Errant Place
Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
Hit Points 27 (5d8+5)
Speed 30 ft.
Skills Stealth +5, Deception +3
Damage Resistances psychic
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11
Languages Common, one language known by its creator
Challenge 1 (200 XP) Proficiency Bonus +2
Actions
Bonus Actions
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"You have not reached the end. You have merely reached the wrong version of it." — Brindlecross, speaking through a roadside sign
Lore & Description
Appearance
An Errant Place is a hunched, human-sized knot of impossible architecture. Its body is built from crooked cobbles, damp plaster, splintered signposts, and scraps of parchment fused together by glistening black ink. Windows open onto rooms that cannot fit inside it, while tiny red arrows crawl across its surfaces like living veins. Its head resembles a weather-beaten milestone with a single vertical eye, and its fingers taper into compass points and quills. When angered, nearby hallways bend toward it and every sign points somewhere different.
Behavior & Origins
The Errant Place began as a mistake on the survey map of the village of Bellwether Ford. A distracted cartographer drew a road, a bridge, and a small settlement where none existed, then sold copies of the map for twenty years. Repeated belief gave the error a foothold in reality, and the place eventually learned to resent every visitor who tried to find its boundaries. Locals call it Brindlecross, though no two maps agree on where Brindlecross lies. The creature now wants the original surveyor's brass compass, believing it can use the instrument to erase every road leading away from its lair.
Running Errant Place
Tactics
The Errant Place opens with Contradictory Directions against the most mobile or perceptive character, then uses Folded Corner to attack from an unexpected angle. It keeps targets separated with its pulling lash and shifting passages, retreating through walls and redrawn exits when bloodied. It fights to the death if the original surveyor's compass is present, but otherwise flees once reduced below 8 hit points, leaving the party lost in its rearranging lair.
DM Tips
- Telegraph the danger with maps whose roads change when no one is looking, footprints that return to their own starting point, and local signs bearing mutually exclusive directions.
- Give the creature a fussy, wounded voice and have it correct the characters' descriptions of where they are, even while attacking them.
- To make the encounter easier, allow a character who succeeds on a DC 12 Intelligence (Investigation) check to ignore No Farewell Route for one round; to make it harder, let Folded Corner teleport up to 30 feet instead of 15.
Loot
- The Misdrawn Survey — A water-stained map showing Brindlecross in several contradictory locations. Studying it for 10 minutes grants advantage on one check made to navigate the errant place's lair.
- Brindlecross's Red Quill — A warm, ink-filled quill that points toward the nearest road, though it sometimes points toward roads that have not yet been built. A mapmaker would pay handsomely for it.
- Brass Compass of Orlan Vey — The compass belonging to the distracted surveyor who created the Errant Place. Its needle always points toward the place's current heart, making it a dangerous but useful tool.
