Hook Hanger

Medium aberration, neutral evil

Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
Hit Points 120 (16d8 + 48)
Speed 20 ft., climb 50 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
20 (+5)	17 (+3)	16 (+3)	12 (+1)	15 (+2)	14 (+2)

Skills Intimidation +5, Perception +5, Stealth +6, Survival +5
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15
Languages Deep Speech
Challenge 6 (2,300 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +3

SPECIAL TRAITS

• Hanging Climber. The hook hanger can use its climb speed only to climb along overhead surfaces such as tree canopies or the ceilings of natural caverns. The hook hanger treats ceilings of hewn stone as difficult terrain.

ACTIONS

• Multiattack. The hook hanger attacks twice with its hook or twice with its slam.
• Hook. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d4 + 5) piercing damage. If the target is a Medium or smaller creature, it is grappled (escape DC 17). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the hook hanger can’t use its hook on a different creature.
• Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage, or 23 (4d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage if the hook hanger already hit the target with a slam this turn.
• Drop the Hammer. If the hook hanger is hanging at least 10 feet above a creature and is hidden from the creature, it drops down to a space within 5 feet of the creature and attacks it with a slam. On a hit, the creature is knocked prone and must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of its next turn.
• Swinging Swipe. The hook hanger climbs up to its climb speed along an overhead surface without provoking opportunity attacks. It can make a hook attack at any point during this movement.
• Twist and Snap. A creature grappled by the hook hanger must make a DC 16 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the hook hanger breaks the creature’s arm, dealing 27 (6d8) bludgeoning damage and inflicting a level of exhaustion on the creature. While the character suffers from this exhaustion, it can’t use one of its arms. A creature can use an action to make a DC 15 Medicine check, setting the bone and removing the level of exhaustion on a success.

ABOUT

As their common name implies, hook hangers (who refer to themselves as danakarii) are monstrous abominations that haunt jungles both verdant and urban. They prefer these environs because trees and buildings alike boast plentiful branches, ledges, and crannies from which they can swing and drop.

Though hook hangers are bipedal, their legs are little more than vestigial stumps.

Rather, these killers locomote by swinging along tree canopies and permeable ceilings using the strange hooked limbs that extend from their shoulder blades. Hook hangers can lope along the ground using their heavily muscled arms, similarly to gorillas, but they generally resort to terrestrial combat only as a last resort. Whenever possible, they hide in darkness above their prey and fight from the shadows.

Hook hangers are misanthropic killers who disdain all other forms of life and find great pleasure in maiming and killing just about anything that crosses their path. They move with eerie silent grace and communicate with one another using a Deep Speech form of sign language, but they clearly possess the power of hearing, for their favorite types of victims are those who can scream.

Hook hangers sometimes gather in groups and follow a particularly charismatic and vile hanger. Such mobs can wipe out entire settlements or regions of life, foregoing their usual stealth and ambush tactics for wanton slaughter. More often, however, hook hangers act as solitary hunters or independent mercenaries for more powerful beings.

Hook hangers are encountered all over the world and in just about any locale, from insular riverside villages to the heart of the jungle to the depths of subterranean caverns, making it difficult to determine their native habitat. The most logical explanation for hook hangers’ proliferation is that some malevolent intelligent being purposefully sowed these horrors across the world, though what being-and for what purpose-none can say.