The Red Death
Duchess Saidra d’Honaire is the Darklord of Dementlieu, a Domain of Dread that shows a false sense of luxury and prestige. Saidra demands that all her subjects demonstrate the most impeccable taste and sophistication. Balls are attended in the finest gowns and suits that the denizens of the domain can afford. However, much like everything in Dementlieu, this is but a facade. Most struggle to get by with the little money they can scrape together and can barely afford the clothes that are demanded of them. Saidra comprehends little of these struggles however, and cares even less for them. Any that are found not emonstrating the utmost in appearance, are killed by the Saidra.
Long ago, Saidra transformed into a wraith when she died. This is her fate now, but she abhors the creature she has become. Instead, she poses in gowns and makeup to hide her deathly visage to appear as something she is not; an elegant and austere noble. Despite the lie she lives, she will not allow others the benefit of such hypocrisy and murders those that do not live up to her lofty expectations. At night she terrorises the people as the spirit she truly is, going by the name of ‘The Red Death’ and killing those she deems inadequate.
Information About Saidra d’Honaire
| Characteristic | Information |
|---|---|
| Name | Duchess Saidra d’Honaire |
| Domain | Dementlieu |
| Race | Human (now a wraith) |
| Alignment | Neutral Evil |
| Home | d’Honaire Estate (Dementlieu |
Saidra d’Honaire’s Stat Block
Saidra masqueraded as a noblewoman in life, but has since been transformed into a wraith, as such, he follows fairly closely to the stats of a wraith as outlined in The Monster Manual, but with some alterations to match Saidra’s own talents and persona. The following stat block is not an official release but my own creation as Darklord stat blocks haven’t been officially released by Wizards of the Coast for 5th edition.
- Medium undead, Neutral Evil
- Armour Class: 13
- Hit Points: 99 (13d8 + 27)
- Speed: 0ft, fly 60ft (hover)
| Str | Dex | Con | Int | Wis | Cha |
| 6 (-2) | 16 (+3) | 16 (+3) | 12 (+1) | 14 (+2) | 15 (+2) |
Damage Resistance: Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Thunder; Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing From Nonmagical Attacks That Aren’t Silvered
Damage Immunities: necrotic, poison
Condition Immunities: Charmed, Exhaustion, Grappled, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned, Prone, Restrained
Senses: Darkvision 60ft, Passive Perception 12
Languages: Common
Challenge: 7 (2,900 XP)
Incorporeal Movement: Saidra can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. She takes 5 (1d10) force damage if she ends her turn inside an object.
Sunlight Sensitivity: While in sunlight, the wraith has disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
Legendary Resistance (2/day): When Saidra fails a saving throw, she can choose to succeed instead.
Disguise Self: Saidra can cast the spell disguise self on herself. Her disguise can be seen through with an intelligence (investigation) check DC18.
ACTIONS
Life Drain: Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: (4d8 + 3) necrotic damage. The target must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or its hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the damage taken. This reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0
Create Specter: Saidra targets a humanoid within 10 feet of it that has been dead for no longer than 1 minute and died violently. The target’s spirit rises as a specter in the space of its corpse or in the nearest unoccupied space. The specter is under the Saidra’s control. Saidra can have no more than seven specters under her control at one time.
Disintegrate (1/day): A creature targeted by this spell must make a Dexterity saving throw DC18. On a failed save, the target takes 10d6 + 40 force damage. If this damage reduces the target to 0 hit points, it is disintegrated. A disintegrated creature and everything it is wearing and carrying, except magic items, are reduced to a pile of fine gray dust. The creature can be restored to life only by means of a true resurrection or a wish spell.
LEGENDARY ACTIONS
Saidra can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. She can take only one legendary action at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. Saidra regains spent legendary actions at the start of her turn.
Life Drain: Saidra makes 1 life drain attack
Spectral Movement: Saidra moves up to 30ft without provoking attacks of opportunity
Saidra’s Personality
As a child, Saidra always craved the nobility she believed she deserved. Saidra has finally attained this goal but she remains frustrated despite attaining her goals. She lives in fear that she will be revealed as the wraith that she is and worries that this will ruin the nobility she has attained. Saidra is also incapable of enjoying the pleasures of nobility as a wraith and so remains tantalisingly tormented.
Saidra is extremely self-entitled. She fully believes that nobility is the least she deserves and does not suffer those she sees as less than herself. She is quick to punish those that seek honours and positions she feels do not deserve them. As such, she hands out judgement in fatal fashion, appearing as the Red Death.
History of Saidra d’Honaire
Saidra was not born into nobility, though she always desired, and even felt entitled to such a position. Saidra grew up on a farm with her father who claimed he was an exiled duke having been removed from this position by a vicious younger brother. Saidra’s mother had died when she was young leaving just the 2 of them.
D’Honaire would lord her noble birthright over the other children of the area claiming superiority over them. This left her with no friends, but many playmates as she bullied her peers into submitting to her will.
When Saidra was a teenager, her father remarried an unkind, but wealthy woman with 2 equally unkind daughters. These 3 women treated Saidra as a serveant, despite her father’s requests that they treat each other kindly. The heavy labour imposed upon her left a bitterness in her heart, but even more bitter was the revelation that her father was not in fact of noble birth but had simply been the serveant of a duke (until he’d been caught stealing silverware). Saidra’s perspective had been smashed.
In despair, Saidra fled the house begging her mother for aid at her grave. A kind, grandmotherly being appeared before her granting her fine clothes and jewellery so that she could attend the masquerade ball that would celebrate the new Duke’s coronation. Saidra went with an intent to kill this new duke to claim his title as her own, but upon meeting him, they found one another irresistable, dancing until midnight with Saidra contemplating marrying into nobility instead.
When the clock struck midnight, a terrible plague struck all the guests and they began to die. In each others arms, the duke confessed that he was not actually the son of the previous duke, but the son of a man that had stolen silverware from the duke. He had been kept by the duke as his heir while the rest of his family were exiled. Furious with this pretender and that she had nearly fallen for her brother, Saidra stabbed her brother to death, dying herself of the plague not long after.
When Saidra regained her senses, she discovered herself to be a wraith, taken into the domain of Dementlieu. There she now hides her form as a wraith, pretending to remain mortal, wearing elegant gowns and hosting parties. The people of Dementlieu do not dare question this facade and go along with the lie. At night, Saidra d’Honaire demonstrates her true colours as a murderous spirit known as the Red Death, unmasking and killing pompous fools that dare pretend to be something they are not.
All Darklords of Ravenloft
| Ankhtepot | Hazlik | Nepenthe |
| Chakuna | House of Lament | Queen Tsien Chiang |
| Count Strahd Von Zarovich | Ivana Boritsi | Ramya Vasavadan |
| Dr Viktra Mordenheim | Ivan Dilisnya | Vecna |
| Duchess Saidra d’Honaire | Jacqueline Renier | Vladeska Drakov |
| God-Brain of Bluetspur | Mother Lorinda | Wilfred Godefroy |
| Harkon Lucas |