If Adabra Gwynn were an annis hag, who would she take an interest in among Phandalin’s children? I think the ideal target for a hag would be Nars Dendrar, who is dealing with a lot in his life by the time the characters reach Phandalin.

• His father, Thel Dendrar, has been murdered by a band of ruffians terrorizing Phandalin.
• As if that wasn’t bad enough, he was held captive (along with his mother and sister) by his father’s murderers.
• Need some more trauma? The cells where he was imprisoned along with his family were adjacent to a crypt containing three actual skeletons, risen from the grave like some nightmare brought to life.
• And who can even say if the Nothic got a turn prying into his 13 year-old brain with its weird insight.

Needless to say, Nars has been through a lot in a very short time. If any of Phandalin’s children needed the soothing reassurances of a scheming, disguised annis hag attempting to build trust with a troubled child, Nars would seemingly be the most vulnerable. Auntie Adabra might even try to convince the boy that it was she who sent the adventurers to deliver his family from captivity, in a bid to assure Nars that someone out there looks over his family and protects them now that his father is no longer among the living.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be Nars. There are other children in Phandalin, whether the story provides them with a name or not. It could easily be Pip or Carp who are taken in by Adabra’s overtures. It could be all of them, since an annis hag can have up to three iron tokens active at once. Or it could be random unnamed children she’s targeting.

Adabra serves as the local midwife. Imagine an annis hag, in the guise of a matronly midwife, knowing every child born in the vicinity of Phandalin from the moment they came into the world. Knowing their families, their stories, and their ailments (which she helps to alleviate). And then much later in the story, the characters discover her dark secret in some dark plot twist.

As a Dungeon Master, I would keep Auntie Adabra’s true nature well-concealed, building her up as a friendly and reliable NPC who the locals think highly of. Someone who is actually helpful to the characters with things like the occasional healing potion and knowledge checks. Then, when the characters least expect it, BAM! Activate her as a significant adversary in such a way that catches the party completely off guard in some plot reveal of your own design.

There are ways for a Dungeon Master to subtly introduce Auntie Adabra’s malevolent presence in the game by using the annis hag’s regional effects to describe travel throughout the area around Umbrage Hill – all of which can be conveniently blamed on the spirits residing in the cairns next to Adabra’s windmill:

• A murder of crows perched upon a tree, which attack as a swarm if the characters approach.
• An abundance of webs from the giant spiders that inhabit the area.
• Conies, squirrels, deer that stalk and hunt travelers.
• A creepy rag doll hanging from hempen twine by its neck on the limb of a tree. Coincidentally, the rag doll looks like a character in the party.

Or perhaps the children drop a hint themselves. In Lost Mine of Phandelver, the box text for the character’s arrival in Phandalin mentions children playing on the town’s green. What if they’re dancing in a circle hand-in-hand, singing what sounds like a nursery rhyme in the halfling tongue, which Carp Alderleaf has taught his friends despite the reluctance of his people to share their oral tradition with others.

It’s a nursery rhyme that Auntie Adabra taught him in whispered conversations through one of her iron tokens, and Carp has no idea that it is so much more than a child’s song. It’s a dark warning of things to come.

The song only catches the attention of characters who speak the halfling tongue, who understand the rhyme if overheard. It translates to:

Lock the door, blow out the light
The hungry Anni haunts the night
Hide and tremble, little one
Anni wants to have some fun
Hear her scratching on the door
See her shadow cross the floor
The sun won’t rise for quite a while
Cry for Anni, make her smile

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