Widow’s Blades

Small aberration, chaotic neutral

Armor Class 13
Hit Points 7 (3d6 – 3)
Speed 20 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
7 (-2)	16 (+3)	9 (-1)	5 (-3)	7 (-2)	8 (-1)

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 8
Challenge 1/4 (50 XP)

SPECIAL TRAITS

• Symbiotic Bond. The widow’s blades latch onto the back of their host, granting them the following abilities. The host’s movement speed is increased by 15 feet and they gain a climbing speed equal to their walking speed. The host may make an unarmed attack with the wings as a bonus action. The wings are a natural melee weapon with which the host is proficient. Attacks with the wings deal piercing damage equal to 1d6 + their Strength or Dexterity modifier (the host’s choice), instead of the normal bludgeoning damage for an unarmed strike. If the host leaps at least 20 feet straight onto a creature and makes an attack using the wings, that creature must succeed on a DC 13 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
• Pounce. If the widow’s blades moves at least 20 feet straight toward a creature and then hits it with a bite attack on the same turn, that target must succeed on a DC 13 Strength saving throw or be forced prone. If the target is prone, the widow’s blades can make one wing attack against it as a bonus action.
• Running Leap. With a 10-foot running start, the widow’s blades can long jump up to 25 feet.

ACTIONS

• Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) piercing damage. A creature hit by this attack is grappled (escape DC 14) and the widow’s blades can’t bite another target. If the creature remains grappled in this way for 1 minute, it becomes the widow’s blades’ host.
• Wings. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) piercing damage.

ABOUT

Widow’s blades, so-named by the drow that cultivate them, are native to the Astral Plane, where they sail across psychic storms on membranous wings. The thin membranes that make up their sails cannot maintain its integrity on other planes, leaving behind webs of tattered skin and the barren skeleton of claw-like wings. When trapped on the Material Plane, widow’s blades are forced to crawl across the ground on their bone-like wings, desperately seeking a host to help them survive and return home. When they do finally find a suitable host, widow’s blades latch onto their flesh, enveloping the back of the rib cage and piercing through its tissue with the sharp bony frame of its sails. With talons buried deep within its host body, a widow’s blades is able to realize its role once again as both a means of travel and a highly effective weapon. Longing to return to their home and sail again across an astral sea, widow’s blades share their dreams of other worlds with their host as they sleep.

Gift of the Drow. The name widow’s blades was given to these lost aberrants by the drow, as the first of their kind to host one was thought to have been blessed by the Spider Queen herself. Since then, the drow have developed rituals to breed widow’s blades and bind them to worthy hosts. Only the greatest of drow warriors and priestesses are chosen to undergo the ritual and take on the likeness of their deity.

Non-drow hosts discovered by the dark elves are seen as an affront to their queen, and are often targeted for assassination. Drow that are allowed to bear the blades are trained to wield them as deadly weapons.

Alien Influence. The widow’s blades gives its host the following flaw: “I have troubled dreams of flying over strange worlds, and no matter where I travel, I feel unfulfilled.”