Gargantuan
Fiend
CR 20
Neutral Evil
Morruxen
God of Pain and Sorrow
Morruxen is an overwhelming presence of slow, deliberate torment: a towering, gaunt god whose visage is a shifting map of fresh wounds and tear-formed hollows. Wherever it treads, the air thickens with a cold, metallic tang and the cries of distant past suffering concentrate into a single, unbearable note. It does not merely hurt its foes; it catalogues their agony, learning the precise shape of each fear and returning it amplified. A single glance from Morruxen leaves survivors hollowed, as if sorrow itself has gnawed away at their will.
Armour
20
natural armor
Hit points
333
19d20+133
Speed
40ft
40 ft., fly 40 (hover) ft.
Challenge
20
25,000 XP
STR
20
+5
DEX
12
+1
CON
24
+7
INT
18
+4
WIS
22
+6
CHA
26
+8
Saving throws
STR +11, CON +13, WIS +12, CHA +14, INT +10
Skills
Perception +12, Intimidation +14
Resistances
bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage immunities
necrotic, psychic
Condition immunities
charmed, frightened
Senses
truesight 120 ft., passive Perception 22
Languages
understands all languages but can't speak
Multiattack. The creature makes three attacks: two Sorrow Lash attacks and one Grasp of Grief.
Sorrow Lash. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 30 (4d10+8) necrotic damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 22 Wisdom saving throw or be paralyzed with sorrow until the end of its next turn. A creature that succeeds on the save still takes half the necrotic damage and is not paralyzed.
Grasp of Grief. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 36 (6d10+8) bludgeoning damage plus 14 (4d6) necrotic damage, and the target's hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage (this reduction lasts until removed by a Greater Restoration or similar magic). If the target is reduced to 0 hit points by this attack, its soul is pulled into Morruxen's chest-face and it becomes a Whisper (see Dread Echo, below).
Weeping Wail (Recharge 5-6). Morruxen emits a mournful keening in a 120-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 22 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 63 (14d8) psychic damage, is stunned for 1 minute, and has disadvantage on death saving throws for the duration. On a successful save, a creature takes half damage and is not stunned. A stunned creature can repeat the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.
Aura of Lingering Sorrow. A 30-foot-radius aura surrounds Morruxen. At the start of each creature's turn that is within the aura, the creature takes 14 (4d6) psychic damage and must succeed on a DC 22 Wisdom saving throw or have disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws until the start of its next turn. Creatures that have been reduced to 0 hit points within the aura are converted into Whispers instead of dying outright (see Dread Echo).
Return of Pain. When a creature within 60 feet deals damage to Morruxen, Morruxen can cause that creature to take psychic damage equal to half the damage dealt. The creature must succeed on a DC 22 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened of Morruxen until the end of its next turn.
The creature can take 3 legendary actions per round, choosing from the options below.
Lingering Touch. Morruxen makes one Sorrow Lash attack.
Cold Suffusion. Morruxen targets one creature it can see within 60 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 22 Constitution saving throw or take 18 (4d8) necrotic damage and have its movement speed reduced by 20 feet until the end of its next turn.
Weep (Costs 2 Actions). Morruxen utters a single keening note. One creature of Morruxen's choice within 60 feet must succeed on a DC 22 Wisdom saving throw or be incapacitated until the end of Morruxen's next turn as spectral memories overwhelm it (the target takes 22 (5d8) psychic damage on a failed save, half on success).
Legends say Morruxen did not rise from the outer planes but was born in the seam between grief and vengeance where millions of private sorrows pooled. Cults once worshipped Morruxen as a patron of catharsis, believing ritual pain could purge guilt; the rites instead taught the god how sorrow could be weaponized. The Order of Bleached Hands, an ascetic sect that sought absolution through inflicted suffering, was shattered after Morruxen taught them to suture anguish into living armor. Their scattered remnants still whisper the god's liturgies in places where tragedy is fresh. Scholars debate whether Morruxen hungers for bodies or for the stories that pain tells. The scryer Ilyran Voss of the Arcanum of Tenebrous Proof recorded a close encounter in which the god lingered at a battlefield for decades, drawing strength from the memory of each dying cry. Morruxen lairs where sorrow pools — ruined hospitals, forgotten charge routes, and the mouths of caves where miners abandoned the living. It rarely moves in the open world unless drawn by a convergence of grief, and most creatures that encounter it either become part of its choir of lament or flee, their lives flattened into mournful echoes.
Imagine a figure the size of a two-story doorway: gaunt and elongated, its torso like exposed ribs carved from blackened bone and wet, stretched skin. Faces — dozens, sometimes hundreds — bloom and collapse across its chest and shoulders like living bruises, mouths that whisper or suddenly scream. Its limbs are long and jointed oddly, ending in many-fingered hands whose nails are long bands of cracked ivory. Thin, translucent membranes hang from its elbows and hips like funeral drapery, mottled with rust-red streaks. The head is elongated, almost masklike, with a vertical seam where an eye should be; tears of a glistening oil run from that seam and drip as if the god is constantly weeping. Texturally, its flesh looks both dried as leather and slick as fresh wound, with veins that pulse faintly with a dull internal light. Scars spiral across its skin in fractal patterns — each scar a mapped memory of pain.
Made with the free LoreKeeper Monster Generator · D&D 5e-compatible stat block · Free to use at your table · Licence
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