Brynhild Plaguebringer
Brynhild Plaguebringer — The Encounter
Sickness-marked shieldmaiden who reaps the dying with twin axes · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Brynhild Plaguebringer
Of Brynhild the sagas sang first as a shining shieldmaiden, doomed by oath and betrayal to a sleep ringed in fire. This is the verse the skalds dared not finish. Where her pyre once burned, the smoke would not lift, and from it she rose again with the fever already in her veins, her beauty curdled to the green of a three-day corpse. They named her Plaguebringer, for she carries the wasting on her breath and reaps with twin axes those whom sickness has already begun to claim. She walks ahead of armies as an omen, and the wise abandon any field she crosses; the dying she finishes, the wounded she infects, and the dead she counts as her tithe. Some say she still seeks the betrayer of the old songs, and that every soul she fells is a poor wager against that debt. She does not hurry. The fever, after all, does her patient work.
Run Brynhild Plaguebringer in Sixty Seconds
- Aura first Every turn she's in melee, Pestilent Aura forces a DC 14 Con save on everyone within 10 ft. — roll it at the START of her turn before she even attacks; failure means poisoned AND no healing on a big miss.
- Open with Breath of Rot If three or more foes are clustered, lead with the cone (5d8 necrotic), then Carrion Step in so the aura catches them too.
- Kill-priority She hunts the hurt — Reaper of the Dying gives advantage and +1d8 necrotic against anyone not at full HP. Point her axes at the lowest-HP hero and the wounded healer.
- When bloodied She stops retreating and leans on Spiteful Cut, swinging on a reaction every time a creature near her hits 0 — don't drop your own downed allies in her reach.
- Three ways to run her (1) plague enforcer harassing a backline beside a boss; (2) attrition wall in a tight corridor where the aura can't be escaped; (3) skirmisher with Sott flanking, dragging targets prone for advantage.
Brynhild Plaguebringer
Medium undead, neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEPestilent Aura. Signature. A miasma of sickness clings to Brynhild. At the start of each of her turns, every creature within 10 feet of her that can breathe must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or take 7 (2d6) poison damage and be poisoned until the start of Brynhild's next turn. A creature that fails by 5 or more also can't regain hit points until the end of its next turn.
Reaper of the Dying. Brynhild has advantage on attack rolls against any creature that doesn't have all its hit points, and her hits against such creatures deal an extra 4 (1d8) necrotic damage.
Actions
Multiattack. Brynhild makes two Plague Axe attacks.
Plague Axe. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) necrotic damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or contract a wasting fever (disadvantage on Constitution checks and saves for 1 hour).
Breath of Rot (Recharge 5-6). Brynhild exhales a cone of grave-vapor in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw, taking 22 (5d8) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. A creature that fails is also poisoned until the end of its next turn.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Carrion Step. Bonus Action. Brynhild moves up to half her speed without provoking opportunity attacks, leaving a 5-foot square of clinging spores that lasts 1 minute; a creature that enters or starts its turn there takes 3 (1d6) poison damage.
Spiteful Cut. Reaction, when a creature within 5 feet drops to 0 hit points or is reduced to 0 by an ally. Brynhild makes one Plague Axe attack against a different creature within reach.
A gaunt shieldmaiden of jaundiced, rot-streaked flesh strides forward in worn studded leather, a great twin-bladed axe gripped in each hand and a pall of sickness drifting at her heels.
Brynhild Plaguebringer, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEPlague-Scent (signature). Brynhild Plaguebringer has advantage on attack rolls against any creature that is poisoned or below half its hit points, and ignores difficult terrain made of corpses or spores.
Actions
Festering Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6+2) piercing damage plus 3 (1d6) poison damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution save or be poisoned until the end of its next turn.
Reactions
Drag Down. Reaction, when it hits a Medium or smaller creature with Festering Bite. The target must succeed on a DC 13 Strength save or be knocked prone.
A lean, mange-ridden hound that pads at her heel, its hide weeping the same green sickness as its mistress.
Guideline numbers — formula-tuned and read from the miniature's design, not yet table-proven. Tell us how it ran in the comments.
How It Fights — by Tier
Same creature, scaled threat. The traits never change; only the numbers move.
Open by wading into the tightest cluster so Pestilent Aura ticks the whole party each round; the aura alone wins attrition fights. Focus the lowest-HP target to trigger Reaper of the Dying advantage. She is an add-on bruiser here, not a finale; pair her with a caster or a bigger boss so the party can't simply gang her.
Open with Breath of Rot on the bunched front line, then Carrion Step into melee so the aura and two Plague Axes land together. Kill-priority is anyone already wounded — advantage plus bonus necrotic snowballs fast. She is the plague enforcer piece; field her beside a flagship boss or alongside Sott so healers stay busy and she isn't focused down alone.
Lead with Breath of Rot, then Multiattack the marked healer; Spiteful Cut lets her keep swinging every time someone drops. Hold her in the aura-soaked chokepoint and let Pestilent Aura's no-healing rider grind the party. Still a lieutenant, not a solo — pair her with a true centerpiece so legendary-tier heroes have a bigger threat to split attention with.
Put Brynhild Plaguebringer on the table
Download the presupported STL and run the fight tonight — the model, and the encounter that comes with it.
Get the STL on MyMiniFactory →Clay Cyanide Companion Rules v1
How a bound creature acts
- A companion acts on its owner's initiative, immediately after the owner.
- It uses the Companion block above — roughly ×0.6 HP and damage, no recharge abilities, and at most one reaction trait.
- It moves freely; it takes its Action only while its owner is conscious.
- At 0 HP a companion is broken, not dead — restored on a long rest unless your table rules otherwise.
Original Clay Cyanide material © Clay Cyanide LLC — explicitly not the non-SRD official sidekick rules.
Questions, Asked at the Table
What CR is Brynhild Plaguebringer?
Her native build is CR 6 (2,300 XP) for a tier-2 party of levels 5-10: AC 16, 120 HP, +7 to hit, save DC 14. Scaled stat lines for tier 1 (levels 1-4) and tier 3 (levels 11-15) are in the tiers table — traits and actions stay identical, only the numbers move.
Can Brynhild be a companion or ally?
She's built as an adversary and an add-on threat rather than a solo boss, but a grim party could absolutely recruit a Plaguebringer — her Pestilent Aura and Reaper of the Dying make her a brutal frontline ally. If you want a friendlier face, run her bound companion Sott the Fever-Hound as the recruitable piece instead.
Is she undead or is the plague magical?
Brynhild is undead — a shieldmaiden risen with the fever already in her, which is why she's immune to poison and the poisoned condition and resists necrotic. Her aura and Breath of Rot are mundane contagion, not spells, so counterspell does nothing; only ending her or leaving her aura's 10-foot reach stops the ticking damage.
Tell Us How It Ran
This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 ("SRD 5.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document. The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.
Clay Cyanide Miniatures is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC. This content is compatible with the fifth edition of the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game. Companion rules, lore, names, and original mechanics © Clay Cyanide LLC.
Technical Specifications
32mm, 75mm
STL, Pre-supported STL
Standard or ABS-like resin, 0.05mm layer height
Yes — ready to print, optimized supports included
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