Libertad
Legend
Heorot Part 2: Friends & Foes
Making up half of the rest of Heorot, Friends and Foes provides us with 48 NPC and monster stat blocks which adventurers can encounter in this Domain of Dread. Quite a few of them have been reprinted from other 5th Edition sourcebooks, notably Rime of the Frostmaiden, or even converted from earlier Edition bestiaries. I already covered Heorot’s political leaders in the prior post, and going over every creature would make this review too long, so I’ll focus on what I think are the most interesting ones.
Amarok (CR 5) are magical wolves that are invisible and insubstantial in sunlight but appear fully-formed at night. They are revered as primordial spirits by druids and animistic faiths, but their true origins are unknown and they hunt and act without seeming rhyme or reason. They can eat the souls of people via Soul Cage, and their breaths have restorative powers that can cure exhaustion levels and diseases as well as hit point damage.
Beowulf (CR 16) is a great hero who underwent a troubling change when the Mists claimed Heorot. Whenever he takes to battle there’s an increasing chance he’ll transform into a fierce bear-like monster. Although he would make a great ally for PCs, he is unable to see the Life Blade and thus cannot wield it. Statwise he is a powerful melee-focused warrior who has Legendary Actions, gains various buffs when he fights unarmed and unarmored, can tear a limb from someone if they fail to escape his grapples by 10 or more, and every round in combat he has an increasing chance to turn into a bear or bear-human hybrid that grants him more powerful bite and claw attacks.
Bloodfire Oozes (CR 7-9 depending on size) are creations of fire giant necromancers made from slain trespassers. They have no will of their own and obey their creators, and in addition to spewing sulfur and bursting into flames they can also empower the damage of fire attacks within 60 feet.
Butsecarl (CR 3) are more powerful housecarls that serve as full-time warriors for a house or leader. They are melee fighters with the ability to Action Surge, Pack Tactics, and a special Repelling Strike where they can choose to deal half damage for the opportunity to push an enemy up to 10 feet away. There’s a sidebar for butsecarls with specialized roles on longships, with different ability scores, skills, and tool proficiencies.
Crawling Apocalypses (CR 6) are mollusk-like undead from the depths of the Whale Road, a danger to nearby communities when they wash up on shore. It can attack with barbed tentacles and its bite can inflict a unique disease known as bluerot. Bluerot causes boils and fevers along with Constitution and Charisma damage, but grants the ability to breathe underwater.
Dweorgs are a dwarven subrace blessed with magical innovations, and their origins are uncertain although Heorot’s inhabitants often tie them to Nordic mythology. They are the best crafters in the domain, although their greedy and vindictive ways often require a heavy price. We have a table for magic items they can craft for PCs separated by item rarity, GP cost, and possible services required. Dweorgs have multiple stat blocks, most being drawn from existing Duergar, although we have two new types: the Dweorg Alchemist (CR 1) and Dweorg Crafter (CR 6) who are basically Artificers that come equipped with magic items that lose their properties several days after their deaths.
Grendel (CR 19) is a powerful monster who is predictably melee-focused. He is immune to the charmed and frightened conditions and has excellent Athletics (+12) for grappling. He can Regenerate 20 hit points per round and regain hit points when biting a helpless target, and his legendary actions include being able to stuff helpless and grappled targets into his Bag of Holding along with dealing automatic damage to objects when moving. If reduced to 0 Hit Points he doesn’t die, instead regaining hit points and can move extra-fast back to the Mere-Wife’s lair at which point he dies. Grendel has no real long-range attacks besides an AoE Hopeless Hail which deals psychic damage to creatures within 15 feet.
Healgamen the Scop (CR 5) serves King Hrothgar and Queen Waltheow of Heorot Hall. His abilities are so grand that his very tales can conjure spiritual echoes of characters from his sagas. He also possesses a Lyre of Building he plays every day to make Heorot Hall look timelessly new, giving rumors that the building is indestructible. In terms of stats Healgamen shines strongest when not in battle. He has the spells of a bard and can cast Augury or Legend Lore twice per day as Scaldic Visions. Twice per day he can perform a damaging Death Whisper in the form of a riddle (“What did Odin whisper in Balder’s ear before Balder’s corpse was burned?”) that causes psychic damage to a target on a failed save and forces them to spend their movement running away from Healgamen. Five times per day he can relate a particular Saga Tale to be of use. It is a 1d12 table of various named tales. For example, the Tale of the Draugur can turn a target invisible for one round and the target deals additional necrotic damage and the frightened condition to a target struck during this time. While Tale of Hugin and Munin lets the target add a d12 to any Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma check for the next 10 minutes.
Housecarl (CR 3) are the bread and butter of Heorot’s warriors, specialized to fight in shieldwalls. They are high-AC sword and board (or spear and board) fighters who can Shield Bash, have Pack Tactics, can shield an ally as per the Protection Fighting Style, and deal 3d6 extra damage to a creature once per turn when within 5 feet of an ally also engaging the enemy.
Hranfolk have a variety of stat blocks depending on their roles, although all have the ability to communicate with reindeer. Drovers (CR 1) take care of and herd reindeer, capable of gaining a variety of buffs when mounted on a deer and can restore hit points to the deer they tend. Shamans (CR 5) cast spells and wild shape as druids but have a variety of unique abilities such as a Thunder Drum that deals 2d6 thunder damage in a 100 foot range (wow!) along with being able to cast Ceremony and Contact Other Plane as part of their religious duties. Warriors (CR 5) are powerful fighters who make use of magical runes to better survive against the horrors of the Mists, with Battle Runes that grant various buffs and a Runic Shield which can force a nearby target to reroll an attack roll.
We also get two new weapons favored by the Hranfolk: the bolas deals a base 1 bludgeoning damage as a thrown weapon but can restrain a creature, and the atlatl basically improves the range of a thrown spear to 90/240 feet.
Leif Ratatosk (CR 2) is a gnome weresquirrel who claims to have been hatched from an acorn that fell from Yggdrasil’s branches. He can be encountered as one of the sample adventure hooks, being vaguely aware of a weapon that can end Heorot’s curse somewhere in the Mist Mere. Leif doesn’t have many truly unique abilities besides gnome racial traits and the ability to transform into a squirrel or hybrid form, although his lycanthropic damage immunities make him able to punch above his weight class against many of Heorot’s horrors.
We have a sidebar for PCs who become weresquirrels. Basically they get a huge boost to Dexterity, making it a 19 if the score is lower, and gain squirrel-like climbing speed and a bite attack while in squirrel or hybrid form. Forced alignment changes from embracing the curse moves them to Chaotic alignment.
The Mere-Wife (CR 22) is the Darklord of Heorot, and her lair is an underwater grotto in the Mist Mere. In combat she is a powerful opponent with a shadow-formed blade that can be used in melee and ranged combat. She also has a variety of innate spells geared towards illusion and misdirection, and can turn into mist like a vampire to retreat to her lair should she die from non-Life Blade injuries. She also gets new abilities and Legendary Actions if Grendel is present, such as being able to protect him with warding mists that can make attackers choose a new target, and move and attack nearby opponents that harmed her or Grendel. Her lair actions include tendrils of grappling water, magical darkness, and summoning monsters made of shadow.
Nicor (CR 11) are evil sea serpents made directly from the Dark Powers and are one of the most feared creatures on the Whale Road. They have powerful melee attacks and AoE sonic attacks, and have Legendary Actions that grant it additional movement and bite attacks.
Nithing (CR 2) is a general term for those exiled from communities for dishonorable behavior, but this stat block reflects those outcasts who made pacts with wicked entities so that they can survive in a world turned against them. They aren’t physically powerful nor do they have spellcasting, but they possess an ability to charm others and instill intense desires to approach them, the ability to deal psychic damage by leeching off their life force, and a form of lonesome-induced mental influence that causes a target to view all other creatures as enemies to attack.
Nixie (CR 1) are fey who dwell in lakes, streams, and ponds, and often magically charm humanoids to serve as guards and laborers. While so charmed they have a telepathic link with the nixie and can breathe underwater. Nixies who gather into groups of 10 or more are capable of casting a collective Geas spell on a humanoid with a duration of 1 year.
Sceadugenga (CR 6) are the physical manifestations of raw vengeance, living in the dark woods of Heorot and filled with an all-consuming desire to kill anyone they come across. They fight with phantasmal blades which impose disadvantage on saving throws to targets, are able to become invisible in dim light and darkness, and can mark targets with a Wrathful Hex that causes them to suffer additional damage from the Sceadugenga’s attacks.
Selkie (CR ½) are seals with fey ancestry, allowing them to transform into humanoids or seal-humanoid hybrids. Their songs are magically-empowered, capable of healing injuries and a variety of diseases and maladies, and they fight with longswords made of mithral.* Selkie prefer the sea, but often find themselves drawn to land where they fall in love with humanoids. A few of their kind are spellcasters, gaining nature-themed innate spells such as Animal Messenger (seals only), fog cloud, and Augury and Commune with Nature as rituals. In the case of Augury, we get unique means of sea-themed casting traditions such as studying the behavior of fish or throwing clam shells.
*How much does that sell for as loot? The book doesn’t say.
The Wyrm (CR 22) is a unique fire-breathing dragon with a venomous bite, its hoard gathered from riches of the barrows of long-forgotten kingdoms. It has become lazy, content to protect its hoard and hunt animals in the mountains, yet the riches within have caused many hapless adventurers to cross paths and perish under its might. Statwise the Wyrm is well…a dragon, with powerful melee attacks, a Frightful Presence, Legendary Actions, and two types of breath weapons: your typical Fire Breath and a Sickening Slime that imposes disadvantage on various Strength abilities, saves, and attacks for 1 minute. Interestingly the Wyrm is sensitive to sunlight, suffering disadvantage on ability checks when affected. Its lair actions include tremors, noxious smoke, and magical darkness.
Overall Thoughts: The collection of new monsters is a welcome one, and are broad enough to be useful in non-Ravenloft campaigns. I do like how many of the humanoid NPCs have features which make them useful outside of direct combat, such as Waltheow’s inspirational abilities, the Dweorg magic item services, Healgamen’s bardic abilities, and the powers of the Selkie. There’s a nice variety of creature types as well, which in addition to the official monsters mentioned earlier helps Heorot from becoming too stale in the types of dangers to be found.
My main criticism is that a lot of the creatures, particularly those same humanoids, are a bit too specialized for melee. As in they don’t have reliable means of threatening flying and high-speed ranged attackers unless they get a bow or similar weapon. The Shieldwall and Boar’s Snout tactics of Heorot’s various leaders are cool and in line with early British and Scandinavian warfare, but for any spellcaster with AoE attacks this is a big glowing “FIREBALL NOW” sign. In some cases this is mitigated, like the final battle with the Mere-Wife taking place in an enclosed grotto or the fact that not all of Heorot’s leaders are the kind of people most gaming groups would seek to slay by default.
Another criticism I have are the Challenge Ratings of the darklord as well as several other prominent characters. Beowulf, King Rodfare, and the Wyrm are balanced for characters of at least Tier 3, and while Heorot has a diverse set of challenges and story ideas for all levels of play the central conflict isn’t the kind that would be friendly to lower-level parties. I suppose having the various hired help and Beowulf along for the ride is meant to help even the odds, although this runs the chance of being upshone by an NPC even if the PCs must be the ones to end the Darklord’s curse once found.
But overall, Heorot: Beowulf’s Domain of Dread is a cool domain that feels unique among Ravenloft products and has lots of material for at least several sessions worth of gaming. I certainly don’t regret its purchase, and it rates rather highly among the domain-centric sourcebooks I’ve read and reviewed so far.
Join us next time as we embark on a level 1-12 adventure path in the Realm of the Blood Queen!
Making up half of the rest of Heorot, Friends and Foes provides us with 48 NPC and monster stat blocks which adventurers can encounter in this Domain of Dread. Quite a few of them have been reprinted from other 5th Edition sourcebooks, notably Rime of the Frostmaiden, or even converted from earlier Edition bestiaries. I already covered Heorot’s political leaders in the prior post, and going over every creature would make this review too long, so I’ll focus on what I think are the most interesting ones.
Amarok (CR 5) are magical wolves that are invisible and insubstantial in sunlight but appear fully-formed at night. They are revered as primordial spirits by druids and animistic faiths, but their true origins are unknown and they hunt and act without seeming rhyme or reason. They can eat the souls of people via Soul Cage, and their breaths have restorative powers that can cure exhaustion levels and diseases as well as hit point damage.

Beowulf (CR 16) is a great hero who underwent a troubling change when the Mists claimed Heorot. Whenever he takes to battle there’s an increasing chance he’ll transform into a fierce bear-like monster. Although he would make a great ally for PCs, he is unable to see the Life Blade and thus cannot wield it. Statwise he is a powerful melee-focused warrior who has Legendary Actions, gains various buffs when he fights unarmed and unarmored, can tear a limb from someone if they fail to escape his grapples by 10 or more, and every round in combat he has an increasing chance to turn into a bear or bear-human hybrid that grants him more powerful bite and claw attacks.
Bloodfire Oozes (CR 7-9 depending on size) are creations of fire giant necromancers made from slain trespassers. They have no will of their own and obey their creators, and in addition to spewing sulfur and bursting into flames they can also empower the damage of fire attacks within 60 feet.
Butsecarl (CR 3) are more powerful housecarls that serve as full-time warriors for a house or leader. They are melee fighters with the ability to Action Surge, Pack Tactics, and a special Repelling Strike where they can choose to deal half damage for the opportunity to push an enemy up to 10 feet away. There’s a sidebar for butsecarls with specialized roles on longships, with different ability scores, skills, and tool proficiencies.
Crawling Apocalypses (CR 6) are mollusk-like undead from the depths of the Whale Road, a danger to nearby communities when they wash up on shore. It can attack with barbed tentacles and its bite can inflict a unique disease known as bluerot. Bluerot causes boils and fevers along with Constitution and Charisma damage, but grants the ability to breathe underwater.
Dweorgs are a dwarven subrace blessed with magical innovations, and their origins are uncertain although Heorot’s inhabitants often tie them to Nordic mythology. They are the best crafters in the domain, although their greedy and vindictive ways often require a heavy price. We have a table for magic items they can craft for PCs separated by item rarity, GP cost, and possible services required. Dweorgs have multiple stat blocks, most being drawn from existing Duergar, although we have two new types: the Dweorg Alchemist (CR 1) and Dweorg Crafter (CR 6) who are basically Artificers that come equipped with magic items that lose their properties several days after their deaths.

Grendel (CR 19) is a powerful monster who is predictably melee-focused. He is immune to the charmed and frightened conditions and has excellent Athletics (+12) for grappling. He can Regenerate 20 hit points per round and regain hit points when biting a helpless target, and his legendary actions include being able to stuff helpless and grappled targets into his Bag of Holding along with dealing automatic damage to objects when moving. If reduced to 0 Hit Points he doesn’t die, instead regaining hit points and can move extra-fast back to the Mere-Wife’s lair at which point he dies. Grendel has no real long-range attacks besides an AoE Hopeless Hail which deals psychic damage to creatures within 15 feet.
Healgamen the Scop (CR 5) serves King Hrothgar and Queen Waltheow of Heorot Hall. His abilities are so grand that his very tales can conjure spiritual echoes of characters from his sagas. He also possesses a Lyre of Building he plays every day to make Heorot Hall look timelessly new, giving rumors that the building is indestructible. In terms of stats Healgamen shines strongest when not in battle. He has the spells of a bard and can cast Augury or Legend Lore twice per day as Scaldic Visions. Twice per day he can perform a damaging Death Whisper in the form of a riddle (“What did Odin whisper in Balder’s ear before Balder’s corpse was burned?”) that causes psychic damage to a target on a failed save and forces them to spend their movement running away from Healgamen. Five times per day he can relate a particular Saga Tale to be of use. It is a 1d12 table of various named tales. For example, the Tale of the Draugur can turn a target invisible for one round and the target deals additional necrotic damage and the frightened condition to a target struck during this time. While Tale of Hugin and Munin lets the target add a d12 to any Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma check for the next 10 minutes.
Housecarl (CR 3) are the bread and butter of Heorot’s warriors, specialized to fight in shieldwalls. They are high-AC sword and board (or spear and board) fighters who can Shield Bash, have Pack Tactics, can shield an ally as per the Protection Fighting Style, and deal 3d6 extra damage to a creature once per turn when within 5 feet of an ally also engaging the enemy.
Hranfolk have a variety of stat blocks depending on their roles, although all have the ability to communicate with reindeer. Drovers (CR 1) take care of and herd reindeer, capable of gaining a variety of buffs when mounted on a deer and can restore hit points to the deer they tend. Shamans (CR 5) cast spells and wild shape as druids but have a variety of unique abilities such as a Thunder Drum that deals 2d6 thunder damage in a 100 foot range (wow!) along with being able to cast Ceremony and Contact Other Plane as part of their religious duties. Warriors (CR 5) are powerful fighters who make use of magical runes to better survive against the horrors of the Mists, with Battle Runes that grant various buffs and a Runic Shield which can force a nearby target to reroll an attack roll.
We also get two new weapons favored by the Hranfolk: the bolas deals a base 1 bludgeoning damage as a thrown weapon but can restrain a creature, and the atlatl basically improves the range of a thrown spear to 90/240 feet.

Leif Ratatosk (CR 2) is a gnome weresquirrel who claims to have been hatched from an acorn that fell from Yggdrasil’s branches. He can be encountered as one of the sample adventure hooks, being vaguely aware of a weapon that can end Heorot’s curse somewhere in the Mist Mere. Leif doesn’t have many truly unique abilities besides gnome racial traits and the ability to transform into a squirrel or hybrid form, although his lycanthropic damage immunities make him able to punch above his weight class against many of Heorot’s horrors.
We have a sidebar for PCs who become weresquirrels. Basically they get a huge boost to Dexterity, making it a 19 if the score is lower, and gain squirrel-like climbing speed and a bite attack while in squirrel or hybrid form. Forced alignment changes from embracing the curse moves them to Chaotic alignment.
The Mere-Wife (CR 22) is the Darklord of Heorot, and her lair is an underwater grotto in the Mist Mere. In combat she is a powerful opponent with a shadow-formed blade that can be used in melee and ranged combat. She also has a variety of innate spells geared towards illusion and misdirection, and can turn into mist like a vampire to retreat to her lair should she die from non-Life Blade injuries. She also gets new abilities and Legendary Actions if Grendel is present, such as being able to protect him with warding mists that can make attackers choose a new target, and move and attack nearby opponents that harmed her or Grendel. Her lair actions include tendrils of grappling water, magical darkness, and summoning monsters made of shadow.
Nicor (CR 11) are evil sea serpents made directly from the Dark Powers and are one of the most feared creatures on the Whale Road. They have powerful melee attacks and AoE sonic attacks, and have Legendary Actions that grant it additional movement and bite attacks.
Nithing (CR 2) is a general term for those exiled from communities for dishonorable behavior, but this stat block reflects those outcasts who made pacts with wicked entities so that they can survive in a world turned against them. They aren’t physically powerful nor do they have spellcasting, but they possess an ability to charm others and instill intense desires to approach them, the ability to deal psychic damage by leeching off their life force, and a form of lonesome-induced mental influence that causes a target to view all other creatures as enemies to attack.
Nixie (CR 1) are fey who dwell in lakes, streams, and ponds, and often magically charm humanoids to serve as guards and laborers. While so charmed they have a telepathic link with the nixie and can breathe underwater. Nixies who gather into groups of 10 or more are capable of casting a collective Geas spell on a humanoid with a duration of 1 year.
Sceadugenga (CR 6) are the physical manifestations of raw vengeance, living in the dark woods of Heorot and filled with an all-consuming desire to kill anyone they come across. They fight with phantasmal blades which impose disadvantage on saving throws to targets, are able to become invisible in dim light and darkness, and can mark targets with a Wrathful Hex that causes them to suffer additional damage from the Sceadugenga’s attacks.
Selkie (CR ½) are seals with fey ancestry, allowing them to transform into humanoids or seal-humanoid hybrids. Their songs are magically-empowered, capable of healing injuries and a variety of diseases and maladies, and they fight with longswords made of mithral.* Selkie prefer the sea, but often find themselves drawn to land where they fall in love with humanoids. A few of their kind are spellcasters, gaining nature-themed innate spells such as Animal Messenger (seals only), fog cloud, and Augury and Commune with Nature as rituals. In the case of Augury, we get unique means of sea-themed casting traditions such as studying the behavior of fish or throwing clam shells.
*How much does that sell for as loot? The book doesn’t say.

The Wyrm (CR 22) is a unique fire-breathing dragon with a venomous bite, its hoard gathered from riches of the barrows of long-forgotten kingdoms. It has become lazy, content to protect its hoard and hunt animals in the mountains, yet the riches within have caused many hapless adventurers to cross paths and perish under its might. Statwise the Wyrm is well…a dragon, with powerful melee attacks, a Frightful Presence, Legendary Actions, and two types of breath weapons: your typical Fire Breath and a Sickening Slime that imposes disadvantage on various Strength abilities, saves, and attacks for 1 minute. Interestingly the Wyrm is sensitive to sunlight, suffering disadvantage on ability checks when affected. Its lair actions include tremors, noxious smoke, and magical darkness.
Overall Thoughts: The collection of new monsters is a welcome one, and are broad enough to be useful in non-Ravenloft campaigns. I do like how many of the humanoid NPCs have features which make them useful outside of direct combat, such as Waltheow’s inspirational abilities, the Dweorg magic item services, Healgamen’s bardic abilities, and the powers of the Selkie. There’s a nice variety of creature types as well, which in addition to the official monsters mentioned earlier helps Heorot from becoming too stale in the types of dangers to be found.
My main criticism is that a lot of the creatures, particularly those same humanoids, are a bit too specialized for melee. As in they don’t have reliable means of threatening flying and high-speed ranged attackers unless they get a bow or similar weapon. The Shieldwall and Boar’s Snout tactics of Heorot’s various leaders are cool and in line with early British and Scandinavian warfare, but for any spellcaster with AoE attacks this is a big glowing “FIREBALL NOW” sign. In some cases this is mitigated, like the final battle with the Mere-Wife taking place in an enclosed grotto or the fact that not all of Heorot’s leaders are the kind of people most gaming groups would seek to slay by default.
Another criticism I have are the Challenge Ratings of the darklord as well as several other prominent characters. Beowulf, King Rodfare, and the Wyrm are balanced for characters of at least Tier 3, and while Heorot has a diverse set of challenges and story ideas for all levels of play the central conflict isn’t the kind that would be friendly to lower-level parties. I suppose having the various hired help and Beowulf along for the ride is meant to help even the odds, although this runs the chance of being upshone by an NPC even if the PCs must be the ones to end the Darklord’s curse once found.
But overall, Heorot: Beowulf’s Domain of Dread is a cool domain that feels unique among Ravenloft products and has lots of material for at least several sessions worth of gaming. I certainly don’t regret its purchase, and it rates rather highly among the domain-centric sourcebooks I’ve read and reviewed so far.
Join us next time as we embark on a level 1-12 adventure path in the Realm of the Blood Queen!