It’s Midgard Monday! Each week, we visit a corner of the wide world of Midgard. Look for standalone content you can drop into your campaign—whether it’s in Midgard or your own homebrew. Find new inspiration each Midgard Monday!
Few dangers of Midgard strike more fear into ordinary folk than werewolves. Their primal savagery is terrifying, but the idea that anyone, even your friends and family, can be affected by the curse of lycanthropy holds a special place of darkness in a commoner’s heart.
The largest concentration of werewolves lives in The Vargrike up in the Northlands (see Midgard Worldbook). Sadly, the werewolves of that terrible kingdom are not the only lycanthropes in Midgard.
The Ebontooth Marauders are a savage werewolf pack that holds dominion over part of the Arbonesse Forest.
Ebontooth Marauders
This large pack of mainly pureblood werewolves of human and elfmarked ancestry has existed for almost seventy winters. The Ebontooth Marauders haunt the lands west of Lake Phandar in the Duchy of Dornig, threatening the isolated townships and villages of the southern Arbonesse.
The Ebontooth Marauders are known by this name thanks to their habit of painting their teeth black before they go hunting. This behavior dates back to the pack’s creation and is meant to conceal the gleam of their fangs in the moonlight.
Aside from black teeth, the werewolves generally have dark brown or reddish-brown fur with fetishes of bone and wood woven into their sleek fur. The pack numbers almost fifty members, including children. While in humanoid forms, most work as furriers, trappers, or tanners for the local communities.
The Ebontooth Marauders are consummate hunters of living prey. They focus on hunting wild beasts, goblin raiders, explorers, and lumberers who plunder the Arbonesse Forest.
They actively avoid parts of the forest known to harbor fey creatures such as dryads and pixies, and elven settlements deep within due to an ancient oath taken by the pack’s forebears. So far, this has protected the pack from repercussions from the elves, who share a similar mindset regarding human intruders into their domain.
Modern Problems
Recently, with the return of more elves to the lands of Dornig, the number of humans and elfmarked venturing into the Arbonesse Forest has increased. The Ebontooth Marauders are just one of the forest’s many native groups coming to terms with the new status quo.
Unfortunately, the leader of the Marauders, a vicious pureblood elfmarked werewolf named Nazalareen, has taken poorly to the increased presence of “foreigners” and the pack is pushing for action. This includes potentially attacking a human fishing village on the shores of Lake Phandar to send a message and gather recruits.
Opposing Nazalareen is his packmate Themyra, a cursed human werewolf from the Seven Cities who was brought into the fold by Nazalareen seven years ago. She holds power in the group thanks to her druidic abilities. Themyra knows that attacking a village might bring consequences from Reywald. She doesn’t think the pack is ready for that.
Running the Pack
While the Ebontooth Marauders are a formidable group of werewolves, most are normal specimens of their kind. More than half carry shortbows instead of spears but typically only use them when out hunting in humanoid form. The pack typically hunts in groups of 4–6, spending most of their time in wolf form, only assuming hybrid form against formidable enemies.
Unlike some werewolf packs, the Ebontooth Marauders refuse to ally with creatures such as worgs, mainly given worgs’ propensity for hanging out with goblins and other monsters that defile the forest with their presence.
In addition to regular werewolves, the pack has a few members who are more powerful than normal, including their leaders, Nazalareen and Themyra.
Nazalareen
Medium Humanoid (Human, Shapechanger), Chaotic Evil
Armor Class 14 (in humanoid form, 15 in wolf or hybrid form)
Hit Points 102 (12d8 + 48)
Speed 30 ft. (40 ft. In wolf form)
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
| 18 (+4) | 16 (+3) | 18 (+4) | 10 (+0) | 13 (+1) | 15 (+2) |
Skills Perception +5, Stealth +6
Damage Immunities bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing rom nonmagical attacks not made with silvered weapons
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15
Languages Common, elvish
Challenge 5 (1,800 XP) Proficiency Bonus +3
ACTIONS
Bite (Wolf or Hybrid Form Only). Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d8 + 4) piercing damage. If the target is a humanoid, it must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be cursed with werewolf lycanthropy.
Claws (Hybrid Form Only). Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 9 (2d4 + 4) slashing damage.
Greatsword (Hybrid or Humanoid Form Only). Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage.
Themyra
Themyra is a neutral evil werewolf with the special abilities of a druid from the SRD (giving her CR 4). Her spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 12, +4 to hit with spell attacks) and she typically prepares the following spells:
Cantrips (at will): druidcraft, produce flame, shillelagh
1st level (4 slots): entangle, healing word, speak with animals, thunderwave
2nd level (3 slots): barkskin, moonbeam
In addition, Themyra has learned several rare rituals, including the ability to create dreaded faux-garous (see Tome of Beasts 3). So far, Themyra has only made a single faux-garou from the carcass of a previous pack member, though Nazalareen is keen for her to create more.
Adventure Hooks
The Ebontooth Marauders are a good group of villains for a party of tier 2 PCs (levels 5–8) traversing the eastern Arbonesse Forest. Some ways to use them:
- Themyra needs an intact corpse to create a new faux-garou, so she gets a couple of pack members to steal a fresh one from a local graveyard. The corpse’s disappearance is blamed on ghouls. When the PCs are hired to deal with it, they face an altogether different foe.
- A noted botanist hires the PCs to escort them to a section of the Eastern Arbonesse deep in Marauder territory to gather rare plants found only in the region. When they dispatch a band of goblin raiders along the way, a hunting party of werewolves resents the intrusion.
- A son of Fenris (see Tome of Beasts) manifests within the Ebontooth Marauders’ hunting grounds and begins picking off werewolves. The Marauders believe the wolf god Fenris has sent the creature to kill them for some forgotten transgression. They seek an outsider group with silver or magical weapons to slay it.
Discover the wider world of Midgard in the Midgard Worldbook!
