Posts

• Aug 25, 2022

  Let's Read Hell's Rebels Adventure 03, Part 01

  

  This is part of a series! Go to the project page to see all entries.

  It’s been quite a while since I posted an article on this series! There are several reasons for this, both real-world and blog-related. One of the latter ones was that these adventures were getting bigger. The detailed approach I took on Adventure 02 was meant to kinda be a stealth GURPS adaptation, but it probably wasn’t as helpful as I thought and it left me kinda burned out on Hell’s Rebels.

  I’m going to take a more condensed approach on Adventure 03, Dance of the Damned, and leave the detailed conversion bits for their own post. This one feels even bigger than Adventure 02, as it has three “dungeons” and a number of social encounters as well. I’ll try to cover them all with one post.

  One of the things that happened over the hiatus is that I ran the first adventure and most of the second for a group of my friends, over roll20 and using GURPS. So you can expect real conversion notes in the future!

  Introduction

  By the end of the previous adventure, the PCs had secured a permanent headquarters under the ruins of the Lucky Bones casino and completed several high profile missions that increased their fame and notoriety within the city of Kintargo. Even Barzilai Thrune, ruler of Kintargo and the campaign’s Big Bad, was forced to congratulate them on their “civic-mindedness” after they get rid of a dangerous serial killer.

  Thrune unwittingly helps them further by increasing the Bleakbridge toll to 2gp per crossing (or 10 for a day pass). This a trivial amount for the PCs by this point, but it’s prohibitive for a lot of the civilian population. You see, Kintargo is split into northern and southern halves by a river, and this bridge is the only crossing. Plus D&D sets the daily wage of a common laborer at about 1gp. So yeah, dick move on Barzilai’s part.

  Some people set up illegal ferry operations in response to this, at first charging just a few coppers and then doing it for free just to stick it to the Man. It’s quite possible the Silver Raven PCs themselves have already done this after the first couple of increases in previous adventures (like my group did). If they did that, they’re sure to gain a massive reputation boost. Even if they didn’t anti-Thrune sentiment should still help them gather supporters.

  With the rebellion poised to grow so much, it’s time to begin thinking bigger, and this is what Adventure 03 is about.

  Ah, yes, the book also mentions that the PCs might want to begin thinking about improving the Lucky Bones’ defenses. It doesn’t get attacked during this adventure, but there’s a high chance that will happen in the future.

  Chapter 1: The Silver Council

  If the PCs aren’t yet regularly meeting with the key NPC allies they’ve been making along the way, then one of these allies will suggest they begin doing so now. The book calls this group the Silver Council. It will at the very least be composed of Laria Longroad and Rexus from Adventure 01 plus Hetamon Haace from Adventure 02, and will also contain any other such allies the group makes in your game.

  The Silver Council’s first order of business in this adventure is an alliance proposal by Lady Mialari Docur, one of Haace’s good friends. She runs Lady Docur’s School for Girls, which is a real school but also a front for the closest thing Kintargo has to a functioning thieves’ guild. The offer is genuine, the numeric and political benefits are great, and the alliance is more or less automatic unless the PCs go out of their way to be assholes.

  After these pleasantries are concluded it’s time to discuss the next big steps in the rebellion’s progression. They have plenty of citizen support, but they should still secure official alliances with Kintargo’s noble houses. And even beyond that, they should gather regional support and prevent Thrune from doing the same. Kintargo is not the only city in the duchy of Ravounel, after all.

  Noble Alliances

  Kintargo’s eight remaining noble houses are a bit more similar to Renaissance families than to feudal ones. Their fortunes come from varied commercial interests in the duchy. We get a list of houses, a short stat line for their leaders, their political allegiance, the requirement for an alliance, and its mechanical benefits to the rebellion.

  Political allegiance can be either to Kintargo or to Thrune. Houses whose allegiance lies with Kintargo can be persuaded to support the rebellion if the PCs can impress their leaders and convince them the city would be better off if it declares independence from Cheliax. Failure to do so results in them staying neutral. Thrune-aligned houses can’t be convinced to ally with the Ravens. They’re also a bunch of evil slave traders, so we don’t want then on our side anyway.

  Four of the houses are Kintargo-aligned, three are Thrune-aligned, and one is undecided. This last one is House Aulorian, which will only ally with the Ravens if the PCs undo their good deed from Adventure 02 and return Marquel to them. I don’t imagine many groups will go for this, but the option is there. Unless this happens, they flip to Thrune when the chips are down.

  Regional Hot Spots

  Kintargo is the capital of the duchy of Ravounel, but it’s not its only city. The duchy is cut off from central Cheliax by an imposing mountain chain with a single pass through it. Most trade comes via sea.

  There are three important places related to the goal of gathering regional support in Ravounel:

  • The aquatic elf village of Acisazi, whose inhabitants can do a lot to defend Kintargo from Chelish naval actions. The PCs rescued scouts from this community in the previous adventure, which should give them an “in” with the local rulers.

  • The city of Vyre, a mostly independent “vice city” that’s a preferred vacation spot for the country’s nobility. The Chelish government wants to keep good relations to them because it loves its vacations; they want to keep good relations to Kintargo because they don’t have a decent sea port. Securing an alliance with Vyre would help with keeping Cheliax away.

  • The Menador Gap, that one mountain pass to Central Cheliax. If the pass is closed, it will prevent Chelish troops from marching directly into the province. They’d have to take the long way around and march through neighboring nations, which will be at the very least much harder.

  Each of these is its own chapter (or “Part”) in the book.

  Rumors

  We close with a round of rumors where the GM can insert the ones they like. The book notes two important ones: a reminder that the former Mayor of Kintargo is still missing, and the news that Barzilai Thrune is organizing a grand gala to assure the city everything is fine.

  The gala, named the Ruby Masquerade, will be the adventure’s climax.

  Notes and Impressions

  I think this is where the Adventure Path format hurt the actual adventure a bit. Both Lady Docur and the noble houses feel like things that could have been introduced way back in Aventure 01.

  An early introduction to Lady Docur give the PCs a good starting bonus on the “strategic layer” of the campaign, and allows her to act as the “face” of Kintargo’s black market when the PCs need to buy gear. I did that when I GMed Adventure 01 and had a lot of fun inserting Little Witch Academia characters as students / guild members.

  The noble houses also benefit from an early introduction. Securing alliances with them requires a lot of personal interactions with their leaders, so PCs who like the tradecraft and roleplaying aspects could have a good time researching their habits, arranging meetings, and negotiating with them. It also gives a little more weight to the decision of whether to rescue Marquel in the first place or not. Rescuing him still the right thing to do, IMHO, but it feels more organic to have it be inserted in a political context from the beginning.

  Chapter 2: Dead In the Deep

  Ravounel has a northern coast that’s mostly dominated by a huge tangle of reefs known as the Dismal Nitch. There are charted routes through this, but Kintargo is pretty much the only decent sea port in the region. The Acisazi village is located in the Nitch, and its sea elf inhabitants can easily swim all through it. They can do wonders to block those sea routes if they don’t like the people trying to sail through. The PCs should make sure they dislike Thrune.

  If the PCs saved the sea elf scouts from Adventure 02, they’re going to have a much easier time here.

  The Situation

  The Acisazi village has a submerged district and a coastal one, where its half-elf inhabitants live. It’s located near an underwater shaft called The Drowned Eye, a cursed place whose evil was contained by Acisazi wards. Back around the start of Adventure 01, though, these wards failed, and a strange malady began affecting the village’s inhabitants.

  Here’s the spoilerific truth: the wards failed because they were destroyed by Menotheguro, an aboleth necromancer who moved in around the time Adventure 01 was getting started. He’s working on focusing the Drowned Eye’s cursed energy into the creation of an epic undead creature called a “sea bonze” (i.e, an Umibozu).

  To protect himself, he’s raized an entire sunken ship’s crew as draugr, and a huge great white shark as a zombie. He also secretly placed Nerrenn, the village’s main protector, under long-term mental domination.

  Menotheguro’s draugr have been raiding the village and taking prisoners below the waves to serve as sacrifices in his magical workings. The elf scouts came to Kintargo to ask for Shensen’s help - she was a long-time friend of theirs. With her missing, though, the PCs are their only hope. If the scouts survive Adventure 02, their leader Aava can tell the PCs about the malady, the draugr raids, and that they serve someone named “Menotheguro”. She doesn’t know the rest.

  Negotiation

  Getting into the village is going to be hard even if the PCs bring the sea elf scouts with them. Nerrenn will receive them at the head of a crowd of hesitant half-elves. Acting as the village’s interim leader, he will deny then entry citing all sorts of paranoid reasons.

  PCs good at Diplomacy or Intimidation might convince him to allow an audience with the village’s Speaker. Otherwise there’s going to be a fight. Whether he’s browbeaten or just plain beaten up, Nerrenn will rush to his master’s side after this encounter. Perceptive PCs might realize he’s dominated, and might think to restrain him and try to dispel or suppress the effect. If they succeed at it, Nerrenn will spill the whole truth outlined above.

  Next is an audience with the village’s true leader, Speaker Athannah. This aged half-elf druid is close to death due to the curse. She will be an instant friend of the PCs if they brought the scouts back or revealed Nerrenn’s domination. Otherwise winning her over will require some more diplomacy on the PCs’ part. In either case, her condition for a formal alliance is the same: break the curse of the Drowned Eye and save the village.

  Dungeon: The Drowned Eye

  The Drowned Eye is a deep pit in the ocean floor near a particularly treacherous set of reefs. Its “curse” comes from the fact that a lot of ships sunk and fell into it over the years, saturating the place with a death aura. Menotheguro is at the bottom, protected by his guardians.

  This is a “dungeon” only in the sense that it’s a location with monsters. The layout is entirely linear, and the PCs will run through every encounter in the order listed. The biggest environmental complication is that it’s all underwater. By this point the PCs should have some experience with underwater combat, since it was a good bit of Adventure 02’s final dungeon. Acisazi Village should have more than enough water-breathing magic available even if they didn’t come prepared for this.

  When the PCs approach the vincinity of the hole, they’re going to be attacked by half of Menotheguro’s draugr contingent. If they haven’t yet dropped underwater, they’re going to have a surprise because the undead will surely try to sink their boat and/or drag then under.

  Dropping down into the Eye itself, the PCs are going to fight the zombie white shark on the way down. There is no ground, and their opponent is aquatic, making this fight extra-tricky even though the shark’s numbers aren’t particularly scary against the whole party.

  The bottom has the other half of the draugr, including their captain, and an entrance to Menotheguro’s cave.

  It’s almost guaranteed that the aboleth will notice the fight just outside his door. If that happens he’ll try to trick the PCs with an illusion after they deal with the draugr, claiming to be the ghost of a druid named “Menotha” who needs a cleansing ritual performed by a living druid so she can finally rest.

  If the PCs don’t fall for the illusion, the aboleth fights them immediately. If they do, he will wait for them to bring Athannah down here, dominate her and then fight the PCs.

  Menotheguro himself only has 3 levels of Necromancer, but those are stacked on top of an aboleth stat block so he’s certainly boss material. If Nerrenn escaped the surface he will be here at full health ready to fight alongside his master. He’s considerably more dangerous here because he has terrain advantage and has his shark animal companion with him.

  After the fight the PCs can destroy the runes etched in the cave’s wall to ruin Menotheguro’s ritual and cleanse the Eye. Then they can loot the pile of treasure in the corner.

  With the aboleth destroyed and the curse lifted, the PCs secure an alliance from Acisazi.

  Notes and Impressions

  This is by far the most “side-trekky” part of the adventure. It does have a connection to the overall campaign and its story is kinda interesting, which is good. On the other hand, its ends in an underwater “dungeon” featuring exactly a day’s worth of combat encounters placed in a straight line one after the other.

  I think this is enough to make skipping this chapter altogether a reasonable decision. In that case you can say Acisazi is actually fine, that Aava was a relative of the Speaker, and that rescuing her back in Adventure 02 is enough to secure the alliance. Escorting her back home is something one of the rebellion’s NPC teams might do, freeing the PCs up for the other scenes.

  Next up: a feast and a fort.

• Aug 24, 2022

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual 3: Imix, Part 1

  

  This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.

  Sit down dear readers, for there’s a lot of lore coming your way. Imix himself first appeared in the Fiend Folio for AD&D 1e, along with the other Elemental Princes. His writeup here also melds two classic stories from the 1e era.

  The Lore

  So, as it’s been mentioned a few times before, the god Tharizdun is probably the biggest asshole in all of 4e’s implied setting. Before even the Dawn War, he came across a shard of cosmic evil, and decided to use that in a bid to conquer the universe. He planted this shard in the Elemental Chaos as if it was a seed, and from this seed sprouted the Abyss. Tharizdun used the Abyss to generate an innumerable host of demons. Some of these were created through corruption (of elementals, of his own servants, and others). Others were formed directly from abyssal energies under Tharizdun’s direction.

  A lot of things happened after that but it suffices to say that Tharizdun’s attempt at conquest ultimately failed and the god was imprisoned by his peers in the most secure prison they could conceive. His name was erased from all records of the gods, some say from reality itself. We only know it because we’re the readers and we’re outside the setting.

  Fast-forward to the time of the Dawn War. The gods are slowly winning, for they are capable of teamwork and their proud enemies are not. Except, that is, for a group of 5 Primordials who were contacted by a mysterious entity that introduced itself as the Elder Elemental Eye. The contacted Primordials believed they had just lucked into a direct line to the first Primordial, and so they readily accepted its offer of power in exchange for loyalty. They called themselves the Elemental Princes from that point onward.

  The alliance between the Elemental Princes was far from ironclad, but it was enough to allow them to get through the War with both their lives and their freedom. They’re still out there, in the Elemental Chaos, plotting to overthrow the gods and free their master.

  Spoiler alert: The Elder Elemental Eye is a pseudonym for Tharizdun. Serving and worshiping the Eye funnels power to the Chained God so that he might one day break free of his prison.

  This entry concerns Imix, the Evil Elemental Prince of Fire. As the name implies, he represents all the bad things one usually associates with fire. Uncontrolled passions, rage, indiscriminate destruction. Though he is technically free, Imix lives in a state of self-imposed house arrest. He has a stronghold built into the caldera of an active volcano, and he never leaves it. His attempts to influence the world and advance his plan all go through his agents and cultists.

  Imix’s cult in the middle world is unusually large and active for a primordial’s. It accepts misanthropes, murderers, and those who are angry at the world and willing to swear any oath for the power to take revenge. Whatever their individual reasons might be, they eventually cease to matter, as advancing in the cult means having pieces of your free will burned away until your only wish is to do Imix’s bidding and help free the Eye.

  They usually hide out among sapient communities and sow division and discord, encouraging its inhabitants to rebel and fight among themselves. Their temples tend to be built inside ruins and other scary places. The cultists protect them vigilantly and burn to death anyone who gets too close.

  More important temples are usually dedicated to the Elder Elemental Eye and protected by two or more Elemental Prince cults, who spend as much time sabotaging and upstaging one another as they do actually advancing the Eye’s cause. The cult’s greatest seat of power in the middle world is the legendary Temple of Elemental Evil, protected and operated by all the Elemental Prince cults and any mercenaries and servants they manage to recruit.

  The Numbers

  This entry concerns Imix himself. We’ll take a look at his cultists in the next one.

  Imix is a Huge Elemental Humanoid with the Fire and Primordial keywords. I think he’s the first monster to carry that last one, but he won’t be the last. He’s a Level 32 Solo Controller with 1140 HP. He has darkvision, a ground speed of 10, and a flight speed of 8 with Hover. He is immune to disease and fire.

  The heat from Imix’s Withering Flames acts as an aura (5) that strips all fire resistance from any enemies inside. His basic attack is a Reach 3 Blazing Blade that deals immediate and ongoing fire damage, and the Blazing Arc maneuver allows him to attack every enemy in reach with a single action.

  Imix can call up Servants of Elemental Fire, summoning four Fire Grues, or six if he’s bloodied. Fire Grues are minions with the same defenses as Imix. Grues don’t attack, but any enemy that ends their turn adjacent to one or more grues takes 15 fire damage. Imix can move all of them up to 6 squares with a single minor action, and the summoning power recharges if there are no grues in the field.

  He can also use Volcanic Circle to detonate a grue, dealing heavy fire damage in a Close Burst 1 around the minion. This creates a zone that lasts until the end of the encounter and deals 20 fire damage to enemies that enter it or end their turns there. Yes, this is at-will. Once the battle against Imix starts, the entire battlefield will very soon be on fire.

  Blinding Flare is a minor action that attacks all enemies adjacent to grues in a Close Burst 10, dealing fire damage and blinding (save ends). A miss deals half damage and imposes a -2 penalty to attack rolls for a turn. This recharges when Imix is first bloodied.

  Hungry Flames is another minor action that targets every enemy taking ongoing fire damage within 10 squares. It weakens them (save ends) and deals 10 fire damage to any creature adjacent to them.

  If an enemy tries to move away from a grue, Imix can use Demand Focus to attack their Will and daze them for a turn. If an enemy misses him with a melee attack, Formed of Fire deals 10 damage to that enemy and any ally adjacent to them. And if Imix is affected by a save-ends effect, Eternal Resilience allows him to roll a save against that effect immediately in addition to the normal saves everyone gets.

  I guess Imix will use grues to surround the party, and the grue-based attacks to blind the PCs and prevent them from getting away. He will detonate enough grues to light the battlefield on fire, and will strive to keep the PCs within his aura as he attacks them with his blazing sword. Once enough PCs are taking ongoing damage, he will use Hungry Flames and keep attacking.

  For extra pain, you can set the battle in a Font of Power aligned to Fire. This is a special terrain type listed in the DMG that gives damage bonus to attacks with the appropriate damage type. An epic one gives +15 damage, and it certainly makes sense for Imix’s own seat of power to qualify as a Font.

• Aug 22, 2022

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual 3: Howler

  

  This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.

  Howlers totally feel like a 3e monster, probably because of the art. I suppose they might have shown up in AD&D too, it’s not like the game was ever shy about adding one more dog monster to the pile.

  The Lore

  Howlers are spiky, sapient quadrupedal predators that feed on fear. They’ve evolved to hunt in a way that’s as terrifying as possible. Younger howlers are quick to kill because they enjoy the spike of fear the victim feels when it dies, but older specimens are sophisticated enough to hold whole villages hostage with the threat of death-by-howler and feed off the ambient terror.

  The most legendary howler of all is known as Terror Incarnate. This creature managed to devour the fear felt by an entire army as it died, and this excess power turned it into something like a demigod of terror. Its eventual progeny inherited its powers.

  There’s some fuzzy edges in their lore. It mentions howlers attacking people in the middle world and in the Underdark, mentions associations with shadar-kai, but gives the creature an Elemental origin. I think they might fit better as either Natural or Shadow. Fortunately origin doesn’t influence stats. Alternatively you might go the other way and make them a type of demon.

  The Numbers

  As mentioned above, Howlers are Elemental Magical Beasts. They have Darkvision and a Speed of 8. They understand Abyssal but can’t speak.

  Howler Dread Hound

  One of those young specimens that kills too quickly. They gather in huge packs to massacre whole villages at once. They are Medium Level 9 Minion Controllers with a speed of 8. At Int 5, they’re sapient but dim.

  As with all “dog monsters”, their basic attack is a bite. This one does a bit of damage and slides the target 1 square on a hit. They also have a Piercing Spines trait that deals the same damage as the bite to anyone who misses them with a melee attack. The ability that gives them their name is the Dread Howl encounter power, a fear attack that catches every enemy in a Close Blast 5 and targets Will. A hit does a bit of psychic damage and makes the target grant combat advantage for a turn.

  These are minions, so there will always be a lot of them when they appear. A bit of orchestration could ensure PCs grant combat advantage for most of the fight.

  Howler Doom Mastiff

  An older, fully developed howler who has learned the value of prolonged psychological torture. They roam ruins and tunnels in small packs, looking for victims to terrify. They are Large Level 13 Skirmishers with 129 HP and a speed of 8.

  Doom Mastiffs are large enough to ride, and they have the Mount keyword. As they have Int 9, I think this is more of an equal partnership thing than the rider “keeping” the howler as a mount or pet. The Guarding Spines trait gives the mastiff’s rider a +2 bonus to AC. Its Piercing Spines does 10 damage to anyone who misses the howler or its rider with a melee attack.

  Their basic Bites are a little weak but can be used as part of a Loping Bite attack that allows the mastiff to shift half its speed and bite. Their Terrifying Howl is a lot stronger than the dread hound’s: it deals 10 ongoing psychic damage to those it hits, and makes them grant combat advantage (save ends). Targets adjacent to the mastiff can’t save agains this. Finally, this is a (recharge 6+) power instead of an encounter power. So it might happen more than once!

  Being all about that delicious fear, the mastiff will open with a howl and then will do its best to stick to one of the affected PCs, using move actions and Loping Bites to do so. It’s smart enough to prefer a squishy victim over a defender, too.

  Howler Terror Incarnate

  The one that devoured an army’s collective fear and became a demigod of terror. It’s a Large Level 22 Lurker with 155 HP.

  The terror’s Shadow Spines work a lot like that of its lesser relatives, but deal necrotic damage. It also has a Terror Incarnate aura (3) that deals 10 psychic damage per turn to any enemies inside.

  Their basic bite deals the same damage as that of the level 13 doom mastiff, which I’m almost sure is a typo. It can also possess people with the Shadow of Terror power. This is a melee attack that can only be used against people who can’t see the howler, and who haven’t been possessed during the fight yet. On a hit, the howler is removed from play and the target is dominated (save ends). The target’s at-will attacks deal an extra 1d8 psychic damage and target Will instead of their original defenses. The posession ends when the target passes a save or takes radiant damage - when this happens, the howler reappears adjacen to them. The target is then dazed (save ends).

  Their final attack is the Death Howl, another blast attack. This one does immediate psychic damage and dazes (save ends) on a hit.

  Shadow Lope (recharge 4+) provides the ability to set up for a Shadow of Terror attack: it allows the howler to become invisible for a turn and move its speed.

  Final Impression

  Howlers are far from the first dog monsters to show up in D&D. They’re not even the first dog monsters with fear powers. Still, you can use them in your campaign in place of wargs and other similarly-leveled canine menaces for added variety. The Doom Mastiff’s ability to act as a mount also makes it an possible replacement for a Nightmare. Anyone who would ride an Evil Fire Horse would also certainly ride an Evil Fear Dog.

• Aug 20, 2022

  Merging Shield Skills in GURPS

  This is kind of an addendum to my earlier post on Merging Weapon Skills in GURPS, which occurred to me after reading this other post in After the Ogre. I realized I hadn’t mentioned Shield skills, but I had been merging them for so long I had forgotten that wasn’t the standard.

  In my GURPS games, there is only one shield skill:

  Shield (DX/E)

  This skill merges Shield, Shield (Buckler) and Force Shield. There is still a mechanical difference between a shield that’s held in the hand and one that’s strapped to the arm, but both of them use the same skill and there is no familiarity penalty from switching between them.

  If you’re using the optional rules for Familiarity Penalties in the previous post, such a penalty would definitely apply when someone used to traditional shields wields a weightless force shield, and vice-versa. As a reminder, that’s a -2 penalty to Shield that goes away after a few hours of practice during downtime, at no point cost.

• Aug 20, 2022

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual 3: Hag

  

  This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.

  As I mentioned way back in the MM/MV post about Hags, they’re a species of fey that resemble fairytale witches in appearance and behavior. They tend to have great knowledge of magic, but also tend use it to further selfish and greedy schemes.

  Their basic lore remains the same in the MM3, which also adds that hags are keepers of secrets. They’re always after new treasure and new secrets, generally of the type that increases their power. They use divination magic, pacts with mortals, and a network of portals that weaves through the Feywild and the middle world, which they also use to keep connected to each other.

  Hags are of course loathe to part with any of their secrets for free. Adventurers seeking information from a hag must usually agree to do them a favor, which commonly means doing something nasty to one of the hag’s many enemies. These enemies might include archfey, demons, devils, other hags…

  Hags are Medium Fey Humanoids and have Low-Light Vision. Everything else varies with stat blocks, which are usually split along the lines of which type of magic a hag uses in combat. I don’t think they’re supposed to be different sub-species or anything of the sort.

  Pact Hag

  This is your typical “sinister village witch”, living in a hut out of sight of the village itself. This location is far enough away to deter curious casuals, but still close enough that someone who really wants to make a deal with the hag can easily reach it.

  A pact hag is much more willing to negotiate with these visitors than most of her relatives, though she’s still just as prone to seeking deals that benefit her more than they do the petitioner. She usually keep ogres, trolls, and dangerous fey fauna as bodyguards. They’re initially out of sight, but can arrive quickly if a fight breaks out.

  Pact hags are Level 11 Controllers with the Leader tag and 115 HP. In a fight, they use all sorts of fun mind control magic, starting with a Pact of Obedience aura (5) that allows allies inside to spend 5 HP to reroll a missed attack roll with a +2 bonus to the reroll.

  Her basic melee attack is a Compelling Staff that deals light damage but forces the target to make a melee basic attack against a target of the hag’s choice.

  Her basic ranged attack is named Pact of Compelled Obedience and does no damage at all, but it dominates the target for a turn instead. Fun (TM) for the whole party.

  Her special attacks follow along the same lines. Pact of Choked Aggression also doesn’t do immediate damage and inflicts a nasty curse on the target: they take 10 psychic damage the first time they hit a creature during one of their turns. This lasts until the end of the encounter, or until one of the target’s allies attacks the target. And it recharges when no enemy is affected by the curse!

  The other special attack is Pact of Shared Agony, which the hag can only use while bloodied. It’s another curse: until the end of the encounter, if the target is within 10 squares of the hag, they take 10 psychic damage whenever the hag takes any amount of damage. This power recharges whenever the hag misses with it, so she can keep using it until she hits.

  This big emphasis on indirect damage means pact hags work best when surrounded by those beefy bodyguards, and will probably try to flee the fight once they become bloodied. Pact of Shared Agony is good for discouraging pursuit by melee strikers. Their “Pact” theme makes them a good patron for a heroic-tier fey warlock! This patron hag might either level up as the PC does, or you can have a story where the PC “trades up” to a better teacher Sith-style once the hag’s demands become untenable.

  Dream Hag

  These hags, as you might imagine, focus on dream magic. They can send dream visions to people, a power they use to lure their (or their paying customer’s) enemies to traps. However, the constraints of dream magic mean the hag doesn’t have full control over the content of the visions, so genuinely useful information tends to slip through.

  Dream Hags are Level 19 Controllers with 179 HP. They project a Nightmare Weaver aura (3) that causes unconscious enemies inside to become dominated for a turn. They stand up and perform one action of the hag’s choice while still remaining unconscious. The wording here makes it clear that this puppetry continues while the enemies remain inside the aura.

  Their basic attack is a Staff of Mindless Reverie, which damages and dazes for a turn on a hit. Their at-will ranged attack are weaponized Nightmare Visions that deal psychic damage and slide the target 5 squares.

  And then we have the powers that make people unconscious so the hag can exploit her aura. Both affect a Close Blast 5! Dust of Dreams (recharge 5+) dazes on a hit (save ends), and this worsens to unconsciousness after the first failed save. Sleep’s Undeniable Grasp (Encounter) makes its targets unconscious right away. It’s a (save ends) effect and it also ends if the target is attacked.

  Yes, it’s possible for the hag to put the whole party to sleep at once if she’s really lucky. This shouldn’t be an automatic total party kill if you run the abilities as written, though - sleeping PCs can still roll saves to end the effect, and in the case of the encounter power they also wake up if attacked. Of course, this attack will probably be an auto-crit if it comes from an enemy, so it’s still a problem.

  I also think it’s acceptable to fudge things a little if Team Monster’s goal is something other than killing the PCs. If the goal is capturing them, or taking them somewhere else, then you can fade to black if the whole party falls asleep and have them wake up at that place.

  Mist Hag

  These are among the most powerful of hags. They’ve been accumulating secrets, artifacts and power for ages, and they dwell in the deepest forests of the Feywild. Their dwellings are surrounded by a thick mist that they have full control over. If the Death Hag from the MM1 was a “Baba Yaga wannabe”, this one is closest to the real deal. She’s pretty much an arch-fey herself. The Mist Hag does not deal with devils - devils deal with her. A few of them probably have been pressed into service as her bodyguards. Other possible allies include epic undead, fomorians, and so on.

  A Mist Hag is a Level 27 Controller with the Leader tag and 247 HP. She has a zippy ground speed of 8, instead of the standard 6 for a medium humanoid. Her aura is a Mist Shroud that makes allies within 1 square insubstantial.

  The hag’s Mist Staff damages and pushes targets 5 squares. During the push, targets act as if they had the Phasing trait, which means the hag can push them through walls and other creatures. The final destination square must still be empty, but the hag doesn’t need to have a line of effect to it or the other squares of the push. If you want to get cute with this ability, include a piece of hazardous terrain surrounded by walls in your battle map.

  Her basic attack is Mist on the Wind, which damages and removes the target from play for a turn! The target returns to play in a square of the hag’s choice within 4 squares of its original position.

  Finally, Choking Mist (recharge 5+) is a ranged attack serves as a reminder that the PCs are breathing the same mist the hag can control. It deals heavy physical damage and ongoing 20 damage (save ends). Every time the target fails a save, the hag can slide them 3 squares.

  When an enemy gets to within 2 squares of the hag, the hag can use Maze of Mist to mess with them. This is a triggered effect that doesn’t require an action, so it can happen every time the trigger happens. When it does, the hag can roll a d20. On a 10 or higher, she slides the triggering enemy 1 square. This makes closing to melee reach a lot harder than usual.

  Final Impressions

  As I said back in the original article, I like hags when they are portrayed as their own species of fey being that don’t necessarily need to obey natural laws. They’re fairytale witches, with a penchant for doing the things fairytale witches do.

  That said, I think treating each hag stat block as an entirely different species is going a bit too far. I prefer to treat those as differences of skill and training.

subscribe via RSS