Motherhorn
Motherhorn is Yon’s tallest peak, into which Endelyn has carved an amphitheater of the same name. Macabre moldings, friezes, and gargoyles embellish the amphitheater’s grim architecture.
Recurring features include the following elements:
Ceilings. Unless otherwise noted, ceilings throughout Motherhorn are 15 feet high. The amphitheater is open to the sky, as are the various stone balconies.
Curtains. The curtains that hang across doorways are made of black fabric, and each curtain has been enchanted so that sound doesn’t pass through it while it is closed.
Doors. With the exception of the stone doors that block the main entrance (area M1) and the prison (area M17), all doors in Motherhorn are made of sturdy wood with iron handles and fittings. Each one has a bronze knocker on one side shaped like a smiling theater mask; a similar knocker on the opposite side is shaped like a frowning theater mask. None of these doors have locks.
Light. Glowing orbs of red glass are set into wrought-iron wall sconces throughout Motherhorn. Each orb sheds bright light in a 10-foot radius and dim light for an additional 10 feet. Removing an orb from its sconce causes the orb’s light to go dark until it is returned to a sconce.
Entering Motherhorn
The characters can get into Motherhorn in one of several ways:
They can use the front door (area M1).
They can use climbing gear or magic to scale the walls. Doing so allows them to enter the amphitheater (area M2) or reach one of the higher balconies (areas M15, M16, M20, and M21).
A magical tornado (see “Random Encounters in Yon” earlier in this chapter) might deposit them in the amphitheater.
They can use the secret tunnel dug by the brigganocks (area M12).
Characters who obtained invitations from a pageant wagon (see “Random Encounters in Yon” earlier in the chapter) are entitled to a free audience with Endelyn. Any member of the theater staff can accept the characters’ invitations and escort them safely to the hag’s audience chamber (area M18).
If one or more characters claim to be performers looking for work at the theater, they are granted an audition, during which they will be required to perform a play for Endelyn’s pleasure (see “A Tragedy in the Making” later in the chapter for details).
Approaching Motherhorn
Characters who use the brigganocks’ secret tunnel to reach Motherhorn arrive at area M12.
If the characters instead approach Motherhorn using an aboveground route, use the following boxed text to describe what they see:
Looming above you is an ominous gray citadel hewn out of the mountaintop. The path leading to it is winding and precipitous. Wind swirls around its towers, and ravens cluster and caw in its granite nooks. A crooked finger of lightning strikes a metal rod protruding from the topmost spire, and the sound of applause drifts over the citadel’s battlements.
The mountain path ends at a spiral staircase that climbs sixty feet to a balcony made of weathered gray stone.
If Trinket, Bauble, and Charm left Hither and returned to Motherhorn in their rain cloud balloon (see chapter 2), it is tethered to a balcony (area M16) and visible to all who approach. Describe the balloon as follows:
A large balloon made of bulging rain clouds is tethered to a much higher stone balcony that is well beyond reach. The balloon has a merchant’s stall instead of an ordinary basket dangling from it.
If Gleam is with the characters, she warns them that Endelyn Moongrave won’t be happy to see her again. If the characters tell her to remain outside while they rescue her sibling, Gleam does so grudgingly. Amidor and Pollenella remain by the elf’s side for company.
If Gleam accompanies the characters into Motherhorn, she avoids combat while urging the characters to escort her to the prison (area M17), where her sister is being held. Gleam has spent enough time in Motherhorn to be familiar with the theater’s layout, though she knows nothing about the secret brigganock tunnel that leads to area M12.
Where’s Endelyn?
When she’s not granting audiences, Endelyn keeps to the following routine:
Twice per day, Endelyn watches plays from one of the balconies (area M21). Occasionally, when the mood strikes her, she swoops down to the stage (area M2) on her ornithopter of flying in the closing minutes of a play to steal the show.
While plays are being rehearsed in the amphitheater, she spends her time in area M19, peering down at the Orrery of Tragedies in area M14 and using a quill pen to transcribe its prophecies into a tiny black book.
During the eight hours when no plays are being rehearsed or performed, she sleeps standing up inside a glass-paneled wardrobe in area M22.
Bargaining with Endelyn
When the characters come to Motherhorn, Endelyn has foreseen their arrival and is expecting them. If you used the “Lost Things” adventure hook and the Story Tracker indicates that Endelyn has one or more things that the characters need, she is willing to trade away these possessions one by one, but only after the characters agree to perform on her stage.
Regardless of what the characters want from her, Endelyn typically requires them to perform for her before she will bargain with them. If she deems the characters’ performance satisfactory (see “A Tragedy in the Making” below), she leads the party to her audience chamber (area M18) and conducts negotiations there. If the deems their performance unsatisfactory, she doesn’t feel bound by the rule of reciprocity (see “Rules of Conduct” in Prismeer Overview) to grant them an audience.
If the characters decline to perform a play for her, Endelyn demands that they leave at once, ordering her darklings to attack characters who refuse to do so. In the ensuing fracas, characters who are reduced to 0 hit points are knocked unconscious, stripped of their gear, and locked in the prison (area M17) until Endelyn decides what to do with them. (Stagefright leads the way to the prison, since his fool’s scepter is needed to open the prison’s front door.) If Endelyn finds no other use for imprisoned characters, she turns them into masks using the arcane device in area M8.
Characters who come to Motherhorn bearing invitations from a pageant wagon (see “Random Encounters in Yon” earlier in the chapter) can skip the performance and jump straight to the private audience.
Assuming that the characters’ performance or the presentation of their invitations puts Endelyn in a bargaining mood, she agrees to part with one creature or object in her possession, but only if the characters give her one of the following items in exchange:
Shadow. If a character agrees to give up their shadow, Endelyn uses her scissors of shadow snipping to snip it off.
Gloam the Cat. Endelyn accuses her sister, Bavlorna Blightstraw, of stealing her cat, Gloam. Endelyn wants the characters to travel to Bavlorna’s cottage in Downfall (see chapter 2), find her cat, and return it to her. (Endelyn doesn’t know that Bavlorna killed and stuffed the cat, but she wants it back regardless of its condition.)
Unicorn Horn. Endelyn claims that her sister Skabatha recently lost a unicorn horn, and Endelyn wants the character to find the horn and bring it to her. (Refer to the Story Tracker for the unicorn horn’s location, though any unicorn’s horn will do.) Endelyn mentions in passing that the unicorn whose horn was lost is still alive, although transformed into a rocking horse that Skabatha Nightshade uses as a flying mount.
If Endelyn has more things in her possession that the characters want, she is willing to enter into a separate bargain for each one. Magic items fashioned from lost things are kept in area M22.
Endelyn’s Escape
Endelyn is loath to leave Motherhorn, but if her survival depends on it, she moves to area M21 and uses her ornithopter of flying to retreat to the Palace of Heart’s Desire. Her sisters, if present, flee to the palace as well (Bavlorna on her lily pad and Skabatha on her rocking horse).
Fey to the Rescue!
If the characters helped the korreds and brigganocks settle their differences earlier in the chapter, they offer to help the characters in return. Twelve brigganocks hanging from the beards of three korreds arrive on the outskirts of Motherhorn at an agreed-upon time, ready to spring into action if the characters call for aid (see appendix C for their stat blocks).
If one or more characters cry out for assistance in Motherhorn, the brigganocks and korreds hear the call for help and react quickly. The korreds barrel out of the secret tunnel in area M12 or scale the theater’s walls using ropes made of korred hair, and the brigganocks use their darkness, faerie fire, silence, and sleep spells to confound and neutralize Endelyn’s minions. The Fey try not to steal the show; their goal is to distract Endelyn’s minions so the characters can wriggle out of a tight spot or confront the hag without her lackeys.