Monster Manual Encounters #13

Bulette

Art by Ethan Myerson, a.k.a Vorpal Pen (@VorpalPen) (Used with permission)
Encounter Design by Michael Loving a.k.a. Captain MEL (@OG_Captain_MEL)
 Bulette
T
his adventure takes place in a sleepy town with
an ancient history, dedicated to the neutral god
of the dead. The characters must face a
creature in its lair where it will be able to
outmaneuver them, and should prepare to
prevent it from escaping if they wish to claim
their full reward.
The town of Oldchurch has a problem: A very
hungry problem made of claws, teeth, and an
insatiable hunger. A bulette has recently claimed
the small community as its hunting grounds, and
has been devouring livestock and citizens alike on
its rampages. To add insult to injury, the bulette
has burrowed into the crypt complex below
Oldchurch, and has established a lair within.
Understandably upset by this unwelcome guest,
Oldchurch and the priests of the dead who
maintain the crypts have posted a bounty on the
creature: 100 gold crowns to drive the bulette
away, or 250 if the beast is slain.
Oldchurch
Oldchurch is a small community which is named after and
has grown up around an ancient temple dedicated to the
Keeper of Bones, the god of the dead and the afterlife. The
"town" consists of little more than a few humble dwellings
and the fields surrounding them, a general store, apothecary,
lawmaster's office, and of course the temple complex.
The temple to the Keeper is the largest surface structure
within Oldchurch. The sanctuary is a large stone building
with frosted glass windows held in place by wrought
ironwork; the interior decorations are plain but functional,
emphasizing the futility of excesses during one's limited
mortal life. Despite this, the priests are friendly and the
Keeper is respected, for regardless of faith all men die
eventually and it is the Keeper who ushers the dead safely
into the afterlife. Besides the sanctuary, the temple complex
also includes a monastery where the priests and their
acolytes dwell, a feasting hall, and the entrance to the
catacombs.
The catacombs beneath the church are even more ancient
than the temple above them, and are a maze of twisting,
bone-lined burial halls criss-crossed by tunnels, crypts, and
other additions added by later builders. Only the Keeper's
faithful know the safe paths through the tombs and can
navigate them without losing their way or falling victim to one
of the many traps employed to prevent grave-plundering. The
priests regularly patrol the pathways of the sprawling
necropolis, and between their careful monitoring and the
myriad of traps, the catacombs are remarkably clear of
dangerous creatures... except, of course, the bulette.
2
The Bulette's Lair
Although the group can attempt to draw the bulette to the
surface and fight it there, other adventurers have attempted
this tactic already - the bulette fights until it takes a serious
injury, then retreats to its lair when it realizes its "prey" is
better equipped than it was expecting. The faithful of the
Keeper know approximately where in the catacombs the
bulette has settled, and will suggest the party fight it there so
it has nowhere to run. Two priests will lead them below, both
to ensure they do not get lost, and to see that they do not...
"liberate" any treasures of the peaceful dead. The catacombs
are massive, labyrinthine, and riddled with traps designed
capture or incapacitate grave robbers. Without the priests to
guide them, finding the bulette beneath the surface would be
a daunting task.
The bulette has settled into the western wing of the
catacombs, and the priests have learned that if they get too
close it can sense the vibrations of their footfalls. The party's
guides will stop before they reach this point, and give them
directions to reach the bulette's lair from there. The path is
relatively straightforward, most of the halls and offshoot
corridors eventually rejoining the main passageway. While
there are a few traps here, the bulette has either triggered or
unintentionally deactivated many of them. There are some
burial goods the characters could loot, but any large or
obvious treasures would quickly be missed by the priests of
the Keeper.
Unless they have a way to circumvent the bulette's
tremorsense, it will feel them coming before they reach it,
and burrow into the floor and begin to hunt them. When they
reach it (or it reaches them), read the following:
You feel it approaching before you see it: a faint
vibration in the floor beneath your feet, a low
rumbling which rattles the bones stacked in their
alcoves beside you. Moments later, you see a row
of cobblestones popping loose from their careful
placement as a large shape tunnels below them -
headed directly towards you. With an explosion of
dirt and debris, a massive, armored head bursts out
of the ground, its gaping jaws lined with rows of
razor sharp teeth.
At this time, the bulette is simply defending its territory. It
anticipates panicked flight from the party, not armed
resistance. If there are any halflings in the party, however, the
bulette will happily target its favorite food.
The corridor the bulette attacks in is narrow, too narrow for
the bulette to fully emerge from the ground, so it will
constantly burrow in and out of the floor, walls, and ceiling to
attack, trying to catch characters off-guard. The cover the
bulette gains from being partially buried means that
opportunity attacks to hit it are made with disadvantage, but
while underground its own opportunity attacks are also made
with disadvantage.
If the party stays in the narrow hallway, the bulette's
burrowing quickly begins to weaken the tunnel supports. The
second time it moves, have the characters make a DC 12
Intelligence (Perception) or Wisdom (Perception) check
(their choice). Any character who succeeds will notice serious
cracks starting to spread along the walls and ceiling in the
local area, and believes if the bulette makes another hole
within 30 feet of their current position the tunnel will
probably collapse.
At this point the players will have a choice to stand their
ground and risk the tunnel collapsing, or to conduct a fighting
withdrawal. Each time the bulette emerges to attack a
character within 30 feet of its previous position, roll a d20. If
the result is 1-5, the tunnel immediately collapses; on a 6-10
the ceiling begins to collapse, and characters have 1 round to
clear the area before it comes down; on an 11-15 characters
in the area must make a DC 13 Dexterity Saving throw or be
struck by large chunks of the ceiling which fall without the
tunnel outright collapsing; and on a 16 or higher the ceiling
holds together. For each additional hole the bulette creates
beyond this, roll twice and keep the lower result. If the
players decide to fight on the move, they have a few options.
The tunnel they first encounter the bulette in doesn't meet
back up with the rest of the catacombs where the priests are
waiting for a few hundred feet of twisting corridors - however
the bulette has an advantage in being able to move through
the walls, unlike the characters who must follow the zig-
zagging hallways.
Alternatively, the western wing of the catacombs where the
characters are is also where the largest subterranean room is
located: called the Stacks by the faithful of the Keeper.
The Stacks
Ahead of you, an arched doorway leads into a larger
room beyond. Ducking through, you are surprised
to find yourself in a large ossuary, the ceiling
stretching away almost twenty feet over your
heads, with towering stacks of bones arranged like
library shelves filling the rest of the space. You feel
the bulette approaching, and realize this may the
best place to make your stand.
At almost 50 feet square, the Stacks is by far the largest
"open space" within the catacombs, though it is crowded by
rows and rows of arranged bones. Each stack of bones is just
over ten feet tall and two feet wide, the aisles between them
only three feet wide; medium characters can move through
this space, but cannot squeeze past one another in combat.
The arrangement of bones makes it easy for characters to
climb up them and onto the top, which will prevent the
bulette from ambushing them by bursting out of the ground.
While fighting in the Stacks, the bulette simply smashes its
way through the bones, sending them scattering as it bursts
through shelf after shelf as it hunts the intruders.
Defeating the Bulette
During the battle, monitor the bulette's HP. When it reaches
less than 50% of its maximum HP, the bulette becomes more
aggressive, focusing its attacks on the nearest characters and
no longer moving around to target a variety of heroes. When
it drops below 20% of its maximum HP, the bulette's survival
instincts kick in and it will look for an escape - maiming a
character, burying them under rubble, or grabbing and
dragging them beneath the surface for their friends to dig out
while the bulette flees. Once it reaches a wall, it will burrow
inside, at which point the party is likely to lose it unless they
can burrow after it themselves. Because it travels
underground, tracking it on the surface will be extremely
difficult without magical assistance.
3
 Conclusion
If the characters defeat the bulette, the priests happily pay
them their reward, and gift them with a Periapt of Wound
Closure to ensure they do not meet the Keeper before their
appointed time.
If the bulette escapes, the priests will wait a full day to
ensure it does not return (it doesn't). During this time, they
will also survey the damage to the catacombs. If any of the
players stole anything from the crypts, it is possible the
priests will notice the theft; although they won't accuse the
group of anything, they will casually give the characters an
opportunity to return any objects they may have "accidentally"
forgotten to return during the battle. If the characters return
the goods, the priests will nod and bestow a blessing and
award the group their 100gp for driving the bulette away. In
the event they feign ignorance and keep the stolen goods, the
priests give them their reward along with a "token of the
Keeper" - two copper pennies taken from the eyes of a dead
man, ritualistically placed upon a corpse to pay the soul's toll
to reach the afterlife.
These coins are cursed - once bestowed, they cannot be
discarded except by being laid upon the eyes of an innocent
saved from an untimely death (or by casting Remove Curse);
attempts to remove them by other means fail, as the coins
teleport back to the character's purse or pocket when they get
more than 20 feet away. Other priests will recognize the
curse if they are asked to lift it, and will refuse to do so - as
the priests of the Keeper mentioned, all faiths respect the
Keeper of Bones. The curse upon the coins affects the
bearer's death saving throws: While under the Bonekeeper's
Curse, rolling a 10 on a death saving throw is considered a
failure rather than a success, and rolling a 20 is considered
two successes but does not automatically stabilize the
affected creature nor return it to consciousness with 1 HP.
Unless the characters cast Detect Magic, there is no other
indication that the coins are magical, and they should not be
aware of the curse until it first affects them.