Ingrid Deathwhisper
Ingrid Deathwhisper — The Encounter
Barrow-walking draugr who hews the living with her grave-axe · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Ingrid Deathwhisper
They laid Ingrid in her howe with axe and ring-mail, as befit a shieldmaiden who died unavenged, and the earth would not keep her. Now she walks the barrow-paths a draugr, hollow-eyed and grave-cold, hungering not for gold but for the hearing of names. The old steadings tell that she leans close over the dying and whispers their own name back to them, so that even in death they cannot forget how she undid them. Steel turns on her rotted hide; only fire, holy light, or rune-marked iron bites true. She does not roam alone by choice but answers any greater dead that calls a hosting from the mounds, marching at its flank to break a shield-wall. Bar your door with rowan, bury your kin face-down, and pray you never hear your name spoken in a voice that came up out of the ground.
Run Ingrid Deathwhisper in Sixty Seconds
- What she is a draugr berserker with a two-handed grave-axe: a melee striker that punishes the front line and demoralizes the back, not a controller.
- Open with Cold Lunge as a bonus action onto a squishy target, then Multiattack twice to land a kill and fire Death-Whisper's fear wave.
- Kill-priority she wants to drop a creature each round to whisper its name, so she beelines low-HP casters; protect them or interpose a body.
- When bloodied hold Reaping Sweep for the next cluster and remember Grave Vigor: the first killing blow that isn't radiant only knocks her to 1 HP.
- Three ways to run her lone barrow-ambusher in a fog (T1), the cleaver flanking a wight or barrow-lord (T2 native), or an elite enforcer buffed by a lich-boss (T3).
Ingrid Deathwhisper
Medium undead, chaotic evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEDeath-Whisper. Signature. When Ingrid reduces a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack, she rasps its name. Each creature of her choice within 20 ft. that can hear her must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened of her until the end of its next turn. A creature that fails by 5 or more drops to the bottom of the initiative order on its next turn.
Grave Vigor. If damage reduces Ingrid to 0 hit points, she instead drops to 1 hit point if the damage is not radiant and she is not destroyed by a critical hit. She can use this trait only once per day; on the following dawn she crumbles to grave-dust if not first put down for good.
Actions
Multiattack. Ingrid makes two attacks with her grave-axe.
Grave-Axe. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) necrotic damage. On a critical hit, the target cannot regain hit points until the start of Ingrid's next turn.
Reaping Sweep (Recharge 5-6). Ingrid swings her axe in a wide arc. Each creature within 5 ft. of her must make a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw, taking 18 (4d8) slashing damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. Creatures that fail are knocked prone.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Cold Lunge. Bonus Action. Ingrid moves up to half her speed toward a creature she can see without provoking opportunity attacks.
A lean, corpse-green warrior risen from her burial mound, Ingrid grips a heavy double-bitted axe in both hands, mail rotting against her flesh, her dead lips parted as if forever murmuring the names of those she means to kill.
Ingrid Deathwhisper, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEBarrow-Scent (signature). The hound has advantage on attack rolls against any creature that has taken necrotic damage since the start of its last turn.
Actions
Rotting Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6+2) piercing damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 13).
Reactions
Drag Down. When a creature within 5 ft. that the hound has grappled tries to move away, the hound uses its reaction to knock that creature prone.
A skeletal mound-dog with grave-clay packed in its ribs, loosed to pin the fleeing so its mistress can speak their names.
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 with Cold Lunge into the softest target and swing twice; she is a glass cannon for low parties, so concentrate fire and she folds. If the front line clusters, hold her until Reaping Sweep recharges. Pair her with a barrow-wight or a knot of skeletons so she isn't focused down turn one.
Open by lunging the back-line caster and hewing twice to trigger Death-Whisper, scattering the line with fear. Save Reaping Sweep for when three or more cluster to revive an ally. Kill-priority is whoever can deal radiant damage, since Grave Vigor only fails to fire and her one-day reprieve dies to a holy crit. She is the cleaver beside a bigger dead thing, not the warlord herself.
Throw her at the most dangerous melee striker and trade blows, leaning on Grave Vigor to soak the alpha. Reaping Sweep clears summons and prone-locks a cluster. At this tier she is an elite enforcer for a draugr-lord or lich; let the boss buff her and she becomes a shield-wall-breaking grinder the party must answer.
Put Ingrid Deathwhisper 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 Ingrid Deathwhisper?
Her native build is CR 6 (2,300 XP) for a 5th-10th level party. The sheet also scales down to roughly CR 2 for tier 1 and up to about CR 11 for tier 3; the traits stay identical and only AC, HP, to-hit, save DC, and damage move.
Can Ingrid Deathwhisper be a companion or ally?
She is built as an adversary add-on rather than a centerpiece boss, but a death-pact patron or a necromancer ally could bind her as muscle. The included Grave-Hound is the intended companion creature if you want a bound piece on her side.
How do I beat her without a cleric?
Magical weapons bypass her nonmagical resistance, so a single magic blade or a caster's spells will land full damage. Crowd her with control before she lunges, save burst for after Grave Vigor is spent, and finish her with a critical hit to deny the 1-HP save.
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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