The Queen of Air and Darkness

Just in time for the spookiest month of the year comes the Queen of the Unseelie Court, the Queen of Air and Darkness. Sister to Titania, the Queen was corrupted by darkness, and has become the antithesis of all the beneficent faeries stand for. She spreads the corruption that brought her down to the lands of the sylvan folk, and in this way also serves almost as a native deity of darkness for the elves of the surface. I attempted to add depth to the Queen for this entry by exploring a bit of what I think she was before her corruption, and how that shaped who she became after encountering the Black Diamond. I also drew some inspiration from other sources of the name Queen of Air and Darkness, and used that to flesh out her character as well.

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The Queen of Air and Darkness (PDF Version)
(The Witch in the Wood, the Witch-Queen, the Dark Queen, the Lady of Nightmares)
Intermediate Power of Pandemonium, CE

Portfolio:                 Magic (illusions), darkness, air, murder, corruption, usurpation of free will
Aliases:                     Mab, Nicnevin, Orcades/Morcades
Domain Name:           Phlegethos/the Unseelie Court
Superior:                   None
Allies:                       None
Foes:                           Akadi, Angharradh, Artemis, Baervan Wildwanderer, Baravar Cloakshadow, Bhaal (dead), Corellon Larethian, Damh, Ehlonna, Eilistraee, Erevan Ilesere, Erik, Hlal, Mask, Mielikki, Mystra, Obad-Hai, Oberon, Rillifane Rallathil, Sehanine Moonbow, Shar, Silvanus, Solonor Thelandira, Titania, Urdlen, Verenestra, the Seelie Court, the Seldarine, the Tuatha Dé Danann
Symbol:                     Black diamond
Wor. Align.:             N, CN, LE, NE, CE

Light always has its antithesis in darkness, and the Seelie Court is no exception. The malign reflection of Titania is her very own sister, the wretched yet tragic figure now known only as the Queen of Air and Darkness. Where her darkness was once that of night, dreams, and mysteries, it has been corrupted to that of murder and magical deception. She rules the howling halls of the Unseelie Court as an unseen but very perceptible force that slowly reaches out to twist and despoil the sylvan lands she once loved.

Beyond the legend of her corruption and the creation of the Unseelie Court, little concrete information remains on who the Queen of Air and Darkness once was; so complete this erasure has been that many sages speculate it is tied inherently to her descent into darkness and loss of corporeal form. She is believed to have once held dominion over night and dreams, for there are several ancient legends among humans, elves, and other races about just such a faerie figure although none is known to exist today. The dreams she brought could be good or ill as the whim took her, according to these legends, but in the best case she created inspiration among sleepers that drove them to pursue their dreams upon waking. She was almost certainly a goddess of magic, and nearly equal to her sister Titania in power; sages believe she was a goddess of illusions even then, but she used her power to hide faerie realms and mislead foes.

The stories of the Queen of Air and Darkness’s corruption vary little between even far-flung faerie communities, leading most sages to believe it is at its core truthful. The tales begin in an ancient legendary land called Ladinion, a deep sylvan land of immeasurable beauty. Here the Seelie Court dwelt on the shores of an immensely deep lake named Cwm Glas, north of a range of mountains inhabited by a great many dwarven miners. One day the dwarves unearthed a fabulously beautiful black diamond at the end of their deepest delves; the only beauty they knew that matched the diamond was that of the faerie queen Titania, and so they brought it to her court as an offering. At this time, Titania was absent from her court, frolicking with nixies and sea sprites in the waters of the Afon Bhlu, a river that fed the lake; so her sister accepted the gift in her absence with a solemn promise to deliver it to Titania upon her return. This was not to be, however, for soon after touching the dark gem it began corrupting of Titania’s sister. Stealing away the gem and a great collection of magical artifacts, the being who has come to be known as the Queen of Air and Darkness fled Titania’s castle in a horrendous chariot drawn by foul canines and billowing smoke and fire. Not long after, a great explosion tore apart the mountain of the dwarves and an acrid black cloud blanketed the sylvan lands, choking the life from tree and faerie alike. Titania and her Seelie court were forced to flee across the planes and have wandered ever since. What became of the land of Ladinion is unknown; some sages speculate it resides in some lost crystal sphere on the Prime Material, while others think it a planar land that has since slid into the Abyss or became the basis of the Queen’s own Unseelie Court.

Of great interest to sages and wizards is the origin of the Black Diamond itself. The dwarves who brought the gem to Ladinion set about the chain of events, but they did it as a sign of friendship; thus, while faeriekind has distrusted dwarves ever since, they do not lay blame at their hands. Similarly, sages almost universally hold to the belief that they were unwitting pawns or accidental agents of chaos. Indications in the tale have led these sages to argue that the gem was already carved and found in that way by these dwarves; the evil nature of its corruption has put sages on the path of looking at ancient, powerful forces of darkness as the origin of the stone. Speculation is rampant and highly varied, with theories ranging from Apophis to Hiisi to a variety of ancient tanar’ri, baatezu, or slaadi lords, although the consensus is generally split between the entities known as the Elder Elemental God and the Dark God. Whatever the truth, if it was a plot to bring corruption to the sylvan races, it was considerably successful.

Since her corruption, the Queen of Air and Darkness has used her magic to tempt and change a number of sylvan races, bringing them into her Unseelie Court. She has no lords or trusted advisors like her sister, for she dominates and enslaves all her subjects, truly trusting none of them. The subjects she prizes above all others are the quicklings, malicious cousins of Titania’s favored brownies who the Queen has tempted to evil with promises of great magic. She enjoys twisting the members of the Seelie Court to murderous and cruel purposes and is said to be responsible for the creation of bramble and unseelie fairies, unseelie nymphs, black and shadow unicorns, lyrannikin and evil treants, and wicked leprechauns. Not all of her creations serve her, however; she is said to be responsible for creating spriggans from rock gnome stock, but most of these gnomes favor the Crawler Below, Urdlen. Some sages believe she is responsible for the creation of the underdark fairies known as glouras, although the truth behind this is unconfirmed. Finally, some sages see her hand at work in the curse Verenestra uses on some nymphs who displease her, creating dark nymphs; this needs significant investigation to confirm, as it could represent the Queen’s greatest threat to the Seelie Court yet. She has not been above trading the secrets of her corruptions to other deities, either, although the prices she demands are unknown. It is said she traded the secret of creating a root stock of black unicorns to the Beastlord Malar, who then shared that knowledge with the evil Red Wizards of Thay on the world of Toril. The creatures bound to her service are not limited to faeriekind; she has a host of undead creatures enslaved in the Unseelie Court and is said to have created the first lhiannan shee and yeth hounds. Temptation to power is the gateway to her corruption, and the cost is often eternal servitude and torment even beyond death.

Of the many legends and myths that may be connected to the Queen of Air and Darkness, a few have risen to a point that they can be considered full-fledged cults or aliases. Sages are divided as to whether these identities represent the Queen in truth, or whether they were adopted by her at later dates through duplicitous means, however. The most prominent may be the name Mab; in the oldest tales she appears as either a faerie queen or faerie midwife with power over dreams. She was said to bring dreams to those asleep; such dreams could be nightmares but could also be dreams about ambitions and desires that could drive people to work harder to achieve them. This form of the faerie Mab was clearly not malicious, and many sages believe it may reflect the Queen’s true original personality. Tales of Mab have changed over time, showing her more dangerous and malicious. Another name that may have originally referred to an independent entity is Nicnevin, invoked in some myths and legends as a malicious faerie queen or witch who brings storms and other troubles. Finally, the Queen of Air and Darkness is almost assuredly the inspiration for a witch-queen known variously as Orcades or Morcades in a few human legends in which she is a major threat to the protagonist, who is always a noble and heroic king. It is these stories that lend her the epithet the Witch in the Wood. Regardless of their origins, there are cults worshipping the Queen of Air and Darkness under each of these names. Most such cults consist of wizards and witches rather than priests, however.

The Queen of Air and Darkness is quite active on the Prime Material Plane, although many of her excursions are cloaked in illusions and deception. She does sometimes initiate direct assaults on sylvan lands to test their defenses and instill fear, but these are uncommon. She is cruel and calculating, but supremely patient. She is perfectly willing to wait centuries for her plots to bear fruit; she never acts rashly or hastily. She is often thought of as being emotionless due to this patience, but the truth is she is filled with an icy-cold rage that never burns hot. She is quick to stoke divisions and distrust between sylvan races and neighboring humans, dwarves, or other races, in hopes of turning such emotions into open warfare. She also watches for the emotionally desperate to whom she offers great power in exchange for acts of cruelty and destruction, and she is adept at appearing kindly in order to lead creatures to their doom with good intentions. She delights in draining such creatures of their self-will and autonomy, binding them to servitude just as she was. Her avatars are dispatched with facets of the Black Diamond, secreting them away nearby to feed her with power; these she protects with even greater urgency than that of her avatars themselves.

The Queen’s Avatar (Illusionist 32, Air Elementalist 32, Cleric 30)
The Queen of Air and Darkness has no corporeal form and can ordinarily only be sensed as a chill wind that sends shivers down the spines of those who are near her. She has a voice that is at once both hauntingly beautiful and terrifyingly cold; few creatures who hear her speak can forget the experience. If magically perceived, her true nature is apparent. She appears as a female faerie with great grey moth-like wings and a cold, terrifying beauty. Her features are sharply angular and her skin bone-white, while her eyes have black irises and blood-red pupils. She has a long mane of black hair that is always gently blowing in an unseen wind, as is the tattered hem of her long white gown. While she can cast spells from all schools and spheres, she favors those from the schools of illusion/phantasm, elemental air, and shadow, and rarely uses those from the school of invocation/evocation. She never uses spells that create bright light.

AC −3 (−7 when incorporeal); MV 24, Fl 60 (MC A); HP 125; THAC0 2; #AT 0 (2)
Dmg 1d3 + 3 × 2 (daggers +3)
MR 70%; SZ S (3ʹ 6″)
Str 14, Dex 17, Con 15, Int 20, Wis 18, Cha 20
Spells P: 9/9/9/9/9/9/8, W: 9/9/9/9/9/9/9/9/9*
Saves PPDM 2; RSW 3; PP 5; BW 7; Sp 4
* Numbers assume one extra illusion/phantasm spell per spell level.

Special Att/Def: The Queen of Air and Darkness is accompanied by 1d4+1 yeth hounds 50% of the time she appears on the Prime Material Plane. She always brings a facet of the Black Diamond with her, secreting it away in a hidden spot to keep it protected. If she is within one mile of this facet, she lacks a corporeal form and cannot be seen except by magical means, such as detect invisibility or true seeing. She carries with her a matching pair of small daggers +3 known as the Sisters of Night. Each weapon’s blade is made of an unknown white metal with a hilt of black metal and leather and a dark-colored ruby in the pommel. Any creatures struck with these blades must save vs. spell with a −4 penalty or fall into a deep, nightmare-ridden sleep for 1d4 hours; only damaging attacks causing more than 5 points of damage can wake them from this fitful slumber. The Queen is unable to use these blades while incorporeal, and even if not, she favors using magic against those who threaten her.

While the Queen has no corporeal body, she is unharmed by weapons; these simply pass through her with no harm even if powerfully enchanted. Touch spells and those that have a primary effect on the body, such as polymorphing, paralyzation, and petrification, movement-inhibiting spells such as entangle, and body-trapping magic such as sink, are all ineffective on her (the DM must adjudicate such on a case-by-case basis). Magical attacks can be focused upon her if she is magically detected; for example, evocation spells such as magic missile and fireball will have normal effects. Some spells and abilities may allow approximate detection of her position: know alignment, ESP, and the spell/paladin ability to detect evil are a few examples. If such are used, a Wisdom check is allowed to focus an area spell on her location; the check is modified by −1 per 5 feet of radius of spell effect about the figure of 20; a 5-foot radius spell would require a Wisdom check to be made with a −3 penalty for the spell to affect the Queen, for example, while one with a 30-foot radius would require a Wisdom check with a +2 bonus. Spells without circular/spherical areas of effect employ the narrowest dimension here (so an 80ʹ × 20ʹ wall of fire would have no modifier to the Wisdom check). The Queen’s avatar can be forced to become corporeal if the Black Diamond facet is found and destroyed, which may only be done with the spells Bigby’s crushing hand, disintegrate, dispel evil, Mordenkainen’s disjunction, shatter, or transmute rock to mud. Certain powerful artifacts may also be used to destroy a shard, at the DM’s discretion.

At will, the Queen of Air and Darkness can cast blindness, continual darkness, darkness, and darkness, 15′ radius. Once per day, she can cast wind wall and create a curtain of darkness as a wand of conjuration. If she is within one mile of a Black Diamond facet, she gains a +10% bonus to her magic resistance, commands hell hounds, shadow hounds, and yeth hounds at will, and can control undead at will. Further, can use the spells death spell, finger of death, and summon shadow once per day. Finally, once per day she can use the facet’s power to create food and drink; however, this food is tainted with a terrible, sweet, addictive substance which makes a creature that willingly consumes it long desperately for more. Creatures who consume this food must make a Constitution check at −3, or else crave another dose. With each subsequent portion of food or drink, another Constitution check must be made with a cumulative −1 modifier. One successful check means the creature is sated for 1d4 hours; any failure means that it is now dominated (as per the 5th-level wizard spell) by the Queen, and desperate to receive more of her nourishment, risking anything and everything to obtain it.

The Queen of Air and Darkness’s corporeal form can only be struck by +3 or better magical weapons and is unaffected by poisons and disease. She is immune to all enchantment/charm and illusion/phantasm spells, death magic, mind-controlling magic and psionics, blindness, and she can see perfectly through magical darkness.

Other Manifestations
The Queen of Air and Darkness rarely manifests her power to aid followers, except to occasionally send hell hounds, shadow hounds, or yeth hounds to assist a follower or hunt their enemies. However, she does manifest before non-followers in crisis situations, to offer aid with a dark price, or offer magical power to the desperate or ambitious. All such manifestations hide her true nature with friendly illusions or assumed identities, and she is careful to select creatures who are less likely to question such offers.

The Queen of Air and Darkness is served by air elementals, air fundamentals, air mephits, banshees, black unicorns, darkness elementals, dark trees, death’s head trees, eolians, evil treants, hangman trees, hell hounds, invisible stalkers, ju-ju zombies, lhiannan shee, liches, lyrannikin, nightmares, quasits, quickwood, shadow hounds, shadow unicorns, shadows, shee, spectres, spirits of the air, spriggans, undead treants, wights, wraiths, and yeth hounds. She never displays her favor through any sort of discoveries, and death is the only manner in which she displays her displeasure.

The Church
Clergy:                      Clerics, specialty priests, crusaders, mystics, wizards
Clergy’s Align.:      CN, NE, CE
Turn Undead:           C: No, SP: No, Cru: No, Mys: No, W: No
Cmnd. Undead:         C: Yes, SP: Yes, at level −2, Cru: No, Mys: No, W: No

All clerics (including multiclassed cleric/mages and cleric/illusionists), specialty priests, crusaders, and mystics of the Queen of Air and Darkness receive religion (Unseelie Court) as a bonus nonweapon proficiency.

The church of the Queen of air and Darkness is viewed with fear by elves, faeries, and other sylvan creatures. They are seen as a twisted shadow of everything sylvan races and communities represent. For their part, followers of the Witch in the Wood despise the joy and goodness of the faerie folk, wishing to utterly destroy and corrupt everything they represent out of pure spite. Those who venerate the Queen tend to fall into two main categories. One group hides within regular sylvan communities, pretending to be like any other member, all the while plotting ways to cause the maximum suffering before their utter destruction. Elves, pixies, and other normally non-evil creatures tend to fall into this category. The second group usually includes those sylvan races who have already been corrupted to evil, such as quicklings, bramble faeries, and Unseelie nymphs, although small communities of elves who solely follow the Witch-Queen are known to exist. These beings openly worship the Queen, although their communities are usually hidden away from all other races for protection.

Temples and shrines dedicated to the Witch in the Wood vary by the race building them. Most of the small faerie folk construct their temples under or inside very old trees, twisted and corrupted by the influence of the clergy. Blacks and silvers dominate these temples, often in the form of wall hangings and draperies. They are often lit by pale silver faerie fire-like radiance, strategically placed to allow enough illumination to navigate the temple yet create deep shadows throughout. Elven followers build temples that are twisted reflections of those temples built in the names of Aerdrie Faenya and Sehanine Moonbow, every bit as beautiful, yet foreboding and corrupt. Black marble and other dark, glossy stones dominate, with windows and spires of silver and dark, shadowy crystal and glass. The interiors of the temples are otherwise much the same as faerie temples, although statuary is more prevalent. The central chamber in all temples is dominated by an altar upon which blood sacrifices are made; above the altars hang a representation of the Queen’s black diamond in a silver setting. Shrines are always well hidden, and often cloaked in illusion. They are usually found near diseased or corrupted trees. They are little more than alcoves in which to leave sacrifices of blood and jewelry, with little to identify them beyond the remnants of sacrifices.

Novices in the service of the Queen of Air and Darkness are called Gloamings. Full priests in service to the Witch in the Wood are called Daughters/Sons of Darkness. The Queen’s church has no formal hierarchy; members of the clergy are expected to give deference to others who have more personal power; this can sometimes lead to clashes between members to determine strength. Such conflicts can lead to death, and assassination and murder are known tools for advancement, although the church nominally forbids such things. Specialty priests are known as darkfacets. The priesthood of the Queen of Air and Darkness is open to all sylvan races, although quicklings (45%) are the most prominent; the rest of the priesthood is composed of bramble faeries (15%), unseelie faeries (13%), elves (10%), glouras (5%), baobhan sith (2%), spriggans (1%), other corrupted sylvan races (black and shadow unicorns, lyrannikin, dark and unseelie nymphs, evil treants, wicked leprechauns, etc.; 5%), uncorrupted faerie folk (atomies, nymphs, pixies, satyrs, sprites, etc.; 3%), and other races (centaurs, gnomes, humans, treants, etc.; 1%). The church contains specialty priests (70%), clerics (15%), wizards (8%), mystics (5%), and crusaders (2%). The clergy of the Witch in the Wood is weighted heavily towards females (66%) over males (34%).

Dogma: Corrupt or destroy the children of the Seelie Court and the Seldarine, as well as the lands where they dwell. Tempt them with the power of the Witch-Queen. Trick the faeries and elves into their own doom with the power of illusions and enchantments. Slay the incorruptible who oppose the Unseelie Court and turn them against their loved ones with necromancy. Bring the sylvan races into the enveloping darkness of the Witch in the Wood’s embrace. Torment the bright races of the lands and drive them to insanity.

Day-to-Day Activities: Members of the church of the Queen of Air and Darkness do whatever they can to bring about the destruction or corruption of faerie and sylvan races. Many live within closed communities that breed a hateful view of such races and will act surreptitiously to cause harm throughout sylvan lands. Those followers who live within faerie, elven, or sylvan communities hide their ambitions and true goals behind a friendly veneer but are always seeking secret ways to undermine the community. Both groups seek to beguile or mislead creatures, especially humans, into conflicts with sylvan races. They exacerbate existing disagreements and misunderstandings with the hope that war breaks out; they find such destructive chaos often serves their goals best

Important Ceremonies/Holy Days: The night of the new moon is considered holy to the faithful of the Queen of Air and Darkness. On these nights, priests are expected to make a sacrifice to their goddess; such sacrifices are normally silver, diamonds, or other valuables, but sacrifices of stolen artistic creations from elves and faeriefolk are seen as especially pious offerings. Interestingly, live sacrifices of are rare; they are acceptable, but discouraged, as the Queen much prefers corruption to outright death for sylvan creatures. The only exception is when a faerie or other sylvan creature is slain and cursed with a form of undeath that traps the creature on the mortal plane; this rules out standard skeletons and zombies, but ghouls, wights, and all forms of non-corporeal undead fit the requirements. Such a sacrifice is considered especially holy, so much so that the Queen herself make take notice of such a follower.

Major Centers of Worship: The church of the Queen of Air and Darkness maintains no major holy sites. Most communities who follow the Witch in the Wood ensure their lands are well hidden or extremely dangerous to approach, and do not work closely with other communities, even those who also follow the Queen.

Affiliated Orders: The Order of the Black Facet is a knightly order found only within elven communities dedicated wholly to the Queen of Air and Darkness, and large quickling communities. Their goal is the total destruction of sylvan races who refuse to accept the Witch in the Wood as their master. They are fortunately a small organization, which limits their ability to achieve this goal; it is rare to find more than two or three branches of this order on a whole planet. The elven and quickling branches recognize each other as siblings within the church, but they operate independently of each other and rarely interact, as each branch has wildly different views on achieving their goals. Among quicklings, the order consists entirely of specialty priests; the elven branch consists of crusaders primarily, backed up by specialty priests.

Priestly Vestments: Clergymembers of the Witch in the Wood wear finely tailored robes of expensive black cloth with silver trim and threading. Hair is worn unbound and free flowing, and both males and females prefer long tresses to short cropped hair. The holy symbol of the faith is a black diamond, typically worn on a silver chain around the neck. If the priests live hidden within a community of non-evil beings, they often disguise the holy symbol as another piece of jewelry using illusions. Actual black diamonds are preferred, but facsimiles are acceptable; with some members favoring a painted black lozenge-shaped amulet and others using smokey quartz, jet, or obsidian carved into the appropriate shape.

Adventuring Garb: When traveling or adventuring, members of the Queen’s priesthood wear whatever clothing is typical for their community. They favor clothing of black and silver if such garments would not stand out or draw unusual attention to themselves. Weapons and armor are typical for their community and class, but piercing weapons are always preferred if possible. Regardless of equipment, the members of the clergy rely on magic whenever they can.

Specialty Priests (Darkfacets)
Requirements:          Dexterity 12, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 12
Prime Req.:                Intelligence, Wisdom
Alignment:                CE
Weapons:                   All piercing (wholly Type P) weapons
Armor:                       None
Major Spheres:         All, astral, chaos, charm, combat, creation, elemental (air), necromantic, summoning, sun (reversed only)
Minor Spheres:         Healing (reversed), plant, weather
Magical Items:         Same as clerics, plus special
Req. Profs:                Dagger, herbalism
Bonus Profs:             Spellcraft, survival (forest)

  • Darkfacets can be any sylvan race capable of becoming a priest, as well as humans, elves, and half-elves. However, most darkfacets are quicklings, bramble faeries, and unseelie faeries,
  • Darkfacets are not allowed to multiclass.
  • Darkfacets can select nonweapon proficiencies from the wizard group without penalty.
  • Darkfacets can use all magical items involving illusions, shadows, and elemental air usually restricted to wizards, including spell scrolls with spells from the schools of illusion/phantasm, shadow magic, and elemental air.
  • Darkfacets are unaffected by normal or magical darkness and can see perfectly well to a range of 60 feet. However, bright light (continual light and stronger, direct sunlight, etc.) disturbs them, inflicting a −1 penalty to all attack rolls made when exposed to such light.
  • Once per day, darkfacets can cast blindness (as the 2nd-level wizard spell) or darkness (as the reverse of the 1st-level priest spell, light).
  • At 3rd level, darkfacets can cast charm person or mammal (as the 2nd-level priest spell) or darkness, 15ʹ radius (as the 2nd-level wizard spell) once per day.
  • At 5th level, darkfacets can cast etherealness (as the 3rd-level priest spell) or wraithform (as the 3rd-level wizard spell) once per day.
  • At 7th level, darkfacets can cast solid fog (as the 4th-level wizard spell) or summon yeth hound (as the 4th-level priest spell) once per day.
  • At 9th level, dark facets can cast summon shadow (as the 5th level wizard spell) once per day.
  • At 12th level, darkfacets can cast the Queen’s feast (as the 6th-level priest spell) once per week.
  • At 15th level, darkfacets can cast domination (as the 5th-level wizard spell) once per day.

Queen of Air and Darkness Spells
In addition to the spells listed below, priests of the Queen of Air and Darkness can cast the 5th-level priest spell wall of shadow, detailed in Powers and Pantheons in the entry for Eshowdow.

2nd Level
Wall of Gloom (Pr 2; Conjuration/Summoning)
Sphere:                    Sun
Range:                     30 yds.
Components:           V, S, M
Duration:                 2d4 rds. + 1 rd./level
Casting Time:          5
Area of Effect:         Two 10-ft. cubes, + one 10-ft. cube/level (max. 8 cubes)
Saving Throw:        Special

This spell creates a wall or barrier of ominous shadow in any area within the spell range. The wall of gloom does not obscure sight completely, but objects or creatures within the wall, or on its other side, are dim shadows that can barely be seen. Creatures attempting missile fine through the wall suffer a −2 penalty to their attack rolls. In addition, the supernatural cold and darkness of the wall of gloom may cause creatures moving through the wall to recoil in fear.

Creatures of 4 Hit Dice or less that enter the wall must make a saving throw vs. spell or retreat for 1d3 rounds. Creatures of 4+1 to 7 Hit Dice cannot enter the wall unless they make a successful saving throw (fear-based adjustments apply); this can be checked each round. Undead creatures and those of 7+1 Hit Dice or more ignore the wall’s/ear effects.

The wall can take any shape the caster desires, as long as it is at least 10 feet high and 10 feet thick.

The material component is a bit of fleece from a black sheep.

4th Level
Summon Yeth Hound (Pr 4; Conjuration/Summoning)
Sphere:                    Summoning
Range:                     20 yds.
Components:           V, S, M
Duration:                 3 rds. + 1 rd./level
Casting Time:          7
Area of Effect:         1 yeth hound
Saving Throw:        None

With this spell, a priest can summon one yeth hound from the kennels of the Unseelie Court. This hound will serve the caster faithfully for the duration, fighting or performing other duties it is capable of performing, as desired by the caster. The yeth hound appears at the end of the round anywhere within the range as desired by the casting priest. In addition, for the duration of the spell, the caster is completely immune to the fear caused by the baying of yeth hounds.

As creatures of shadow and darkness, yeth hounds fade away in direct sunlight, and can never be summoned in broad daylight, nor can they be forced to fight in it.

The material component for this spell is a piece of flesh from a good-aligned intelligent creature.

6th Level
The Queen’s Feast (Pr 6; Enchantment/Charm, Invocation/Evocation)
Sphere:                    Creation
Range:                     10 yds.
Components:           V, S, M
Duration:                 Special
Casting Time:          1 turn
Area of Effect:         Special
Saving Throw:        Special

This spell enables the priest to bring forth a great feast that serves as many creatures as the priest has levels of experience. The spell creates a magnificent table, chairs, service, and all the necessary food and drink. This meal is easily mistaken for that created by the heroes’ feast spell, and like that spell it takes an hour for all creatures to fully consume the meal.  However, this meal carries with it the taint of dark magic. Those who fully consume the meal are deluded into believing they have gained the benefits of that spell unless they make a saving throw versus petrification with a −4 penalty; those who pass the saving throw do not detect anything untoward, they simply do not believe they have gained the benefits of the meal. Further, any creature who consumes even a bite of the meal must make a saving throw versus spell with a −4 penalty or crave more of this food. If they do not consume another portion on the following day, the creature contracts a debilitating disease (as cause disease). If they are able to consume another portion of the meal, they must make a normal saving throw versus spell. If this is successful, they are sated for another day. Failure means the creature consuming the meal becomes dominated (as the wizard spell) by the casting priest.

If special care is taken, food created by this spell can be preserved for up to one month, allowing the caster to create a feast for one creature and slowly feed it to them over time

The material components for this spell are the priest’s holy symbol and specially fermented honey taken from the cells of bees that have collected pollen from flowers growing in a blighted or cursed glade.

7 Responses to The Queen of Air and Darkness

  1. Dule says:

    This is awesome!

  2. William says:

    My favorite picture of Queen Mab:
    https://i.pinimg.com/736x/91/68/31/916831a2d6122b0b5b62b98911578d2c–gothic-art-dark-fantasy.jpg

    Some description of her realm:
    The Queen of Air and Darkness resides in Arctis Tor, an imposing castle of ice and black stone atop a steep and desolate mountain. There Mab sits on a throne of dark onyx, shaped like a coiled dragon. Her dark fey and evil elves fill her court, and mindless undead perform menial duties. Mab’s court is a world of dangerous double dealing and clever manipulation, where fey of the Winter and Autumn courts scheme against one another in ploys that may take decades or even centuries to come to fruition. Yetis serve as guards, driving back creatures that come too close to Arctis Tor without Mab’s approval. When needed, Mab can gather all the yetis in her domain and direct them as a singular fighting force, commanding them through abominable yetis, which are bigger, stronger, and smarter than the others. The lands surrounding Arctis Tor are as harsh as winter, with icy cold, windswept mountains and dead forests. Only the strong survive in this land, where deadly predators hunt each other in the snows, and struggle for survival and the favor of their cold Queen. It is much darker here than in the rest of the Feywild.

    • AuldDragon says:

      I’m not familiar with the changes made to the faerie folk and their deities after 2e. In 2e, the Queen of Air and Darkness resides in Pandemonium. :)

  3. camelotcrusade says:

    This was a great writeup, AuldDragon! I’m flagging here though so you know it still needs a cleanup for extra text characters.

    • AuldDragon says:

      Thanks! At this point most entries do, and I’ve been extremely busy. I’ll try to get back to fixing them soon. Sorry!

  4. camelotcrusade says:

    Hoping you can fix this one at some point, as I use it all the time. Also, while I’m making wishes, I’d love to see Cegilune this year. I use her as a villain for Fey adventures along with the QoD.

    Thanks so much for your awesome work!

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