Loogaroo

Medium fiend (shapechanger), chaotic evil

Armor Class 15 (natural armor)

Hit Points 102 (12d8 + 48)

Speed 30 ft.; fly 60 ft. (hover, fireball form only)

STR 10 (+0) · DEX 18 (+4) · CON 18 (+4) · INT 14 (+2) · WIS 14 (+2) · CHA 16 (+3)

Saving Throws Dex +7, Wis +5, Cha +6

Skills Deception +6, Medicine +5, Stealth +10

Damage Vulnerabilities radiant, salt & pepper (see Salt Scourge)

Damage Resistances fire; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from non-magical attacks

Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, grappled, restrained (fireball form only)

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 17

Languages Common, Infernal, Caribbean Creoles; understands Sylvan

Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)

Traits

Shapechanger. The loogaroo can use a bonus action to shed her skin and transform into a fist-sized fireball of pale flame, or don her skin to return to humanoid form. While in fireball form she can’t use weapons or tools, can’t speak, and her only actions are Fire Drain and Fiery Bolt. Her statistics otherwise stay the same.

Incorporeal Movement (Fireball Form Only). The loogaroo can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. She takes 5 (1d10) force damage if she ends her turn inside an object.

Regeneration. The loogaroo regains 10 hit points at the start of her turn if she has at least 1 hit point and hasn’t been hit by radiant damage or Salt Scourge since the end of her last turn.

Salt Scourge. A handful of salt-and-pepper mix hurled onto the loogaroo or rubbed into her hidden skin (an improvised weapon attack within 5 ft.) deals 9 (2d8) acid damage, and she can’t regenerate until the end of her next turn.

Arithmomania. If the loogaroo starts her turn within 5 feet of at least 20 loose grains (rice, seeds, beans, etc.), she must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or become incapacitated until the start of her next turn as she obsessively counts them.

Devil’s Quota. If the loogaroo hasn’t dealt at least 20 points of necrotic damage since her last dawn, she suffers one level of exhaustion at dawn.

Actions

Multiattack (Humanoid Form). The loogaroo makes two Claw attacks or one Claw and one Vampiric Kiss.

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

Vampiric Kiss (Humanoid Form). Melee Spell Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature that is grappled by the loogaroo, incapacitated, or asleep. Hit: 22 (4d8 + 4) necrotic damage, and the loogaroo regains hit points equal to half the necrotic damage dealt. The target’s hit-point maximum is reduced by the same amount. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its maximum to 0.

Fire Drain (Fireball Form). Melee Spell Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) fire damage plus 7 (2d6) necrotic damage, and the loogaroo regains hit points equal to the necrotic damage dealt.

Fiery Bolt (Fireball Form; Recharge 5–6). Ranged Spell Attack: +7 to hit, range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 24 (5d8) fire damage. Miss: the bolt splashes nearby targets within 5 ft. of the original target for 7 (2d6) fire damage.

Bonus Actions

Slip Through Crack (Fireball Form Only). The loogaroo moves up to her speed and can pass through a hole or crack as small as 1 inch wide without squeezing.

Reactions

Sudden Ember. When a creature the loogaroo can see targets her with an attack, she imposes disadvantage on the attack roll if she is in dim light or darkness.

Lore

An old woman who bargained with the Devil. She sheds her skin and flies through the night as a fiery ball in search of prey.

The term comes from the French loup-garou, “werewolf,” yet in the island culture of the French Antilles—and on English-speaking Barbados, Trinidad, Guyana, and neighboring territories—its meaning changed. Wolves are unknown to the local fauna, so the center of the metamorphosis became a vampire-witch: a woman who once gained her magic by selling her soul to the Devil.

By day the Loogaroo is usually an elderly female hermit, though sometimes she appears as an ordinary person with a gaunt, wasted look. She prefers the shape of drab, forgettable people who won’t attract the notice of passersby; the very lack of interest she provokes is her best camouflage. At night she performs her central rite—she slips out of her own skin. This normally takes place beneath a sacred silk-cotton tree (Ceiba pentandra), whose roots, Caribbean lore says, form an underground web connecting all the islands. The shed skin is hidden in a wooden mortar or a tree hollow, and the body—now without its covering—turns into a fireball, a fast-moving globe of blue, white, or sulfur-yellow flame. In this form the creature flies freely, slides into houses through keyholes and hairline cracks, and silently drinks the blood of sleeping people and animals. The victims fall into a heavy slumber; in the morning they find small bluish marks on their bodies and feel extreme weakness. According to her demonic contract, the Loogaroo must deliver half of the stolen blood to the Devil. If she fails, the Devil takes her own blood, and she dies.

From Vampire Bestiary 5E, p. 66 · Fern Flower Press