The Lair's False Welcome
The Lair's False Welcome is a cruel threshold ward that imitates the voice of a frightened child. When an intruder crosses the arch without answering the basin's demand, the walls exhale a cloud of enchanted skin and the floor seems to twist into grasping hands. The trap is designed to separate the bold from the cautious, punish rescuers, and leave survivors marked for the hag's later amusement.
The Lair's False Welcome
Defenses
Detection
“A low stone archway opens into a chamber lined with stretched humanoid skins, each painted with a different child's face. A shallow bronze basin rests beneath the arch, filled with black water and pale teeth. The floor beyond is scattered with tiny wooden toys and polished bones.”
Standard Engagement
The trap triggers when a creature crosses beneath the archway or touches the bronze basin without first offering clean water and speaking a sincere secret.
When triggered, the archway releases its magic once. Afterward, the false child voice continues for 1 minute, moving from wall to wall and attempting to lure creatures deeper into the lair. The voice can mimic any sound or speech the hag has heard, but it cannot answer questions requiring knowledge the hag lacks.
The trap resets after 10 minutes if it has not been disabled. The black handprint effect can be applied to only one creature per reset.
The activating creature and each creature within 10 feet of the archway must make a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 22 (4d10) psychic damage and is frightened until the end of its next turn. On a successful save, it takes half damage and is not frightened.
On a failed Wisdom save, the activating creature is also marked by a smear of black moisture shaped like a child's hand. For the next 24 hours, Mother Gristle always knows the marked creature's direction and approximate distance while they remain on the same plane of existence. The mark can be removed by greater restoration, remove curse, or by bathing it in running water for 10 minutes while succeeding on a DC 15 Wisdom (Religion) check.
The trap does not activate when a creature approaches while openly carrying clean water and willingly speaks a personal secret within 10 feet of the basin. The secret need not be damaging, but it must be genuine and unknown to the hag.
A creature that succeeds on the initial saving throw can use its reaction to warn one creature within 30 feet that the voice is unnatural. That creature has advantage on its saving throw against this trap.
If the trap deals damage to three or more creatures, the annis hag can hear the activation anywhere in her lair and knows the number and general location of creatures caught in it.
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