Below are the details of a fully-fleshed out hag coven, featuring three hags of various types and their powers and goals.
This is a Web Enhancement for Issue 40 of d12 Monthly.
Coven of the Whispering Night
The Coven of the Whispering Night is an ancient and malevolent trio of hags that haunts the dark and forgotten corners of the Ironwood Forest, a twisted, overgrown woodland that conceals many ancient ruins.
The coven’s primary goal is to unearth a powerful, long-buried artefact known as the Heart of the Forgotten King, which can grant them dominion over life and death, allowing them to raise an army of undead to spread across the Freelands.
The Three Hags
Griselda the Dusk Weaver (Green Hag)
Appearance: Griselda appears as a frail, hunched old woman with bark-like skin, tangled mossy hair, and hollow, glowing green eyes. Her fingers are unnaturally long and tipped with blackened claws, while her skin blends with the trees and shadows of the forest.
Personality: Griselda is the coven’s strategist, a master manipulator who delights in creating webs of lies and deceiving mortals into self-destruction. She is cruelly patient and enjoys watching her enemies suffer before they even know they are under attack.
Powers
Illusion Mastery: Griselda can cast powerful illusions, including Major Image, Hallucinatory Terrain, and Mislead. She uses these to confuse and mislead adventurers and enemies within the lair.
Whispering Wind: Griselda can send whispers through the wind to sow discord among her enemies, planting subtle thoughts of doubt, fear, or betrayal in their minds.
Shapechanger: As with most green hags, she can assume the form of a beautiful maiden, a crone, or an animal, using her guises to manipulate mortals.
The Web of Lies: Griselda can use her action to create a 30-foot radius aura of illusionary webs. Enemies within this area must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or become disoriented, believing themselves trapped. Those trapped are considered restrained until they pass a saving throw at the start of their next turn.
Mirela of the Sunken Depths (Sea Hag)
Appearance: Mirela’s body is bloated and slimy, with kelp and seaweed draped over her pale, waterlogged skin. Her hair is long, wet, and green, resembling tendrils of seaweed. Her eyes are cloudy and lifeless, and her teeth are jagged and black.
Personality: Mirela is the coven’s enforcer, revelling in terror and despair. She enjoys tormenting her victims by showing them their worst fears and thrives on seeing mortals break under pressure.
Powers
Horrific Appearance: Anyone who looks upon Mirela’s true form must make a Wisdom saving throw or become frightened. If the target fails by 5 or more, they are paralyzed with fear for 1 minute.
Death Glare: As an action, Mirela can fix her gaze on a creature within 30 feet. If the target fails a Wisdom saving throw, they are reduced to 0 hit points. This can only be used once per short rest.
Water Control: Mirela can control nearby bodies of water, creating waves, whirlpools, or using Control Water to reshape the environment to her advantage.
Drowning Grasp: Mirela can conjure a spectral wave of water around her that pulls creatures toward her. Any creature within 30 feet must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be pulled up to 10 feet closer and become restrained by spectral seaweed.
Sable the Gloom Warden (Night Hag)
Appearance: Sable has jet-black, leathery skin covered in faint runes that glow in the dark. Her long, silver hair moves as if caught in an unseen breeze, and her deep, glowing red eyes peer into the dreams of those around her. She often rides a demonic nightmare steed.
Personality: Sable is the coven’s dream manipulator, a cruel and cold-hearted creature who feeds on the fear and despair she creates in mortals’ nightmares. She is calculating, preferring to weaken her enemies from a distance by torturing them in their dreams before facing them.
Powers
Dream Haunter: Sable can cast Dream, allowing her to enter the dreams of mortals and plant seeds of fear and madness. This ability allows her to deal psychic damage or impose long-term madness.
Plane Shift: She can shift herself and others between the Material Plane and the Ethereal Plane. This allows her to evade detection or ambush enemies from unexpected angles.
Soul Bag: Sable carries a Soul Bag, which can trap the souls of dying mortals. She uses these souls to power dark rituals and increase her coven’s strength.
Nightmare Ride: Sable can summon her nightmare steed at will, which allows her to move between the Ethereal and Material Planes and strike terror into the hearts of sleeping mortals. She gains a +4 bonus on attack rolls against creatures suffering from fear effects.
Coven Powers (The Whispering Night’s Collective Magic)
When the coven works together, their magic becomes exponentially more dangerous, with their shared power creating devastating effects.
Coven Spells
When all three hags are together, they can cast the following spells, once per day (resets at midnight):
-
-
- Animate Objects
- Finger of Death
- Control Weather
- Power Word: Kill
- Heart of the Coven: The coven can create a Hag Eye, a magical focus that allows them to scry on distant places or creatures. As long as the hag eye exists, the coven gains a +4 bonus on saving throws against magical effects, and their spells are cast at one level higher than normal. If the hag eye is destroyed, the coven takes significant psychic damage and loses their shared powers for 24 hours.
-
Twilight Terrors: The hags can collectively summon an aura of despair and madness in a 1-mile radius around their lair. Creatures entering this area must succeed on a saving throw Vs. Magic or be plagued by unsettling visions and paranoia. This aura also allows the hags to know the location of any intruders within their territory.
Coven Lair: The Heartwood Hollow
The coven’s lair is nestled deep within the Ironwood Forest in an ancient underground ruin known as Heartwood Hollow. Once a temple to forgotten nature gods, it has been overrun by the hags’ dark influence, turning the once-sacred ground into a place of horror.
Entrance: The entrance is hidden beneath a massive, gnarled oak tree whose roots have fused with a stone archway leading into the ruins. The arch is obscured by an illusion of dense brambles that must be dispelled to reveal the way.
Twisted Tree Guardians: The hags have animated the trees surrounding the lair, creating massive Treant-like guardians that patrol the perimeter and attack any intruders.
Cauldron Chamber: At the centre of the lair is a massive black cauldron, always bubbling with vile liquids. This is where the hags perform their most powerful rituals, and it serves as a focus for many of their dark spells.
Mirror of Dreams: A chamber deep within the ruins holds a polished, obsidian mirror. This is Sable’s tool for spying on the dreams of her enemies, and any who gaze into it are drawn into their worst nightmares unless they succeed on a saving throw Vs. spells.
Flooded Catacombs: Mirela has flooded part of the lair with dark, murky water, making it difficult to navigate without magical aid. Hidden within these catacombs are treasures, traps, and cursed relics.
Cursed Sanctuary: The heart of the ruin is an old temple where the Heart of the Forgotten King is believed to be buried. The air here is thick with death magic, and the walls are etched with ancient, undeciphered runes. This is the coven’s ultimate goal and the site of their final, terrible ritual.
Coven Goals
Unearth the Heart of the Forgotten King: The coven’s primary goal is to recover this ancient artefact, which will allow them to raise an unstoppable army of undead and bring ruin to the Freelands.
Corrupt Local Leaders: Griselda delights in corrupting mortals, and the coven is working to undermine the nearby town of Ashgrove by turning its leaders into puppets under their influence.
Weaken the Veil Between Worlds: Sable seeks to weaken the barrier between the Material Plane and the Ethereal Plane, allowing them to more easily shift between realms and harvest souls.
Over to You
Does this inspire you? Let me know what parts you liked the most in the comments below.
While You’re Here…
Since 2021 I have been publishing d12 Monthly, a monthly zine, which has a ton of articles for any edition of Dungeons and Dragons.
Printed copies are available in my store. The PDF is available on DriveThruRPG and you can get both, plus support my work, via my Patreon.
I will also be releasing some more products in the near future.
Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or my contact page any time.