I am a new DM and I need some advices about forest exploration and how to create an interesting hag encounter. The next session will be the final chapter of the current adventure. The party will look after a baby kidnapped by a green hag living in the forest next to the village. They already know there’s a hag and they also know she keeps the baby with her.
The problem is I don’t really know how to run this exploration. Survival/Investigation checks + encounter (and repeat) seems a bit boring on paper. One of the players is a ranger and his favourite terrain is forest so I want him to be and feel useful (again I don't know how).
For the hag encounter I have an idea but I don’t know if it’s interesting enough for the players than just “another monster to kill”.
I would like to make the party feel she’s a lesser evil, keeping all the monsters in the forest. If she dies, the monsters will leave the forest and probably hurt people. She’s obviously lying. Maybe I’ll put a couple of baby goblins with her to make this believable. Maybe she will give back the baby if the party leave her alone and unharmed, “sign of good faith” (it’s actually the duplicate supposed to become a hag years later).
What do you think? Have you any advices or ideas that could help me? (the party is level 2, almost 3)
Green hags revel in tragedy. If she stole a baby from the village, she very well might love exacerbating the misery of the child's parents by sneaking into town and casting minor illusion to mimic the sound of their baby's voice as it cries for its mother. Do the villagers know where the hag lives? If not, she could use her dancing lights to lead searchers off the trail, maybe toward a wolf's den or even better, toward a will-o-wisp. She could use her minor illusion to make sounds like a crying baby coming from another villager's home. She could use her illusory appearance to disguise herself as a villager while they are out searching and then lash out at someone with her claws or with vicious mockery before withdrawing, laughing all the while at their horror and misery. I think you should definitely play the hag using hit and run tactics. Even have her retreat into a bog, river or a lake since she can breathe underwater. The the villagers do know where she lives, like in a cottage in the woods, for instance, she could use minor illusion to make it appear as though the cottage has no door. Or if she lives in a cave, she could disguise the entrance that way. The ranger might have an edge in seeing through this illusion or tracking her down in the woods.
You can build tension. If the players encounter the hag when she is not expecting them, make sure the baby is not with her and have her mock the players as they fight her, telling them that if they kill her, no one will ever find the child and it will starve to death alone in the elements. Might be true. Might be a lie. Or if she does finally draw them into her lair, raise the stakes by having her threaten to throw the baby into a fire, or by throwing the child at the party in order to make her retreat, telling them the villagers will have to live forever without knowing which day she will strike again.
She has a decent amount of hit points and she hits moderately hard, but I think you should definitely draw out the battle by having her pop out of invisibility to attack the players with surprise (and advantage), then hit the biggest damage-doer with vicious mockery before retreating again. You could have a handful of skirmishes to frustrate and wound the party before they finally corner her for a showdown. The harder the hunt, the sweeter the prize.
Hi guys !
I am a new DM and I need some advices about forest exploration and how to create an interesting hag encounter. The next session will be the final chapter of the current adventure. The party will look after a baby kidnapped by a green hag living in the forest next to the village. They already know there’s a hag and they also know she keeps the baby with her.
The problem is I don’t really know how to run this exploration. Survival/Investigation checks + encounter (and repeat) seems a bit boring on paper. One of the players is a ranger and his favourite terrain is forest so I want him to be and feel useful (again I don't know how).
For the hag encounter I have an idea but I don’t know if it’s interesting enough for the players than just “another monster to kill”.
I would like to make the party feel she’s a lesser evil, keeping all the monsters in the forest. If she dies, the monsters will leave the forest and probably hurt people. She’s obviously lying. Maybe I’ll put a couple of baby goblins with her to make this believable. Maybe she will give back the baby if the party leave her alone and unharmed, “sign of good faith” (it’s actually the duplicate supposed to become a hag years later).
What do you think? Have you any advices or ideas that could help me? (the party is level 2, almost 3)
(sorry for my English)
Green hags revel in tragedy. If she stole a baby from the village, she very well might love exacerbating the misery of the child's parents by sneaking into town and casting minor illusion to mimic the sound of their baby's voice as it cries for its mother. Do the villagers know where the hag lives? If not, she could use her dancing lights to lead searchers off the trail, maybe toward a wolf's den or even better, toward a will-o-wisp. She could use her minor illusion to make sounds like a crying baby coming from another villager's home. She could use her illusory appearance to disguise herself as a villager while they are out searching and then lash out at someone with her claws or with vicious mockery before withdrawing, laughing all the while at their horror and misery. I think you should definitely play the hag using hit and run tactics. Even have her retreat into a bog, river or a lake since she can breathe underwater. The the villagers do know where she lives, like in a cottage in the woods, for instance, she could use minor illusion to make it appear as though the cottage has no door. Or if she lives in a cave, she could disguise the entrance that way. The ranger might have an edge in seeing through this illusion or tracking her down in the woods.
You can build tension. If the players encounter the hag when she is not expecting them, make sure the baby is not with her and have her mock the players as they fight her, telling them that if they kill her, no one will ever find the child and it will starve to death alone in the elements. Might be true. Might be a lie. Or if she does finally draw them into her lair, raise the stakes by having her threaten to throw the baby into a fire, or by throwing the child at the party in order to make her retreat, telling them the villagers will have to live forever without knowing which day she will strike again.
She has a decent amount of hit points and she hits moderately hard, but I think you should definitely draw out the battle by having her pop out of invisibility to attack the players with surprise (and advantage), then hit the biggest damage-doer with vicious mockery before retreating again. You could have a handful of skirmishes to frustrate and wound the party before they finally corner her for a showdown. The harder the hunt, the sweeter the prize.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Wow this is brilliant!
Thanks a lot.