Drom Azul
Drom Azul — The Encounter
The Maw Beneath the World, primordial colossus of magma and hunger · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Drom Azul
The Book of Eibon names him The Maw Beneath the World: Drom Azul, the Primordial Colossus, whose body is the molten memory of the planet's first grief. Buried where tectonic flame still beats like a heart, he fed upon the bones of continents before life carried meaning, and the elder writings hold that mountains tremble when they remember the weight of his passage. He is not evil so much as hunger made divine, the world's own will given a body of cinder and chitin. When he stirs, volcanoes wake and the sea boils against drowning coasts. Cults of the deep places leave no offerings he wants, for he devours creation as ritual rather than malice, a reminder that nothing built upon the earth is eternal. Seers who press an ear to the ground claim they can hear him chewing, slow and patient, somewhere far below.
Run Drom Azul in Sixty Seconds
- Hold the swallow. The Devouring Maw is the whole threat: a swallowed Large-or-smaller creature is blinded, restrained, and cooks for 14 (4d6) fire each turn. Bite the lowest-HP target first.
- Open underground. Burrow with tremorsense, surface inside the cluster, and lead with Magma Surge so the first round lands on three or four PCs at once.
- Punish melee. Magma Body deals 7 fire and corrodes metal weapons on contact, and Cinder Recoil answers every melee hit with cinders and a shove. Make swords cost something.
- When bloodied, stop biting one target and start scattering: use Heave to knock the line prone and Tendril Lash to haul fliers and casters back down into the burning floor.
- Three ways to run it. As a roaming cataclysm that erupts and burrows away; as a lair-bound colossus in a lava cavern where the whole floor is its Tremorous Presence; or as a divine hunger a cult is trying to feed, with the party as the meal.
Drom Azul
Huge aberration, neutral
CR 11 · 7,200 XP · GUIDELINEMagma Body. A creature that touches Drom Azul or hits it with a melee attack while within 5 feet of it takes 7 (2d6) fire damage. When Drom Azul is hit by a melee attack, the attacker's nonmagical weapon takes a permanent and cumulative -1 penalty to damage rolls if it is metal; a weapon reduced to -5 is destroyed.
Tremorous Presence. Signature. The ground within 30 feet of Drom Azul is difficult terrain for its enemies, churning and buckling with each pulse of its buried heart. While it can hear, Drom Azul has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on vibration and cannot be surprised by creatures touching the ground.
Actions
Multiattack. Drom Azul makes one Devouring Maw attack and one Lashing Tendrils attack.
Devouring Maw. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 27 (4d8 + 6) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) fire damage. If the target is a Large or smaller creature, it is grappled (escape DC 16) and swallowed on Drom Azul's next turn; a swallowed creature is blinded and restrained, has total cover, and takes 14 (4d6) fire damage at the start of each of its turns.
Lashing Tendrils. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d10 + 6) bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw or be pulled up to 10 feet toward Drom Azul.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Cinder Recoil (Reaction). When a creature Drom Azul can see hits it with a melee attack, Drom Azul erupts a gout of cinders at the attacker. The attacker must succeed on a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw or take 10 (3d6) fire damage and be pushed 10 feet away.
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Tendril Lash. Drom Azul makes one Lashing Tendrils attack.
Magma Surge (Costs 2 Actions). Drom Azul slams the earth. Each creature within 20 feet must make a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw, taking 18 (4d8) fire damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. The area becomes difficult terrain until the start of Drom Azul's next turn.
Heave (Costs 1 Action). Drom Azul burrows up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks, then each creature within 10 feet of where it surfaces must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
A mountain-sized horror of cracked magma plate, gnashing maw, and a writhing crown of tendrils and ember-bright eyes, hauling itself up from the lava-veined earth on stubby clawed limbs.
Drom Azul, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEMolten Step (signature). The Drom Azul ignores difficult terrain caused by fire, lava, or rubble, and leaves a 5-foot trail of embers in its wake that deals 3 (1d6) fire damage to a creature entering it for the first time on a turn.
Actions
Searing Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d4 + 4) slashing damage plus 3 (1d6) fire damage.
Reactions
Ash Veil. When an ally within 10 feet is targeted by an attack, the Drom Azul belches ash; the attacker has disadvantage on that attack roll.
A dog-sized splinter of the colossus that broke loose in an eruption and never cooled, smoldering at the heels of whoever fed it first.
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 by burrowing under the party and surfacing in the cluster with Magma Surge. Bite the squishiest caster with the Devouring Maw and swallow it to split the party's attention. At this scale run it with a single bound Cinderling, not solo, and let Tremorous Presence trap melee in difficult terrain.
Lead with Lashing Tendrils to drag the backline into Magma Body range, then bite. Use Cinder Recoil every time a fighter closes so melee bleeds. Pair it with a couple of Cinderlings or a cult of fire-worshippers; kill-priority is whoever can dispel or fly, since they ignore the churning floor.
True centerpiece boss. Open with Magma Surge into the densest knot, swallow a striker, then spend legendary actions on Tendril Lash to keep pulling the backline into the burn. Save Heave to scatter a stacked melee line and break concentration; if the party brings strong fire resistance, lean on grapple, prone, and forced movement instead of raw fire.
Put Drom Azul 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 Drom Azul?
Drom Azul is built as a Challenge Rating 11 centerpiece boss (7,200 XP), tuned for an 11th-15th level party. Because it carries a real legendary-action and reaction kit, its statline sits one band below raw CR so a four-PC party does not get out-actioned; scaled-down Tier 1 and Tier 2 versions are provided for lower-level tables.
Can Drom Azul be a companion or ally?
Drom Azul itself is a world-eating colossus, not an ally, but a bound Cinderling (AC 13, 52 HP) makes a fine companion: a smoldering splinter of the colossus that leaves an ember trail, claws with fire, and throws up an Ash Veil to spoil an attack on a friend.
Does Magma Body really destroy weapons?
Yes. Each melee hit with a metal nonmagical weapon takes a permanent, cumulative -1 damage penalty, and a weapon hitting -5 is destroyed. Magic weapons are unaffected, so reward parties who bring enchanted steel, fire resistance, or ranged options against this fight.
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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