Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Towards the Hoard of a Hundred Horrors: Couatls

Imagine that yesterday you were a human being, and today you are a worm - blind, deaf, mute, limbless, cast down into the dirt to wriggle about for morsels of shit.

That's a bit what it's like to be these guys, except that yesterday they were timeless and bodiless beings in a heaven of infinite wisdom and contemplation, and today they are winged serpents made of meat.

Why are they here? Are they on a mission? Is this a punishment? Is this the sacrifice they made to participate in the sensuous and temporal world? They don't quite know, their thoughts brushing against understandings too big to fit inside their new heads.

They read the stars and the guts of sacrifices for signs. These signs drive them to prophetic good and inhumanity.

They are

Couatls

HD: 9 AC: 15 ATK: 1d6 bite with Aging Venom and 1d12 tail swipe, plus The Stains of Time SAV: 12 MOV: As giant bird-snake INT: As smart alien ML: 8
No. Appearing: 1

Aging Venom: Save vs. poison - on a success you age 1d6 years, on a failure you age 2d6 years.

The Stains of Time: Once per round the couatl can use one ability from the following list. A couatl can only have one Stain of Time ability active at a time:

-Rewind - Heal any wound, disease, curse, or suchlike, but target loses all memories and XP gained since that thing was inflicted on them. Target can save to resist. A couatl cannot use this on themself.

-Stasis - Freeze a target in time for 1d4 rounds. Save to resist. The d4 is exploding, and each time it explodes its duration increases a step - from rounds to ten-minute turns to hours to days and so on.

-Desync - The image of the couatl moves ahead of its actual body. For 1d6 rounds the couatl is invisible while it sends forth an illusion of itself.

-Haste - The couatl can act twice on their turn. The strain causes them 2d6 damage. 

-Time Stop - The couatl stops time for everything else in the world for a subjective round. The couatl takes half their remaining HP as damage and must test morale to not go temporarily insane as the world of stopped time reminds them of their home. Attacks made by the couatl in stopped time automatically hit & deal maximum damage.

1 comment:

  1. Oh hey I guess I like coatls in D&D now. That opening really sells the reality of a celestial being getting transposed into matter.

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