams, and may disappear from view for days at a time, to return with tales of fey merriment but touched with age as their years seem to slip away. Strange lights and sounds are often experienced around a fairy ring, whirling patterns that entrance and mislead. Those in trouble have often found a refuge within a fairy ring, as the world seemed to grow blurry and hazy and they fell into a strange and comforting safety within.

Though created by the Eldest Lords of the Fey, fairy rings can be stubborn and unreliable unless plied with gifts of music or comedy. Those seeking to use a fairy ring as a means of magical conveyance are well advised to bring them a magical gift, whose powers they drain to fortify their mystical energies.

Mysterious lights and echoes of music and tinkling laughter can be heard at times in a shadowy glade full of multicolored mushrooms growing in a circle.

Fairy rings are magical mushroom colonies that grow (and are often planted and cultivated) in places where there is a thinness in the veil between worlds, where the Faerie Realms and the Material Plane grow close together. In fact, fairy rings embody that closeness and help serve as bridges between the worlds, bringing fey and mortal alike into the world of the other. The hundreds of mushrooms comprising a fairy ring are rarely if ever seen to move. Rather, they disappear into the ground only to sprout up again a few feet away, shifting their pattern and form to suit their needs, or even disappearing from view entirely into the loaming earth or the ancient cromlechs, dolmens, and standing stones they sometimes guard. Creatures passing within a fairy ring, or awakening to find themselves within one, often report strange dreams, and may disappear from view for days at a time, to return with tales of fey merriment but touched with age as their years seem to slip away. Strange lights and sounds are often experienced around a fairy ring, whirling patterns that entrance and mislead. Those in trouble have often found a refuge within a fairy ring, as the world seemed to grow blurry and hazy and they fell into a strange and comforting safety within.

Fairy rings are subtle creatures of surprising intelligence and insight, understanding much of what they observe and able to communicate quite effectively with the things of the natural world, though rarely revealing their mind to any. They do not speak, but those who spend sufficient time around them claim to be able to read their moods and their wishes through the subtle interplay of colors within them, the shifting rainbow hues of the mushrooms themselves, and the tittering sounds of magical laughter a fairy ring creates when pleased with itself or its guests. Properly asked, a fairy ring can be a powerful ally and protector, but it is a keen judge of persons and rarely associates with strongly lawful creatures unless compelled or at great need.

Though created by the Eldest Lords of the Fey, fairy rings can be stubborn and unreliable unless plied with gifts of music or comedy. Those seeking to use a fairy ring as a means of magical conveyance are well advised to bring them a magical gift, whose powers they drain to fortify their mystical energies. They are normally friendly with plant and fey creatures and creatures of untamed chaos, but they may refuse passage to those that treat them poorly or offend them in some way, or if they have taken a liking to someone else, especially someone that has offered them an enticing gift.

With raging fury the terrifyingly monstrous rotting corpse of a 40-foot-long snake with a dragon’s head and wickedly clawed forearms rises up upon its great serpentine coils. Tiny gray maggots swarm its putrescent flesh, as if driving the lifeless beast to infernal insanity.