Hag, Annis HagThis repulsive, hunchbacked crone has skin the color of a fresh bruise. Despite her hunch, she looms taller than a human.Annis Hag CR 6Source Bestiary 3 pg. 16, Bonus Bestiary pg. 11
XP 2,400
CE Large monstrous humanoid
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +13DefenseAC 20, touch 10, flat-footed 19 (+1 Dex, +10 natural, –1 size)
hp 66 (7d10+28)
Fort +8, Ref +6, Will +6
DR 5/bludgeoning; SR 17OffenseSpeed 40 ft.
Melee bite +13 (1d6+7), 2 claws +13 (1d6+7 plus grab)
Space 10 ft., Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks rend (2 claws, 2d6+10)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 7th; concentration +7)
3/day—alter self, fog cloudStatisticsStr 25, Dex 12, Con 18, Int 13, Wis 13, Cha 10
Base Atk +7; CMB +15 (+19 grapple); CMD 26
Feats Alertness, Blind-Fight, Great Fortitude, Intimidating Prowess
Skills Bluff +7, Diplomacy +7, Intimidate +17, Perception +13, Sense Motive +3, Stealth +7
Languages Common, GiantEcologyEnvironment cold marshes
Organization solitary or coven (3 hags of any kind)
Treasure standardDescriptionAlso known as black hags or iron hags, annis hags are the largest and most physically intimidating of their foul brood. Known for their iron-hard, wart-covered skin that varies from shades of deep blue to black and their claws like rusty blades, annis hags forgo much of the cunning and deceptiveness of their kind to revel in the more visceral evils of torture and slaughter. The typical annis hag stands just over 8 feet tall and weighs upward of 300 pounds.
Dwelling in dark caves, tangled hollows, and cursed ruins deep within frozen swamps or icy moors, annis hags stalk forth by night to sow fear and hunt the unwary. Although possessed of cunning minds, annis prove more decadent than most other hags, frequently indulging in their taste for living flesh and the music of pleading screams. Unlike green hags, they use their ability to assume humanoid form via alter self not to infiltrate societies but to lure victims into a false sense of security before attacking—often posing as travelers in need of aid or pilgrims seeking to share a camp.
Annis hags find the flesh of children, young animals, and the pure of heart particularly pleasing, both for the tenderness of such meals and for the sorrow such murders spread. After gorging themselves, these hags delight in stripping the skin from their victims, often garbing themselves in the grisly trophies. They are also known to retain and even preserve identifiable portions of their victims (such as heads) for later use in spreading misery. An annis who eats the children of a local farmer might keep the heads (or at least the faces) handy to return to the victims’ parents, for example—often in the guise of an anonymous gift. The most insidious of annis hags present these gifts in ways that implicate friends or family in the victim’s death.
Like most hags, annis sometimes join covens of their repulsive sisters, though many prove resistant to such cooperation. They are particularly unlikely to join covens that already include other annis, though groups of related annis—typically horrible triplets—are not unknown. A typical annis coven consists of one annis leader along with two green hags or sometimes even a witch or two. Annis covens often seek to recruit additional creatures as guardians and are particularly fond of trolls and ogres for such roles.Customizing Hag CovensSource Blood of the Coven
Any group of three hags can form a coven, but realistically, many types of hags will never cross paths or deign to work with one another. Blood hags are loath to form covens that are not under their control. Annis hags are likewise domineering, rarely working with more powerful hags. Storm hags usually prefer allying with other storm hags, but they will occasionally form covens with green hags or sea hags. Sea hags sometimes seek out a green hag to lead them. Mute hags—among the most powerful of mortal hags—relish the destruction of relationships, and their involvement in a coven is typically transient, lasting only as long as whatever barrier prompted them to seek sisters in the first place. Night hags and dreamthief hags are outsiders that wander the planes in search of victims. These cautious schemers do not hesitate to involve mortal hags in their machinations, readily joining covens when it proves expedient. Their immortality grants them great patience and enough time to plan contingencies so that betraying them becomes a risky proposition.
A typical hag coven can cast the spells listed in the green hag’s monster entry (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 167). Blood hags, storm hags, and winter hags always grant the spells and abilities listed in their bestiary entries. To reflect the diversity of powers hags can invoke, Game Masters can customize the spell lists of covens based on their membership; each type of hag makes specific spells available to cast as coven magic.
All covens can cast the following spells, regardless of the hags that comprise them: animate dead, baleful polymorph, bestow curse, clairaudience/clairvoyance, commune, dream, forcecage, mind blank, reincarnate, speak with dead, veil, vision
The Annis Hag adds the following spells to the coven: charm monster, cloudkill, giant form I, mass bull's strengthCreatures in "Hag" CategorySource Classic Horrors Revisited pg. 35
If dryads, nymphs, and sprites represent the grace and beauty of unspoiled nature, then surely the annis hag, green hag, and sea hag embody its savage, destructive side. Though not fey themselves, hags appear to be somehow tied to nature, even if no more than as a distorted reflection of it. Hags are foul, wicked creatures, warped with cruelty and evil. Uniformly female and invariably repulsive, these misshapen crones plot dark deeds over bubbling cauldrons, either singly or in sinister triads known as covens.
|