Nobusuma 野衾

Medium monstrosity, unaligned

Armor Class 13 (natural armor)

Hit Points 30 (4d8 + 12)

Speed 20 ft., climb 20 ft., glide 60 ft. (see Wing-Glide)

STR 14 (+2) · DEX 15 (+2) · CON 16 (+3) · INT 2 (−4) · WIS 12 (+1) · CHA 6 (−2)

Skills Stealth +6, Perception +3

Damage Resistances necrotic

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13

Challenge 1 (200 XP)

Traits

Wing-Glide. The nobusuma can launch itself from a height of at least 10 feet and glide. During a glide it can move up to 60 feet horizontally and descend up to 10 feet, ignoring difficult terrain and not provoking opportunity attacks.

Keen Hearing. The nobusuma has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing.

Shadow Ambusher. If the nobusuma surprises a creature, it has advantage on its first attack roll against that creature on the first round of combat.

Actions

Multiattack. The nobusuma makes two Claw attacks, or it makes one Smother attack.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 2) slashing damage.

Smother. The nobusuma spreads its patagium over the head of a Medium or smaller creature within 5 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw or be blinded and grappled (escape DC 13). While grappled, the creature is restrained and unable to breathe. At the end of each of the target’s turns it can repeat the save, ending the grapple on a success. The nobusuma can smother only one creature at a time.

Blood Drain. The nobusuma makes a Bite attack against a creature it is smothering. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature the nobusuma is grappling. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) piercing damage plus 3 (1d6) necrotic damage, and the nobusuma regains hit points equal to the necrotic damage dealt.

Reactions

Wing Buffet. When a creature the nobusuma can see misses it with a melee attack, the nobusuma moves up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.

Lore

A demonic bat that strangles and drains the blood of late-night travelers.

Nobusuma (野衾) is a classic Japanese yokai whose name combines the characters for “wild” and “bed-quilt.” The word originally referred to Japan’s flying squirrels, whose skin membranes let them glide, creating the image of a living blanket. In old records the creature is drawn as a bat-like monster that spreads itself over a person’s face.

The zoological basis for those stories is thought to be the giant flying squirrel (musasabi) and the tiny dwarf flying squirrel (momonga). Both are nocturnal, silent, and capable of gliding suddenly overhead. With time, other night animals slipped into the picture—bats, martens, even tanuki. Gradually a single portrait formed: a winged, rat-like, sometimes weasel-faced creature that attacks to smother its prey and drink its blood. One legend tells of such an animal assaulting cats until it was caught; eyewitnesses recognized it as a nobusuma.

From Yokai Bestiary 5E, Book Two, p. 66 · Fern Flower Press