If one were to run with the premise that Auntie Adabra was the driving force behind the bloodshed at Umbrage Hill (as I did earlier this week), you could keep pulling at that thread and build the annis hag into a destructive force among other societies that have fallen into ruin beneath the shadows of the Sword Mountains.

Take Axeholm for instance. It’s a dwarven ruin haunted by the banshee Vyldara, once a moon elf ambassador to the dwarves who dwelt there. For reasons unknown, Vyldara attempted to foment civil unrest among the people of Axeholm, which ended in her death and subsequent transformation into undeath.

Let me pause here a moment to share a rule at my table. I will allow evil characters in my games, so long as there is an impetus behind the evil. One does not just wake up and decide they are evil. One must descend into evil, and I’ll totally work with a player that wants to go that route with their character. Sadly, no one has ever taken me up on that offer. Sniff.

Because my mind works that way, I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that Vyldara was not evil when she arrived at the gates of Axeholm as an ambassador. And for that reason, the lore around Axeholm’s fall has always bothered me. However, toss a disguised annis hag into the mix, poisoning the thoughts of Vyldara until she descends into evil, doing things that turn the dwarves against her? Oh yeah, that makes the lore more plausible. You don’t even have to get into the specifics. All you need to know is that an annis hag was secretly pulling the strings.

What if the dwarves who worshiped at temple of Abbathor (Dwarven Excavation) once dwelt at Axeholm until Auntie Adabra, disguised as a dwarven prophet of Abbathor, corrupted these good dwarves into venerating the evil god of greed? That she did so with the knowledge of how difficult it would for these new apostles to meet the insatiable demand for offerings of gems and blood sacrifice to Abbathor, and that these demands would lead to the misery or demise of these new supplicants. To me, that seems on brand for an annis hag.

Maybe Auntie Adabra was disguised as a scheming, manipulative counselor to the King of Phalorm, convincing him to march his armies to war in an epic battle that would end up creating the Mere of Dead Men. She could have advised the King to march to Iniarv’s Tower, all the while withholding the important knowledge that Iniarv, a wizard ally to the kingdom, had secretly made the transformation into lichdom, and knowing all too well that to awaken Iniarv from his slumber would invite calamity.

With Auntie Adabra was a central figure in all of these events, a Dungeon Master could use her as a way to deliver lore around each, either in the guise of Adabra the midwife or as Auntie Adabra the annis hag. She was there.

Of course, you’ll find it hard to fit all of these things into a Tier 1 campaign. If your intent is to ascend characters to Level 5 and then move on to Curse of Strahd or whatever published adventure is calling your name, really, who cares if Adabra is an annis hag or not?

But if you want to stay within the box set through Tier 2 & 3 play, you’ll need bigger and badder villains to move on to. And Adabra as a powerful auntie is one way to achieve that.

+++

If you’d like to support my work, please consider checking out my supplements for Lost Mine of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak over on Dungeon Master’s Guild! All of my titles are Free/PWYW offerings.