Cyhyraeth

Medium undead, Neutral Evil

Armor Class 16 (natural armor)

Hit Points 170 (20d8 + 80)

Speed 40 ft., Fly 60 ft., Swim 40 ft.

STR 16 (+3) · DEX 18 (+4) · CON 18 (+4) · INT 14 (+2) · WIS 16 (+3) · CHA 20 (+5)

Skills Intimidation +9, Perception +7, Stealth +8

Gear None

Senses Darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 17

Languages Common, Sylvan, Telepathy 60 ft.

Challenge 10 (5,900 XP)

Traits

Amphibious. The Cyhyraeth can breathe air and water.

Feast on Grief. If a creature within 60 feet of the Cyhyraeth gains the Frightened or Paralyzed condition, the Cyhyraeth regains 10 Hit Points.

Shapechanger. The Cyhyraeth can use a Bonus Action to polymorph into a Medium young girl in a green dress, or back into its true skeletal or hag-like form. Its statistics are the same in each form.

Actions

Multiattack. The Cyhyraeth makes three attacks: one with its Grave Bite and two with its Mist Talons. It can replace one attack with a use of Spellcasting or Grave Soil.

Grave Bite. Melee Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) Piercing damage plus 9 (2d8) Necrotic damage, and the target is Poisoned until the end of its next turn.

Mist Talons. Melee Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d10 + 4) Slashing damage.

Grave Soil. Magic Attack: +9 to hit, range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) Necrotic damage, and the target is Blinded until the end of its next turn.

Rule of Three Cries (1/Day). The Cyhyraeth unleashes its devastating three-part omen. Each creature of its choice within 60 feet must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw.

Failed Save: The creature takes 27 (6d8) Thunder damage and is Paralyzed for 1 round (the shattering cry).

Failed by 5 or more: The creature also takes 18 (4d8) Necrotic damage (the death rattle).

Successful Save: The creature takes half as much Thunder damage, isn't Paralyzed, but is Frightened until the end of its next turn (the faint wail).

Spellcasting. The Cyhyraeth casts one of the following spells, requiring no material components and using Charisma as the spellcasting ability (Spell Save DC 17):

At Will: Dancing Lights (PHB, p. 259), Minor Illusion (PHB, p. 298)

2/Day Each: Fear (PHB, p. 271), Fog Cloud (PHB, p. 276), Misty Step (PHB, p. 299)

Bonus Actions

Omen of Doom. The Cyhyraeth marks one creature it can see within 60 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw or become Frightened of the Cyhyraeth for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

Reactions

Murder of Crows. When the Cyhyraeth is hit by an attack, it can summon a swirling cloud of spectral black crows around itself. The Cyhyraeth halves the damage taken from the triggering attack. The crows then obscure its form, allowing the Cyhyraeth to instantly teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space it can see.

Lore

A Celtic death spirit, appearing as a monstrous hag or skeleton, that haunts liminal spaces, feeds on grief, and foretells doom through three chilling cries while wielding deadly supernatural defenses if threatened.

Cyhyraeth is a night-haunting figure from Welsh, Scottish, and Irish folklore, dreaded as a herald of death. Old manuscripts give several spellings—Cyhiraeth, Cyraeth, Cyoeraeth, and Cyheuraeth—yet the essence remains the same. Scholars debate the word’s origin. One line of thought derives it from the Welsh cyhyr, “muscle, sinew, flesh,” plus the abstract suffix –aeth, yielding “something of flesh and bone,” essentially “a skeleton.” A second theory links cyhyr to cyoer, itself from oer, “cold,” and reads –aeth as “pain” or “fear,” producing the sense of “cold dread.” A third proposal connects the name to hiraeth, the famously untranslatable Welsh word for a profound longing for what is lost.

In Scottish and Irish tales the Cyhyraeth appears as a male skeleton stripped of skin and muscle, its bones lashed together by withered tendons. Welsh tradition, by contrast, presents the spirit as female and folds it into the Mist Hag, Gwrach-y-Rhibyn. It can momentarily look like a girl in green, but more often shows itself as a gaunt crone whose ash-gray face is hollow-cheeked and hook-nosed, whose lips hang loose, and whose eyes glow in darkness. The mouth stretches wider than seems possible and is crammed with black fangs up to a foot long, used for digging graves. Its arms are elongated and desiccated, ending in birdlike talons, while black, bat-like wings sprout from its back or forearms. Matted hair sweeps fresh earth back into the grave it has opened, and the creature is always wrapped in torn black rags.

From The Fairy Tale Compendium · Fern Flower Press