Dark Womb

Huge monstrosity (titanspawn), neutral evil

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
18 (+4) 6 (-2) 19 (+4) 21 (+5) 14 (+2) 17 (+3)

Armor Class 17 (natural armor)
Hit Points 136 (13d12 + 52)
Speed 15 ft.
Saving Throws Strength +8, Intelligence +9, Wisdom +6, Charisma +7
Skills Arcana +9, Deception +7, Insight +6, Perception +6
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone
Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 16
Languages Infernal, Primordial, Titan Speech, plus any two other tongues
Challenge 10 (5,900 XP)

Special Traits

    • Clone Child. A dark womb can consume a morsel (blood, flesh, hair, nail cuttings, etc.) of any creature that has been dead for less than one week. One day later, the dark womb gives birth to a cloned version of the creature, appearing virtually identical to the original. The dark womb may not clone a creature of greater than Large size, and in any case the creature cannot have more than half the dark womb’s Hit Dice. When birthed from the dark womb, the cloned creature is of the same age as the original was at the time the tissue sample was taken. Cloned creatures are typical members of their race, with natural armor, natural weapons, traits, skills, and statistics as appropriate. They do not possess any class levels, spellcasting, innate casting, or supernatural abilities of the original creature. A dark womb may not have more than one living clone child at a time derived from the same cloned creature. It cannot clone a clone.
    • Innate Spellcasting. The dark womb’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 15). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components.
    • Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the dark womb fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
    • Spellcasting. The dark womb is a 10th-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 17, +9 to hit with spell attacks). It has the following wizard spells prepared:

Actions

  • Multiattack. The dark womb makes two slam attacks.
  • Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (3d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage.
  • Spit Poison. Ranged Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, range 15/30 ft., one target. Hit: The target must make a DC 16 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the target takes 45 (10d8) poison damage and is poisoned for 1 minute. On a successful save, the target takes half as much damage and is not poisoned.

Legendary Actions

The dark womb can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. It can use only one legendary action option at a time, and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The dark womb regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.

  • Impose Drowsiness. The dark womb casts sleep as a 3rd-level spell (affecting 9d8 hit points), requiring no material components and without expending any spell slots.
  • Shadowy Escape. The dark womb teleports up to 60 feet, along with any equipment it is wearing or carrying, into an unoccupied space it can see. The destination space cannot be in an area of bright light.
  • Poison Spittle. The dark womb makes a Spit Poison attack.

Tactics

Dark wombs always seek to bargain or maneuver their way out of difficult situations, relying on lies and subterfuge. They scorn physical combat, preferring to let their “children” do their dirty work. If necessary, a dark womb supports her children from a safe vantage using her spells and poison spittle, but she typically uses every means at her disposal to avoid physical confrontation.

Description

A dark womb is a revolting creature, looking like a huge, bloated, corpulent hag from the waist up, but with the lower half of an immense slug or perhaps a termite queen – a pale, reeking, semi-translucent, undulating sac.

Ever Spawning. Dark wombs seek to create large broods of cloned children to defend their lairs, seek out treasures, or even assassinate and replace the original creatures (for any number of nefarious or malicious reasons). To such ends, a dark womb sends its children out to collect pieces of other creatures, be they strands of hair, blood or viscera, or samples gained through other means. The children then bring back their samples, which the dark womb devours to produce ever more cloned offspring.

Very rarely, the female clone child of a dark womb spontaneously mutates into a dark womb herself and becomes free of the charm linking her to her dark womb mother. Such offspring are usually killed or exiled if they don’t manage to kill their mother and her other children first.

Lair Actions

A dark womb’s lair is well hidden, usually underground or in a high mountain cave. Since the dark womb needs other creatures in order to create its cloned children, its lair is almost always found near a settlement or colony of other creatures. In some cases, the lair may actually be hidden underneath or within another settlement. The lair is invariably guarded by the womb’s children, utterly loyal to their foul mother.

On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the dark womb takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects:

          • The dark womb creates a small oil slick as though it had cast grease (save DC 17).
          • The dark womb creates a cloud of reeking, sickening vapor as if it had cast the stinking cloud spell (save DC 17). The fog lasts until initiative count 20 on the next round, and the dark womb need not concentrate to maintain it.

Regional Effects

The region surrounding a dark womb’s lair is warped subtly by its magic in the following ways:

          • Shadows cast within 3 miles of the lair seem deeper and heavier. Areas of dim light within this region grant creatures advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
          • Nonmagical flames are extinguished within the dark womb’s lair. Torches and lanterns are snuffed out and cannot be relit.
          • Magical light sources or spells of lower than 3rd level produce light of one category less within the lair. Bright light is reduced to dim light, and dim light becomes darkness. If the dark womb dies, these effects fade in 2d6 days.
Section 15: Copyright Notice

Creature Collection 5e Copyright 2020 Onyx Path Publishing, Inc.