Alkonost
Alkonost — The Encounter
Bird of paradise whose song steals sorrow and breath alike · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Alkonost
From the river Euphrates and the bright shores of Iriy comes the Alkonost, sister-spirit to the mournful Sirin. Where the Sirin sings of grief, the Alkonost sings of joy so complete that those who hear it forget their own names, their homes, their very lives, and follow the sound until they fall. The grimoires of the Slavic mythos hold that she lays her eggs upon the seashore at the winter solstice and rolls them into the deep; for seven days the waters lie still and no storm dares break the calm of her brooding. Her voice is sweetest in the days surrounding the apple-feast, when she descends among the orchards and weeps morning dew that heals the sick who taste it. Yet her mercy is treacherous. To stand near her is to drown in bliss, and many a wanderer has smiled himself to death beneath her wings.
Run Alkonost in Sixty Seconds
- Song first The moment she's in earshot, Song of Paradise (DC by tier) charms anyone who fails. Charm the heaviest hitter so the boss eats a softer front line.
- Kill-priority She is a disabler, not a tank. Once the party can hear her, dropping her is worth more than any damage dealer, so expect them to focus her, and keep her airborne.
- When bloodied She climbs out of melee with Drifting Flight every round and leans on Sorrow-Drowning Note to incapacitate before she can be pinned.
- Three ways to run it (1) Pure controller: sing every turn, never attack, let allies kill. (2) Skirmisher: cone the cluster, talon stragglers, stay flying. (3) Duet: deploy beside the Sirin companion so joy and grief stack on one save.
Alkonost
Medium celestial, neutral good
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEMagic Resistance. The alkonost has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Song of Paradise. Any creature that begins its turn within 30 feet of the alkonost while it sings (no action required to maintain) and can hear it must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed until the start of its next turn. A charmed creature is also overcome with bliss and forgets its most recent memory if it ends the song still charmed. On a success, the creature is immune to this alkonost's song for 24 hours.
Actions
Multiattack. The alkonost makes two Talon attacks. It can replace one Talon attack with a use of Sorrow-Drowning Note if it is available.
Talon. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) slashing damage.
Sorrow-Drowning Note (Recharge 5-6). The alkonost releases a piercing tone in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw, taking 22 (4d10) psychic damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. A creature that fails is also incapacitated until the end of its next turn as grief floods its mind.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Drifting Flight. Bonus Action. The alkonost flies up to half its flying speed without provoking opportunity attacks, trailing weightless feathers.
A winged maiden of the warm southern paradise, her human face serene above a feathered breast and fierce raptor talons, vast pinions half-furled as she alights on a forest stump.
Alkonost, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINELament's Echo (signature). When the alkonost uses Sorrow-Drowning Note, Alkonost may add 7 (2d6) psychic damage to the same cone, harmonizing the two voices into one wound.
Actions
Raking Talon. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6+2) slashing damage.
Reactions
Mournful Refrain. When an ally within 30 feet is reduced to 0 hit points, Alkonost's grieving cry forces each enemy within 15 feet to succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom save or be frightened until the end of its next turn.
The Alkonost's dark twin, a bird-maiden whose song is pure sorrow, often perched at her sister's side so that joy and grief may snare a soul together.
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 singing so the party scatters their saves before melee. Lead with Song of Paradise to lock down the strongest martial, then claw the casters. Pair her with a bigger threat: she is the lockdown piece, not the killer.
Open from the air, sing on turn one to charm a frontliner, then save Sorrow-Drowning Note for when two or more PCs cluster within the cone. Kill-priority her on anything healing the party. Pairs perfectly with a melee bruiser (Vukodlak, Leshy) while she disables from above.
Stay aloft and never land; Drifting Flight keeps her out of reach. Open with the cone if foes are bunched, otherwise sustain Song to chain charms. She is the support piece for a flagship boss: let it grapple while she charms the rescuers.
Put Alkonost 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 Alkonost?
Her native build is CR 6 (Tier 2, levels 5-10): AC 15, 119 HP, +7 to hit, save DC 15. Tier 1 and Tier 3 versions scale the numbers up or down while keeping Song of Paradise and Sorrow-Drowning Note identical.
Can Alkonost be a companion or ally?
Yes. As a neutral-good celestial she works beautifully as a benevolent guide or temporary patron, healing with dew-song and charming foes rather than killing. Her listed companion is Sirin, her sorrowful twin, who pairs grief-song with the Alkonost's joy-song.
Is Alkonost a solo boss?
No. She has no legendary actions and is built as an add-on disabler. Field her alongside a flagship bruiser, she charms and incapacitates while the bigger threat does the dismembering.
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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