Mullo

Medium undead (shapechanger), neutral evil

Armor Class 14 (natural armor)

Hit Points 67 (9d8 + 27)

Speed 30 ft. (40 ft. in horse or ram form)

STR 16 (+3) · DEX 16 (+3) · CON 16 (+3) · INT 11 (+0) · WIS 14 (+2) · CHA 15 (+2)

Saving Throws Dex +5, Wis +4

Skills Deception +4, Perception +4, Stealth +5

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

Condition Immunities charmed, poisoned

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14

Languages Common, Romani, the languages it knew in life

Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)

Traits

Shapechanger. The mullo can use its action to polymorph into a Medium horse or ram, or back to its true form. While in beast form its statistics are unchanged except for its speed, and it gains a Hoof attack (+5 to hit, 10 [2d6+3] bludgeoning).

Invisibility. The mullo can turn invisible or visible (no action required) at the start of its turn. The invisibility ends early after it makes an attack, forces a saving throw, or is hit by Salted Egg (see below).

Egg Obsession. If the mullo sees an exposed chicken egg within 30 feet, it must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or be compelled to move toward the egg and use its action to pick it up on its next turn. Doing so ends its Invisibility.

Undead Nature. The mullo doesn’t need to breathe.

Actions

Multiattack (Humanoid Form). The mullo makes two attacks: one with Strangling Grip and one with Blood Drain.

Strangling Grip. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 13). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained and can’t breathe. The mullo can’t Strangle another target.

Blood Drain. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature that is grappled by the mullo, incapacitated, or restrained. Hit: 14 (3d6 + 4) necrotic damage, and the mullo regains hit points equal to 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.

Salted Egg (Recharge 5–6). The mullo hurls a handful of cursed salt and ground eggshell in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw, taking 18 (4d8) radiant damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. If the mullo is invisible, this attack ends that invisibility after it is made.

Bonus Actions

Fade From Sight. The mullo becomes invisible until it attacks, casts a spell, or uses Salted Egg.

Reactions

Retaliatory Kick (Beast Form Only). When a creature the mullo can see enters its reach, it makes one Hoof attack against that creature.

Lore

A corpse that rises to torment those who wronged it in life, usually drinking their blood and devouring their flesh.

In the traditional lore of Balkan, Central- and Eastern-European Roma, the word mullo—taken from a Romance root meaning “dead”—refers to any deceased person. Yet only those dead who, for one reason or another, have failed to find rest and have returned to the world of the living fall into the folkloric category of dangerous beings. Roma legends hold that the dead can show themselves among the living because the realm of the dead is not completely sealed off from the realm of the living, and death itself is a reversible state.

The mechanism by which a corpse turns into a mullo depends on several factors, the most important being the manner of death. A sudden, violent, or premature end is viewed as the chief cause: a life cut short generates an excess of negative energy that traps the spirit on the earthly plane. Proper burial rites matter as well; a body that is not carefully prepared or a grave that is carelessly filled may invite the spirit to re-enter the corpse. Another crucial rule forbids keeping the dead person’s belongings. If relatives hold on to clothes, dishes, or tools for their own use, the deceased comes back to punish their greed.

From Vampire Bestiary 5E, p. 68 · Fern Flower Press