Mire Husk small or medium Humanoid (any), true neutral Armor Class 11

11 Hit Points 33 (6d8 +6)

33 (6d8 +6) Speed 30ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 10 (+0) 12 (+1) 12 (+1) 6 (-2) 6 (-2) 16 (+3) Condition Immunities blinded

blinded Senses passive Perception 8

passive Perception 8 Languages the languages it knew before it was a husk

the languages it knew before it was a husk Challenge 1/4 (50 XP) Innate SpellCasting (Psionics), The mire husk's spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 13). They can innately cast the following spells, requiring no components: At Will: disguise Self, minor illusion 1/day each: dissonant whispers Hivemind, If a mire husk within 120 feet of this creature learns any information that this creature does not know, it learns that information. Narrative Purpose This creature's CR is counted as CR 5 for the purposes of spells like Polymorth or True Polymorth. Husks created from creatures of higher levels then 5, or higher CR then 5 may use that CR instead for this ability. Actions Punch, Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit, 2 (1d4) bludgening damage Slaves to the Mire's A Mire Husk is a humanoid stripped of all their former personality and being. Instead, they follow, without question the wills of the Mire that turned them into a Husk. Most the time, this will mean pretending to still be themselves, but also following the Whims of the Mire's plans or wishes. Husks, given they're supposed to blend into socioty, will use their abilities to manipulate illusions to blend in. Hiding any deformities done in the ritual to make themseles appear human, and using illusions to fufil the goals of their Mire. If their Mire communicates to a husk that they are in danger, they will gather around the danger in disguise, then focus the whispers of their hiveminds and forgotten personalities on them. Tortuous Ritual The ritual to turn a humanoid into a Mire Husk is famously macarbe. Unlike sacrificial rituals, these do not have the charity to kill them quickly, or without pain. Instead the ritual starts by tying down the living humanoid, and painfully mutilating the body while casting incantations to take the humanoids being away from the body and too the Mire Mother. This ritual can take up to a day of terrible pain. At the end, when the personality is taken away, the Mire strips the eyes from the Husk, and uses an incantation to form it into her Husk hivemind. Souless Eyes The empty eye sockets of a Mire Husk is their most defining feature in mythology, and after their wounds have healed, it is what defines them from a normal humanoid while not in a disguise. They still see out of these eyes, however it is a psichic ability to do so, and thus, they can not be blinded. Variant: Empty Husk Sometimes, a husk can be taken before a Mire can plant their own hivemind inside of it. This variant husk looses its immunity to blindness, its spellcasting, and it's Hivemind Feature. Additionally, it's CR is 0, and it gains the following feature: Empty The husk has disadvantage on any Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma saving throws

(Pictured: Nermeira Idosdatta "The Mire Mother" in a state of broken illusion as her disguise is torn appart, revealing her mutated and mutilated body bellow) Nermeira Idosdatta Post Adventure Actions In becoming a dark lord, and taking over Barovia, the town seems to shift. Things look brighter, happy even. Fairness feels a sense of hope, and she looks in a nearby mirror too see a version of herslf she can be happy with. She looks down however, and see's the truth. Her body currupted, twisted with dark shadowy illusions, she cries at the realization that truly she is a doomed existance. Days or possibly moths, or possibly years pass as she weaps before the fisrt party of aventurer's enter into the new town of Barovia. She insisats to herself that this is her hope, that maybe she can join them to gain a new chance to gain what she wanted. She shifted her illusion to that of a beutiful women, reminicent of the Tatiana strahd wished for ande joined the party. Quickly, she realized her Dark Abilities. She could shift things in her favour, she once again had hope.She could create the story she needs to have happiness and hope again. As the party turned away from her, she shifted their personaities, she created false stories and false characters, she seemed to have control over some of the citizens of barovia innatly, but during her adventure, she'd only increase this catalouge. Rumour spread of strange changes in people,and dark slunken eyes, but Fairness quickly created a story of a villain who did this, defeating them. Fear would set in for her party however, as they learnt they could not escape, and as fairness desperatly didnt want them to either, she grew desperate and changed them into husks, before shifting them back to their previous forms but with a husks personality. This event would happen over and over again for all of fairness's life. The stories would change, and the people would too, but in the end, it would always work like that. If you discovered Nermeira, she would simply trick them into thinking they succeeded and continue again with a new perona, or at times, present them exclusivly as villains, and possition it so that she might fight them herslf. Those Under Nermeira's Control There are several groups and factions under fairness's control, here is detail about those groups and factiosn and how they relate to Fairness: The Heroes That Died Defeating Strahd, Fairness's goal is to relive her any sense of hope, to destrouy the things that bring her despair. The death of her companions include in this, not to mention their dissagreeing with her. Whether she was successful or not is up to the DM top decide, but she will attempt to those heroes and following this, shift their personaities, or turn them into husks. If Fairness did not succeed, thos eheroes might have instead created an undercover group to try and take down fairness, although, this might also be simply another farce of Nermeira's. Mimics In the version of Barovia that reflects Nermeira, Mimics infest the land, and many doorways, chests, and whatnot are infact mimics. Nermeira commands these mimics and they will turn from their object form only willed too by Nermeira. Mire Warlocks Nermeira will often bestow powers onto those she trusts. Lady Walkner, or adventuers that turned to join her are great example's of this. These warlocks use the staistics for Warlocks of the Great Old One found in Volo's Guide with the following changes instead of 'jump' and 'levitate' as at will abilities, they have 'disguise self' and 'silent image'

their 1st to 5th level spells should be shared mostly with Nermeira's spell list, but should additionally have a few or most spells changed to give them a sense of uniqueness

Additionally, they share the Mire Husk's Hivemind feature Heroes of Barovia Sometimes, a hero does not wish to join the practice of warlockhood, but still wishes to serve fairness, or fairness herself dems it innapropriate for their "Character". These heroes usually range from around 7th to 10th level, although there are some higher level heroes who have become Nermeira's heroes. These people use class levels, with the additional feature of the Mire Husks Hivemind feature. Usually, these character's are very quirky or "interesting" in character concept, to catch Nermeira's eyes. Ultimatly, these heroes are rare, although more numerous then the warlocks.

Mire Husks The Mire Husks are numerous and hidden. Any barovian, or wandering hero could be a Mire Husk. These creatures stay hidden, obeying Nermeira's every order. The only people who could not be Husks, are probably the True Vistani (not half), who seem to be immune to Nermeira's ability to do so. The Ravens of Barovia The ravens of Barovia serve Nermeira as eye's and ears. They travel the lands and report back to fairness what they find. The were ravens of barovia do not innatly follow Nermeira's control, however, they have an inclination too, and are easily manipulated by her Fighting The Mire Mother If players where too see through Nermeira's ruse, they are stil long from being able to kill her. In truth, while she is weaker in attack power or defence compared to most Dark Lords, her ability to confuse is what makes her a devistating person to fight. You see, you might see Fairness, but instead, it is an illusion, or a husk disguised as her, or an ally who she has switched places with and dominated. Even when you might think you've killed her, she simply lets you have your happy victory before coming back a new and manipulating it so that theplayers appear the villains. Fairness is not a fight you have a final climactic battle with, she's someone who you'll fight dozens of times, who couldbe anywhere and anyone, or those that she controls could be. You'll never fight her alone, and she would prefer a city to a castle since its better able to take advantage of her abilities in a place where it is natural for people to live. Players should become paranoid. They should not be able to know who to trust, to turn down easy ways to help them on their adventure out of fear, and to be tricked into actions that make them out to be villains. Players might come across a group that fights against fairness, but out of distrust, kill their leader, thinking they might be Fairness herself or a husk. Later show them that its possible to make someone no longer a husk, and watch as their despair sets in. There are ofcourse several ways to help the players that should be used. Astute Players might notice over a long time, and with clues about her history, that she only ever seems to make herself into female identities (although she is happy to have others or illusions act as male identities), or that the vistani are unable to the transformed and thus can be trusted to not be husks. Additionally, Magic Items or ally's should be played in the setting that specifically help counter Fairness's abilities. A Wand of Find Person that does work on her, Rings of +5 against charms, or a Spell Scroll of TrueSight (9th Level) for example. But as they hunt these items down, they will still be in their continuous fight with Fairness, she will act as allies, as enemies, and the items themselves. Anything to confuse the players or divert them from their path. When all is well and done, and the players only trust themselves, she might take one of them asside, and turn them into a Warlock, Hero or Husk too. Never let the players trust what is going on around them, when they become distrustful, tell them the truth, and vis versa. Her toolkit is filled with confusin abilities if you dont know what's going on, so use them to your advanatge. Tips and Idea's Its encouraged for the DM to make up their own idea's to make things confusing, and frankly make things up as they need to to create the story that Fairness wants to tell. But here is a list of idea's that are worth mentioning: Po "Nevermore" Idosdatta might have been turned into a kenku Mire Warlock after Nermeira's assention. He might still be summonable by Find Familier, and he might rule the ravens of barovia.

An adventuers guild might exist in barovia, although it would entirly be run by Fairness, and would exist to compel adventuers towards Fairness's stories.

Bookstores might be common in Barovia, however, they are filled only with books created by Fairness or her pawns. Thus act mostly of propoganda for

Take character idea's that players have talked about, and use them as Heroes of Barovia

Have the players go through another battle against strahd, but have it go strangly easily nowthat thwy where able to bring "Irena" with them to the fight.

Alternativly, if they're expecting Fairness, understand that she likely knows this very well, and will consider this. Set up an outward world that does contain A fairness, but have the true fairness join them on their quest as an allie to hunt them down. Have her take asside and kill/capture/etc a party member if nessisary. Then as they fight "Fairness", have the true fairness slowly corrupt them into joining her.

Unless the players have both used a spell or item like Nondetection or the ring of mind sheilding and additionally kept the information away from any of those under Nermeira's control, know that Fairness knows everything they do or plan, and will plan accordingly. Usually with things going about as they expect, only to lead them into her grasp again.

Remember that everything is both a lie and the truth untill you reveal the truth about it, so use that to your advantage to simulate a person who is devistatingly hard to know the actions of.

Not all the good things that happen to the players can be truth either. Havinf Nermeira set up some fake magic items for the heroes to find that are infact cursed, along with the real ones, makes the quest for items moreinteresting, and gives players clues on who is under nerneira at the time.

If nermeira has given up, and the players have put her in a situation where she feels threatened entirly, have her use Hallusinatory Terrain to make it appear as if Barovia is being put in fluc through the lack of a Dark Lord after she "dies", and have her let the players leave the mists. If they come back, she'll have a new "Dark Lord" set up on the throne

Above all else, Fairness is still someone who grasps onto whatever hope's she can find for happiness. If players can somehow reason with her a way to give her hope, have her respect the players and help them. If they can somehow offer happiness to her, a way to leave the mists and fix herself for example, know that she is likely to help as best she can.

Lair Actions For Nermeira, a Lair counts as any city of decent population where atleast most people are Mire Husks. On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), Nermaira takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects; Nermeira can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row: Nermeira casts the spell Seeming on any number of targets that she can see

Nermeira switches places with one Mire Husk of her choice within 120 feet of her and additionally, they switch illusions if there where any active on either at the time. This effect is un-noticable unless veiwed through the lense of spells like Detect Magic

Nermeira selects upto 3 target, and spark hgits each of their minds. The targets lose all resistances to charming effects, such as advanatage or +1's (specifically for charms) until the end of this turn. The targets can make a wisdom saving throw to avoid this, and if they suceed a DC15 Wisdom Save, this has no effect Regional Effects The city within Nermeira's Lair is warped by the Dark Lords presence whenever she steps foot in it, creating the following effects: Mimics in the area stop acting normally, and will instead only activate if Nermeira gives them a telepathic command, or gives them a command to do so on certain circumstances.

People who spend more then a day within the city's faces and bodies gain minor illusionary effects on their bodies. Depending on whether Nermeira likes them or not, they could either gain horrible scars, mutilations and fearful images, or have their faces become more beutiful, heroic or handsome

People who spend more then a week in the city must suceed a DC15 charisma saving throw or gain a new personality trait as following the Imbue Personaility Effect of Nermeira's

With a thought (not an action) Nermeira can create minor illusionarry effects within the contraints of the city. After 1 minute of acticating this effect, up to