Marlou
Marlou — The Encounter
The Weeping Infant of the Forest Path · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Marlou
In the old barrio tales, the tiyanak is the spirit of one who died unbaptized, or a babe abandoned in the wild, returned wearing the shape of an infant to repay the living for its grief. Travelers on the forest path hear weeping in the brush and, pitying the lost child, leave the road to gather it up. The moment it is held close, the soft face hardens into a leering mask, the small mouth opens far too wide, and clawed hands fasten on the throat. Marlou is such a creature, glutted and unrepentant, hair adorned with a sampaguita as if mocking the funerary flowers of the families it has unmade. Elders teach that one escapes by turning clothing inside out, confusing the creature so it loses the scent of its prey. It does not hunger for gold or vengeance, only for the warmth of arms that would carry it, and the flesh that comes with them.
Run Marlou in Sixty Seconds
- Hold the disguise. Start Marlou as a crying infant in the brush. Make the players choose to investigate; the trap is the lure, not the stats. The first attack after the reveal has advantage.
- Open with Mournful Cry. DC 13 Wisdom save or the target walks toward Marlou, splitting the party so it can knife the isolated PC alone.
- Kill-priority: the lone wolf. It feeds on whoever wanders off, healers and scouts especially. Anyone separated from the group is the meal.
- When bloodied, it runs. Use Scuttle every chance to break line of sight and force a chase through cover; it would rather flee and hunt again than die in the open.
- Three ways to run it: as a single grim ambush on a forest road; as a brood of three picking off stragglers; or as a lair skirmisher paired with a larger horror.
Marlou
Small fey (shapechanger), neutral evil
CR 2 · 450 XP · GUIDELINEInnocent Disguise. Signature. Marlou can take the shape of an ordinary human infant as a bonus action. While disguised it appears utterly helpless, and any creature that has not seen through the ruse cannot identify it as a threat. A creature can discern the deception with a successful DC 14 Wisdom (Insight) check, but only if it has reason to be suspicious. The first attack Marlou makes after dropping the disguise has advantage.
Mournful Cry. Marlou imitates the wail of a lost or wounded child. Any creature that hears it must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom save or move toward the source on its next turn, ending in the nearest unoccupied space within 5 feet of Marlou if it can.
Actions
Multiattack. Marlou makes two Claw attacks, or one Claw and one Ravenous Bite.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (2d4+2) slashing damage.
Ravenous Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 8 (1d10+2) piercing damage, and if the target is grappled or restrained the attack deals an extra 3 (1d6) piercing damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Scuttle. As a reaction when a creature within 5 feet ends its turn, Marlou moves up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks, slipping into cover or under the brush.
A child-sized thing squats in the leaf litter, gnawing a gore-slick bone, its baby face split by a too-wide smile and lit by lamp-yellow eyes. A sampaguita bloom is tucked into its hair like a grave-offering.
Marlou, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEBorrowed Innocence (signature). Once per short rest, when an ally within 30 feet is targeted by an attack, Marlou wails and the attacker must succeed on a DC 12 Wisdom save or have disadvantage on the attack as it hesitates.
Actions
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (2d4+2) slashing damage.
Reactions
Scuttle Away. When a creature ends its turn within 5 feet, Marlou moves up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
A folklorist or grieving parent who spared the thing once now keeps it leashed by a name freely given, and it follows, smiling, waiting.
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 disguised as a wailing infant; use Mournful Cry to drag the most isolated PC off the road, then drop the disguise for an advantaged opening attack. Kill-priority is healers and anyone who pulls a lone ally away from the group. Pair it with a small pack so it picks off stragglers while bigger threats hold the front.
Still an ambusher, not a boss: lead with the cry to scatter the party, then focus the squishiest target with Ravenous Bite once grappling minions pin it. Hit-and-run with Scuttle every round. Run two or three of these as a hunting brood alongside a larger forest horror.
A skirmisher to layer into a haunted-wood lair, never the centerpiece. Use the cry to peel a single PC into a kill zone of grappling spirits, then bite. Pair it with a bigger threat that holds the line while Marlou and its kin harvest anyone who breaks formation.
Put Marlou 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 Marlou?
Marlou is CR 2 (450 XP) at its native Tier 1, built as an ambushing add-on rather than a solo boss. The stat record also provides scaled Tier 2 and Tier 3 versions so you can drop it into a higher-level forest encounter without rebuilding it.
Can Marlou be a companion or ally?
Yes. The companion block 'Marlou, Bound' models a tiyanak held in check by a freely given name, lower HP and AC, with Borrowed Innocence to throw off attacks against an ally and Scuttle Away to stay alive. It is an unsettling, conditionally loyal follower, not a true friend.
How do you survive an encounter with Marlou?
Folklore says to turn your clothing inside out to confuse it, in play, reward suspicious players with a DC 14 Insight check to see through the Innocent Disguise before they pick it up. Refusing to separate from the party defeats Mournful Cry, since a target dragged back into the group is far harder to finish off.
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
Played Marlou at your table? Log in with your Obsidian Tavern account to leave a balance note, a war story, or a file issue — the sharpest reports get the block revised.
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