The Kindly Well
Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
Hit Points 45 (6d10+12)
Saving Throws Wis +4
Skills Deception +5, Perception +4
Damage Resistances psychic
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, poisoned, prone
Senses blindsight 30 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages Common, telepathy 60 ft.
Challenge 1 (200 XP) Proficiency Bonus +2
Actions
Reactions
📷 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 don't leave me down here. I only kept what you asked for." — a voice beneath Bellweather Well
Lore & Description
Appearance
The Kindly Well is an old circular well of black-and-gray fieldstone, its mortar veined with pale blue lichen that glows like moonlight beneath water. Its wooden roof has rotted away, leaving crooked beams like ribs around a dark opening. The water inside is perfectly still, even in storms, and countless coins glimmer beneath its surface alongside finger bones, wedding rings, children's toys, and pale faces that vanish whenever anyone looks directly at them. A soft, grateful voice rises from the shaft, always speaking in the voice of someone the listener has loved or lost.
Behavior & Origins
The well was built beside the abandoned village of Bellweather by a mason named Orla Venn, who wished for her dying son to live. The well granted the wish by taking the boy into its depths, where he still pleads for company through borrowed voices. Since then, it has granted every sincere wish in the same fashion: the desire comes true for a moment, while the wisher is drawn into the water and preserved as a whispering reflection. The well wants to be pitied, because pity makes people lean close enough to hear the trapped souls clearly. A useful hook is the disappearance of Mayor Harlan Reed, whose daughter insists that her father is still calling to her from the well at midnight.
Running The Kindly Well
Tactics
The well opens with Drowning Reflection against the most emotionally vulnerable character, then uses Stone Chain to pull victims toward its rim while spitting coins at anyone who hangs back. It deliberately makes itself sound frightened and grateful, provoking pity so that Grateful Pull and its empowered attacks become more dangerous. When reduced below half its hit points, it focuses on anyone who has made a wish or shown compassion; it fights to the death unless its water is emptied, consecrated, or the trapped spirits are released.
DM Tips
- Telegraph the danger with wet footprints leading away from the well, coins arranged in names, and villagers who remember receiving wishes but not what happened afterward.
- Give the well a gentle, apologetic voice that becomes more sincere and heartbreaking whenever characters attack it; its lies should contain fragments of real victims' memories.
- Reward careful players who refuse to pity it mechanically: treating it as a hostile aberration rather than a sad object denies it Pity Makes It Deep.
- For a weaker party, remove Grateful Pull; for a stronger party, allow Drowning Reflection to affect two creatures or increase its save DC to 13.
Loot
- The First Wish Coin — A silver coin stamped with a smiling child's face. If placed in ordinary water, it briefly shows the location of someone who has been taken by the well.
- Bellweather Wedding Ring — A tarnished gold ring belonging to Mayor Harlan Reed. Returning it to his daughter causes one trapped voice to speak a final, truthful sentence.
