Vellumgaunt, the Unmaking Cartographer

Large aberration, neutral evil · CR 14

by Inkmoth Atlasworks

Vellumgaunt, the Unmaking Cartographer
Armor Class
17
natural armor
Hit Points
247
26d10 + 104
Speed
30 ft., fly 40 ft.
  • STR +3
  • DEX +2
  • CON +4
  • INT +6
  • WIS +4
  • CHA +3
Saving Throws
Con +9, Int +11, Wis +9
Skills
Arcana +11, History +11, Insight +9, Perception +9
Damage Resistances
Psychic
Condition Immunities
Charmed, Frightened
Senses
darkvision 120 ft., truesight 60 ft., passive Perception 19
Languages
Common, Deep Speech, telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge 14 11,500 XP

Traits

  • Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If Vellumgaunt fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
  • Unwritten Mind. Vellumgaunt can't be targeted by divination magic or perceived through magical scrying sensors, and it knows when a creature within 120 feet tries to read its thoughts.
  • Perfect Survey. Vellumgaunt always knows the exact layout of any structure or cave system it is inside, including secret doors and hidden passages, and can't become lost by any means.

Innate Spellcasting

Their spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 19, +11 to hit with spell attacks).

  • At will. Comprehend Languages, Detect Thoughts, Mage Hand
  • 3/day each. Confusion, Dimension Door, Locate Creature
  • 1/day each. Maze, Mirage Arcane

Actions

  • Multiattack. Vellumgaunt makes three attacks: two with its Quill Talons and one with its Redacting Glare.
  • Quill Talon. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d10 + 3) slashing damage plus 14 (4d6) psychic damage. Ink bleeds from the wound in the shape of a coastline the target has never seen.
  • Redacting Glare. Ranged Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, range 120 ft., one target. Hit: 24 (4d8 + 6) psychic damage. A ray of scraping, blank light. A creature reduced to 0 hit points by this attack is not killed; instead it forgets its own name until it finishes a long rest.
  • Unmap (Recharge 5-6). Vellumgaunt unrolls its vellum wings and exhales a 60-foot cone of rustling blank pages. Each creature in the area must make a DC 19 Intelligence saving throw, taking 40 (9d8) psychic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. On a failed save, a creature is also stunned for 1 round.

Bonus Actions

  • Fold the Map. Vellumgaunt folds the space around it and teleports, along with anything it is wearing or carrying, up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space it can see.

Reactions

  • Strike from the Record. Trigger: A creature Vellumgaunt can see within 60 feet of it casts a spell of 5th level or lower that targets only Vellumgaunt. Vellumgaunt scratches out a line of the spell's arcane notation. The caster must succeed on a DC 19 Intelligence saving throw or the spell fails and the slot is wasted.

Legendary Actions

Vellumgaunt, the Unmaking Cartographer 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. Vellumgaunt regains spent legendary actions at the start of their turn.

  • Quill Talon. Vellumgaunt makes one Quill Talon attack.
  • Redraw the Room. Vellumgaunt sketches a new line across the battlefield. A wall, doorway, or 10-foot section of floor within 60 feet of it vanishes or appears until the start of its next turn. A creature standing where a wall appears is pushed to the nearest unoccupied space.
  • Unwrite (Costs 2 Actions). Vellumgaunt erases one creature it can see within 60 feet from the local map. The target must succeed on a DC 19 Intelligence saving throw or be teleported to an unoccupied space of Vellumgaunt's choice within 60 feet of it and be unable to perceive Vellumgaunt until the end of the target's next turn.

Origin Story

Every map is a small act of possession, and somewhere in the Far Realm something learned to feed on it. Vellumgaunt was the royal cartographer of a drowned kingdom who tried to chart the space between the stars; the chart charted him back. What returned wears his long, stooped frame under wings of stretched vellum, and its fingers end in quills that never run dry. It no longer draws maps. It takes them: every road it redraws disappears from the world, every town it inks into its atlas vanishes from memory, and the people who lived there wake up somewhere they do not recognise.

Habitat and Ecosystem

Vellumgaunt haunts the edges of the known map: abandoned surveyors' towers, flooded archives, the last lighthouse before uncharted water. Its lair is always a library or map room, and within a mile of it, roads quietly stop going where they should. Compasses spin, milestones show the wrong numbers, and travellers who ask for directions receive confident, detailed and entirely wrong answers.

Behavior Patterns

It feeds on certainty of place. It stalks surveyors, pilgrims and merchants, anyone who knows exactly where they are going, and erases their route one landmark at a time until they are lost. It fiercely guards its atlas and will abandon any fight to recover a stolen page. It prefers to keep enemies disoriented rather than dead, redrawing walls and doors mid-combat so that fleeing heroes run straight back into its talons.

Interaction Guide

It speaks only through telepathy, in the dry voice of someone reading coordinates aloud.

Related Items or Artifacts

The Atlas of Unmade Places: a vellum-bound book holding every settlement Vellumgaunt has erased. Tearing out a page restores that place to the world and the memory of everyone who lived there, but the atlas is a sentient artifact and fights back with the Unmap cone once per day. Vellumgaunt's quills, if recovered, act as a quill of the cartographer: any map drawn with one is always accurate.

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