Sleep...Sleeeep...Sleeeeeep! Sleeeeeeeep!
Anyone remember the Hag's Skein in Mask of the Betrayer? That area was seriously one of the creepiest locations ever in a game.
The Hag's Skein was essentially a labyrinth built under the Hag Coven's floating city. It was a prison for either the Hag's next meal, or for those who displeased the Coven. It was prone to flooding and keeping even spirits and dreamwalkers (people using something like astral projection) trapped there. It is set on a lake in the Shadow Plane (sort of a dream/spirit plane), where there is a fisherman's journal detailing encounters with a mysterious "Watcher in the Water"...and a long queue of fellows looking to have the Coven tell their fortune.
In it are (obvious spoilers):
Ruins of an "Atlantean" city from before the Hag Coven moved in. Several puzzles are based around that or the ruins crumbling. Also, some notes about the old culture are scattered about, if memory serves...a bit like Undrentide
A mad cult with their prophet a person cursed by the Coven to be immortal and asleep in constant nightmares...as well as scavenging groups willing to kill to survive.
The atmosphere is a mix of darkness, swamp-like fog, and blue glowing crystals. In the background, a maddened female voice crying out rhymes like "When they come, kill each one. When they die, stack them high. When I'm through, eat them too!" It's like a mix of witch cackling and creepy child nursery rhymes.
The female voice belongs to a Hag who took a human lover, breaking the code of the Coven. As punishment, they had her eat her lover alive, and cursed her to never be able to sleep or die naturally. Then, they threw her into the center of the Skein, where she went quite mad and became sort of the "Red flesh-eating Queen" of the Wonderland known as the Skein.
Where have you gone my son, my son? Gone to rot in the sun, the sun? Please, come back my son, my son-Kill them all! One by one by one! Ahahahahahahaha!
