Baba Yaga

One of the questions Baba Yaga asks her visitors is “Did you come of your own free will, or at another’s bidding?” How a hero answers is important. Those who profess to have come on their own, or who refuse to answer the question in a straightforward fashion, are those with whom Baba Yaga is willing to engage in conversation. She considers these people either brave or foolish, but with the potential to be more than a good meal. Perhaps she believes they can be useful for eliminating some of her enemies, or in retrieving a special item that was lost or stolen. It could be that aiding such adventurers causes enough chaos in the world to delight the old hag.

The truth is that Baba Yaga is unpredictable. In some tales, a good child receives wealth in return for service to her and a bad child is eaten. But the heroes, regardless of their actions, might be offered food and shelter, or they might be chased away by the witch, shouting curses at their fleeing backs as she glides along in her oversized flying mortar and pestle. Being polite is not a guarantee of good treatment, just as being rude is not an instant death sentence. Baba Yaga has her own motivations, which are beyond an adventurer’s understanding.

Baba Yaga’s innate power ranks her among the archfey, those magical beings with nearly godlike powers. The archfey respect her abilities, but they treat her warily. The hag can be an ally or an enemy, and her fickle nature might lead her to switch sides in a conflict for no reason anyone else can discern. Her relationship with the gods is similarly unpredictable, although she is likely to be associated closely with evil deities, devils, and tricksters or gods of mischief, to whom she is a kindred spirit.

A character knows the following information with a successful Arcana check:

DC 10: Baba Yaga is a vicious and powerful hag who eats people. She lives in a hut that walks on chicken legs, and she can tell where mortals are from by their smell. She is clearly evil, but it is rumored that she rewards those who deserve it. She raises magnificent horses, and she keeps treasure in her hut. If someone runs from her, she chases them in her magic mortar and pestle, and she sweeps behind her with her broom to cover her tracks.
DC 15: Baba Yaga is known as the Mother of All Witches or the Bone Mother. She is an archfey, and her knowledge of magic is extensive. Although she is sought by sages and heroes for her vast knowledge, she is dangerously unpredictable, and is as likely to eat supplicants as to aid them.
DC 20: Folk legend says that Baba Yaga is so powerful that dawn, noon, and night are subservient to her. This claim is at least partially true. Three knights serve as her messengers: the dawn knight, who wears white armor and rides a white horse; the noon knight, who wears red armor and rides a red horse; and the dusk knight, who wears black armor and rides a black horse. Rumor says these three knights are the same being at different times of day, just as it is speculated that Baba Yaga sometimes claims to be her own sister to aid—or hinder—a hero more than once.
DC 25: Baba Yaga frequently asks adventurers whether they have come to her of their own free will, or whether they were sent by someone else. Adventurers who either answer honestly that they have come on their own, or who refuse to answer the question directly, are treated with respect. However, there are no guarantees with Baba Yaga. It is prudent to treat the witch with politeness, because sometimes this is enough to engage her in conversation; if she is hungry, however, politeness alone can’t save a guest from the witch’s appetite. Rude visitors are usually eaten immediately, but an occasional guest of Baba Yaga has succeeded in earning her respect by attacking her first. That course of action, however, is more likely to end in the heroes’ demise.

Baba Yaga’s Lair

Baba Yaga’s hut is infamous for its chicken legs. Although the hut’s home is a glade in the Feywild, its wandering nature means it can be found in any forest clearing, in the foothills of the mountains, or in the depths of a stifling bog. The hut is usually turned so that its entrance faces an impassable obstruction such as a thicket, wall or cliff, ensuring that intruders have no clear approach. In order to access the door in these situations, a visitor must ask the hut—nicely—to turn away from the obstruction. In response, the hut rises up on its chicken legs, turns around, and settles back into place.

Path to the Underworld. Tales are told of forlorn souls who, because of grief, madness, or sheer stupidity have sought out Baba’s hut, as it is rumored that there is no feat of magic beyond her reach.

But those who enter her domain unbidden almost never go unnoticed, for Baba's hut can sense the slightest vibration in its halls, and it spies on her behalf.

Lair Actions

On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), Baba can take a lair action to cause one of the following effects. She can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row.

• Baba Yaga learns about any creature inside her hut. Each creature on or inside the hut must make a DC 25 Intelligence saving throw. On a failed save, Baba Yaga gains knowledge of a creature’s name, race, where they consider home, and what brought them to her web.
• Baba Yaga commands the house to jump. Each creature on or inside the hut must make a DC 18 Dexterity saving throw or fall prone

Regional Effects

The region containing Baba’s lair is warped by her presence, which creates one or more of the following effects:

• Creatures within Baba Yaga's lair serve as her eyes and ears. People amble about without any direction. Most seem distraught.
• Within 1 mile of Baba’s lair, dark forest fills all 10-foot cubes of open space, its jagged trees taking root wherever possible. Only one path appears to adventurers who travel through the wood, lined with animals and people in need of aid. Twists and turns lead heroes in circles, misdirecting them until they arrive at the lair.

If Baba Yaga dies, the hut dies with her. The creatures remain, but their confines decompose and dissolve within 1d10 days.