I'm running this oneshot somewhere in the future for 6 lvl 9 players (Dwarf cleric, Drow fighter, Elf rogue/fighter (gunslinger), homebrew scarecrow sorcerer/fighter, tiefling druid, and Halfling ranger). The plot boils down to a coven of night hags that are terrorizing a small town, their reasoning I haven't quite worked out. Basically they unleash a plague that puts additional souls in the bodies of the villagers, who eventually go berserk because of the voices in their minds, and start killing each other: their souls (now turned evil since they've murdered a bunch of people) are now ripe for the taking for the hags.
It's more or less a short mystery campaign of 2-3 sessions, where the PCs get infected with the plague as well and have to fight off the mental strain (of increasingly difficult saves and nightmares that reduce HPmax) alongside figuring out who caused it and why. I'll be leaving clues that lead to the hags, red herrings (one of which will lead them to an orc shaman in a nearby tribe who is rumored to have meddled in the affairs of souls), etc. How can I make the final encounter with the night hags as memorable as possible? Someone suggested to let the hags escape or bargain her life in the end, because a hag always has a backup plan, but wouldn't that be anticlimactic for the players if I end the storyline there and they don't get the satisfaction of having 'defeated' the evil?
What sort of minions would a night hag have that I can use for the encounters in the first (two) session(s)? I've seen someone suggest Shadows, which I'll probably use, but I'd like some higher CR monsters as well to bump up the encounters and diversity of the oneshot. I'm thinking of running 5 or 6 minion encounters over the 2 sessions, and then maybe one more in the final session along with the coven encounter. Do you have any additional tips for this oneshot? Any suggestions, any storylines?
According to Volo, Night hags enjoy corrupting the dreams of good people and compromising the ideals of their victims. Usually, this is to get them to perform evil acts. So you could potentially send any NPC after the party, representing people the coven has corrupted and converted. That would inspire a good bit of paranoia because the minions look just like ordinary people until they suddenly attack.
Night Hags are fiends so it is not out of the realm of possibility that they may recruit other fiends, especially ones that think the deal will help them move up the fiendish hierarchy.
Otherwise, hags would gather various minions for various tasks. For example, servant type minions would be helpers that hags use to for protection. Golems, Helmed Horrors, Scarecrows, and loyal animals like shadow mastiffs or yeth hounds.
For more combat/muscle options that are less 100% loyal but more useful for errands, roughing up enemies, or just patrolling the hags home you would see "dumb brutes" that are easy to manipulate. Bugbears, ettercaps, jackalweres are all good options.
I have a hag about to show up in one of my games, she has a garden of redcaps and uses her deals/corrupt mortals to keep them alive and grow more.
I am in the middle of working on some papers for school right now. I'll either edit this post later or make a new one with suggestions on running the actual final encounter with the hag when I get some more free time.
GM of The Bonus Role - We are playing a 5E game set in my homebrew world of Audra check us out Sunday's at 10 AM CST and follow us at the following social media links. https://www.twitch.tv/thebonusrole @BonusRole
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I'm running this oneshot somewhere in the future for 6 lvl 9 players (Dwarf cleric, Drow fighter, Elf rogue/fighter (gunslinger), homebrew scarecrow sorcerer/fighter, tiefling druid, and Halfling ranger). The plot boils down to a coven of night hags that are terrorizing a small town, their reasoning I haven't quite worked out. Basically they unleash a plague that puts additional souls in the bodies of the villagers, who eventually go berserk because of the voices in their minds, and start killing each other: their souls (now turned evil since they've murdered a bunch of people) are now ripe for the taking for the hags.
It's more or less a short mystery campaign of 2-3 sessions, where the PCs get infected with the plague as well and have to fight off the mental strain (of increasingly difficult saves and nightmares that reduce HPmax) alongside figuring out who caused it and why. I'll be leaving clues that lead to the hags, red herrings (one of which will lead them to an orc shaman in a nearby tribe who is rumored to have meddled in the affairs of souls), etc. How can I make the final encounter with the night hags as memorable as possible? Someone suggested to let the hags escape or bargain her life in the end, because a hag always has a backup plan, but wouldn't that be anticlimactic for the players if I end the storyline there and they don't get the satisfaction of having 'defeated' the evil?
What sort of minions would a night hag have that I can use for the encounters in the first (two) session(s)? I've seen someone suggest Shadows, which I'll probably use, but I'd like some higher CR monsters as well to bump up the encounters and diversity of the oneshot. I'm thinking of running 5 or 6 minion encounters over the 2 sessions, and then maybe one more in the final session along with the coven encounter. Do you have any additional tips for this oneshot? Any suggestions, any storylines?
Thanks in advance!
According to Volo, Night hags enjoy corrupting the dreams of good people and compromising the ideals of their victims. Usually, this is to get them to perform evil acts. So you could potentially send any NPC after the party, representing people the coven has corrupted and converted. That would inspire a good bit of paranoia because the minions look just like ordinary people until they suddenly attack.
Night Hags are fiends so it is not out of the realm of possibility that they may recruit other fiends, especially ones that think the deal will help them move up the fiendish hierarchy.
Otherwise, hags would gather various minions for various tasks. For example, servant type minions would be helpers that hags use to for protection. Golems, Helmed Horrors, Scarecrows, and loyal animals like shadow mastiffs or yeth hounds.
For more combat/muscle options that are less 100% loyal but more useful for errands, roughing up enemies, or just patrolling the hags home you would see "dumb brutes" that are easy to manipulate. Bugbears, ettercaps, jackalweres are all good options.
I have a hag about to show up in one of my games, she has a garden of redcaps and uses her deals/corrupt mortals to keep them alive and grow more.
I am in the middle of working on some papers for school right now. I'll either edit this post later or make a new one with suggestions on running the actual final encounter with the hag when I get some more free time.
GM of The Bonus Role - We are playing a 5E game set in my homebrew world of Audra check us out Sunday's at 10 AM CST and follow us at the following social media links.
https://www.twitch.tv/thebonusrole
@BonusRole