Chapter 176: The Night Hag The Night Hag wielded a formidable array of spells and skills, making her a fearsome adversary.
Her innate abilities allowed her to cast spells effortlessly, including [Detecting Magic] and [Magic Missiles] at will, [Plane Shift] (self only), and the [Ray of Enfeeblement] twice a day each.
Additionally, she possessed the troubling passive ability of [Magic Resistance], granting her an advantage against spells and magical effects.
Xin couldn’t help but groan inwardly; this meant his 10 Elemental Golems would be ineffective against her.
Fortunately, he had created Basic Golems capable of dealing with physical attacks.
Moreover, the Night Hag carried two precious and rare magical items, both crafted by her own hands.
If either of these objects were lost, she would spare no effort to retrieve them, understanding the time and effort required for their creation.
❶ Heartstone
This lustrous black gem granted the Night Hag ethereal abilities and had the power to cure diseases through its touch.
Crafting a heartstone required 30 days of dedicated work.
❷ Soul Bag
Crafted from stitched flesh, this black sack captured the souls of evil humanoids who perished due to the Night Hag’s [Nightmare Haunting].
The bag could hold only one soul at a time, and only the Night Hag who created it could utilize it for this purpose.
Crafting a soul bag took seven days and required a humanoid sacrifice to make the bag.
Midnight Duchess’s eyes sparkled with greed as she eyed the Night Hag’s valuable possessions.
However, the challenge lay in the fact that her LCK was lower than the Hag’s, making theft a risky endeavor.
Despite this, Midnight Duchess couldn’t help but think of potential schemes to acquire these items.
She licked her lips and smiled. She could always work something out.
The true horror of the Hag’s power, however, was the dreaded [Hag Coven]. This spell allowed her to summon two additional Hags into the battle, forming a deadly coven.
Despite their selfish natures, hags would cooperate and form covens when necessary, pooling their powers and becoming equals within the group.
In hag lore, a coven always consisted of three members, a clever arrangement designed to resolve disputes effectively. Should arguments arise between two hags, the third member served as a tiebreaker, ensuring harmony.
However, when more than three hags congregated, particularly in situations of conflict between covens, chaos typically ensued.
What made them especially troublesome was their unique ability known as Shared Spellcasting (Coven Only).
When all three hags of a coven were within 30 feet of one another, they could draw from a shared pool of spells derived from the wizard’s spell list.
However, they had to divide the available spell slots among themselves. These spells included:
1st level: identify ray of sickness
2nd level: hold person, locate object
3rd level: bestow curse, counterspell, lightning bolt
4th level: phantasmal killer, polymorph
5th level: contact other plane, scrying
6th level: eye bite
Furthermore, hag covens possessed an uncanny ability called Hag Eye (Coven Only).
They could craft a mystical item called a hag eye, often encased in varnish and worn as a pendant or similar accessory.
Entrusted to a minion for safekeeping, a hag could perceive what the hag eye saw, provided it was on the same plane of existence.
The hag eye had only one hit point but granted dark vision with a range of 60 feet.
If destroyed, all coven members suffered psychic damage and blindness for 24 hours.
A coven could possess only one hag eye at a time, and crafting a new one required all three hags to perform a ritual.
Additionally, each Hag possessed a range of individual skills, such as powerful claws, a melee weapon attack, and the ability to change shape. This magical transformation allowed the Hag to assume the form of a Small or Medium female humanoid or revert to her true, menacing shape.
In any form, she assumed, the Night Hag’s statistics remained consistent. Transformations did not affect any equipment she wore or carried, and upon her demise, she reverted to her true shape.
Also, one of her formidable spells was [Etherealness], allowing her to transition between the Ethereal Plane and the Material Plane. To enact this magic, she needed to possess a heartstone.
Additionally, she possessed the chilling [Nightmare Haunting] (1/Day) ability.
While on the Ethereal Plane, the Hag could magically touch a sleeping humanoid on the Material Plane. This contact inflicted the victim with dreadful visions, causing continuous damage.
If this affliction reduced the target’s hit point maximum to 0, the victim died, their soul turning evil and becoming trapped in the Hag’s soul bag for them to summon and use in their evil deeds.
The reduction in hit point maximum persisted until removed by a spell like Greater Restoration and something similar.
"Wait . . ." Rever was confused. "Are we going to be up against three of them?"
Yuzuro shivered, her voice laced with trepidation. "It also has a plethora of spells."
"Ready?" Victor’s question hung in the air.
Rever clenched his fists together. "Ready whenever you are."
"W-wait . . . shouldn’t we strategize about this?" Yuzuro stuttered, her anxiety evident.
Victor’s response was direct. "Just like usual. The golems will hold it off while we attack. Yuzuro focuses on supporting us and healing anyone affected by its spells. The golems are immune to some status effects, so your attention is solely on us."
Yuzuro was incredulous. "T-that’s it?"
Victor nodded confidently. "That’s it. The golems and our combined skills will tip the scales in our favor." He then pressed [Engage] decisively.
Prior to the battle’s commencement, Xin and the others had partaken from the enchanted kettle he obtained in the first dungeon, adding 1000 to their HP.
The air crackled with tension as the battle commenced.
With a malevolent chant, the Old Hag invoked the dreaded [Hag Coven] spell, summoning two more hags into the fray.
In an instant, the scene was engulfed in a maelstrom of dark magic and wicked cackles.
The hags, their eyes glinting with malice, wasted no time in launching their onslaught.
One of them, her fingers wreathed in ethereal flames, hurled a searing fireball toward Xin and the group. The other, her voice a twisted melody, cast a web of shadows, attempting to ensnare their movements.