Sorcerer Week: Inspired Encounter
A town has become plagued by nightmares and some creatures are falling asleep never to awaken. After questioning the residents, the players discover that the town’s local wizard has recently been banished as they believe her to be the culprit.
The players will likely investigate the wizard, but they quickly find out that the old woman is not the cause of the nightmares. The wizard hasn’t given up hope on the town and has been doing her own research. She does have an idea of what might be behind it: a Night Hag. She hasn’t been able to detect one magically in the material plane or in the ethereal plane, so she thinks the hag must have found a way directly into the realm of dreams to harvest souls.
The wizard cannot consistently cast spells in the dream realm and will have no one to awaken her outside of it, so she implores the players to enter the dream world and stop the hag once and for all. Although it will clear her name, the wizard only cares for her old friends in the town, even the ones that have turned on her. If the players accept, she gives each player a draught of yellow liquid that puts them to sleep. When they awaken, they find themselves in the magical realm of dreams.
This dream world seems a lot like the town from before, but with exaggerated visuals like deeply bowed roofs or trees that are much larger than normal or people whose faces are caricatures of their selves from the waking world. In addition, many random features seem to exist here, as if parts of other townfolk’s past experiences have overlaid the community’s shared mental interpretation of the town. The whole place is very surreal.
Magic works differently in the realm of dreams. Each time a player casts a spell, roll 1d20+the spell’s level. On a result of 21 or higher, roll 1d20 again to choose a random mishap from the following:
1-3: The spell ceases to function but the area within 60 ft. of the caster is changed cosmetically (colors are bright and random, area is covered in mold, objects are now comprised of various fruits, etc.)
4-5: A pit 15 ft. wide and 10 ft. deep per level of the spell opens up directly beneath the caster. They can make a DEX save to avoid it (DC 10 + the spell’s level)
6-7: The spell is changed cosmetically to render it useless. For instance, a Fireball might instead produce a swarm of house centipedes or a Magic Missile spell might change midair into ribbons.
8-9: The spell does not function. Instead, a Darkness and Silence spell are cast, centered on the caster and last for 2d4 rounds.
10-11: The spell targets an area or target other than the caster intended, determined randomly.
12-13: The spell does not function. Instead, the caster produces another spell of the same spell level at random, even if they do not know the spell.
14-15: The spell does not function and the direction of gravity is switched to a random direction. Roll 1d6. Gravity now pulls:
16-17: The spell does not function and all creatures within 90 ft. of the caster take 2d6 psychic damage.
18-19: The spell is changed into a fundamentally different spell after changing the spell’s name by switching letters around or rhyming it with another word at the behest of the DM. For instance, Heat Metal might become Meat Metal (changing a creature’s weapon and armor into hunks of flesh) or Tree Stride might become Tree Bride (causing the caster to marry a nearby tree).
20: Roll twice, ignoring this roll if rolled again.
Players must search the strange world for wherever the Night Hag is hiding while facing other horrors like Shadow Demons, Black Puddings, Shadows, Wraiths, and other creatures called Nightmare Spawn (see below).
Once the players track down the Night Hag and begin to fight it, the hag starts to exert powerful influence on the battle by using energy from the souls she’s captured. With a DC 18 Arcana check, a sorcerer can intuit that they may have a similar ability. Since a sorcerer’s power stems from their soul, they have the same power to influence the dream world that the Night Hag does, and can spend one Sorcery Point to use one of the Dreaming abilities of the Dreaming Night Hag (shown below) as if they were the hag.
When the Night Hag is at half their hit points or at some other dramatic moment, reveal that there are actually two Night Hags; one has been using abilities from the shadows the whole time.
These creatures are tainted dream matter that haunt this realm. They have been conjured by the hags to torment the townspeople. They are usually encountered as random fears of townsfolk, whether it be mundane phobias like a giant spider or a snake or whether it’s more specific like an NPC’s abusive father or living version of a doll that scared them as a child. Eventually, they take on the fears of the players as well.
Medium Fiend, Neutral Evil
AC: 13, HP: 110, SPD: 30 ft.
STR: 18; DEX: 14; CON: 18; INT: 3; WIS: 11; CHA: 10
Condition Immunities: charmed, frightened
Senses: darkvision 120 ft., passive perception 10
Torment: The Nightmare Spawn has advantage on attacks against frightened creatures.
Multiattack: The Nightmare Spawn makes two slam attacks when it takes the attack action.
Slam: Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) bludgeoning damage.
Frighten: The Nightmare Spawn can use its action to change its form into that of something that a creature it can see is frightened of. It instinctively knows what things frighten creatures the most. Its statistics remain the same, but the targeted creature must make a DC 15 WIS saving throw or become frightened. Each round until the Nightmare Spawn changes its form, the targeted creature can attempt a new saving throw at the start of each of its turns to end the effect.
Dreaming Night Hag (CR 6)
A Dreaming Night Hag can never set foot on the Material or Ethereal planes, but can travel freely through other planes as well as the realm of dreams. Perhaps banished from the waking world by a powerful mage or simply a shadow of a dead Night Hag, though no one really knows.
AC: 17, HP: 125, SPD: 30 ft.
STR: 18; DEX: 15; CON: 16; INT: 16; WIS: 14; CHA: 16
Skills: Deception +7, Insight +6, Perception +6, Stealth +6
Resistances: Cold, Fire, non-silvered and non-magic weapons.
Condition Immunities: charmed, frightened
Senses: darkvision 120 ft., passive perception 16
Languages: Abyssal, Common, Infernal, Primordial
Magic Resistance: The hag has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Dreaming Hag’s Eye: The hag can spend their bonus action to learn the greatest fears of a creature they direct their gaze at.
Frightening: A creature that becomes frightened within 120 ft. of the hag take 1d6 psychic damage each round while frightened.
Dreaming: The hag is not affected by the Surreal Magic of the dreamscape (described above). In addition, the hag can pull on the energy from her bag of souls to alter the dreamscape using her reaction. The hag can choose one of the following:
The setting of the dreamscape changes instantly to another location of their choosing, usually one known to them.
Target creature is teleported to a location the hag chooses. The creature can make a DC 16 CHA saving throw to resist this effect.
Target creature is polymorphed into a creature chosen by the hag until their next turn. The hag is immune to this ability.
The hag creates any object of Large size or smaller next to them or in their hands.
The hag transmutes any object of Huge size or smaller or area no greater than a 15 ft. cube within 90 ft. of them into something else of their choosing.
Claws: Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8+4) slashing damage.
Spellcasting (Spell save DC 15, +7 to hit with spell attacks):
At will: Major Image, Detect Magic, Magic Missile
2/day: Plane Shift (self), Ray of Enfeeblement, Phantasmal Killer
1/day: Eye Bite, Bestow Curse, Hold Person, Lightning Bolt
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