Mother Lorinda

D&D 2024 monster: Mother Lorinda. Source: Ravenloft: The Horrors Within. challenge rating 8, creature type Fey, Medium size, speed 30 ft., swim 30 ft. Mother Lorinda desires a family over all else, not realizing she's destroyed every family she's ever had. A creator of monstrosities, this ancient green hag obsesses over unnatural maternalistic pursuits. Over generations, Tepest's villagers have come to view Lorinda not as a powerful witch, but as a god of the land and fertility called Mother. Lorinda doesn't dissuade her fragile mortal followers from their baseless cult practices. The villagers provide willing sacrifices for the hag's flawed magical attempts to create life, and their adoration gradually soothes the violent, magical outbursts that follow her failures. Lorinda's walking tower of bones, the Gurgyl, ranges across Tepest. Those who seek her here find a distracted but deceptively cunning hag clinging to grotesque dolls of her family. She laments the loss of her sisters, Laveeda and Leticia, never acknowledging that they remain alive as her prisoners. She often speaks of her daughter, Laoirse (pronounced "LUR-shuh")-the name she uses over and over again for each of her monstrous creations. When Lorinda visits Viktal, she appears in her illusory guise as Mother, an ancient, powerful woman wearing a mothlike cloak and bearing a branch with burning limbs. She calls on the people to prove their love for her through sacrifice, whether of food and crafts, their left eyes, or their lives. Sometimes her arrival is sudden and terrifying, such as when she magically appears to crawl from one of her followers' empty eye sockets. Lorinda seeks new ways to create a permanent family. This might involve great sacrifices, stolen fey magic, strange adoptions, or all manner of supernatural bargains. Fey Medium 30 ft., swim 30 ft.