Night Hag

Sometimes, people wake up in the middle of the night. They are unable to move, but are wide awake and terrified, feeling an evil presence in their room. Science rationalizes this away as the phenomenon of sleep paralysis, when the brain immobilizes the body so the sleeper will not act out their dreams. Science is wrong — it is the night hag. Night hags are known across the world, through multiple cultures, as demons, witches, incubi, or malevolent ghosts. Night hags are none of these. They are malevolent faeries as old as human culture. Very few people have ever seen a night hag, but many bear the scars of their encounters. Night hags creep into rooms in the dead of night, sitting on the chests of sleepers and pinching or scratching them until they wake up. In the darkness of the room, they are invisible and terrifying. The most violent night hags leave visible scratches on their victims, suffocate them back into unconsciousness, or haul them partly out of bed before retreating from the room.

Appearance

Pale and androgynous, night hags have elongated bodies and distorted features. Their eyes are enormous and black, giving them perfect night vision, and their colorations are all shades of gray. In their human seemings, they are sickly-looking people with bulging eyes and emaciated frames. They are rarely seen in human form, however, preferring to hole up during the brightest parts of the day, only emerging in the dead of night. Should they be driven into daylight, they are swathed from head to toe in heavy, light-blocking clothing, lest they burn to ash through exposure to sunlight.

Endowments

Paralytic Touch: Night hags possess the ability to prevent their sleeping victims from moving when they wake. Their nails secrete a toxin that keeps their targets from squirming or potentially injuring the night hag. Paralysis lasts a base number of turns equal to twice the night hag’s Glamour. Players of victims may resist with Willpower (difficulty of the night hag’s Glamour).

Shadowslide: Despite their pallor, night hags blend in with the shadows of a darkened room, allowing them to approach the sleeping target. By spending one point of temporary Glamour, they can wrap the shadows around their bodies, rendering them invisible to sight. Additionally, night hags can spend three points of Glamour to travel through the shadows back to their lairs. They may not use this ability to travel anywhere else.

Vulnerability

Photophobe: Night hags operate in darkness because even a hint of light blinds their eyes and sears their skin. For every minute a night hag remains in light brighter than moonlight, she suffers one level of unsoakable aggravated damage. Injured night hags rarely fight an aggressor, choosing instead to flee using their Shadowslide ability. After their wounds are healed (one level per 24-hour period spent in total darkness), they are free to hunt down their attackers and exact their revenge.