Oni

, misleadingly called ogre mages, were a distantly related type of giantkin possessing innate magical abilities.

Appearance
In nursery rhymes, oni are fearsome bogeymen that haunt the nightmares of children and adults alike, yet they are very real and always hungry. They find human babies especially delicious. Oni look like demonic ogres with blue or green skin, dark hair, and a pair of short ivory horns protruding from their foreheads. Their eyes are dark with strikingly white pupils, and their teeth and claws are jet black.

By the light of day, an oni hides its true form with magic, gaining the trust of those it intends to betray when darkness descends. These creatures can change their size as well as their shape, appearing as humanoids as they pass through towns, pretending to be travelers, woodcutters, or frontier folk. In such a form, an oni takes stock of the selection of humanoids in a settlement and devises ways to abduct and devour some of them.

Actions

 * Shapechange (The oni magically polymorphs into a Small or Medium humanoid, into a Large giant, or back into its true form. Other than its size, its statistics are the same in each form. The only equipment that is transformed is its glaive, which shrinks so that it can be wielded in humanoid form. If the oni dies, it reverts to its true form, and its glaive reverts to its normal size.)


 * Flight
 * Innate Spellcasting

At will:

 * Invisibility
 * Darkness

Once per day:

 * Cone of Cold
 * Sleep
 * Charm person
 * Gaseous form

Known Oni

 * Lorenzo - The leader of the Iron Shepherds.Episode 144-Kerri Airken-Beau-Lorenzo.jpg

History
Oni were banished by highborn giants from the giant caste system.

Children's nursery rhymes in Wildemount include cautionary stories in which oni steal away children at night, as a means of scaring children into staying home.

Lorenzo and the Iron Shepherds
The Mighty Nein developed a serious enmity for an oni. As a job for the Gentleman, the Mighty Nein were traveling up to the Shadycreek Run area to meet up with the Gentleman's business associate, Ophelia Mardoon, when the Iron Shepherds, a band of slavers operating out of Shadycreek Run, kidnapped Yasha, Fjord, and Jester. When the rest of the Mighty Nein and Keg attempted to ambush the Shepherds on the road before the slavers could return to their stronghold, the slavers' leader Lorenzo killed Mollymauk Tealeaf. The surviving free members of the Nein and Keg added Nila to their group and continued on into the Shadycreek Run area and met with Ophelia Mardoon, who turned out to be a rival of the Iron Shepherds. Mardoon asked them to discreetly eliminate the Shepherds and suggested that they ask for the help of local priest Caduceus Clay, who promptly joined the party. The party infiltrated the Iron Shepherds' base, the Sour Nest, discovered that Lorenzo was a disguised oni, and killed him and the other Shepherds.