Invunche

Medium monstrosity, chaotic evil

Armor Class 16 (natural armor)

Hit Points 161 (14d10 + 84)

Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft. (can’t swim)

STR 18 (+4) · DEX 14 (+2) · CON 18 (+4) · INT 10 (+0) · WIS 12 (+1) · CHA 6 (−2)

Saving Throws Str +7, Dex +5, Con +7

Skills Athletics +7, Intimidation +1, Stealth +5

Damage Vulnerabilities fire

Damage Resistances poison; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks that aren’t silvered

Condition Immunities poisoned, prone

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11

Languages understands Common and Mapudungun but can’t speak

Challenge 6 (2,300 XP)

Traits

Twisted Leap. The invunche’s standing long jump is up to 20 feet and its standing high jump is up to 10 feet, with or without a running start. If the invunche ends this jump within 5 feet of a creature, that creature must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.

Contorted Frame. The invunche can move through a space as narrow as 2 feet wide without squeezing. It can’t be knocked prone.

Cave-Bound Guardian. The invunche is magically bound to its witches’ lair. If it spends more than 1 hour more than 1 mile from that lair, it gains one level of exhaustion for every additional hour away. The exhaustion ends after the invunche spends 1 hour within the lair.

Fire Panic. When the invunche takes fire damage, it has disadvantage on attack rolls until the end of its next turn.

Actions

Multiattack. The invunche makes two Claw attacks and one Bite attack.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 17 (1d10 + 4 piercing plus 2d6 necrotic) damage, and the invunche regains hit points equal to the necrotic damage dealt. The target’s hit-point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken. This reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit-point maximum to 0.

Paralyzing Scream (Recharge 5–6). The invunche emits a goat-like bellow. Each creature of the invunche’s choice within 30 feet that can hear it must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened for 1 minute. While frightened in this way, a creature is also paralyzed. A frightened creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. A creature that succeeds on its save is immune to the invunche’s Paralyzing Scream for 24 hours.

Desiccating Drain (Recharge 6). The invunche focuses vampiric magic on one creature it can see within 30 feet. The target must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 28 (8d6) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The target’s hit-point maximum is reduced by the amount of necrotic damage taken, and the invunche regains hit points equal to that amount. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest; the target dies if this effect reduces its hit-point maximum to 0.

Bonus Actions

Pounce. The invunche moves up to its speed toward a creature it can see without provoking opportunity attacks. If it then hits that creature with a Claw attack on the same turn, the attack deals an extra 7 (2d6) slashing damage.

Reactions

Guardian’s Lunge. When a creature the invunche can see enters or leaves a space within 10 feet of it, the invunche can make one Claw attack against that creature.

Lore

A guardian twisted by a witch, with limbs bent backward and a body covered in thick hair.

Invunche is a vampire from Chilean legend, an artificially created guardian-monster that blends the traits of a vampire with those of a gargoyle. The story took shape between the 17th and 19th centuries among the Mapuche-Williche people and later absorbed elements of Spanish occultism. It climaxed during a series of court hearings in 1880–1881, when local authorities interrogated sorcerers about real invunche said to be guarding their headquarters in the Kikaví cave. The name itself comes from the Mapudungun word ifünche, meaning “freak” or “deformed person,” underscoring the creature’s defining trait: it is not born but made by a witch.

The creation begins when the witch kidnaps or buys a first-born boy no older than nine days. She carries him to her cave, whose only entrance lies beneath a lake. Once inside, she breaks one of the infant’s legs and twists it behind his back, then does the same with the other. Arms, hands, and feet are broken and dislocated, bent into impossible angles. Under the right shoulder blade she cuts a hole and threads the right arm through it so it seems to grow from the child’s back. Over time, the head is slowly bent and reshaped until it becomes grotesque. When the mutilation is done, the witch rubs the infant with a magic salve that makes thick fur sprout over his body. Finally, the tongue is split down the middle like a snake’s, robbing him of articulate speech. The transformation ends with a diet of raw meat, blood, and infusions of poisonous herbs, building resistance to toxins and disease. By adolescence the body has set in its horrific yet viable form: a twisted frame, a forked tongue, constant drool, and bones and muscles adapted for explosive leaps.

From Vampire Bestiary 5E, p. 52 · Fern Flower Press