“Sharp mothers with shadows in their eyes. Do not wrong the thorn brides or their children, sharp is their skin and furious are their songs. Daughters to the long ascended Erl Kings, they watch over those verdant groves of ancient forests and deep jungles, tiny fiefdoms that still survive the poisons of Men.”

Dryads are well established in fantasy lore and mythic legends. What must they look like through the lens of the DARK CARIBBEAN? Dark Flora has a section in the Pirate Borg core book, so why not take some of them and give them mobility and a very aggressive agenda against those invaders that cut their kin for burning and bend their corpses into ships. Think of the DC Comics character of Poison Ivy in attitude, with the stats of a Carnivorous Plant (pg. 90) and 30 ft of movement, calling upon hive vines to deal with trespassers and leaving their meat to feed into the rich jungle loam.

My original inspiration came from a very specific Pathfinder Pawn that I used in an encounter. Initially, I was thinking of a hag named Thorn, but it just worked so well to have it be more like a motherly dryad looking after her ‘children’ (blights and a shambling mound) that had been tainted by an corruption of the land rooted in the manipulations of a true hag and her black dragon companion. The adventure isn’t over yet, so I’m looking forward to the PCs relationship with the dubbed Thorn Bride and if her attitude towards them will change from antagonistic to friendly depending on PC action and if they can remove the elements that have blighted their growth, potentially reflected in their appearance as well.

Plot Hooks

  • Pirates cutting their way across the Yucatan could easily enough stumble across this force of nature and have to bargain with it or be sacrificed.
  • A Thorn Bride is at the heart of a cult that is kidnapping unwary meat aka humans. They could be enemies of the PC Crew or a potential ally for ridding themselves of unwanted competition.
  • Be they human, plant, or something in between, they could go be the daughters of something truly eldritch like Shub-Niggurath, a force of the Apocalypse more deadly than mermaids.

#morktober2025 #MÖRKTOBER

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