Ardenia Nocturne
Ardenia Nocturne — The Encounter
Horned Night-Seductress of the Cities of the Plain · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Ardenia Nocturne
When fire fell upon the twin cities of the plain, not every soul fled or burned. Some bargained. Ardenia was a temple-dancer of Sodom who traded her name for survival and woke beneath the ash as something other than human, horned and blue, her shadow grown a fan of luminous wings. The grimoires call her a night-seductress, kin to the Lamia and the screech-owl spirits of scripture who haunt desolate places and lure travelers from the road. She does not storm a hall; she is invited into it. Where she settles, lovers turn on each other, kings squander their treasuries on her favor, and whole households empty into the dark, smiling, following the slow beat of her wings. She remembers the smell of brimstone fondly. She has spent the centuries since perfecting the art of bringing it, in miniature, to one heart at a time.
Run Ardenia Nocturne in Sixty Seconds
- Hover, never brawl. Keep Ardenia airborne at 30 ft. so Veil of Wings charms a new PC every round while she stays out of most melee reach.
- Open with Beguiling Word into the tightest cluster of PCs for AoE psychic + charm, then spend later rounds on claws against whoever resisted.
- Kill-priority is the charm-breaker. Point her claws and saving-throw effects at the cleric or paladin who can lift charmed conditions off the party.
- When bloodied, Fleeting Step (Disengage) and fly clear; let charmed PCs swing at their own allies while she resets line of sight.
- Three ways to run her: seductive infiltrator who turns a court against itself; ambush predator in desolate ruins; or lieutenant beside a bigger fiend, charming the party's anchor each round.
Ardenia Nocturne
Medium fiend (devil), neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEMagic Resistance. Ardenia has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Veil of Wings. Signature. Ardenia's iridescent fan of wings dazzles all who behold it. When a creature she can see starts its turn within 30 feet of her, she can force it to make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw if she isn't incapacitated. On a failure, the creature is charmed until the start of its next turn, and while charmed it can't take reactions and has disadvantage on attack rolls against any creature other than Ardenia. A creature that succeeds is immune to this trait for 24 hours.
Actions
Multiattack. Ardenia makes two Charmed Claw attacks.
Charmed Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (3d8 + 3) slashing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take 7 (2d6) psychic damage as her touch drinks its will.
Beguiling Word (Recharge 5-6). Ardenia whispers a temptation only the targets can hear. Each creature of her choice within 30 feet that can hear her must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, a creature takes 22 (4d10) psychic damage and is charmed until the end of its next turn; on a success, it takes half damage and isn't charmed.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Fleeting Step. Bonus Action. Ardenia can take the Disengage or Hide action.
Shielding Wing. Reaction, when Ardenia is hit by an attack: she folds a wing across herself, gaining a +3 bonus to AC against that attack, possibly causing it to miss.
A towering blue-skinned fiend crowned with twin horns, her body framed by an enormous fan of jewel-bright, gold-traced wings that spread like a peacock's threat-display. Gilded torcs and a wrapped sash mark her as a courtesan of ruined cities, her smile an open invitation and her claws an unspoken price.
Ardenia Nocturne, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEShared Thrall (signature). While within 30 feet of Ardenia, Ardenia Nocturne has advantage on saving throws against being charmed and frightened, and creatures charmed by Ardenia treat Ardenia Nocturne as an ally too.
Actions
Barbed Lash. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) slashing damage, and the target's speed is reduced by 10 feet until the start of Ardenia Nocturne's next turn.
Reactions
Covet. When a creature within 10 feet moves away from Ardenia, Ardenia Nocturne makes one Barbed Lash attack against it.
A lesser fiend tethered to Ardenia by an old debt, Ardenia Nocturne keeps the charmed from wandering off before its mistress has finished with them.
Guideline numbers — formula-tuned and read from the miniature's design, not yet table-proven. Tell us how it ran in the comments.
How It Fights — by Tier
Same creature, scaled threat. The traits never change; only the numbers move.
Open with Veil of Wings to charm the front-liner, then peel off with Fleeting Step so the party wastes a turn unable to reach her. If foes cluster, save Beguiling Word for the moment two or more are bunched. Pair her with a melee bruiser she can hide behind.
Turn one: Beguiling Word into the densest knot of PCs, then claw the highest-Charisma target so charms keep landing. Hover at 30 feet so Veil of Wings taxes the whole party every round; kill-priority is whoever can break charm (cleric/paladin). When bloodied, Fleeting Step + fly out of reach and let charmed PCs trade blows with each other.
She is a manipulator, not an anvil — pair her with a bigger threat or a lair full of charmed thralls so the party must fight through friends to reach her. Open Veil of Wings, lead with Beguiling Word, and let her hover above melee using Shielding Wing on the burst-damage rogue. Kill-priority for the DM's allies: protect her until the charm tax has done its work.
Put Ardenia Nocturne on the table
Download the presupported STL and run the fight tonight — the model, and the encounter that comes with it.
Get the STL on MyMiniFactory →Clay Cyanide Companion Rules v1
How a bound creature acts
- A companion acts on its owner's initiative, immediately after the owner.
- It uses the Companion block above — roughly ×0.6 HP and damage, no recharge abilities, and at most one reaction trait.
- It moves freely; it takes its Action only while its owner is conscious.
- At 0 HP a companion is broken, not dead — restored on a long rest unless your table rules otherwise.
Original Clay Cyanide material © Clay Cyanide LLC — explicitly not the non-SRD official sidekick rules.
Questions, Asked at the Table
What CR is Ardenia Nocturne?
Her home stat block is CR 6 (2,300 XP), tuned for a tier-2 party of levels 5-10. The record also provides scaled tier-1 (~CR 2) and tier-3 (~CR 11) versions; the traits and actions stay identical and only the numbers move.
Can Ardenia Nocturne be a companion or ally?
As written she's an adversary, but a charisma-forward party could strike a bargain with her — she trades favors, not loyalty. The included companion, Vesper, Bound, is a lesser fiend tethered to her; you can repurpose Vesper as a PC's reluctant ally if the party severs Ardenia's hold on it.
Is Ardenia a solo boss?
No. She has no legendary actions and a single punishing reaction, so a four-PC party out-acts her in a one-on-one fight. Run her with minions, charmed thralls, or beside a heavier flagship threat — her job is to tax the party's action economy, not to soak a whole party's damage alone.
Tell Us How It Ran
This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 ("SRD 5.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document. The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.
Clay Cyanide Miniatures is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC. This content is compatible with the fifth edition of the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game. Companion rules, lore, names, and original mechanics © Clay Cyanide LLC.
Technical Specifications
32mm, 75mm
STL, Pre-supported STL
Standard or ABS-like resin, 0.05mm layer height
Yes — ready to print, optimized supports included
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