Quillspike
Quillspike — The Encounter
Bloated Carrier of the Boil-Plague, Quill-Hided Glutton of Rot · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Quillspike
Where the marshlight festers and the air turns to syrup, the carriers come waddling. Quillspike is one of the boil-born: a fiend bloated past all natural shape by the plagues it carries within, its skin sprouting bone-quills as a chestnut grows its husk. It does not hunt so much as arrive, drawn to the sick and the dying, and where it stops it stays, fouling well and field until a hamlet empties. The spiked tome lashed to its back is no book of spells but a tally of the dead it has midwifed into rot, scratched in its own weeping ichor. Plague-doctors of the old marshes name it among the pestilence-bringers of the lower spirits, kin to the swarming flies of scripture. Strike it and it bleeds quills; corner it and it drowns you in bile. The skulls beneath its feet were once those who came to cleanse the swamp and stayed to feed it.
Run Quillspike in Sixty Seconds
- Quill Hide is a tax on melee. Every hit within 5 ft. costs the attacker 2d4 piercing — let the players feel it on the first swing so they learn to space out.
- Open by closing. Waddle into the tightest cluster and swing the bile-maul to knock the front-liner prone, then bite that same target so it stays down.
- Kill-priority is the healer. The maul's prone rider eats their turn; chew on whoever keeps the party standing.
- When bloodied, the quills burst. Reactive damage jumps to 2d8 and poisons — telegraph the spasm so melee PCs choose to back off and let ranged finish it.
- Three ways to run it: a lone swamp-brute that out-tanks a low party, a plague-engine grinding the room with Reek and recharged bile, or muscle beside a hag/plague-lord who shores up its weak saves.
Quillspike
Large fiend, neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEQuill Hide. Signature. A creature that hits Quillspike with a melee attack while within 5 feet takes 5 (2d4) piercing damage as bone-spurs rake it. When Quillspike is reduced to half its hit points or below, the quills burst outward: this damage increases to 9 (2d8) and any creature struck must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the end of its next turn.
Plague Reek. The bloated carrier exhales a constant miasma of rot. A creature that starts its turn within 10 feet of Quillspike and is already poisoned must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or take 5 (1d10) poison damage.
Actions
Multiattack. Quillspike makes two attacks: one with its bile-maul and one with its bite.
Bile-Maul. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (3d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or be knocked prone by the reeling blow.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) poison damage.
Spew Bile (Recharge 5-6). Quillspike vomits a 15-foot cone of corrosive filth. Each creature in the area must make a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw, taking 21 (6d6) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. A creature that fails is also poisoned until the end of its next turn.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Wallow. Reaction. When Quillspike takes damage from an attacker it can see within 5 feet, it can shove its bulk against them, forcing the attacker to succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
A grotesquely swollen green fiend, its sagging hide bristling with bone-quills and pocked with weeping boils, hefting a slab-bladed bile-maul over a back strapped with a spiked, festering tome. It squats over a litter of gnawed skulls, mouth split wide in a wet, fanged leer.
Quillspike, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEBile Bond (signature). While within 30 feet of the creature it is bound to, Quillspike has advantage on saving throws against being poisoned and resistance to poison damage.
Actions
Spur Lash. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage plus 4 (1d8) poison damage.
Reactions
Burst of Spores. When reduced to 0 hit points, Quillspike erupts; each creature within 5 feet must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the end of its next turn.
A lesser boil-born runt that trails the carrier like a faithful hound, eager to be the first to spread the rot.
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.
Wade into the densest knot of PCs and swing the maul to knock the front-liner prone, then bite the same target. Keep Spew Bile for when two or more are clustered. Pair it with a swarm of lesser vermin so the party must choose between the brute and the bites at their ankles.
Open by lumbering into melee so Quill Hide punishes every attacker, then Spew Bile the moment two PCs cluster. Kill-priority is the healer — the maul's prone rider strips their action. When bloodied, the quills burst, so casters should back off and ranged fire wins the day; pair it with a marsh-witch or hag who buffs its Con saves.
Run it as the disease-engine of a larger threat, not alone — anchor it in a fouled lair where Plague Reek and recharged bile grind the party down while a stronger boss controls the field. Lead with the maul to scatter melee, then bile the choke point. Pair it with a flagship plague-lord; on its own a tier-3 party simply out-acts its single attack routine.
Put Quillspike 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 Quillspike?
Quillspike is built as a CR 6 brute (2,300 XP) for a Tier 2 (levels 5-10) party, with Tier 1 (levels 1-4) and Tier 3 (levels 11-15) versions provided. Only the AC, HP, to-hit, and save DC change between tiers; the traits and actions stay identical.
Can Quillspike be a companion or ally?
Not really — it is a plague-carrying fiend that fouls everything near it, so it makes a poor party member. If you want a thematic ally on the table, use the bound Festerling companion stat block included here, a lesser boil-born runt that fights at a patron's side and bursts into spores when slain.
Is Quillspike a solo boss?
No. It is a meaty add-on brute, not a centerpiece. Its single attack routine has no legendary actions, so a four-PC party will out-act it if it stands alone. Field it alongside minions, in a fouled lair, or as muscle beside a bigger flagship threat.
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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