Stirges' Domain
Stirges hunt warm-blooded creatures, swooping down to use their long proboscis to drain their prey’s blood. Once sated and bloated with their prey’s blood, they fly away to digest their meal.
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Outside the Lair
Distant, terror-laden screaming fills the air. It slowly dwindles as if the person screaming is getting further and further away.
Puddles large and small dot the low-lying ground. Filled with fetid, debris-filled water, they lurk, ready to slow running creatures.
The remains of the stirges’ previous victims are scattered about. Those yet with flesh appear haggard and wasted.
The miasmic smell of death and decay hangs in the air.
What’s Going On?
A group of stirges lurks in the shadows waiting for warm-blooded prey to come closer.
A stirge hops about the ground in obvious distress; one of its wings is missing, and it cannot take flight.
A man’s corpse lies on the floor; a veritable flock of stirges cluster atop the corpse drinking their fill of its rapidly cool blood.
Two stirges—pierced by slender arrows—lie dead on the ground. The rest of the flock lurks near; they are hungry.
Major Lair Features
A fetid, noisome pond, surrounded by deep stands of rushes and a few unwholesome trees, marks the centre of the stirges’ domain.
Thick stands of bramble bushes, holly trees and so on dot the stirges’ domain. All could provide handy—perhaps lifesaving—cover from a stirge swarm.
A dense tree canopy blocks out much of the sun’s rays; consequently, the ground is mostly free of vegetation.
The domain is wildly overgrown, and the animal tracks normally present are conspicuously absent.
Minor Lair Features
Spots of blood dot the floor of the stirges’ domain.
Skeletons of animals and humans dot the ground throughout the stirges’ domain. (Recently slain creatures bear many puncture marks.)
Skeletal remains of several stirges—transfixed with arrows, slashed in twain by swords and axes—lie scattered above their domain.
A rusting woodsman’s axe lies on the ground near an oak with several gouges in its trunk.
Stirge’s Appearance
With rusty red feathers and yellowish eyes, this small, winged creature looks like a bizarre cross between a mosquito and a bat.
This tiny, one-foot-long winged creature has a needle-sharp pink proboscis and reddish brown feathers.
Faint scars criss-cross this small creature’s batlike wings. Its proboscis ends in a jagged stump. The creature’s yellowish eyes are bloodshot and look slightly crazed.
Dried blood decorates this tiny, flying creature’s brown fur. Scar tissue covers one of its eyes, and dried blood covers the tip of the creature’s pinkish-grey proboscis.
Treasure
A well-trained mastiff cowers under the branches of a low-hanging tree. The mastiff is obviously starved.
A mouldering belt pouch hanging from a shred of leather belt contains a small store of silver and copper coins. A platinum coin hides amongst the dross.
A dirty golden brooch in the form of an oak leaf is attached to a scrap of rotting cloak.
These thick, plain iron gauntlets bestow an ogre’s strength on their owner—but only for one hour a day.
Trinkets & Trash
A rusty longsword, with a tiny skeleton impaled on its tip, lies near the outstretched hand of a skeletal warrior clad in similarly rusted chain armour.
The sprawled corpse of an adventurer wears rotting and rusting gear—all is of no value.
An old javelin is impaled through a stirge’s skeleton into a tree trunk.
Dried blood covers this spell scroll. The damage is so extensive it has effaced the scroll’s magic. Bloody fingerprints—perhaps an elf’s—decorate the scroll’s top and bottom edges.
Credit
This is a short system-neutral extract from Monstrous Lair #71: Stirges’ Domain by Robert Manson.
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