River Hag

Legends and folklore from around the world speak about waterways where children, animals, and even grown adults will step or fall into a river and disappear, drowned in the blink of an eye. At the heart of those legends lies the river hag, a hideous fae long thought to be related to redcaps. These water-logged fae live in fast-moving bodies of water and drag in unsuspecting prey to drown. Fiercely territorial, river hags brook no intruders into their territory and gleefully murder the stupid or spiteful people who fall into their grasp.

For the most part, river hags want nothing more than to be left to their rivers. Old stories say that the river hags are spirits of the riverways, now hemmed in and transformed by human interests. But no matter the mortal idea of what the waterway should be, a local river hag is a reminder of the darker parts of nature given form.

River Hag
[No Symbol Available]
Name	River Hag
Plural	River Hags
Pronounced	RIH-vur HAG
Dream of...	Dangerous Waters
Affinity	Nature
Birthrights	Dark Appetite, Into the Depths
Frailties	Tied to the River

Kith Notes

Appearance

River hags are truly horrible to behold, waterlogged and either bloated or wasted away into soggy, spindly creatures. Though these creatures may sound terrible, the simplest way to avoid tangling with a river hag is to leave it alone. Their appearance is enough to drive off most people, though the river hags have developed illusions to wear so that they may interact with the mortal world. Dressed in the appearance of a beautiful person, they can stay away from their homes for only a period of a week before they must return back to the depths.

Revelry

River hags, much like their redcap relatives, can regain Glamour by shocking human beings and indulging their terrible hungers. They can also find Revelry in swimming by night, diving deep beneath blackened waters.

Kith Mechanics

Affinity

Nature

Birthrights

Dark Appetite

River Hags can eat anything. Full stop. Their horrific jagged teeth are hard as metal and their digestive systems are best left up to the imagination. A cross between a shark and a Kithain garbage disposal, river hags can eat anything they can put their mouth around, and chew larger objects down into smaller pieces to ingest. Tough or toxic materials (waste products, jagged metal, wood, etc.) take a point of Glamour to keep down. River hags prefer meat, animal or human, but once the hunger gets going, they will eat anything. Do not ever place anything in front of a river hags’ mouth you wouldn’t mind losing.

Should a river hag attempt to use her Birthright in combat, the player must spend a point of Glamour. The base damage for the bite is Strength + 2 (difficulty 5). A river hag may also try to sever a limb in a fight, which requires five successes on a Dexterity + Brawl roll (difficulty 8), or three successes if the victim has already been grappled. If successful, the attack inflicts a minimum of three health levels of damage in addition to any damage rolled, and the river hag comes away with a mid-fight snack.

Into the Depths

A river hag may submerge underwater and breathe indefinitely.

Frailty

Tied To the River

A river hag may leave her river and use cantrips to hide her appearance to walk among other fae and mortals. However, she may not be away from her river for more than a week. After one week, the hag must return and immerse immediately in the water, or else wither up at a rate of one aggravated damage per day (that cannot be healed outside of the hag’s river).

References

• Changeling: The Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition, pp. 450-451