So, in my campaign I'm essentially sending my players on a glorified fetch quest. Or just a fetch quest, not sure if it's even glorified. They have to rebuild an ancient magical construct, but its parts are scattered to the wind. One of said parts, a foot, has been discovered by a hag, who has taken up residence inside it.
The players aren't quite strong enough to kill the hag, so they'll need to convince her to give over her home. My question is this: how? How would one get a hag to give her whole home away? What sort of task is monumental enough to warrant such a gift?
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"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
Hags love to be coddled, complimented, and put on a pedestal, especially since most beings will automatically treat them like, well......Hags. They also like vivid stories of pain and suffering. So if you have a highly charismatic character that can role play this, and they're convincing enough for you, then perhaps a night of sweet compliments and horrid tales is enough to warrant her to travel down the road. Does she need to leave permanently, or do they need the house for a short time? Perhaps they're sent on a short quest in the neighboring forest to find one of her long lost coven sisters from years past, and in exchange she'll leave her house and move in with her. Just a few thoughts......
If the characters literally aren't powerful enough to "evict" the Hag, you have to look at more narrative solutions.
Dark Bargain. This might be an option but, the characters have to seem to get the worst of the deal or the Hag won't be interested.
Deception. Maybe the characters fool the Hag. They set up a cave and make it as disgusting as possible(themselves as well) and give the appearance that they really enjoy their residence. The Hag thriving on others suffering would definitely want to deprive them of that. Hags aren't fools though so, it's got to be convincing. Another idea might be to pit the Hag against some other dangerous individual or creature under false pretenses.
Riddle Me This. Use the classic LOTR riddle exchange between Bilbo and Gollum. If they players know or can legitimately figure out a riddle, the Hag gives up her home. If the players can not outsmart the Hag, the consequence is severely unpleasant.
Ask her for it. Hags are a great plot device, and one of my favorite overlooked monsters. A hag will trade anything they have. But they don't broker in stuff, they broker in misery. The hag will trade the foot, but she will know what it is worth, and she will only trade it for something that creates tremendous misery. This could be something as difficult as "kidnap the king's newborn daughter and bring her to me" or it could be something as simple as "give me one of your knives." Keep in mind, while the former has more obvious implications, the second can be something you keep in your pocket for when you need it. And when the players are about to get the last mcguffin, the ruler who is going to trade it to them is found dead in her room, and the character's traded-away knife is found buried in her back, and the character who owns the knife is from a rival kingdom. Suddenly, the ruler's successor is on the throne, and he is a cruel, incompetent drunk who hates the characters. He declares war on the rival kingdom, and the characters become fugitives who now have to figure out how to steal the mcguffin from the kingdom's treasure room.
I would recommend thinking about this kind of thing before introducing the hag as a plot element, but mostly it's the same ways you have for any other NPC:
Offer her something she wants more than the house (but see above comments)
Beat them up (or threaten to do so) and take it.
Join forces with a third party to beat her up.
Steal it.
Trick her.
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So, in my campaign I'm essentially sending my players on a glorified fetch quest. Or just a fetch quest, not sure if it's even glorified. They have to rebuild an ancient magical construct, but its parts are scattered to the wind. One of said parts, a foot, has been discovered by a hag, who has taken up residence inside it.
The players aren't quite strong enough to kill the hag, so they'll need to convince her to give over her home. My question is this: how? How would one get a hag to give her whole home away? What sort of task is monumental enough to warrant such a gift?
"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
Hags love to be coddled, complimented, and put on a pedestal, especially since most beings will automatically treat them like, well......Hags. They also like vivid stories of pain and suffering. So if you have a highly charismatic character that can role play this, and they're convincing enough for you, then perhaps a night of sweet compliments and horrid tales is enough to warrant her to travel down the road. Does she need to leave permanently, or do they need the house for a short time? Perhaps they're sent on a short quest in the neighboring forest to find one of her long lost coven sisters from years past, and in exchange she'll leave her house and move in with her. Just a few thoughts......
If you want sugar coating, go buy a dessert....
If the characters literally aren't powerful enough to "evict" the Hag, you have to look at more narrative solutions.
Dark Bargain. This might be an option but, the characters have to seem to get the worst of the deal or the Hag won't be interested.
Deception. Maybe the characters fool the Hag. They set up a cave and make it as disgusting as possible(themselves as well) and give the appearance that they really enjoy their residence. The Hag thriving on others suffering would definitely want to deprive them of that. Hags aren't fools though so, it's got to be convincing. Another idea might be to pit the Hag against some other dangerous individual or creature under false pretenses.
Riddle Me This. Use the classic LOTR riddle exchange between Bilbo and Gollum. If they players know or can legitimately figure out a riddle, the Hag gives up her home. If the players can not outsmart the Hag, the consequence is severely unpleasant.
Ask her for it. Hags are a great plot device, and one of my favorite overlooked monsters. A hag will trade anything they have. But they don't broker in stuff, they broker in misery. The hag will trade the foot, but she will know what it is worth, and she will only trade it for something that creates tremendous misery. This could be something as difficult as "kidnap the king's newborn daughter and bring her to me" or it could be something as simple as "give me one of your knives." Keep in mind, while the former has more obvious implications, the second can be something you keep in your pocket for when you need it. And when the players are about to get the last mcguffin, the ruler who is going to trade it to them is found dead in her room, and the character's traded-away knife is found buried in her back, and the character who owns the knife is from a rival kingdom. Suddenly, the ruler's successor is on the throne, and he is a cruel, incompetent drunk who hates the characters. He declares war on the rival kingdom, and the characters become fugitives who now have to figure out how to steal the mcguffin from the kingdom's treasure room.
I would recommend thinking about this kind of thing before introducing the hag as a plot element, but mostly it's the same ways you have for any other NPC: