Chainbound Colossus
activeAn eighteen-foot giant once enslaved by warlock chains, freed by the party in Session 12 — tentatively dubbed *Buttercup* afterward
Chainbound Colossus
Standing over 18 feet tall, the Chainbound Colossus’s scarred, iron-grey hide is broken only by the jagged stumps of two massive iron chains around each wrist, their links snapped in half. Faint arcane runes glow along his arms and chest as he moves with surprising deliberation, eyes crackling with latent magic.
After Session 12, the party began calling him Buttercup — a name he has not yet heard spoken to his face, but one that is starting to stick. There is a quiet bet at the table about whether he likes it.
Lore
Once enslaved by a cruel cabal of warlocks who bound his power with enchanted chains, the Chainbound Colossus shattered his bonds and laid waste to his captors. Now he wanders ancient ruins and battlefields in pursuit of lost arcane secrets — and to ensure no other prison can hold him again.
The Slanted Circle captured him during their Xen’Drik expedition and chained him between four ancient stone columns at the edge of a ruined clearing, using ley sigils carved at his feet to keep him compliant. They left him as a guardian on the Drow’s traditional path — a wickedness Lairk could not understand.
Stats
- Hit Points: 154 (14d12 + 56)
- Armor Class: 17 (natural armor)
- Speed: 30 ft., climb 20 ft.
- Challenge Rating: 10 (5,900 XP)
- Origin: Natural
- Alignment: Lawful evil
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 (+6) | 10 (+0) | 20 (+5) | 16 (+3) | 14 (+2) | 12 (+1) |
- Saving Throws: Str +11, Con +10, Int +8
- Skills: Arcana +8, Athletics +11
- Damage Resistances: cold, fire
- Damage Immunities: poison
- Condition Immunities: charmed, frightened
- Senses: darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 12
- Languages: Common, Giant, telepathy 60 ft.
Abilities
Magic Resistance: Advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Chainbreaker Physique: The broken chains serve as brutal weights. Advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws.
Spellcasting: 7th-level spellcaster. Spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 16, +8 to hit with spell attacks). Wizard spells prepared:
- Cantrips (at will): light, mage hand, shocking grasp
- 1st level (4 slots): shield, magic missile, absorb elements
- 2nd level (3 slots): misty step, scorching ray
- 3rd level (3 slots): counterspell, fireball
- 4th level (1 slot): stoneskin
Actions
Multiattack: Two melee attacks: one Fist and one Chain Throw, or one Fist attack and a cantrip.
Fist: Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 24 (3d10 + 6) bludgeoning damage.
Chain Throw: Ranged Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 20 (3d8 + 6) bludgeoning damage and the target is grappled (escape DC 17). Until the grapple ends, the target is restrained and pulled up to 20 feet closer to the Colossus at the start of his turn.
Arcane Bolt: Ranged Spell Attack: +8 to hit, range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (4d6 + 4) force damage.
Legendary Actions
Chain Strike: One Chain Throw attack (no grapple on hit).
Arcane Flash: Casts magic missile (1st-level, three darts, 3d4 + 3 force damage each).
Loot
- Shattered Iron Chain Fragment: A heavy broken link worth 150 gp as scrap, etched with residual enchantment energy that can fuel a single casting of arcane lock.
- Rune-Etched Colossus Gauntlet: A massive iron gauntlet bearing the Colossus’s rune. Worth 750 gp raw, or usable by a dwarf or goliath artisan to craft a gauntleted weapon with +1 to attack rolls.
Session 12 Encounter
The Slanted Circle had bound the Colossus between four ruined columns and carved a binding circle of ley sigils at his feet, using his pain as a guardian deterrent on the Drow’s path. When the party arrived, a ley pulse ignited the sigils, and the Colossus tore the columns down — freeing one arm, then the other.
Rather than fight, the party broke the binding themselves: Rudiger countered the sigils, Accoa and Stol worked the chains, and Mal spoke to the Colossus in halting Giant. The Colossus walked off into the jungle, leaving nothing behind but the broken bindings — everything else had been stripped from him.
When Lairk returned and saw the empty clearing, she said only: “What happened here?”
What Comes Next
Buttercup walked into the jungle a free creature, and the party did not follow. But debts of that scale do not forget the people who paid them, and the world is small once you can stride twenty feet at a time.
The party currently has the use of two airships — Captain Tallow’s Stormlight, and the captured Circle vessel they took in the sky battle of Session 11. The latter does not have a captain yet. It does, however, have a deck large enough to comfortably hold an eighteen-foot passenger.
Whether Buttercup ever finds his way to that deck — whether he wants to, whether the party finds him again, whether he prefers solitary ruin-walking to throwing in with strangers — is open. He is not bound to them. He owes them, and that is a different shape of relationship than friendship or service.
But if any party of mortals were ever going to convince a freed Chainbound Colossus to come aboard, it would be the one that broke his chains and asked nothing in return.
The bet stands.