Mogadb

Large fey, unaligned

Armor Class 12
Hit Points 30 (4d10 + 8)
Speed 30 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
14 (+2)	14 (+2)	15 (+2)	3 (-4)	12 (+1)	5 (-3)

Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, prone, stunned
Senses darkvision 30 ft., passive Perception 11
Languages –
Challenge 1 (2,00 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +2

SPECIAL TRAITS

• Keen Smell. The mogadb has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.
• Tumble Over. The mogadb moves by the forceful heaving of the animals within its skin sack. It ignores difficult terrain.

ACTIONS

• Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d10 + 2) bludgeoning damage.
• Swarm Breath (Recharge 5-6). The mogadb spews out some of its internal swarm in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw, taking 7 (2d6) piercing damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. A creature that fails the save must also succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or contract a disease. Until the disease is cured, the target can’t regain hit points except by magical means, and the target’s hit point maximum decreases by 1 every 24 hours. If the target’s hit point maximum drops to 0 as a result of this disease, the target dies.

REACTIONS

• Slough Skin. If the mogadb takes 10 slashing damage or more in a single round, its vessel is destroyed, leaving behind a swarm of animals. This does not break the spell holding the swarm together, which continues to attack as a swarm of rats with a hit point maximum equal to the mogadb’s remaining hit points.

ABOUT

A squirming mass of vermin sewn into a skin sack, mogadbs are created as servitor creatures and protectors by wicked fey. The creator finds or summons a large number of tiny animals-typically lizards, mice, and other minute reptiles and mammals-then enacts a ritual that ensorcells them into acting as a single large predatory beast. The ritual is completed when the enchanted swarm is sealed into a skin vessel of some kind. This vessel can be as simple as a rough sack vaguely shaped like a four-legged creature, as ornate as a lifelike plush toy.

No matter the vessel’s appearance, the swarm animates it ably, and the mogadb serves its master unerringly. While it has no central intelligence, a mogadb’s constituent swarm nonetheless behaves like a single beast, prowling about on four legs and attacking with its limbs like a large quadruped, though it has a discernible boneless quality to its movement. Impacts cause the mogadb’s skin to ripple, and the swarm inside is visible whenever the creature opens its mouth to feed or exhale vermin at foes.

As the mogadb becomes damaged, rents and tears in the skin vessel reveal the writhing horde within, acting in eerie concert.

Particularly cruel fey have been known to craft whole packs of mogadbs, even riding them as war beasts, in the process totally draining an area of tiny animals to feed their rituals. Encountering a pack of mogadbs and their riders is a terrifying sight that few would welcome, and even fewer might live to tell about. Such acts rarely go unnoticed and often result in confrontations with druidic circles and well-meaning beings from the fey world.

A mogadb can be destroyed with a successful remove curse spell, though it may be difficult to keep the creature in one place while casting. More powerful magic might be effective as well. Otherwise the only way to free the trapped animals from their wicked fate is by destroying the skin vessel and dispersing the swarm.

Many adventurers mistake mogadbs for animated objects or other types of magical construct creatures or occasionally even magic items like bags of holding. Trickster fey take great joy in such antics and craft their mogadbs with this exact goal in mind.