Sasabonsam

Medium monstrosity, chaotic evil

Armor Class 15 (natural armor)

Hit Points 95 (13d8 + 26)

Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft., fly 60 ft.

STR 18 (+4) · DEX 14 (+2) · CON 15 (+2) · INT 10 (+0) · WIS 14 (+2) · CHA 13 (+1)

Saving Throws Dex +4, Wis +4

Skills Athletics +6, Perception +6, Stealth +6

Damage Resistances necrotic

Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 16

Languages Twi, Common

Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)

Traits

Kapok Ambusher. While hanging motionless from a tree, the sasabonsam has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks, and any creature that hasn’t seen it move has disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks to spot it.

Dangling Legs. While the sasabonsam is flying or hanging from a branch, its reach with Leg Hook increases to 15 feet.

Blood Drinker. When the sasabonsam hits a creature grappled by it with its Bite, it regains hit points equal to the necrotic damage dealt.

Sun-Shy. In direct sunlight, the sasabonsam has disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.

Actions

Multiattack. The sasabonsam makes two Leg Hook attacks and one Bite attack.

Leg Hook. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target.

Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) slashing damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 14). Until this grapple ends, the sasabonsam can’t use that leg on another target.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature grappled by the sasabonsam.

Hit: 12 (1d10 + 4) piercing damage plus 5 (1d6 + 2) necrotic damage.

Crippling Scream (Recharge 5–6). The sasabonsam emits a blood-curdling shriek. Each creature of the sasabonsam’s choice within 30 feet that can hear it must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or take 13 (3d8) thunder damage and be frightened until the end of its next turn. A creature that succeeds is immune to this scream for 24 hours.

Bonus Actions

Wing Buffet. The sasabonsam beats its massive wings. Each creature grappled by it must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be thrown up to 20 feet away and knocked prone. The sasabonsam can then fly up to half its fly speed without provoking opportunity attacks.

Reactions

Sudden Snatch. When a creature the sasabonsam can see moves within 15 feet beneath it, the sasabonsam can make one Leg Hook attack against that creature.

Lore

A vampiric creature with a bearded man’s face and bat wings. It waits in trees, snatches passers-by, and bites off their heads in hiding.

Legends describe Sasabonsam as a hybrid of human, bat, and predator. Its average height is put at five feet (about 1.5 meters); the body is usually said to be covered with long dark-red hair or with mottled skin that serves as camouflage when the creature sits in a kapok tree, its thin legs dangling. The face remains human but sports a beard, pointed ears, a mouth full of sharp fangs, blood-shot eyes, and a small horn that juts from the crown of the head. Its arms stretch into enormous batlike wings with a span of about twenty feet (roughly 6 meters), the torso is skeletally thin, and the legs are permanently bent, each ending in three toes. When a person walks beneath the tree and brushes against those legs, Sasabonsam grabs the victim, hauls him into the branches, bites off his head, and drinks the blood. The belief that Sasabonsam lives in kapok trees is so widespread that villagers fear cutting the trees down and, after sunset, avoid walking underneath them at all.

The demon’s natural habitat is said to be the most remote parts of the tropical forest, especially the giant silk-cotton trees Ceiba pentandra, regarded at once as the “tree of life” and a portal to the spirit world. The reddish soil around the roots of such trees is interpreted as the blood of countless victims.

From Vampire Bestiary 5E, p. 92 · Fern Flower Press