Muroni

Medium undead (shapechanger), chaotic evil

Armor Class 15 (natural armor)

Hit Points 99 (13d8 + 39)

Speed 30 ft., climb 20 ft. (see Shapechanger)

STR 16 (+3) · DEX 14 (+2) · CON 16 (+3) · INT 10 (+0) · WIS 12 (+1) · CHA 14 (+2)

Saving Throws Dex +4, Con +5, Wis +3

Skills Perception +4, Stealth +6

Damage Vulnerabilities radiant, damage from a wooden stake that remains lodged in its heart

Damage Resistances necrotic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from non-magical attacks that aren’t silvered

Condition Immunities poisoned

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14

Languages Common, one regional tongue (often Romanian)

Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)

Traits

Shapechanger. The muroni can use its action to polymorph into a Tiny flea or spider, a Small black dog or cat, or back into its true corpse form. Its statistics are the same in each form except as noted here. In Tiny insect form, its speed is 20 ft., climb 30 ft.; it can’t make Claw or Blood Drain attacks, and its only attack is Bite (1 piercing damage). Any equipment it is wearing or carrying doesn’t transform.

Regeneration. The muroni regains 10 hit points at the start of its turn if it has at least 1 hit point and hasn’t taken radiant damage since the end of its last turn, isn’t in direct sunlight, and doesn’t have a stake lodged in its heart.

Sunlight Weakness. While in sunlight, the muroni has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks, its speed is halved, and its Regeneration trait is suppressed.

Stake to the Heart. A piercing or slashing weapon made of wood that deals damage equal to or greater than the muroni’s Constitution modifier (3) while aimed at its chest can, if the attacker declares the attempt, be driven through the muroni’s heart. The attacker must succeed on the attack roll with disadvantage. On a hit, the muroni is paralyzed until the stake is removed, and its Regeneration trait ceases to function.

Actions

Multiattack. The muroni makes two Claw attacks, or one Claw attack and one Blood Drain if it has a creature grappled.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) slashing damage plus 3 (1d6) necrotic damage.

Blood Drain. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature that is grappled by the muroni, incapacitated, or restrained. Hit: 17 (2d6 + 3 piercing plus 2d6 necrotic) damage, and the muroni 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. 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

Skittering Escape (Insect Form Only). The muroni moves up to its speed without provoking opportunity attacks and can attempt to Hide.

Reactions

Fragmented Memory. When first reduced to 50 hit points or fewer, the muroni recalls a mortal grudge. It gains advantage on its next attack roll against the creature that most recently damaged it.

Lore

A vampire able to turn into a cat or dog, but most often a flea or spider, slipping unseen into houses to feed.

The Muroni is a particular variety of Romanian vampiric revenant that arose in the agrarian world of Wallachia and Transylvania. Etymologically, the creature’s name traces back to the root “mor,” which evokes death and decay. Folkloric accounts stress its “excess”: once exhumed, the body appears bloated, the skin a deep crimson, the nails elongated, the mouth crusted with blood, and the teeth striking less for the length of the fangs than for the overall predatory set of the jaws. It is this extreme swelling and reddening, people say, that proves it has been feeding on human blood at night.

A Muroni comes into being when someone dies a violent death, practiced sorcery in life, or when a child born out of wedlock to parents who were themselves illegitimate dies. This sort of double bastardy sets a generational curse in motion. Other routes of transformation include violent death, suicide, active witchcraft while alive, or dying from the bite of another Muroni.

From Vampire Bestiary 5E, p. 70 · Fern Flower Press