Barabarlakos

Medium undead, neutral evil

Armor Class 15 (natural armor)

Hit Points 136 (16d8 + 64)

Speed 25 ft.

STR 20 (+5) · DEX 8 (−1) · CON 18 (+4) · INT 10 (+0) · WIS 12 (+1) · CHA 14 (+2)

Saving Throws Con +8, Wis +4

Skills Intimidation +5, Perception +4, Stealth +2

Damage Vulnerabilities fire

Damage Resistances necrotic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks

Condition Immunities exhaustion, poisoned

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14

Languages the languages it knew in life (usually Common and one other)

Challenge 6 (2,300 XP)

Traits

Undead Fortitude. If damage reduces the barabarlakos to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless the damage is fire or radiant, or was delivered by a critical hit. On a success, the barabarlakos drops to 1 hit point instead.

Saturday Rest. From dawn until dusk on each Saturday, the barabarlakos is paralyzed and can’t take actions, bonus actions, or reactions.

Actions

Multiattack. The barabarlakos makes three attacks: two with its Slam and one with its Crush.

Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) bludgeoning damage.

Crush. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 16). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the barabarlakos can’t Crush another target. A grappled target takes 10 (3d6) bludgeoning damage at the start of each of the barabarlakos’s turns.

Bursting Corpse (Recharge 5–6). The barabarlakos violently swells, then collapses with a thunder-like boom. Each creature within 10 feet must make a DC 16 Constitution saving throw, taking 27 (6d8) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one. After using this action, the barabarlakos takes 18 damage that bypasses its resistances.

Reactions

Backhand. When a creature within 5 feet hits the barabarlakos with a melee attack, the barabarlakos can make one Slam attack against that creature.

Lore

A vampire whose body never decays; its skin dries tight like a drumhead. It crushes victims under its weight before drinking their blood.

Barabarlakos is one of the most vivid vampire figures in Greek demonology. His defining trait is that he does not decay. A deceased person becomes a barabarlakos not through a bite, as popular lore might suggest, but because of a spiritual imbalance—most often tied to the Church. According to Greek belief, this can happen if someone is denied Communion; after death, the soul then cannot leave the body. The same fate can follow burial in unconsecrated ground, suicide, or the region-specific “cat superstition,” when a cat leaps over the coffin before the grave is filled. Leaving religion aside, there’s another legend: anyone who eats the flesh of a sheep wounded by a wolf also dooms himself to become a Barabarlakos.

Physically the barabarlakos is nothing like the aristocratic Western European vampire. It’s a bloated, heavy corpse with skin stretched drum-tight. Tap that skin and it booms—hence the creature’s name, echoing the Greek word for “drum.” Accounts describe a purplish face, overgrown nails and hair, tissues that refuse to rot, and crusted blood around the mouth.

From Vampire Bestiary 5E, p. 28 · Fern Flower Press