Akhekh
Akhekh — The Encounter
Winged Desert Serpent of the Burning Horizon · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Akhekh
The grimoires of the southern sand-kingdoms name the akhekh a guardian of the burning horizon, a thing born where the desert wind meets the morning sun. Old papyri picture it as a four-legged serpent crowned with the wings of a great bird, said to dwell at the edge of the known world and to flee swiftly from the dawn it heralds. Wanderers who stray into the deep dunes speak of a shimmering shape that circles just beyond bowshot, never quite resolving in the glare. It does not hoard treasure nor hunger for flesh as a beast might; rather it patrols its territory of scorched stone and shifting sand, scattering interlopers with gusts of furnace-hot air. Hunters prize its plumage, which is said to never lose its color, yet few who go seeking it return, and fewer still with feathers to show. To see the akhekh, the elders warn, is to know you have walked too far.
Run Akhekh in Sixty Seconds
- Hold the line for the air. The akhekh is a flier (fly 80 ft.) that wants to never land. Make players commit to ranged answers early or it will dictate the whole fight from above.
- Open with Scorching Plume. Drop the 30-ft. cone of fire on the tightest cluster on round one, then back off and recharge while peppering with Beak and Tail.
- Kill-priority: casters and archers. Use Tail to grapple the squishiest ranged threat and fly them out of formation; Mirage Coat already taxes everyone else's ranged attacks.
- When bloodied, stop trading blows. Stay airborne, kite with Veering Dive on every ranged hit, and only swoop in to land a Plume or snatch a straggler.
- Three ways to run it: a lone desert guardian that harries a caravan; a grapple-and-drop predator that isolates one PC at a time; or the sky-screen for a heavier ground boss, softening the party before the real threat lands.
Akhekh
Large monstrosity, neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINESand-Borne Flight. The akhekh ignores difficult terrain caused by sand, dust, or loose earth, and has advantage on saving throws against being blinded by such conditions. While airborne, it does not provoke opportunity attacks from creatures it flies over.
Mirage Coat. Signature. Shimmering heat clings to the akhekh's scales. Ranged weapon attacks against it are made with disadvantage while it is in bright light or in a hot environment. The first time on a turn a creature ends its movement within 5 feet of the akhekh, the heat haze flares and that creature must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or be blinded until the end of its next turn.
Actions
Multiattack. The akhekh makes one Beak attack and one Tail attack. If both hit the same target, the target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Beak. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (3d8+3) piercing damage.
Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (3d6+4) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 15) if it is Large or smaller. Until this grapple ends, the akhekh can't use its Tail on another target.
Scorching Plume (Recharge 5-6). The akhekh beats its sun-hot wings, hurling superheated air in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw, taking 24 (7d6) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Veering Dive. When a creature the akhekh can see hits it with a ranged attack, it can use its reaction to fly up to half its flying speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
A serpent-bodied griffin coils up from a churning pillar of pale dust, vast sunlit wings flared and a whip-thin tail lashing behind it. Heat ripples off its emerald-and-gold scales as though the desert itself had taken wing.
Akhekh, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEDesert Ward (signature). While you are mounted on or within 10 feet of the bound akhekh, you have resistance to fire damage and advantage on saving throws against being blinded.
Actions
Beak. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (3d6+3) piercing damage.
Reactions
Updraft Rescue. When an ally within 10 feet falls or is knocked prone, the akhekh can use its reaction to beat its wings, ending the prone condition or slowing the fall to halve falling damage.
Tamed by a sand-rite and a fearless rider, the bound akhekh becomes a loyal sky-mount whose mirage-coat shields those who fly beneath it.
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.
Open from the air with Scorching Plume on the clustered party, then peel off so melee can't pin it. Kill-priority is anyone in heavy armor caught in bright light, since Mirage Coat blunts their archers. Pair it with desert raiders or a beast handler so it isn't ground-locked.
Lead with Scorching Plume on a tight group, then dive to Tail-grapple the squishiest caster and drag them away from the line. Reserve Veering Dive to slip out of archer focus and re-position. Strongest as a flying skirmisher alongside a bigger ground threat or a lair of sand hazards, not as the lone enemy.
Hover at altitude and rotate Scorching Plume, Tail-grapple, and Veering Dive so it never trades on the ground's terms. Focus the party's flyers and blasters first to keep the haze advantage. Run it in a pack of two or three, or as the airborne arm of a larger dragon-blood warband, never solo against a tier-3 party.
Put Akhekh 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 Akhekh?
Its home stat block is CR 6 (2,300 XP), tuned for a tier-2 party of levels 5-10. The tiers array also gives a tier-1 (CR 2-ish) and tier-3 (CR 11-ish) version with the same traits and only the numbers shifted.
Can Akhekh be a companion or ally?
Yes. The 'Akhekh, Bound' companion block turns it into a loyal sky-mount with Desert Ward (fire resistance and blind protection for nearby allies) and an Updraft Rescue reaction, scaled to roughly 60% of the adversary's durability.
Why doesn't the akhekh just stay out of reach forever?
It's a guardian, not an assassin. It wants to scatter intruders, so it presses in to land Scorching Plume and Tail-grapples. Ground it with terrain, nets, or counter-flight and the encounter tightens fast.
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.
Technical Specifications
32mm, 75mm
STL, Pre-supported STL
Standard or ABS-like resin, 0.05mm layer height
Yes — ready to print, optimized supports included
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