public: false
unlisted: trueGuest as Granny
Granny in Barovia
Firstly, try to play Morgantha as the most loving, grandmotherly person in the whole wide world. She's kind to a fault and a shameless gossip (as many elder women can be as a stereotype).
Morgantha introduces herself as Granny, If asked for her name, Morgantha replies honestly, but shows distaste for it. She says:
Why it's Morgantha, dear. But everyone just calls me Granny. Morgantha is much too formal!
Granny sells pastries and pies for 1 Gold each.
If the players ask why her wares are so expensive she tells the PCs that it's a bit of magic her mother taught her.
The pies bring the eaters only the sweetest dreams, something poorly lacking in this dreary world. She is visibly upset when she says this, honestly seeming grief stricken at the sorry state of the world.
Granny's pastries are made from a variety of ingredients, meat pie, onion pie, pumpkin pie etc (this is what Granny has, not what you should make ;-)
If players ask what kind of meat is in the pies. Morgantha says something like:
Oh, Barovians use all kinds of meat. Especially since we've a dreadful lack of sunlight for good fruits and veggies. I myself prefer chicken, but there's also goat, deer, pig, and wolf meat depending on where you go. You'd think wolf meat would be more of delicacy, huh? Not here, dearie! With Lord Strahd in charge there's more wolves in these woods than we know what to do with!
Don’t try to read the following verbatim, they are just talking points if things get slow and you need to improvise. Granny’s primary goal is to move her pies.
definitely share info about the tavern.
Things Granny might share:
- The Blood of The Vine Tavern, in the center of town, is a good place to get a room and some wine, but the food is tasteless, their chef is a soulless hack who couldn’t boil a turnip if Mother Night herself were in the dining room.
- If the players ask “where are we?” or something like that
- Granny answers that we are in the land of Barovia, ruled by Lord Strahd Von Zarovich. Granny is reluctant to talk about Strahd too much and if the players press her on the issue, granny becomes uncomfortable and changes the subject back to her pies.
- If the players ask how they might leave Barovia
- Granny answers with great sadness:
that none may pass the mists that enshrine this land, there is no wall that is higher and no sea more vast than the mists that imprison us all here. Although, it is rumored that some Vistani have the ability to pass through the mists because of an ancient pact.
- The Burgomaster of The Village of Barovia, Kolyan Indirovich, died recently, leaving a son and daughter, both adults
- Granny knows that the son Ismark will likely take over as Burgomaster, but will confide that she believes Ireena to be better suited to leadership.
- Mary Swilova's daughter, Gertruda, recently went missing
- Mary is a bit of a nutter. She kept Gertruda locked away in that house for her entire life. Many people didn’t even know Mary had a daughter. But a few days ago Gertruda, now a teenager, sneaked out and hasn’t been seen since.
- Granny might ask male PCs why on earth they haven't settled down yet and asks the female PCs why they're so skinny. They should get some meat on their bones, for goodness sake!
No matter what, Morgantha will gift the party with a pie to share for dinner. Yes, they normally cost 1gp, but she is confident that they’ll be back for more and she wouldn’t want such lovely people to have to choke down the gruel and shoe leather they serve at the tavern.
Granny at the Windmill
All of this is secret so 🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫
Basically, here's the truth about Morgantha (Granny). She's part of a witch coven with her two daughters Bella Sunbane and Offalia Wormwiggle. As a coven, they get extra powers. They all three specialize in making Dream Pies (the ones she sold the party back in Barovia Village), and their whole operation is run from this windmill.
As we already know about the pies, they have addictive qualities, but they also actually do make their eater feel a little better for a short time. And there are many people in Barovia that keep the hags in business.
Here's the kicker (in 2 parts):
- There's a secret ingredient to these magic pies: children bones. The hags actually have some kids in cages in the windmill whose bones they hope to harvest soon. And when they do get the bones, they actually use the old mill upstairs to grind them into a powder before putting them into the pies.
- Once people get addicted to the pies and really need them, some with no remaining money are actually desperate enough to trade their own children to Morgantha in exchange for more pies.
Playing Morgantha at the Windmill
At some point while the characters are at the windmill, Granny will make another appearance. They'll probably start off the sessions talking with the daughters at the windmill. Initially, the sisters are accommodating and respectful. They're just tying to sell more pies. And if the party doesn't end up fighting, Morgantha will come in, talk with them really sweetly just like she did before, offer them more pies, and send them on their way.
But there is a really good chance, given their experience already with the pies, that they'll get into a fight.
Either way, when Morgantha comes in, she'll still be disguised as Granny, and pushing her cart of pies. Most of the pies have been sold, but in their place is a large wiggling sack (containing a little boy named Lucien). She'll maybe call to her daughters, "I'm home sweeties" or something. And she'll be surprised there's company: "Oh, I didn't expect to see all of you again. Are you back for more pies?"
Combat
If the players are fighting before she arrives, I'll probably give it a few turns before she shows up (this is a really hard fight, and the witches are stronger when the coven is complete).
Then when she comes in, she may not immediately know what's going on. After a round or two, though, I can put you into battle and let you take her turn in combat if you'd like. Her character sheet is below, and I can help you out with it. The sisters have the same sheet.
Also, once she's threatened, she'll drop the disguise and take on her true form:
Morgantha
17
111
30 ft.
18
15
16
16
14
16
Deception +7, Insight +6, Perception +6, Stealth +6
cold, fire; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons that aren't silvered
charmed
darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 16
Abyssal, Common, Infernal, Primordial
5 (1,800 XP)
+3
The hag's innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 14, +6 to hit (16) with spell attacks). She can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
At will: detect magic, magic missile
2/day each: plane shift (self only), ray of enfeeblement, sleep
The hag has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
A night hag carries two very rare magic items that she must craft for herself If either object is lost, the night hag will go to great lengths to retrieve it, as creating a new tool takes time and effort.
Heartstone: This lustrous black gem allows a night hag to become ethereal while it is in her possession. The touch of a heartstone also cures any disease. Crafting a heartstone takes 30 days.
Soul Bag: When an evil humanoid dies as a result of a night hag's Nightmare Haunting, the hag catches the soul in this black sack made of stitched flesh. A soul bag can hold only one evil soul at a time, and only the night hag who crafted the bag can catch a soul with it. Crafting a soul bag takes 7 days and a humanoid sacrifice (whose flesh is used to make the bag).
When hags must work together, they form covens, in spite of their selfish natures. A coven is made up of hags of any type, all of whom are equals within the group. However, each of the hags continues to desire more personal power.
A coven consists of three hags so that any arguments between two hags can be settled by the third. If more than three hags ever come together, as might happen if two covens come into conflict, the result is usually chaos.
While all three members of a hag coven are within 30 feet of one another, they can each cast the following spells from the wizard's spell list but must share the spell slots among themselves:
• 1st level (4 slots): identify, ray of sickness
• 2nd level (3 slots): hold person, locate object
• 3rd level (3 slots): bestow curse, counterspell, lightning bolt
• 4th level (3 slots): phantasmal killer, polymorph
• 5th level (2 slots): contact other plane, scrying
• 6th level (1 slot): eye bite
For casting these spells, each hag is a 12th-level spellcaster that uses Intelligence as her spellcasting ability. The spell save DC is 12+the hag's Intelligence modifier, and the spell attack bonus is 4+the hag's Intelligence modifier.
A hag coven can craft a magic item called a hag eye, which is made from a real eye coated in varnish and often fitted to a pendant or other wearable item. The hag eye is usually entrusted to a minion for safekeeping and transport. A hag in the coven can take an action to see what the hag eye sees if the hag eye is on the same plane of existence. A hag eye has AC 10, 1 hit point, and darkvision with a radius of 60 feet. If it is destroyed, each coven member takes 3d10 psychic damage and is blinded for 24 hours.
A hag coven can have only one hag eye at a time, and creating a new one requires all three members of the coven to perform a ritual. The ritual takes 1 hour, and the hags can't perform it while blinded. During the ritual, if the hags take any action other than performing the ritual, they must start over.
Innate Spellcasting -- The hag's innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 14, +6 to hit (16) with spell attacks). She can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
At will:
2/day each *:
- Plane shift self only:
Shared Spellcasting -- While all three members of a hag coven are within 30 feet of one another, they can each cast the following spells from the wizard's spell list but must share the spell slots among themselves. For casting these spells, each hag is a 12th-level spellcaster that uses Intelligence as her spellcasting ability. The spell save DC is 12+the hag's Intelligence modifier, and the spell attack bonus is 4+the hag's Intelligence modifier.
1st level (4 slots):
2nd level (3 slots):
3rd level (3 slots):
4th level (3 slots):
5th level (2 slots):
6th level (1 slot):
Actions
Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit (17), reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2d8 + 4 (13) slashing damage.
The hag magically polymorphs into a Small or Medium female humanoid, or back into her true form. Her statistics are the same in each form. Any equipment she is wearing or carrying isn't transformed. She reverts to her true form if she dies.
The hag magically enters the Ethereal Plane from the Material Plane, or vice versa. To do so, the hag must have a heartstone in her possession.
While on the Ethereal Plane, the hag magically touches a sleeping humanoid on the Material Plane. A protection from evil and good spell cast on the target prevents this contact, as does a magic circle. As long as the contact persists, the target has dreadful visions. If these visions last for at least 1 hour, the target gains no benefit from its rest, and its hit point maximum is reduced by 1d10 (5). If this effect reduces the target's hit point maximum to 0, the target dies, and if the target was evil, its soul is trapped in the hag's soul bag. The reduction to the target's hit point maximum lasts until removed by the greater restoration spell or similar magic.
Lair Actions
She can also knock on the barrel three times as an action to summon a dretch. The demon crawls out of the barrel at the end of Morgantha's turn and obeys the night hag's commands for 1 hour, after which it dissolves into a pool of ichor. Morgantha can summon up to nine dretches in this manner before the ichor is gone
Dretch
11
18
20 ft.
11
11
12
5
8
3
cold, fire, lightning
poison
poisoned
darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 9
Abyssal, telepathy 60 ft. (works only with creatures that understand Abyssal)
1/4 (50 XP)
+2
Actions
The dretch makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its claws.
Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit (12), reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d6 (3) piercing damage.
Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit (12), reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2d4 (5) slashing damage.
A 10-foot radius of disgusting green gas extends out from the dretch. The gas spreads around corners, and its area is lightly obscured. It lasts for 1 minute or until a strong wind disperses it. Any creature that starts its turn in that area must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the start of its next turn. While poisoned in this way, the target can take either an action or a bonus action on its turn, not both, and can't take reactions.