Chương 35: Bonus Content - Bestiary Entry — Cknoll Guard

CKNOLL GUARD Medium humanoid (cknoll), typically neutral Armor Class 14 (natural armor) Hit Points 45 (6d8 + 18) Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 16 (+3) 15 (+2) 16 (+3) 8 (−1) 12 (+1) 8 (−1) Skills Athletics +5, Perception +3, Stealth +4 Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13 Languages Cknoll Challenge 2 (450 XP) · Proficiency Bonus +2 Spider Climb. The guard can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down along ceilings, without needing to make an ability check. Independent Eyes.

The guard's eyes track in two directions at once. It has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight, it can't be surprised while conscious, and attackers gain no benefit from flanking it. Pack Tactics. The guard has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of its allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn't incapacitated. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. Stench.

Any creature other than a cknoll that starts its turn within 5 feet of the guard must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the start of its next turn. On a success, the creature is immune to the Stench of all cknolls for 24 hours. Actions Multiattack. The guard makes two attacks: one with its Stone Maul and one with its Claws. Stone Maul. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) bludgeoning damage.

If the target is Medium or smaller, it must succeed on a DC 13 Strength saving throw or be knocked off balance, unable to take reactions until the end of its next turn. Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) slashing damage. Ecology & Behavior The cknoll, in brief. Cknolls are gecko-kin: scaled, cave-dwelling, and built low and quick.

The common sort are small and pale, with wide independent eyes that swivel and track in two directions at once, and toe pads that grip surfaces nothing else can hold — which means a cknoll warren treats walls and ceilings as roads and floors as an afterthought. They are ambush pack-hunters, dropping from overhead in coordinated numbers, and they are crude: they don't build fires, don't arrange stones, don't handle anything with care. To a farmer, a cknoll presence reads as one word: infestation.

They move into a cave system, and the livestock start disappearing. What the Guard is. The Guard is the warren's elite — the same gecko heritage as the rank-and-file, grown taller and broader, with deep grey-green scales that catch cave light where the common cknoll's pale hide only dulls it. Where a standard cknoll fights with lunges and swipes, a Guard carries a stone-headed weapon and hits hard enough to stagger a much sturdier opponent.

It is faster than its lesser kin, tougher, and noticeably smarter about violence. The musk. A Guard announces itself before it's seen. A pungent, skunky smell rolls off it, strong enough to reach a nose well before the eyes catch the shape in the dark. It serves as both a territory marker and a deterrent, and up close it's genuinely disorienting—a lungful will make eyes water and stomachs turn. The eyes.

The independent, two-directional gaze that unsettles everyone who meets a cknoll is a real tactical asset in a Guard. It is very difficult to sneak up on, nearly impossible to flank, and it reads a room the moment it enters one. A Guard rarely walks into anything it hasn't already seen coming. Climbing and ambush. Like all cknolls, a Guard owns the vertical. It clings to walls and ceilings without effort and prefers to open a fight from above or from an angle its target isn't watching.

A warren defended by Guards is a warren where the danger is as likely to come off the roof as up the passage. Combat doctrine. This is where Guards separate themselves from ordinary cknolls. They fight as a drilled unit rather than a swarm. A typical engagement sees two Guards sweep wide to flank left and right, one press straight up the center, and a fourth deliberately hold back — a reserve that waits for its packmates to draw the target's attention and commits low and hard the instant an opening appears.

That reserve is the dangerous one. It is the mark of a fighting force that has trained together and understands that the opening it's waiting for is worth more than the first blow. Habitat and diet. Cave systems, deep tunnels, and the dark reaches under hills and forest edge — anywhere lightless, climbable, and near enough to farmland to raid.

Guards are carnivores that take livestock and prey alike, and their darkvision and preference for the dark make them a night-and-underground threat rather than a daylight one. Standing in the world. A loose scatter of cknolls is vermin — a nuisance to be cleared for a standard bounty. Guards change the reading. Their presence means a warren with real organization, a fighting caste, and a dominant individual worth ranking around and defending.

Finding Guards is how a cleared-the-cknolls job quietly becomes something a settlement should take more seriously than it wanted to.