Brewing Up Trouble

Another big Dungeon Master milestone hit as we showcase the final room in our mysterious underground Night Hag lair.

The previous resident was becoming infatuated with the discovery of a Corederite mineral deposit deep below her quaint cabin in The High Forest. She was fully aware of 3M’s workings and the imminent launch of The Forgotten Rails. It infuriated her that she couldn’t quite understand how the Hovertrains were powering themselves.

Arcane casters don’t like it when others have figured out some powerful new magic before they did. They’re all such a competitive group. This weird witch wanted to harness its inexplicable power allllll to herself. Alas, our adventurers crashed her party, and she never quite had the chance to finish her work (something that still infuriates the surviving Night Hag to this day).

Our evil villain set up an arcane laboratory at the discovery site, not fully trusting the Corederite material and its mysterious potency. If something was going to go wrong with her countless, risky experiments, the witch wanted those sorta “oops'” to go off in a secure location.

She also was in the process of figuring out a less perilous route to her make-shift lab site. Right now, she can only access it by traveling through the Bulette nesting area, which is less than ideal. The players could quickly discover a partial tunnel point with a simple DC 12 Investigation check.

The Night Hag also needed to keep other uninvited guests (like those pesky Rust Monsters) at bay. So, she created and stationed several stealthy Rock Mimics within her lab area. You can see the initial natural rocks in the pic above.

These boulder biters, by Printed Obsession, will activate and attack anything that gets within five feet of her alchemy station. Resident painter Kimmy Utah took paint to brush on these beauties and just did such a great job of “animating” each one.

Next, we needed to add a chemist station scatter terrain piece to convey her frantic alchemy work. Thankfully, Cast n Play knew precisely what we needed, thanks to their marvelous Alchemist House set. Once again, Kimmy Utah used her young eyes to color up each and every tiny magic detail.

Our work campaign features multiple casters within the party, so discovering an alchemy station will be especially appealing! We’re even utilizing two fantastic Nord Games 5e supplements, including their Foraging, Harvesting & Natural Discovery book and the Alchemy, Crafting & Enchanting guide.

So, getting their hands on a complete set of alchemy supplies will elicit a resounding celebration! Naturally, DM Ben has an item card for their inventory too. This one lets players add their proficiency bonus to any ability checks for crafting potions.

Lastly, we had a failed Earth Elemental 3D print and painted it as some Corederite scatter terrain (because waste always bums us out). DM Ben thought it would make sense for the Night Hag to slay one of the Stone Scar Elementals to aid her mineral analysis.

So, even though these lumbering Elementals naturally shed the Corederite (like antlers), she wanted to see if that rock’s power was somehow passed through the host beast.

Plenty to unpack here, though, right?! What happens next is up to the players, but new home-brewed storylines await!