P49. Black Book
The door to this chamber is sealed with a hart crown lock (see “Crown Locks” earlier in the chapter).
The walls, floor, and ceiling of this room are made of white marble tiles. In the middle of the room, a quill with a feather sheathed in flame and a black-covered book rest on an iron lectern.
The book and the quill radiate auras of abjuration magic if scrutinized using a detect magic spell or similar magic. The flame coming off the feather is illusory and harmless.
The front cover of the book is embossed with images of a lion and a hart, the two animals rearing up on their hind legs and facing each other. Any creature whose name is written in the book using the quill can open any of the palace’s crown locks. If a creature’s name is crossed out using the quill, or the page bearing its name is torn from the book, the creature’s ability to open these locks is rescinded.
A long list of names fills the book’s pages, many of them belonging to fairies, judging by their colorfulness. The hags of the Hourglass Coven are listed near the middle of the book. Other names in the book include Thinnings (Zybilna’s butler), Shon (Zybilna’s librarian), Kalimanzaros (Zybilna’s clerk), and Raezil Uthemar (Zybilna’s elf spy in area P31). The final few names are written in Endelyn Moongrave’s handwriting. These last entries are the members of the League of Malevolence: Kelek, Zarak, Zargash, Warduke, and Skylla.
P50. Vault
An ornate iron door stands at the top of the staircase. Its surface is covered with a complex array of cogs, latches, and tumblers. The round doorknob is engraved with the image of a nightingale.
Zybilna stores her greatest treasures inside this vault, which is shielded against divination magic. The door is impervious to damage and has eight built-in locking mechanisms, any one of which can be affected by a knock spell or similar magic. A character can also spend 1 minute trying to pick one of the locks by using thieves’ tools, doing so with a successful DC 18 Dexterity check. Opening a single lock, however, causes any previously opened locks to close. To enter the vault, all eight locks must be opened at the same time.
Characters who examine the doorknob discover an inscription around its base that reads, “Speak My Name.” A creature that speaks the password “Natasha” while grasping the doorknob can open all of the locks simultaneously. The door, once opened, locks automatically when it is closed again. A similar doorknob, but without the inscription, is inside the vault.
The jars of time (area P44) and the costume room (area P36) can provide hints about Zybilna’s earliest identity. The solution to this riddle is also hidden in the border of the Witchlight Carnival poster map, which incorporates drawings of creatures and objects pointing at one another: a nilbog (goblin jester) points its scepter at an almiraj (a horned rabbit), which points its horn at a treant, which points to an arrow that points toward a swan, whose beak points to a hippogriff pointing at an axe. By taking the first letters of these creatures and objects, the name NATASHA is spelled out. Reward any player who figures this out by having that player’s character whisper the name as if conjuring it from some half-forgotten childhood dream.
When the door opens, read:
The door swings open to reveal a circular chamber illuminated by drifting balls of colored light. In the middle of the room, a finely forged greatsword floats, point upward, three feet above a treasure chest. The magic that holds the sword aloft also rotates it slowly, so that the blade catches and reflects the multicolored lights.
The chest is not locked. The drifting balls of light are harmless magical effects confined to this room.
Treasure. The greatsword is Snicker-Snack. The levitation effect that keeps it aloft ends when the sword is held or moved.
The chest contains the following items:
Snicker-Snack’s ornate scabbard, adorned with phoenix feathers (100 gp)
A gold helmet decorated with hart antlers (250 gp)
A shimmering silver cloak, with a unicorn embroidered on it in platinum thread (750 gp)
P51. Beanstalk Tower
To enter this tower, the characters must use flight or climb the beanstalk that supports it (see area P17).
The interior of the tower is a mess of broken furniture and grasping vines. Amid the ruins, a toad wearing a tiny wizard’s cape perches on the lid of a treasure chest that has slid into a wall and become surrounded by junk.
The toad is Iggrik, a shapechanged quasit and Iggwilv’s longtime companion. It addresses the characters in Common and claims to be Zybilna’s toad familiar. If attacked, it assumes the form of a bat and flies away, taking refuge in the garden (area P2).
When the palace was frozen in time, Iggrik was in the library (area P28). It spied on the Hourglass Coven until the hags left the palace, then used a potion from Zybilna’s laboratory to cause the beanstalk to lift this tower into the air, creating a haven for itself. The quasit has been hiding ever since. It knows that the League of Malevolence has sided with the hags against Zybilna, but it lacks the courage to venture forth and remain abreast of the league’s activities in the palace. Warduke, in particular, terrifies the quasit.
If the characters mention Iggwilv or Natasha, Iggrik tries to redirect the conversation. If the characters are otherwise fishing for information, Iggrik reveals the following helpful tidbits:
The vault (area P50) contains a vorpal sword that can slay the jabberwock. Zybilna acquired the sword as a precaution, in case the jabberwock turned against her. (If the characters ask about the vault’s defenses, Iggrik describes a locked door that requires a password, which he knows but won’t automatically divulge.)
The jabberwock is not the biggest creature living in the palace. That would be Zybilna’s enormous owl, Bloodybeak. It hates the jabberwock but is confined to the aviary (area P20) and frozen in time. The password to open the aviary’s windows is “canzus.”
Guests can bypass the crown locks on the palace doors by writing their names into Zybilna’s black book (in area P49).
Iggrik also knows how to end the curse that Iggwilv placed on the Ioun stone in area P33. If the characters need help ending the curse, Iggrik tells them how if they correctly answer the following riddle: “Yesterday comes after tomorrow, but where’s my proof?” The answer is “in a dictionary.”
If the characters tell Iggrik that Zybilna can be freed from temporal stasis by speaking her true name while touching her with a unicorn horn, the quasit reveals that Zybilna’s true name is Natasha (see also “Unicorn Horn” below).
If Iggrik learns that everyone in the palace can be released from temporal stasis by destroying Iggwilv’s Cauldron, the quasit shares the following information:
A flame tongue weapon can destroy the cauldron, and Warduke happens to wield such a weapon.
The jabberwock likes to coil around the cauldron when it sleeps and is attracted to music. The best chance of defeating it is to use Snicker-Snack, the vorpal sword in Iggwilv’s vault (area P50). The password to unlock the vault is “Natasha.”
Destroying the cauldron is no great loss, since Iggwilv has the power to repair it. (That’s not to say that the Witch Queen will be pleased to see her cauldron destroyed.)
Treasure. The treasure chest contains a pair of winged boots, which Iggrik offers to the characters if they promise to free Zybilna.
Unicorn Horn. If the Story Tracker indicates that the unicorn horn is here, Iggrik found the horn and placed it in the chest with the winged boots. Once Iggrik learns that the horn has the power to release creatures trapped in temporal stasis, the quasit offers the horn to characters who promise to use it to free its mistress.