M5. Dressing Room
Resting against the walls of this circular chamber are three dressing tables, each one with a mirror atop it. The mirrors are bordered by tiny balls of bright golden light. An ornate, high-backed chair on clawed feet sits before each table. Slumped in one of the chairs is a bugbear dressed as a green dragon from the neck down. On the floor nearby are the fake dragon head and tail that complete the costume.
If the bugbear’s detached shadow in area M12 has not been defeated, add:
This bugbear looks all the more unusual because he casts no shadow.
Performers prepare themselves for the stage here; the tables are strewn with gaudy makeup, dusting powders, and perfume bottles that give off pungent odors.
Hurly the Bugbear. The bugbear, named Hurly (chaotic good), slouches in his chair and gazes into a mirror. Reflected back at him is a sickly, haggard version of himself (see “Magic Mirrors” below). He is dressed to portray the green dragon in the tragedy titled A Village No More, but he has given up trying to remember his lines.
Hurly used to work at the Witchlight Carnival, but his short temper and blustery nature made him unpopular. One of Endelyn’s spies lured him to Motherhorn, where the hag promised to make Hurly more likable before sending him back to the carnival—but only after he agreed to relinquish his shadow and work in Endelyn’s theater for three years. Hurly recently learned from another actor that three years in the Feywild doesn’t necessarily equate to three years where he came from, so he’s no longer certain how long Endelyn expects him to remain at the theater. The hag assures Hurly that his talent is becoming more refined and respected with every performance—but the magic mirrors in this room tell him a different story. It’s clear to Hurly that his dreadful performances are not endearing him to anyone, Endelyn most of all.
Hurly expects to be demoted to stagehand and wishes he had never left the Witchlight Carnival. His failure to win over audiences is due in part to his missing shadow, as explained in the “Shadowless” section earlier in the chapter. If Hurly regains his shadow, his performances will garner a better reception, although he doesn’t know that yet.
Additional roleplaying notes can be found in the bio for Hurly.
Magic Mirrors. Each dressing table mirror is lit by magic orbs of light affixed to its frame and enchanted to display an image that corresponds to a performer’s standing with Endelyn. What a creature sees in a mirror depends on how Endelyn feels about that creature:
If Endelyn is tolerant or unaware of the onlooker, the image is the performer’s normal appearance.
If the onlooker is out of favor with Endelyn, the image is a sickly and haggard version of the creature.
If Endelyn is plotting the onlooker’s demise, the image is a skeleton wearing the onlooker’s clothes.
Each of the three mirrors is a Small object with AC 13, 3 hit points, and immunity to poison and psychic damage. If a mirror is destroyed, poison gas billows up from its shards, filling the room. Each creature in the room must make a DC 11 Constitution saving throw, taking 22 (4d10) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The gas doesn’t spread beyond this room and dissipates quickly.
M6. Performers’ Quarters
The walls of this gloomy chamber are lined with black-veiled compartments that contain makeshift beds. The furniture is sparse: a few wooden tables and chairs, a box of junk in one corner, and flickering lanterns resting here and there. Five performers occupy the room. Two of them pace nervously while the others weep.
The actors here perform their roles reluctantly and are eager to leave, but cannot do so yet; each either has an unfulfilled bargain with the hag or has displeased her somehow and is working to win back her favor. All five performers are unarmed commoners (neutral), and the nonhuman ones have darkvision out to a range of 60 feet. They are as follows:
Elemic the Excellent (a male human from the world of Toril) sobs in his bunk.
Diamanda Mistriddle (a female forest gnome from a world whose name is unknown to her) buries her face in a cushion on the floor to hide her tears.
Puff Rivernoggin-Lemonseed (a male lightfoot halfling from what he terms “the Known World”) cries while studying script pages that have become wrinkled from his tears.
Elegy (a female tiefling who claims to hail from Sigil) paces while talking to a tiefling skull.
Klee Westerly (a nonbinary human from the world of Tal’dorei) paces angrily while muttering his lines.
All five actors urge the characters to leave Motherhorn before the hag, whom they refer to as Creeping Lyn or Bitter End, snares them in her traps. Given a chance, one or more of the actors also share the following information:
“Even if Creeping Lyn hates you, it’s still possible to win her favor by telling a gruesome or depressing story on her stage—that’s what we’re all trying to do.”
“Storms provide the lightning that Bitter End needs to power her contraptions. Without them, the show can’t go on.”
“The hag’s greatest contraption is the Orrery of Tragedies, which allows her to glimpse many possible futures. Time and again, she has foreseen her own demise and taken measures to delay it for as long as possible.”
Treasure. The box in the corner contains the belongings of actors who have perished in Motherhorn. (Some died of natural causes; others succumbed at the hands of Endelyn, her minions, or jealous rivals.) Among the junk can be found the following treasures:
A powder brush with a painted handle sculpted to resemble a bunch of roses (25 gp)
A gold hand mirror that removes wrinkles, blemishes, and scars from the onlooker’s reflection (250 gp)
A fully charged wand of web