Donestre

Illustration by Thomas Hanusek.

Self-hating friend-eating lion-person. A fey.

Have you ever felt so miserable and unloved you could cry? This lanky, sad, wet lion-person embodies that. It could be majestic but looks miserable. It looks at you with sad saucer eyes.

Self deprecative, desperate for love, secretly hateful.

 
HD: 3 Armor: none
Hit it: normal Dodge it: normal
Move: fast  

It resists mundane weapons and spells (because it’s a fairy). It can hear, smell and lie very well, see in the dark and be understood by any creature. Also, as a imaginary creature, willpower must be used for attack rolls against it instead of dexterity.

Any creature hearing and understanding the donestre speak for 1 minute must save with disadvantage or be charmed for 1 hour. If both rolls are failures, the target is dominated instead. A creature succeeding its save is immune to this donestre’s words for 24h. This ability fails on targets battling the donestre.

Attacks (1/round)

Love Me! The donestre makes a grapple attempt, followed by a bite melee attack (1D6).

Kill Me! The donestre makes a desperate melee attack with a weapon or its claws (1D8). Until its next turn, its target has advantage on its attacks against the donestre.

Pity Me! Decapitated heads within sight start wailing. As many other targets and the donestre must save or be frightened.


Random Encounter
  1. Monster: 1 donestre.
  2. Lair: A cavern with a number of enshrined severed heads. They are set in a way that evokes the doll house of a lonely kid.
      OR
    Omen: Sobbing.
  3. Spoor: A decapitated body. No signs of struggle.
  4. Tracks: Sobbing sounds, far away.
  5. Trace: [Rumor] Don’t trust creatures that speak your tongue.
  6. Trace: [Rumor] Lend an ear, lose a head.
D6 What the Monster Thinks It Wants
  1. A friend who will help it be accepted by the locals.
  2. A gift.
  3. Protection, as it is scared to sleep alone tonight.
  4. Advice on the best way to befriend somebody.
  5. Companionship for the road.
  6. Somebody to share dinner with.
D6 What the Monster Will Actually Try To Do
  1. Eat you alive.
  2. Beat you to a pulp.
  3. Decapitate you.
  4. Feed you poison.
  5. Drown you.
  6. Smother you.
Salvaging the Body

You …(Roll as many times as the HD of the monster)

  1. Nothing.
  2. A lock of hair from an innocent.
  3. Jewelry from a foreign land (valuable).
  4. A decapitated head.
  5. A map tracing the road from this land to the next.
  6. A gold tooth (mundane).

Conversing with heads collected by a donestre might give a wizard the inspiration to create a spell with the word friendship.

Lion Tears. For 15 minutes, people will listen to you with their undivided attention.


Credits

Illustration by Thomas Hanusek. The donestre is a weird monster from the east described in the middle ages. It preys on travelers by speaking their language. Richard J. Leblanc Jr’s adaptation in the Creature Compendium is what inspired me. I gave them my typical fey resistances, and evocative attacks to highlight their tortured nature. — SaltyGoo

Written on November 14, 2020