Stikini

Medium monstrosity (shapechanger), chaotic evil

Armor Class 15 (natural armor)

Hit Points 119 (14d8 + 56)

Speed 40 ft., fly 60 ft. (hover)

STR 18 (+4) · DEX 16 (+3) · CON 18 (+4) · INT 13 (+1) · WIS 14 (+2) · CHA 15 (+2)

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

Skills Perception +8, Stealth +6, Survival +5

Damage Vulnerabilities fire (only while its organs hang apart from its body; see Organ Reliance)

Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks that aren’t silvered or wooden

Condition Immunities charmed, frightened

Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 18

Languages Common, Seminole; understands but can’t speak most owl calls

Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)

Traits

Shapechanger. The stikini can use its bonus action to polymorph into a Human guise (any Medium humanoid) or back into its true owl-fiend form. Its statistics remain the same, though it loses its natural weapons in humanoid form. Equipment isn’t transformed.

Keen Sight and Smell. The stikini has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight or smell.

Organ Reliance. Each night at dusk, the stikini regurgitates its heart, lungs, and intestines, which it hangs in a tree within 1 mile. While the organs are separated, the stikini gains resistance to nonmagical weapons (included above) and its Regeneration trait; however, it gains vulnerability to fire, radiant damage, and weapons carved from cedar or oak.

A creature that finds the organs (usually DC 18 Wisdom (Survival) to track, DC 15 Perception to spot) can destroy them with fire, salt, or sacred herbs (1 minute of work). If the organs are destroyed, the stikini’s Regeneration ceases and it takes 20 necrotic damage at dawn each day until it dies.

Regeneration. The stikini regains 15 hit points at the start of its turn if it has at least 1 hit point and its organs remain intact. The stikini dies instantly if it starts its turn with 0 hit points and can’t regenerate.

Innate Spellcasting (Sleep-craft). The stikini’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 15). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no components:

3/day: sleep (PHB, p. 276/317)

1/day: dream (victim’s heart is visible in the dream; PHB, p. 236/266)

Actions

Multiattack. The stikini makes three attacks: two with its Talons and one with its Beak.

Talons. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 4) slashing damage.

Beak. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (1d10 + 4) piercing damage.

Heart Extraction (Recharge 5–6). The stikini targets one incapacitated or sleeping humanoid within 5 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take 27 (5d10) necrotic damage. On a failure, the target’s hit-point maximum is also reduced by the same amount, and the stikini regains hit points equal to the damage dealt. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest, and the target dies if this effect reduces its hit-point maximum to 0.

Bonus Actions

Night Glide. While in dim light or darkness, the stikini can take the Hide action.

Reactions

Wing Buffet. When a creature the stikini can see within 5 feet hits it with an attack, the stikini can beat its wings. The attacker must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be pushed 10 feet away and knocked prone.

Lore

An owl-man who vomits out his organs at night and transforms into an owl. He eats human hearts.

Among the Seminole Indians of Oklahoma (USA), the Stikini—literally an “owl-man”—is viewed as an exceptionally dangerous being. It is not a nature spirit but a person who has willfully violated sacred taboos and, in doing so, forfeited humanity. The legends first took shape in Florida, yet after the Seminoles were removed to Oklahoma in the 1830s the image of the Stikini survived and even grew stronger, becoming a central symbol of menace. Speaking the creature’s name is traditionally forbidden: merely mentioning it is believed either to draw the Stikini near or to trigger the speaker’s own transformation. Knowledge about it passed only between initiated healers and medicine-women.

The tales trace the Stikini’s origin to the abuse of witchcraft. A witch gradually loses her human essence by committing evil acts in pursuit of power or eternal life. In one well-known story the first Stikini is a young woman who survives the destruction of her village; she turns to a spirit power of vengeance, gains the ability to retaliate, but by twisting the gift condemns herself to an irreversible curse—becoming an owl-human hybrid.

From Vampire Bestiary 5E, p. 96 · Fern Flower Press