M19. Viewing Gallery
This 20-foot-high balcony looks down onto the Orrery of Tragedies (area M14).
The stone railing that encloses this ring-shaped balcony has balusters shaped like hourglasses.
Endelyn Moongrave spends much of her time on the side of the balcony closest to her quarters (area M22), transcribing prophecies of doom foretold by the Orrery of Tragedies. While she’s working, she doesn’t like to be disturbed.
Endelyn records these prophecies in a spineless book 8 inches tall and 3 inches wide. Its black wooden covers and yellow pages are held together by copper wire. The image of an hourglass is burned into the front cover. Currently, one-third of the book’s pages are filled with Endelyn’s spidery Elvish script.
M20. Paper Birds and Hidden Belfry
Bottles filled with crackling lightning line wooden bookcases along the walls of this chamber.
An open archway leads to a stone balcony that overlooks the amphitheater forty feet below. On the opposite side of the room from the arch is a large wooden desk, atop which a stack of parchment flutters under a stone paperweight shaped like a toad. Scattered on the desk are ink pots and ink-stained quills. Dangling from a rafter near the desk is a rusty cage that holds three folded paper birds flitting about like moths.
Endelyn writes her correspondence on sheets of enchanted parchment, which she then folds into the shape of paper birds that fly to their intended recipients. If a message’s recipient is on another plane of existence or is otherwise unreachable, the paper bird bursts into flames on takeoff and is instantly destroyed.
The paper birds are hostile toward all creatures except the hags of the Hourglass Coven. They use the hawk stat block, with these changes:
The paper birds are Constructs.
They have vulnerability to fire damage, immunity to poison and psychic damage, immunity to exhaustion, and immunity to the charmed, frightened, and poisoned conditions.
They deal damage by slicing creatures with their sharp edges (the attack is otherwise identical to the hawk’s Talons attack).
The cage contains three folded birds that Endelyn has prepared but hasn’t released. The door to the cage is held shut by a simple latch. To catch a paper bird, a creature must reach into the cage and use an action to try to grapple it; if the grapple check succeeds, the magic on the parchment ends, rendering the bird inanimate and easy to unfold. If the cage door is left open, the paper birds fly out after a few seconds and try to deliver their messages.
The birds in the cage have the following messages written on them in the Elvish script:
My darling Bav,
Skab had the horn but either lost it or forgot where she hid it. Her head is so full of cobwebs. Imagine what she’ll be like when she’s senile.
Your favorite sister,
End
Dearest Skab,
Mummy’s little warlock spy was happy to betray her companions and reveal that Kelek, Zargash, and the others are conspiring to betray us. But fear not. Their plots will not succeed. Even now, an outside force promises to rid us of the whole stinking lot. What’s important is that the Cauldron remain safe. Let me know how you wish to proceed.
Your beloved sister,
End
Lord Kelek,
I have written a new play titled The Agonies of Alagarthas. It’s a tragic tale inspired by real-life misfortune that I think you might enjoy. You and the other members of the League of Malevolence are invited to Motherhorn to watch a live performance. Your missing colleague, Skylla, has been my guest for some time, but I’m afraid she has worn out her welcome. In exchange for my generosity, I’m hoping you can take her off my hands.
Until our next meeting,
Endelyn
Bottled Lightning. The hag drinks a bottle of lightning before sitting at her desk to write, granting her flashes of inspiration. The shelves hold thirty bottles of lightning. Any creature other than Endelyn that tries to drink the lightning in a bottle takes 7 (2d6) lightning damage, emptying the bottle in the process.
As an action, a creature can hurl a bottle of lightning up to 30 feet, where it shatters on impact. A creature that hurls a bottle at a specific target in range must make a ranged attack against that target. On a hit, the target takes 7 (2d6) lightning damage.
Desk. The toad-shaped paperweight on the desk is an actual toad that was turned to stone. The sheets of parchment under it are waiting to be written on and folded into birds. If the stone toad is picked up and nothing else holds the pages down, they flutter about until someone grabs them and starts writing on them. As an action, a character can try to snatch a sheet out of the air, doing so with a successful DC 10 Dexterity check. Folding a sheet of parchment into a paper bird that can fly (as described above) requires 1 minute and a successful DC 10 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check.
The inks and quills on the desk are unremarkable.
Hidden Belfry. The room’s 10-foot-high ceiling is made of loose wooden boards laid across rafters. Above these boards, hidden in the top of the turret, is a belfry. The characters can reach the boards by stacking furniture found in the turret and climbing to the top of the stack. Once they do that, the boards can be lifted away or pushed aside with ease.
The belfry contains a 50-pound silver bell attached to a 25-foot-long rope that hangs down to the floor once the false ceiling is no longer an obstacle. A verse engraved on the bell in Elvish reads:
Toll the bell within this spire
To journey to your heart’s desire.
Ringing the bell summons a flock of giant cranes (use the pteranodon stat block), one for each character or NPC in the party, from the direction of the Palace of Heart’s Desire. These birds appear on the horizon immediately and take 20 minutes to reach the tower, where they alight on the balcony. Each bird waits patiently for a rider to climb on its back. The giant cranes deliver the characters safely to the Palace of Heart’s Desire, refusing to alter their course, and fly away afterward. The birds’ plumage is soft and comforting, and each passenger gains the benefit of a long rest at the end of the journey.
Check the Story Tracker; characters who skillfully rode giant dragonflies in the Witchlight Carnival handle their cranes with such flair that they each receive a feather at the end of the journey. (The giant crane plucks the feather from itself using its beak and places it on the ground within the character’s reach.) A feather allows the rewarded character (and no one else) to cast the feather fall spell with no components required. Once its spell is cast, the feather becomes nonmagical.
Development. If the characters make use of the giant cranes, skip ahead to the “Leaving Yon” section at the end of the chapter. If the characters don’t leave right away, the birds take flight back to the palace after a few minutes. Ringing the bell summons them again.
M21. Ornithopter Pad
This castle turret has a forty-foot-high balcony overlooking Motherhorn’s amphitheater. A wooden ornithopter sits on the balcony. It has a round bird’s head with beady eyes and a metal beak, and leathery wings are folded against its chassis.
If Endelyn’s sisters were forced to flee to Motherhorn, here is where they park their flying mounts (Bavlorna’s lily pad and Skabatha’s rocking horse). Endelyn keeps her ornithopter of flying on the same balcony where she watches performances, so she can fly down to the stage whenever she wants to steal the limelight.