Yaobikuni 八百比丘尼

Medium undead (cursed immortal), neutral

Armor Class 16 (preternatural poise)

Hit Points 99 (18d8 + 18)

Speed 30 ft., swim 20 ft.

STR 10 (+0) · DEX 18 (+4) · CON 12 (+1) · INT 15 (+2) · WIS 16 (+3) · CHA 18 (+4)

Saving Throws Dex +7, Wis +6, Cha +7

Skills History +5, Insight +6, Perception +6, Religion +5

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

Damage Immunities poison, disease

Condition Immunities poisoned, charmed, frightened, exhausted

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 16

Languages Common, Celestial, Abyssal; telepathy 60 ft.

Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)

Traits

Ageless Body. Yaobikuni is immune to aging magic and ignores any effect that would age her.

Slow Regeneration. Yaobikuni regains 10 hit points at the start of her turn. This trait ceases to function until the start of her next turn if she takes radiant damage.

Immortal Curse. If Yaobikuni drops to 0 hit points, her body falls lifeless, then knits together over 1 hour, returning her to full hit points and consciousness. Only the Ritual of Gedatsu—performed for 10 minutes by one or more spellcasters who know remove curse while sprinkling sanctified salt—can prevent this return if done before the hour ends.

Actions

Multiattack. Yaobikuni makes two Hands of Centuries attacks.

Hands of Centuries. Melee Spell Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) necrotic damage, and the target’s hit-point maximum is reduced by the same amount. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest or is affected by a lesser restoration spell.

Voice of Endless Days (Recharge 4–6). Yaobikuni speaks a word laden with eight hundred years of sorrow. Each creature of her choice within 20 feet that can hear her must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw, taking 22 (5d8) psychic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a success. Creatures that fail are also stunned until the end of Yaobikuni’s next turn.

Bestow Immortality (Recharge 6). Yaobikuni touches one willing or incapacitated creature, cursing it with ageless life. The target must succeed on a DC 15 Charisma saving throw or become Immortal-Cursed: it no longer ages and gains Yaobikuni’s Slow Regeneration trait, but it also gains vulnerability to radiant damage and can’t benefit from hit-point restoration other than the regeneration. The curse lasts until remove curse or greater restoration is cast on the creature.

Bonus Actions

Mist-Step. Yaobikuni teleports up to 20 feet to an unoccupied space she can see.

Reactions

Timeless Dodge. When Yaobikuni would be hit by an attack she can see, she adds +3 to her AC against that attack, potentially causing it to miss.

Lore

The eternal nun who gained immortality by eating mermaid flesh.

Yaobikuni, whose name literally translates as “the Eight-Hundred-Year Nun,” belongs to the rare category of Japanese beings of human origin who have gained eternal life. In folklore taxonomy she is neither a yurei nor an animal bakemono, but a hito-yokai—a yokai that arose from a human—and her particular sub-type is best described as a “cursed immortal.”

In appearance Yaobikuni remains perpetually young; even after centuries her body is that of a girl untouched by age. She wears a severe Buddhist hood (the ritual head-covering of monks), a robe, a staff, and prayer beads, creating a strange contradiction between her youthful face and the eyes that carry the weight of passing centuries. Legend says Yaobikuni’s metabolism is slowed to its absolute minimum; disease and poison cannot reach her, yet serious injuries require long regeneration. Immortality spares her from natural death, but not from pain.

From Yokai Bestiary 5E, Book Two, p. 106 · Fern Flower Press