Oldwood Hag
The creature known as the Oldwood Hag, also as the Witch of Oldwood, was a powerful and deadly Hag that resided in the Oldwood Forest of eastern Teboba. The hag was a plague on the inhabitants of hundreds of square miles of Lesser Imesse and brought pain and misery to more than 3,500 souls for nearly 11 years, and a painful, terrifying death to at least 214 Human and Halfling women during the same time.
First reported as a threat to life in the spring of 206 AF, the Oldwood Hag would lure children out of villages set up to harvest hardwood from the fringes of the Oldwood Forest. These children would go missing without a trace, and no evidence of what happened to them could be found for months. Then, one fall morning, seven still suffering children were found impaled on living trees growing along the paths that led to the forest from the villages. None of the children could be saved, and the wails of the mourning mothers and fathers were thought to bring echos of evil laughter from the depths of the forest.
The following spring, more children went missing. Then, several young women were also abducted. With each passing week, more and more children and women would disappear without a trace. People began to flee the villages and camps that worked the edges of the forest, some to the point of leaving the settlements utterly abandoned. However, the abductions continued to occur at settlements further from away from the Oldwood. By the late summer of the second year, a band of some 18 armed and armored men of various backgrounds took it upon themselves to venture into the forest and eliminate the threat. Setting out at dawn on the last day of August in 207 AF, the entire party of eighteen determined men were never seen alive again. It wasn't until more than four years later that their hands and feet were found wrapped in putrid, filthy cloths at the doors of their former homes by still grieving loved ones.
The seasonal troubles nearby residents of the Oldwood continued year after year, eventually spreading to many miles from the actual edge of the forest. The abductions and terror came to trouble thousands of farmers, lumbermen and travellers. Local rulers begged the King, Mak II and his court to send aid and assistance to rid the region of this plague of terror and troubles. In the end, after more than 10 years, Mak announced a reward to any adventurer that could resolve the problem, once and for all.
Nearly 60 adventurers answered the call. Humans, Halflings, Dwarves and even a dozen Elves took up their weapons and ventured into the deep and dark forest looking for the source of the evil being visited every spring on the region. Most were never heard from again, and a (very) few returned beaten and broken in body and spirit telling tales of a warped and wicked old woman whose laugh drove people mad. One Elf named Hara'Mon crawled nearly seven miles through the prairie with his legs chewed off just above the knees and raw weeping wounds where his ears had once been. He claimed his only reason for escaping in the condition he did was by clawing his own ears off his head so the sound of the hag's voice couldn't hurt him anymore.
In June of 217 AF, a young knight of a minor noble family from Southridge named Dogar Lann took up the cause with a band of 5 fellow adventurers. The exact details of the battle against the Witch of Oldwood have never been fully disclosed, but after a ten day foray into the wilds of Oldwood, Dogar Lann returned to the Town of Bend with the head of the hag, a 20 lbs bar of pure gold, and no one else. He recouperated from his efforts for 5 days, then gathered a new group of 18 men and four large ox-drawn wagons and returned to the forest. Upon his return a week later, he was officially one of the richest men aline in the Kingdom of Lesser Imesse.
Physical Description
Body Features
Twisted and deformed shape of an ancient old woman. Skin is lumpy and stretched from underneath into the forms of twigs and branches and thorns.
Facial Features
Skin palid and gray, lined with suppurating fissures and sores. Mouth a wide rictus of rotting teeth and putrid breath. Eyes seemed a cloudy livid yellow that glowed in the dark.
Physical quirks
The hag was known to scream out a terrifying laugh that actually caused physical pain to anyone close enough to hear it clearly. If close enough to see the hag and hear the laugh, the pain it caused was intense enough to actually cause temporary blindness as the victims eyes would instantly squeeze shut until the laugh ended. Described by Dogar Lann as "like a red hot knife piercing your head from ear to ear".
Special abilities
The Oldwood Hag had the powerful ability to manipulate living trees to walk and attack, similar to what some Treant elders can do. She could also call a deadly poisonous cloud of vapor to erupt out of the very ground around her attacker's feet that instantly paralysed the victim before eventually killing them by asphyxiation. She was capable of moving short distances so fast as to seem to move instantaeously, and she was as strong as a Hill Giant if she could get her gnarled hands on you.
Wealth & Financial state
The Hag had taken up as her lair an ancient tower built of huge granite blocks, estimated by many to be more than 5,000 years old. After her destruction, it was discovered that she was living on top of a hidden tomb that contained more than 400 lbs of pure gold and 150 lbs of the finest uncut diamonds and emeralds found anywhere in the entire Kingdom of Imesse. As the vanquisher of the Hag, this bountiful treasure became the property of Dogar Lann and instantly made him one of the richest men in all of Lesser Imesse.
Species
Year of Death
217 AF
Circumstances of Death
Body destroyed by Dogar Lann
Place of Death
Oldwood Forest, Teboba
Children
