# A Hedge Maid?



## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

I'm rereading a book by Terry goodkind, it has a creature and scene that would make a great haunt or scene. The book is the Omen Machine, it's part of the Richard and Kahlan series of books. The character that I read would make a great scene or even the main character for a haunt is a Hedge Made. She is a witch or sorceress who's dressed in dark rags, she's unable to speak because her mouth is stitched closest with a leather thong. Her lair is made up of twigs, and is strewn with candles, jars bags hanging from the ceiling, and bodies of people both dead and alive entwined within the twigs and branches that make up the walls. She has ghostly familiars, that could be done with actors or maybe scrim material with the familiars projected on to them.
The books are very good, but if you only want to read about this one character or scene it's in it's in chapter 51 in "The Omen Machine".


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## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

I need to check this out. This would really make a great character for a haunt scene. Love the organic elements incorporated into her.


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

jdubbya, I'll be curious to hear feedback and ideas that come from this. The character commands zombie like creatures, she drinks blood, and her verbal communication is clicks and hisses because her mouth has been stitched pretty much closes since childhood, so the "familiars" do all of the translation/talking that people would understand. She has jars and bags hanging by strips of cloth from the ceiling that contain body parts of both man and beast. Her "home" is in a swamp like environment, but you could tweak that aspect to meet your needs or situation.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

She sounds creepy as hell:jol:


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## scareme (Aug 29, 2006)

I need to wear my glasses. I read this several times and kept thinking I don't know how her hair could entangle men and make up the walls unless it was huge. When I saw lair. it made perfect, hideous sense. I like this idea because I've not seen it done before. Of course now if it's in a book we may see more of it. It's hard to find something fresh in haunting. So say I who is doing the birds this year, after 5 million people have done it. But this seems like it could be a really cool set.


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## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

I googled "hedge maid." One pic is a creepy girl with her mouth sewn closed. Others were of not so unattractive women. Trying to get an idea of this image. I'd like to try my own take on this some year, maybe when we do a witch themed haunt again (likely next year). I think the character herself could be really menacing and the set really dark and creepy, even if people don't quite get it. A non traditional Halloween theme for sure but it would make for some neat ideas in terms of costuming and set design.


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

I prefer to read stuff and let my imagination work with the author's description to formulate my "picture". You can get the book, "The One Machine" via your public library, the description really gets going in chapter 50. 
The author, Terry goodkind, definitely doesn't make the character pretty or glamorous by any standards.


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## BunchOfHocusPocus (May 23, 2012)

Wow! I loved how you described everything. I am so fascinated by this. I'll definitely need to check this out now. I've always loved horror and literature. So I am sure it'll be a great read at night.


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

This theme or scene would allow you to mix in; ghosts, zombies, wild dogs (via sound effects) and more. In the book, the familiars turn themselves into black hounds/wild dogs that pursue her victims into her "lair" where she binds them into the walls, and drains and drinks their blood. They live on for a while so you can have "corpses" and live actors tied up/entrapped in the walls. I'd use cutout holes for actors to push their face, and maybe hands or arms through, with fake bodies that have been slashed open for her to drain. It's hard to find live actors who would allow themselves to be cut open, so the fake bodies would allow you to quickly change out actors as needed.


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