P34. Hall of Hatches
Four three-foot-square oak panels are mounted on the wall along the east side of this short hall. Each panel has a hinged hatch attached to a wooden handle.
When the characters first enter, all four panels are closed. Opening a hatch reveals a square cavity containing the head of a decapitated creature. When a hatch is opened, the head inside that cavity barks one of the following utterances:
Bugbear head: “Yah!”
Harpy head: “Bah!”
Hobgoblin head: “Gah!”
Ogre head: “Bah!”
Each repeats its one-word utterance every time its hatch is opened, then falls silent until the hatch is closed and opened again. To use this area as it was intended, the panels must all be closed and then opened in either of the following sequences:
Harpy, ogre, bugbear, hobgoblin
Ogre, harpy, bugbear, hobgoblin
When the decapitated heads speak the syllables of “Baba Yaga” in their proper order, all creatures in the hall are teleported to unoccupied spaces in the study (area P47).
P35. Flooded Hall
This hallway has a sunken floor filled to a depth of three feet with dark water. Lanterns lit with flickering blue flames hang from the ceiling thirty feet above by short chains, spaced roughly ten feet apart. They produce eerie, ghostlike reflections off the water. As you take in the scene, an empty sailboat drifts into view from farther down the hall and makes its way toward you.
The sailboat glides closer until it is near enough to board safely. The boat can carry up to eight Medium creatures. One creature can steer the boat using the tiller, and the boat has a speed of 20 feet.
Dark Water. Peering into the water’s depths reveals thin, pale faces staring back, dark monsters swimming past, and glimpses of distant realms. A creature can wade through the water safely, but any creature that completely submerges itself must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or become trapped under the water’s surface. Unless the creature can breathe underwater, it begins to suffocate when it runs out of air (see the suffocation rules in the Player’s Handbook). As an action, a creature trapped under the water’s surface or another creature within reach of it can make a DC 20 Strength (Athletics) check. On a successful check, the trapped creature breaks through the surface and is no longer submerged.
P36. Costume Room
This room contains eight wooden mannequins in tall glass cases. Each mannequin wears a different outfit.
These outfits have been worn by Zybilna in her many guises—a child’s witchy dress for young Natasha; a flamboyant, off-the-shoulder dress for Tasha; a dark, alluring gown for Iggwilv; and more.
The following clues can help the characters identify some of Zybilna’s former personas:
The name “Natasha” is stitched into the collar of a cape sized for a child.
Characters who examined the mannequin of Tasha in the glass cabinet outside the Hall of Illusions in the Witchlight Carnival can recognize Tasha’s costume from the way the mannequin was dressed.
Characters who succeed on a DC 16 Intelligence (History) check can recognize one of Iggwilv’s costumes from a woodcut of her that they saw once in a book, where she was identified as “Iggwilv, the Witch Queen of Perrenland.”
P37. Dretch Nursery
Flies buzz throughout this chamber, and the grimy marble floor is crawling with maggots. Eight wicker cradles stand upright in the filth. Lashed to each cradle is a three-foot-long, curved wooden pole with a mobile consisting of three ornaments dangling at the top of it. Each ornament appears to be a triangular piece of white wood with an Elvish letter carved into it. Small, misshapen creatures nesting in the cradles reach toward the symbols with their claws but can’t quite grab them.
The cradles contain eight dretches—manifestations of Zybilna’s darkest emotions: annoyance, loathing, rage, disgust, disdain, maliciousness, envy, and jealousy. The stunted, baby-like fiends act according to their nature; for example, the annoyed dretch frowns in irritation at everything it sees, the malicious dretch tries to pinch anyone who comes too close to it, and so forth.
A character can make a DC 15 Wisdom (Insight) check to ascertain why the dretches are here and what they represent. On a failed check, the character ascertains nothing. On a successful check, the character realizes that the dretches are manifestations of suppressed negative emotions belonging to whoever confined them to this wretched nursery.
Characters who can read the Elvish script can identify seven different letters carved into the triangular ornaments suspended above the cradles. The letters, each of which appear several times, are A, B, I, L, N, Y, and Z. Rearranged, they spell ZYBILNA. Zybilna needed the lettered ornaments as material components for the ritual that created the dretches, but now they are merely decorative distractions for the baby-like dretches. The letters are attached to the mobiles at random; for example, one cradle’s mobile might have the letters A, I, and L, while another might have the letters B, L, and Y.
Each dretch is bound by Zybilna’s magic and has a speed of 0 feet while in its cradle. If a dretch is removed from its cradle, its disposition doesn’t change, but it is free to go where it pleases. It shuns combat and fights only in self-defense. Killing one or more dretches causes an upswell of dark emotions in Iggwilv, which can have consequences for the characters in their climactic encounter with her (as described at the end of the chapter).
P38. Secret Library
A dozen floating candles cast dim, flickering lights over this sepulchral, windowless library. Ebony bookshelves are filled with volumes bound in jet-black fabric. The books have no titles on their spines. In the middle of the room, a black quill pen rests on a writing desk next to a jar of black ink.
Magic causes each candle to float 1d4 + 3 feet above the floor. Casting dispel magic on a candle or removing a candle from the library automatically ends the levitation effect on it.
If the characters remove a book from the shelves, they see that the cover, like the spine, has no title. Opening any of the books reveals that its pages are blank apart from the first page, on which a thin line has been scribed. If a creature uses the quill pen on the desk to write the title of a book above the line, the remaining pages of the book fill with writing that matches the book of the same title, provided that book is part of this room’s collection. Writing a title in a blank book that does not match the title of a book in the collection causes the ink to swiftly evaporate from the page. If a book is removed from this library, all writing in it fades after 30 days, leaving the book blank.
Among the titles found here are the following, which the characters can learn about from Shon in area P28:
The City That Waits (one explorer’s treatise about Moil, a demiplane that houses a city of haunted spires)
The Faceless Lord (Iggwilv’s private account of her many dealings with Juiblex, the Demon Prince of Oozes and Slimes—which she later updated and incorporated into her magnum opus, the Demonomicon of Iggwilv)
I, Lyzandred (a lich’s meandering autobiography, which drifts into a lengthy, plodding dissertation about demiplanes and how to construct them)
Kingdom of the Ghouls (one adventuring party’s exploration of a subterranean kingdom of ghouls on the world of Oerth)
The Many Masques of Mith (a bizarre account of life as a servant to an archwizard named Mith, who hosted masques for honored guests from across the multiverse)
Nadir of Nessus (all about the politics of the Nine Hells, written by a tiefling named Nadir, who claimed to be the daughter of Asmodeus)
Prophecies of Explictica Defilus (a transcription of various prophecies told by a powerful spirit naga from the world of Oerth)
Thingizzard’s Night Balloon (instructions for building a magic vessel that can float safely through the layers of the Abyss)
P39. Roost
This 20-foot-square room has an 8-foot-wide, 8-foot-tall archway in the middle of the west wall, beyond which a tower chamber contains five cages dangling from chains above a pool of sludge 30 feet below. Characters who position themselves near the archway can see the ceiling of the tower chamber 30 feet above them, as well as the other features of area P30.
Floor-to-ceiling iron bars spaced 6 inches apart span the eastern side of this room. Through this wall of bars, one can see the palace’s central tower suspended above a stormy void (area P13). The bars can be bent with a successful DC 20 Strength (Athletics) check, creating an opening through which Small and Medium characters can squeeze.