Saturday, June 2, 2018

Dark Iris Queens - New OSR Monster For Your Old School Sword & Sorcery Campaigns

"In her folds the blood flows bringing life to her children.
Man can within the span of a few years gain her knowledge
But this queen's favor hides the savor of a few more tears 
Tears alone won't bring back the dead who hide within her arms 
The Iris Queen has come &
the span of blood is undone till the end of time "
Children's Nursery Rhyme of The Iris Queen

Beware the quiet looking ruins they lay by the swamp for that is the Dark Iris Queen's domain.



Laying someplace between the para Elemental planes of Dirt & Water are the endless swamps of the Dark Iris Queens. Royal  Earth elemental of incredibly twisted  intelligence savagery & horror, these hulking monsters belay the devilish intelligence & humor of these creatures. At rest they look like nothing so much as a small patch of ordinary swamp Iris flowers or in fall a patch of plants.
Summoned by a special variation of the Summon Monster spell in which 650 gold sovereigns must be sacrificed in the 2 hour ritual. The Dark Iris Queen is summoned to the plane from the six hundred & fifty sacred fields of her kind. The dark wizard summoning her will entreat the elemental to guard a fortress or ruin location. Year after year she will see to her duties with Earth bound unnatural loyalty. But she is an alien supernatural horror. 

Her crown is the only thing about the ground, the shockingly purple & blue patterned flowers will blend into the surrounding landscape looking so much like ears of some royal courtesan. Their delicate folds miss nothing & gather information as well as gossip from the surrounding area for a two mile radius. She listens to all & gossips with her sisters across the planes. Adventurers will first become aware of the Iris Queen when the flowers unnaturally turn on them & a large cloud of seed spores are released. This 10 foot by 20 foot spore cloud contains her children & an anticoagulant poison which will cause adventurers to save vs poison or start to bleed out within 9 rounds. Her children will grow on the flesh, bone, rotting corpse of her enemies taking in the brain tissue & memories of the victim so even say their souls. This is up for debate among certain druids and sell wizards.
Should this not work the Dark Isis Queen may animate as a well proportioned female statute of an alien queen. The form was given by her Elven creators eons ago,she will be as tall in feet as her hit dice & will summon a sword from nearby rock & stone. She can plant 1d6 of her children within the flesh of a target with a hit & force grow them for 1d6 points of damage to the target. But this may damage the Iris child & she is loath to do it.
+1 or better weapons are needed to touch her due to the Elemental occult power that holds her together. Her occult power enables her to inflict an extra 1d8 points of damage for those standing on earth or stone. Water will dissolve her if she is completely immersed in flowing water within 1d6 rounds, unless she makes a death save in which case she will lose half of her hit points. As long as her flowers are still in tact she will regenerate the next day with full hit points & memories of her own destruction.


Dark Iris Queens are information brokers & gossips of the highest order & those she kills will have their blood added to her memory pools. For in fact while she does put forth that there many dark queens in fact there is only one. Each & every year she will bloom & blossom once summoned & her price is each day an hour of the wizard's time to speak with her. She does this for unknown reasons & a hidden agenda among the elemental courts. She has been known to pay for certain very juicy tid bits of scandal & gossip among the courts of the Earth Jinn. It is rumored among her cult of druids that she was spurned by the Earth Jinn King two billion years ago & is playing a dangerous chess game. In fact it is rumored that she was summoned to ancient Hyperborea for her skills at chess & torture.
Dark Iris Queens
No Encountered:1 
Alignment: Neutral Evil 
Size Large 
Movement:40 
Dexterity:7 
Armor Class:1 
Hit Dice:12 
Attack:1/1 or weapon 
Damage: 6d6 or see above 
Specials: See Above 
Saving Throw:11 
Morale:10 
Experience Points: 2800 
Treasure Type:Q 

Ah, woe is me, for Love hath lain asleep,
Hath lain too long in some Circean close—
Till on his dreaming wings the ruined rose
Fell lightly, and the rose-red leaves were deep.

Ah, wellaway, for love is overlate:
Far-wandering, alone, we know not where,
He found the white and purple poppies fair,
Nor heard the summer pass importunate.

Sweet Love, can we forgive thy loitering ?
The golden summer, like a dream at dawn,
Changes, and from our kindled eyes is gone,

And leaves grey autumn. . . . We have heard thy wing
But with a sound of sighing; heart on heart,
In our own sighs we hear thy wing depart.
Belated Love  (1918)  by Clark Ashton Smith

Dark Iris Queens are copyrighted & trademarked to Dark Corner Productions

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