Viy

Medium fey, lawful evil

Armor Class 19 (natural armor)
Hit Points 178 (17d8 + 102)
Speed 30 ft., burrow 30 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
20 (+5)	10 (+0)	22 (+6)	14 (+2)	16 (+3)	16 (+3)

Saving Throws Dex +4, Cha +7
Skills Intimidation +7, Perception +7
Condition Immunities blinded, charmed, frightened, poisoned
Damage Immunities poison
Senses darkvision 60 ft., tremorsense 60 ft., truesight 60 ft., passive Perception 17
Languages Common, Infernal, Sylvan, Terran
Challenge 11 (7,200 XP)

SPECIAL TRAITS

• Earth Glide. The viy can burrow through nonmagical, unworked earth and stone. While doing so, the viy doesn’t disturb the material it moves through.
• Magic Resistance. The viy has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
• Viy’s Sight. Magical darkness doesn’t impede the viy’s darkvision.

ACTIONS

• Multiattack. The viy makes two slam attacks or makes one slam attack and uses Fatal Gaze or Horrifying Visage.
• Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 21 (3d10 + 5) bludgeoning damage.
• Fatal Gaze. The viy lifts its eyelids and targets one creature it can see within 60 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Charisma saving throw, taking 38 (7d10) psychic damage on a failure, or half as much on a successful save. A creature reduced to 0 hit points by this effect dies.
• Horrifying Visage. Each non-evil creature within 60 feet of the viy that can see it must succeed on a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened for 1 minute. A frightened target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, with disadvantage if the viy is within line of sight, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a target’s saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the target is immune to the viy’s Horrifying Visage for the next 24 hours.
• Summon Earth Creatures (1/day). The viy attempts to magically summon 1d4 xorn, 1d3 earth elementals or 1d2 geode spiders* with a 50% chance of success. The summoned creatures appear in unoccupied spaces within 60 feet of their summoner, act as allies of their summoner, and can’t summon other creatures. They remain for 10 minutes, until they die or their summoner dies, or until their summoner dismisses them as an action.

ABOUT

The viy (veey) is inspired by a creature from Ukrainian folklore. As a creature from an oral storytelling tradition, written tales featuring the viy are extremely scarce and contradictory, it is best known through the eponymous novella (Viy, 1835) by Russian writer Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852).

One of the most repulsive fey beings in existence, the viy appears as a humanoid similar in stature and girth to a dwarf, covered in shaggy hair and always dirty with soot, earth, or mud. Its face is misshapen and viscerally ugly, but its most infamous feature are its freakishly long and heavy eyelids, reaching all the way to the ground. With the eyelids almost always closed, the viy can still perceive its surroundings through other senses and is very hard to catch unawares.

The mysterious and often reclusive viy lairs in dismal caves, abandoned mines, deep crevasses, and long-forgotten ruins.

Sometimes it is rumored to live in the depths of the earth, guarding underground treasures. Even though it can easily move through stone and rubble, it rarely leaves its lair and is viciously territorial. Sometimes the viy surrounds itself with minions (most often green hags, medusas, or earth creatures such as gargoyles or xorn) and rules the surrounding area as a tyrannical overlord, demanding tribute from its subjects.

The viy derives sadistic pleasure (and possibly nourishment) from the suffering of sentient creatures. When it lifts its outsized eyelids- an act requiring the aid of its minions-the yelloweyed viy strikes fear and despair into the hearts of its enemies, relishing their slow agony. Sages speculate that its unwieldy eyelids are a handicap deliberately placed by the gods or nature itself so that the viy wouldn’t strip entire countries of living creatures with its deadly gaze.