Elmre, West Mushroom Guardian
Elmre, West Mushroom Guardian — The Encounter
The west grove's spore-crowned warden of root and rot · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Elmre, West Mushroom Guardian
In the grimoires of grove-wardens, Elmre is named the Warden of the West Stand, eldest of the mushroom guardians who keep the rotting heartwood at the forest's failing edge. Where the old trees fall and the dark mold creeps in, such guardians rise from the mycelium that threads every root and corpse-log, knitting bark and fungus into a shape that walks. Elmre does not hunt; it tends. It carries the spore-pods that reseed dead ground, and it tolerates no axe, fire, or poacher within the bounds it has claimed since the grove was young. Those who pass with quiet hands and leave the deadwood undisturbed are ignored, even guided to clean water. Those who burn or fell are answered with a bloom of choking spores and the slow, patient crush of roots. Foresters say the cap glows brightest on nights when something in the wood is dying, as though Elmre stands vigil over the passage from living thing to fertile rot.
Run Elmre, West Mushroom Guardian in Sixty Seconds
- Hold and ambush: start motionless via False Appearance so the party walks into reach before Elmre stirs.
- Open with a grapple: Root-Claw the nearest striker and anchor them in place; the rootlets escape at DC 14.
- Kill-priority is ranged DPS: every melee hit triggers Spore Bloom, so reward the party for backing off and punish them for staying.
- When bloodied: stop moving entirely to bank Rooted Vigor's 10 HP and dump Spore Cloud on the densest cluster.
- Three ways to run it: as a forest gate-guardian that only fights if you fell trees, as a zone-control add beside a bigger boss, or as a slow attrition fight in spore-choked tunnels.
Elmre, West Mushroom Guardian
Large plant, neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEFalse Appearance. While the guardian remains motionless among trees or fungal growth, it is indistinguishable from an ordinary giant mushroom.
Spore Bloom. Signature. The glowing pods studding Elmre's body burst when struck. The first time each turn the guardian takes piercing or slashing damage, a 10-foot radius around it fills with choking spores until the start of its next turn. A creature that ends its turn in that area must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the end of its next turn.
Rooted Vigor. If the guardian has not moved on its turn, it regains 10 hit points at the start of its next turn, drawing nourishment from the soil.
Actions
Multiattack. The guardian makes two Root-Claw attacks. It can replace one with Spore Cloud if available.
Root-Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8+4) slashing damage, and a Large or smaller target is grappled (escape DC 14) by clutching rootlets.
Spore Cloud (Recharge 5-6). The guardian exhales a 30-foot cone of luminous spores. Each creature in the area must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw, taking 21 (6d6) poison damage and becoming poisoned for 1 minute on a failure, or half damage and no poisoning on a success. A poisoned creature repeats the save at the end of each of its turns.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Spore Veil. Reaction. When a creature the guardian can see hits it with a melee attack, it releases a puff of haze; the attacker must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or have disadvantage on its next attack roll before the end of its next turn.
A towering colossus of braided roots and weathered bark, crowned by a vast luminous mushroom cap and studded with pulsing yellow spore-pods; beneath the cap a pale skull-like face glows in the gloom of the west grove.
Elmre, West Mushroom Guardian, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINESpore Tender (signature). Once per short rest, Elmre, West Mushroom Guardian releases healing spores; one creature within 10 feet regains 1d8+3 hit points and is cured of the poisoned condition.
Actions
Cap Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6+2) bludgeoning damage.
Reactions
Bursting Pod. When an ally within 5 feet is hit by an attack, Elmre, West Mushroom Guardian pops a pod; the attacker must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the end of its next turn.
A knee-high mushroom sprite split from Elmre's own cap, scuttling on rootling legs to mend what the warden cannot reach.
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 cover using False Appearance, then grapple the nearest melee fighter with Root-Claw to anchor the line. Save Spore Cloud for when the party clusters at range. Pair it with fungal swarms or a grove druid; it is a tanky anchor, not a closer.
Plant it on the soil so Rooted Vigor ticks and let the party come; grapple the striker, then exhale Spore Cloud the moment two or more cluster. Kill-priority for the party should be ranged DPS, since melee feeds Spore Bloom every round. Best run alongside a flagship grove boss or a pack of fungal minions.
As a high-tier add, it locks down the front line: grapple, hold ground for Rooted Vigor, and saturate the cluster with Spore Cloud and Spore Bloom. Give it minions or a larger threat to capitalize on the poisoned condition; it pressures and zones but cannot out-act a full party alone.
Put Elmre, West Mushroom Guardian 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 Elmre, West Mushroom Guardian?
Elmre is built as a Challenge Rating 6 plant (2,300 XP) at its native Tier 2, tuned for a party of levels 5-10. Tier 1 and Tier 3 stat lines are provided so you can drop it into a lower or higher table without rebuilding it.
Can Elmre be a companion or ally?
Elmre itself is a Large guardian best used as an adversary or a neutral grove-warden the party must earn passage from. For an allied option, use its split-off sprite Brightcap, Bound (AC 13, 38 HP), which tends and heals rather than fights.
How do I keep the spore mechanics from grinding the fight to a halt?
Track Spore Bloom only once per turn and resolve it when a creature ends its turn in the cloud, so it never stacks mid-turn. Roll Spore Cloud's recharge openly so players can plan around it, and remember the poisoned condition lets them save out at the end of each turn.
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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