While it may seem like a sleepy little town made prosperous by its location along the trade way,
across the Sword coast and beyond, the town of Beregost has more than its fare share of
secrets and occasionally, most unexpectedly and so close to home, it presents unusual perils.
I had barely set out on my journey to the south when I ran into one of
the most dangerous encounters I had ever faced, and I was not prepared.
Around mid-afternoon I arrived at Beregost from the west, walking on foot with the purple robed
avowed priest, Sprig Summerfoot, a Hin and a good friend of mine, we had covered the road
between Candlekeep and Beregost so many times I barely even watched where we were going,
and we were already deep in conversation about what we might be eating for supper when we got
within sight of the first outlaying buildings. The sun was still up and would be for some hours yet,
but there was a chill to the air, the last lingering claws of winter robbed the sun of
its strength and there were still banks of snow here and there under evergreen trees, steep banks
and the occasional cart bridge over a creek. Sprig and I walked barefoot, of course,
I can handle it well enough in spring time on a fairly nice cart track, but I was nowhere near as
leather footed as Sprig and had my sturdy travelling boots slung over my shoulder.
My first hint that something was not right was a mounted man in armor,
carrying a shield and lance. That Sprig and I in our tracks and as soon as he caught sight of us,
the man spurred his charger and trotted over to confront us. Nothing threatening, he was really
just interested in warning us not to be travelling the wilds alone on foot, there were attacks lately
on livestock and although no people had yet been harmed, it was clear some sort of large predator
was hunting the area, as many livestock had been found torn to bits and partially devoured.
I asked what livestock, fearing the worst. "Sheep" he said, and my heart sank. Beregost had,
for many years, supplied candlekeep with all of the fine wool robes that the avowed wore,
including the very fine, white robes of the Keeper of Tomes, currently worn by Archmage Janussi,
taking over from Archmage Ulraunt, who has been spending a lot of time in other
dimensions, or so I have been told. Sprig and I decided on the spot that this was most
certainly of concern to Candlekeep and should be investigated, so we set off to Crawford farmstead,
the largest supplier of fleece in the town. The Crawfords were all up on the rooftops of
the various buildings and sheds on their property, with loaded crossbows and they were scared. This
family had seen a lot, they were used to defending their flocks and sheep dogs from all sorts
of predators, including thieves, but whatever this latest one was, clearly was nothing they
had seen before and looking up at them, I felt suddenly quite concerned about being on foot,
down on the ground. My first thought was that it must be some creature either of the air
or it was attack from below, like the great big ankhegs that sometimes get plucky enough to come
this close to a township, but no, ankhegs was something this family have dealt with before,
and they were not peering up into the sky for some swooping terror, they were watching Sprig and I
approach and waving at us to get our asses up on the roof with as much haste as we could muster.
You didn't need to tell us that twice. Old man Crawford, who had only the one eye
and was not much good with a crossbow at range, related what had been going on and shared a bowl
of hot rosemary mutton stew with feta cheese and fresh farm loaf with us. We had hardly finished
our meal when a blood curdling scream sounded from the rooftop closest to the paddock holding most of
their remaining sheep. Both Sprig and I were over there so fast one could almost believe we once ran
for our lives over the steep and slick rooftop shingles of Arrabar from blood thirsty pirates,
but that is a story for Sprig to tell. I was looking down at a gruesome sight, something
big, slick, fast and purple had chomped down on a sheep in a spray of blood and was dragging to
mewling animal backwards into some sort of misty funnel suspended just off the ground.
The beast walked on two legs, had no arms that I could see, and its head seemed to grow directly
out of its body... my first thought was of the sketches of fast running thunderbeasts
and ferocious hippos I had seen in book about the jungle wildlife of Chult. But this was no raptor,
it just moved like one, it balanced its powerful jaws with a somewhat rigid tail behind it. Over
top of the noise from the agonized sheep, the rest of the bleeting flock, the screaming farm girl
next to me and the barked oaths of Sprig, there was this ululating wail coming from the creature.
Two sharp thumping twangs from heavy crossbows and I saw a pair of bolts slam into the monster,
it spat out the sheep and almost fell backward into its misty portal and for a moment, I thought
we had beaten it. Then out of nowhere, two more of the damned things popped out of the air, this
time they ignored the sheep and advanced on us. I didn't know this at the time, but this was an
unusual situation that I was thankfully well prepared for, or at least, Sprig was, you see,
not only did Sprig have a mind packed full of delicious, complex and seasonal recipes,
Sprig was also a highly skilled alchemist, having collected, studied and tested many,
many rare books on the subject, with all sorts of weird plants, animals and minerals in urns, jars,
pots and cages lining every wall with shelves stacked in oddities. When Spring flipped open
a leather quiver full of carefully arranged, hand crafted and well protected crossbow bolts
and loaded it swiftly into a hand crossbow, this was actually the first time I was to witness the
techniques of Cadderly Bonaduce in action, and yes, Sprig also had some spindle disks for close
range combat, I had seen those in action and trust me, they are far more formidable than they appear.
The hand crossbow took rough aim, more a ballistic shot that sailed up and came down in between the
two beasts, then there was a thundering boom, a punching shockwave and the turf plumed out in a
perfect circle, with clods of it raining down from quite a height. Staggered and stunned,
the two creatures veered off away from the explosive crossbow bolt and presented their flanks
to the heavy crossbow shots from the rooftops. These ones did not retreat out of phase with the
world like the first one did, they were not dead yet, but they were no longer any great danger.
Sprig was wide eyed at the result of the blast and must have been thinking that
more padding was required on that hip quiver packed with more of the bolts. I did mention that
cadderly carried his in a bandoleer belt, ah well, they worked and without a puff of smoke powder.
The first creature did not return that night, but I foolishly thought we had seen the last of it...
we had not, I learned later that they are called Ethereal Marauders, but based on the way the
survivor tracked us for days and attacked us again when we were least expecting it,
tired, injured and far from Beregost, seriously wounding poor Sprig, I would have named them
Ethereal Stalkers or assassins or something. That wailing sound and those three fang packed jaws
darting out of the sudden fog of the border ethereal plane... is very frightening in person.
It turns out that while one usually encounters ethereal marauders on their own,
we had encountered a mated trio of them, mating triplets gather once every couple of years and we
were very lucky to be up on those rooftops because the trio are very good at flanking their victims,
one will spook the prey, and then the other two pick off individuals as they scatter and run in
different directions. If you think of the hunting tactics of a Velociraptor, then add in the ability
to shift between the ethereal plane and back again, you can see how they are very, very good
at ambush hunting. They will also patiently wait for their prey to be sleeping soundly around a
campfire before they launch a deadly attack, and in those instances, they do it silently and pick
off one member of a group at a time. It was three days before we saw that first marauder again,
so, they are very patient hunters that move easily through the border ethereal plane..
I can imagine, if Sprig and I had any reason to suspect that it was there, using magic to
see into the ghostly realm, it would have given us severe heebie jeebies to see the damn thing right
by us that whole time, watching us and picking it's moment. Even badly injured, a marauder that
knows its prey can't cross over after it into the ethereal plane will continue to track and attack,
even if it is just to inflict one wound and then withdraw for a while, this tactic puts its prey
at serious risk of succumbing to other threats or becoming unable to defend themselves due to
infection or just exhaustion from the pain and lack of rest. Its the same tactic human hunters
used to become the super predators we evolved into, tirelessly jogging along after their prey,
throwing rocks and wearing it down until it eventually collapses and we close in
as a group for the kill. There is a very deadly reason why humans can run marathons,
our bodies cooled by our sweat, we might not be faster than other running animals, but we can
inevitably outrun any other creature on the face of the planet, and that is pretty damn scary.
Ethereal marauders have multiple lungs and emit a wailing whining sound, the pitch starts of high,
but lowers noticeably as the creatures become injured or fatigued, my investigation revealed
they have multiple lungs, but I'm not sure if that is the reason for the noise.
They don't have a neck, their torso includes a gaping maw surrounded by three powerful mandibles;
gleaming, jet-black teeth line the inner mouth and three small red eyes surround the maw,
one eye between each of those mandibles. For the Marauder, shifting between the two planes
is simply a partial movement action, so they can move to attack and then fade away immediately each
round. They do tend to linger on the material plane when they sense they are close to killing
or incapacitating their prey, also when they are working as a trio, they tend to stay and attack
one target in an attempt to overwhelm, grapple and drag the victim away, combining their strength,
which makes them more vulnerable for a just a few moments, however, the creatures are smart enough
to move around quickly, phase in and out and in doing so, make it hard to figure out exactly how
many are attacking, only careful study has revealed it is almost never more than three
unless there are very large numbers of them in a particular region, drawn there for some reason.
Thankfully, marauders can not take living creatures with them when they cross between
the ethereal and material planes, they can only take dead creatures, otherwise,
they would be far more deadly. Mature, highly experienced marauder trios instead
perform fast, stuttered attacks, which makes it seem like one creature is teleporting around
very quickly and attacking many times per round. The ability to see the invisible or anything
that reveals ghosts or incorporeal creatures will work on marauders, unfortunately stopping
their ability to cross between the planes is much more difficult in 5th edition D&D.
Private Sanctum is a 4th level wizard spell (formerly Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum,
but it seems likely Wizards of the Coast is doing away with named spells
in order to prevent having to reprint the spell as a different version for every campaign setting,
Magic the Gathering settings for instance, which is a bit of a blow to the history of
the game itself, but I can see why its a good idea for them as the publisher). The problem
with Private Sanctum is that it takes ten minutes to cast, which is useless for a surprise attack,
but handy if one knows one is being hunted by marauders and just wants a 24 hour break from
getting dimensionally ambushed. Clerics can cast Forbiddance, a 6th level spell, a superior spell
that can also kill marauders who dare enter the protected area by conventional means,
but, it costs 1000 gold worth of spell components and also takes ten minutes to cast.
Also note that 5th edition no longer allows magic missile to target creatures in the border
ethereal plane, so firing them off at a marauder as it crosses over is no longer a viable tactic.
They still can't pass through living creatures or walls of force though.
If your magic user can see the marauder, even if it is on the border ethereal plane and appears
as a ghostly monster, the 5th level spell Hold Monster is just as effective at causing paralysis.
We have several sets of homebrew stat blocks for the Ethereal Marauder on the D&D Beyond website,
they all seem to agree they are medium sized and of high animal intelligence,
with a natural armor class or 14 or 15 and around 60 hit points. They have a speed of 40
feet per round and are +1 to initiative rolls, +3 to stealth and +3 to perception. A typical
Marauder will have a strength of 14, dexterity of 12, constitution of 11, intelligence of 7, wisdom
of 12 and charisma of 10. They can use an ethereal jaunt as a bonus action or reaction and their bite
is +4 to hit a target within 5 ft, inflicting up to 4d10+4 piercing damage. You may want to
give them the ability to grapple with their bite attack, not to drag them into the ethereal plane,
which is not possible but to leave the victim open to attacks from different directions.
Ethereal marauders’ colouration ranges from bright blue to deep violet. They stand about 4 feet tall,
but their overall length is about 7 feet and weigh about 200 pounds or so.
There is a very rich ecosystem of alien life forms which have become native to the ethereal plane,
so it's common to find marauders that are also infested with parasites or are actually hunting
creatures that have become attracted to magical planar spells and effects on the prime material
plane. Marauders tend to steer well clear of Blink Dogs and they also don't hunt dragons unless they
have no other sources of food available... dragons tend to be able to wipe the floor with marauders
even from a relatively young age, as marauders have a hard time dealing with flying prey,
also, they don't swim very well at all and avoid going into water. They are very good at hunting
creatures in the Underdark, as they have the ability to pass through walls and difficult
terrain with ease in an ethereal state. If you are ever wanting a quick and easy
set of stats for them, just modify the stat block for a crocodile, give them
the ethereal jaunt bonus action ability, also the power to see into the ethereal plane,
and a 40 ft movement rate. Easy peasy. Obviously, physical components from these
monsters are highly valued in the creations of ethereal plane related magic items,
potions and such. The black fangs are the most potent and also look really cool as a necklace.
My name is AJ Pickett, I make videos about Roleplaying games,
uploading deeply nerdy content for you every few days, I have some new merch,
thanks for listening and I will be back with more for you soon.