For this post I thought we’d talk about a villain that I created for my party to go up against. So for this villain I needed a necromancer, specifically someone who was robbing graves as a lower level threat. The intention here is to create a necromancer who can serve as a soldier for a bigger bad, and in this case, the Bone Queen serves a being known as “Queen of Midnight.” And more on her later.
Inspiration:
So for the inspiration of the bone queen, I really wanted to make a necromancer who was really a “queen for ghouls.” And really when you boil it down, Ghouls and Ghasts are sort of the “frowned upon” and “lesser undead.” The intention is that they really are treated as “second class” undead monsters, and I wanted to give them a boss that had the same problem. I
There really is something interesting about giving a lich like the “Queen of Midnight” a minion who is desperate for her approval, but really doesn’t consider her a “part of anything.” But the idea here was that she is controlling ghouls and ghasts and trying to build an army to earn favor with her creator.
History:
So for this creature, there needs to be a history, behind a being like this, and why she behaves the way she does. And for me, I love the idea of a being that is totally obsessed with “earning approval” and “getting what she deserves.” So I saw her as someone who started life as a youngest sister of a noble family. Not quite a Noble House of Zenith, but more like a senator or politician.
In this case, her real name was Lisa Cambria, and she was the youngest of 3 daughters. Lisa was middle management member of the Scarlett Assembly. And her father was obsessed with prestige and power, and constantly trying to improve his position within the Assembly.
So this obsession with appearances and power transferred to his daughters who were obsessed with rising through the ranks. Now Lisa was always a little bit odd, and as such was very much shunned by her father and sisters, and this forced her to seek approval of those who she considered her betters. A fact that her sisters used to regularly torment her.
And then one day, after a situation where she was mocked and her father told her she could never do anything right, he cast her out. And left with nothing she came upon the Queen of Midnight, and the lich saw the potential in her to turn that hate into true power. And she taught her necromancy and how to work with the dark magics and was grooming her to be a potential minion of the Queen of Midnight.
But once again pride got the better of Lisa, and she attempted to perform a ritual similar to the one that turned the Queen of Midnight into a lich, and it was significantly above her skill level.
And when the ritual went wrong, it transformed Lisa into a ghoul-like hideous undead monster. And her new form made her disgusting new form, made her an ill-suited choice for a minion due to her inability to blend in with society. The Queen of Midnight then cast her out into the Saint Mariner Cemetery to be among the other dead things. Telling her she was only fit to rule over “the bones in the cemetery.”
Thanks to the ritual, her unlife was still very much tied to the Queen of Midnight, and she desperately wanted to earn her approval.
The Queen of Midnight was then defeated, and as part of that defeat was sealed away. When this happened, the Bone Queen went into a deep sleep and stasis. For the sake of your own adventures, you can give any reason that the Queen of Midnight awakens, and with her return the Bone Queen arises again. Believing that she can build an army worthy of her mistress, the Bone Queen starts making Ghouls and Ghasts from the bodies in the cemetery.
Personality:
For her personality, the Bone Queen is completely obsessed with earning the Queen of Midnights approval. So she is trying to build an army to grow in power enough that the “Queen will realize her mistake and take me back.” Here are the key elements to remember when roleplaying the “Bone Queen.”
Personality Trait: “I will prove them all wrong, and show my true power.”
Bond: “I will build an army of bones to help her take the night.”
Ideal: “The Queen of Midnight chose me for a reason.”
Flaw: “I can prove my worth by growing in power.”
Combat Tactics:
The Bone Queen is not the type of monster that will leave her lair and instead sends minions to do her grunt work. She is focused on building her army by having ghouls bring back the bodies to create new ghouls for her army. Given that, she will only be confronted in her lair which allows her to use her lair actions. The intention behind the lair actions are to allow her to continually to disrupt the approach to the fight.
Stat Blocks:
The following for the stat block for the bone queen, and it can be found on DnDBeyond.
Lair and Lair Actions
- Throws of Death: The tomb trembles violently for a moment. Each creature on the floor of the tomb must succeed on a DC 19 Dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone.
- Myasthma of Death: A mist fills the 30 foot area around the Bonen Queen targets any number of creatures it can see within 30 feet of it. No target can regain hit points until initiative count 20 on the next round.
- Speed of Death: Up to 3 undead other than the Bone Queen gain one free movement.
Minions:
The following are the minions that the Bone Queen controls and uses:
Grave Wretch:
The following is the minion that will be mostly found in her graveyard, they tend to travel in groups of 3. The stat block is on DnDBeyond, and can be found here.
Grave Imps:
The following minions are summoned by the Bone Queen when the Party attacks, you can find them on Dndbeyond to include in your encounters, here.
