Chaos-Spawned Hordes of Limbo
Habitat: Planar (Limbo); Treasure: Any
Red slaadi amass in vast throngs in Limbo. There they wrestle and croak-sing as they endlessly dismantle and rebuild islands of drifting planar matter. When they encounter non-slaadi, red slaadi seek to play with, telepathically converse with, or devour the other creatures. These whims change from moment to moment. Red slaadi instinctively avoid harming those bearing slaadi eggs, which red slaadi implant using their claws, or other slaad curses.
Unpredictable slaadi devour and multiply across the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo. These toad-like, extraplanar beings embody the endless potentiality of their home plane of existence. While slaadi aren’t inherently evil, their impulses are wild and often destructive. Many are driven to propagate through supernatural processes. Unfortunately, these processes typically are fatal for other creatures.
Slaadi have no formal society. Rather, strong slaadi dominate weaker ones. Blue and red slaadi rampage across Limbo and spill into other worlds at the direction of green slaadi. More powerful slaadi have connections to the Spawning Stone, a source of chaotic magic from which the first slaadi originated. The Spawning Stone is hidden deep within Limbo, and legends tie its origins to the modron overlord Primus or the ruinous slaad lords, such as Ssendam, the golden amoeboid terror, and Ygorl, the winged skeleton. These slaad lords and others plot to spread slaadi across the multiverse.
A slaad born from the Spawning Stone has a magical control gem embedded in its head. If a creature claims the gem, the slaad has the Charmed condition and obeys the gem’s bearer. The slaad ceases to be Charmed if it is harmed by the gem’s bearer or the bearer’s allies or if the gem is returned to the slaad. A Greater Restoration spell cast on a slaad destroys the gem, and the slaad ceases to be Charmed.
One can obtain a slaad’s control gem using a Wish or Imprisonment spell. If the slaad fails its saving throw against Imprisonment, the caster gains the gem, and the slaad isn’t imprisoned. An Incapacitated slaad’s control gem can be removed by spending 1 minute and succeeding on a DC 20 Wisdom (Medicine) check. Failing this check deals 22 (4d10) Piercing damage to the slaad.
Fight a slaad and lose, the story’s over. Fight a slaad and win, there’s a thousand more standing in line just to prove they’re tougher.
—Jebeel Sloom, guide to the Plane of Limbo
Magic Resistance. The slaad has Advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Regeneration. The slaad regains 10 Hit Points at the start of each of its turns if it has at least 1 Hit Point.
Multiattack. The slaad makes three Injecting Claw attacks.
Injecting Claw. Melee Attack Roll: +6, reach 10 ft. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) Piercing damage. If the target is a Humanoid not cursed by a slaad, it is subjected to the following effect. Constitution Saving Throw: DC 14. Failure: The target is cursed unawares, and a minuscule slaad egg is implanted in it. Removing the curse destroys the egg.
Over 2d4 × 10 days, the egg gestates. In the final 24 hours, the cursed
target feels unwell; its Speed is halved, and it has Disadvantage on
D20 Tests. At the end of this time, the egg turns into a Slaad Tadpole, which chews out of the host and kills it.
