Ankth
long-horned stalker-dancer of the Sons of Nightmare
Ankth — The Encounter
long-horned stalker-dancer of the Sons of Nightmare · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Ankth
Ankth is the elegant cruelty of the Sons of Nightmare, the long-horned figure that walks unbothered through a melee while the brutes do the breaking. Old grimoires speak of the dream-thing that paces a sleeper's room, never hurried, always nearer; Ankth is that patience made flesh. Where Hunllef and Incubo charge, Ankth threads the gaps, goring those who turn to face the heavier kin and tangling their reactions with a swaying, terrible rhythm. The warband uses it as a flanker and a finisher: it does not start the killing, but it is rarely far when a hero falls. Villagers who survive recall only the slow click of its hooves and the cold that came with it.
Run Ankth in Sixty Seconds
- It moves through your line then anyone it passes risks losing reactions on a failed DC 14 Wis save.
- Two gores plus necrotic then 12 piercing and 7 necrotic apiece punishes back-rankers it reaches.
- Slip the Knot then when you finally land a melee hit it halves the damage and slides 10 ft. away.
- No fear, no sleep then save those spells for something else.
- It is a flanker then it finishes targets the brutes bloodied, so protect your wounded.
Ankth
Medium fiend (nightmare), neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEDread Cadence. On its turn Ankth may move through hostile spaces at will. A creature it moves past must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom save or be unable to take reactions until the start of its next turn (signature).
Nightmare-Born. Ankth is immune to being frightened and to magic that would put it to sleep.
Actions
Multiattack. Ankth makes two Raking Horn attacks.
Raking Horn. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d6+4) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) necrotic damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Slip the Knot (Reaction). When a creature Ankth can see hits it with a melee attack, Ankth halves the damage and moves up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks.
Tall, horned, and unhurried, it picks its way over rubble like a dancer crossing a stage strewn with bones.
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.
Dance past the front line to lock a defender out of reactions, then gore a softer target behind. Stay mobile and let the heavier Sons hold attention. Fight as a flanker in the warband, not alone.
Use Dread Cadence to slip past the wall and strip the cleric's reaction, then gore them twice. Slip the Knot away from any retaliation. Work the flank while Incubo pins the front.
Thread the whole party each round, denying reactions and goring whoever the brutes have already bloodied. Be the warband's roaming finisher; never stand toe-to-toe alone when you can dance to the next victim.
Put Ankth 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 Ankth?
Ankth is CR 6 (2,300 XP) at its native Tier 2, with Tier 1 and Tier 3 statlines included for scaling.
How does Ankth fight alongside the rest of the Sons of Nightmare?
It is the warband's flanker and finisher, weaving past the brutes' front line to deny reactions and gore the wounded that Hunllef and Incubo have already softened.
Is Ankth a boss I can run solo?
No. It has no legendary actions and relies on the rest of the flock to fix targets; run it as an elite flanker beside its kin.
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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