Large
Fey
CR 15
Chaotic Neutral
Morrunth
Warden of the Tangled Court
Morrunth is a towering, vine-laced fey whose presence makes the air taste of iron and old leaves. It moves with the languid authority of a forest elder and the sudden, merciless precision of a predator: where it steps, wild growth obeys and illusions bloom. Its eyes are many — shifting, iridescent facets that study intruders like prey — and its laughter can draw the stubborn and the ruthless into a web of bargains they do not remember making. The court it protects is as much a prison as a palace; enemies who survive Morrunth's first assault often find themselves disoriented, lost in corridors of living wood and impossible seasons.
Armour
18
natural armor
Hit points
262
25d10+125
Speed
40ft
40 ft., fly 60 ft., climb 30 ft.
Challenge
15
13,000 XP
STR
20
+5
DEX
16
+3
CON
20
+5
INT
14
+2
WIS
18
+4
CHA
20
+5
Saving throws
STR +10, CON +10, CHA +10, WIS +9
Skills
Stealth +8, Perception +9, Persuasion +10
Resistances
bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Condition immunities
charmed, frightened
Senses
darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages
Sylvan, Elvish, Common
Multiattack. The Morrunth makes three attacks: two Slam attacks and one Enchanting Touch or Grasping Vines (its choice).
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 18 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Enchanting Touch. Melee Spell Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 27 (6d8) psychic damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed for 1 minute. A charmed target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success. If the save is failed by 5 or more, the target also loses 1d4 memories of its choice (DM determines which memories vanish).
Grasping Vines (Recharge 5-6). The Morrunth slams the ground; thorned vines erupt in a 30-foot radius centered on it. Each creature of the Morrunth's choice in the area must make a DC 18 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 45 (10d8) piercing damage and is restrained for 1 minute as vines entwine it; on a success, the creature takes half damage and isn’t restrained. A restrained creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success. The area becomes difficult terrain for 1 minute.
Courtly Command (1/day). The Morrunth unfurls a crown of living thorns and issues a wordless decree. Each creature of the Morrunth's choice within 120 feet that can hear it must succeed on a DC 18 Charisma saving throw or be incapacitated with a rapturous awe for 1 minute. An affected creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns. While incapacitated this way, the creature is considered charmed by the Morrunth and will obey nonlethal commands that do not directly cause it harm. Creatures that succeed on the saving throw are immune to Courtly Command for 24 hours.
Thornguard Parry. When a creature the Morrunth can see hits it with a melee attack, the Morrunth can reduce the damage by 15 (3d10) by slashing at the attacker with a thorned limb (no attack roll).
The creature can take 3 legendary actions per round, choosing from the options below.
Slam. The Morrunth makes one Slam attack.
Fey Step. The Morrunth teleports up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space it can see. If it teleports adjacent to a creature, that creature must succeed on a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw or have its movement halved and take 10 (3d6) psychic damage as disorienting visions flood its mind.
Commanding Glance. The Morrunth fixes a many-eyed stare on one creature it can see. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw or take 14 (4d6) psychic damage and be stunned until the end of its next turn. A creature that succeeds is immune to this effect for 24 hours.
Morrunth is said to have arisen from a knot of root-magic at the border between two ancient courts in the Feywild: the Thorn-Keep of Verul and the Wefting Grove of Isryn. Some scholars claim it was once a guardian spirit of a forgotten ley-thicket, elevated by wild bargains and the vengeful vows of spurned fey. Others suggest Morrunth was made — a deliberate, monstrous arbiter fashioned by court wizards to settle disputes too bloody for polite society. Whatever its origin, it accepted rulership of a liminal parcel of the Feywild, binding the place and its denizens into a strange, seasonal monarchy. Morrunth's domain, the Tangled Court, is a shifting tangle of living halls, vine-canopies, and courts that imitate the seasons — a spring ballroom here, a winter courtyard there, sometimes all in the same grove. Mortals lost within report that bargains made there twist: promises given in summer return black and bitter in winter. The archivist-sorcerer Lyseth Mire of the Hallowbinder Collegium wrote two journals cataloguing several encounters; her party barely escaped with their minds intact after Morrunth turned their compass into a ring of sprouting thorns and convinced one of them that he had been a page in a lost epoch. The Tangled Court trades in memory and shape: Morrunth feeds on stories, rulership, and the humiliation of those who overreach in fey politics.
Morrunth stands roughly as tall as a two-story doorway when it straightens — a hulking frame woven from living oak, bramble, and the bleached bone of unknown beasts. Its torso is a spiraled trunk, bark seam-stitched with long, pale veins that pulse faintly like buried sap. From shoulder-like knots sprout multiple flexible limbs: some end in thorned, grasping fingers, others in broad, leafed paddles used to cup and charm. A crown of braided shoots and sleeping thorns circles its head, with dozens of small, lidless eyes set in irregular rows across its bark-face; the eyes are glassy and color-shifting, rimmed with moss. Hanging from its branches are ribbons of lichen and broken trinkets — bits of mirrors, coin, and ribbon — collected from those who have come to bargain. Where its feet touch stone, roots crack and tiny green tendrils push upward. The surface textures alternate between smooth polished heartwood and rough, lichen-furred ridges. Scale reference: when crouched it fills a wide doorway; standing beside a human (6 ft.), its shoulder-knot is about level with a man's chest and its crown looms twice as high.
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