Hssiss
TR 5Beast (Dark Side) · Large·Recommended levels: 8-12
Abilities
Saves
- DEX +7
- CON +8
- WIS +7
Skills
- Stealth +12
- Perception +7
Languages
- —
Traits
A creature bitten by the Hssiss must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or be Poisoned for 1 hour. While Poisoned this way it takes 5 (1d10) Chem-Toxic damage at the start of each of its turns. This venom is spawned of the dark side — it cannot be neutralized by ordinary medicine or an antitox patch, only by a Force healing trance or comparable dark-side-cleansing effect.
(Bonus Action) The Hssiss wraps the dark side around itself and becomes Invisible until it attacks or until the start of its next turn. Attack rolls against it while it is invisible have disadvantage.
The Hssiss is a rent in the Force itself. Any creature that uses a Force power targeting the Hssiss must first succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom check or the power fails and is wasted, and a Force-sensitive creature within 30 feet has disadvantage on Concentration checks — the dark side clings to the dragon and fouls the Force around it.
The Hssiss has advantage on Perception checks that rely on smell or hearing, and can sense the presence of Force-sensitive creatures within 60 feet even when it cannot see them.
The Hssiss has advantage on attack rolls against any creature that has not yet acted in combat, and against any creature it attacks from Invisibility.
The Hssiss regains 5 hit points at the start of each of its turns as long as it has at least 1 hit point. If it has taken Force damage since the end of its last turn, this trait doesn't function that turn.
Actions
The Hssiss makes one Bite attack and one Claws attack.
Lore
The Hssiss — the so-called dark-side dragon — began as an ordinary reptilian predator on the poisoned world of Ambria, one of the few creatures hardy enough to survive that planet's ruin. What made it a Sithspawn was not alchemy but corruption: dark spirits settled into the beasts and remade them from within, until the Hssiss became a living wound in the Force, drawn to the dark side and hostile to all who serve the light. They haunt places thick with old evil — Sith tombs, dead temples, the shores of Ambria's Lake Natth — and they hunt Force-users above all other prey.
A Hssiss is a nightmare to fight because it refuses to fight fairly. It cloaks itself in the Force and vanishes, striking from nowhere with claws and a bite whose venom is spun from the dark side itself — a poison no medpac can touch, that the Jedi Tionne Solusar could only purge through a healing trance after she took a Hssiss's head. Worse, its very presence fouls a Force-user's connection, making powers sputter and fail at the worst moment. A single Hssiss can stalk a party for days; a nest of them guards the approaches to a Sith Lord's sanctum like the dark side made flesh.
In Play
The Hssiss is an ambush striker built to terrorize the party's Force-user. Open from Invisibility with Ambush Predator for advantage, land the Bite to plant the un-healable venom, then vanish again next turn with Force Cloak before the party can focus it. Wound in the Force punishes the party's caster for trying to blast or dominate it — make them roll to see their power fizzle. Its Dark Vitality means chip damage is wasted; the party must burn it down in a concentrated turn or two, or it heals back up between exchanges. Run it as the guardian of a Sith site: the thing in the dark that the tomb's builders left behind.
Adventure Hooks
- The Poison That Won't Heal — A member of the party — or an NPC they were sent to protect — has been clawed by something invisible in the ruins, and no medicine touches the fever. The cure is a Force healing trance the party can't perform, or a dark-side remedy that means bargaining with exactly the wrong people.
- Lake of the Dead — The party must cross Ambria to reach a hermit who holds a secret, and the Hssiss of Lake Natth hunt anything Force-sensitive that comes near the water. Getting the Force-user across alive is the whole problem.