You seek power?
Perhaps a dark secret.
There are few in this mortal world that can help you, those that can… well you’ll
pay a terrible price.
Granny Nightshade, that horrible old woman who lives in the dark forest, she’ll have
your answer.
In return for her favor you’re family will suffer for generations.
Granny Nightshade isn’t just an ugly old kook of a woman, no she’s a hag and will
bring ruin upon you.
Hags are creatures of the feywild, but evil has shaped their physical image to match the
evil inside of them.
While most in the feywild prize beauty hags revel in their ugliness.
Often not bathing, having filthy clothes, and keeping bones of dead animals in their
hair.
Yes it’s true they resemble old women, but do not be fooled, they are surprisingly agile
and supernaturally strong.
Hags are virtually immortal, it is said their life span might be greater than the dragons.
Oldest and wisest of hags are known as grandmothers.
Hags that aren’t as powerful but still respectable within hag culture are called “aunties.”
Most aunties receive their title by working with or serving a powerful grandmother hag.
These horrible fey creatures delight in corrupting others.
Where a devil makes deals to corrupt or taint an individual with evil, so the victim’s
soul will be drug to the Nine Hells.
Hags rarely seek out mortals, simply waiting for them to arrive when they are in a time
of need.
They have no interest in mortal souls, but simply want to destroy a happy life.
For it to be terrible and full of suffering.
They enjoy making people miserable.
Despite the risks hags are keepers of secret knowledge, often knowledge that is better
lost and forgotten.
A greedy individual might make a bargain with one to obtain what she knows.
Hags understand mortal desires and vices, they know how to manipulate them too.
Bargains with a hag might make you rich and powerful, for a time but there are always
drawbacks.
These drawbacks are designed to make one resent getting into a deal with the hag in the first
place.
Ultimately your life would have been better off if you had never visited that old crone
in the woods.
Others in a village will see the ruin brought upon this individual, but that doesn’t stop
a hag from attracting new customers.
Mortals are if anything arrogant and many believe they can outsmart the hag given the
chance.
It is believed that you can gain a more favorable trade if you have something the hag wants,
in such cases the hag might even start the bidding.
Hags have weird magic, they often have objects of single use power.
She might have a vial of abyssal blood she throws on the floor to create a darkness spell.
Or a piece of brimstone that casts burning hands.
Hags can be seen riding strange and magical vehicles.
Rather than horses to travel they might ride a giant pig, or cow.
It could be a floating birds nest, wyrm skull, or a walking cauldron.
This magic is tied to the hag and the vehicles will only obey the hags wishes.
Hags can be just about everywhere.
This might be in a location that has a tie to the feywild.
Places where the barrier between the prime material plane and the feywild are thin.
Some hags even travel faerun, and can be found selling wicked potions and remedies.
Others take up homes where their magic can be enhanced.
A graveyard, or an ancient battlefield related to death.
Perhaps a ring of rune engraved stones left by giants.
Magical locations are very popular with hags.
Grandmothers and aunties are more likely to stake claims on these locations before lesser
hags get a chance.
A hags evil nature infuses the surrounding environment with evil.
This is reflected in the darkness of the forest.
An increase in spiders, rats, or snakes.
Perhaps terrible insects that somehow are able to bite you through your armor.
Strange tree branch figurines magically appear.
Laughter, childlike, can be heard coming from deep in the dark woods.
Surfaces can be coated in a thin film of slime which sticks to anyone or anything that it touches
Annis hags live in mountains.
They are large and very strong making the mountain landscape no problem for them.
They’re as tall as ogres.
Bheur hags live in wintery lands, they have blue-white skin, white hair and have access
to ice magic.
Green hags live in forests and swamps, they have keen illusion magic they use to lure
in mortals.
Night hags are creatures that left the feywild to live in the lower planes.
They can frequently be found in the Nine Hells or even the Abyss.
Finally Sea hags live underwater or along shores.
They have skin like that of a fish, it hates beauty so much it will attack it on sight,
or craft a plan to corrupt beauty over time to eventually destroy it.
It should be noted that hags are not social creatures.
They live alone for the most part, and the thought of sharing their home is repulsive.
But hags love power, and they are more powerful when part of a coven.
When three hags come together a coven is formed, and their powers grow.
Access to unique and high level spells, as well as rituals that can only be performed
within the coven.
The allure of it can be quite strong.
So strong that if one hag is killed in a coven, the remaining two will seek out a replacement.
It is rumored that in extreme cases a partial coven will invite a mortal warlock, sorcerer,
or wizard to join them.
Hags do love minions, and many low intelligent animals are quickly charmed by hags to serve
as spies in and around their home.
They particularly delight in mortals being bound into their service.
The more just and righteous the individual the happier the hag is to make them do vile
acts.
Hags reproduce by devouring human infants.
Within one week of this a hag will give birth to what is seemingly a normal human daughter.
This creature will remain human in appearance until their thirteenth birthday when they
suddenly transform into a hag, identical to the one that spawned her.
In some cases the hag will raise the child itself, but it is also known that hags will
leave the child with a human family to raise and care for.
Hags often seek out twins or triplets, believing the offspring will have unusual abilities.
Creating covens with her own children once they come of age.
Hags believe devouring the seventh-born child of a seventh-born child can pass on rare magic
to the hag’s daughter.
Be careful as you reach out to Granny Nightshade.
I hear she has two daughters that live with her, and a swamp full of wererats that do
her bidding.
You’ll always be invited though, it’s just a matter of what you’ll lose when you
leave...