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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aeolius" data-source="post: 1686456" data-attributes="member: 2072">There is a reason that hag went down easily. It wasn't her.   A hag's lair should be as memorable as that of any dragon. Let's begin with the central focus of the hut - the kitchen. Envision the stereotypical witches kitchen in any fairytale. Above a central table hang iron pots encrusted in filth and food, between which bloodied cleavers sway in the wind coming through an open window. Upon a shelf rest pottery jars of dried herbs and hand-blown jars filled with preserved human remains, each meticulously labeled  "eyes", ears", "fingers", and so on. Above a central stove or fire is a spit, upon which the half-eaten and charred remains of three pixies slowly blacken. Beneath that is a large metal cauldron whose contents reek of blood and entrails.   Beside the kitchen is a simple wooden table, scarred by scores of claw marks and burns. Upon the table are three place settings; three pewter goblets half-filled with stagnant ale, three plates of bones bearing evidence of being gnawed upon, a plate of breadcrumbs and tubers.   A simple ladder made of half-hewn logs leads into an open attic, where tobacco leaves dry upon open timbers. Between the browning leaves are the salted skins of the hag's human victims and severed human heads, each neatly knotted to the timbers by their own hair.   Beneath a tattered rug in the kitchen, a trapdoor is found. Beneath the hut is a poorly excavated root cellar. Within the cellar are shelves of drying herbs, a pile of discarded bones, a tunnel leading off to the east, and a thorny cage fashioned of hardened vines. Mushrooms and other fungi are cultivated here. Within the cage a young girl sobs quietly.    The tunnel leads away from the hut, emerging in the shaft of a nearby well. Surrounding the well are the hag's gardens, a disorganized and diseased assortment of potatoes, cabbage, turnips, and beans around which an orchard of cherries and crabapples grows.   Now for the fun part. Within the cauldron the animated skeleton of a viper awaits. The small girl in the cellar is actually the annis, polymorphed shortly after the innocent girl was transformed into the likeness of the annis herself. Within the pile of bones is either a bone creature (whose skin is tied up in the attic) or a spellstitched skeleton. In the attic, a family of stirges has taken up residence, masking the actual threat of a half-troll ogre who enjoys hurling severed heads at his opponents. The well reeks of seaweed and brine, exposing the presence of either a sea hag or greenhag, whose half-submerged subterranean lair leads to a distant graveyard.   Within the cauldron, a hags' eye talisman is found amongst an assortment of uncut gemstones and odd shards of rune-encrusted quartz. One of the cleavers is actually a magical weapon. Many of the herbs are rare. The garments of one pixie mysteriously resist the effects of the flames. Within each human head is sewn a container filled with dried herbs and gold dust. The tobacco is of fine quality. Many of the mushrooms are extremely poisonous. Scrawled on the insides of the drying skins are words and phrases, the equivalent of a spellbook for the annis. Hidden in a crag within arm's reach inside the stone chimney is a pipe made of bone. When filled with particular herbs and lit, it allows the smoker to speak with the dead.</blockquote>

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