![[ZalenaPathfinder-v1.webp]] # Zalena _Medusa Queen | [[Cursed Lakelands]]_ ## Summary The medusa who ruled the [[Cursed Lakelands]] inside [[Baba Yaga's Hut]], served by star sprites and the [[Witches of the Waning Moon]]. She guarded the [[Sunsword]] and the [[Flower of Beauty]] and kept her lover [[Riven]] beside her. The party took both relics; when she gave chase, Logrim banished her, and she did not return. %% ## Now _Concluded._ Banished from the Lakelands by Logrim as the party escaped with the Flower and the Sunsword. Her lover [[Riven]] dead, her chamberlain [[Vespera Starling]] left behind, her domain emptied. ## Appearance Beautiful and obsessive-faced, serpent locks framing her features, seated on a throne carved in a medusa's likeness. Her sanctum is rich with tapestries and lifelike statues — her petrified victims. ## Personality Vain and possessive, ruling through beauty and terror. She surrounds herself with the petrified, keeps [[Riven]] as a living statue at her side, and covets the Flower of Beauty above all. Any mention of [[Inessa]] enrages her. In a fight she is relentless and vindictive, singling out one enemy to destroy. ## Connections **[[Riven]]** — lover; kept alive as a living statue with a [[Wizard of Wines]] life-gem in his chest. **[[Vespera Starling]]** — her eyeless harpy chamberlain. **[[Inessa]]** — a name that enrages her; the fellow medusa who wants the Flower she guarded. ## Background **The guardian of the Flower.** Zalena held the [[Flower of Beauty]] and the [[Sunsword]] in her tower and throne room, defended by star sprites, the [[Witches of the Waning Moon]], and a greater gorgon. The party fought their way in, revived one of her petrified victims as an ally ([[Dame Iris Sunrider]]), and stripped her of both relics. **The chase.** When Char tore the Flower away and fled, Zalena pursued, nearly petrifying Fabio in mid-flight and using Dimension Door to cut off the party's escape. Logrim, breaking free of the Flower's pull, banished her before she could finish them. %%