Free DnD 5e Homebrew NPC
Marla Crowshade: Informant NPC for DnD 5e
A cryptic urban warlock and forbidden-lore informant for DnD 5e campaigns, built for crow messages, rooftop meetings, haunted crypts, and bargains with things beneath the city.
- Informant
- Human Warlock
- Neutral
- Ruined Tower
Caution: For GMs Only The sections below contain Marla’s secrets, pact details, ritual summoning, relationships, encounter hooks, and full table-use information. Players should stop here unless their GM says otherwise. Reveal Full Information
NPC at a Glance
- Role
- Informant
- Importance
- Recurring
- Status
- Alive
- Race / Type
- Human Humanoid
- Class / Level
- Warlock 3, Pact of the Tome / Urban Summoner
- Alignment
- True Neutral
- Location
- Ruined tower at the city’s edge, hidden upper chamber
- Faction
- None / Secretive underworld pact
- Voice
- Soft, airy, and eerily calm
How to Use Marla at the Table
Use Marla as a mysterious informant, quest-giver, or reluctant ally in city intrigue. Her knowledge is valuable, but her motives are layered, and her advice should feel helpful without ever becoming fully comfortable.
She is ideal when the party needs forbidden lore, crypt warnings, supernatural rumors, crow-delivered messages, or a contact who understands the old oaths beneath the city better than the Council does.
Marla seeks knowledge, not dominance, but her curiosity may awaken things best left undisturbed.
Roleplaying Marla
Personality
Marla is cryptic, observant, and slyly amused. She speaks in riddles and half-truths, always hinting she knows more than she reveals, and delights in unsettling the overly bold.
Mannerisms
She tilts her head like a bird when intrigued, absently twirls a feather between her fingers, and pauses dramatically before unsettling revelations.
Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws
Ideal: Knowledge is power, but power must be veiled. The shadows hold truths that daylight cannot grasp.
Bond: Her pact binds her to safeguard the city’s oldest oaths. Crows serve as her eyes, messengers, and symbolic companions.
Flaw: Her obsession with forbidden knowledge blinds her to immediate dangers, and she trusts summoned allies more than living people.
Combat Snapshot
Medium humanoid (human), true neutral. AC 12 (no armor), HP 22 (4d8+4), Speed 30 ft.
Skills: Arcana +4, Insight +5, Stealth +4, Perception +3. Senses: passive Perception 13.
Languages: Common, Infernal, Abyssal. Challenge: 1 (200 XP).
Underworld Pact Traits
Underworld Pact. Marla’s patron is a neutral underworld watcher. Her magic derives from balance, not evil.
Watcher’s Crows. Marla can send crow messengers that deliver brief whispered messages across the city.
Ritual Summoner. Once every 7 days, Marla can activate her summoning circle to call forth a neutral underworld entity for 7 days. The entity may offer counsel, secrets, or limited aid, but every favor demands careful negotiation.
Plot Hooks
- Marla requests the party investigate the crypt where undead have begun to rise.
- A stolen page from Marla’s tome ends up in a rival occultist’s hands.
- Strange blue lights appear above the tower, attracting guards, cultists, and curious scholars.
- A summoned underworld entity asks the party for an unusual favor.
- Garron asks the party to find out what Marla is really summoning.
Encounter Ideas
- Rooftop Meeting: Marla asks to exchange secrets at midnight while crows gather on the chimneys.
- Interrupted Ritual: city guards, rival mages, or undead drawn to the tower interrupt her summoning circle.
- Crow Messages: the party receives brief whispered warnings from crows across the city.
- Sealed Crypt: Marla sends the party below the city to verify what she fears is waking.
- Fog Patrol Tension: Marla and Garron collide during a night patrol, each convinced the other is hiding something dangerous.
Relationships and Location
Marla lives in a ruined tower at the city’s edge, using a hidden upper chamber for her rituals, records, and crow messengers.
Garron Vale: mutual suspicion. They have observed each other during nocturnal patrols but remain wary and untrusting. Garron mistrusts the tower lights; Marla sees his lantern as a stubborn intrusion.
City Folk: fearful rumors follow her tower lights and midnight rituals. Crows: messengers, spies, and symbolic companions.
Full Statblock
Show copy-ready statblock
Marla Crowshade Medium Humanoid (Human), True Neutral Armor Class 12 (no armor) Hit Points 22 (4d8+4) Speed 30 ft. STR 8 (-1) | DEX 14 (+2) | CON 12 (+1) | INT 14 (+2) | WIS 16 (+3) | CHA 14 (+2) Skills Arcana +4, Insight +5, Stealth +4, Perception +3 Senses passive Perception 13 Languages Common, Infernal, Abyssal Challenge 1 (200 XP) | Proficiency Bonus +2 Underworld Pact. Marla's patron is a neutral underworld watcher. Her magic derives from balance, not evil. Watcher's Crows. Marla can send crow messengers that deliver brief whispered messages across the city. Ritual Summoner. Once every 7 days, Marla can activate her summoning circle to call forth a neutral underworld entity that remains for 7 days, offering knowledge or aid at a cost. SPELLS Eldritch Blast, Arms of Hadar, Misty Step, Suggestion ACTIONS Eldritch Blast. Ranged Spell Attack: +4 to hit, range 120 ft., one target. Hit: 1d10 force damage.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Marla Crowshade in DnD 5e?
Marla Crowshade is a true neutral human warlock and informant NPC who lives in a ruined tower, commands crow messengers, and protects forbidden knowledge tied to the city’s oldest oaths.
How should I use Marla Crowshade in a campaign?
Use Marla as a mysterious quest-giver, forbidden-lore source, reluctant ally, occult informant, or supernatural complication in an urban intrigue campaign.
Is Marla Crowshade evil?
No. Marla’s pact is with a neutral underworld watcher, and her magic is tied to balance rather than destruction. She is unsettling, secretive, and dangerous, but not inherently evil.
What challenge rating is Marla Crowshade?
Marla Crowshade is CR 1 (200 XP). Her danger comes from information, rituals, escape magic, and occult leverage more than direct combat power.
Is Marla Crowshade Foundry VTT ready?
Yes.