Rahara

Huge plant, unaligned

Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 138 (12d12 + 60)
Speed 10 ft., swim 60 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
23 (+6)	8 (-1)	21 (+5)	5 (-3)	16 (+3)	5 (-3)

Skills Stealth +7
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing
Condition Immunities blinded, deafened, exhaustion
Senses blindsight 60 ft. (blind beyond this radius), passive Perception 13
Languages —
Challenge 9 (5,000 XP)

SPECIAL TRAITS

• Damage Transfer. While a creature is swallowed, the rahara takes only half the damage dealt to it (rounded down), and that creature takes the other half.
• False Appearance. While the rahara remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from a normal tree root or vine.
• Hold Breath. While out of water, the rahara can hold its breath for 1 hour.
• Lagoon Keeper. The rahara may cast create or destroy water (using a 9th level spell slot) once per day and purify water at will.
• Speak with Birds and Reptiles. The rahara can communicate with birds and reptiles as if they shared a language. For the purposes of influencing these animals the rahara has Persuasion +5.
• Underwater Camouflage. The rahara has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made while underwater.
• Water Breathing. The rahara can breathe only underwater.

ACTIONS

• Multiattack. The rahara makes two attacks but prefers to bite constricted foes in an attempt to swallow them.
• Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (3d6 + 6) piercing damage. If the target is a Large or smaller creature, it must succeed on a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw or be swallowed by the rahara. A swallowed creature is blinded and restrained, it has total cover against attacks and other effects outside the rahara, and it takes 10 (3d6) acid damage at the start of each of the rahara’s turns. If the rahara takes 20 damage or more on a single turn from a creature inside it, the rahara must succeed on a DC 21 Constitution saving throw at the end of that turn or defecate all swallowed creatures, which fall prone in a space within 5 feet of the rahara. The creatures are stripped of all their equipment and are execrated naked. Equipment maybe retrieved if this specific rahara is killed. If the rahara dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse by using 20 feet of movement, exiting prone and fully equipped.
• Constrict. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 18). Until this grapple ends, the creature is restrained, and the rahara can’t constrict another target.
• Jetstream. Ranged Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, range 60/180 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d10 + 6) bludgeoning and 11 (2d10) cold damage.

ABOUT

The rahara is a savage predator of the rain forest, a creature whose woody body resembles nothing so much as a waterlogged and rotten pawpaw log, often sheathed in a twisted skein of fibrous strands like a manioc strainer basket. They are not particularly intelligent, but they recognize signs of civilization and travelers like cookfires and pack animals or mounts. While primarily aquatic, they are capable of rushing up onto the shoreline to grab their prey, grabbing them and dragging them back into their watery dens.

Raharas lurk in deep, permanent lagoons in rainforest and jungle terrain, often enlarging these basins to provide more room to lair. Their lairs are often noticed by canny travelers by the many footprints leading to the water but none leading away. When not hungry, they may make a loud snapping noise to warn off intruders; when raharas are known to be about, it is silence that is truly dangerous.

Jungle Pets. Raharas often befriend birds and reptiles and use them like living lures, roosting near the rahara’s waterhole and drawing in hunters and poachers until the rahara can seize them. According to legend, a serpent befriended by a rahara that is killed and falls into the rahara’s pool might return to life as a baby rahara. At first, it looks no different than it did in life, but it soon grows to titanic size and devours everyone and everything nearby.