The carbuncle is a jungle-dwelling beast highly sought after by alchemists for the shining jewel embedded in its forehead.

The carbuncle's body is not unlike an ocelot mixed with a bird of paradise; a lithe, four-legged quadruped with vibrant purple-and-crimson plumage instead of fur. Despite their bestial appearance, carbuncles possess great cunning and build villages of their own in caves deep in the jungle.

Bearers of Precious Gems. The glimmering garnet in this creature's forehead-the carbuncle for which it is named-is more than just a precious stone. Alchemists and other arcanists spend exorbitant amounts on carbuncle hunters because the gem is rumored to hold the power to amplify magic like light through a magnifying lens. What few wizards understand is that the carbuncle's garnet only holds magical power if given willingly; a garnet pried from the skull of a slain carbuncle still shines beautifully (and is worth 300 gp in most markets) but is devoid of magic. If a carbuncle willingly removes the gem from its forehead and gives it to another creature, the gem regrows in 1d4 weeks.

Capricious Tricksters. Carbuncles are well aware of how much their precious gem is valued by humans and their ilk and rightly fear humanoids for their cruelty and greed. However, particularly courageous carbuncles fight back against the hunters. They are not large or powerful creatures and instead use their cunning mind to trick hunters into following them into pits of quicksand, the lairs of deadlier creatures, or into piranha infested waters.

Carbuncle's Garnet

Wondrous item, uncommon

This gem has 3 charges. When you cast a spell that deals damage or requires you to roll dice as part of the effect (such as sleep), you can expend 1 charge as part of the action to cast the spell to roll one extra die of that type and add it to the total result. Once all 3 charges are expended, this gem becomes a nonmagical garnet worth 300 gp.

Minor agents of chaos that appear as curious armadillo-like animals

Carbuncles are minor agents of chaos. They seem to be curious little animals like armadillos, and they feed on leaves and small insects. Set in the carbuncle's head above its eyes is a large ruby (randomly-determined value of at least 500 gp). If the beast dies, any ruby attached to it shatters and cannot be reconstituted—but it can voluntarily give up its gem, in which case the gem will re-grow over a period of several months (re-roll the gem's value each time it re-grows). The carbuncle will not normally give up its gem unless charmed or otherwise enchanted. Carbuncles are empathic and communicate via a minor form of telepathy. They will approach and seek to join a party of humans or demi-humans and then try to spread discord by means of lies, bearing false witness, or betraying the party's presence to nearby monsters.