Guardian of Stolen Seconds

Every great dungeon needs a final sentinel that embodies the very essence of the location. In the submerged, non-Euclidean nightmare of The Drowned Archives of Xorlax, a standard beast simply wouldn’t suffice.

The players aren’t just diving for treasure; they are diving for a piece of frozen time. The creature guarding it shouldn’t just threaten their hit points—it should threaten their existence.

Meet the final challenge of the Scribe’s quest: The Epoch-Eater.

Lore: The Mutation of Millennia

The ancient Aboleth Scribe, C’thal, did not trust guards that could sleep, bribe, or die of old age. To protect his greatest treasure—the Chronometer of C’thal—he took a creature of the deep abyssal stock and subjected it to horrifying flesh-warping rituals.

Originally designed as an immortal watchdog, the creature sat in the dark for thousands of years, bathed in the unstable chronomancy radiation leaking from the artifact it guarded.

The magic didn’t just preserve the beast; it mutated it. The creature stopped existing linearly. It began to feed not on flesh, but on the potential energy of moments that hadn’t happened yet. It became the Epoch-Eater, a living glitch in the deep, waiting for new timelines to consume.

Visual Description: A Void in the Water

The first thing adventurers notice isn’t the creature itself, but the water around it. The water doesn’t flow; it skips, stuttering like a damaged film reel around the creature’s form.

The Epoch-Eater is a horrifying divergence from natural aquatic life. A massive, calcified, skull-like carapace protects its head, giving it the appearance of ancient, drowned bone. From this armored plating erupts a mane of smooth, silent, muscular tentacles that drift like liquid smoke, lacking the suckers of a natural cephalopod.

Its most terrifying feature is its jaw. It unhinges impossibly wide, revealing no throat, gullet, or biology—only a swirling, gray vortex of raw, timeless energy. Looking into its maw feels like looking at the end of your own story.

DM Tactics: Running the Epoch-Eater

The Epoch-Eater is a CR 13 Aberration designed to terrify a Level 10–12 party. It is highly intelligent, aquatic, and uses time as a weapon.

Here is how to run this encounter effectively:

• Leverage the Environment: It is Amphibious and has a Swim speed of 60 ft. It should constantly be moving in three dimensions. Furthermore, it is a Siege Monster. If the party tries to hide behind the ancient pillars of the archive, have the Epoch-Eater smash right through them, creating difficult terrain and collapsing hazards.

• The Terror of the Swallow: The core of this monster’s threat is its Swallow Seconds ability. It doesn’t just deal acid damage; it deals psychic force damage as it digests the victim’s timeline. Describe this vividly: the swallowed character sees their memories dissolving or visions of a future that will never happen.

• Action Economy Dominance: Use its Legendary Actions to disrupt the party’s plans.

  • Use Time Glitch to banish a key healer or damage dealer right before their turn, effectively deleting their contribution for a round.

  • Use Abyssal Dash to reach backline casters who think they are safe.

• Temporal Haze: This passive trait imposes disadvantage on ranged attacks. Force the players to close the distance and enter the reach of its terrifying maw.