Emberwood
twin-eyed skull-staff fae who kindles wildfire in the canopy
Emberwood — The Encounter
twin-eyed skull-staff fae who kindles wildfire in the canopy · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Emberwood
Emberwood is the wrath of the Ahlir Faiser, the forest fae who would sooner burn a grove than yield it. Its skull-tipped staff sheds a green-edged flame that clings and gnaws, marking trespassers for the rest of the flight to hunt by the light of their own burning. Where the masked one walks, the ash parts for its feet and closes behind the warband like a curtain of smoke. Folk who think the deep wood cannot burn have not met Emberwood, who carries fire the way other fae carry thorns. It never sets the blaze alone; the flight drives prey into the flames, and Emberwood simply makes sure they keep.
Run Emberwood in Sixty Seconds
- Set the burn then Emberbolt a key foe so Kindling Staff makes it waste actions smothering flames.
- Burst the cluster then save Wildfire Bloom for two or more bunched enemies.
- Use the smoke then let Wildfire Bloom's cover screen the flight's repositioning.
- When bloodied then retreat through your own ash and keep the fae-fire ticking.
Emberwood
Medium fey, neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEKindling Staff (signature). When Emberwood hits a creature with Emberbolt, that creature catches fae-fire; at the start of its next turn it takes 5 (2d4) fire damage unless it or an adjacent creature uses an action to smother the flames.
Ash-Walker. Emberwood is unharmed by its own fire effects and ignores difficult terrain caused by flame or scorched ground.
Actions
Multiattack. Emberwood casts Emberbolt twice.
Emberbolt. Ranged Spell Attack: +6 to hit, range 120 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) fire damage.
Wildfire Bloom (Recharge 5-6). Emberwood ignites a 15-foot radius point within 60 ft. Each creature there must make a DC 14 Dexterity save, taking 17 (5d6) fire damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. The area becomes lightly obscured by smoke until the end of Emberwood's next turn.
A twin-eyed fae whose skull-staff scatters clinging fae-fire and blooms sudden wildfire among the trees.
Guideline numbers — formula-tuned and read from the miniature's design, not yet table-proven. Tell us how it ran in the comments.
How It Fights — by Tier
Same creature, scaled threat. The traits never change; only the numbers move.
Use Emberwood to stack burning damage: Emberbolt the toughest foe so the fae-fire ticks, and save Wildfire Bloom for a cluster. Keep it at range behind the melee fae; it is a damage-dealer, not a brawler.
Open by tagging the party's anchor with Emberbolt so the Kindling Staff burn forces it to choose between attacking and smothering. Drop Wildfire Bloom on clustered foes for burst plus smoke cover. When bloodied, retreat through its own ash and keep burning; Emberwood deals the damage the flight sets up, never soloing.
Same burn loop at deadlier numbers: bolt, ignite, bloom. Pair with herders and zoners so enemies stay clustered in the fire. It is a damage elite, not a boss.
Put Emberwood on the table
Download the presupported STL and run the fight tonight — the model, and the encounter that comes with it.
Get the STL on MyMiniFactory →Clay Cyanide Companion Rules v1
How a bound creature acts
- A companion acts on its owner's initiative, immediately after the owner.
- It uses the Companion block above — roughly ×0.6 HP and damage, no recharge abilities, and at most one reaction trait.
- It moves freely; it takes its Action only while its owner is conscious.
- At 0 HP a companion is broken, not dead — restored on a long rest unless your table rules otherwise.
Original Clay Cyanide material © Clay Cyanide LLC — explicitly not the non-SRD official sidekick rules.
Questions, Asked at the Table
What CR is Emberwood?
Emberwood is CR 6 at its native Tier 2 (about 102 HP, +6 to hit, DC 14). Use the tier table to scale to CR 2 or CR 11.
How does Emberwood fight alongside the rest of the Ahlir Faiser?
It is the flight's burner. Emberwood marks targets with clinging fae-fire and blooms wildfire into clusters the warband has herded together, then the smoke screens the fae's next move.
Can Emberwood anchor an encounter alone?
No. It is a fragile damage elite with no legendary actions. Field it behind other Ahlir Faiser who screen it and set up its burns.
Tell Us How It Ran
This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 ("SRD 5.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document. The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.
Clay Cyanide Miniatures is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC. This content is compatible with the fifth edition of the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game. Companion rules, lore, names, and original mechanics © Clay Cyanide LLC.
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