Mother Casque
Leader of the Circle of the Low Tide, Human, Druid, Chaotic Good
Description
Mother Casque dresses like mourning given teeth: black salt-stiff shawls, fishbone charms, and a lacquered half-mask she wears pushed up on her brow until she means to frighten someone. Her hands are always dirty with marsh clay or grave wax, and the hems of her skirts smell of tidewater no matter how far inland she walks. She nails warning-birds where everyone will see them, speaks to strangers as if continuing an older conversation, and keeps her eyes on the ground when mine-talk starts, as though listening for something under the boards.
Personality
Mother Casque never wastes a warning on comfort. She speaks in short, ugly truths, names the cost before the cause, and watches who flinches when she does. When the party brings her questions, she answers with a task first — carry this charm into the flooded shaft, pull those nails from the shrine, sit through the night tide without speaking — because she trusts obedience under pressure more than good intentions. She is not cruel for pleasure, but she uses fear like a tool, and when someone tries to win an argument with rank or reason, she goes still and says, “The ground does not care who signs the order.”
Mother Casque
Medium Humanoid, chaotic good
AC 14 (salt-stiff shawls and hardened leather)
Initiative +2 (12)
HP 66 (12d8+12)
Senses Passive Perception 14
CR 4 (XP 1,100; PB +2)
Traits
Marshwise. Mother Casque ignores difficult terrain caused by mud, shallow water, or marsh plants.
Circle's Warning. Mother Casque and friendly creatures within 10 feet of her have Advantage on saving throws against the Frightened condition.
Grave-Wax Defiance. When Mother Casque fails a saving throw, she can reroll it and must use the new roll. Once she uses this trait, she can't use it again until she finishes a Short or Long Rest.
Salt in the Wound. Once per turn, when Mother Casque deals necrotic damage to a creature that has the Frightened condition, that creature takes an extra 4 (1d8) necrotic damage.
Actions
Multiattack. Mother Casque makes two Salt-Iron Crook attacks.
Salt-Iron Crook. Melee Attack Roll: +6, reach 5 ft. Hit: 8 (1d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage plus 2 (1d4) necrotic damage.
Warning Nail. Ranged Attack Roll: +6, range 60/120 ft. Hit: 8 (1d8 + 4) piercing damage. If the target is a Large or smaller creature, its Speed is reduced by 10 feet until the start of Mother Casque's next turn.
Dreadful Utterance. Mother Casque speaks a warning in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 10 (3d6) psychic damage and has the Frightened condition until the end of its next turn. On a successful save, it takes half as much damage only.
Low-Tide Command. One creature Mother Casque can see within 60 feet must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or follow a one-word command from her until the end of its next turn, as long as the command is not directly harmful to it. If the creature cannot follow the command, it instead has the Frightened condition until the end of its next turn.