Phantomstalk
Phantomstalk — The Encounter
Hollow-eyed harvest horror, the lantern that stalks the patch · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Phantomstalk
Country folk swear that on the longest night of harvest, a lantern set out to ward off the wandering dead can rot instead of guard. The flame that should keep restless spirits at bay sours, drawing one into the gourd that holds it, and the husk swells monstrous around stolen scrap and bone. So the Phantomstalk is made: neither the wisp that flits the marshes nor the carved sentinel left upon the stoop, but a marriage of the two gone foul. It stalks the rows it once watched over, mistaking living harvesters for the crop it must gather, and drags them down with a tongue grown long on graveyard soil. Smash the gourd and the trapped flame escapes screaming, but the burst seeds the field, and where its juices fall, lesser lantern-things have been known to sprout by the following autumn. Salt the patch, the old wives say, and burn what is left before dawn.
Run Phantomstalk in Sixty Seconds
- Lantern Heart the gourd sheds dim light and the thing can't be blinded; douse or smash that flame and it loses its edge in the dark.
- Open from cover it Hides as a bonus action beside any pumpkin or crop row, then Lashing Tongue drags a back-liner 10 ft. into Multiattack range.
- Kill-priority protect your healer first; the Gnashing Bite withers a downed PC so they can't be brought back until they rest.
- When bloodied it retreats into the patch to re-Hide and re-set its tongue-pull, so cut off its cover or it resets the fight.
- Three ways to run it stalking ambusher in a haunted field, leashed hunter beside a necromancer master, or the death-trap finale whose Bursting Husk (4d6 necrotic, 10 ft.) punishes everyone who clustered to finish it.
Phantomstalk
Medium undead, neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINELantern Heart. A baleful flame burns within the creature's hollow gourd-skull, shedding dim light in a 15-foot radius. While this light is lit, the Phantomstalk has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks and is immune to the blinded condition. If the creature is reduced to 0 hit points, the flame gutters and the gourd bursts (see Bursting Husk).
Patch-Crawler. The Phantomstalk ignores difficult terrain made of vines, gourds, or churned soil, and can take the Hide action as a bonus action while within 5 feet of a pumpkin, crop row, or similar harvest cover.
Bursting Husk. When the Phantomstalk drops to 0 hit points, its rotting skull explodes. Each creature within 10 feet must make a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw, taking 14 (4d6) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success.
Actions
Multiattack. The Phantomstalk makes two Claw-Arm attacks and one Gnashing Bite attack.
Claw-Arm. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 3) slashing damage.
Gnashing Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) necrotic damage. A creature reduced to 0 hit points by this damage and not killed outright begins withering, falling unconscious and unable to regain hit points until it finishes a short or long rest.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Lashing Tongue. Reaction (recharges after the Phantomstalk takes damage): When a creature it can see ends its turn within 15 feet, the Phantomstalk whips out its bloated tongue. The target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be pulled up to 10 feet toward the creature.
A swollen, spike-crowned pumpkin lolls atop a body of scrap-iron limbs, one glassy eye fixed and a fanged maw trailing a fat, dripping tongue. It squats in the dead patch like a scarecrow that learned to walk.
Phantomstalk, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEWarding Glow (signature). While Phantomstalk is lit, allies within 10 feet have advantage on saving throws against being frightened and can see in dim light as though it were bright.
Actions
Ember Lash. Melee Spell Attack: +5 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) fire damage.
Reactions
Guttering Flare. When an adjacent ally is hit by an attack, Phantomstalk flares; the attacker must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or be blinded until the end of its next turn.
A tamed harvest-lantern that never fully soured, riding a sympathetic hand's shoulder. It remembers it was made to protect, and resents what its cousins became.
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 a pumpkin row using Patch-Crawler to Hide, then burst out for the Gnashing Bite on the squishiest PC. Pull a straggler in with Lashing Tongue and gang up. Pair it with a swarm of crawling vines or a necromancer who keeps it fed.
Lead with Lashing Tongue to drag a caster off the back line into bite range, then Multiattack to start the withering. Kill-priority is anyone keeping the party upright (healer/cleric). When bloodied, fall back into the patch and Hide to set up another tongue-pull. It is an add-on, not a boss; back it with skeletons or a flagship undead lord.
Use it as the lair's grim gardener inside a haunted patch full of lesser lantern-things. Tongue-pull the most mobile PC into the swarm, bite to wither their healing, and let Bursting Husk punish melee clustering on death. Pair it with a bigger threat (a graveyard revenant or hag) so the party can't focus it down for free.
Put Phantomstalk 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 Phantomstalk?
Its home statline is CR 6 (2,300 XP), tuned for a Tier 2 party of levels 5-10. Scaled-down (CR ~2) and scaled-up (CR ~11) versions are provided in the tier table so you can drop it into a level 1-4 or level 11-15 game without rebuilding it.
Can Phantomstalk be a companion or ally?
The adversary itself is a mindless-malicious undead and makes a poor ally, but the bound lantern Wickflame is built as a player-side companion: it wards nearby allies against fear, lashes with fire, and can blind attackers as a reaction. Use Wickflame for a sympathetic harvest-spirit ally and save the Phantomstalk for the patch.
Is Phantomstalk solo boss material?
No. It has a punishing reaction and a death-burst but no legendary actions or extra turns, so a four-PC party will out-act it. Run it as an add-on threat alongside a flagship boss, a necromancer handler, or a field full of lesser lantern-things rather than as a lone centerpiece.
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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