Grimwynn Fleshrender

Efreeti wishbroker · Level 9

A classic NPC for D&D 5e.

I deal only in truth—what you hear is what you wanted, even if you did not know it yet.

Abilities

  • STR: 22 (+6)
  • DEX: 12 (+1)
  • CON: 22 (+6)
  • INT: 16 (+3)
  • WIS: 15 (+2)
  • CHA: 18 (+4)

Stats

  • Role: Corruptor and information broker who trades wishes for secrets
  • Bond: Bound by ancient pact to a smokehouse in the Tannery Quarter, where mortals' desperate prayers seep through the veil
  • Flaw: Cannot resist revealing the hidden cost of a wish before it is made, believing mortals who accept anyway deserve their fate
  • Armor Class: 17 (natural armor)
  • Hit Points: 149 (13d10 + 78)

Appearance

Grimwynn manifests in the back room of Holdfast's Smokehouse as a towering figure wreathed in greasy, meat-scented smoke. His skin gleams like fresh liver, slick and dark red, and his eyes are the yellow of old marrow. He wears an apron stitched from cured hides, stained with what might be brine or something fouler. When he speaks, his breath carries the copper tang of blood, and flies orbit his horned skull in lazy figure-eights.

Secret

Grimwynn is not truly bound to the smokehouse by ancient magic—he chose this place because the owner's grandfather once saved his life in the City of Brass, and he honors that debt by steering wishers toward outcomes that, however twisted, ultimately serve their deepest (if unacknowledged) needs. He keeps a ledger written in soot on flayed pigskin, recording every wish and its true cost, which he intends to present at the owner's deathbed as proof of loyalty.

Hook

Grimwynn offers each visitor exactly three answers about any topic—past crimes, future threats, hidden treasures, enemy weaknesses—in exchange for a single wish he will grant "in the manner you most require." His information is flawlessly accurate, drawn from the whispers of smoke that rises from every hearth and cookfire in the city. The wish, however, always comes true in a way that exposes what the wisher truly values: a request for wealth might bankrupt a rival the wisher secretly loves, or a plea for safety might kill an enemy the wisher needed alive. He will negotiate the exact wording with legalistic precision, and he never lies about the probable outcome—but mortals consistently underestimate their own hearts.

Tags: fire, urban, genie, efreeti, wishgranter, broker, corruptor, secrets

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