Nanny Pu’pu is a green hag who disguises herself as an impossibly ancient, crippled human woman living in the ruined settlement of Mbala. She claims to be the sole survivor after winged creatures (pterafolk) killed all the other villagers over many years, though in truth she tricked and ate the villagers herself.
Appearance & Deception
In her human guise, Nanny Pu’pu appears hunched over, blinded by cataracts, and crippled by arthritis. Her dark face and bald head are marked with yellow clay streaks suggesting a skull shape. She lives in a hut made from thatch and animal hides stretched over an immense reptile’s rib cage, decorated with animal skulls, wind chimes, and totems. She claims to survive on garden roots and whatever small creatures she catches in snares.
Tactics & Resources
The hag avoids open confrontation, preferring to lull adventurers into complacency before picking them off one by one. She has two primary goals for visitors: convince them to destroy the pterafolk nest on the south side of Mbala’s plateau, then make them her meals.
Her defenses include:
- 2d6 flying monkeys (see appendix D) that she summons with a whistle to gather supplies, though they won’t fight for her
- A flesh golem buried in a shallow grave outside her hut that erupts from the earth as a bonus action when commanded
The Rite of Stolen Life
Nanny Pu’pu worships Myrkul, the Lord of Bones, and is the only creature in Chult who can perform the Rite of Stolen Life—a dark ritual that transforms a dead humanoid into a zombielike creature. The ritual requires:
- 1 hour to complete
- A mostly intact humanoid corpse
- A gemstone worth at least 100 gp
- The sacrifice of another humanoid
She demands payment for this service, such as eliminating the pterafolk nest, obtaining a lock of Commander Breakbone’s hair and fingernails, or acquiring one of Saja N’baza’s iridescent scales.
The ritual embeds the gemstone in the corpse’s forehead, trapping the sacrifice’s spirit within it. That spirit gains the knowledge and personality of the deceased, effectively imitating them. The transformed character becomes undead, retaining their statistics but suffering 1d4 hit point maximum reduction at dawn each day from decay. When the maximum reaches 0, the gemstone shatters and the character becomes a corpse again.
Knowledge
Nanny Pu’pu is one of several creatures in Chult who might know the location of Omu or the source of the death curse (at the DM’s discretion).
Relationship with Eku
The couatl Eku had great love and respect for the people of Mbala and regards Nanny Pu’pu as one of the greatest evils in Chult. If traveling near Mbala with the party, Eku asks them to help destroy the hag once and for all.