Another Call of Cthulhu monster!
Art by Christopher Burdett!
Your foe –unseen until now – warps space and bends light as a horrible form appears. At a glance, you could mistake it for a dragon. But it has too many eyes and limbs, and its mouth distends like its body is a sheath of reptilian skin.
In its most common form, a lloigor is invisible to conventional senses. Lloigors must alter their geometry to manipulate physical objects; in our visual spectrum, this condensed form resembles a grotesque pastiche of a dragon. Besides a similar shape, comparable strength, and humanoid-enslaving tendencies, these interstellar horrors have nothing in common with dragons.
Upon outgrowing (read: dominating and desiccating) their distant home sphere, the lloigors’ creator-god (also named Lloigor) taught its children the secrets of space travel. Since leaving home, the lloigors spread violent atrocities, empires based on fear and sacrifice, and countless people reshaped as wretched works of flesh-based art. A few great mages – of races that far predate modern humanoids – managed to craft symbols that drive away the lloigor scourge, symbols transmuted and cheapened over time into common glyph-based spells.
However, the lloigors did not realize their folly until they enjoyed several millennia of colonizing other planets. A connection to their deity and homeland was the source of their terrifying psychic prowess; ever since spreading across the universe, the lloigors’ powers were weakening. Only by consuming intelligent minds can lloigors recapture a fraction of their terrible power. After numerous rebellions, the humiliated lloigors retreated to the shadows and caverns of various worlds.
Small (vortex form)/large (reptilian form) Aberration, Lawful Evil
Armor Class 16 (many-angled)
Hit Points 161 (17d10 + 68)
Speed 30 ft. (reptilian form only), hover 30 ft. (vortex form only)
Vortex Form: STR 1(-5) DEX 16(+3) CON 19(+4) INT 21(+5) WIS 18(+4) CHA 18(+4)
Reptilian Form: STR 23(+6) DEX 16(+3) CON 19(+4) INT 21(+5) WIS 18(+4) CHA 18(+4)
Saving Throws Cha +8, Con +8
Skills Deception +8, Intimidation +8, Perception +8
Damage Resistances fire, nonmagic (Reptilian form), psychic (Reptilian form)
Damage Vulnerabilities radiant
Damage Immunities cold, force (Vortex form), nonmagic (Vortex form), psychic (Vortex form)
Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, frozen
Additional Immunities for Vortex Form blinded, deafened, grappled, poisoned, prone, restrained
Senses Darkvision 150 ft., passive Perception 18, truesight 120 ft.
Languages Common, Deep Speech, Draconic, Infernal, Undercommon
Innate Spellcasting. The lloigor's innate spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 17, +9 to hit with spell attacks). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no components. However, it does need to expend Leeched Mental Energy (LME, from here on). Assume any lloigor has 4d6 stored LME at the start of an encounter.
Free Spells: gust, mage hand (hand is invisible), mind sliver (3d6)
2-point Spells: catapult
3-point Spells: detect thoughts, dissonant whispers (level 2), gust of wind, mind spike, misty step
5-point Spells: fireball, sending, slow, wind wall
6-point Spells: confusion, dimension door, polymorph, Raulothim's psychic lance
7-point Spells: Bigby’s hand (hand is invisible), control winds, create spelljamming helm, telekinesis
Bound by the Signs. Certain timeless sigils can repel the lloigor and its depraved magicks.
If a lloigor damages any creature protected by warding bond, the lloigor takes the caster’s share of the damage.
The lloigor takes maximum damage from glyph of warding.
Death ward heals all effects (except damage) from the lloigor’s fleshwarping – even regenerating severed limbs.
A lloigor can’t even attempt to enter any area protected by guards and wards, even by teleportation.
Deadly Pessimism. Lloigors’ minds are endless wells of hatred and pessimism – too much for even the most spiteful mortal mind-reader to bear. Any creature that tries to read a lloigor’s thoughts is subject to a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw.
Success: The mind-reader escapes the abyss of the lloigor’s thoughts with nothing but a searing headache. For 1 minute, the mind-reader rolls Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma checks with disadvantage since it hurts to concentrate.
Failure: The mind-reader is afflicted with short-term madness.
Failure by 10 or More: The mind-reader is afflicted with long-term madness.
Critical Failure: The mind-reader dies.
Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the lloigor fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Star-Treader. The lloigor doesn’t need to breathe, and it can shrug off extreme cold (included in stat block).
Multiattack. In its reptilian form, the lloigor makes one Bite attack and two Claw attacks. The lloigor has no physical attack options in vortex form.
Bite (Reptilian Form only). Melee Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., 1 target. Hit: 12 (1d12 + 6) piercing damage.
Claw (Reptilian Form only). Melee Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., 1 target. Hit: 10 (1d8 + 6) slashing damage.
Fleshwarp (Recharge 5-6). In reptilian form, the lloigor must touch its target. A lloigor in vortex form can attempt to warp any target within 60 ft. Targets make a DC 16 Constitution save as their own bodies twist and rebel. On a failure, the target takes 8d10 necrotic damage, and one of their features are bent to the lloigor’s whims – a limb, torso, neck, head shape, or facial feature. On a success, the target takes half damage, and no transformation occurs. On a critical failure, the lloigor gains enough control over the flesh to exact one of their favorite punishments: shriveling limbs. The target loses the use of an arm or leg (DM’s choice).
Reversing the lloigor’s fleshwarping requires casting remove curse or greater restoration at level 6 – or, curiously, a regular 4th-level casting of death ward.
Condense/Refract. The lloigor changes between Vortex and Reptilian form. If a lloigor changes into its reptilian form thirty feet or more off the ground, it is subject to fall damage.
Feed on Anguish. When a lloigor deals damage to another creature, the lloigor can use its reaction to regain 1d4 LME.
The lloigor can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. The lloigor regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Attack. The lloigor makes one Bite or two Claw attacks.
Cast a Spell (Costs 3 Actions). The lloigor casts one of its spells, using the normal amount of LME.
Recalculate. The lloigor attempts to recharge its Fleshwarp ability.
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the lloigor can take one of the following lair actions; the lloigor can't take the same lair action two rounds in a row:
Psychic Vampirism. The lloigor targets a random sleeping humanoid within 6 miles of its lair. The target loses 1d4 Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma (lloigor’s choice), and the lloigor gains an equal amount of LME. The target suffers a level of exhaustion all the next day, but another long rest will cure both the exhaustion and the ability loss. The target only dies if the ability damage reduces that ability to 0.
Summon Prey. The lloigor chooses any living mortal creature in the universe. The target makes a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw. On a success, the target is summoned to a random point within 1 mile of the lloigor. On a failure, the prey is teleported within 100 feet of the lloigor.
Warp Time. The lloigor must also spend the rest of its stored LME to use this lair action. Every creature in the lair must reroll initiative. The lloigor can choose not to reroll.
The region surrounding a lloigor's lair is altered by the lloigor's magic, creating one or more of the following effects:
For 6 miles around the lloigor’s lair, people tend to act uncharacteristically dour and negative.
Long-term exposure to the lloigor’s presence stains water and stone a jade tint. This jade stain is only visible if the lloigor’s been around for over a year, and the unnatural color is more noticeable as you approach the lair. Although a gorgeous color, looking at these lloigor-changed features instills nausea, as if the earth itself is warning you to turn back.
The lloigor practices its fleshwarping on local wildlife. Many beasts within 6 miles of the lair bear grotesque mutations.
If the lloigor dies, the mood-altering effect vanishes immediately. The other effects are, unfortunately, permanent.
I know in RAW you can’t cast remove curse or greater restoration at higher levels – but why not? I don’t think you should be able to remove a high-level monster’s debilitating curse with a level 3 spell in every healer’s back pocket.
