Kosode-No-Te 小袖の手

Small fey (construct, yokai), neutral

Armor Class 13 (natural fabric)

Hit Points 36 (8d6 + 8)

Speed 10 ft., fly 20 ft. (hover) (it drifts eerily as cloth in the wind)

STR 8 (−1) · DEX 16 (+3) · CON 12 (+1) · INT 8 (−1) · WIS 12 (+1) · CHA 14 (+2)

Skills Stealth +5, Perception +3

Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks

Condition Immunities exhaustion, prone

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13

Languages Yokai Speech, understands Common (or local dialect) but does not speak

Challenge 2

Traits

Apparition of Arms. Emerging from the kimono’s sleeves are ghostly forearms. While intangible for most purposes, these arms can become briefly solid to interact with objects or attack. If an effect would turn or banish undead, the Kosode-no-Te must make the appropriate save or be affected, as the limbs are partly spirit-based.

Garment Disguise. While motionless, the Kosode-no-Te looks like a simple, discarded kimono. A creature that inspects it can use its action to make a DC 13 Intelligence (Investigation) check; on a success, they notice subtle drifting or faint, ghostly hands within the sleeves.

Eerie Hover. The Kosode-no-Te hovers a few inches above the ground or drifts through the air. It can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.

Actions

Multiattack. The Kosode-no-Te makes two Sleeve Claw attacks, or one Sleeve Claw and uses Ghostly Embrace if available.

Sleeve Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.

Hit: 7 (1d6 + 3) slashing damage plus 3 (1d6) necrotic damage as the partially incorporeal arms claw into the victim’s life force.

Ghostly Embrace (Recharge 5-6). The Kosode-no-Te attempts to wrap around a Medium or smaller creature within 5 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 13 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (target’s choice) or become grappled (escape DC 13). While grappled in this way, the target is also restrained as spectral arms coil about them. The Kosode-no-Te cannot use Sleeve Claw on another target while maintaining this grapple. A grappled creature can use its action to repeat the escape check. On a success, it frees itself and ends the grapple.

Behavior & Lore

While it can grapple or claw, this tsukumogami typically aims to frighten. Full-on murder is rare.

Rumored to be tied to a deceased owner’s longing or resentment. Burning the garment with the proper rituals can lay the spirit to rest.

Heavily worn, tattered, or sold off garments are prime candidates for this transformation.

Lore

Disembodied spirit hand emerging from kimono sleeves, sometimes playful, sometimes malicious.

Picture an old kosode—a traditional Japanese garment— tucked away for decades in a storage chest, collecting dust and overhearing household gossip. One day, it simply awakens, acquires a mind of its own, and decides it’s high time for an adventure. That’s Kosode-no-te, a type of tsukumogami whose name literally means “the hand of the kosode.” It gains ghostly arms extending from its sleeves—surely the most fitting way for living clothing to reveal its yokai nature!

Think about it: for decades, the fabric had to obey its owner’s whims—getting folded, dragged around, stained, washed, or left to languish in some dark corner. After a hundred years, it’s had enough. “No more!” it declares. “From now on, I’ll decide what I do!” Now sporting phantom limbs, Kosodeno-te loves to grab, poke, or tickle unsuspecting humans—especially if it feels overlooked. It might gently tug a wrist or pat someone’s head, slap cheeks, or reach out from nowhere to surprise a passerby, then hangs innocently on the rack, feigning innocence.

From Yokai Bestiary 5E, p. 46 · Fern Flower Press