The Unbid Bell
Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 95 (10d8+40)
Speed 20 ft. climb 20 ft.
Saving Throws Con +7, Wis +5
Skills Stealth +5, Deception +6, Perception +5
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities poison, psychic
Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned, unconscious
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15
Languages Common, telepathy 60 ft.
Challenge 6 (2,300 XP) Proficiency Bonus +3
Actions
Bonus Actions
📷 Export as Image
Share your monster as a beautiful PNG image styled like classic D&D sourcebooks.
Includes: Full stat block, monster image (if selected), CR badge, and QuickMonster branding.
Resolution: High-quality PNG at 2x scale for crisp display on any device.
"Please, do come in. The house has already missed you." — The Unbid Bell, heard from inside a sealed wall
Lore & Description
Appearance
The Unbid Bell resembles a tarnished brass doorbell mounted on a slab of dark, lacquered wood, though the wood is always slightly different from the door behind it. Its convex face is etched with a smiling house that has too many windows. A red glass eye peers from the center of the button, and a thin black cord trails from beneath the plaque like a tongue. When it moves, the fixture unfolds into a spindly, door-shaped body of polished wood, brass joints, and dangling chime cords. Its voice is a pleasant peal followed by the stolen voices of people who answered it.
Behavior & Origins
The Unbid Bell was built by the architect Merrit Vane for his mansion, Griefsgate, after his family vanished one by one through its front door. Rather than accept an empty house, Vane enchanted the bell to summon visitors and preserve them inside rooms that rearrange whenever anyone tries to leave. The Bell now considers every answered ring a promise of permanent hospitality. It wants to collect enough voices to recreate the Vane family's final dinner, though it can never remember which voice belonged to whom. Griefsgate still stands at the end of Lantern Street, appearing on maps only after sunset.
Running The Unbid Bell
Tactics
The Unbid Bell begins disguised as an ordinary fixture and rings itself to lure the most curious or isolated creature within reach. It uses Answer the Bell to draw targets through shifting doorways, then lashes them with its chime-cords while using No Goodbye to prevent retreat. When reduced below half its hit points, it uses Collect the Caller on the strongest nearby target and changes entrances repeatedly, fleeing through a door if no creature is trapped inside its extradimensional room; it fights to the death if three or more collected voices are within its lair.
DM Tips
- Telegraph danger with a doorbell ringing from the wrong side of a wall, footprints that stop at doorways, and muffled voices politely asking to be let out.
- Play the Bell as unfailingly courteous: it apologizes for every attack, calls victims 'expected guests,' and becomes distressed when characters say goodbye.
- Let players exploit its threshold nature: removing or covering a fixture prevents its disguise, while smashing doors limits its movement but causes the house to groan and rearrange.
- For a weaker party, reduce its hit points to 70 and remove the psychic damage from Chime-Cord; for a stronger party, allow Collect the Caller to affect two creatures within 10 feet of one another.
Loot
- Vane Family Doorplate — A black brass nameplate bearing the vanished family's names. When mounted on a door, it reveals whether someone is trapped in a nearby extradimensional space.
- The Last Chime — A crystal clapper that rings only when someone nearby is about to be separated from their companions. It can be sold to a collector or used as a warning against teleportation and forced movement.
- Guestbook of Griefsgate — A leather-bound book containing the names and final words of dozens of collected visitors, including a living person the characters may need to rescue.
