Bheur Hag

In the folk tales of the hill-folk of a cold eastern land, the bheur, or blue hag, is a hideous, wrinkled crone with pale skin tinged with blue, hair white as fresh snow, a ragged gray-blue shawl, and a twisted gray staff that rises above her head. Her voice howls like an icy wind.

A bheur fights by laying her freezing palms on a victim, inflicting 2d6 points of frost damage, doubled against fire-based creatures. Her staff of frost works like a wand of frost that never runs out of charges, but only in her hands; should she lose it or see it broken, she has to depart the Prime Material Plane for a full year to get a replacement. She is immune to cold and takes half damage from fire, but acid and electricity deal double damage, so she is wary of wizards who wield such spells.

Watching a bheur devour a victim is said to break the mind. Anyone who sees it must save vs. death magic; on a failure, roll for the result: 75% blindness, 25% insanity. The insane flee (50%), attack anyone nearby (30%), or collapse speechless and immobile (20%). Either remove curse or cure disease ends the madness, which otherwise wears off after 2d6 days.

The tales never settle whether the bheur is a single being or a whole kind, but every version has her bringing winter and is driven off each spring. When the clouds go the color of slate and snow comes driving in on a howling wind, the hill-folk seal their doors, check their woodpiles, and wait out the storms in fear of her. Like the dreaded shapechanging spirits of those lands, she hunts lone travelers, freezing them and eating their frozen bodies, and some tales say she slips into homes through poorly sealed windows to snatch children or sleepers. The tales serve as useful warnings about closing doors and keep the young in line. Other stories pair her with ice spirits that mislead and devour travelers, but witnesses rarely live to confirm them.

Because blue hags are never seen in pairs, many folk think there is only one. Some say she brings the cold; others say the cold draws her. The land's witches see her as a rightful piece of the natural order and fight her only when she grows cruel or capricious, and legends tell of great battles between their mightiest members and the hag that brought spring early. As the witches put it, winter is the finest season, but even winter has its worst month.