The Tempyranea
"Oh gods! Gods help me!" Sigwald swiftly prayed in hushed, panicked tones while hiding behind an overturned log, his clothes splattered with his close friend's blood. What would have otherwise been a typical, mundane week was abruptly interrupted by inexplicable, vivid, and horrific visions of the man's multiple violent deaths, as well of those of his friends and family, at the claws of a skulking terror he could scarcely even begin to describe. Though they were clear as memories, too clear and traumatic to be dismissed, none in his village believed him, even when he began to predict other, far more innocent events that would happen throughout the next few days. Now, the same events had to come to pass, and every person he ever knew was dead. He prayed for some salvation from this living hell, but what came was a lengthy, bladed, spider-like limb slowly reaching from up over the log behind him, ending his life in a single, visceral lunge the moment he turned to witness this horror.
Just as suddenly, he was back where he was when he first had these visions, at the same time of day, doing the exact same thing. Sigwald took a slow look down to his hands, no longer drenched in blood, and could do naught but scream.
Temporal Predators
The creature known as a Tempyranea, or 'Time Spider' as it is often called by less learned adventurers, is a large, eyeless (but not blind), spider-like aberration that walks on four, long, chitinous limbs tipped with deadly spikes, armed with two, wicked, insectoid claws that can grasp and slice with equal efficiency, and covered in jagged carapace and bristled hairs that are both as dark as night. Physically, a tempyranea is easily an apex predator on these merits alone, perfectly able
to outrun, outmaneuver, overpower, and even stealthily
elude most creatures smaller than it, including Humans
and similar beings, rather unfortunately.
What makes the tempyranea truly a fearful horror
with little equal is its mysterious ability to spin a vast
web that would put any mundane spider
to shame; a time trap. This creature
will pick a stretch of land rife with life
that it can prey upon, such as a lone village
surrounded by dense woods, and casts a
subtle field of temporal manipulations
over it. With this, the poor region that the
tempyranea marks as its territory is now
entrapped in a time loop, and the fiend
begins to methodically terrorize this land,
mercilessly preying on every living thing it
can get its claws on. Finally, once it has had
its fill and reaped all life within its domain,
the aberration triggers the loop, and all things
within this trap but itself are restored to the
moment the trap was first set, its previous victims now
none the wiser of the horror that had befell them, and now shall befall them over, and over, and over, and over again.
Art Credits
Imperfect Web
To the common man, the web of a tempyranea is a repeating nightmare which may not see an end for centuries, each cycle depriving those trapped in it of the horrifying memories that could help them escape it. However, whether it is the result of divine intervention or a fortunate coincidence, this terrifying time trap is not without a few severe flaws.
Firstly, and most glaringly, the memory-wiping effect of the loop, in most cases, does not work on creatures that entered the trapped region after the trap was set. This flaw is most often exploited by adventuring parties who find themselves initially overwhelmed by the creature, only to suddenly find themselves at the edge of the trap unharmed, beholding the tempyranea's previous victims bewilderingly oblivious. Often, these creatures will actively attempt to hold off its slaughter if it can when interlopers are present, for fear of their actions resulting in irerparable damage being done to their trap.
Secondly, the tempyranea must maintain concentration on the maintenance of the trap, not too dissimilarly to how many magic users concentrate on spells. The aberration's durability makes breaking this concentration difficult, but succeeding in doing so is enough to both shatter the trap itself and restore the past memories of those long trapped within, although the latter is of rather mixed benefit. Further, it is not unheard of that one of these creatures will willingly release a trap in the event that a creature obviously powerful enough to break their concentration, such as a dragon or a giant, enters the area. It is widely theorized that this is how most of these traps eventually, and fortunately, end.
The third flaw of the tempyranea's web is that the otherwise largely unknown process used to wipe a victim's memories more accurately acts as a suppressant than proper erasure, with its effectiveness appearing to be directly dependent on the victim's intellect. For more simple-minded prey such as most animals, the aberration need not worry about them retaining their memories, so much so that there is little issue with such creatures freely coming and going from the trapped area. However, there appears to be a threshold of intelligence wherein if a creature is not slain before the loop is triggered,
that individual's suppression of its past memories from said loop will be shattered in an instant. Most members of most intelligent species, such as Humans, breach this limit, which means that the tempyranea must exercise great caution in first exterminating all such life within its territory before it may begin its temporal hunt anew. Furthermore, particularly intelligent or clever creatures, such as mind flayers or hags, have been known to be far more resistant to this effect than others, which would explain why the tempyranea seemingly avoids claiming territory near such creatures when it can.
Tempyranea
Large aberration, neutral evil
- Armor Class 16 (Natural Armor)
- Hit Points 150 (19d10 + 50)
- Speed 40 ft., climbing 40 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 18 (+4) 18 (+4) 17 (+3) 16 (+2) 13 (+1) 10 (0)
- Saving Throws CON +5
- Skills Perception +3, Stealth +5
- Damage Immunities Poison
- Condition Immunities Blinded, Charmed, Frightened, & Poisoned
- Senses Blindsight 120 ft., Passive Perception 16
- Languages Can understand the languages of creatures within its time-trapped territory, but cannot speak
- Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)
Temporal Mindset. The Tempyranea is immune to any effect that would alter its memory or physical form via the alteration of time around it. Furthermore, it is able to sense exactly when and where an intelligent creature (minimum 4 int) enters its time-trapped territory.
Dark Stride. The Tempyranea has advantage on stealth checks when moving up to half its movement speed.
Abductor's Frame. When the Tempyranea is grappling a medium or smaller creature with its claws, it can move up to its current movement speed unhindered.
Actions
Multiattack. The Tempyranea makes two attacks, neither of which may be its Grab action.
Rend. Melee weapon attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft, one creature. The Tempyranea attempts to ferociously slash a target with its sharp, wicked claws. Hit 17 (3d8 + 4) slashing damage.
Impale. Melee weapon attack: +5 to hit, reach 10 ft., one creature. The Tempyranea attempts to viciously run a target through with one of its lengthy, spear-like legs. Hit 26 (4d10 + 4) piercing damage.
Slam. Melee weapon attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one creature, as well as creatures within 5 ft. of the target, but not outside of the attack's range. The Tempyranea attempts to savagely cast aside a target and anything near it with one of its powerful legs. Hit 15 (2d10 + 4) bludgeoning damage, and half of that to any secondary targets hit by this attack.
Grab. Melee weapon attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft, one creature. The Tempyranea lunges outwards with its claws, attempting to mercilessly abduct a target. Hit 17 (3d8 + 4) slashing damage. If the target is Medium or smaller, it is grappled on hit (escape DC 16). Until this ends, the target is restrained, and the Tempyranea can use neither the Grab action nor the Rend action.
Time Trap. The Tempyranea picks an area of land no larger than 15 miles in diameter from any point that it has seen within that area within 24 hours. The marked region and everything inside of it, with the exception of the Tempyranea, is then placed in a time loop that begins at the exact moment the loop is first created. The Tempyranea must continuously concentrate on maintaining this time trap, although it can choose to end this concentration at will. If it chooses to do this, the time loop ceases instantly, and the Tempyranea must wait 24 hours to use this ability. However, if the Tempyranea takes at least 50 damage within 6 seconds (1 round), it must make a DC 15 (+1 DC per 10 extra points of damage taken before the save, up to +5) con saving throw, and on failure loses concentration on the time trap. In the event that this occurs, the Tempyranea cannot use this ability for another 7 days (168 hours) and all intelligent creatures (minimum 4 int) affected by the time trap instantly regain their memories from previous loops. At will, the Tempyranea can 'trigger' the time loop, restoring all objects, creatures, and spells other than itself to the exact position and condition they were in at the beginning of the time loop, as if nothing had happened at all, though it must wait 12 hours to do so again. If an intelligent creature affected by the loop is dead when this happens, all memories of that cycle of the loop are immediately suppressed, unless a creature makes a DC 20 int saving throw, at which point it can no longer be affected by the trap's memory suppression and instantly regains all of their memories from previous cycles. Intelligent creatures that are alive at the time of the reset are also no longer affected by this. Intelligent creatures that enter the time trap after it is created are also immune to the memory suppressing effect, and are deposited at their point and time of entry upon the loop resetting, in the same condition they were at that point. If the loop is reset or broken before the time in the loop that they would have entered, they appear at the same location at the moment of the loop being reset.
Reactions
Sudden Attack. When attacked by a creature within 10 ft. of it, the Tempyranea can use either its Rend or Slam action to attack that creature.
Uncertain Origins
There are many rumors about where tempyraneas actually come from, although only a very small amount of them hold that it is a natural creature. In fact, most theories instead claim that it was artificially created, either through advanced magic or alchemy, although who exactly the responsible party is differs greatly depending on who you ask.
The most common story, regardless of its validity, is that the Tempyranea was created by a wizard for the purposes of winning a long war for their kingdom. The creature promptly escaped after being given life, frustrating and disapointing its creator greatly, who then proceeded to contact his king so that he could warn them of what had happened. The wizard was then alarmed to find not only that his king was no longer alive, but the war he intended to use his deadly creation in had already been won a staggering 500 years ago, despite the wizard having gotten a report on it just that morning. It did not take long for the wizard to realize that his creation was far more effective than he anticipated and, much to his horror, was now unleashed upon an unsuspecting world.
Tempyranea Lore
Animal Handling 10: You have heard of attempts to tame these creatures in the past. You've also heard enough about said attempts to know that trying to tame one is a bad idea.
Arcana 10: One of the few truths discerned about the time traps of the tempyranea is that it is not at all affected by the passage of time outside of its bounds. As a result of this, any creature contained within such a time trap will effectively never die of old age as long as the trap is maintained and is reliably looped before one otherwise would do so normally.
Arcana 15: A wide variety of factions, from wizard colleges to mind flayer colonies, have long attempted to determine the exact nature of how this aberration's time manipulation works, but have all found dissapointingly little success.
Arcana 20: The time trap utilized by the tempyranea has a few distant similarities to time-altering magic used by other beings, but it is mysteriously not as prone to paradoxes.
History 10: There have been a few accounts of individuals escaping both the time trap and the aberration's attempts to drag them back. Generally, this has often lead to breaks in the loop's 'continuity' that leads remaining victims to begin to realize that something is very wrong, threatening the trap.
History 15: The only reputable accounts of these aberrations claiming territory have been in relatively secluded areas with lower populations of intelligent life, which is likely due to its reliance on not leaving survivors when triggering the loop.
History 20: A rumor exists of a Drow city in the Underdark that was tricked by a particularly colossal tempyranea into believing that it was an agent of their god, largely due to its similarities to the spiders that the Drow revere. While the details of what exactly occurred in the resulting time trap are scarce, it is important to note that said city vehemently denies all claims of ever having worshipped such a creature.
Nature 10: Certain natural processes, such as a flowing river or the local weather, tend to act strangely in the areas that surround one of these aberration's time traps.
Nature 15: It is unknown how exactly the tempyranea is able to detect its surroundings so accurately without any eyes to speak of, although it is widely theorized to be combination of both some aberrant senses and far more mundane senses.
Nature 20: With no known psionic properties, it is largely unknown how they are able to learn any language so easily. However, a theory exists that they actually can learn what a number of words mean by observing their victims long before killing them over the course of several loops in its trap.
Religion 15: The souls of those who have died within a Time Trap seemingly cannot move on normally unless the trap is released, facilitating their return to life upon its many resets. It is unknown how the tempyranea accomplishes this.
Survival 15: Tempyraneas are known to pick out secluded areas, such as caves or ruins, as lairs and 'renovate' them to their liking before initializing the Time Trap.
Tempyranea Tactics
The tempyranea is an intelligent and methodical predator that has three priorities, in order from of the greatest import to of the least import to it; It's own survival, the stability of its time trap, and finally the specifics of when, where, and how it executes its prey. While the tempyranea will often employ both its capabilities in stealth and open combat with equal measure, it ultimately does not need to worry about securing food unless events that threaten the stability of its time trap begin to occur, and will often take its time to whittle down its prey's numbers rather than simply charge in and slaughter all before it. This often leads to scenarios of panic and fear once the aberration finally does show itself to a larger number of its victims, typically after having already claimed many other lives out of sight in the dead of night or the deeper wilds.
Above all, the tempyranea must remain eternally vigilant of the exact number of (currently) living intelligent creatures in its territory, any attempts by said creatures to leave this area, or any incursions by powerful or intelligent creatures into the trap. All of these are things that, if not managed correctly, can potentially spell certain doom for the time trap. As a result, only these sorts of situations warrant true concern from this aberration, and it will obsessively respond to said events in an effort to minimize potential damage, whether that means holding back its bloodthirst for a time or extending the same past the borders of its domain.
The aberration employs a variety of behaviors in combat that make it a versatile foe for any wishing to take it down. Often, it initially prefers to stealthily stalk larger groups of prey, silently taking out stragglers and waiting for the most opportune moment to attack the larger group. When it does attack in the open, it does so in a screeching flurry of slashes, stabs, and slams that can easily rip a man to shreds and even terrify prey into ceasing any attempts at fighting it. However, the tempyranea values is its own survival above all else, and is perfectly willing to make a tactical retreat so that it may have a chance to recover from any wounds it might receive. After all, time is on the tempyranea's side. In certain, rather horrifying circumstances, it will attempt to abduct one of its attackers before fleeing, separating them from their allies and plunging them into grave danger like none other. Finally, the tempyranea is more than willing to suddenly trigger the time loop in the event that its life is seriously threatened, although this would not reverse its own injuries.
The "Night Terror" Tempyranea
There exists an even rarer, more horrifically deadly, and less studied form of the tempyranea that holds the quite worrying title of "Night Terror", although this is a bit of a misnomer in that they are no more nocturnal than their weaker cousins (Who are cathemeral, meaning they are active day or night). While their control over time seems to be unchanged, they possess more enhanced physical forms, abilities, and tactical competence. What makes them even worse is that there is no known visual difference between a standard tempyranea and a night terror, meaning they are impossible to distinguish from each other right up until the Night Terror is seen using one of its unique abilities, at which point it is often far too late to adjust one's own tactics against it.
Below are optional rules to upgrade the tempyranea statblock shown on page 2 into a far more dangerous form, should you wish to use this against a more powerful party.
Night Terror Statblock Changes
Armor Class: +1 AC, to a value of 17.
Hit Points: +40 HP. For example, if you rolled or chose the average HP value of 150 HP, a night terror tempyranea would instead have 190 maximum HP.
Speed: +10 ft. to both normal movement speed and climbing speed. The Dark Stride feature benefits from this change.
Attributes: Strength increases by 2, to a total of 20 (+5), and the tempyranea's default attacks are adjusted appropriately.
Skills: Both Stealth and Perception increase by 2, to values of +5 and +7 respectively.
Damage Resistances: Add resistance to Psychic, Slashing, and Bludgeoning damage.
Challenge: Increase CR by 2, to a value of 9, and increase its XP reward by 2,100, to a value of 5,000 XP.
Add the following actions, legendary actions, and lair actions to the list of abilities the tempyranea can use.
Actions
Feast. The Tempyranea chooses a corpse it can see within 5 ft., and begins to feed on it, provided that it is not the corpse of a construct, elemental, plant, or undead, and is of medium size or smaller. The Tempyranea will then greedily devour the remains, regaining hit points equal to half of the maximum hit points that creature had in life, unless either that value or the maximum hit point value were below 10. If it is the former, the Tempyranea instead gains 10 hit points. If it is the latter, such as if the corpse only had 9 hit points in life, the Tempyranea instead regains hit points equal to that maximum hit point value. When the Tempyranea is done, all that is left is bloodied bones and scraps, and the corpse can not have this or any similar actions used on it again. The Tempyranea may use this action as part of its Multiattack action.
Shriek (3/Day). The Tempyranea lets out a horrific, high-pitched, insectoid scream, and each creature of the Tempyranea's choice that is within 60 feet of the aberration and can hear it must succeed on a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to the Tempyranea's Shriek for the next 24 hours. The Tempyranea can use this as part of its Multiattack action, but only if this action is used before any other attack.
Legendary Actions
The Tempyranea can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. The Tempyranea regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Detect. The Tempyranea makes a Wisdom (Perception) check.
Rueful Pounce. The Tempyranea chooses a target it can see that is between 30ft. and 90ft. of it, and is not physically blocked by an obstruction that the Tempyranea cannot passively move through. The Tempyranea will then pounce directly at the target, which must succeed on a DC 18 Dexterity saving throw or take 23 (4d8+5) bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone. The Tempyranea can hit flying creatures with this attack, but both it and the target may take damage from the resulting fall.
Vanishing Act (Costs 2 Actions). The Tempyranea attempts to slip into the shadows. As long as the Tempyranea is not in bright light, it makes a stealth check at advantage, even if it is actively being seen. If the Tempyranea succeeds, it vanishes from sight, and has advantage on all stealth checks for the next round or until it makes an attack. The Tempyranea may also use this action to reroll a failed stealth check at advantage outside of combat, but will start the next battle unable to take this action for 1 turn.
Lair Actions
The secluded and shadowy lair of the Tempyranea is a place it knows much better than any intruders ever could. On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the Tempyranea takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects:
A gust of chill wind, a great disturbance of dust, or another abrupt occurrence snuffs out all non-magical light sources inside of its lair, shrouding it in darkness until the light is restored.
An obscuring fog appears as if the Fog Cloud spell was cast by the Tempyranea. The fog lasts until initiative count 20 on the next round.