Gaueko
Gaueko — The Encounter
The Spirit of Night Who Punishes Those Who Walk in Dark · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Gaueko
In the high valleys they teach the same rule to every child: gaua, gauekoarena - the night belongs to the Night. After sundown the doors are barred, the hearth is banked, and no honest soul sets foot outdoors, for Gaueko walks. He is the Spirit of Night made flesh, horned and clawed, who suffers no boast against the dark and no trespass upon his hours. The herdsman who works past dusk hears his own name called from beyond the fence; the proud youth who swears the dark holds nothing for him finds a clawed hand on his shoulder and is never seen whole again. Gaueko does not pursue across thresholds - he need not. He waits where the lamplight ends, patient as midnight, and lets fear do the herding. To survive him is simple and impossible at once: be indoors, be silent, and never, ever claim the night is yours.
Run Gaueko in Sixty Seconds
- Set the dark first. Gaueko wants dim light or darkness on the field - it gives him resistance to nonmagical weapons and advantage on every attack. Establish that before initiative if you can.
- Open with Dread Voice. A 30-foot fear AOE plus psychic damage cracks the formation turn one. He then uses Stalk the Strays as a bonus action to chase whoever failed the save.
- Kill-priority for the players: the light. Anyone carrying a torch, casting daylight, or dealing radiant damage neutralizes his core resistances and fear engine - protect or remove them.
- When bloodied, he stops trading blows and hunts the lowest-HP frightened target, using Gore to knock prone, then two Claws with advantage.
- Three ways to run him: a lone valley terror stalking travelers who stayed out too late; the enforcer of a night-coven; or the muscle beside a flagship boss who keeps the room dark.
Gaueko
Large fey, neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINELord of the Night. Gaueko has advantage on attack rolls against any creature that is in dim light or darkness, or that has voluntarily ventured outdoors after nightfall. While in dim light or darkness he gains the resistance noted above, and his form is hard to fix in the eye.
Smothering Dark. Signature. Bright light within 30 feet of Gaueko is reduced to dim light, and his own square is wreathed in darkness only he can see through. A creature that starts its turn within 10 feet of him while frightened of him takes 7 (2d6) cold damage as the night presses in.
Actions
Multiattack. Gaueko makes two Claw attacks and one Gore attack.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage.
Gore. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage, and a Large or smaller target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Dread Voice (Recharge 5-6). Gaueko looses a bellow from the dark. Each creature within 30 feet that can hear him must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, a creature takes 18 (4d8) psychic damage and is frightened of Gaueko until the end of its next turn; on a success, it takes half damage and is not frightened.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Stalk the Strays. Bonus Action. If a creature frightened of Gaueko is within 40 feet, he moves up to his speed toward it without provoking opportunity attacks. This movement can pass through dim light or darkness unseen.
A horned, fanged night-spirit, broad-shouldered and shaggy with a kilt of ragged pelts, rising from jagged black crystal as though the dark itself had hardened beneath his clawed feet.
Gaueko, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEBorn of Dark (signature). Gaueko is invisible in dim light or darkness and has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks. It cannot enter a square of bright light without taking 5 (1d10) radiant damage.
Actions
Chill Grasp. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d4 + 4) cold damage, and the target's speed is reduced by 10 feet until the end of its next turn.
Reactions
Snuff the Light. When a creature within 15 feet creates or carries a light source, Gaueko may try to extinguish a nonmagical flame; the target must succeed on a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw or the light goes out.
A clot of living darkness that trails Gaueko like a second shadow, dousing torches and dragging the bold back into the black.
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 darkness with Dread Voice to scatter the party, then single out the most frightened target with Stalk the Strays. Kill-priority is anyone holding a light source - cut it and his resistances switch on. Pair him with a smaller threat; even shrunk, he is a frightening night-stalker, not a raid boss.
Open with Dread Voice while the party is in dim light, then Multiattack the nearest frightened PC and knock them prone with Gore. If foes cluster in the dark, his resistances and Smothering Dark grind them down. He is the muscle in a night ambush - pair him with a caster or a flagship boss who keeps the lights low.
Recharge Dread Voice every chance to keep the party frightened, then hammer prone targets with advantage from Lord of the Night. Kill-priority for the party is any radiant or light caster who strips his cover. Run him as an elite bodyguard beside a legendary night-power; he is the wall, not the throne.
Put Gaueko 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 Gaueko?
Natively CR 6 (Tier 2, ~levels 5-10): AC 15, 127 HP, +7 to hit, save DC 15. Tier rows scale him down to CR 2 for levels 1-4 and up to roughly CR 11 for levels 11-15 - same traits, only the numbers move.
Can Gaueko be a companion or ally?
Not as written - he is neutral evil and the night itself is jealous of him. He works best as an adversary or as elite muscle beside a larger boss. If you need a darkness-themed ally at the table, use Itzal, the Following Shade instead.
Is Gaueko a solo boss?
No. He has no legendary actions, so a full party will action-economy him quickly in the open. Run him as an add-on threat in a night ambush, or pair him with a flagship caster who keeps the battlefield dark and lets his resistances and fear shine.
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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