0908 The Hag’s Lair

A confusing tangle of marshy waterways, peat bogs, and mud holes. Weirdly babbling bog-lights flicker.

• Terrain: Swamp (4), Hag’s Addle
• Lost/encounters: 3-in-6. Nighttime encounters are 2-in-6 likely to be with the Hag (p82).
• Ley line Lamm (p18): Arcane spell-casters feel observed by a pitiless malevolence.
• Foraging: Successful foraging yields 1d6 portions of Bloodcap (p428) or 1d4 portions of Grinning Jenny

(p428), in addition to the normal results.

The Soul Pond

Close to the northern edge of this hex, amid the maze of streams and rivulets seeping into the River Hameth, is a broad, marshy pool veiled in a chill, greenish mist. The pool’s waters are oily black whorled with vivid mauve.

Phantoms: If PCs approach, grisly heads and grasping hands form in the mist, gliding above the waters towards intruders. They brush against characters’ cheeks and dissipate harmlessly.

Bathing: One who braves the phantoms and bathes in the oily waters is blessed with the ability to levitate for 1d6 hours.

The Hag’s Hut (Hidden)

In the deeps of the swamps on the southern banks, travellers may come across a simple reed-thatched wooden shack with a single door and no windows. This is the home of the Hag (p82).

Re-locating: The hut vanishes and reappears at dawn each day, moving from place to place with a will of its own. Locating it requires characters to search anew with every visit to the hex (see Travel, DPB).

By day: The hut sits astride a hummock or other dry patch of ground amid a swampy pool or mire.

By night: The hut floats 10′ above the surface of the gnat- plagued fen.

Entering: The door is not locked. The Hag gains an immediate awareness of intruders and, if elsewhere, rushes back to the hut, arriving within 1 Turn.

Inside the Hut

Characters entering unbidden find the hut bare and unoccupied. Only those invited by the Hag (or those who can see through illusions) perceive the hut’s true interior: a jumble of rude baskets, jars, and pots, with drying herbs hanging from the rafters and gnarled candles sputtering upon every surface. Green and orange flames flicker in a fireplace at one side, heating a great cauldron. In a corner, a reeking bundle of furs and rags serves as a bed.

The Hag: Broods in the hut during the day, fulfilling her accursed duty of guarding the Door to Fairy. At night, she wanders the marsh, foraging for herbs or victims.

The cauldron: A stew of questionable meats (some identifiable as humanoid), bubbling away.

Candles: Anguished faces can be seen in the weirdly twisted wax of some of the candles. These are the last remnants of charmed victims of the Hag.

The fireplace: A door to Fairy, during the day (see below).

Grimalkin guards: 5 large black cats (actually grimalkins charmed to remain forever in chester—see the DMB) lurk in the rafters, eyeing guests greedily. They pounce on troublemakers; anyone damaged by them must Save Versus Spell or be afflicted with the nightly urge to drown themselves in the bog (Wisdom Check per night to avoid).

Door to Fairy

During the day, the Hag’s fireplace acts as a door to Absynthe, Fairy domain of her sister, the Queen of Blackbirds (p35). The Hag is eternally bound as guardian to this door, even though she herself cannot cross its threshold.

Entering: Adventurers with an invitation from the Queen of Blackbirds may step past the cauldron, through the flames (which are harmless), and be transported to the fairy realm of Absynthe. The door allows entrance; there is no way back. (The Hag may have knowledge—albeit dated—of other routes of escape from her sister’s realm.)

On the other side: Characters appear amid a copse of forlorn pines upon an island in a gloomy lake. Ravens’ calls pierce the frigid air, bringing word to the Queen that intruders have stepped through the Hag’s portal.

Journeys Into Fairy (Optional)

Referees wishing to expand play into the realm of Absynthe may allow adventurers to enter the Hag’s portal without an invitation. This requires the Referee to develop adventure locales of their own in Absynthe.