| Aliases | The Wound That Walks, the First Wound |
|---|---|
| Kind | Primordial aberration; first and greatest of the karn'tharaël |
| Alignment | Neutral evil |
| Anchor | The tear over Arinoth |
| Lair | The Runebound Citadel |
| Language | The Pre-Tongue; understands all mortal tongues; telepathy |
| Challenge | 23 (50,000 XP) |
| Known | Karn'thûreth, the Ashen Debt (beneath Emberdeep) |
|---|
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As long as Karn'tharaël lives, the world cannot seal itself.
Karn'tharaël is a living scar on the world: a primordial aberration older than mana and older than the shape of the continents, a threshold that does not sleep. It is the first and greatest of its kind, and it alone carries the name Karn'tharaël as a proper name.
Written in lowercase, karn'tharaël names a kind, not a single being: aberrant wound-things that anchor to tears in the world and siphon mana through them. The lesser ones are weaker and bound to lesser tears. They do not share the First Wound's power, its twelve glyphs, or its anchor over Arinoth.
| Name | Meaning | Anchor | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Karn'tharaël | the First Wound | the tear over Arinoth | singular; lairs in the Runebound Citadel |
| Karn'thûreth | the Ashen Debt | a small tear beneath Emberdeep | destroyed Emberdeep in 1020 a.S.; still drawing |
The name sits deliberately between the tongues. The apostrophe and the trema (aë, two vowels voiced apart) mark it as sacred or aberrant in both Durûm and Sael'aurin, yet the hard k and the closed -rn keep it from being elven, and the apostrophe keeps it from being dwarven. A thing of neither people. That the goddess Vael'Thyra is flawless Sael'aurin while Karn'tharaël is not is a quiet theological tell: the goddess belongs to the elven sacred; the First Wound belongs to nothing.
The canonical spelling carries the trema: Karn'tharaël.
It flies without wings, burrows through stone, and moves as if the world were only partly solid around it. Twelve ancient glyphs are cut into its own flesh. They bind it, and they also keep it alive: while one glyph remains, it cannot die.
It speaks only the Pre-Tongue, a dialect from before mortal speech that physically wounds throats unused to it. Demons, fiends, fey and celestials are worst affected by it: they remember the word.
Its presence is a wound in the world's fabric:
Dates follow the Calendar, counted from the Shattering (a.S.).
The anchor at Arinoth. Karn'tharaël is anchored to the tear in the sky over Arinoth, the wound torn open in the First Incursion, when Namaeh led the demons into the elven realm. Whether the tear woke something far older, or whether it was always there waiting for a tear, no record says.
The Runebound Citadel (year 0). When Malnaar broke free and the world shattered, the Gul'durak binding in the Runebound Citadel was left as a sealed working with no debtor it could see, starving. Its hunger drew Karn'tharaël to it. The First Wound now lairs inside the Citadel, among black dragon-bone architecture and ancient glyphwork, in a binding still framed by the Dwarven Empire's own Hall-Seal (see Thrain Ironfist). It pulls at both ends: anchored over Arinoth, lying in the north. The Citadel's siphon draws on it, and it draws on the Citadel. Where the siphon has gone slack, mana bleeds from fissures in the floor.
The Purge (400 a.S.). Its first significant stirring came in the time of the Purge. It is said that the dead did not rest in those years, and the ghosts of the un-named walked.
Emberdeep (1020 a.S.). A lesser one of its kind, Karn'thûreth, rose from a small tear beneath Emberdeep and destroyed the city. Whether the First Wound's stirring widened that tear is not known.
The rising storms (to 1052 a.S.). The mana storms that birth monsters and desperate men across the present-day world grow stronger within miles of its lair. The more it stirs, the worse they become.
Karn'tharaël's lair is never a cave. It is always a wound: a space whose geometry is just barely wrong. Walls that do not quite run parallel. Doorways that will not count to the same number twice in a row. Mana residue drifting in the air like cobwebs made of ash. The air smells of what-almost-was: dead pasts, abandoned battles, unborn children, village fires that never came.
Regional effects
Lair actions (initiative 20, one per round)
Karn'tharaël, the First Wound
Huge aberration (primordial), neutral evil
| Armor Class | 20 (Runebound Hide) |
| Hit Points | 412 (33d12 + 198) |
| Speed | 40 ft., fly 80 ft. (hover, no wings), burrow 30 ft. |
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 (+9) | 14 (+2) | 22 (+6) | 21 (+5) | 24 (+7) | 26 (+8) |
| Saving Throws | DEX +9, CON +13, WIS +14, CHA +15 |
| Skills | Perception +14, Insight +14, Intimidation +15 |
| Damage Resistances | cold, fire, lightning, thunder; bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks |
| Damage Immunities | necrotic, poison, psychic, force |
| Condition Immunities | charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, unconscious |
| Senses | truesight 120 ft., tremorsense 60 ft., darkvision 240 ft., passive Perception 24 |
| Languages | understands all mortal tongues; speaks only the Pre-Tongue; telepathy 120 ft. |
| Challenge | 23 (50,000 XP) |
The Wound That Walks. As long as Karn'tharaël lives, the world cannot seal itself. Healing magic within 60 ft. works at half effect. Summoning spells automatically succeed, but the summoner takes 4d10 psychic damage from the eagerness of what answers.
Living Seal (Bound Resilience). Karn'tharaël is bound by twelve ancient glyphs cut into its own flesh. As long as at least one glyph is intact, it cannot die. At 0 HP it falls dormant for 1 hour, during which one glyph crumbles. Permanent death requires all twelve glyphs destroyed before it revives. A creature with Arcana proficiency can identify and destroy one glyph per turn, expending one spell slot of 5th level or higher per glyph.
Legendary Resistance (3/Day). On a failed save, it can choose to succeed instead.
Magic Resistance. Advantage on saves against spells and magical effects.
Pre-Dawn Aura. At the start of each of its turns, every creature within 30 ft. must succeed on a DC 22 WIS save or be frightened until the end of its next turn. Light sources within the aura, magical or mundane, give only half their normal illumination.
Glimpse of What Came Before. A creature that ends its turn looking directly at Karn'tharaël must make a DC 22 WIS save. On a failure, it sees a memory that does not belong to this world, a moment from before mana and before continents, takes 3d10 psychic damage and gains one level of exhaustion. Looking away is protection: the single most important tactical rule of the fight.
Multiattack. Three attacks: one Sundering Maw and two Bound Chains. One Chain may be replaced with Pre-Tongue (if available).
Sundering Maw. Melee Weapon Attack: +16 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 28 (4d10 + 9) piercing plus 14 (4d6) necrotic damage. The target must succeed on a DC 22 CON save or have its hit point maximum reduced by the necrotic damage taken, until it finishes a long rest on consecrated ground.
Bound Chains (two arms). Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +16 to hit, reach 30 ft. or range 60/120 ft., one target. Hit: 22 (3d10 + 9) bludgeoning plus 9 (2d8) force damage. The target is grappled (escape DC 23) and pulled up to 20 ft. toward Karn'tharaël. While grappled, the target is restrained and counts as part of the binding: whenever Karn'tharaël takes damage, the grappled target takes half of it as well.
Pre-Tongue (Recharge 5–6). Karn'tharaël speaks a word that should never have formed in a mortal throat. Each creature of its choice within 90 ft. that can hear it must make a DC 23 WIS save, taking 56 (16d6) psychic damage and being stunned until the end of its next turn on a failure, or half damage on a success. Constructs and undead are unaffected. Demons, fiends, fey and celestials have disadvantage on this save: they remember the word.
Step Outside Now. Karn'tharaël shifts partially into the wound it embodies. Until the start of its next turn, attacks against it have disadvantage, and it can move through walls and creatures as if they were difficult terrain. It cannot end this movement inside solid matter or another creature.
Karn'tharaël can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below, at the end of another creature's turn. The threshold it guards does not sleep.
Reel In (costs 1 action). All targets grappled by its chains are pulled up to 20 ft. closer. Each must succeed on a DC 22 STR save or fall prone.
Whisper a Pre-Word (costs 2 actions). A creature within 60 ft. must succeed on a DC 22 CHA save or be charmed for 1 minute. The charmed creature is compelled to move toward Karn'tharaël and touch one of its binding glyphs, which weakens that glyph. The effect ends if the target takes damage from another source.
Rune Drain (costs 3 actions). One of its glyphs flares and burns itself out. Every creature within 60 ft. takes 27 (6d8) force damage (DC 22 DEX save for half). One intact binding glyph is consumed.