Monster Manual Encounters 22: Couatl
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In this level 8+ adventure¸ the party is contacted by a mysterious¸ radiant being and asked to prevent the fulfillment of a dark prophecy. Can the group thwart the Yuan-Ti's plans to create an avatar to their dark god¸ Sseth¸ or will death's shadow cover the land and plunge the world into darkness? This encounter is fully playable as presented using only the Player's Handbook and Monster Manual ¸ but does include some alternative monsters for DMs who own copies of Volo's Guide to Monsters ¸ and alternate spells for those with access to Xanathar's Guide to Everything. It also includes two new monsters: A Yuan-Ti Mind Whisperer/Abomination called a Chosen of Sseth¸ and a corrupted Couatl called a Darklight Couatl. Each entry in the Monster Manual Encounters series is a setting-neutral (but Forgotten Realms friendly) encounter designed to be dropped into any ongoing campaign with a minimum of fuss. The encounters are self-contained "micro-adventures" intended to show off the featured monster in a unique way¸ rather than being just another random encounter. Many adventures leave a few dangling leads the party could choose to follow if they wished¸ to give the DM an easy starting point for a longer adventure. I started this series as a just-for-fun project with the artist who does the covers¸ Vorpal Pen (you can and should follow him on Twitter). Originally I posted the encounters to Reddit¸ but as of 2019 all new entries will be posted to the DM's Guild. While Vorpal explores the monsters artistically¸ I paint each creature in words - as such¸ these encounters feature more boxed text than many standard adventures - I promise not to be offended if you choose to mine the important details and drop the exposition.