I was playing a game where my character had made it to the CoC. My opponent was playing the Vampiress. On his turn he landed on a draw 1 card space and drew "cursed by a hag".

The question is.......

Upon drawing the cursed by a hag card, would the vampiress be able to sacrafice the followers for life before the cursed by a hag card takes effect?

I argued that the card would take place first because the wording on the card states that the player must take the hag as a follower and must immeadiatly lose all followers....

My opponent feels that he has a chance to use the vampiress' ability before "encountering" the card.

The Vampiress must immediately discard all of her Followers and take the Hag. She cannot use her ability to drain the life force from her Followers.

The forbidding effect of the Hag overrides the Vampiresses special ability.

Ell.

I disagree.

Other encounter cards allow you to use spells or abilities before you encounter them (such as evasion effects). Vampiress should be allowed to eat her followers before picking up the Hag.

After that, Vampiress can eat the Hag. The restriction on ditching Hag simply means you cannot her without cause. This has been established with undroppable objects which have been ruled legal to alchemise.

If you use the optional rule in the rulebook which allows you to evade any unfriendly creature, you have the option to evade the Hag with a Spell or special ability. If not, you must take the Hag as a Follower. Your other Followers must immediately be discarded. The optional special ability of the Vampiress to drain the life force from a Follower cannot be used before taking the Hag as a Follower.

Ell.

Ps. If you want clarification on this and whether or not the Vampiress can eat the Hag, please contact John Goodenough for the definitive answer!