I'm a new DM and in my new campaign I have a player with the Hexblood origin. She's playing true neutral, thinking the hags that raised her in the Feywild were friendly. She is still disguising her elder cross etc. from her fellow party members.
I'll have to worry about her character arc later on (I'm thinking something along the lines of true memories of her original family that her coven stole from her), but currently I want to include a night hag villain in my campaign. I assume a hag will be able to spot that she's a Hexblood? How would they react to this?
As Night Hags love to corrupt mortals they would likely see the Hexblood as someone already tainted and try to exploit it. They are very smart though so to my mind they wouldn't come straight out and say anything, they might just observe, maybe visit the Hexblooded individual in their dreams and see what their desires are, potentially offer up some visions or temptations or even a pact that gives access to the Magic Iniitate feat or a multiclas to Warlock if they're not already one or they may even view it as stepping on the toes of the other coven to interfere with the Hexblood and just leave them alone. If the character isn't motivated by magical power then maybe offers of wealth or put potions or other items on offer and all for the low low cost of "doing Granny a favour". The Night Hag might even view the Hexblood as the doorway to corrupting the rest of the party or just gets them to take the fall for her shennanigans, for instance, if the Hag is set up in the area as a local alchemist or hebalist then she might get the party to do some local fetch and carry missions in exchange for a discount on her potions only for the party to find out later that delivers they made were more nefarioous in nature and now the authorities are on the hunt for the party.
It really depends on how far you want to take it but it might be a nice little recurring NPC with the Hag just changing her appearance from time to time as she "plays" with her latest/new favourite toys and she views it all as a game with a much longer time frame than the party may be thinking about.
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For a completely different spin, how about Baba Yaga? I guess by official dnd Lore she isn't a hag, but I would absolutely bend this as a DM. This would allow you to foreshadow Zybilnas true identity in quite interesting ways, with the hags all reacting similarly as they recognize their "sibling" in the PC and react to it "Another mortal child I should call a sister? My mother's taste has truly only gotten worse with the years." Bonus points if the PC was crowned withlight Monarch. "Ah, your majesty, a pleasure to welcome you into my home. I wonder, will you claim to have regency over me, like my other darling sister has done when she proclaimed herself the queen of all witches https://vidmate****/ ?"
This will hopefully give her some motivation to look into the mother of the hags and therefore allow you to organically give the party actual solid information about Tasha. Whether or not they figure out Zybilna's identity from it, this will make the reveal much more impactful, since it's not likely the players know too much about Tasha otherwise.
You can also check out the the "Inn at the end of the Road" supplement on dmsguild, it's free and introduces Baba Yaga as an NPC into Prismeer.
The coven (or a single member) of the Night Hag could be helping the party while hoping they depose their leader. The BBEG has been treating the rest of the coven poorly, and not giving them the respect they deserve. A hexblood could potentially replace the current leader of the coven, and might even feel a certain level of trust and loyalty to the hag that helped her grow stronger and foil the evil plans of the BBEG. Upon replacing the villain the coven will support the true neutral philosophy that the hag was pretending to have, while secretly still doing evil stuff behind the back of the naive new member.
Any evil plots the party uncovers will be blamed on the BBEG, or be an attempt to balance the strong shift towards good that the party has accomplished.
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I'm a new DM and in my new campaign I have a player with the Hexblood origin. She's playing true neutral, thinking the hags that raised her in the Feywild were friendly. She is still disguising her elder cross etc. from her fellow party members.
I'll have to worry about her character arc later on (I'm thinking something along the lines of true memories of her original family that her coven stole from her), but currently I want to include a night hag villain in my campaign. I assume a hag will be able to spot that she's a Hexblood? How would they react to this?
A few rambling thoughts:
As Night Hags love to corrupt mortals they would likely see the Hexblood as someone already tainted and try to exploit it. They are very smart though so to my mind they wouldn't come straight out and say anything, they might just observe, maybe visit the Hexblooded individual in their dreams and see what their desires are, potentially offer up some visions or temptations or even a pact that gives access to the Magic Iniitate feat or a multiclas to Warlock if they're not already one or they may even view it as stepping on the toes of the other coven to interfere with the Hexblood and just leave them alone. If the character isn't motivated by magical power then maybe offers of wealth or put potions or other items on offer and all for the low low cost of "doing Granny a favour". The Night Hag might even view the Hexblood as the doorway to corrupting the rest of the party or just gets them to take the fall for her shennanigans, for instance, if the Hag is set up in the area as a local alchemist or hebalist then she might get the party to do some local fetch and carry missions in exchange for a discount on her potions only for the party to find out later that delivers they made were more nefarioous in nature and now the authorities are on the hunt for the party.
It really depends on how far you want to take it but it might be a nice little recurring NPC with the Hag just changing her appearance from time to time as she "plays" with her latest/new favourite toys and she views it all as a game with a much longer time frame than the party may be thinking about.
For a completely different spin, how about Baba Yaga? I guess by official dnd Lore she isn't a hag, but I would absolutely bend this as a DM. This would allow you to foreshadow Zybilnas true identity in quite interesting ways, with the hags all reacting similarly as they recognize their "sibling" in the PC and react to it "Another mortal child I should call a sister? My mother's taste has truly only gotten worse with the years." Bonus points if the PC was crowned withlight Monarch. "Ah, your majesty, a pleasure to welcome you into my home. I wonder, will you claim to have regency over me, like my other darling sister has done when she proclaimed herself the queen of all witches https://vidmate****/ ?"
This will hopefully give her some motivation to look into the mother of the hags and therefore allow you to organically give the party actual solid information about Tasha. Whether or not they figure out Zybilna's identity from it, this will make the reveal much more impactful, since it's not likely the players know too much about Tasha otherwise.
You can also check out the the "Inn at the end of the Road" supplement on dmsguild, it's free and introduces Baba Yaga as an NPC into Prismeer.
The coven (or a single member) of the Night Hag could be helping the party while hoping they depose their leader. The BBEG has been treating the rest of the coven poorly, and not giving them the respect they deserve. A hexblood could potentially replace the current leader of the coven, and might even feel a certain level of trust and loyalty to the hag that helped her grow stronger and foil the evil plans of the BBEG. Upon replacing the villain the coven will support the true neutral philosophy that the hag was pretending to have, while secretly still doing evil stuff behind the back of the naive new member.
Any evil plots the party uncovers will be blamed on the BBEG, or be an attempt to balance the strong shift towards good that the party has accomplished.