Lauretta knows that hags form from nymphs or other faeries who allow wickedness to fester in their souls and corrupt them. Despite tales of their being ugly, withered things, hags in their true forms look as beautiful as they ever were but choose to adopt monstrous appearances. The traditional figure of the bent and hobbling crone is nothing more than a disguise. One might feel sympathy for these faeries, but hags all have evil hearts and wallow in cruelty and disgusting habits. They prey on the weak and lure victims into their clutches to be savored and eaten. Hags feel no remorse and seek ever to worsen the world.
Hags are resistant to magic and immune to mental effects like being confused or frightened. They can hurl fire at their victims and curse them with weakness or slumber.
Once ready, you enter the cave. Inside, you see a tattered sleeping pallet and cookware, along with numerous dried herbs and vegetables piled up in one corner. An aged, broken man sits slumped against a rock that he has been chained to. He looks extremely emaciated, his lips cracked and bloody.
At the other end of the cave is the hag Anastasia herself, muttering and cursing as she fiddles with a golden feather in her hands. Her threadbare garments stand in sharp contrast to her unearthly beauty. Long, flaxen hair, eyes of gleaming silver, and graceful pointed ears round out her features. She turns towards you curiously.
"What's this? Visitors to my humble home?" she asks in a voice like honey. "Perhaps you can help me. I've been searching for something that was taken from me long ago. My lovely golden bird. Oh, it sang the sweetest song and greeted me every time I returned home from a long day abroad! Might you have any knowledge of my feathered friend?"
