Soulstitch
Soulstitch — The Encounter
Stingy Jack's lantern-headed reaper of the harvest dark · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Soulstitch
When Stingy Jack tricked the Devil and was barred from both Heaven and the burning gate, he was set to wander the night with only an ember in a carved gourd to light his way. Soulstitch is what becomes of a Jack who wandered too long: the lantern-light soured into hunger, and the wanderer began to gather the souls of those who die unmourned in the fields. Folk of the harvest counties call them the Lantern-Reapers, and bar their doors when the gourds are cut. Each Soulstitch is sewn together from scarecrow rags, grave-thread, and one stolen ember that can never be allowed to go out, for the flame is both its life and its leash. It cuts the standing grain and the standing man alike, stacking the dead like sheaves, and it speaks no oath but the dry crackle of the fire behind its teeth.
Run Soulstitch in Sixty Seconds
- Fire is the kill switch Soulstitch shrugs off being dropped to 0 and rises at 1 unless it has taken fire damage since being downed; tell players plainly that flame ends it, blades only stall it.
- Open by clustering step into reach of two or three PCs so Harvest Dread (DC 14 Wis) hands out disadvantage on attacks against it before anyone acts.
- Kill-priority is the healer the glaive's no-regain rider means the cleric can't out-heal it; commit Multiattack to whoever restores hit points.
- When bloodied, play it as cornered: use Severing Sweep on every retreat and back toward its Ember-Gourd companion for fire support.
- Three ways to run it: a lone field stalker picking off stragglers, a paired lieutenant beside a bigger undead boss, or the centerpiece of a pumpkin-patch lair full of lantern-thralls.
Soulstitch
Medium undead, neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINELantern Heart. A hollow flame burns where the creature's skull should be. It sheds dim light in a 15-foot radius. While the flame burns, Soulstitch has advantage on saving throws against being blinded and cannot be surprised. If reduced to 0 hit points by anything other than fire, the flame gutters and it instead drops to 1 hit point, then is destroyed at the start of its next turn unless it has taken fire damage since (see Snuff the Flame).
Harvest Dread. Each creature that starts its turn within 10 feet of Soulstitch and can see its burning grin must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom save or have disadvantage on attack rolls against it until the start of that creature's next turn. On a success, the creature is immune to this trait for 24 hours.
Actions
Multiattack. Soulstitch makes two attacks with its reaping glaive.
Reaping Glaive. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6+3) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) necrotic damage. If the target is a creature, it cannot regain hit points until the start of Soulstitch's next turn.
Reaping Glaive. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6+3) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) necrotic damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Severing Sweep (Reaction). When a creature within 10 feet moves out of Soulstitch's reach without first taking the Disengage action, Soulstitch makes one Reaping Glaive attack against it.
A gaunt figure in a moth-eaten coat and crooked steeple hat, its grinning pumpkin head lit from within by a cold orange fire, sweeps a long double-headed scythe through the killing rows.
Soulstitch, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEGuttering Glow (signature). The gourd sheds dim light in a 10-foot radius. While lit, allied undead within that light have advantage on saving throws against being turned.
Actions
Cinder Spit. Ranged Spell Attack: +5 to hit, range 30 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6+2) fire damage.
Reactions
Flare. When a creature the gourd can see within 30 feet is reduced to 0 hit points, the gourd flares; each creature within 5 feet of the gourd must succeed on a DC 13 Dexterity save or take 5 (2d4) fire damage.
A grinning carved pumpkin lit by a stolen ember, bobbing at the reaper's heel like a faithful and famished hound.
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 wading into the cluster so Harvest Dread saps their accuracy, then take the squishiest caster with both glaive swings. Lean on Severing Sweep to punish anyone who tries to slip past it. Pair it with a stronger flagship reaper or a pumpkin-patch lair, not as a lone threat.
Open by closing to reach 10 ft. and forcing Harvest Dread, then full Multiattack on the lowest-AC target while the no-healing rider locks down their cleric. Kill-priority: whoever can relight or fuel fire, since only fire truly ends it. Best run alongside minions or a bigger boss so the reaction and aura compound.
Open into the densest knot of PCs to spread Harvest Dread, then carve the healer first and deny their regains. Use Severing Sweep to wall off the front line. This is a lieutenant, not a solo: field it with a flagship undead lord or a swarm of lantern-thralls so the party can't simply burn it down uncontested.
Put Soulstitch 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 Soulstitch?
Soulstitch is built at CR 6 (2,300 XP) in its native Tier 2, a solid mid-game threat for a party of levels 5-10. Tier 1 (~CR 2) and Tier 3 (~CR 11) versions are provided with the same kit and rescaled numbers.
Can Soulstitch be a companion or ally?
Not directly, but its bound Ember-Gourd makes a tidy minion or familiar-style ally (AC 13, 38 HP) that throws cinders and flares when foes drop. A necromancer NPC could also bind a Soulstitch as a reaping guardian rather than fight one.
Why does fire matter so much against it?
Its life is the stolen ember in its lantern head. Dropping it with blades or spells only staggers it (Lantern Heart); it rises at 1 HP next turn unless it has taken fire damage since being downed, so torches, fire spells, or alchemist's fire are the reliable way to finish it for good.
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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