#thankfully bloodbath and second wind exist

[brazenlystrong]

our alliance survived without healers in the first few rounds ✌️

[monstersdownthepath]

The End-Singer: Volnagur

CR 22

Chaotic Evil Colossal Magical Beast

The Inner Sea Bestiary, pg. 48

The most alien of Rovagug’s children by far, Volnagur is the Rough Beast’s first attempt at branching out from insectoid nightmare amalgams and, depending on who you ask, his most successful. It’s the End-Singer’s “first draft” existence that explains why it’s so unstable as well, uniquely noted to be constantly falling apart as its aberrant nature restructures its body, wings constantly sprouting from its form only to rot away and shed off minutes or hours later as new ones take its place, huge patches of its skin sloughing off and regenerating in wretched clumps, afflictions giving Volnagur the air of a divine mistake more than an intentional creation. It’s possible the End-Singer was never meant to be unleashed, kept alive only by its own power... but it’s equally possible that these sheddings are its way of working towards something. A final, terrifying shape, greater than its kin with powers wholly unlike any of the other Spawn.

Volnagur possesses much in common with its older sibling, Chemnosit, in that it possesses magical abilities beyond its physical might and a penchant for causing mortals to attack one another rather than causing destruction on its own. It does this via its at-will Song of Discord, the discordant shrieking of the End-Singer causing everyone within a 20ft burst in a massive range around the horror to turn on one another and their allies, quickly causing horrific bloodbaths as innocent civilians and hapless soldiers alike are caught in the song. Uniquely, it can augment its song with its Blood Rage ability, anyone damaged by its razor-lined tongues taking a -4 penalty to resist their building fury for as long as they continue to take bleed damage from the razor tongues. At 2d6+12 initial damage and 1d6 bleed, this is never really seen against commoners and low-level soldiers unlikely to survive the first cut, but seen readily against trained militias, something Volnagur takes twisted delight in.

While it doesn’t possess the apocalyptic Earthquake or the terrifying at-will Disintegrate of the Monarch Worm, it can bathe entire cities in corrosive gasses with its at-will Acid Fog, scouring the earth of all signs of civilization as it belches cloud after cloud from above. Rather frighteningly, Volnagur possesses Winds of Vengeance 3/day to cloak it in hurricane-force winds, an ability strong enough on its own due to the inherent immunity to ranged attacks this provides--removing the primary means a party has to deal with a flying foe--but it combines in a terrifying way with the End-Singer’s at-will Greater Invisibility, making it seem like a supernatural storm or a massive hostile spell rather than an actual creature, something which can potentially cause massive amounts of confusion as the party (or the NPCs) attempt to counteract what they may believe to be a unique Storm of Vengeance or the work of a powerful spellcaster.

While Volnagur is not silent enough to actually be stealthy (and even possesses a unique aura, Shatter Silence, to specifically thwart all attempts to quiet it), the roaring Winds of Vengeance can sometimes cover up the truth of its malefic intelligence until the invisibility wears off and exposes the realm to the knowledge of what they’re really dealing with. If it, you know, doesn’t decide to raise its invisibility each time it falters, because if I could turn invisible on a whim I certainly would. Greater Invisibility even lets it stay cloaked as it attacks and casts spells, making its enormous list of attacks even more dangerous. Volnagur can do ten attacks each round: a 4d6+12 bite, up to six swats with its malformed wings for 2d8+6, and three slices with its bladed tongues for 2d6+12. As mentioned, those tongues also cause 1d6 bleed damage and afflict people with Blood Rage... but they also inflict 1 Con bleed each round and deal x3 damage on a critical hit, making them the End-Singer’s most potent weapon to augment with Vital Strike and/or Flyby Attack if it can’t make a full attack.

Also as briefly alluded to, Volganur has an aura which dispels all Silence effects within 60ft of it, but this Shatter Silence aura also dispels any effect which offers resistance or immunity to Sonic damage. This is important, as anyone who takes any amount of the 2d6 Sonic damage from its four Eye Rays has a chance of being nauseated for a full minute, with an extra helping of one of six random afflictions if they fail a second save: confusion, sickness, frightened, fatigued, stunned, or staggered! Just in case the nausea wasn’t enough! Thankfully, while protection from Sonic damage is dispelled, protection from nausea isn’t and those status effects only stack on if the victim is nauseated by the sonic blast.

The End-Singer is in the same tier as Chemnosit in that even surviving its rampage doesn’t guarantee a life free of fear or trauma. What balm could ease the nightmares one still has of watching a fellow soldier, a family member, or even a child or elder going homicidally berserk in the midst of a terrifying hurricane for seemingly no reason? What could save you from reliving the visions of watching ally and innocents being torn apart by an invisible force, or suffocated on caustic mists?

Xotani, Ulunat, and the Tarrasque are the Spawn a DM uses to make their players feel challenged by their sheer damage output, but Chemnosit and Volnugar are the ones brought out when the table needs to feel afraid.

You can read more about it here.