Shadowlune
Shadowlune — The Encounter
Pale revenant of the dead moon, crowned in crooked horns · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Shadowlune
Where a moon dies, its corpse-light is said to spill into the world and quicken the unburied dead. The Shadowlune is one such quickening: a revenant grown vast and crooked, its bones split outward into horns that drink the grey glow of the dead moon. The grimoires of the Mortisbane name it a herd-beast of ruin, for they never come singly where the lunar blight has settled. By day it lies sunk in barrow-mud, indistinguishable from a fallen ox; by the wrong light it rises and gores. Its one barbed claw is no natural limb but a thing fused to it in the long rot, and the wound it opens does not close, weeping the same pale chill that birthed the creature. Scholars warn that the horror cannot be reasoned with, only outlasted, and that its final spasm has killed more grave-robbers than its living charge ever did.
Run Shadowlune in Sixty Seconds
- Charge first. Always open by moving 20+ feet straight in and goring; that triggers Charging Gore for extra piercing and a knockdown save (DC scales by tier).
- The claw is the threat. Its Barbed Claw grapples on a hit and bleeds necrotic every turn the target stays caught; the party's kill-priority is freeing that grappled ally.
- Watch the light. Lunar Dread gives attackers disadvantage on their first swing each turn when the moon is their brightest light, so it survives longer in night and barrow fights.
- It bites back when it dies. Don't bunch up for the finishing blow: Death Throes hits everyone within 5 feet on a failed Dex save.
- Three ways to run it: a lone barrow-guardian roamer, a two-to-three-strong stampeding herd, or a screening bodyguard for a caster boss; never as a solo centerpiece.
Shadowlune
Large fiend (demon), chaotic evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINELunar Dread. When the moon is the brightest light a creature can see by, that creature has disadvantage on the first attack roll it makes against the Shadowlune each turn. The pale horror is hard to track against a dead-grey sky.
Charging Gore. If the Shadowlune moves at least 20 feet straight toward a target and then hits it with its Horn attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 9 (2d8) piercing damage and must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Actions
Multiattack. The Shadowlune makes three attacks: one with its Horns and two with its Barbed Claw.
Horns. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) piercing damage.
Barbed Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) slashing damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 15) if it is a Large or smaller creature. While grappled this way the target takes 5 (1d10) necrotic damage at the start of each of its turns.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Death Throes (Reaction). When the Shadowlune is reduced to 0 hit points, it lashes out one final time. Each creature within 5 feet must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take 9 (2d8) slashing damage.
A Large, pale-fleshed horror sheathed in cyan sinew, its skull crowned with great curling horns and its abdomen torn open to a raw red cavity. One arm ends in a hooked, barbed crab-claw raised to strike; the rest are taloned hands that drag prey into its waiting jaws.
Shadowlune, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEHerd-Bond (signature). While within 30 feet of an ally, the Shadowlune has advantage on saving throws against being frightened and on the first attack roll it makes each turn.
Actions
Gore. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) piercing damage.
Reactions
Shield the Herd. When an ally within 5 feet is hit by an attack, the Shadowlune can move to interpose, becoming the target instead and taking the damage.
A smaller, half-formed revenant that trails the great horror, throwing its body between blades and its bound master.
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 charging the nearest squishy target for a knockdown gore, then claw-grapple to keep it pinned. Kill-priority: free the grappled ally before it bleeds out. Run it as a lone roamer guarding a barrow, or pair two as a slow pincer.
Open with a 20-ft. charge into the front line for the bonus gore knockdown, then grapple the prone target with a claw so it drinks necrotic each turn. Make melee parties pay for clustering by positioning so Death Throes catches two when it drops. Best in a herd of two to three, or as muscle screening a caster boss.
Charge-gore the heaviest melee threat, claw-grapple the backline striker, and let allies focus the pinned target. Kill-priority for the party is the grapple; for the DM it is whoever the claw drags in. Run it in a stampeding herd with minions and lair hazards, or pair it with a bigger threat as a bodyguard brute, not as a solo.
Put Shadowlune 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 Shadowlune?
Its home build is CR 6 (2,300 XP), tuned for a Tier 2 party of levels 5-10. The included Tier 1 (levels 1-4) and Tier 3 (levels 11-15) columns rescale AC, HP, to-hit, and save DC so you can drop the same creature into any of the three tiers without changing its traits or actions.
Can Shadowlune be a companion or ally?
The Shadowlune itself is a chaotic-evil horror, not a willing companion, but the bundle includes the Pallid Calf, Bound, a smaller revenant statted as an ally or summon. The Calf shields its master with a body-block reaction and fights better near the herd, making it an easy add for a beast-master or necromancer NPC.
Does it really work better in a herd?
Yes. Shadowlune is built as an add-on, not a solo boss, so it has no legendary actions; a four-player party out-acts a single one. Field two or three together, or pair it with a stronger flagship threat, to make its charges and grapples land before the party can focus it down.
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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