Umi Nyobo 海女房

Medium monstrosity (shapechanger), chaotic evil

Armor Class 15 (scaled hide)

Hit Points 88 (10d8 + 40)

Speed 30 ft., swim 40 ft.

STR 18 (+4) · DEX 14 (+2) · CON 18 (+4) · INT 10 (+0) · WIS 12 (+1) · CHA 13 (+1)

Saving Throws Dex +5, Con +7, Wis +4

Skills Deception +4, Perception +4, Stealth +5

Damage Resistances cold; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from non-magical attacks while in water

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14

Languages Common, Aquan

Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)

Traits

Amphibious. The umi nyobo can breathe air and water.

Blood Frenzy. The umi nyobo has advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature that doesn’t have all its hit points.

Shapechanger. As an action, the umi nyobo can polymorph into a Medium humanoid woman or back into her true form. Her statistics are the same in each form, but her speed on land in humanoid guise is 20 ft. Equipment doesn’t change.

Actions

Multiattack. The umi nyobo makes three attacks: one with Bite and two with Claw.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d10 + 4) piercing damage.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d10 + 4) slashing damage.

Rend (Recharge 5–6). The umi nyobo makes one Bite attack against each creature she is grappling. On a hit, the target must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or have its hit-point maximum reduced by the damage taken until it finishes a long rest. The umi nyobo regains hit points equal to the necrotic portion of this damage.

Bonus Actions

Drag Beneath. The umi nyobo moves up to half her swim speed and, if she ends this movement in water, each creature she is grappling is pulled with her and must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or begin drowning.

Reactions

Savage Counter. When a creature within 5 ft. of the umi nyobo misses her with a melee attack, she can make one Claw attack against that creature.

Legendary Actions

The umi nyobo can take 1 legendary action, choosing from the options below, at the end of another creature’s turn.

Move. The umi nyobo swims or moves up to half her speed.

Claw. The umi nyobo makes one Claw attack.

Lore

Sea-dwelling yokai women.

Umi Nyobo, or “Sea Wife” (海女房), is counted among the most dangerous maritime yokai in Japan. The name is used mainly in coastal districts, and the creature is feared as a savage man-eater and the vessel of a collective oceanic curse.

In appearance, Umi Nyobo is unmistakably female: her skin is scaled, perpetually wet and slick; the fingers and toes are webbed, granting her exceptional agility in water and on land; her teeth are many, razor-sharp and white like a shark’s, a clear sign of carnivory. Some sources add bulging, fish-like eyes. By contrast, the artwork of Mizuki Shigeru fixed the image of a squat, thick-set figure with fins who devours fish—an interpretation immortalized in statues along Mizuki Street in Sakaiminato. Unlike many shoreline spirits, Umi Nyobo is almost always corporeal and quite capable of smashing doors, lifting heavy loads, and engaging in direct physical contact with humans.

From Yokai Bestiary 5E, Book Two, p. 102 · Fern Flower Press