Night hag

Night hags were incredibly evil creatures that lived in the Lower Planes. They were known for their mercilessness and ability to walk in the dreams of others. In the Fiendish planes, they were powerful creatures and the developers of the process that created altraloths, powerful unique yugoloths, but much more commonly known for being able to harvest larvae, which were used as currency in the Abyss, Blood Rift, and Nine Hells. They also had an affinity for nightmares.

Description
Night hags were horrendously hideous beings, unrivaled in their repulsiveness even among other hags and much more so when compared to ordinary crones. To describe them as merely ugly was an immeasurable understatement and comparing them to human women at all could be seen as an affront to the gender. Whether sickly and stout, of average build, or gaunt and bony, night hags were most visually similar to small female trolls, complete with a strange strength hidden behind their decrepit frames and a deadly set of long, night-black nails. Their gait was slow and their bodies ungainly despite their similarity in height and weight to human females, a problem caused by the uncanny ways their joints moved.

Their sickening skin tone made their entire forms seem awfully bruised, with a blue-violet hue that could be fairly light or so dark they seemed completely black. They self-augmented their flesh with tattoo-like scars to enhance their eeriness, although it was often already marred with grotesque warts, open sores, and diseased blisters brought on by planar plagues.

Like an unkempt coif, pitch-black hair often hid most of a night hag's horrid visage and unbearable body, although not without compensating for the lost terror that came from doing so. Bones, fingers and other heinous accessories were typically woven into their manes in ways the night hag in question found especially bloodcurdling and thin, curved horns made their way through the ebony locks. Behind the veil of hair laid a pair of light, hellish eyes with pinprick pupils radiating a rage-filled red and a jaw that reached out like a fearsome hook from underneath their sharply pointed noses. Rows of jagged, yellow fangs coated in foul saliva rocked unfirmly in their gums and awkwardly jutted out from their festering, wizened lips.

Personality
Both diabolical and destructive, night hags combined the most despicable traits from fiends throughout the lower planes with the insidious nature of their sinister sisterhood. From their hag side they adopted the desire to sow misery and malcontent in the hearts of mortals everywhere, particularly through the method of bargaining. Like devils, they harbored an indomitable megalomania and unbreakable ambition, crossed with the overpowering need for carnage more typically found in demons. However, the common thread running through their various hateful heritages was the utter glee with which they approached the act of corruption. Night hags were perversely subversive and took delight in turning virtues into vices, either by amplifying positive traits until they became unhealthy or by simply turning ideals into their diametric opposites. Corrupting mortals was both business and pleasure for them as doing so was not only innately satisfying but, like demons and devils, also granted them the victim's soul upon death which they could use as a commodity later on. No bond was too sacred, tactic too low, or act too mercilessly for the soul-hungry merchants of Hades.

Tempering a night hag's compulsion to inflict suffering was their love of learning and need to maintain their livelihoods. They were gripped by the desire to acquire new knowledge and possessed perfect memories, making them highly informative, if incredibly dangerous, sources of lost secrets, ancient wisdom and forbidden lore. Despite not caring about the opinions of others regarding their activities, night hags typically kept their promises once made since stains on their reputations, such as being backstabbers or having poor wares, would negatively impact their business. The safest ways to deal with night hags often included bribing them with information and offers of arcane power, as they prized them about as much as souls.

At the same time, trying to bargain with night hags was still an unthinkably terrible idea as they were vindictive manipulators that would track down and turn their weaker customers into larvae after concluding business. An even worse idea would be to attempt to trick them since they were immortal, petty, and potentially the most stubborn residents of the Gray Wastes, always taking revenge no matter how slight the slight. As expert con merchants themselves they were incredibly difficult to fool, but after discovering they were deceived could waste years, potentially forever, crafting evermore intricate schemes to outsmart their target. Insults and altruistic acts were both remembered but they were quicker to repay the former as opposed to the latter. They were psychopaths that classified all other beings in terms of usefulness: the weak were branded as food or slaves, with slave often being a temporary position until the subject was turned into food, and the strong served as targets for subtle extortion until they were weak enough to be classified as food or slaves.

Perhaps the only positive trait of the night hags was their lack of bias on the basis of race or class. They were thought to view the multiverse as a constant power struggle where the roles of master and servant were in a state of constant flux. It was due to this view that they never made permanent alliances, possibly the one thing preventing them from further controlling the Lower Planes. Racial privilege was viewed as a worthless concept and regardless of where one came from or what they were, they could expect fair treatment from night hags, the same competitive, predatory malice they displayed to everyone else. They retained no particular loyalty or hatred for other night hags and covens were only formed occasionally when one powerful night hag dominated her sisters, although such indifference was sometimes attributed to the Gray Wastes. Material hags were sometimes contended with but always haughtily looked down on, subjugated either as individuals or in preestablished coveys and never joined as equals.

Abilities
Night hags had an array of magical powers at their disposal, including the ability to cast ray of enfeeblement, sleep and magic missile as spell-like abilities. They could magically discern the alignment of most beings detect magic and polymorph in order to take on the guise of a female member of other races, typically in the form of a crone. Like most hags, the frail, elderly exterior of night hags belied their raw, physical strength, which wasn't diminished even when they took on other forms. Their hideous maws could transmit a disease called demon fever via bite and when not polymorphed they retained their wicked sharp claws.

Night hags could only be properly harmed by weapons that had undergone powerful enchantment or that had been constructed from silver or cold iron. Heat and cold barely phased them, magic typically had little effect, and they were entirely immune to magic designed to charm, frighten or put them to sleep.

Dream Haunting
Night hags normally kept two powerful magic items with them at all time, the first of which was a special periapt known as a heartstone. Also called 'charms of blackness', heartstones were lustrous and magically potent black jewels worn as amulets by night hags. When in their possession, they allowed night hags to activate their ability to become ethereal and to cure any disease simply by touching it, a tool of incredible importance for any resident of the plague-ridden plane of Oinos. They were, particularly when used by good-aligned beings, substantially less useful out of a night hag's hands, shattering after ten uses and incapable of granting non-night hags the ability to travel to the Ethereal Plane. To craft a new heartstone required a month's worth of work and the sacrifice of several larvae in the process, making the retrieval of a lost heartstone of paramount importance to them.

Night hags could use their spectral state to haunt the dreams of those on the Material Plane. They would ride on a victim's back, filling their sleeping minds with mind-bending visions, crippling anxieties and dread-inducing nightmares until the break of dawn. Through this method, night hags could gradually wear down their prey both physically and mentally, sapping their vitality while driving them mad in the hopes that they would grow even more depraved. Visits from a night hag in such a fashion only had to last an hour before all benefits of a night's rest was lost and powerful restoration magic was normally required to help victims recover. If unimpeded in their mental invasions, night hags would continue straddling their marks until they died in their sleep. It was at this point that a night hag's other powerful item, her soul bag, came into use. Crafted over the course of a week from the flesh of a sacrificed humanoid, soul bags were black sacks that could hold a single soul that had been killed by a night hag's dream haunting ability, although unlike heartstones only the specific creator could use them.

Night hags could immediately determine soul larva quality, which souls became larvae upon death and possibly even the specific, malicious acts necessary for a wicked mortal to become a soul larvae. With this knowledge, night hags caught the larval life essence of those they had corrupted in their soul bags before dragging them down into Hades where they would become an especially powerful kind of soul larva. The entire process of dream haunting had several flaws interwoven throughout the various stages, such as the fact that it only worked on sufficiently selfish beings. The sleep-related powers of night hags had reportedly different levels of effectiveness on those that were not evil, or at the very least chaotic, such as their sleep spell-like ability not functioning or the bag being unable to entrap the soul. Other weaknesses included the use of truesight to detect their presence, protection from evil and good and magic circle to block a night hag's intrusions, or techniques that affected the ethereal in order to interrupt the process.

Combat
Cruel and devious in the extreme, night hags had access to unique and deadly magical items, arrays of minions and a willingness to sacrifice all of them to protect herself if need be. When they believed themselves to have reasonable chances of success they would quickly murder any goodly being they came across, favoring the use of sleep to render their prey unconscious before cheerfully choking them to death, although some reports claimed they could literally enter and tear apart their target's mind from the inside. Allies typically prevented any other parties from interfering while they killed. However, night hags were rarely direct in their tactics, and often adopted other forms to spy on trespassers or lure them in before rendering them all unconscious.

It was necessary to take all precautions possible when confronting a night hag as they would do the same against any threats to themselves, watching and slowly murdering enemies from the ethereal plane if able to move there unseen. Multiple hostages were often kept on the ethereal plane and would be ruthlessly murdered and made examples of in order to ward off hunters that cared about them. They might also kidnap spellcasters, those most likely to be nuisances but incapable of withstanding direct assault, taking them to the ethereal plane by ambushing and grabbing them, necessitating spells like grease or blur to escape their grasp. It was no surprise that they preferred the use of traps and guardians that made use of poisons and diseases given their heartstone's ability to cure them whenever needed and they often employed lower-planar diseases. Breaking a night hag's heartstone was one of the best tactics when fighting them since it weakened them and prevented them from moving to other planes without assistance. Failing that, spells such as forcecage were tremendously useful in limiting their movements and tactical options while etherealness allowed them to be fought on equal terms.

Society
Despite being among the greatest economic powers of the Lower Planes and a crucial link in the ecology of many creatures that lived there, night hags were also among the most quickly dismissed of its denizens. They were terrifying creatures to those of the Prime Material Plane, but they were relatively puny by extraplanar standards, easily beaten by a few mezzoloths. They were not to be mistaken as flimsy or frail, as any being capable of winning respect from balors and pit fiends was likely incredibly dangerous, but their lack of strength compared to other lower-planar races often raised questions of why other forces, good or evil, hadn't driven them out of Hades and taken control for themselves. This was often written off as a result of the Gray Wastes stealing the thirst for conquest from would-be invaders but such propositions were entirely false.

Night hags were the nightmare queens of Hades, but not due to overwhelming power and threats or far-reaching and complex plotting. Instead, night hags used a subtler and simpler method, manipulating various malevolent factions against each other using soul larvae as their means of control. The Oinoloth, leader of the yugoloths, might have ruled the Gray Wastes in name but functionally it was the night hags that actually controlled it, if only because the majority of the yugoloths migrated to Gehenna and the Oinoloth spent much of their time dealing with the intrigues of their own kind. As independent sellers, night hags could determine their own prices, trading in gold, information, favors, magic items, evil souls and whatever else they desired. Through this capitalistic puppeteering, night hags acquired new ways to extort others, gained secrets to connivingly trade between opposing forces and otherwise improve their political standing. In exchange for larvae, powerful fiends could be persuaded to avoid trying to conquer Hades while liches might be asked to destroy certain parties that refused to participate in the larva trade.

Larva Trade
Larvae trading was the primary occupation and activity of most night hags, with the main, and easiest, method of gathering them being to simply wander the Wastes looking for them. Because soul larvae from the Gray Wastes rarely moved, and those from Oinos had a tendency to manifest near each other, it was incredibly easy for night hags to travel the Gloom and herd larvae together before letting the horde double a couple times over the course of a few days. The particularly wicked larvae that hags made from their dream haunting abilities were especially useful to fiends and it was thought that they had the luxury of skipping the mindless stages of lemure or mane. Many fiends actively sought out hags that created such larvae and night hags in turn recognized the profit that could be turned from selling them. Despite the obvious benefits, most night hags refrained from using this method due to the time and effort it took to perform and the risk that the practice would attract troublesome forces from the Material Plane. Still, some opportunistic hags still partook in the practice despite its risks, going after powerful beings of great evil, particularly spellcasters that associated with fiends, who would create more valuable larva. After disposing of the worst maggots and branding their merchandise they sold the rest to the highest bidders or in pre-arranged contracts, typically only trading the best but occasionally selling those of poor quality at a discount, often times to inexperienced liches.

Why larvae were so crucial was no question, as the creatures could be eaten, turned into various fiends or used as raw material in several rituals and products. While they could be found throughout the lower planes, night hags centralized their business in the Gray Wastes, and sometimes harvested them from the Shadowfell. This was because larvae of the Gray Wastes were of such pure evil that not only could both baatezu and tanar'ri easily adapt them to their alignments, but it was in their best interests to do so. Larva from the Nine Hells were too inflexibly fixed to their form of lawful evil and struggled to take on baatezu form, while those chaotic evil ones from the Abyss were unstable and reverted back into larva too easily. Millions of fiends could die daily in the Blood War and while neither side would ever admit it, they were reliant on the keen eyes and superior location of the night hags to supply them with the best larvae. Other entities that relied on life forces to survive such as liches were minor players in the larva trade but still contributed to the trade and the monopoly held by the hags. With an ever-increasing demand and a practically never-ending supply, the night hags had surely amassed awe-inspiring levels of wealth.

Although uncommon, larva trade interruptions, either to ruin or commandeer it, have always happened within the Gray Wastes. The Blood War, ironically, was the biggest issue as despite attempts to learn where it would strike next, hags were often unexpectedly caught in the middle of Blood War skirmishes and slaughtered along with them, their herd, their servitors and their patrons. Celestials attempting to weaken the forces of evil without making themselves out as targets sometimes conducted covert operations against the nightmare queens, secretly slaughtering them and their herd based on the logic that killing fiends while they were weak was the best strategy, although it was unclear if it actually worked or merely angered the hags. Occasionally the rogue fiend or unscrupulous mortal would attempt to take up the larva trade as an entrepreneur, a practice likely to get them killed before their first deal by their competition and that was never taken seriously. More regular and sporadic disruptions included robbery by liches, small thefts by hungry dhergoloths (which were generally ignored to prevent conflict with the yugoloth race) and attacks by goodly, plane traveling adventurers. Typically such intrusions only effected individual hags and the wider-scale larva trade remained unimpeded, although failing to address such attacks was liable to get a hag branded as weak.

Cooperation
Night hags occasionally became the wives of fiends possessing some semblance of noble status and had been known to adopt seductive appearances in order to get close and steal secrets from mortal wizards. They had been known to found magic colleges or sponsored arcane research projects, regardless of the moral nature of the spellcasters they deceived. Lesser creatures were normally hired to keep records, herd larvae, send messages and complete any other mundane chores, with loyalty being greatly important to them. Those night hags that did pay their workers often did so poorly and terminated any servitor wishing to terminate their employment in order to protect their precious trade secrets. Although they made contact with servants, customers and hired mercenaries, night hags had little society in regards to one another outside of subjugation and the mutual scorning of the weak. They generally preferred to operate their businesses independently of one another, allowing them to keep the entirety of their earnings while not needing to deal with their equally greedy relatives. Thousands of individual night hags dotted Hades, each marketing their own wares while in constant competition with each other. Occasionally night hag covens could be found in the Gray Wastes, formed in order to pool a greater profit than the hags within could earn alone. Night hag covens, often comprised of a night hag and her daughters and sometimes masterminded by another, even stronger night hag, quickly and inexorably fell apart due to in-fighting.

The longest-lasting coven of night hags ran the largest larva market in the lower planes, the Grand Larva Emporium. A grand bazaar located in Oinos along the River Styx, the Emporium was the commercial center of the Lower Planes where demon, devil, lich or otherwise went to acquire premium larva. Passengers entered via merrenoloth skiffs by the hundreds to browse and buy, protected by a well-armed retinue of yugoloth mercenaries that swiftly executed any trade disruptors. Shoppers haggled with hags that had paid to rent a spot for the day over the prices of their larvae, and could also purchase larva-based products such as a perfume called "Evil" or a liquor known as "Yellow Wurm Stout". Blood War weaponry and armor, dark magic, slaves, illegal goods and all kinds of other heinous contraband was rumored to make its way through the ultimate black market. The tiefling Malraxus ran a coffee shop the size of a small town called the Blood Grind, where travelers could order exquisite Abyssal coffee and gossip about the latest Blood War news.

Religion
The mother and goddess of hags, Cegilune, dwelt within the Gray Wastes along with the majority of night hags and was rumored to be a supremely powerful night hag herself. She tyrannically commanded the night hags to procure soul larvae for her to use in trades with tanar'ri and liches, although she wouldn't take the souls of those that other night hags had corrupted due to her greed and mistrust for her own servitors. She was paradoxically worshiped and reviled by all night hags and in turn showed only callous disregard for the wellbeing of her daughters, maintaining her position through overwhelming power.

Ecology
Like all hags, night hags reproduced by devouring human infants that they stole from their cradles or from their mothers' wombs. After one week they gave birth to a seemingly human girl, whom the hag sometimes even returned to the original human for foster care. On the girl's thirteenth birthday, she transformed into a hag with identical features to the original hag who spawned her.

History
Night hags were once native to the Feywild, but their extreme evil led to their exile to Hades, from where they spread throughout the Lower Planes.

Notable Night Hags

 * Mad Maggie, a night hag who commanded Fort Knucklebone in Avernus.
 * The Sewn Sisters, a coven of night hags who helped Acererak build the Soulmonger in Chult, triggering the death curse.

Appearances

 * Curse of Strahd
 * Tomb of Annihilation
 * Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus