P30. Sludge-Filled Tower
The door to this tower is sealed with a lion crown lock (see “Crown Locks” earlier in the chapter).
Everything in this tower appears to be frozen in place. A five-foot-wide ledge at floor level circles the room, and a row of five iron levers protrudes from the wall above the ledge on the far side of the room. Five feet below the ledge is the surface of a pool of reeking sludge. Five slender, gilded cages dangle from chains that hang down from holes in the sixty-foot-high ceiling. Three of the cages are occupied. Suspended in midair outside each cage is a pixie holding a tiny, gilded wand.
Zargash is here if he hasn’t been lured elsewhere. If Zargash is present, add:
Standing motionless next to the levers is a man garbed in black whose face is half-hidden by a hood. A bat-shaped amulet hangs around his neck, and he tightly grips a quarterstaff.
Zargash has been taking samples of the sludge in the pool, hoping to learn more about its properties. He stands motionless, pretending to be frozen in time like the other creatures here. If left alone, he waits for the characters to leave the area, then reports to Kelek in area P31.
Characters who observe Zargash can, with a successful DC 16 Wisdom (Perception) check, determine that he is not frozen in time. Because he’s pretending to be frozen, the first attack made against him has advantage. If his ruse is exposed or if he’s attacked, Zargash uses his next action to cast gaseous form on himself, then flies up to area P39 and heads to area P31 to warn Kelek and Warduke that intruders have entered the palace.
Cages and Pixie Jailers. The floors of the five cages are currently suspended above the sludge at heights of 10 feet, 20 feet, 30 feet, 40 feet, and 50 feet, respectively. Each cage’s height is controlled by one of the levers on the far side of the narrow ledge. Normally, moving a lever up or down causes its cage to ascend or descend at a rate of 1 foot per second; at present, however, the mechanisms that raise and lower the cages are frozen in time, and until the time-freezing effect ends, nothing happens when any of the levers are moved.
Each cage can hold one Medium or smaller creature. The cages have no doors or locks; creatures are teleported into and out of the cages using the tiny, gilded wands carried by the five pixies, all of which are frozen in time. Only pixies can attune to these tiny wands. As an action, a pixie released from temporal stasis can use its wand to target a Medium or smaller creature it can see within 20 feet of it. The target must make a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw; on a failed save, it is teleported into the gilded cage corresponding to that pixie, and any creature already occupying that cage teleports to the space vacated by the target. A pixie released from temporal stasis can use an action to touch its wand to its corresponding cage, which teleports any creature inside that cage to an unoccupied space of the pixie’s choice on the ledge.
A character can use an action to try to bend a cage’s bars, doing so with a successful DC 22 Strength (Athletics) check and creating an opening wide enough for a Small or Medium character to squeeze into or out of the cage.
Demonic Sludge. A detect magic spell reveals an aura of transmutation magic emanating from the sludge, which comes from the Abyss. Any Humanoid that starts its turn wholly or partly immersed in the sludge must make a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw. On a successful save, the creature takes 7 (2d6) psychic damage as its mind is ravaged by nightmarish visions too horrible to describe. On a failed save, the creature is magically transformed into a manes under your control. This transformation can be reversed by any magic that ends a curse. If the transformation is not reversed within three days, it becomes permanent and can be reversed only by a wish spell or divine intervention.
Prisoners. Three of the cages hold prisoners in temporal stasis:
The cage suspended 10 feet above the sludge contains a manes.
The cage suspended 20 feet above the sludge contains an incubus in the guise of a male high elf named Nizran (not his true name). The incubus, whose Etherealness trait does not function in the Feywild, infiltrated Zybilna’s court by pretending to be an emissary of the Summer Queen. Zybilna saw through the deception, ascertained the incubus’s true allegiance to the demon lord Graz’zt (her former lover), and incarcerated the incubus before he could return to his true master.
The cage suspended 40 feet above the sludge holds a nameless, unshaven man with a crescent-shaped scar under his right eye. A retired human spy (neutral) from Oerth, he is unarmed. He begged Zybilna to rid him of the guilt he feels for several murders he committed. She obliged by locking him up and promising to transform him into a manes—a creature incapable of feeling guilt.
Even if they are freed from temporal stasis, the prisoners remain trapped in their cages until the pixies release them, which they can’t do while frozen in time and which they’re not inclined to do unless the order comes from Zybilna. Nizran and the nameless man want nothing more than to flee the palace and never return.