P22. Ballroom
The doors to areas P13, P14c, and P14d are sealed with lion crown locks (see “Crown Locks” earlier in the chapter).
A grand ballroom lies before you, the northern part of its floor littered with the splintered remains of three doors that have been knocked from their hinges, leaving openings through which you can see adjoining rooms.
Throughout the ballroom, royal courtiers stand motionless, their eyes fixed on a black iron cauldron atop a dais in the middle of the chamber. Dark vapors rise from the cauldron, and a huge, dragon-like monster is coiled around it. The dragon’s body twitches slightly, and its closed eyelids flutter as it dreams.
Two figures are frozen, statue-like, off to one side of the cauldron: an imperious, middle-aged woman with long white hair and white robes, and a younger woman clad in armor and wearing a white cape. The older woman is reaching desperately toward the cauldron, while the armored woman at her side is grasping a fine-looking quarterstaff.
A jabberwock is coiled around the cauldron. Zybilna treated the jabberwock like a pet, regularly inviting it into her palace to feed from her cauldron. It continues to visit the palace even now that Zybilna is frozen in time, has fed recently, and is sound asleep. Characters can move quietly about the room without waking it. Loud noises cause it to awaken, as do attacks made against it and any attempts to use or disturb the cauldron. Crafty characters who don’t want to engage the jabberwock in battle can try to lure it elsewhere, either by using themselves as bait or by playing music (see “Beware the Jabberwock!”).
Iggwilv the Witch Queen, known in Prismeer as Zybilna, stands near the cauldron alongside a human cleric named Mercion.
Cauldron. Iggwilv’s Cauldron is currently in its iron form. The characters can break the time-freezing spell on every creature and object in the palace by destroying the cauldron with a flame tongue or frost brand weapon, or by touching the cauldron with a unicorn horn while reciting a poem called “The Witch Queen’s Cauldron.” Only Zybilna and the hags of the Hourglass Coven know the words to this poem, but a legend lore spell or similar magic can also reveal them:
Eight cats perch atop eight dead attending
Eight lizards flee from eight rats scavenging
Eight toads climbing meet eight dead and falling
Eight snakes sneak under eight bats screaming
Eight eyes open, always dreaming
All on the cauldron that is ever seeming.
Freeing Zybilna. A character can use an action to touch Zybilna with a unicorn horn while speaking her true name (Natasha). Doing so ends the time-freezing effect on her. Speaking the name Tasha, Zybilna, or Iggwilv doesn’t work, since none of those is her true name.
Destroying the cauldron frees not only Zybilna but also every other creature in the palace that is frozen in time.
When Zybilna is freed from temporal stasis, skip ahead to “Ending the Story” at the end of the chapter.
Freeing Mercion. Any member of Valor’s Call can identify Mercion, the armored cleric at Zybilna’s side. Once the characters know who she is, one of them can use an action to touch Mercion with a unicorn horn while speaking her name, ending the time-freezing effect on her.
If she is questioned, Mercion shares the story of Valor’s Call (see “Fall of the Witch Queen” earlier in the chapter). She willingly joins any group committed to overcoming the League of Malevolence.
Courtiers. In addition to Zybilna, Mercion, and the jabberwock, this room contains the following courtiers, all dressed in fancy garb and frozen in time:
A pompous bullywug knight and an emissary of the Soggy Court (see chapter 2) named Lord Slubb, the Marquis of Brackishbog
Two drow mages (chaotic good) named Kelchrin and Valtis, who counsel Zybilna on matters concerning demons and the Abyss
Snitcher, a goblin boss (neutral) with dragonfly wings that grant a flying speed of 40 feet and the ability to hover, who brings news from other fey courts and is attended by four similarly winged goblins (neutral bodyguards)
Seven pixies named Bix, Henny, Honeybright, Nightglitter, Starpetal, Trick, and Winterflake
Two quicklings who serve Zybilna as messengers and spies
Treasure. Iggwilv’s Cauldron is an artifact, albeit one that its rightful owner would never part with. While she is trapped in stasis, Iggwilv can’t stop thieves from taking the cauldron or hiding it. If they so desire, the characters can use Warduke’s flame tongue sword to shatter the cauldron, then do whatever they want with the fragments.
Between them, Iggwilv and Mercion have a robe of the archmagi, an amulet of the planes, and a +1 quarterstaff. Iggwilv also keeps a gray stone (the control gem for the gray slaad in area P33) in the pocket of her robe. These items are not likely to fall into the characters’ hands.
Beware the Jabberwock!
Overcoming the jabberwock in area P22 is one of the main challenges of this chapter and, indeed, the whole adventure. The characters are unlikely to survive a head-on fight with the creature, but there are things they can do to increase their chances of survival:
Free the great owl from the aviary (area P20) and set it against the jabberwock. Characters toward whom the owl is indifferent can easily put the owl in a jabberwock-hunting mood if they have the means to speak with it. If the jabberwock and the owl ever make eye contact, the jabberwock flees the palace with the owl in pursuit.
Bait the jabberwock into leaving the palace. The jabberwock will follow prey or the sound of music. Once lured outside, assuming it’s not set upon by the great owl immediately, the jabberwock goes hunting and does not return for 1d6 + 2 hours.
Obtain Snicker-Snack, the vorpal sword in area P50. The jabberwock is vulnerable to its slashing damage, and the sword’s attacks can neutralize the jabberwock’s Regeneration trait.
The jabberwock is friendly toward Zybilna and hostile toward everything else, though it thinks twice about attacking anything bigger than itself. Throwing food at the jabberwock might distract it long enough to allow characters to flee its presence without risk of pursuit. Befriending the jabberwock isn’t an option.
P23. Round Table
The doors leading into this room have been knocked from their hinges, and the doorways are wide open. Creatures that make too much noise here wake the jabberwock in area P22, which promptly investigates.
This chamber contains a round, marble-topped table ringed by high-backed chairs. Between the table and a curved wall of tall, slender windows stands a motionless, white-haired wizard wielding a staff that has glittering frost erupting from its tip.
Ringlerun was ambushed in here by two members of the League of Malevolence, Zarak and Zargash. The wizard was using his staff of power to cast a cone of cold spell when he became frozen in time. Freeing Ringlerun from his temporal stasis unleashes the magic of the spell, the effect of which erupts out to fill most of the room.
Once he is no longer frozen in time, Ringlerun is determined to defeat the League of Malevolence before it can cause any more mischief. He volunteers an explanation of how Valor’s Call came to the palace (see “Fall of the Witch Queen” earlier in the chapter).
High-Backed Chairs. One of the chairs has a smiling quasit carved into its back, near the top. If anyone other than Zybilna sits in this chair, the quasit magically shouts “This is not your chair!” in Abyssal, repeating the line every minute until the creature gets out of the chair.
Round Table. Zybilna uses the round table for meetings with her counselors. Characters who examine its marble surface find the following inscription engraved on it in the Elvish script: “I rule by the verdict of my heart and the slam of my fist.”
Striking the table with a clenched fist causes it to emit a thunderous boom that can be heard up to 10 miles away. Zybilna used this power of the table to emphasize her verdicts; she also exploited it to summon the jabberwock for its dinner. If the jabberwock is still alive, it comes running if it hears this sound.
Treasure. Ringlerun carries a staff of power with 15 charges remaining. (The staff has 20 charges when fully charged. Five charges were expended when Ringlerun used it to cast cone of cold. The staff can’t recharge until Ringlerun is released from temporal stasis.)
P24. Ruined Staterooms
The jabberwock destroyed the furnishings in these two rooms and smashed through the doors leading to areas P22, P23, and P25. Nothing of value remains.
P25. Bathing Room
Steam rises from a murky bathing pool. The tiled floor around the bath is cracked and ruined, as though something huge had stomped across it. Whatever caused this damage also left a gaping hole in one wall, through which you can see open air and the twilight sky.
If the characters make any loud noises here and have not yet encountered the jabberwock in area P22, it awakens and investigates. The jabberwock enters and leaves the palace through the hole in the wall. It occasionally bathes in the murky pool and also hides its treasure there.
Treasure. The water in the pool is 8 feet deep and opaque. At the bottom of the pool, amid the bones of fairies and goblins that the jabberwock has devoured, are the following treasures:
A pair of silver armlets (25 gp each)
An ornate steel dagger that whispers “soon” whenever its wielder falls asleep (50 gp)
A silver helmet adorned with a black feather (125 gp)