Apep
Apep — The Encounter
Bandaged twin-blade reaper sworn to the chaos serpent · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Apep
When the priests of the night could not slay Apep, the serpent that swallows the sun, they bound assassins to it instead. These are the Serpent-Sworn: temple killers wrapped in their own death-linen, their blades blessed in venom and bandaged hands taught the coiling step. In life each was a duelist of the necropolis guard; in death they serve the appetite of chaos, sent to drag a chosen soul down into the dark waters where the great serpent waits. They hunt in the hour before dawn, when the sun-god is weakest, circling a mark until it bleeds, then opening it like an offering. Where one of these reapers walks, the lamps gutter and the sand whispers in a tongue no living throat can shape. They feel nothing, fear nothing, and stop only when the body they were sent for has been fed to the coils below. A khopesh that has tasted such a death never rusts; it only thirsts.
Run Apep in Sixty Seconds
- What it is A Medium undead twin-khopesh skirmisher and ADD-ON, not a centerpiece. solo_capable is false; pair it with a controller boss that pins targets so it can feast.
- Open with Sand-Step (bonus) into a hurt, prone, or flanked target, then Multiattack the squishiest PC. Hitting anything already taking damage triggers Serpent-Sworn for +2d6 necrotic and self-heal.
- Kill-priority It always swings at the most-wounded or controlled enemy to fire its lifedrain; aim it at casters and rogues, not the tank.
- When bloodied (60 HP) Lean on Coiling Riposte and Sand-Step to peel away, heal off Serpent-Sworn, and keep flanking rather than trading blows in the open.
- Three ways to run it (1) Solo nuisance harassing a backline; (2) a matched pair leapfrogging one target to stack lifedrain; (3) the personal blade-guard flanking a serpent-cult boss who restrains victims for it.
Apep
Medium undead, neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEWhirling Stance. The reaper has advantage on Dexterity saving throws against effects it can see, such as breath weapons. While it has at least one creature within 5 feet of it, it gains a +1 bonus to AC (included above).
Serpent-Sworn (signature). Once per turn, when the reaper hits a creature that is already taking damage from any other source, or that is grappled, prone, or restrained, the strike feeds the chaos serpent: the target takes an extra 7 (2d6) necrotic damage and the reaper regains hit points equal to that amount.
Actions
Multiattack. The reaper makes two Khopesh attacks.
Khopesh. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) slashing damage plus 3 (1d6) necrotic damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Sand-Step (Bonus Action). The reaper takes the Dash or Disengage action. If it ends this movement adjacent to an ally or a creature already engaged in melee, its next Khopesh attack this turn is made with advantage.
Coiling Riposte (Reaction). When a creature within 5 feet misses the reaper with a melee attack, the reaper makes one Khopesh attack against it.
A skull-faced mummy in tattered linen, gilded at throat and shin, leaning into a low mid-stride lunge with a crescent khopesh held wide in each fist. Every motion is the recoil of a snake about to strike.
Apep, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEVenom-Linen (signature). Apep's wrappings drip the serpent's poison. The first time on each of its turns it hits a creature, that target must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution save or be poisoned until the end of its next turn.
Actions
Bandaged Khopesh. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6+2) slashing damage.
Reactions
Shed Skin. When Apep takes damage, it can move up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
A lesser reaper, half-unraveled and faithful, that fights at a hero's flank and takes the poison meant for them.
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 Sand-Stepping into an isolated, hurt, or prone target so Serpent-Sworn triggers immediately. Kill-priority is whoever is already bleeding or grappled. Pair it with a bigger threat that pins targets down so it can feast on them.
This is a skirmisher add-on, not the boss. Run it as the X piece: it darts to flank, Multiattacks the softest caster or rogue, and uses Coiling Riposte to punish anyone who melees it. Spend the bonus Sand-Step every round to reach the most-wounded enemy and proc the necrotic lifedrain. Pair it with a controller boss that keeps targets clustered, prone, or restrained.
Field it in pairs or as an elite escort flanking a true boss. Both reapers converge on one target to stack Serpent-Sworn lifedrain and self-heal through party burst. Kill-priority for the PCs becomes whoever can shut its mobility, since Sand-Step lets it stay glued to a downed friend.
Put Apep 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 Apep?
This miniature is built as a CR 6 (2,300 XP) Medium undead skirmisher at its native Tier 2 (levels 5-10). The record also gives drop-in Tier 1 (~CR 2) and Tier 3 (~CR 11) numbers; the traits and actions stay identical, only AC, HP, to-hit, save DC, and damage shift between bands.
Can Apep be a companion or ally?
Yes. Use the bound lesser reaper 'Sliver, Bound' (AC 14, 72 HP) as a controllable ally or sidekick. It carries the Venom-Linen poison trait, a Bandaged Khopesh attack, and the Shed Skin reaction to reposition when hit, making it a mobile bodyguard rather than a damage powerhouse.
Is Apep meant to be a solo boss?
No. It is an add-on skirmisher (solo_capable false) with no legendary actions, so a party will action-economy it down if it fights alone. It shines as the mobile blade beside a flagship boss that restrains, grapples, or otherwise sets up the wounded targets its Serpent-Sworn lifedrain wants.
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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