Grave hag

“Cremation, now that’s one thing men could learn from gnomes. Burying bodies out in the fields, why, it’s like laying out a welcome mat for monsters! Best case scenario, some ghouls will sniff them out, eat their fill and be on their ghoulish way. But if, gods forbid, a grave hag takes to feeding at your cemetery, you’ll have no end of trouble.”—Jacques de Villepin, Oxenfurt Academy

Few monsters’ names fit as well as grave hags’. As one might guess, they resemble aged, deformed women who loiter near graveyards and battlefields. Grave hags feed on human corpses, and in particular on the rotten marrow which they slurp from human bones using their long, prehensile tongues. Once a hag has devoured all corpses within reach, she turns takes to killing men and burying them in the cemetery as she waits for them to decompose.

Grave hags use their tongues in combat to grab or flog their victims. Claws built for digging up buried bodies serve just as well as weapons to rend flesh. Though clumsy in appearance, grave hags move and attack at great speed—sometimes even a witcher’s reflexes are too slow to avoid their blows.

Grave hags are territorial creatures. Their lairs resemble caricatures of human homes and are built near burial sites. They venture out at night to hunt, stalking straggling travelers or mourners too lost in their grief to notice the setting of the sun. On rare occasions hunger-driven grave hags will hunt during the day. They are less dangerous at such times, for sunlight weakens them considerably.

Combat Tactics
Grave hags are territorial and aggressive when provoked, using their great speed to rapidly close on prey. You should always have Quen active, and Yrden prepared for use, in the event that a hag is spotted before combat begins. This provides the best chance to defend yourself.

The tongue of a grave hag can surprise even veteran witchers with the speed and range it can lash out. Being struck by it can cause temporary blindness, leaving the victim unable to properly defend themselves. However, a well-timed counterattack can sever the tongue.

While not explicitly vulnerable to Igni, igniting a grave hag can give a witcher a needed respite from their assault.

The claws of a grave hag are sharp, but not enough that skilled swordplay cannot defend against them. A well-timed parry can stop a maddened hag’s claws. The follow-up counter-attack can then open the grave hag up to successive silver sword blows.

Black Blood can be effective at stopping a grave hag that has gotten the best of a witcher in the melee. This is another useful way to push back against their relentless assault.