Bone Lord

Large aberration, neutral evil

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
18 (+4)	10 (+0)	16 (+3)	9 (-1)	20 (+5)	5 (-3)

Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
Hit Points 170 (20d10 + 60)
Speed 60 ft.
Senses blindsense 60 ft., passive Perception 15
Damage Resistances cold
Damage Vulnerability fire
Languages –
Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)

Special Traits

• Bone Weapons. Each round of combat, as a bonus action, the bone lord can grow a new appendage for use as a weapon, up to a maximum number of appendages equal to its Hit Dice. This can be fangs (bite attack), horns (gore attack), or claws (rake attack). It cannot grow the same kind of appendage twice in a row. Every time it grows a new appendage, it may make one additional attack when it multiattacks.
• Shape Control. As a free action the bone lord may alter its shape by up to two sizes larger or smaller. This does not change its statistics, but does allow it to change the shape of the space it occupies, fit through smaller openings, or otherwise take advantage of terrain. A bone lord is immune to any effect that might alter its shape.

Actions

• Multiattack. The bone lord makes two bite, gore, or rake attacks.
• Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8 + 4) piercing damage.
• Gore. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage.
• Rake. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8 + 4) slashing damage.

Tactics

A bone lord typically finds a cool, shadowed place to lie in wait for its victims. Requiring only fresh blood for nourishment, it tears its prey apart to absorb the blood through the bones’ reconstructed marrow.

After feeding, a bone lord generally lies dormant for weeks while the bones of its prey bleach in the sun. Once the bones are properly bleached, the fungus absorbs them into the construct and moves on to another hunting spot, settling to wait to surprise another creature.

Description

What appear to be wiry, pinkish-gray muscles stretch along the collection of bones that form this hideous skeletal creature. Despite its misshapen appearance, the bizarre skeleton moves at an incredible rate.

A bone lord is a seemingly random collection of monstrous, bestial, and humanoid skulls, club like limbs, claws, dagger-like ribs, and so forth. The creature can bear amulets, jewelry, or bits of clothing or armor left over from past victims, and might even use them to entice curious adventurers.

A New Horror. Bone lords have been encountered only recently, arising from the grisly remains of scattered battlefields and lurching about in search of living prey. No one knows what dark magic created these monsters. Some rumors claim that a wizard’s experiment went catastrophically wrong, while others suggest that they were mortals cursed by a vengeful power for wrongs committed against the gods.

Fungal Blight. A bone lord is not an undead skeleton, however. Its true ‘body’ is a pinkish-gray fungus – although even that is subject to debate, as it is not properly a plant, either. The so-called fungus grows along the surface of bones, joining them at joints and thickening in places analogous to muscles. A bone lord’s shape – humanoid, animal, a peculiar mix of skeletons – and the weapons it wields – claws, teeth, jagged or club-like bones – vary depending on the kind of bones available to the fungal growth. It uses the skeleton as a kind of vehicle to travel, hunt, and defend itself.