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Marshbone Reaver

Before the cult was scattered, this one was the excavation warden, assigned to keep watch while the sealed burial chamber was breached. The rites failed, the crypt flooded, and the warden did not flee. It survived by feeding on the drowned dead and swearing that the guild would never claim the tomb's relics. It knows the route to the deeper guardian's chamber and keeps a tally-token that marks a side room where the cult hid valuables taken during the excavation.

Monsters
Medium undead · Moderate · Uncommon

Marshbone Reaver

A surviving cult remnant that haunts the shallow flooded rooms of an excavated drowned crypt, using water, narrow ledges, and debris piles to ambush intruders while guarding the route to the sealed sanctum and a side chamber of loot.
AC15
HP76/76
CRModerate
Init
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
ConditionsNone

Combat

AC 15 · HP 76 · Moderate

Marshbone Reaver

Medium undead (drowned cult remnant), lawful evil
Armor Class15 (patchwork mail and bone buckler)
Hit Points76 (9d8 + 36)
Speed
walk,
swim
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
Saving ThrowsConWis
SkillsAthleticsDeceptionPerceptionStealth
Damage Resistances
necrotic,
bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks while submerged in water
Immunities
poison
Weaknesses
Radiant damage suppresses its brine rites.,
Fire damage causes the reaver to lose its regeneration-like soak until the end of its next turn.
Bright light denies it stealth and exposes hidden routes it relies on.
If its tally-token or brine lantern is destroyed, it loses confidence and must save or retreat for one round.
Senses
darkvision 60 ft.,
blindsight 10 ft. while submerged,
passive Perception 13
Languages
Common,
Cult Cant,
understands Abyssal but cannot speak it
ChallengeModerate
Proficiency Bonus+2
Passive Perception13
Brine-Hardened Hunter. The reaver has advantage on attack rolls against a creature it is grappling or against a creature standing in shallow water within 5 feet of it. It also ignores difficult terrain created by water, mud, and loose debris.
Drain-Crawling Body. The reaver can move through spaces as narrow as 1 foot wide if they are open to water, such as drain gaps, cracked ledges, or broken floor seams. It cannot end its turn there unless the space can physically contain it.
Fouled Water Aura. Creatures that start their turn within 5 feet of the reaver and are in water or soaked by the reaver's attacks must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take 7 () poison damage and have their speed reduced by 10 feet until the start of their next turn. This poison damage does not affect undead or constructs.
Silt Vanish. If the reaver begins its turn in dim light, darkness, or murky water, it can take the Hide action as a bonus action.
Pressure of the Drowned Rite. When the reaver uses Brine Rite, the magical pressure of the chant disrupts concentration. Any creature concentrating on a spell that is hit by the reaver's Grappling Hook or Tidal Shove must make its concentration check with disadvantage if it is standing in water.

Reactions

Tide-Edge Riposte. When a creature within 5 feet misses the reaver with a melee attack, the reaver can lash out with its hooked pole and push the attacker up to 5 feet. If the attacker is adjacent to water, the reaver can force it to make a Strength saving throw or fall prone.
Role
Ambusher, area controller, and cult remnant sentinel
Built for
3-5

Gear

  • Hooked Pole (weapon, trophy)A rusted hooked pole used to drag prey into water or off ledges.
  • Brine Lantern (focus, minor treasure)A cracked lantern sealed with brine and grave-oil. Its glow is dim but unsettling.
  • Wet Tally-Token (key item, quest item)A cult tally-token etched with the route to the sealed burial chamber and a mark indicating the loot side room.

Feats

Brine Ambusher
Drown on Contact
Ritual of the Sealed Hall

Notes for the game master

The reaver has advantage on Stealth checks made in dim light, murky water, or among debris.
While in water or standing within 5 feet of it, the reaver's movement does not provoke opportunity attacks from creatures it has grappled.
A creature grappled by the reaver begins to suffocate if it is submerged and cannot breathe water.
If the reaver takes radiant damage, it cannot use Brine Rite until the end of its next turn.

Tactics

  1. Opening

    It begins hidden in floodwater or behind debris, then bursts out to make a surprise attack from reach. On the first round it tries to shove intruders off narrow walkways into shallow water or muck.

  2. Mid-fight

    It uses Grappling Hook and Tidal Shove to isolate a target near water, then keeps pressure with poisoned water and claw strikes. It prioritizes anyone carrying light, fire, or radiant magic.

  3. End of the fight

    If reduced below one-quarter health, it tries to drag one foe into deep water and flee through a side drain or collapse a debris pile behind it. If escape is impossible, it fights to the death while calling for the deeper guardian with a brine chant.

  4. Retreat

    It is fanatical but not fearless. It withdraws only if its rite is broken, its lantern is shattered, or the sanctum route is sealed. Otherwise, it keeps fighting even while badly wounded.

How it fights

Fight from partially submerged cover and never stay in the open if possible.
Push intruders into water, onto slick stone, or against broken sarcophagi to break formation.
Target healers, lantern-bearers, and radiant casters first.
Use debris and corners to split the party before committing to a grapple.
If the party bunches up, it calls the water around them foul and buys time with repositioning instead of trading blows.
It prefers to attack from concealment, then withdraw behind a bend where only one or two characters can engage at once.

Who it attacks first

Radiant or light-bearing characters
Healers and concentration casters
Frontliners isolated near water
Anyone carrying the key or map to the sealed chamber

Works well with

Pairs well with lesser drowned undead, cult fanatics, or a deeper guardian that responds to its brine chant.
Its poisoned water and forced movement can set up ranged attackers or hazards in adjacent chambers.
The tally-token can unlock a loot side room while also exposing the route to the sanctum, making the encounter matter beyond combat.

How to beat it

Bright light and radiant damage disrupt its brine rites and deny it hiding places.
Fire dries and cracks its waterlogged body, suppressing its poison aura until the end of its next turn.
Forcing it off water or destroying nearby cover weakens its ambush game.
Breaking concentration or interrupting its chant prevents it from raising flood pressure.

Ways to avoid a fight

Intimidate it with overwhelming light, sacred symbols, or direct mention of the cult's failure.
Bait it away from water by sealing drains or flooding walkways with fire and steam.
Offer the correct burial phrase or cult counter-sign to make it hesitate long enough to slip past.
Use its tally-token to negotiate passage to the loot side room or to provoke a reckless attack.

Ecology

A gaunt drowned cult survivor wrapped in algae-dark vestments, with a jaw wired shut by rusted devotional hooks and a chest hung with barnacled keys, teeth, and little bone charms. Its hands are swollen with water-rot, and its legs trail silt like a skirt. When it moves, it drags a hooked pole and a funerary lantern full of black brine that glows faintly green when blood is near.

Behavior

Fanatical, desperate, and territorial. It believes the guild is stealing a burial right already claimed by the cult and that any trespasser must be drowned, delayed, or sent back as a warning. It speaks in cracked prayers and half-remembered directives, often pausing to listen to the water before acting.

How it lives

The Marshbone Reaver survives on corpse leavings, crypt eels, algae, and ritual scraps left behind by the cult's excavation. It knows the flood routes, where the stone is thin, and which debris piles conceal holes or broken stairwells. It often leaves poisoned offerings in the water to weaken explorers before the deeper guardians are awakened.

Lair

The reaver nests in the first flooded threshold of the crypt, where the entry hall breaks into narrow ledges, broken sarcophagi, and half-submerged alcoves. It keeps the water deliberately filthy with corpse-silt and poison drippings from a cracked urn hidden behind a false wall. In its lair, the reaver can hear footsteps through the water and knows every place where a careless intruder will lose balance.

Habitat
Drowned crypt corridors, shallow flooded chambers, collapsed entry halls, debris-choked side rooms, and narrow stone walkways above brackish water.

Signs that it is near

A thin film of black-green brine that beads on stone and smells faintly of rot and incense.
Dragged lines in the silt leading from one alcove to the next.
Small bone charms tied to submerged hooks and broken lantern nails.
A low wet chanting sound that seems to come from inside the walls when the water stills.

Tags

undead,
aquatic,
cultist,
ambusher,
dungeon guardian,
poison,
grapple

Lore

Before the cult was scattered, this one was the excavation warden, assigned to keep watch while the sealed burial chamber was breached. The rites failed, the crypt flooded, and the warden did not flee. It survived by feeding on the drowned dead and swearing that the guild would never claim the tomb's relics. It knows the route to the deeper guardian's chamber and keeps a tally-token that marks a side room where the cult hid valuables taken during the excavation.

What drives it

To deny the guild access to the sealed burial chamber, preserve the cult's claim over the crypt, and prove itself worthy of the drowned saint that sleeps below.

After the fight

If the Marshbone Reaver is slain, the shallow halls briefly quiet. The floodwater clears enough to reveal concealed steps, a cult tally-token, and fresh drag marks leading deeper toward the sealed burial chamber. Surviving guild scouts can use the reaver's token as proof that the upper crypt is partially secured, but its death also alerts anything below that intruders have reached the outer half of the tomb.

“The rites failed, the crypt flooded, and the warden did not flee.”
From its lore

Variants

Silt-Priest Avar, a higher-ranking version with stronger spelllike rites and a larger flood aura.
Tide-Scar Initiate, a weaker scout version with fewer hit points but higher speed.
Marshbone Reaver with a leech-ridden corpse mask that can summon swamp vermin once per fight.

Hooks

Plot hooks

The guild hires the party to search the crypt after a partial excavation went silent, and the reaver is the first proof that the cult remnant still holds the site.
The tally-token carried by the reaver opens or identifies the route to a sealed side chamber containing loot and clues.
Defeating the reaver reveals a brine map pointing toward the deeper guardian and the sanctum door.
A survivor claims the reaver is trying to complete the chant that will wake whatever lies in the sealed burial chamber.

How to use it

Use as an opening guardian for the flooded outer crypt, ideally before the party reaches the sealed chamber.
Works well as a patrol that forces the party to fight in waist-deep water and on slippery walkways.
Can serve as a warning encounter that reveals the deeper guardian without fully revealing the sanctum.
Can be paired with minor undead or cult scavengers to create a layered ambush.

Treasure

Wet Tally-Token that points to the sealed burial chamber route
Minor silver relics from the excavation cache
A brine lantern worth salvage or study
A concealed key ring containing a rusted chapel key and a side-room hook

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