Allip

The Veil, which shields the Material Plane from the corruption of the Abyss/Thoon, has cracks in it, and a few determined individuals pierce the veil and learn some terrible truth about the Abyss. This process is dangerous to body and mind, and many don't survive it, resulting in the emergence of an allip. The allip acquires the secret, but the arduous process of piercing the veil annihilates its body and leaves behind a spectral creature composed of fragments from the victim's psyche and overwhelming psychic agony.
Blasphemous Secrets. Every allip is wracked with a horrifying insight that torments what remains of its mind. In the presence of other creatures, an allip seeks to relieve this burden by sharing its secret. The creature can impart only a shard of the knowledge that doomed it, but that piece is enough to wrack the recipient with temporary madness. The survivors of an allip's attack are sometimes left with a compulsion to learn more about what spawned this monstrosity. Strange phrases echo through their minds, and weird visions occupy their dreams. The sense that some colossal truth sits just outside their recall plagues them for days, months, and sometimes years after their fateful encounter.
Undead Nature. An allip doesn't require air, food, drink, or sleep.
An allip might attempt to share its lore to escape its curse and enter the afterlife. It can transfer knowledge from its mind by guiding another creature to write down what it knows. This process takes days or possibly weeks. An allip can accomplish this task by lurking in the study or workplace of a scholar. If the allip remains hidden, its victim is gradually overcome by manic energy. A scholar, driven by sudden insights to work night and day, produces reams of text with little memory of exactly what the documents contain. If the allip succeeds, it passes from the world-and its terrible secret hides somewhere in the scholar's text, waiting to be discovered by its next victim.

Type

Magical

Origin

Magical

Allip

Medium undead, neutral evil

Armor Class 13

Hit Points 40 9d8

Speed Fly: 40ft

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STR

6 -2

DEX

17 +3

CON

10 0

INT

17 +3

WIS

15 +2

CHA

16 +3

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Saving Throws Int +6, Wis +5

Skills Perception +5, Stealth +6

Damage Resistances acid, fire, lightning, thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks

Damage Immunities cold, necrotic, poison

Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15

Languages The languages it spoke in life

Challenge 5

Incorporeal Movement. The allip can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. It takes 5 (1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.
Hover. If knocked prone while flying, the creature doesn't fall, and it can stop moving in midair and not fall.

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Actions

Maddening Touch. Melee Spell Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft. , one target. Hit: 17 (4d6 + 3) psychic damage.
Whispers of Madness. The allip chooses up to three creatures it can see within 60 feet of it. Each target must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw, or it takes 7 (1d8 + 3) psychic damage and must use its reaction to make a melee weapon attack against one creature of the allip's choice that the allip can see. Constructs and undead are immune to this effect.
Howling Babble (Recharge 6). Each creature within 30 feet of the allip that can hear it must make a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, a target takes 12 (2d8 + 3) psychic damage, and it is stunned until the end of its next turn. On a successful save, it takes half as much damage and isn't stunned. Constructs and undead are immune to this effect.