D&D Encounter: The Night Hag's Frenzy

How to use this encounter

This encounter presents a medium challenge for a four characters of 4th level and will take approximately 30 minutes to run. It presents a fun combat encounter in which bigger and bigger monsters appear, and actually tear each other apart. The default location for this encounter is a forested area but you can place the encounter in any area where a night hag might lurk and cause trouble. As always, feel free to modify, tear apart, or reskin this encounter to fit the needs of your game.

Encounter overview: A night hag’s terror

A night hag, called Silent Norma Dollgrowth, haunts a forested area. She instills dreams of violence in every creature inside these murderous woods. The characters make their way through the forest and become first-hand witnesses to the ravenous rampage that is under way.

A giant spider ambushes the characters as they are traveling. Shortly after the attack, an ankheg bursts from the ground beneath it. The ankheg spits acid at the characters only to be impaled by a giant scorpion. The scorpion turns towards the characters and tries to do the same to them. But shortly afterwards, a red dragon wyrmling descends from the sky and roasts the scorpion with a fiery breath.

If the characters spend the night in this haunted section of the forest, they might meet the root of the murderous evil…

Running the encounter: When the hunter becomes prey

Rabid beasts and frenzied monsters

Wherever you place this encounter, a night hag called Silent Norma Dollgrowth haunts the area. She crawls through the woods, and instills hateful violent dreams within beasts and monstrosities. You can foreshadow this circumstance as the characters near the encounter by describing the landscape of carnage they find:

Scattered carcasses litter the forest area. Many of the beasts and monsters seem to have been either killed slowly, or torn apart in a vicious rampage. Often much of the flesh is still in the carcass, as if it was killed for sport, and not necessity.

In addition, you can emphasize this theme by describing the monsters that attack as possessed killing machines. They are foaming at the mouth, have bloodshot eyes, and cackle maniacally while fighting.

Round one: Spider ambush

A giant spider has spun her web in these haunted woods. As the characters travel, the first one to clear a path through the forest must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or be restrained by webbing (following the rules to escape as written in the giant spider stat block). The spider hides in the crooked canopy above. All characters must make a DC 17 Wisdom (Perception) check or the attacking spider surprises them. The monster lets itself fall onto the character who is last in the marching order. Immediately after the spider’s first turn if at least one of the characters is not surprised by the spider’s ambush, or immediately after the spider’s second turn if everyone was surprised, a new predator arrives.

Round two: Ankheg from below

An ankheg, bursts from the ground right underneath the spider and splits the spider’s body in half. The enormous insect immediately kills the giant spider (regardless of its HP), and then turns towards the characters. On the same turn, it releases an acid spray on the closest characters. Immediately after the ankheg’s next turn, the newest rampaging monstrosity cracks the ankheg’s chitinous carapace.

Round three: Scorpion stinger rampage

Skittering out of the nearby woods, and piercing the ankheg’s head repeatedly with its massive stinger, comes a giant scorpion. After killing the ankheg on this turn (regardless of HP), the scorpion can still move to the closest character(s) and make two claw attacks. However, the massive arachnid won’t have much longer to try and take down the characters. Immediately after its next turn, the characters hear a screech from above, as a red dragon wyrmling dives towards the scorpion.

Round four: Wyrmling fire breath

The wyrmling immediately releases a fire breath onto the scorpion. The breath weapon kills the scorpion (regardless of HP). In addition, any character within 15 ft. of the scorpion is subjected to the effect of the fire breath, as the wyrmling flies over them and lands at the edge of the battlefield which is scattered with the corpses of rabid monstrosities by now.

Because it is the most powerful predator in this area of the forest, the red dragon wyrmling is the final attacker whom the characters must deal with or flee from.

The night hag Silent Norma Dollgrowth

If the characters take a long rest in these haunted parts of the forest, the night hag, Silent Norma Dollgrowth, pays them a visit. She uses her nightmare haunting action on the character who is most prone to violence. In the dream, she instills powerful nightmares in which the character stalks through the woods, looking for prey. Bloodlust fills the dreamer’s mind as they slaying beasts, monsters and humanoids in the vision.

Confronting Norma herself is going to be a near impossible task for a lower-level party. Norma’s Etherealness action and the plane shift spell make her extremely hard to catch. However, the characters might remember this encounter and come back at a higher level to hunt down the night hag.

Monsters

NPCs

Silent Norma Dollgrowth. Norma was once one of the elder elves, an eladrin, from the Feywild. But since she was corrupted by an ancient fiend and banished to the lower planes, she has long forgotten that history. Now she takes joy in driving mortal creatures to commit terrible acts of raw violence.

Treasure

A character with proficiency in the herbalism kit or alchemist’s supplies recognizes that they can turn some of the body fluids of the slain creatures into potions and tinctures. Each such fabrication requires a 1d4 hours of downtime and a successful DC 13 Intelligence (Herbalism kit or alchemist’s supplies) check.

The giant spider’s and the giant scorpion’s fluids can be turned into a potion of poison.
The ankheg’s juices can be turned into a vial of acid.
The red dragon wyrmling’s innards can be turned into a flask of alchemist’s fire.