Nobles of the Waning Court - The beauty of ripe fruit blended with the dread within autumn’s long shadows, every noble of the waning court is a vision to behold. Black, pupilless eyes dominate their fine-boned faces while sharp teeth lurk behind plush lips. The faeries’ ears are pointed like an elf’s, but slightly shorter. This is due to the antelope-like horns spiraling from their temples, the base of which are riddled with red-stained honeycombs. Waning court nobles wear their hair long, often braided with bones and sticks, and is a color of fall leaves. Their skin tone can best be described as bloodless. Commonly, these fey wear leathers cured of eldritch animals, cloaks made from a nightmare or displacer beast pelts, black iron plates, and amber adornments with petrified insects within. Most find their mien more savage than aristocratic. Stray direflies are their constant companions, always buzzing cryptic prophecies as they crawl about.

The robed fey forwent armor and sacrificed most of its self-preservation instinct when it joined the Order of Gristle. It bears a scepter of winged serpents intertwined around a pock-marked femur as a symbol of authority. Its flowing clothing glistens like wet, fresh gore even when it is not sodden with the lifeblood of others, which in truth isn't that often. It also wears a belt made of bones woven together by clumps of matted hair, the pouched clipped to the accessory dripping due to the harvested vittles within. A handful of amber-encrusted ghasts are never far from the waning gristle. These victims now serve as the medic's nurses and beasts of burden.

Life from Death. The Order of Gristle practices dark magic to keep the soldiers of the waning host healthy and hale. While it is trained in traditional medical techniques, the waning gristle usually perforates its timeless soul and uses the gushing essence to bind the wounds of an ally. In turn, the fey can prolong the agony of a creature's final moments to reinvigorate its own quintessence so it might use its vile transfusion again. In order to replenish its own health, the waning gristle regularly employs the vampiric touch spell to drain life from captives or enemies.

Ghastly Lord. The waning gristle, like all of its kind, wields an amber caduceus grown about a bone riddled by a petrified direfly hive. Besides serving as a grisly and effective weapon, the caduceus hums with necromantic power. Humanoids felled by the profane instrument rise again as direfly-infested ghasts under the gristle's control. Given the mandates of its order, however, the fey doesn't usually deploy these undead onto the battlefield but rather utilizes them as orderlies, porters or guards for its triage. The gristle often will take a few with it while on the front lines to lug captives and act as meatshields.

Waning Gristle

Medium Fey, lawful evil

Armor Class 13

Hit Points 135 (18d8 + 54)

Speed 30ft

Str 11 Dex 16 Con 16 Int 16 Wis 15 Cha 16

Saving Throws Con +6, Wis +5

Skills Medicine +5

Damage Resistances lightning, thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks not made with silvered weapons

Senses darkvision 60ft, passive Perception 12

Languages common, sylvan.

Challenge 7 (2900 XP)

Magic Resistance:

The fey has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Innate Spellcasting:

The gristle’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 14, +6 to hit with spell attacks). it can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:

At Will: Sleep, Vampiric Touch

1/day each: Hold Person, Phantasmal Killer, Ray of Enfeeblement

Actions

Multiattack

The waning gristle makes 2 attacks as one action.

Amber Caduceus:

Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit: 8 (2d4 + 3) bashing damage and the creature must make a DC 14 Constitution save or have their maximum hit points reduced by the amount of damage dealt. If a creature is reduced to 0 hit points by this attack it dies. The slain creature rises as a ghast under the gristle’s control at the next sunset. The hit point penalty is removed after a long rest.

Transfusion (1/day)

The fey touched as willing creature and takes 18 (4d8) necrotic damage. The touched creature heals a number of hit points equal to twice the necrotic damage the gristle lost.

Vivisection:

The gristle enters the square of a dying humanoid creature and carves the victim up to gain arcane power. At the beginning of the creature’s next turn the creature dies unless the gristle fails a Constitution (Concentration) save or the creature is healed. If the vivisection is successful the fey regains the use its Transfusion action.