Draumhal, the Herd That Remembers

Gargantuan monstrosity (titanic herd), neutral · CR 15

by Longwander Press

Draumhal, the Herd That Remembers
Armor Class
18
natural armor
Hit Points
280
17d20 + 102
Speed
60 ft.
  • STR +8
  • DEX 0
  • CON +6
  • INT -2
  • WIS +3
  • CHA +1
Saving Throws
Str +13, Con +11, Wis +8
Skills
Athletics +13, Perception +8, Survival +8
Damage Resistances
Bludgeoning (nonmagical), Cold, Piercing (nonmagical), Slashing (nonmagical)
Condition Immunities
Charmed, Frightened
Senses
darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 18
Languages
understands Common, Sylvan but can't speak
Challenge 15 13,000 XP

Traits

  • The Route. Draumhal always knows the direction of the seasonal ground it is walking toward, and it cannot become lost by magical or nonmagical means. Along that route it travels at twice the normal overland pace and leaves a trail that ordinary beasts follow for a year afterward.
  • Many Throats. Draumhal has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks and cannot be surprised. While it has 100 hit points or fewer the herd inside it begins to come apart, and its walking speed increases by 20 feet.
  • Siege Monster. Draumhal deals double damage to objects and structures.
  • Unstoppable Mass. Draumhal can move through the space of any creature that is Large or smaller, and difficult terrain costs it no extra movement.

Actions

  • Multiattack. Draumhal makes one Gore attack and two Stamp attacks.
  • Gore. Melee Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 35 (5d10 + 8) piercing damage. If Draumhal moved at least 30 feet straight toward the target before the attack, the target must also succeed on a DC 21 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
  • Stamp. Melee Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 21 (3d8 + 8) bludgeoning damage. If the target is prone, this attack deals an extra 9 (2d8) bludgeoning damage.
  • Stampede (Recharge 5-6). Draumhal moves up to its speed in a straight line and can move through the spaces of Large or smaller creatures. Each creature in that line must make a DC 20 Dexterity saving throw. A creature that fails is also knocked prone. Draumhal does not provoke opportunity attacks during this movement. Each creature in the area must make a DC 20 Dexterity saving throw, taking 44 (8d10) bludgeoning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. On a failed save, a creature is also knocked prone.

Bonus Actions

  • Pick Up the Pace (Recharge 5–6). Something far ahead of the herd shifts, and Draumhal answers it. Its walking speed increases by 30 feet until the end of its turn, and the saving throw DC of its Gore is increased by 2 until the start of its next turn.

Reactions

  • Herd Instinct. Trigger: When a creature Draumhal can see enters its space or moves to within 5 feet of it. Draumhal makes one Stamp attack against the triggering creature.

Legendary Actions

Draumhal, the Herd That Remembers can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time, and only at the end of another creature's turn. Draumhal regains spent legendary actions at the start of their turn.

  • Shoulder.
  • Bellow (Costs 2 Actions).
  • Old Ground (Costs 2 Actions).

Regional Effects

  • The Old Migration Shows. Within 6 miles of Draumhal, plants grow in the lines of a migration route that has not existed for eight hundred years. Grass leans the wrong way against the wind, and roads laid across those lines need repaving every spring. The effect extends 1 mile from the creature.
  • Beasts Fall In. Ordinary beasts within 6 miles of Draumhal drift in the direction it is travelling and will not be herded, penned, or ridden against that direction. Farmers within the range lose livestock every year and blame each other. The effect extends 1 mile from the creature.
  • Dreams of Walking. Any creature that sleeps within 1 mile of Draumhal dreams of walking in a line with others toward somewhere it cannot name, and wakes with sore legs and an urge to leave home.

Origin Story

Nobody agrees on what Draumhal used to be, and the disagreement is instructive. The herders of the Cass plateau say it was the great spring migration of the aurochs, which crossed the plateau every year for longer than there have been people to count it. The Sylvan account says it was one covenant sworn by many animals at once and never released. Both accounts agree on the year the route closed.

The Kell Uplift raised four hundred miles of new mountain across the migration line in the space of a decade. The herd did not stop. It went at the new ground season after season, generation after generation, and somewhere in that century of refusal the animals stopped being separate from one another. What walks the plateau now is a single body about the size of a barn, carrying the memory of a road the world has closed, and it is still trying to get to the other side.

Habitat and Ecosystem

Draumhal has no lair, which is the single most important fact about running it. It is always somewhere along a route, and the route runs about nine hundred miles from the Cass wintering grounds to a stretch of coastal plain that is now the far side of the Kell mountains. It reaches the mountains twice a year, walks their length looking for the pass it remembers, and turns back.

Everything along that line has arranged itself around the schedule. Scavengers follow it. The grass it walks is cropped to the root twice a year and comes back thicker for it. Three separate settlements time their harvest festivals to its passing, and one of them has forgotten why.

Behavior Patterns

Draumhal is not hostile and is not tame, and it is very hard to stop. It does not hunt, ambush, or hold territory. It walks, and whatever is in front of it is in front of it. Nearly every death attributed to Draumhal is a death by being in the way, which does not make the deaths less permanent.

It fights when it is cornered against the mountain wall, when it is turned back before reaching the pass, or when something puts itself between the herd and the direction it is going. It has no interest in pursuit. The moment a threat stops being in front of Draumhal, Draumhal stops being interested in the threat.

Variants or Subspecies

Draumhal Calved. When Draumhal drops below 100 hit points some of the animals inside it come loose. A DM who wants a longer fight can have it shed 1d4 Skittish Remnants, using the dire wolf stat block with a neutral alignment, which scatter and will not fight. They try to rejoin the mass and are pitiable rather than dangerous.

The Second Herd. Older sources describe a smaller Draumhal on the eastern coast, walking the far approach to the same closed pass, arriving each season on the same day. Neither has ever been seen by anyone who has seen the other. If both are real, the meeting they are both walking toward is the actual adventure.

Environmental Impact

Opening the pass is the obvious solution and it is a campaign-sized problem. The Kell Uplift is still rising, the tunnel would need to run nine miles, and at least two nations have a firm interest in those mountains staying shut.

Killing Draumhal is easier and worse. The plateau grass fails within three years without the cropping, the scavenger populations that depend on its passage collapse, and the Cass herders, who have never once been harmed by it and who set their calendar by it, will treat the killers exactly as you would expect.

Add to an encounter