Nobles of the Waning Court - The beauty of ripe fruit blended with the breach 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.

A broken soul damned for their cowardice, the waning dirge suffers through a rough but agonizing tour of duty within the waning host. If they are lucky enough to die while sapping an enemy fortification anyway. These oath-broken fey have had their eyes plucked out and replaced with direfly honeycombs which grow to fill their nasal cavities. If that wasn’t bad enough, their arms are flayed to the bone, infused with the spore of honeycombed horrors, and then covered with crudely stitched together flesh. The ooze spreads through their torso and back, twisting their once-elegant form into something misshapen and hunched. Their long-fingered hands become bloody-honey crusted claws suited for digging. The rich ichor continuously drips from the seams in the breach’s skin, allowing them to attack undermine structures with fresh abominations.

Infested One. The longer a waning breach survives its sentence the greater their degradation becomes. In an effort to maximize the condemned’s suffering a waning lord will bond other swarms to the dirge’s mutilated form. Rabid rats are given a warren in their gut, or serpents a den. Scorpions might inhabit the bones of their legs, or quippers swim within their stomachs. No matter the type of swarm magically bounded and housed within the oath-broken fey, the vermin become an extension of the breach’s senses. The critters aid the sapper's assault on enemy fortifications as it seeks an end to its torture.

Waning Breach

Medium Fey, lawful evil

Armor Class 13

Hit Points 130 (20d8 + 40)

Speed 30ft

Burrow 30ft

Str 14 Dex 16 Con 14 Int 11 Wis 16 Cha 12

Saving Throws Con +6, Wis +7

Condition Immunities charmed, feared

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

Senses tremorsense 60ft (blind beyond), passive Perception 13.

Languages common, sylvan.

Challenge 9 (5000 XP)

Magic Resistance:

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

Swarm-Link:

The waning breach can see through the eyes of a swarm it is linked to, typically a swarm of direflies, as long as that swarm is within 1 mile of the breach. While looking through the swarms' eyes and breach loses its tremor sense.

Siege Monster:

The fey deals double damage to objects and structures.

Actions

Multiattack:

The waning breach can make three crusted claw attacks as one action.

Crusted Claws:

Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8+3) slashing damage. If the target is a creature it must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity save or its speed is reduced by 10 feet until the end of its next turn. If the creature fails by 5 or more its speed becomes 0 until the end of its next turn.

Honey Bomb:

Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 15/30 ft., one target.

Hit. 21 (6d6) bludgeoning damage. If the target is a creature it must succeed on a DC 15 Strength save or take an additional 7 (2d8) necrotic damage, be pushed 10ft, and knocked prone. In addition, a temporary honeycombed horror appears in the space that creature once occupied.

This honeycombed horror survives for four rounds, at the end of which its hit points are reduced to zero and it dies, dissolving into a sticky mess. However, the number of rounds is extended by 1 for every creature the honeycombed horror engulfs. If the honeycombed horror exists for at least 10 rounds then it becomes a permanent, living creature and must be destroyed as normal.

If the target is an object the temporary honeycombed horror is created in an unoccupied square beside the object. This temporary horror follows the rules above.

A waning breach may only have two temporary honeycombed horrors active at one time.

Vermin Lord:

The waning breach touched a corpse and takes 5 (1d10) necrotic damage. A swarm of CR 1 or less appears on the corpse and consumes it. This swarm is linked to the fey for the purposes of Swarm-Link. When the waning breach dies all swarms it controls are reduced to half-hit points, if they are not already below that amount.