The likho is a lithe, slight humanoid with slick, purple-gray skin. Its slim limbs are wiry and muscular. Its face is dominated by a single large eye, beneath which are two thin slits for nostrils and a narrow gash of a mouth filled with needle-like teeth.
It has a strange, ever-changing gait — sometimes walking on its hands, sometimes on its legs, sometimes racing on all four — and will often vault and climb and clamber with wild abandon, slipping in and out of shadowy bowers or leaping out of black waters to surprise those peering into the deeps.
Personification of Misfortune. In the folk tales of the frontier, the likho is seen as the living embodiment of ill fortune and evil. “He’s had the likho on his back” is a saying that describes those who have suffered from a series of misfortunes. “Don’t stare the likho in its face” is a proverb suggesting that one should not tempt fate.
There are many who think this is just a turn of phrase. But, of course, the likho is quite real, and while most who suffer setbacks are just unlucky, some truly are cursed by the likho.
In some isolated communities that have a long history with the likho, lichy is a slang term that means something shoddy or unreliable. Some may also refer to likhoy, those who are too daring or foolhardy (and thus risk bringing ill fortune to both themselves and those around them).
Likho Items. Likho can create special bait items. These are often made to look quite valuable — e.g., a sword with a hilt of gold — in order to tempt the greed of their victims. Anyone touching a likho item will find that it is stuck in place and that they are unable to release it. (Wrenching their grasp free requires a DC 22 Strength check or a remove curse spell.) Furthermore, the likho who made the item is alerted as per an alarm spell. As the likho draws near, the one attached to a likho item will feel their presence growing like a darkness in their mind.
Many are the tales of those who have cut off their own hands in order to escape the approaching likho.
Likho’s Bargain. It is said that a likho can sometimes be bargained with. Its own evil can be turned back upon itself, if one can offer a great temptation or something of great worth related to a deadly sin. (Most commonly greed, like a blacksmith offering to make it a precious item or a wizard offering to conjure it a magical feast.)
In truth, however, the likho rarely honors these bargains: it will take what is offered and then betray the one who made the bargain with it. However, the clever can sometimes trick or cheat the likho.
LIKHO
Small fey, chaotic evil
Armor Class 13
Hit Points 58 (13d6+13)
Speed 30 ft.
STR 10 (+0), DEX 16 (+3), CON 12 (+1), INT 12 (+1), WIS 12 (+1), CHA 14 (+2)
Skills Athletics +2, Deception +4, Insight +3, Stealth +5
Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive perception 13
Languages Common, Sylvan
Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +2
Adherence: If a creature touches or is touched by the likho, they must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, the likho adheres to them and simultaneously vanishes, becoming both invisible and intangible. Truesight or other abilities that perceive the Ethereal Plane allow one to see the likho, which clings to the target’s shoulders from the Border Ethereal.
A character who has been adhered to by a likho feels a weight on their soul and suffers from bad luck. They suffer disadvantage on all checks and must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw each day at dusk or suffer one level of exhaustion. They do not recover from exhaustion after long rests.
A remove curse spell will break the likho’s adherence, freeing its victim and forcing it to return to the Material Plane.
ACTIONS
Multiattack. The likho makes two claw attacks.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack. +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (3d8) slashing damage. If the likho hits with a claw attack, the target is subjected to the Adherence trait.
We say in Poland “licho nie śpi” which means The devil never sleeps / A bad penny always turns up.
Also” “Co u licha?” = what the hell’s going on
A really neat monster, something I’ll probably run relatively soon in my campaign. However, given that the Adherence trait requires Remove Curse in order to fight it, the Likho needs to be CR 5 at minimum, since the earliest a party could normally have access to that spell is level 5.
Exactly why it’s not CR 5, actually.
The stories of the likho have it attached to the shoulders and only removable by threatening to drown it. This doesn’t work in a straight translation to D&D because you just stab it until it dies.
Higher level characters can just get rid of it as a minor pest. Tier 1 characters will experience likho-like stories with ill luck they must take special effort to be rid of.