Slithering bloodfin

Slithering bloodfin
Depiction of a slithering bloodfin, by Crystal Sully from Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep, p. 157.
Biological Information
Type	Aberration
Alignment	Unaligned
Vision	Blindsight 100 ft. (blind beyond this radius)
Movement	5 ft., swim 50 ft.
Abilities	Swallow Death Burst Water Breathing
Diet	Carnivorous
Physical Characteristics
Size	Large
Distinctions	Crimson spines, shark-like head, eel-like body
Sociocultural Information
Planes	Netherdeep Material Plane (Exandria)
Locations	Cael Morrow
Environment	Underwater

Slithering bloodfins are aberrations native to the Netherdeep that appear like giant, spiny eels with heads reminiscent of sharks'.

Description

Bloodfins are armored in smooth scales and red spines, and they are powerful swimmers. They streak through water after their prey, and can quickly swallow creatures whole and start magically draining the prey's life force to recover their own. When they die, they explode in poisonous gore.

Abilities

Depiction of a slithering bloodfin and some sorrowfish, by Minttu Hynninen from Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep, p. 209.

The following is all taken from Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep, p. 209:

• Skill proficiency: Perception
• Damage immunity: Poison
• Condition immunity: Poisoned
• Water Breathing: Can only breathe water.
• Bite: Attacks with advantage if the target is a creature missing hit points, deals piercing damage and grapples; grappled creatures are restrained. While grappling, can't bite another target.
• Tail: Has a 10-foot reach, attacks with advantage if the target is a creature missing hit points, deals bludgeoning damage
• Multiattack: One bite and one tail attack
• Swallow: As a bonus action, the bloodfin attacks a Medium or smaller creature it is grappling; on a hit, the creature is swallowed. Swallowed creatures are no longer grappled, but are blinded and restrained and begin taking necrotic damage; the bloodfin regains hit points equal to this damage. Can only swallow one creature at a time. If the bloodfin takes enough damage from the swallowed creature, it makes a Constitution saving throw to avoid regurgitating the creature.
• Death Burst: Upon death, explodes and deals poison damage to nearby creatures who fail a Constitution saving throw. This includes any creature that was inside the bloodfin, which also falls prone in the space the bloodfin occupied.

History

Depiction of a slithering bloodfin approaching Ayo Jabe's adventuring party as they enter the Netherdeep, by Robson Michel.

Like other creatures native to the Netherdeep, bloodfins have drifted into the underwater ruins of Cael Morrow, and there they are sometimes encountered in groups of two or three. While Ayo Jabe's adventuring party pushes hard into Cael Morrow and the Netherdeep, a bloodfin claims the arm of one of their members, Irvan Wastewalker, which brings about a marked change in his demeanor despite his getting a magical prosthetic limb to replace it.

Within the Netherdeep, one bloodfin swims in the dark in the chamber above the rift to Cael Morrow, acting as a sentry along with a pair of light devourers. Another solitary bloodfin chases a swarm of sorrowfish in the Vents of Fury.

Strewn about one chamber in the Vents are the bones of a few bloodfins, which reassemble into skeletal undead versions of the monsters that have glowing red eyes and fewer weaknesses.

Alyxian sometimes has trouble separating the Netherdeep from the memories he intends to evoke for visitors, and in one vision of his experience fighting the soldiers of the Crawling King at the Betrayers' Rise, the soldiers merge into a slithering bloodfin with the soldiers' faces still visible across the bloodfin's body.

References

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