monster

Riffler

CR 5

Small Fey, Chaotic Neutral

Reveal Stat Block

Armor Class

15 (natural armor)

Hit Points

90 (20d6 + 20)

Speed

30 ft., burrow 20 ft.

str

-1

dex

con

int

wis

cha

Traits

Card Sense.The riffler can smell the presence of magical cards, including Decks of Many Things and other magical decks, within 1 mile of itself. It knows the direction to any such cards in that range. Effects that protect a target from divination magic block this sense.

Riffling Step.The riffler can burrow through any nonmagical material that isn't iron, shuffling the substance through which the riffler moves aside like cards to form a tunnel that closes behind the riffler.

Actions

Multiattack.The riffler makes two Spectral Card attacks.

Spectral Card.ms,rs 6 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 60 ft., one target. ({@damage 1d10 + 3) force damage plus 5 (1d10) damage that is radiant if the d10 roll is an even number and necrotic if it's odd.

Card Spray 5.The riffler magically unleashes a spray of spectral cards in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a 14 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 27 (5d10) force damage and has the restrained condition for 1 minute as cards bind it. On a successful save, a creature takes half as much damage only. A restrained creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

Plane Shift.The riffler casts the Plane Shift spell targeting only itself, requiring no material components and using Charisma as the spellcasting ability.

Reactions.Reactions the creature can take:

Shuffle Destiny.When a creature the riffler can see within 30 feet of itself makes an ability check, an attack roll, or a saving throw, the riffler can magically force that creature to roll a d6 and either add the number rolled to the total or subtract it from the total (riffler's choice), potentially changing the outcome.

Riffler

Rifflers are diminutive Fey reminiscent of gnomes and obsessed with destiny and fate. The oldest stories of rifflers suggest these dangerously curious spirits manifested as physical beings when the Deck of Many Things was shuffled for the first time. The rifflers were so enraptured with the soft sound made by the whispering cards that they made physical bodies for themselves in order to possess and understand this new instrument of destiny.

Rifflers wander the Feywild and Material Plane, searching for Decks of Many Things. They collect the cards, trade them, hoard them, and scatter them across worlds, all in service of an incomprehensible agenda to manipulate the fate of the multiverse. Rifflers are as likely to give a deck to adventurers in dire need as they are to wrest cards from an innocent person by any means necessary.

Both the Solar Bastion (see chapter 10) and the Grim Harrow (see chapter 19) know of rifflers and their obsession with Decks of Many Things, and these organizations stay alert for signs of these Fey creatures, since that usually means a deck is nearby.