Spectral Hag

When a hag dies in the middle of some wicked ceremony, her spirit may linger as a spectral hag. She appears as a see-through echo of her living self: stringy hair, shriveled face, black teeth, warty skin and tattered peasant rags. She usually speaks common plus one or two other tongues, and she loathes every living thing and every light.

She keeps her living Strength of 18/00, for +3 to hit and +6 to damage. Her icy touch inflicts 1d8 points of damage and strips away two life energy levels, and anyone drained completely rises as a full-strength spectre under her command. Most spectral hags are therefore found with 3d6 spectres, the remains of old enemies.

Only +1 or better weapons can hit her, and she is immune to sleep, charm, hold and cold spells, as well as to poison, disease and paralyzation. Priests and paladins can turn her. Each vial of holy water deals 2d4 points of damage, and raise dead destroys her outright if it overcomes her magic resistance and she fails a save vs. spell. Daylight leaves her powerless by weakening her link to the Negative Material Plane, though it does not hurt her.

Most are solitary, but one who belonged to a covey may stay in touch with her surviving sisters. If the whole covey perished together mid-ritual, all three may have risen as undead, a far deadlier trio. If one member died first and later murdered the other two, she rules them.

Though partly insubstantial, a spectral hag still hungers for humanoid flesh, and her inability to taste or eat it torments her endlessly.

Each kind can make new living hags. A spectral annis, the most terrible, holds a dark rite when the moon is new to turn any one female captive into an annis that serves her. A spectral green hag requires a full moon overhead and a captive elf maiden. A spectral sea hag seeks a dwarf, gnome or halfling woman and works her ritual during a lunar eclipse, leaving the victim a wretched sea hag.