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.

This noble forgoes the usual trappings of its station, and instead wears a great coat as black as night save a dusting of bone dust along its edges. Beneath the coat, it’s attire keeps the same foreboding color over a suit of studded-leather armor punctuated with knucklebones instead of steel rivets. The dark fey does allow itself a sash of stakt red across the waist to sheath its baleful sickle and a slim, pointed hat of the same color rested between its horns.

Priest Killer. There are few things that stymie the Waning Court’s war efforts on the material plane more than clerics.These divine-powered heroes, and villains, not only patch up the wounds of those opposing the dark fey host, they also have access to the magic necessary to overcome the Waning Court’s various curses and diseases. To this end, black masters are dispatched to stalk the priestly class in their domains and claim their heads.

Most often this means engaging a priest in or near a house of the dead, or luring those who do not tend to the corpses of their followers to a nearby cemetery. Here, the black master can make the best use of its skills. Leaping from headstone to headstone, they keep their prey off guard until the time is right to strike. Or, they may open up a yawning, hungry grave all too eager to swallow the cleric whole.

Waning Black Master

medium fey, lawful evil

Armor Class 16 (studded leather)

Hit Points 120 (16d8 + 48)

Speed 30ft

Burrow 30ft

Str 14 Dex 18 Con 17 Int 11 Wis 16 Cha 14

Saves Wis +6

Condition Immunities https://tetra-cube.com/dnd/dnd-statblock.html#:~:text=frightened%2C%20paralyzed%2C%20poisoned

Damage Resistances lightning, thunder, bludgeoning, piercing, slashing from non-magical weapons that aren’t silvered.

Senses darkvision 120ft, tremorsense 10ft, passive Perception 16.

Languages common, sylvan

Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)

Blood Honey Embalming. Any humanoid reduced to 0 hit points by one of the waning black master's attacks automatically dies. 1d4 rounds later, a Swarm of Direflies erupts from the corpse under the fey's command.

Corpse Sense.

The waning black master can sense any humanoid corpse within 60ft of it.

Gravestride.

Once on its turn, the fey can use 10 feet of its movement to step magically into one gravesite within its reach and emerge from a second gravesite within 60 feet of the first grave, appearing in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the second gravesite.

Innate Spellcasting.

The waning black master can innately cast Chill Touch (+6 to hit, 3d8 necrotic damage), requiring no material components. Its innate spellcasting ability is Wisdom.

Magic Resistance.

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

Actions

Multiattack.

The waning black master can make two blood-amber sickle attacks and one Chill Touch attack as one action.

Blood-Amber Sickle.

Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d4+4) slashing damage.

Six Feet Under (Recharge 6).

The waning black master chooses a 5ft square of earth it can see within 60ft and with a gesture turns it into an open grave soon to be filled. This is a 5ft wide, 6ft deep pit that lasts until the end of the black master's turn. Any creature within the area of effect must succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity or fall to the bottom of the pit, taking (3) 1d6 Bludgeoning damage and falling prone.

At the end of the fey's turn, the pit fills back in with earth, entrapping any creature within the pit. Trapped creatures immediately begin to suffocate as if they were drowning. If a creature dies while trapped in the pit, the waning black master regains hit points equal to the creature's hit dice.