Mortifera

Large aberration, chaotic neutral

Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 135 (18d10 + 36)
Speed 30 ft., swim 30 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
18 (+4)	16 (+3)	15 (+2)	8 (–1)	10 (+0)	5 (–3)

Skills Perception +3, Stealth +5
Damage Resistances cold, fire, poison
Condition Immunities blinded, deafened, exhaustion, poisoned
Senses blindsight 60 ft. (blind beyond this radius), passive Perception 13
Languages —
Challenge 6 (2,300 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +3

SPECIAL TRAITS

• Amphibious. The mortifera can breathe air and water.
• False Appearance. While the mortifera remains motionless and submerged in water, it is indistinguishable from a bed of lotus flowers.
• Magic Resistance. The mortifera has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
• Poisonous Tendrils. A creature that starts its turn grappled by the mortifera must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1 minute. A poisoned creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

ACTIONS

• Multiattack. The mortifera makes one Fanged Tentacles attack and two Slam attacks, or it makes three Slam attacks. It can replace two Slam attacks with a use of Chomp.
• Fanged Tentacles. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d4 + 4) piercing damage plus 9 (2d8) poison damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 15). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the mortifera can’t use its Fanged Tentacles on another target.
• Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (1d12 + 4) bludgeoning damage.
• Chomp. One creature grappled by the mortifera is pulled up to 5 feet toward the mortifera’s central maw, which chomps down on the creature. The target must make a DC 15 Strength saving throw, taking 10 (3d6) piercing damage and 13 (3d8) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
• Poison Spray (Recharge 5–6). The mortifera sprays poison from its central maw in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 27 (6d8) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

ABOUT

The entire bed of swamp flowers begins to stir. Each lotus flower opens to reveal a fanged mouth, and a hulking humanoid form rises from the water, the flower mouths extending from the creature’s torso. While they resemble a bed of lotus flowers blooming atop a bog’s surface, the dozen or so fang-tipped tendrils of a mortifera are much more dangerous. Each tendril extends from the dark cavity of a large orifice in the mortifera’s torso. A mortifera lies in wait underwater until a hapless creature draws near. It then grabs and poisons its prey before bringing the creature to the mortifera’s central mouth to devour it.

Eldritch Origins. The mortifera were spawned from the research lab of a mad chirurgeon on a plane of undeath, and they have proliferated since their introduction to the Material Plane, where a food supply of living flesh is ample. The reason for its insidious strange design remains a mystery.

Unnatural Resource. The venomous “blooms” from a mortifera’s tentacle mouths can be harvested for their otherworldly nectar, which can be refined into a poison or used in the creation of antidotes. Alchemists and apothecaries of high regard (and ill repute) pay handsomely for vials or flasks of the noxious liquid.