Veles
Veles — The Encounter
Horned god of the wet underworld, serpent beneath the world-tree · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Veles
Beneath the roots of the world-tree, where the soil never dries, coils Veles — horned lord of the wet underworld, keeper of cattle, of oaths, and of the unquiet dead. The herders' grandmothers name him in the same breath as both fortune and ruin: he counts every beast in the byre and resents every one denied him, for he was cast down from the high branches and made to drink the dark. He takes the shape of a great black serpent to climb toward the thunder, or a bull to wade among the herds, and he is the patron of those who deal in secrets, music, and the quiet arts of magic. Swamps, river-mouths, and crossroad mires are his thresholds, and a beast that strays into the reeds is understood to have been claimed. Bind your oath to him and prosper; cheat him of his due, and the muck itself will open to drag you down to where the drowned still sing.
Run Veles in Sixty Seconds
- Terrain is his health bar. On water, mud, or soil he gets advantage, +2d8 necrotic, Sink Away, and free trip pulls. Fight him on dry stone and he loses half his kit — if the party can't choose the ground, he dictates the fight.
- Open with Drowning Word. Catch the back-rank casters, silence verbal spells, then immediately grapple the lowest-AC PC with Constricting Mane for the start-of-turn necrotic drip.
- Kill-priority: free the grappled. A restrained PC bleeds necrotic AND feeds Devouring Coil, which heals Veles. Break the grapple or the party loses the attrition race no matter their DPS.
- When bloodied, he gets meaner. Cattle-Thief's Curse fires on the hit that drops him to half — expect halved healing and a tanked save right when you want to nova him down.
- Three ways to run him: (1) lurking mire-boss who Sinks Away and whittles; (2) raging horned god who polymorphs into a black bull and charges; (3) the patient herd-keeper who grapples one PC and heals on the coil while minions hold the rest.
Veles
Large fiend (shapechanger), chaotic evil
CR 11 · 7,200 XP · GUIDELINESerpent of the Underroots. Signature. Veles dwells in the wet dark beneath the world-tree. While he is in dim light, darkness, or within 5 ft. of standing water, mud, or soil, he has advantage on attack rolls and his attacks deal an extra 9 (2d8) necrotic damage. The first time each round a creature ends its turn within 5 ft. of him on such terrain, that creature must succeed on a DC 17 Strength save or be pulled prone into the muck.
Cattle-Thief's Curse. When a creature Veles can see reduces him to half his hit points or below, or steals from his herd, he may magically blight it: until the end of its next turn that creature's healing is halved and it has disadvantage on the next saving throw it makes.
Innate Spellcasting. Veles's spellcasting ability is Charisma (save DC 16). He casts fog cloud, entangle, and polymorph (on himself only, into a great serpent or black bull) at will, requiring no material components.
Actions
Multiattack. Veles makes two attacks: one with his Coiling Staff and one Constricting Mane, or he casts a spell and makes one attack.
Coiling Staff. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage plus 9 (2d8) necrotic damage.
Constricting Mane. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 15 ft., one creature. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 17). Until the grapple ends the target is restrained and takes 9 (2d8) necrotic damage at the start of each of its turns as the roots drink it down.
Drowning Word (Recharge 5-6). Veles speaks a sodden curse at a point he can see within 60 ft. Each creature in a 20-foot-radius sphere must make a DC 16 Constitution save, taking 36 (8d8) cold damage and being unable to speak or cast spells with verbal components until the end of its next turn on a failure, or half damage and no silencing on a success.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Sink Away. Reaction (when hit by an attack while on water, mud, or soil): Veles melts into the muck, halving the damage, then reappears in an unoccupied space he can see within 30 ft. on similar terrain.
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Detect. Veles makes a Wisdom (Perception) check.
Lash of Roots. Veles makes one Coiling Staff attack.
Quagmire (Costs 2 Actions). Veles names a 15-foot-radius patch of ground he can see within 60 ft.; it becomes difficult terrain mud until the end of his next turn, and each creature there must succeed on a DC 16 Strength save or be pulled prone.
Devouring Coil (Costs 2 Actions). One creature grappled by Veles takes 18 (4d8) necrotic damage, and Veles regains hit points equal to the damage dealt.
A towering antlered god in mildewed regalia, his crown a starburst of bone and his mane a writhing crown of black roots and serpents, leaning on a staff hung with skulls and standing over the drowned.
Veles, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEBurrowing Ambush (signature). Veles has a burrow speed of 30 ft. The first time each turn it attacks a creature that cannot see it, the attack deals an extra 7 (2d6) damage.
Actions
Crushing Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) piercing damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 15).
Reactions
Sympathetic Recoil. When its bound god takes damage, Veles may move up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
A black, root-skinned serpent that slithers up from the mire wherever Veles walks, jaws wide for whatever its master marks.
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.
Run him as a swamp-bound petty godling: open with Drowning Word on the clustered party, then drag the healer in with Constricting Mane. Kill-priority is anyone who can dispel his muck. Pair with bagiennik mire-spirits or a wolf pack to soak hits.
Stay on wet terrain to fuel Serpent of the Underroots and Sink Away away from focus fire. Open with Drowning Word to silence casters, then grapple the squishiest PC for the necrotic drip. If bloodied, lean on Cattle-Thief's Curse to blunt their next big save.
His true scale: spend legendary actions on Quagmire to keep the floor prone and Devouring Coil to heal off a grappled victim, undoing the party's damage race. Open by polymorphing the front line's footing into mud, then Drowning Word the back rank. Kill-priority is whoever frees the grappled ally; if no one can, he wins the attrition fight.
Put Veles 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 Veles?
Native CR 11 (Tier 3, ~levels 11-15), and he is solo-capable: four legendary options plus the Sink Away reaction give him the action economy to headline a fight alone, so his sheet is pitched one band lighter than a non-solo CR 11. Scaled stat blocks for Tier 1 (~CR 2) and Tier 2 (~CR 6) are provided if you want him as a recurring rival who grows with the party.
Can Veles be a companion or ally?
As a chaotic-evil underworld god he makes a treacherous patron rather than a friend, but a party that swears him an oath (and pays his due in cattle, oaths, or secrets) can earn his aid. For an allied piece, use Zilant the Underroot Serpent — his bound burrowing serpent — as a controllable companion instead.
Does Veles have to fight in a swamp?
No, but he badly wants to. Nearly his whole kit keys off standing water, mud, or soil; on dry stone or raised platforms he loses advantage, his extra necrotic damage, his trip pulls, and Sink Away. Smart DMs let players exploit that, and smart villains pick the venue.
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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