En5ider 306 ZEITGEIST 9 The-Last-Starry-Sky Part-1

EN5ider Presents:
The Last Starry Sky

Part One
A 5E-Compatible Adventure for 15th- to 16th-Level Characters
Introduction
Wherein the Bad Guys Save Adapting the Adventure.
the World To use this adventure outside of Zeitgeist, each act can stand alone.
The fey murder mystery of Act One could involve an established friend
T
he party is trapped in the Dreaming, the of the PCs, or you could tone down the weird a bit and set it as courtly
intrigue among human nobles. The palace siege of Act Two could be
realm of the fey that exists as a bright reflection adapted to any high-level climax to protect a VIP, or you could turn the
tables and use it as a villainous base the party is assaulting. And Act
of reality. And in the real world, the conspiracy known Three’s island assault could be to stop whatever manner of dark ritual
your campaign demands.
as the Obscurati is about to assassinate the king of Risur If you want the adventure all together as a high-level stand-alone,
the fey realm might be allies, and the party can be sent to the Dream-
and perform a grand ritual that will alter the fabric of ing to find a member of the conspiracy who knows when and where the
Ob’s ritual will occur. Copperhat, instead of serving the Voice of Rot,
reality. Stars will vanish from the sky and new worlds is an agent of the conspiracy, out to cause a civil war and distract the
fey so they cannot help.
will appear, lending their magical essence to usher in a
The Last Starry Sky serves as climax to Act Two of the Zeitgeist
new age. The Obscurati plot not an age of darkness or campaign, which by necessity will end with a bittersweet victory
for the PCs. By gaining the favor of the fey’s Unseen Court and
tyranny, but rather an age of reason: a well-intentioned tricking an untrustworthy fey titan, the party can return to the real
world, perhaps saving Risur’s king in time or possibly having one
world of progress and empathy that will soon spiral di- of their own assume his crown after he falls. But their main objec-
tive must be to stop Roland Stanfield, the city governor of Flint,
sastrously out of their control. who has been part of the conspiracy all along. The villain activates
an eldritch machine on an island in the Flint harbor, and an entire
fleet stands in the party’s way.
From the Pen of Seamlessly Updated to Fifth Edition by

Ryan Nock EN Mike Myler
Publishing tm
Initial Treatment by Ably Produced and Facilitated by

Matthew J. Hanson Russ Morrissey
Evocative Cover Illustration by Special Thanks to

ShenFei Kristina Gallogly, tactical advisor for the Voice of Rot; Hirou, chief
propagandist for the Obscurati; and the hundreds of gamers who
Stunning Cartographic Displays by backed the original release of Zeitgeist on Kickstarter; and to the
James Hazelett over one thousand generous patrons of EN World EN5ider whose
Jonathan Roberts support has made this Fifth Edition update possible.
Masterful Interior Illustrations by Open Game Content

Dennis Darmody The game rule information in this article is designated Open Game
Renan Moraes Content. All other material in this article, including maps, graphic
Claudio Pozas elements, and illustrations (including graphic elements and
Eleni Tsami illustrations in the public domain), narrative and descriptive
Includes art in the public domain text, character and place names, trade dress, “EN Publishing,”
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2 | EN5ider Presents: The Last Starry Sky, Part One

Introduction
Once they reach the island, their battle seems to shake the PCs in the Conspiracy?
heavens, and they’ll need to wield a falling star as a weapon to If the party decided to join the Obscurati, their mission first takes them
slay Stanfield. But as he dies, the governor reveals what the party to the Dreaming to ensure Risur cannot call upon their allies. Then
may have already deduced: that his ritual is just one of many, and they return to the real world (getting clues that the Voice of Rot might
while Risur might be safe, the rest of the world is now loyal to the be up to something) and help sabotage the Flint naval garrison so the
Obscurati. Danorans can seize the harbor. Rather than attacking Torfeld Palace,
they protect Stanfield’s fortress from the king and his allies.
Background Ending the Campaign Here.

If you haven’t read any of the other adventures in the campaign, If you plan to use this adventure as the end of the campaign, then the
you can find an overview of the Obscurati conspiracy’s plot in ritual in Flint is the main one to alter reality. In Act One, the Voice of
the Zeitgeist Campaign Guide. Before we get to the Ob’s plans, Rot can provide knowledge of dying worlds that the party could link to
though, here’s what’s going on in the Dreaming. instead of the ones the Ob has planned. In Act Three, Nicodemus and
the colossus are with the Danoran fleet in Flint Harbor. The colossus
Dangers in the Dreaming. carries with it the 100-ft. diameter golden seal from Axis Island, as
A teleportation accident at the end of Zeitgeist #8: Diaspora well as eight white stone pillars that can be linked to different planes.
lands the party in the Dreaming, near the fey capital city of Clo- See the sidebars Friendly Death (page 41) and Alternate Finale (in
ver (which is a reflection of the real world capital of Risur, Slate). Act Three).
Fluctuations of planar energy due to the Obscurati’s pending ritual
make it impossible for the PCs to use any method they know to the course of several months Rock inadvertently became a hero
travel back to the real world. Perhaps the Unseen Court can help to both sides. One night he might sing for the common fey of the
them get home, in exchange for some help with a wee dilemma. beauty and debauchery of his lover Thisraldion, and the next day
The Unseen Court is at war with a rival faction of powerful fey, he’d attend a rally denouncing “the power” and calling for people
who call themselves the Hedgehog Court for reasons that make to prepare for a fight.
sense to faeries. The Unseen Court has for decades put up with the Three weeks ago, Rock slipped away from Thisraldion’s bed while
increase of technology in Risur—technology that makes areas of the fey monarch slept, had a few more drinks to steady himself, and
the Dreaming uninhabitable—since they still received regular trib- made his way to a meeting of the Hedgehog Court. He never made
utes from the Risuri nobility. The Hedgehog Court has denounced it, and the next morning his body was found in a graffiti-covered
Risur’s industrial revolution, and has stoked tensions and anger tunnel. An arrow tipped by an eagle talon pierced his heart, and his
among the “common” fey. It has also offered aid to adherents of head had been severed by a single, impossibly sharp slice.
the traditional druidic faith in the real world, fought proxy battles
through contacts in the Vekeshi Mystics, and given favors to sabo- Assumptions.
teurs like the “fey terrorist” Hana Soliogn, known as Gale. Thisraldion blamed Olazdor for killing the royal consort. Olazdor
But until recently, the two courts had never openly fought. claimed Thisraldion learned that Rock was spying for the Hedge-
The monarch of the Unseen Court, the androgynous and mirror- hog Court and had him murdered. An oracle was asked to name
masked Thisraldion, has ignored the criticism; among the fey, the killer, and said that he could not see who killed Rock Rackus.
being perceived as a strong leader often depends on aloof detach- Nevertheless, each side quickly armed and—in proper fey fashion—
ment and ostentatious decadence, which Thisraldion excels at. But scheduled when they would go to war.
Olazdor, the aquiline leader of the Hedgehog Court, recently made A forest outside of Clover, dotted with groves and clearings
a slight against Thisraldion that the fey monarch could not ignore. similar to a chessboard, has for the past week hosted battles be-
tween forces loyal to each side. While the behavior might seem
Rock Is Dead. Really! more sporting than militant, dozens have already died and it’s only
Four months ago, a minor but notorious fey named Copperhat a matter of time before someone assassinates one of the leaders,
the Headless brought over into the Dreaming a famous performer which will spark a civil war.
from the real world, Rock Rackus. Though few in the Risur be-
lieve Rock’s stories, in the past few years he became famous for That Is Not Dead Which Can Eternal Lie.
claiming he’d traveled to the moon and cuckolded the fey king. The truth is, Rock Rackus isn’t dead. Copperhat secretly works
In truth, Rock had just drunkenly insulted who he thought was for the fey titan known as the Voice of Rot, an immense serpent of
the “king,” then slept with who he thought was the “queen,” but decaying white flesh, who wishes to keep the fey of the Dreaming
they were the same person; Thisraldion’s mask reflects the viewer’s too busy fighting to notice what he is planning.
perceptions of himself, and Rock is uniquely narcissistic to think When the time was right, Copperhat abducted Rock, “killed”
he is both kingly and an object of lusty desire. a fake body, and stored the real man in the absurdist web, an
Thisraldion and Rock rekindled their former romance, but Olaz- extraplanar space accessible by various wads of spider-web that
dor contacted Rackus and told him of the struggle of the Hedgehog Copperhat carries. Creatures placed in the web enter a stasis, and
Court and how, like many of Rock’s fans in the real world, he and by dint of being in an extradimensional space most efforts to solve
his followers were oppressed and fighting against authority. Over the mystery through brute force divinations fail.
EN5ider Presents: The Last Starry Sky, Part One | 3

Introduction
The two sides immediately began blaming each other for Rock’s the titan returned to his slumber, and Risur was saved. However,
murder, and now the Voice of Rot has killed the observers the Un- scholars fear that should the lost Sword of the Black Needles ever
seen Court usually set to be prepared for fey titan activity. be recovered, it would signal a resumption of the battle with the fey
titan, and once again threaten the existence of Risur.
A Serpent Coiled Across Two Worlds. The Voice of Rot is the only one of the five titans awake and
The five fey titans—the Voice of Rot, the Father of Thunder, the Ash active today, having been roused from its torpor by Obscurati ex-
Wolf, She Who Writhes, and Granny Allswell—are each massive cavations to explore an ancient ruin in the High Bayou. During
lords of certain parts of Risur’s terrain. They have existed since Zeitgeist #3: Digging for Lies, the party likely met the serpent
the dawn of time, and their bodies exist in both the real world and were given a mission to avoid his wrath. The Ob’s dig, though,
and the Dreaming. At the foundation of Risur seventeen centuries made the titan aware of the plot to open the Axis Seal. Since then
ago, King Kelland subdued the titans and forced them to sleep and he has acted subtly, sending emissaries to cults across the world
hand their lands over to mortals. (such as Grandis Komanov’s radical eschatologists), steering the
From time to time one of the titans will awaken and rampage, world toward its death.
and the current king or queen has been responsible for defeating As a primordial entity, the Voice of Rot is a literal manifestation
him or her. The last time the Voice of Rot caused trouble was five of the concept of death in this world, and as such his ultimate
centuries ago. The king at the time, Dukain, was a mighty but goal is to witness the world’s end. Most of his plans come to light
aged wizard who wielded magic through his sword. He traveled to in Zeitgeist #12: The Grinding Gears of Heaven. For now, he is
a mountain ridge overlooking the High Bayou, known as the Black waiting for the Ob to perform their ritual, and has agents ready to
Needles, and there he battled the fey titan, which had taken the ensure they fail to properly seal the world off from the rest of the
form of a towering anaconda of smoke and peat. multiverse.
The king tirelessly battled the titan high into the Black Needles, As for the party, the Voice of Rot previously needed them to
and after three days it was clear that neither side would be able to disrupt the Obscurati (and by carrying the absurdist web that
force the other to surrender. Realizing he could not defeat the titan Copperhat offered them, they let him listen in and learn the con-
and thus was unworthy of his crown, Dukain cast aside his sword spiracy’s plans). Without the party’s interference, the Voice of
and abandoned the battle. The titan, in his fey logic, saw that he Rot’s agents among the radical eschatologists of Drakr would not
and the king were equally matched, so when Dukain ceased to fight, have had time to get into place on Axis Island. But going forward,
so did the titan. Dukain yielded his crown to his chosen successor, he does not need the party any further.

Introduction
Though the titan is ultimately a foe of the party’s and would Metagaming Concerns.
gladly see them dead, as a fey being he is still bound by the pact Precisely when the assassination plot against King Aodhan occurs
made with the first king of Risur, and so cannot simply kill the involves a bit of narrative hand-waving. Thanks to the oddities of fey
PCs, who are merely agents of the king. Indeed, the Unseen Court magic, the assassins will always strike just after the PCs get back from
will advise the party to retrieve the Sword of Dukain, and then sur- the Dreaming.
render. This will compel the Voice of Rot to banish the party from For an in-world explanation, the portals from Methia in Zeitgeist
the Dreaming back to the real world. #8: Diaspora led to no place in particular, so the teleportation magic
reverted to taking the party where they wanted to go, ultimately: their
Obscurati Endgame. homeland Risur, to report their findings. Then the planar fluctuations
Meanwhile in the real world, the Ob now have the colossus under kicked them into the Dreaming instead of the real world. The passage
their control, and they have loaded it onto a massive barge bound of time in the Dreaming, always a bit wibbly-wobbly, makes it impos-
for Axis Island. Part of the Danoran fleet escorts it, while the rest sible for them to know quite what day it is in the real world.
sail en masse for the city of Flint. It is time for the Ob’s endgame, We admit it was a slight bit of a railroad to have the party whisked
and Sovereign Han Jierrre is risking a war if their plans fail. away by out-of-control teleportation magic, and it might seem a bit
Nicodemus the Gnostic, head of the conspiracy, has gone to Axis railroady to dictate that they’ll pretty much always arrive at Act Two
Island to oversee the primary ritual, leaving the ritual in Flint to “in the nick of time.” But the events that occur in the Dreaming set
Governor Roland Stanfield (and similar rituals to equivalent con- up key elements for the final four adventures, so we feel the detour
spirators in other countries). The fleet that targets Flint harbor is justified.
is commanded by the ghost of Lya Jierre (or the ghost of one of That said, if the party somehow found a way out of Methia without
the previous Jierre scions, if events make it impossible for Lya to teleporting, they can make their way by land and sea to the king in
return as an antagonist). Slate. If so, we recommend you have the king send the party to the
The main stumbling block for the Ob’s plan is King Aodhan, Dreaming, to call upon the old alliance between Risur and the Unseen
ruler of Risur. Aodhan is fully aware of the Ob’s plan (thanks to Court. You’ll want to highlight the involvement of fey allies in the sec-
the PCs), and so will be able to resist their new world order. As ond and third acts of this adventure, to show that their mission was
long as he holds out against the Ob’s control, so will the rest of pivotal in saving the day.
Risur. So the Ob has spent the past few months preparing an as-
sasination plot, led by Catherine Romana, a Risuri noblewoman of the Unseen Court, attempts to frame Thisraldion so she can
(or perhaps her ghost if she died in Zeitgeist #7: Schism). When ascend to the leadership, and Thisraldion in turn puts the party in
the time is right, the Ob will activate wayfarer lanterns to draw the a death trap and tries to pin it on Atsla.
entire royal palace into the Bleak Gate, where various monsters Copperhat the Headless seems particularly distraught that his
await, including an army of the dead. favorite drinking partner was stolen from him, but ultimately
the party can manage to determine that Copperhat staged a fake
murder to cause pandemonium. It then falls to the party to decide
Adventure Overview whether to accept Copperhat’s offer to get them back home with
Picking up the cliffhanger from the end of Zeitgeist #8: Diaspora, the aid of his master the Voice of Rot, possibly leaving the fey at
the party is pincered between the two warring factions of fey. A war or presenting false evidence so one Court comes out on top.
young fey, the backward-footed Rambylon, can usher the party out Or they could pin the crime on Copperhat, who flees into the
of harm’s way and to a gathering of minor nobles who watch the ongoing battles in the chessboard forest, hoping to evade capture.
battle from a nearby hilltop, quite enjoying the show. Their gos- Rescuing Rock Rackus can end the war and gain the aid from both
sip fills the party in on the situation to date, and points the party sides, but then presents the party with the daunting prospect of
toward the city of Clover to visit the Unseen Court for aid. Mean- fighting the Voice of Rot and forcing him to send them back home.
while Rambylon asks the party to meet with the Hedgehog Court. (No other fey titan can be roused from its slumber quickly enough
Each court sees the party as a chance to gain an upper hand, and to get its aid.)
both sides ask them to investigate Rackus’s murder. By traveling with Copperhat or by riding with the infamous
Thisraldion claims (falsely) to know how to get the party home, Great Hunt atop their impossibly fast steeds, the party reaches
and promises to share the information once Olazdor is found guilty the Voice of Rot in the Black Needles. Though they aren’t strong
and defeated. Olazdor admits to not knowing how to help the party, enough to defeat the colossal serpent, if they can survive his on-
but immediately has the Hedgehog Court’s minions start search- slaught, reach King Dukain’s sword, and draw it from a rotted tree
ing fey libraries for clues. He would appreciate finding Thisraldion stump, the ancient pact between the titans and Risur will let them
guilty, of course. surrender and be “punished” by exile back to the real world.
The evidence around Rock’s death is damning against both sides,
and witness testimony about the days leading up to the murder is Save the King.
made confusing by the fact that Rock himself wasn’t aware that Back in the real world, the party heads to Torfeld Palace in Slate,
he was befriending both sides of a conflict. Beshela, Archfey of and barely has time to warn the king before the Ob launch their
the Sea tries to stymie the party’s investigation out of a desire to multi-pronged assassination plot. Operatives in the Bleak Gate acti-
protect Olazdor who she assumes actually is guilty. Atsla, icy lady vate six wayfarer lanterns, which make the real world and the Bleak

Introduction
King or Queen? Catherine Romana attempts a coup, while the ghostly sniper Ami-
Think of who among your PCs would make a good monarch. If none elle Latimer tries to aid the party without the rest of the ghost
would, Viscount Nigel Price-Hill is chosen to succeed the king. Or council realizing her duplicity.
Aodhan might survive, in which case we don’t intend to try to kill him The party can end the assault by breaking the six lanterns, or
again during the course of the campaign. Zeitgeist #10: Godmind as- possibly retuning them to transition part of the palace into the
sumes a PC monarch will need to subdue the fey titans, but Aodhan Dreaming (and thus gaining the aid of the two fey courts). They
might assign the task to the party because he intends to name one as need to decide whether to stay with the king to protect him, or to
his successor, and he thinks they’re better suited than he is. split up and tackle the threats more quickly. Barring heroic mea-
sures by the party (well, more heroic than usual), the king will die
Flexible Timeline. here if he hasn’t already, and can name one PC to take his crown.
We assume events start on the 37th of Winter, three days after the
season’s second first-quarter moon (known traditionally as the Or- The Grand Ritual.
phan’s Moon). The party has until noon on the 39th to name Rock’s While the king is being assassinated, Governor Stanfield calls to
killer, and after riding for 12 hours they’ll confront the Voice of Rot his mansion-fortress Chief Inspector Stover Delft, head of the
around midnight. They’ll return to the real world, and then it’s another RHC in Flint. Stanfield has Delft imprisoned in the central keep,
12-hour ride back to Slate (and the party should probably squeeze a guarded by mimics and oblivious Risuri soldiers. He then has an
few hours’ rest in here somewhere). The evening of the 40th they’ll impostor in an illusory disguise deliver bad intelligence to the na-
deal with the assassination attempt against King Aodhan, and they val patrols that guard Flint, passing along false orders to sail out
have until late in the night of the 41st to stop the ritual in Flint. and “stop the Danoran advance.”
In Risur, both the real world and the Dreaming, winters are dry and The Danoran fleet of course knows to expect the Flint garrison,
chill, but never snowy except in highest mountains. and they win the engagement handily, then sail into Flint harbor
practically unopposed. Stanfield enacts the precautions that would
Kasvarina and Andrei. normally occur in the event of an invasion—evacuating all non-
At the end of Zeitgeist #8: Diaspora, the party might have managed essential personnel from his mansion/fortress, and destroying the
to teleport away with Kasvarina Varal and/or Andrei von Recklinghau- bridge that leads to the governor’s island. The last messages he
sen. If so, the teleport sent Kasvarina where she most wanted to go: sends out are to not engage the Danorans, and to wait for rein-
Elfaivar. (From a meta standpoint, we don’t want her around to explain forcements from Slate. The public assumes their city is under siege,
to the party that the main Obscurati ritual is on Axis Island. The party and they have no idea Stanfield is an enemy.
will, we hope, think everything is happening in Flint, so it will be a Stanfield, meanwhile, assumes that the reinforcements from
surprise when the villains manage to take over the rest of the world.) Slate will arrive too late to make a difference. By the time the lead-
Andrei, though, travels with the party. When not possessed by ers in Slate learn what has happened in Flint, the ritual should
Nicodemus he is not strong enough to really aid the party in battle, already be in its nascent stages, with stars already drifting from
though his agility could make him a useful spy. He desires to find their once-fixed points in the sky.
Isobel, and is willing to do that either through the Dreaming or the
Waking. Rallying Flint.
Either by riding with the Great Hunt or sailing aboard the swift
Gate coterminous. Agents attempt to place anchoring amulets R.N.S. Impossible (docked in Slate as a precaution once it became
around the palace, which within five minutes will fully transition apparent long-range teleportation was no longer viable), the party
the building and its surroundings into the realm of the dead. can reach Flint with a few hours to spare. A magical barricade sur-
rounds the island, which could possibly be shattered with sustained
Aodhan’s Allies. firepower.
When the Ob’s assassination plot strikes, Aodhan will be defended They might sneak aboard the mighty R.N.S. Coaltongue in dry-
by his principal minister Harkover Lee (in truth a polymorphed dock and sail into battle against the Danorans, or contact Hana
dragon, a secret known only to Aodhan), and by the Torfeld Palace “Gale” Soliogn and use her wind magic to address the entire city at
Guard, led by Dame Jillian the Green Knight. Additionally, the once and send up a call to arms, or use their contacts among the
eladrin dreadnought Asrabey Varal has recently arrived from the Family, the Vekeshi Mystics, and the common workers of the city
Elfaivar, and will join the fight. Everyone here is a certifiable bad- to clear a path for them to the governor’s island. They even receive
ass, and although the Ob are throwing everything they have at the an unexpected—albeit dangerous—boon when Beshela, the archfey
party, the players should feel like they’re nearly invincible. of the sea, tells them that she has steered the just-awakened She
Once the attack begins, the RHC’s minister of infiltration Lau- Who Writhes to Flint harbor, and the kraken-like titan will begin
ryn Cyneburg teleports in, finds out what’s happening, and then sinking Danoran ships. Well, any ships really, but the party can
leaves to rally allies, but unless the party can disrupt the Ob’s plot probably avoid her wrath if they’re quick.
they’ll arrive too late.
The attackers deploy magic-disrupting chaff grenades, swarms Governors Galore.
of undead, a skeletal dragon, and the varied arcane powers of the Once the party can get a few minutes to concentrate fire on the
Obscurati’s ghost council. In the midst of this, Risuri noblewoman shield around the island, they find the soldiers inside confused, but

Introduction
it’s possible to bring them around to join the fight. Stover Delft is Pacing and Leveling.
leading them, or rather his impostor, and he’ll try to lure the party The party starts this adventure at 15th level. They will reach 16th level
into a trap once they enter the mansion-fortress. just before they set out for Flint.
The building is guarded by numerous versions of Governor Stan-
field, who has learned how to manifest his past incarnations. A Black Needles. These steep spires, where the Anthras Moun-
secondary defensive shield protects the wayfarer lighthouse, forc- tains meet the perpetually rain-shrouded High Bayou, are encased
ing the party to disrupt the eldritch device that is draining Delft’s in immense swaths of ancient spider webs that act as dams. An old
life force. megalith staircase here, once used by those who worshipped the
This leaves only the final confrontation with “primary” Stanfield Voice of Rot as a god, was the site of the battle between that fey
atop the wayfarer’s lighthouse. His incarnations try to hold the titan and King Dukain five centuries ago.
party off as he adjusts the flow of planar energies, but when he is Clover. This fey city is the Dreaming parallel to Risur’s capital
defeated a falling star strikes and destroys the lighthouse, seem- city Slate. The Unseen Court rule from Thistle Palace.
ingly killing Stanfield. Flint. The coastal city of Flint is the heart of Risur’s industrial
But as the party picks themselves up amid the debris, the deva revolution.
governor reincarnates a final time, now a monstrous rakshasa. The Slate. King Aodhan rules from Torfeld Palace, here in the capi-
party finds themselves bereft of all but the simplest magic, and tal city of Risur.
Stanfield taunts them—as a few final falling stars land around him—
that this was only a secondary ritual, and the main one on Axis NPC Roster.
Island must be already complete. All that remains for him before Detailed entries of the NPCs the party meets are included through-
he becomes ruler of a new, better Risur is to kill the party. out the adventure close to the characters’ first appearances.
A blow delivered with a piece of a falling star will slay Stanfield
for good, but as the dust clears the party will look skyward and see NPC Entry Page
unfamiliar heavens. Amielle Latimer Act Two
Asrabey Varal Appendix
Beshela, Archfey of the Sea 22
Adventure Layout Chief Inspector Stover Delft Appendix
The Last Starry Sky’s plot has three main acts. Each act has a fairly Copperhat the Headless 25
specific beginning and climax, but the party can take many differ- Governor Roland Stanfield Act Three
ent paths through each act. We roughly divide events as follows: Hana “Gale” Soliogn Act Two
• Act One: Much Ado. The party solves a murder to get out of Harkover Lee Appendix
the Dreaming. King Aodhan Lesterman Act Two
• Act Two: Long Live the King. In a group of fellow bad-asses, Lauryn Cyneburg Appendix
the party fights off numerous assassination attempts. Lya Jierre Act Three
• Act Three: Pillars of Heaven. The party finds a way through Olazdor, Archfey of Winds 22
layers of defenses to stop a world-shaking ritual. Rock Rackus 30
• Appendix (The Rites of Rulership). Details of the magic of Thisraldion, Monarch of the Unseen Court 19
Risur’s monarchy. Viscount Inspector Nigel Price-Hill Act Two
• Appendix (Fey Lords). Stats of the two fey courts.
• Appendix (Allied Stats). Stats of allies in the real world. Recurring Characters.
• Appendix (Magic and Training). Things of value the party Asrabey and Rock Rackus appear prominently in later adventures.
can acquire. All other NPCs might recur in minor roles, but feel free to do with
them as you wish. If anyone important dies, you can replace them
Key Locations. with someone thematically similar.
During this adventure permanent planar travel or long-distance
teleportation is impossible. Make sure you have a clear sense of Rewards.
each of these locations, and how the party might travel between Starting with this adventure, the PCs will no longer be part of a
them. government structure that pays their bills, but will likely end up
in charge of the country. They will receive some final boons from
Location Page the fey in Act One, and will be able to access a vault of spectacular
Black Needles 37 magic items in Torfeld Palace during Act Two.
Clover 15
Flint Act Two
Slate Act Two

Introduction
Character Themes in the Adventure.

Each Zeitgeist adventure includes one or more scenes that bring the PCs’ character themes (detailed in the Player’s Guide) to the forefront.
Dockers are perfectly suited to impress the fey of both courts Spirit Mediums have a leg-up in solving Rock Rackus’s “murder,”
with their style and flash, and can possibly duet with Rock Rackus to since they can easily tell much of the evidence is fake. Also, they can
unify the warring factions. Additionally, during the assault on Flint they have a battle of wills against the Voice of Rot.
have the opportunity to rally the common folk of Flint to distract the Technologists can best defeat the various lanterns and associated
Danorans. gadgets in the Ob’s assassination attempts, and can turn Stanfield’s
Eschatologists are best equipped to parlay with the Voice of Rot, eldritch machine against him. In the Dreaming, though, make sure fey
and will experience a fleeting moment of unrivaled power when the scowl at a technologist. Anything with gears or spinning mechanisms
Ob’s ritual is underway. makes them wince like it were nails on a chalkboard.
Gunsmiths can play with the mega-cannons developed by Obscu- Vekeshi Mystics can possibly become members of the Unseen
rati officer Dengar Kriegshaff, and the brand of the R.N.S. Coaltongue. Court. Plus, the mystics in Flint are well situated to disrupt Danoran
Martial Scientists might learn an unorthodox fey fighting style, defenses.
have the most options when fighting the originality-vulnerable dire Yerasol Veterans get to captain the R.N.S. Coaltongue and over-
Borenbog, and could get another chance to square off against the ex- see a whole fleet to fleet engagement, and likely would be first pick for
ceptional duelist Lya Jierre. possible successors should King Aodhan fall. Failing that, Dame Jillian
Skyseers will be most politely received by the Unseen Court, and might bestow the title of Green Knight upon someone who can defend
they’ll receive a final vision as the stars fall from the skies. the new king.

Act One: Much Ado
I
n this act, the party solves a murder that never Meanwhile, in the News.
The party won’t be hearing any news of the real world while they’re
happened, and wins by surrendering. stuck in the Dreaming, but they fey have news of their own.
Rock Rackus Memorabilia. After his high-profile death, Rock
Rackus and everything to do with him has become the talk of the city
of Clover. Collectors desire any sort of connection to the slain celeb-
Fey Battleground rity, and within hours of the announcement of his demise, his suite in
Thistle Palace was looted. Rumors say an unnamed figure is offering a
Action. Real-Time. lifetime supply of gold in exchange for Rackus’s diamond-encrusted
The party has to get out of danger as two sides go to war. gold pistol, which was not found on his body.
The uneven, wooded terrain of a forest materializes around the Gremlin Recruitment. The riverport of Clover has been befouled by
party. Nausea grips them as they recover from teleporting out of the presence in the Waking of a whirligig ship, its tails spinning and
Methia, and at first all they can tell of their surroundings is that its blowhole belching steam at a mechanical rhythm. The maddening
a battle has been fought here: brush is trampled, branches hacked song of the vessel’s metal heart is felt in every fey’s bones, all the more
apart, arcane scorch marks blacken the leaves overhead. As they vexing for its silence to the ears. The High Gardens along the shore
get their bearings, pipes and fiddles begin to play a jaunty but un- call upon every gremlin in the city—no matter your factional loyalty—
mistakably militant tune. to gather each dusk to take a barge out onto the water, where their
Through the woods to the west they spy figures cavorting their presence can disrupt the clicking and clacking and hopefully drive the
way. Then from the east, guttural wooping and the beating of monster away.
wooden drums marks the approach of a second force. When the Hunt’s Away, the Cats Will Prey. With the Great Hunt
A pixie swoops past them—angular purple legs wrapped in active around Clover, the great rivery fields of the Weftlands are un-
streaming viridian ribbons, with furred moth-like wings and a tended, and the mighty herds are prime pickings for every would-be
crescent moon mouth full of fangs beneath a single red eye—and it hunter in the land. Such grand horned beasts are normally kept tightly
shouts to the eastern drummers, “Here they are! Attack!” guarded so that only the formal members of the Hunt can keep them
Battle cries ululate from both directions, and audible twangs as trophies, but several expeditions have already set out, foremost
mark incoming arrows. among them led by Agunn’s Children, a litter of sentient cats.
Snake in the Hen House. Falgo the Henkeeper, whose illusory eggs
Stuck in the Middle. make for delicious omelets, says his chicken coops were raided, and
The party has arrived in the middle of a battle between two fey numerous eggs were stolen. When questioned, the chickens said a
forces. From a high vantage point, the overall battlefield resembles snake charmed them with his song and then made off with the phan-
a stylized chessboard, with an 8 by 8 grid of squares each 400-feet tasmal treats.
across, alternating with woodland and fields of heather. (The party Seeking Dogs. The Big Thicket of the east fell under attack by
has arrived in the equivalent of white king’s bishop 4—fourth from wolves wearing men’s skin this past full moon. Faeries of the Magnolia
the south border and third from the east border.) Burrows have put out requests to buy hounds raised in the human
A few mossy hills rise up at the edges of the battlefield, each 200 realms, in hopes they will fend off the wolfweres. They are desperate,
or 300 feet high. The fey capital city of Clover lies beyond a river to because their normal paths into the Waking are blocked, so they can-
the north, about 2 miles away. not simply steal the dogs they need.
Despite the resemblance to a game board, units from each side Exiled Mermaid. Beshela, Archfey of the Sea, has decreed her
are free to move as they please. The four rules that everyone gener- court prophet Leira Yensid banished to the land for making false pre-
ally obeys are: dictions and impugning her honor. Leira claimed, “Soon ships shall fall
1. Battle begins an hour before noon each day and lasts four to the sea floor, and the realm of Lady Beshela shall no longer permit
hours. their passage.” The prophetess, reduced to crawling from the shore on
2. No entry is allowed after the battle begins. her hands, leaves a trail of blood as she seeks the aid of the Unseen
3. No fighting outside the bounds of the gridded battlefield. Court in Thistle Palace.
4. Anyone who leaves the battlefield cannot return until the
following day. Hostile Forces.
Today several hundred fey fight for each side. Because the party Each side assumes the party belongs to the opposing force, and
is likely fairly depleted after their battle with Nicodemus and the they’re fine to let the party run away. If the party attacks, see We
colossus Borne, this encounter serves to establish that danger is Now Return to Your Regularly Scheduled Warfare (page 31) for
present but give the adventurers plenty of time to get out of its way. stats.

Act One: Much Ado
From the east, marching under a green banner with a circle cut Satyr Archery Volley. All creatures in a 30-foot radius make a DC
out of the middle (representing the Unseen Court), are a front 20 Dexterity saving throw or take 8 (1d8+4) piercing damage. A
line of fomorian giants 15 feet tall with immense bows and huge creature that takes damage must make a DC 17 Constitution saving
thorny clubs; lance-wielding elves mounted on deers defending ei- throw or poison reduces its Wisdom by 1d4. The target is stunned if
ther wing; and a back row of tortoises carrying light trebuchets this reduces its Wisdom to 0. Otherwise, the reduction lasts until the
operated by gnomes. target finishes a short or long rest.
The western force, marching under a banner that resembles a
Hedgehog rampant on field of waves (representing the Hedgehog The party is subject to this attack every other round, as the gnome
Court), consists of a front phalanx of satyrs with tower shields trebuchets hurl screaming severed heads with fuses coming out
and bows; and a herd of centaurs holding tethers of a Gargantuan of their necks. They land, lock eyes with the nearest person, then
savage treant that was split by a lightning bolt down to its waist, explode with deafening purple fire.
causing it to have two heads facing opposite directions, and four
arms. Screaming Head Artillery. All creatures in a 50-foot radius or the
severed head make a DC 24 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save
Danger Incoming. a creature takes 10 (3d6 fire) damage and 7 (2d6) thunder damage,
Arrows start to land around the party—normal-sized laced with and is deafened for 1 minute. On a successful saving throw, a creature
soporific poison ones from the west, and massive bolts from the takes half as much damage and is not deafened.
east. Each round, the PCs are subjected to the following attacks:
The two sides start about 200 feet from the party in either direc-
Fomorian Archery Volley. All creatures in a 30-foot radius make a tion, and close to melee range 5 rounds later.
DC 21 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save a creature takes 18
(3d6+8) piercing damage, or half as much on a successful one.

Act One: Much Ado
Getting to Safety.
Smart parties will have already gotten out of the way. A 100 feet to
the south, a red-haired man waves at them and shouts that he can
hide them. He is barefoot, and his feet turn in the wrong direction:
heel forward, toes backward.
He directs them to stay close, then turns everyone within 10 feet
of him invisible, though they can all still see each other. He leads
the way south, running as fast as the party can keep up.
He introduces himself as Rambylon, says that he’s not with ei-
ther side, and that he was just trying to get a good view of the fight.
The somewhat bloody and mud-caked bits of jewelry bulging his
pockets suggest he was actually looting the fallen. He offers to get
them to a safe overlook, and humbly suggests that if they want to
thank him afterward, he accepts human coins, halfling cakes, and
half-elf kisses.
If the party doesn’t go with Rambylon, let them find their own
way out of the ongoing battles.
Things to See, Fights to Avoid.

Rambylon guides them two “squares” south and one east. Over
the few minutes that takes, the party sees units rushing to and
fro—mounted elves and brachiating trolls and leaping dryads, a
four-legged flower blossom the size of an elephant being led by a
rattlesnake with a woman’s head, small treants trying to shake off
squads of ettercaps clambering through their branches, a concert
of grigs wearing noseplugs as they ride atop a catoblepas, and so on.
Amid the jumble and roar of distant battle, occasionally the
party hears a persistent sound: piping horns and baying hounds
accompanied with cheers. The sound sweeps from side to side in
the distance, clearly produced by something moving at speed—in
this case the Great Hunt, a mass of mounted fey warriors clad in On the fox’s heels, three equally huge black hounds leap out of
shining armor. the woods, barking and howling, and then shortly behind them
The Great Hunt has been lured to this battle by the Unseen Court, gallop a dozen steeds, each ridden by a mighty warrior clad in
who use a relay of giant foxes to goad the mighty warriors into a gleaming mithral plate armor. One in the lead blares his horn, and
desperate chase. The foxes, each ridden by a pugwampi gremlin, the whole procession tramples the redcaps into pulp. The largest
sprint and weave through ongoing battles, kiting the Great Hunt of the riders, with silver antlers spreading from his helm and what
into the paths of followers of the Hedgehog Court. The warriors of is unmistakeably a bullet hole in the plate over his right breast, is
the Hunt will not be blocked from their prey, so they trample and Riffian, Archfey of the Great Hunt. He picks up a mangled corpse
slaughter anyone who gets in their way. on the tip of his lance and shouts so loudly that his voice carrying
When the party has traversed three squares and are entering a all the way to the party: “Ha ha! None shall stand “tween me and
wooded square just a few hundred feet from safety, they hear the my prey!” Then he flings the dead redcap away and bears down on
cheers quickly moving their way. If they look back, all they see in the fox.
the “square” they just left is a pair of redcaps, their bloody hats and
bloody scythes peeking above the heather. Run to the Hills!
The party starts 380 feet from the south edge of the battlefield. The
Spotted. dire fox and rider start 350 feet farther north and run 220 feet per
The pixie from when the party first arrived sweeps down from the round. The hounds are 30 feet farther north and the Great Hunt
sky, his one red eye locked on them. He conjures faerie fire around follows them in a long line, everyone moving 200 feet per round.
them, limning them all in harmless purple and green flames that If the party damages the fox or rider, they peel away and flee, fig-
reveal their presence, and then he blows a whistle. Rambylon goes uring the party isn’t worth the trouble. This draws the Hunt away
pale and yells for the party to run for their lives. too. Otherwise, if the party runs at full speed (~80 feet per round)
From the nearest thicket edge, about four hundred feet away, it would likely take them 5 rounds to reach the edge of the battle-
a fox the size of a tiger bursts into view. The gremlin strapped field, but it would only take the fox 3 rounds to reach them, with
into its saddle waves to the pixie, weaves past the confused redcaps, the Great Hunt roaring in on the 4th round. If they don’t get out of
then makes a bee-line for the party. the way or divert the fox (climb trees, teleport faster, create a wall
of force, etc.), the Great Hunt attempts to trample each of them.

Act One: Much Ado
Pugwampi Fox Rider traveling it remains alert to danger, if it is traveling alone it can move
Tiny fey, neutral evil ranger (hunter) 8 stealthily at a normal pace, it finds twice as much food as it normally
Armor Class 15 (natural armor) would when it forages, and while tracking other creatures it also
Hit Points 65 (3d4+8d8+22) learns their exact number, their sizes, and how long ago they passed
Speed 30 ft. through the area.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA Quick. The gremlin has advantage on initiative checks.
3 (–4) 17 (+3) 15 (+2) 12 (+1) 16 (+3) 4 (–3) Ranger Features. The gremlin also has the Primeval Awareness ranger
Saving Throws Str –1, Dex +6 class features.
Skills Acrobatics +6, Animal Handling +6, Deception +0, Perception Spellcasting. The gremlin is an 8th-level spellcaster that uses Wisdom
+5, Stealth +6; thieves’ tools +6 as its spellcasting ability (spell save DC 14; +6 to hit with spell
Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 15 attacks). The gremlin knows the following spells from the ranger’s
Languages Gnoll, Sylvan, Undercommon spell list:
Challenge 5 (1,800 XP) 1st-level (4 slots): cure wounds, detect magic, entangle
Defensive Tactics: Multiattack Defense. When a creature hits the 2nd-level (3 slots): pass without trace, spike growth
gremlin with an attack, it gains a +4 bonus to AC against all subse- Unluck Aura. The gremlin radiates an aura of unluck in a 20-foot
quent attacks made by that creature for the rest of the turn. radius. Creatures in this area have disadvantage on all d20 rolls. This
Favored Enemy. The gremlin has advantage on Wisdom (Survival) is a mind-affecting effect that does not work on animals, gremlins,
checks to track beasts, fey, and humans, as well as on Intelligence or gnolls. Any character who gains any sort of luck bonus (such as
checks to recall information about them. that granted by a stone of good luck or divine favor) is immune to the
Feat: Superb Aim. The gremlin ignores half cover and three-quarters gremlin’s Unluck Aura.
cover when making a ranged weapon attack, and it doesn’t have Actions
disadvantage when attacking at long range. When the gremlin makes Extra Attack. The gremlin attacks twice when it takes the Attack action.
its first ranged weapon attack in a turn, it can choose to take a -5 Dagger. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range
penalty to its ranged weapon attack rolls in exchange for a +10 bonus 20/40 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4+3) piercing damage.
to ranged weapon damage. Shortbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, range 80/320 ft., one
Gunshy. Firearms aimed at a gremlin will not fire on first pull. If a target. Hit: 6 (1d6+3) piercing damage.
character holds their aim on the gremlin for a round, the shot goes
off at the start of the shooter’s next turn. Otherwise the gun fires the Fey Dire Fox
moment the shooter stops aiming. Large beast, unaligned
Hunter’s Prey: Colossus Slayer (1d8, 1/Turn). When the gremlin hits Armor Class 16
a creature with a weapon attack, the creature takes an extra 4 (1d8) Hit Points 95 (10d10+40)
damage if it’s below its hit point maximum. Speed 50 ft.
Innate Spellcasting. The gremlin’s innate spellcasting ability is STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
Charisma (spell save DC 10). It can innately cast the following spells, 19 (+4) 22 (+6) 19 (+4) 2 (–4) 12 (+1) 10 (+0)
requiring no material components. Saving Throws Int –1
At will: prestidigation, speak with animals Skills Perception +7, Survival +4
1/day: shatter Senses passive Perception 17
Land’s Stride. Moving through nonmagical difficult terrain costs the Languages —
gremlin no extra movement. It can also pass through nonmagical Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)
plants without being slowed by them and without taking damage from Keen Hearing and Smell. The fox has advantage on Wisdom (Percep-
them if they have thorns, spines, or a similar hazard. tion) checks that rely on hearing or smell.
~In addition, it has advantage on saving throws against plants that are Nimble Escape. The fox can take the Disengage or Hide action as a
magically created or manipulated to impede movement, such as those bonus action on each of its turns.
created by the entangle spell. Pack Tactics. The fox has advantage on attack rolls against a creature
Magic Resistance. The gremlin has advantage on saving throws if at least one of the fox’s allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the
against spells and other magical effects. ally isn’t incapacitated.
Natural Explorer: Forests. When the gremlin makes an Intelligence or Actions
Wisdom check related to forests, its proficiency bonus (+3) is doubled Multiattack. The fox attacks twice.
if it is using Animal Handling or Perception. While traveling for an Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit:
hour or more in a forest, it gains the following benefits: difficult terrain 11 (2d6+4) piercing damage and the creature is grappled (escape
doesn’t slow its group’s travel, its group can’t become lost except DC 15). The fox cannot attack another target while it is grappling a
by magical means, even when it engages in another activity while creature.

Act One: Much Ado
Great Huntsman Goggling and Gossip

Medium fey, chaotic neutral
Armor Class 24 (plate) Social. Real-Time.
Hit Points 103 (9d8+63) Fey noble onlookers treat the party as honored guests while gossiping
Speed 30 ft. about current events.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA Rambylon guides the party to a gathering of onlookers on the
21 (+5) 20 (+5) 24 (+7) 14 (+2) 15 (+2) 17 (+3) hills that border the chessboard battlefield. A few dozen fey, well-
Skills Acrobatics +9, Animal Handling +6, Insight +10, Intimidation dressed in combed furs, fine flowers, or diaphanous gowns, sit on
+7, Nature +6, Perception +10, Stealth +19 giant toadstools or actual toads, enjoying a picnic and occasionally
Damage Resistances lightning, thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and peeking at the battle below through a novelty: brass telescopic gog-
slashing from nonmagical weapons gles, owned by the picnic organizer, Clausvald. Claus resembles
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 20 a yellow caterpillar the size of a horse, with pudgy arms and tiny
Languages Elven, Primordial, Sylvan hands.
Challenge 12 (8,400 XP) He is attended by black-feathered swanmays. The rest of the
Armor Master. The great huntsman always adds his Dexterity modifier crowd is a mix of human-sized, elfin-looking fey and smaller pixies.
to his armor class regardless of what armor he is wearing. A grumpy ettercap named Mista Nyves scrambles about on
Feat: Mounted Combat. When the great huntsman’s mount is at- his spindly spider-like legs, serving everyone drinks, slicing their
tacked, he can make herself the target of that attack. In addition, he bread and cheese, and constantly itching beneath the ridiculously
has advantage on melee attack rolls when his target is an unmounted fluffy angora sweater he’s been forced to wear. When called upon
creature smaller than his mount. Finally, when the great huntsman’s for food, he clambers into a nearby tree, disappears into an orb of
mount is subjected to an effect that allows it to make a Dexterity spider webs about the size of a person, then emerges shortly there-
saving throw to take only half damage, it instead takes no damage if it after with the desired snacks. This is the Webway, a sort of magic
succeeds on the saving throw, and only half damage if it fails. transport system that normally only arachnids in the Dreaming
Innate Spellcasting. The great huntsman’s innate spellcasting ability is can take advantage of. It will play a prominent role later in this act,
Charisma (spell save DC 15). It can innately cast the following spells, so make sure to mention it a few times.
requiring no material components. Claus, aggressively drunk, welcomes the party and claps with
Constant: pass without trace delight at the sight of their magical equipment. He offers them
At will: fog cloud, minor illusion, phantom steed, sleep some of his delectable repast, and in exchange only asks that they
1/day: call lightning, freedom of movement have a conversation with him. If any PC rests and eats, Rambylon
Magic Resistance. The great huntsman has advantage on saving warns them to avoid the apples, which are hallucinogenic. Then on
throws against spells and other magical effects. second thought he recommends the apples.
Regeneration. The great huntsman regains 5 hit points at the start of Now is a good time to clear up for the party what day it is, in
his turn. He dies only if he starts his turn with 0 hit points. case their teleportation mishap at the end of Zeitgeist #8: Dias-
Vulnerable to Firearms. The great huntsman takes 7 (2d6) extra dam- pora left caused them to lose some time. Claus has heard rumors
age from each successful attack with a firearm. about how travel between the Dreaming and the waking has been
Actions chaotic lately, so he suggests the party get comfortable, because
Multiattack. The great huntsman casts a spell and attacks twice. they likely won’t be going home any time soon.
Magic Lance. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 10 ft., one
target. Hit: 12 (1d12+6) piercing damage. He has disadvantage Conversation.
when attacking a target within 5 feet. Clausvald asks which side they’re fighting for, and when he gets a
Longbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, range 150/600 ft., one sense of their confusion he’ll lay out the basics:
target. Hit: 9 (1d8+5) piercing damage. • The Unseen Court monarch Thisraldion has been at odds
with the Hedgehog Court for years, with disputes focusing
Any skewered PCs get taunted by Riffian and flung away as the on Risur’s use of technology.
riders continue their pursuit of the fox. • Olazdor, a master archer and the head of the Hedgehog
If the party manages to get out of range, the gremlin rider al- Court (though he, himself, has no head), had a lot of people
most rides out of the battlefield, then wheels about, pauses for a in the city of Clover talking about rebellion.
moment to spit at them, then spurs his fox away. The Great Hunt • Thisraldion’s consort, the human musician Rock Rackus,
nearly trample into the party as they make the hairpin turn, appar- returned in early Autumn, over four months ago. Seemingly
ently oblivious to the rules that say they can’t leave the battlefield unbeknownst to the monarch, Rock was conspiring with the
and come back in. Hedgehog Court.
• Three weeks ago, during the Snow Moon, Thisraldion found
out and murdered Rock when he was on his way to a meet-
ing with Olazdor. Rock’s head was sliced cleanly off, but the
Unseen Court tried to blame the Hedgehog’s by sticking an
arrow in Rock’s heart.

Act One: Much Ado
The Webway. Exploring the Dreaming.

Scattered throughout the Dreaming, various fey arachnids (we don’t The geography of the Dreaming, including mountains, rivers, and
care if ettercaps aren’t technically fey; they live here and are appropri- the like, are all similar to the real world, though with east and west
ately weird, so they count) have built large orbs of webs in the hollows reversed. Cities are also similar, though not always exact mirrors. Dis-
or boughs of trees, down shadowed alleys, or beneath uncleaned tances are not fixed, and certainly weights and measurements don’t
rafters. adhere to any logical standard. Unattended mechanical devices natu-
Any Dreaming native with the ability to navigate webs can enter rally stop working since the careful alignments of moving parts end up
one of these orbs, opening a brief portal into the Webway. The portal not quite-so-aligned if no one is tending to them.
remains open for about a minute, giving non-spiders a chance to follow. The most important thing to understand about the Dreaming is
Inside, the Webway is a cramped labyrinth of tunnels composed that it does not have a single objective reality. Time and distance are
wholly of webs (the tough fibrous kind, not the sticky kind), sort of subjective, contorting to fit the stories of any given person, though
like crawling through a child’s tubular playset. Every few feet an exit never going so far as to become impossible to anyone else. Two people
off to the side leads back out to the Dreaming proper, and by traveling engaged in conversation might sense time passing at different rates. A
just a dozen feet in the webway you might be able to emerge a mile bored person would feel like the day is slipping away swiftly, while the
away in the Dreaming. person who is boring him thinks only a short time has elapsed. Only
The tunnels of the Webway are big enough for medium creatures to once the conversation ends or one of them mentions what time it is
walk through, or large creatures to crawl through. The occasional huge will the Dreaming settle on an actual time, and both people’s percep-
spider also squeezes its way through, devouring anything in its path. tions would shift to match it.
Most arachnid fey spend at least part of their day in the webway, and That said, the analogue of Risur in the Dreaming has the same gen-
might harass intruders. And while natives have spent years becoming eral landscape:
familiar with how different tunnels intersect and where their exits lead, • The big thicket, home of the fey titan the Ash Wolf, lies to
outsiders run the risk of falling out of the webway with no idea where the west beyond the Great Blight (as the lands near Flint are
they’ve landed. called). The city of Weevil, where giant insects are used as
Let PCs who examine one of these orbs make a DC 20 Intelligence steeds and beasts of burden, sits analogous to Bole.
(Arcana) check to determine the nature of the Webway. One particular • The islands of the Yerasol Archipelago lie to the east, and the
trait of note is that it is not planar travel per se. Rather than teleport- whole coastline is the domain of She Who Writhes. Analogous
ing or entering another world, accessing the Webway is like crawling to Shale is the flooded city of Conch.
into a tunnel most people cannot see. Effects that block teleportation • The weftlands surround Clover, and here roam the herds of the
do not prevent entering or leaving the Webway. Father of Thunder. Erratic farms cling to hills and sometimes run
into caves in this hill landscape.
• The High Bayou to the south, where the Voice of Rot lairs, is
filled with creepy villages of dark fey, over which seems to hang
a perpetual night. The sun only rises when there is a bloodied
carcass to reveal, and even then only for a few hours.
• For a week now loyalists of each side have come out to the • Beyond that, in the Anthras Mountains, sleeps Granny Allswell,
fields to battle, but it’s still civil. Claus thinks things will go attended by her brood of gremlins, goblins, bugbears, and other
out of control and the fighting will move into the city itself, things with G in their name.
and all across the countryside. That’s why he’s moved out What lies beyond the borders of Risur in the Dreaming is outside the
here, next to the battlefield, where it’s safe. scope of this adventure. Imagine whatever you like.
At this point, Mista Nyves impertinently clicks his pedipalps and
says that Thisraldion’s the rightful ruler, and that Rock was actu- Further Gossip.
ally spying for the Unseen Court. Olazdor found out, killed Rock, This can be an opportunity to share the “Meanwhile in the News”
and tried to blame Thisraldion. Mista Nyves heard this from his stories (page 9), and to make it clear that while it’s normally just
good friend Copperhat. His name sets off a round of scoffing difficult to get between the Dreaming and the Waking, for the past
among the rest of the picnickers, and they complain about various few days it has been completely impossible.
interactions with Copperhat, like when he somehow got hold of a At this point, one of the pixies realizes who the party is, and
wagon full of children’s books from the Waking and tried to sell shouts, “These are the ones from Rock Rackus’s song! The Royal
them. His rationale was that every orphanage in the Waking has Homeland Congratulatory!” This provokes a round of toasts to the
these books, so if someone in the Dreaming had them, it would party’s good health, since due to a song Rock performed around
attract children, which have all manner of uses. Clover a few times, everyone here is a great fan of their fight
A good idea, points out one of the swanmays, except the books against the aliens from beyond the moon.
were all philosophy texts, and the only people who showed up were
dwarves, who seemed intent on ruining their parties. Let’s Make a Deal.
Down below on the battlefield, a stormcloud has gathered, and Clausvald expresses interest in buying the party’s magic items. He
bolts of lightning flicker out to strike shambling mounds. The pic- explains that he is a great businessman, and while he would nor-
nickers pay attention to the ensuing fight for a few minutes. mally have no need for weapons, these are dangerous times.

Act One: Much Ado
“You might think I’m a fool to try to fight, but I have gold, and a fool and Enter Clover
his gold are soon parted! Now sell me your weapons, foreigners.”
Exploration. Montage.
He asks about the party’s gear, comes to a reasonable estimate The Dreaming analogue to the city of Slate reacts to an infamy the
of their value, and offers something around 20% over the market party might not know they had.
share for one item belonging to each PC. If the PCs agree, one of The fighting comes to an abrupt end early in the afternoon, at
his swanmay assistants produces a mass of gold coins in a bag of which point the sun ceases to move through the sky. Everyone
holding to pay for them. packs up, and most of the survivors head for the nearby city of
In truth, Claus wants to sell the items to collectors, who are Clover.
interested in everything even tangentially related to Rock Rackus. Fey soldiers clog the road from the chessboard battlefield to Clo-
And he intends to pay the party with fool’s gold, a deceit they might ver, and few of them display much fey mirth. A large “traffic jam”
see through with a DC 21 Wisdom (Insight) check. The coins are has backed up near a river, as the soldiers who are returning to
enchanted to resemble real gold, and detecting the illusion requires Clover barter for beeswax so they can plug their ears. Everyone
the ability to see magical auras and a DC 20 Intelligence (Inves- complains about the noise, but unless a PC is native to the Dream-
tigation) check. If his deception is caught, he defends himself by ing, they don’t notice what to the locals sounds like a persistent
claiming he did not lie; he said he was a fool, and so they should high-pitched trembling whine.
expect any gold he offers to be fool’s gold. That is, unless they’re The road passes within a half mile of a “blighted area,” which
fools, in which case they might not expect it, but that would make in the real world is the site of a simple flour mill powered by a
it even more appropriate for him to pay them with it. water wheel in the river. Its presence irritates the fey on a visceral
If the party doesn’t notice the trickery, Mista Nyves interrupts level. The fey who are typically able to cross over into the real world
and asks his boss Claus if he’s paying with the real gold or the fake briefly to muck with such mechanical devices—commonly known as
stuff. Claus tells the little spider creature that he’s fired, and that gremlins—aren’t able to do so now.
he wants him to hand over the sweater immediately. Do note that The party can easily pass through here, though they have to ford
Nyves does this not out of any desire to help the party; he’s just the river (no bridges, because they attract trolls). There’s not much
incredibly contrary by nature. they can do other than commiserate or maybe hear the local gos-
sip. All told, walking to Clover takes less than an hour, but as they
Need a Guide? reach the city the sun is already setting. And it remains setting,
Rambylon says that this is a clear example of why the party could potentially for hours, until either the party reaches Thistle Palace
use a guide. Fey are tricky with their words, and if the party isn’t or decides to take a sleep.
clever they might fall victim. He offers to show them around Clover
and get them in touch with the Hedgehog Court, who will gladly The Fey Capital.
help them, unlike the deceptive Unseen Court. In exchange, all he Clover is built in the Dreaming on lands analogous to the real
wants is a lady’s kiss. world city Slate, capital of Risur. The Great Delve River, its steep
Mista Nyves, recently unemployed, says he’s not weird, and will banks adorned by flowers and dotted with windows of hillside
work for the normal pretties: coins, gems, and shiny knives. He burrows, separates the fey city into the noble east bank and the
can be just as good a guide as Rambylon, and only costs 5 gp per common west bank.
day. No kisses necessary, he adds with a fidget of his venomous In Slate there are six antique castles that sit inside a wide bend
pedipalps. on the river’s east bank, and in Clover there are nearly identical
With Rambylon as their guide, the party will have an easy time buildings (on the west bank), suggesting some odd resonance
in Clover. Mista Nyves, though, is a disaster of an escort. He leads between the real world and the Dreaming that causes them to con-
them maliciously into all sorts of petty fey tricks. For instance, verge when things exist long enough. Clover’s castles are home
he tries to show them a bar where he claims witnesses to Rock’s to lords of various regions of the continent, each heavily guarded
murder drink, and they’re only allowed in if they promise not to by lithe warriors in nimble plate armor, who hide beneath mats
leave without buying a drink. Once inside, they discover that all the of grass and moss but are ready to spring to battle and ambush
drinks are free, and that the bar is in an extraplanar space that the intruders. The lords fear the rabble of the west bank, led by the
fey will only let them leave if they can outdrink the nereid (a water Hedgehog Court.
nymph) who owns the place. Plus the whole time he’s gathering Across the shore is a chaotic mess of narrow winding streets
information and reporting on them to Copperhat the Headless. and houses of all sorts—straw, wood, brick, some metal, and even
If the party declines them both, let them stumble a bit as they one composed of stacked sheep—inhabited by the common fey. The
navigate the eccentricities of fey city life, but they’re famous enough fey (or occasionally their houses) bustle through the town trading
here to get an audience with the Unseen or Hedgehog Courts with oddities, treats, or songs for whatever other fey can offer.
little trouble (or the courts will find them once word spreads). A broad grassy hill rises above the rest of the city, site of Thistle
Palace, from which the Unseen Court rules. Like the castles of the
west, this palace is practically identical to Torfeld Palace in the
real world.

Act One: Much Ado
Sites of Interest. Thistle Palace.

If the party explores, here are some sample locations. On the east side of the city, Thistle Palace has three main build-
ings—the central House of Perennials, the eastern House of the
The Headless Human. Unseen Court, and the western House of Mayflies. Prestigious visi-
This bar sits in the darkest, gloomiest part of town, not far from tors normally enter from the east, especially if they’re conducting
the tunnel where Rock Rackus was killed. Many spider webs cling business with the Unseen Court. Commoners typically enter from
in the alleys and awnings around it, and the bar’s hag owner likes the west. Currently the west wing has been given to the Hedge-
the ambience. Copperhat the Headless drinks here, swigging wine hog Court, and the hall between the central Perrenial and western
and drowning his sorrows. See Copperhat and the Headless Hu- Mayflies houses has been bisected by a thorn wall.
man (page 25) for details. Rock Rackus regularly would visit the Unseen Court, leave
through the east gate, travel through the city, get a little lost, and
Honorable Halls of Accumulated Wisdom. then find his way to the Hedgehog Court through the west gate,
Three stories tall, with three basement levels, this library is filled never realizing they were both in the same building.
with labyrinthine rows of books, scrolls, bound codices, and loose
bundles held together by twine, ranging in content from cyclops Instant Fame.
recipes to pixie philosophy to forbidden spellbooks. Courtesy of Rock Rackus, the whole city knows about the party.
A pair of ancient pixie sisters named Alba and Zanel, wrinkled, Keeping a low profile is challenging, and generally fey follow the
doddering, and flirtatious, own the library, which is served by doz- party, ask them questions, and occasionally try to pick their pockets.
ens of younger pixies who sort and search. If the party wants to visit Thistle Palace, word has likely preceded
The library plays a small role in Lady Atsla’s plot to frame them, and the guards known as rangale — human-faced elks, stags,
Thisraldion (see Cold as Ice, page 25). Additionally, the librarians and gazelles who telekinetically hover spears or other weapons —
will be able to provide critical information to help the party get gladly let them in. Otherwise, eventually a one-eyed pixie escorted
back home (see Librarians to the Rescue, page 36). by a pair of women in finely articulated mithral plate armor finds
them and delivers a scroll with an invitation. Thisraldion, monarch
Mosscat Mortuary. of the Unseen Court, offers aid in returning to the Waking in ex-
The party can find Rock’s body being prepared for burial here. See change for aid in solving the murder of Rock Rackus.
The Body (page 27).
Flashdrought Fountain. Two-Faced Politicians

Analogous to the Grand Weft in Slate (where a trio of highways
intersect), Clover has a thoroughfare, albeit more chaotic. At its Social. Real-Time.
edge sits the famous Flashdrought Fountain, displaying dessicated The Unseen Court offers to get the party home if they can pin the
wooden statues in the shape of angry air elementals. The fountain murder of Rock Rackus on the Hedgehog Court, but they’re really
itself is perpetually dry, but if you pour liquid into it, sometimes out to benefit themselves.
coins rain down from the statues’ clouds. A brownie named Binniwich greets the party when they arrive
Anyone who sits by the fountain for a minute or so feels suddenly at Thistle Palace, obsequiously proclaiming how wonderful Risur
thirsty as the latest things they drank are magically sucked out of is, how wonderful the PCs are, and how wonderful it is that they’ve
them. This is a popular spot for people seeking instant sobriety, come to help the Unseen Court.
though the process can yield horrific hangovers.
Palace Layout.
Krog Tunnel. 1. Foreigner Fountain. Non-fey are expected to wash their
This three-ended tunnel, a mile from Thistle Palace, is where hands at this fountain. The mere act ends up cleaning
Rock’s body was found on the night of the 16th. It is detailed more everything they wear, from boots to hats, in order to ensure
thoroughly in Crime Scene (page 23). no grease stains the palace carpets.
2. House of the Unseen Court—Entrance. A portico held up
Shady Grove. by dryads welcomes visitors; those who have not been invited
This wealthy neighborhood for dark fey consists of a tangle of are compelled (DC 21 Wisdom saving throw) not to enter.
thorny trees that overgrew an earlier array of buildings. Like a tiny 3. House of Mayflies—Entrance. Commoners are welcome
urban jungle, the labyrinthine grove hosts some of the most bizarre here, and the only guards are swarms of pixies who will put
and debauched festivals in the city, and separatists aligned with the to sleep (DC 15 Wisdom saving throw) anyone who causes a
Hedgehog Court gather here regularly to plan each day’s battles. ruckus.
The party might come here to haggle for magic items owned by old 4. Grand Lawn. Cheerful sporting events occur here normally.
collectors who loot the fallen, or to hire a creepy talking mushroom This week, though, tents dot the campus, filled with injured
to cast spells they need for their investigation. fey returned from the ongoing battles. One lord of the
Unseen Court, Sallin the Dryad, makes the rounds each day
healing the few that she can.

Act One: Much Ado

Act One: Much Ado
Lore of the Unseen Court. Skyseer Welcoming.

The fey spread all manner of rumors about who makes up the Court, Any skyseer among the PCs is treated as an honored guest by the
and accurate knowledge is hard to come by even in the Dreaming. Unseen Court. The fey load them up with luxurious furs, insist they eat
Scholars in the real world have managed to pin down some facts, rich desserts, and constantly beg forgiveness that they were not ready
which the PCs might know. A DC 25 Intelligence (Arcana) check to “repay their debt.” The truth is, a skyseer many generations ago
is enough to know the basic personalities of Atsla and Karrest, and convinced the ruler of the Unseen Court at the time that any hostil-
Knowledge (nature) is appropriate for Furg and Sallin. If the party has ity to his order would result in the Dreaming being cracked in two in
this information going in, they might gain a +2 or +5 bonus to skill punishment.
checks involving those lords. These offerings are not “gifts” in the fey sense, and hold no obliga-
Thisraldion has worked to maintain misinformation, so it is practi- tion. Indeed, a skyseer can even get the Book of Kelland from Furg
cally impossible to get any useful insights to the monarch. without owing any debt to the toadstool sage.
5. House of Perennials—Entrance. More armored stags guard taking them to this room instead of the actual meeting
here, these equipped with levitating bows, and the flowery chamber. Here they are told the rest of the court will arrive
caryatids supporting the awning here can themselves shortly, and are asked to wait. Once they realize the prank
animate as treants. Beautiful nymphs greet renowned and walk through the unlocked door to the south, the whole
visitors and take them to the drawing room to enjoy a light Unseen Court bursts into laughter.
repast. 19. Commons. Guests of the Hedgehog Court gather here, and
6. Entrance Foyer. A decorative “dragon” made from flower members of that more blasé court often come out to eat and
wreathes and purple silks hangs from the ceiling by wires. drink with them.
7. Guard Post. 20. Party Hall.
8. Drawing Room. There are canvases and charcoal here so 21. Champion Gallery.
people can draw. 22. Offices. Tiny fey work feverishly in this wing, recording
9. Game Room. Fey are fond of riddle games, so mostly the the events and speeches and copying them so they can be
room just has comfortable chairs. distributed to the people of the Dreaming. Olazdor wishes he
10. Antechamber. People gamble with cards here. could get a printing press that wouldn’t grate on everyone’s
11. Diplomatic Reception. This is a diplomatic way to refer to ears, but this is the next best way to spread the word of their
the palace jail. Right in line of sight of everyone, with barred resistance to the Unseen Court.
windows that give prisoners a view of all the fun everyone is 23. Monarch Garden. Statues of Risuri monarchs stand here.
having out on the grand lawn (well, normally—now the cell is 24. Hood Garden. Hooded lanterns sit on poles amidst this
even more depressing). grove of trees. The lanterns are always lit, but the hoods over
12. Library. them mean they only light the ground directly beneath them,
13. Chamber of the Hedgehog Court. The doorway that leads leaving the area gloomy.
to the east half of the palace is always closed, locked, and 25. Titan Shrine. An identical set of statues in the Waking
covered with a tapestry. This room has a raised floor along its depicts the five fey titans.
east side where the members of the court stand like actors in 26. Stables. The rangale (stag and gazelle guards) sleep here.
a play put on for whatever visitors and petitioners stand on
the lower floor. Meeting the Court.
14. Balcony. Binniwich the brown-nosing brownie brings the party through the
15. Mask Gallery. Fey who die as members of the Unseen Court palace to Area 16, the runaround. When the party arrives, Lady
have their masks hung here as mementos. Atsla is emerging from the trap door to the palace dungeon. She
16. The Runaround. A trap door in the floor in this room leads notes the party’s presence, nods to Binniwich to dismiss him, then
down to the palace’s dungeon. The term “the runaround” closes the trap door and gestures for the party to follow her.
actually applies to the halls and rooms surrounding it. The Runaround (in addition to being a West Wing reference)
The whole eastern wing of the palace is eerily empty, with is an excuse for you to introduce a collection of NPCs one by one,
magic keeping the place in fine condition. Honored guests instead of having to roleplay them all at once. The lords and ladies
of the Unseen Court who arrive here are greeted by one or of the Unseen Court intend to put the PCs through their paces to
more Unseen lords, who talk while strolling through the get a gauge of their personalities. Try to let each make an impres-
mostly empty building. Members of the court show up, talk sion before the party gets back to Area 17 and meets Thisraldion.
for a bit, then peel off, weaving through rooms. Eventually Remember that for all of the lords of the Unseen Court, no part
the walk-and-talk leads them back to Area 17, where formal of their body is ever visible. They all wear masks on invisible faces,
meetings will begin. and their clothes suggest the shape of a body, perhaps even with
17. Chamber of the Unseen Court. The Unseen Court holds gloves or gauntlets allowing them to gesture with hands. But they
formal business here. never have visible skin. Those who can see invisible creatures or
18. Fool’s Chamber. If an “honored guest” grows impatient pierce illusions can see the members of the court, which really up-
of the runaround, the fey lords petulantly punish them by sets them.

Act One: Much Ado
Atsla the Ice. ornately-illuminated tome, but the thrust is that the ambition of
Appearing just as a dress of snow, a mask of ice, and handprints the Voice of Rot and the single-mindedness of the other fey titans
or footprints of frost from whatever she touches, Atsla stoically led to the rise of Kelland, who learned how to defeat them all.
refrains from speaking unless truly necessary. Her most common Fools, Furg says, are useful, because the wise and clever can use
form of interaction is to glare and cause the air to chill significantly them to step up to greatness.
to express her displeasure. She’s likely first to meet the party, and If any PC accepts this gift from Furg, he will become beholden
will merely gesture with her head for them to follow. She then to the Toadstool Sage, and must fulfill one single task the Unseen
walks through Area 16, heading nowhere in particular but gauging lord might ask, or else suffer the consequences of a geas spell (as if
the party’s reaction. cast using a 9th level spell slot). Furg may use this in a later adven-
She can be won over with shows of sisterly affection between ture once the PCs have risen to control Risur and have influence
women, and she reacts poorly to threats or innuendo. Honestly the even beyond it. We have no specific plans for this, so consider how
less one talks to her, the more she likes them. the fey’s influence might compromise the gifted PC’s goals later on.
Atsla’s ulterior desire is for the party to pin Rock’s murder on Furg honestly doesn’t care who killed Rock Rackus.
Thisraldion. She wants to ascend in the court’s hierarchy, and to
bring in Beshela, Archfey of the Sea, so there will be more women Sallin the Dryad.
in the court. An ash tree just outside the window rustles with unusual intensity,
and the party spots a mask—and just a mask, composed of tree bark
Karrest the Fire. framed with feathers—floating over from the Grand Lawn. Sallin
Karrest dresses in heavy black cloaks, a black cowl, and a charred the Dryad’s passage is marked by flowers and grass blooming with
stone mask with seams of glowing lava, but adorns his whole body each of her steps, but she is naked save for her mask. When she
with firegems, including rings on several of his fingers. Flighty and gets close to the window, Furg waves to her, and she nods back. The
warlike, he’ll appear and threaten the party with a sword of ruby tree outside dips and stretches its branches, creating a seat which
if they do not treat his beloved Atsla with respect. He blows Atsla the invisible Sallin climbs into. Then the entire tree uproots itself
a kiss, who heads off in a different direction, then starts talking and walks through the window as if the glass weren’t there.
earnestly with the party. Sallin stops her tree steed and chuckles like a cheery old grand-
Karrest responds positively to aggression and intimidation, mother when she sees the party. “So many weapons,” she chides.
which earns his respect. Though his affections would normally sour “I keep tryin’ t’keep our youngsters alive, and people like you keep
Atsla to him, he has a knack for sensing her moods. In fact, Atsla choppin’ their ’eads off. Shame I couldn’t help poor Rock, but
will try to keep her distance from him if she’s trying to be deceptive, maybe I can help you little lost children.”
and keeping them together makes it easier to sense her motives;
see Cold as Ice (page 25). Thisraldion. The enigmatic monarch of the
In particular, the fiery fey lord is curious about what Asrabey’s Unseen Court, Thisraldion’s mirrored mask shows
been up to (this mostly serves to clarify that he never made it back onlookers what they expect to see. If Thisraldion
to the Dreaming since the party last saw him in Zeitgeist #8: wishes to posit opposing positions in a conversation,
Diaspora.) the mask will from time to time fade out and reap-
Karrest never liked Rackus—the man flirted with Atsla, after all, pear speaking from the other side of the room. Each
and bragged about fighting more than he ever actually dusted his onlooker will somehow sense that the mask looks dif-
knuckles. While he’s glad the man is dead, he feels slighted that ferent in a way they cannot describe.
the Olazdor and the Hedgehog Court stole a kill that he wanted. The fey use the titles “King” and “Queen” along with the pronouns “he” and
He hopes the party will pin the murder on Olazdor, and give him “she” seemingly at random when referring to Thisraldion. The monarch’s me-
an opportunity to dispense justice in an honorable duel. lodious voice hovers somewhere around an androgynous alto/tenor, but for
emphasis can shift much higher or lower (and certainly much louder). When
Furg the Toadstool Sage. mortals first encounter Thisraldion, they assume that the monarch belongs
A voice from a nearby room cuts in, claiming that even fools to whichever gender they find most attractive. This led to an amusing love
like Rackus can bring wisdom by giving us a mirror to compare triangle involving Thisraldion, Rock Rackus, and Thisraldion, which none of the
ourselves to. Into the hallway steps a mound of mossy and moldy fey thought ought to be explained to the human.
clothes dotted with mushrooms. A mask of brittle cracked tur- Constantly appearing and disappearing in places, Thisraldion seems
quoise hangs low beneath the figure’s shoulders, and vivid blue flighty and capricious, regularly going on tangents, or diverting conversations
frogs occasionally crawl across or through its cloak. into discussions about poetry and warfare instead of giving straightforward
Furg tells Karrest to let Thisraldion know the guests are coming, answers to direct questions. In fact, the monarch is a subtle manipulator, de-
and then asks the party to accompany him to a south window that ploying a confusing and stereotypically “fey” demeanor to unbalance others.
looks out to the Titan Shrine statues. Beside the window he pulls Thisraldion will let visitors talk until they reveal what they expect the Unseen
a book from a shelf and presents it to one of the PCs. This is the Court wants of them.
original Book of Kelland, he says, which reveals how the foolish- Thisraldion wields a vorpal longsword. Since there’s a chance Thisraldion
ness of the fey titans led to creating the first human king. will die and the party might take the monarch’s weapon, consider changing it
See the Appendix (Magic and Training) for details of this to a type of weapon a PC would want.

Act One: Much Ado
Sallin and Furg lead the party to the Chamber of the Unseen The Great Hunt.
Court, and the building casually makes room for Sallins’ massive During the discussion, Binniwich the brownie announces the arriv-
tree, then returns to its normal form once she has passed. al of Riffian, captain of the Great Hunt. The giant of a man strides
Sallin desires for the war to end. She happens to think that find- in, dressed in mithral plate, with silver antlers atop his helm and a
ing Olazdor guilty and executing him for murder will discredit him bullet hole in the breastplate over his heart. His voice reverberates
and halt the violence, but she’s fine with any solution that stops jollily through his helmet, which he never removes.
the war. He turns to Thisraldion and kneels, begging forgiveness for fail-
ing in his hunt. He promises he shall catch that blasted fox soon
Thisraldion. enough, and the only explanation he can give is that people keep
The four fey lords gather in the Chamber of the Unseen Court and getting in his way. Then, having a sudden revelation, he stands and
take their seats around Thisraldion’s throne. The fey monarch sits gives the party a bold “huzzah.” He recognizes them from earlier,
twirling an unsheathed vorpal longsword when the party arrives, apologizes if he trampled any of them, and says that he won’t hold
making snicker-snack sounds as it slices the air. it against them that they were Rock Rackus’s friends. He thought
A spare chair sits unoccupied; it belonged to Ekossigan, whose that guy was an idiot.
position has not been filled since the events of Zeitgeist #5: He then realizes he has interrupted politics, and he hates poli-
Cauldron-Born. tics, so he makes his departure.
Thisraldion dallies frivolously with the party, acting weird and Once he’s gone, the Unseen Court members have a laugh. They
proposing ambling feasts or useless poetry competitions in order told Riffian a fox had killed one of Thisraldion’s favorite hens, and
to irk them. If eventually the party grows impatient and starts ever since they’ve been using him and the whole Great Hunt in
making demands, the monarch will better know what they want. battle by luring them around with various foxes. If the party men-
If they play along, Thisraldion calls for dinner amid the injured on tions this to Riffian, he shrugs it off, since his duty is to the Court,
the Grand Lawn, and discusses business then. no matter how inane they may be.
Making Deals with Faeries. Negotiating with Thisraldion.

Thisraldion states that the Unseen Court will find the party a route Thisraldion is totally lying about knowing how to get to the Wak-
back to the real world in exchange for them proving that Olazdor ing, and so is willing to offer some other concessions to the party if
and the Hedgehog Court were responsible for the murder of Rock they demand it in exchange for helping with the murder investiga-
Rackus. The monarch then weeps a bit—which is mostly staged— tion. Some possibilities include:
saying that never has one of the Unseen loved a mortal so intensely. • Joining the fight against the Ob (though only if they can
And the folk of the Dreaming loved him too. If there is to be a new actually get to the real world).
king in Risur, there are few acts that could earn more favor among • Magic items, gems, or coinage worth 30,000 gp per PC
the fey than to bring justice to the hero Rock Rackus’s killer. (which can be negotiated up to 50,000).
That might perk up the party’s ears. Thisraldion has a hunch that • Political demands (which go beyond the scope of this
over in the Waking, Aodhan is not long for the world. Shadows have adventure).
been moving strangely around the palace, and Thisraldion knows One offer that would sweeten the deal for Thisraldion is for a PC
hostiles are gathering in the Bleak Gate. The Unseen Court of to take the place of Asrabey Varal as liaison to Risur and chief
course would gladly help defend Risur’s king if the old pacts were warrior for the court.
invoked, but it seems the humans don’t know how to contact them. Thisraldion proposes to give the party the entire following day
Karrest growls that it’s more important to defeat the Hedgehog to work on their investigation, and then to present their evidence
Court. Sallin says solving the murder will do that, but Karrest is on the palace’s grand lawn at noon the day after. The Hedgehog
flustered, since by “defeat” he meant “kill.” Making peace bores Court will also be invited to see the party’s presentation, so from
him. He then explains that fey law forbids the leaders of the two the ten total fey lords (five from each court), if they can convince
factions from joining battle until their underlings have had a a majority of who the killer is, Thisraldion will tell them how to
chance to settle things. return home.
Furg and Atsla don’t talk unless the party addresses them. The Realistically, no PC should be able to tell that Thisraldion is
toadstool sage admits that he appreciates the novelty of the war, deceiving them. The fey lord is an amazing liar, protected from
and would be fine to let it persist for a few more months at least. divination—overcoming it requires a DC 30 Intelligence (Arcana)
Atsla pointedly says that of course their interest is in ensuring the check—and they would have to attack and dispel several layers of
strength of their nation, but she thinks it might be necessary from defensive wards before they could use magic to detect Thisraldion’s
time to time to let contenders to the throne take their shot, so the lies.
common folk are confident they actually do have the best leader The fey lords leave it to the party to figure things out from there.
possible. Sallin offers a house elsewhere on the palace grounds for the party
Thisraldion claims that, just as the monarch of Risur has powers to sleep in, thoroughly attended to by servants. And Karrest, with
to travel between worlds, so does the monarch of the Unseen Court, a reminder that he’s hoping to challenge Olazdor to a duel, gives
and the party will not be permitted to return to their homeland them directions to the Hedgehog Court so they can interrogate
unless they can find Rock’s killer. the rebels.

Act One: Much Ado
Those directions lead off the palace grounds, through the city for Prisoners in the Dreaming.
a mile, then loop back to a different entrance to the palace. Rock In the campaign’s first adventure, the party may have handed over to
Rackus never realized the two courts were in the same place, but Asrabey Varal either the Duchess Ethelyn of Shale or Nathan Jierre
with a DC 12 Wisdom (Perception or Survival) check the party (or both). While those two characters don’t play a pivotal role in this
figures it out. adventure, if the party did acquiesce to Asrabey, they can benefit now
from better reactions by the Unseen Court.
Ethelyn, if present, shares the same house Sallin offers the party.
Court of Justice She has sway with Beshela, so if they need help dealing with the
aquatic archfey (either to stop her interference or to get her to agree
Social. Real-Time. with their findings in the investigation), Ethelyn could be convinced to
The Hedgehog Court appeals to the party’s sense of right and wrong help if the party can arrange to get her back to the real world.
in order to defeat the Unseen Court. Nathan Jierre, by contrast, is not an honored guest; he is kept in
The Hall of Mayflies is where the Hedgehog Court operates. A Area 11, Diplomatic Reception. However, Atsla learned that his cousin,
mass of satyrs, grigs, and pixies argue in the foyer, and the party Lya Jierre, tried to save him, and she felt sympathy for the lonely man.
might not get recognized at first. Then one of the rebel lords, Le- If the party can share good news about Lya (or just lie about it), Na-
rina, realizes who they are. As with the Unseen Court, we try to than could get Atsla to open up about her intentions to overthrow
stagger the arrival of the NPCs, to make it easier for you to present Thisraldion.
the large group. If on the other hand the party managed to keep either or both of
those characters in Risuri custody, they can play a minor role in the
Lerina, the Reseen Marauder. events of Act Two (see the Prisoners in Risur sidebar therein). If
Lerina, a 300-year-old elfwoman who was born in the Waking, you’ve already done something with either character, though, their
served for three decades on the Unseen Court, but Thisraldion involvement is minor enough that removing them won’t have a major
stripped her of her title seven years ago when she became openly effect. We just want to be sure to call back to the party’s first adven-
hostile to King Aodhan. Thisraldion entreated her to maintain ture, to show the consequences—even minor—of their early choices.
harmony with Risur, then tried to buy her loyalty with gold. Now
Lerina rather hates both harmony and gold. She is fully visible, Lerina interrupts his old war story and says the court recess is
which she flaunts by wearing very little clothing, though her old over, so they should be attending to business in the chambers. He
mask—pitted steel with red streaks of war paint—hangs around her huffs and ignores her. A few satyrs in the crowd, most of them
neck on a silver chain. bandaged from recent battles, curse under their breaths and one
Wielding a massive warhammer emblazoned with twin lightning throws a bloody rag at the old man. Darbony produces an axe and
bolts and accompanied by hawk-sized phoenix animal companion, threatens them. Petitioners scream and the scene will develop into
Lerina has been a crusader for the rebel fey, and in the lead-up to a brawl if the party doesn’t intervene. If he gets the chance, Dar-
the recent open conflict she often led raids against remote military bony kills the satyr who threw the rag at him, then throws a bag
strongholds loyal to the Unseen Court. She grates at the rules that of silver to the survivors. “Weregild,” he chuckles, and then stalks
forbid her from joining the ongoing battles, but expects to have a into the council chamber.
truly epic battle against Karrest when the time arises. Darbony bought his way into the leadership of the Hedgehog
When she sees the party, Lerina sneaks up through the crowd Court, but all he cares for is the prestige. His mismanagement has
and talks to them quietly so as not to make a scene. She asks how caused the satyrs who are allied with him to suffer the brunt of
they’re doing and how they ended up in the Dreaming, since it’s casualties among the rebel forces, and now they’re threatening to
been difficult to cross over for weeks, and impossible recently. Then abandon the rebellion. This would leave Darbony fairly worthless
she asks about Risur. Try to present her as a “normal person” rath- to the Hedgehog Court, but he’s too stubborn and short-tempered
er than a fey or a politician, which might be refreshing to the party. to actually fix things. Fearing a loss of power he’s taken to flirting
Eventually she grins and asks them to come meet the rest of the and drinking at every opportunity.
rebels, then guides the group through the crowd to the Chamber He didn’t like Rock, and saw him as a rival for women’s atten-
of the Hedgehog Court. If asked about Rock Rackus, she had no tion. He particularly hates him now, since by dying he sparked the
problems with the man, but he kept poor company, and was always war, which has eroded Darbony’s position. Of all the rebels, he’s
bringing around the obnoxious Copperhat the Headless. The best most desperate to end the fighting, and offers to bear false witness
thing to come from Rock’s death was that she doesn’t have to deal for the party to help them wrap the mystery up quickly.
with Copperhat anymore.
Lavac, the Gremlin Herald.
Darbony, the Gruff Goat. Inside the court chambers, curtains cover the windows while the
Petitioners are lined up in the hall outside the court chamber, and court is in recess, and at first it seems the room is empty. Seats for
the attention of many are focused on an aged satyr, Darbony, who the various court members (5 in total) sit on a low stage. As Lerina
wears luxurious robes and gold jewelry. He flirts with a trio of goes to open the curtains, a short figure lurking in a dark corner
veiled nymphs who giggle and slap his hands away as he uses them (spotted with a DC 28 Wisdom [Perception] check) leaps out and
as props for a tale about wrestling a giant caterpillar. snarls at any PCs with technological devices.

Act One: Much Ado
This is Lavac, a scruffy black-furred gremlin that lopes about realized he had been duped. He has heard of the party’s battles
like a baboon. He hisses and snarls in Goblin, but understands against the conspiracy, and so he’s inclined to help them in order
Common and Primordial. If necessary, Lerina translates that to clean the stain to his pride.
Lavac wants something to break, and will offer a gremlin’s boon Lavac allied with the Hedgehog Court mostly because he knew
in exchange. This is a show of respect among gremlins, since nor- Beshela was an avowed opponent of the Ob. The gremlin was indif-
mally they just break things without asking. A PC who indulges the ferent to Rock, but can help the party if they need spies around
gremlin gains Granny’s Boon (page 36), the favor of the fey titan the city.
Granny Allswell.
Lavac represents the gremlins of the Anthras Mountains, who Beshela, Archfey of the Sea.
are particularly annoyed by technology and adept at messing with Soon, Beshela and Olazdor return to the court chamber, clearly
it. He also unwittingly aided the Obscurati, who had him steer showing signs of affection. How Beshela reacts to the party de-
his gremlin followers at different mines. This freed up resources pends on their previous encounter in Zeitgeist #7: Schism. She
the Ob needed to construct the colossus. A few months ago Lavac likely is still foul toward them since they were instrumental in the
downfall of her friend Ethelyn, but they might have earned her
Lady Beshela. Beshela serves as steward of the grudging respect.
domains of the fey titan She Who Writhes. Though not Beshela’s ultimate game is to steer the fey away from their
a member of the Unseen Court, Beshela bears the title traditional alliance with Risur, which she sees as corrupted by tech-
Archfey of the Sea and controls most of the waters along nology. She wants Olazdor to win the war, depose Thisraldion, and
Risur’s north shore. With armies of sea creatures at her make her his consort as queen of the Unseen Court. Unfortunately,
command, the beautiful fey is like a queen of her own land, she’s also fairly certain that Olazdor did kill Rock, and so when
though there are other threats that lurk deeper than her she learns the party will be investigating the crime she resolves to
domain descends. thwart them. See Beshela’s Intervention (page 28).
Beshela feels she owes a great debt to Risur. Forty years ago Ethelyn, sister The archfey is rather blind to the Obscurati’s machinations and
of the current king, rescued her from a pirate sorcerer, giving birth to a long- the looming threat to the world, and dismisses such affairs as “hu-
lasting friendship and military pact. Beshela even aided Ethelyn’s coup attempt man problems.”
against the king. Her moods are seemingly aqueous, but she is merely a clever
charmer, fond of long schemes that depend on her enemies not knowing how Olazdor, Archfey of Winds.
dangerous she really is. Of late, she has allied with the Hedgehog Court to try The headless, eagle-masked Olazdor has a bow and quiver strung
to renegotiate the pact between the fey and Risur, for she and her allies loathe across his back and a pair of shortswords at his hips, presenting
the technology King Aodhan has introduced into their once pristine realms. quite the image of a mighty warrior. He thumps his chest with his
fist when he sees the party, and then asks for all members of the
court to gather and for the room to be sealed, since it is time to
Lord Olazdor. Olazdor has a humanoid discuss pressing business.
torso and arms with an athletic build, with rap- Olazdor entreats the PCs to investigate Rock’s murder and help
tor talons for feet. Though not a formal member bring justice. He’s certain Thisraldion did the vile deed, and calls
of the Unseen Court, he sought to prove he was the monarch both a jealous husband and a black widow. Rock was
mighty enough to be among them, and so he a fellow rebel, and his intelligence was a great boon to the Hedge-
severed his own eagle-like head and replaced it hog Court’s efforts to win over the fey public.
with a wooden mask, which now floats above his Olazdor admits he doesn’t know how to get the party back to
torso. He burnt his old head and scattered the the Waking. He’ll plainly tell them that if they need the Unseen
ashes on the winds, and it is said that he cannot Court’s aid to return to Risur, they should damn him now and
be killed until each mote is recovered and reassembled. falsely convict him of the murder. But if they value justice and an
Olazdor presides over the winds and feathered beasts of the Dreaming, honorable fight, they’ll do what’s right. He promises that if he joins
and has grown increasingly dissatisfied with the way that court turned a blind the Unseen Court he will do all in his power to use the office to find
eye to the horrid technology that mortal world is starting to embrace. He saw the party a way home.
Ethelyn as the last real friend they fey had, and after learning that the Court
sent Asrabey Varal to kill her, he began gathering allies for an eventual war Court in Session.
against Thisraldion. He quietly aided Ekosissigan’s plan to assault Cauldron Olazdor will gladly talk with the party for a while to get them as
Hill in Zeitgeist #5: Cauldron-Born, and had hoped to recruit Gale to be both much information as they need. Lerina suggests they send people
his ally and his queen. to the Halls of Accumulated Wisdom to look for a way to send
Olazdor passionately believes in his cause, and though he recognizes that the party back to Risur. Darbony thinks they should just join the
his side is losing he has his own uniquely fey code of honor, one where ro- fight against the Unseen Court, and perhaps claim a kingdom for
mantic questing and bold combat are superior to deceptions and politicking. themselves. Lavac sits in a dark corner and watches. Beshela is
When enthused he’ll thump his chest, and when like-minded allies quail at primarily interested in what has happened in the Waking, and
the thought of danger he’ll loudly denounce them and question their bravery whether the monarchy is in danger. She disagrees with Aodhan,
and heroism. but he did once save her life.

Act One: Much Ado
After half an hour, they’ll need to continue to hold court. If the Involving the Whole Party.
party stays to watch, they see Olazdor’s a more just and less erratic At this level, the party can probably obtain a ton of clues with a few
leader than Thisraldion. Even thus, Olazdor’s sense of heroic cer- well-cast divinations. We want to make sure non-magic-users are still
tainty makes him unsympathetic to the weak. capable of contributing, so consider playing up these elements:
• Firstly, Copperhat made a point to be tricky in order to foil most
common divinations. Some legwork and face-to-face interaction
Gather No Moss should be necessary.
• Witnesses might be reticent to talk to strangers, so if you
Exploration. Montage. suspect a given PC won’t be involved much, maybe give the wit-
Clues and witnesses implicate both sides in Rock’s murder. nesses something in common with that PC so they’ll open up.
It’s the evening of the 37th. Thisraldion expects them to present • The three homeless fey who were at the entrances of the Krog
their evidence at noon on the 39th. If they want to actually solve a tunnel have been arrested and are about to be killed in the
murder, they need to accomplish the following three goals: annual Winter Culling of unfavorables. A warrior will have the
• Understand the Crime. chance to fight in their stead to save them.
• Find Suspects with Motive and Opportunity. • A nature oriented PC will need to appease the land and plant
• Prove Guilt with Verifiable Evidence. spirits near Rock’s grave, or else they won’t let him be exhumed
Toward those ends, the party will likely want to look at the tun- and just keep refilling any hole the party tries to dig. The spirits
nel where Rock died, speak with members of both courts to see were fans of Rock too, and don’t want to give him up.
who have corroborated alibis, look for proof that matches likely • The fey see the party as celebrities, and so maybe just give one
suspects, and then examine Rock’s body in the mortuary. The most PC the job of distracting or intimidating gawkers who might
obvious two suspects are Thisraldion and Olazdor, but by this point swarm another PC trying to cast a divination.
your players are likely genre-savvy enough to know we wouldn’t • Various witnesses or gatekeepers of information might indulge
make it so blatant. Indeed, the various fey are all trying to make in the fine fey tradition of non-combat demonstrations or
each other look guilty. contests of skill—performing, crafting, or drinking—before
Rather than presenting specific scenes, herein we present the they’ll agree to help the party.
evidence, and leave it to you to present it to your players as they
investigate. of Olazdor’s own, stolen by an ettercap minion) into the corpse’s
heart. Then he disguised himself as Thisraldion, drew a replica of
Here’s What Really Happened. the fey monarch’s sword (but which was not vorpal), and decapi-
On the 16th, the night Rock apparently died, he left Thisraldion’s tated the corpse with two chops.
bedchamber and sauntered out of Thistle Palace. He took a circu- He turned invisible again and sent illusions down two of the
itous route through the streets of Clover. A mile from the palace, exits to frame each fey lord. Then he slipped away via the Webway.
he passed through Krog Tunnel (see Crime Scene, below), which A half hour later an albino elf named Aric de Rocha passed
allies of the Hedgehog Court use as a canvas for their graffiti, and through the tunnel and found the body. Aric reported it to authori-
where homeless fey sleep during the night. His entrance was spot- ties, who arrived within 10 minutes. Within an hour his body had
ted by Baldur Norther (see Witnesses, below). There were other been taken to the Mosscat Mortuary.
fey at the other two exits of the tunnel—Thanriff and Beetlecurse. Copperhat plans to stick around Clover for another week or so
Neither saw Rock leave, but Thanriff saw a cloaked figure with a before returning to the Voice of Rot to report on his progress. The
hood leave the tunnel, wearing a mask; Beetlecurse saw the proud- trip will take him about a day via several Webway jaunts. Rock still
ly shirtless Olazdor leaving. resides in stasis inside the absurdist web. In another week or so
Both of those sightings were actually illusions. In truth, Cop- Rock will pop out (and appear near a random Webway entrance)
perhat entered in the tunnel via the Webway, since there was a web if someone doesn’t retrieve him first. Copperhat likes the guy, and
orb in the crook of the tunnel. He was invisible when he arrived, doesn’t want to actually kill him.
and set out a bottle filled with sleeping poison from one of the
Borenbog’s gourds (see Introducing the Borenbog, below). When Crime Scene.
Rock passed by Copperhat used a magical suggestion to get Rock The 300 foot-long Krog Tunnel takes its name from its elbow shape,
to notice the draught and drink it. Rock quickly passed out, drop- and although someone who passes through it only ever sees two
ping his lantern, which left the tunnel in pitch darkness. ends, it actually has three, making a sort of Y shape if charted on
Copperhat, still invisible in the dark, cracked an illusory egg a map. Depending on how you enter—on foot, in a carriage, alone,
onto Rock’s face. This egg (stolen from Falgo the Henkeeper, see in a group, singing a song, carrying a toad, etc.—the tunnel may
Meanwhile in the News, page 9) was enchanted to create a dupli- decide to bend and deposit you in either of the other two exits. You
cate of Rock’s body, which appeared naked on the floor beside the only see the people who are taking the same path you are, though
real Rock. Copperhat then tucked the unconscious Rock into the if you enter in a group people tend to stick together. Regardless of
absurdist web. which way you go, though, the tunnel always seems straight when
He then used webs to hold the fake corpse upright like a puppet. you go through it.
He magically disguised himself as Olazdor and shot an arrow (one Each end is capped with stone buttresses, which are perpetually

Act One: Much Ado
The Winter Culling. Beetlecurse (a dryad who managed to survive after her tree was
Dozens of poor or mad fey have been rounded up and brought to a eaten by beetles) saw Olazdor leave the southeast exit. When word
small stadium, where on the night of the 38th they must earn the right spread of the murder, all three fey began gossiping about what they
to remain in Clover. Various fey warriors volunteer to perform the cull- saw, but they then vanished.
ing, both as entertainment and to practice their swordplay. This year For each hour a PC spends looking for witnesses to the murder,
Karrest of the Unseen Court is attending. have them make a DC 21 Charisma (Persuasion) check. A success
If the party wants to speak with the witnesses, the condemned fey leads to someone who remembers one of the witnesses talking about
quickly recognize the “heroes” from Rock Rackus’s music, and ask to being there the night Rock died, but it takes three successes to get
be saved. They won’t share their stories unless they’re rescued. Rescu- all their names—Baldur Norther, Thanriff, and Beetlecurse. No one
ing them, of course, entails facing Karrest in a duel to three touches. knows where they are now, though, and it takes a DC 23 Intelligence
Karrest’s stats can be found in the Appendix (Fey Lords). (Investigation) check to learn that they were rounded up earlier this
If you have an inkling who might defend the condemned, have week for possible execution in the annual Winter Culling.
Karrest be jealous of that PC earlier, thinking he or she is interested Aric de Rocha, who found the body, is known to authorities. He
in his beloved Atsla. A martial scientist PC here can learn Karrest’s saw two key bits of evidence, but thinks they’re inconsequential.
Dramatic Reversal technique. First, there were bits of cracked eggshell on the ground near the
If rescued, the witnesses’ descriptions of Rock, Thisraldion, and body. Second, there was a huge orb of spider webs hanging in the
Olazdor are all accurate. Perhaps directly reading their memories ceiling, glinting very clearly in Aric’s lantern light. But he sees
could allow a Wisdom check to disbelieve the illusions of Olazdor those things everywhere, and will only remember these details if
and Thisraldion, but the mere fact that they saw contradicting events specifically asked.
should be curious enough.
Attempt on the Party’s Lives.
coated in graffiti proclaiming whichever group in the neighborhood When the PCs are inside the Krog tunnel, someone tries to kill
is in ascendancy, whether they be criminal, cultural, or culinary. them by sealing the tunnel’s ends with ice and flooding the passage
Inside the tunnel, which has a 15-foot high ceiling, the graffiti with seawater. See “Mid-Investigation Attacks,” below.
currently has a major “night sky” motif, though the stars have been
replaced with gears, a few of which grind together, spraying blood Suspects, Alibis, Motives.
across the heavens as they crush small creatures. A group plans in While potentially anyone in the city could have killed Rock, the
the next few days to add a massive likeness of Rock Rackus to the most likely suspects are members of the Unseen and Hedgehog
tunnel to commemorate him at the spot where his body was found. Courts.
Thisraldion. The fey monarch claims to have been asleep and
Clues. quite intoxicated after spending the evening with Rock, and has no
Rock’s naked corpse and the few things found beside it were taken alibi. However, Thisraldion’s vorpal longsword is supremely sharp,
to Mosscat Mortuary (see The Body, below). and would not have required two strikes to sever Rock’s head.
Enough traffic has passed through here to ruin normal crime Questioning the lower-ranked fey of the palace with a DC 21
scene investigations, but a DC 26 Intelligence (Investigation) Charisma (Persuasion) check can yield rumors that Thisraldion
check spots odd strands of spider webbing dangling directly over was perfectly aware of Rock’s visits to the Hedgehog Court, and
where the body was found. was planning some public disgrace for the human in order to dis-
Divination magic could reveal what happened. Without darkvi- credit the rebellion. Most of the staff assume their monarch had
sion, what seems to happen is Rock comes through, drinks from a something cleverer in mind than simply murdering the man.
bottle on the ground, falls unconscious, and drops his lantern. However, a search of Thisraldion’s personal quarters on the
With darkvision, one could also see a naked copy of Rock’s body second floor of Thistle Palace with a DC 26 Intelligence (Investi-
suddenly appear, and then the real Rock body slowly turn invisible gation) check reveals a hidden compartment in the wall, filled with
(as it was dragged into an extradimensional space). Then the naked trophies from old battles, including withered severed heads of foes,
body stands up jerkily like a puppet. Suddenly Olazdor appears and cracked masks of former members of the Court, and one of Rock’s
shoots him in the heart, but he does not respond or even bleed that white evening shirts stained with blood and wrapped around a
much. Olazdor vanishes, and then Thisraldion appears and hacks crude sword. Thisraldion denies knowing about that. (The shirt
off his head with two chops. The body falls unrealistically to the and sword were actually planted by Binniwich the brown-nosing
ground, and Thisraldion vanishes. brownie, who despised the actual members of the Unseen Court
With darkvision and the ability to see invisibility, it’s clear that that he was easily goaded by an agent of Copperhat.)
Copperhat is present and disguising himself. Atsla and Karrest. Atsla and Karrest sat among a crowd of doz-
ens in a wooded theater watching a grig concert. That said, they
Witnesses. sat in a private balcony booth and never spoke to anyone, so either
A trio of homeless fey were sleeping near the exits of the tunnel could have easily slipped away.
that night. Baldur Norther (a dwarf-like fey from across the Av- Atsla’s attendants all say only positive things about their
ery Sea), saw Rock enter the tunnel from the north. Thanriff (a lady, though if threatened with a DC 28 Charisma (Intimida-
one-hoofed satyr) saw Thisraldion leave the southwest exit, and tion) check they confess Atsla has eyes on the throne of Unseen

Act One: Much Ado
Monarch, and they suspect she might have seen Rock as a lever Cold as Ice.
to unseat Thisraldion. Throughout the day, anyone with a passive Perception of 15 or
Meanwhile Karrest’s braggadocio-filled henchmen gladly gossip higher notices ice sprites following their movements, and occa-
about how much their lord hated Rock Rackus. But if Karrest had sionally they’ll sense scrying sensors accompanied by a chill in the
done him in, Rock would have had a weapon in his hand. air—Atsla is spying on them.
Furg. The toadstool sage was roaming Thistle Palace, reading its At some point in the night, Atsla and her entourage of female
scattered shelves of books, researching what might be causing the frost trolls find the party. She makes a point of not bringing Kar-
strange disruptions to planar travel. A dozen different attendants rest along, because he’ll notice she’s lying and wonder if she’s upset.
and guards saw him. She claims that the night of Rock’s murder, Thisraldion discarded
One of the rangale (the telekinetic stag and gazelle guards, lo- a bloody coat and ordered it burnt, but that a servant kept it and
cated with a DC 15 Intelligence [Investigation] check) overheard brought it to her. She divined it, and found that the blood on the
Furg talking to Rock on a few occasions, trying to convince the sleeve was Rock’s.
man to pursue the kingship of Risur. If questioned, Furg admits This is a clever trick. Atsla had a small book written, with a story
that he thought it’d be good to have a friendly king who owed him of Thisraldion doing just that—murdering Rock, then discarding
a few favors. a blood-stained coat, which was kept by a servant named Paprika.
Sallin. The dryad’s tree remained rooted beside the Hood Gar- Then she had Alba and Zanel, the sisters who run the Honorable
den all night, but she has no alibi. However, no one can ascribe her Halls of Accumulated Wisdom, to use a spell that lets them pull ob-
a motive for killing Rock. jects out of a book. The powerful magic has made the fictional coat
Olazdor. The whole Hedgehog Court was in a meeting with and Paprika the servant real, and so divinations on either confirm
scores of attendees, and Olazdor was rallying them to recruit more Atsla’s story, since in the book that story was true. Paprika is telling
allies to their cause in hopes of starting a revolt in the Spring. They the truth as far as she knows, though in a few days she’ll completely
were waiting for their honored guest Rock Rackus to perform, and disappear when the magic giving form to her fiction fades.
when midnight came and went, Olazdor left to look for him. He If the party mentions being trapped by ice and nearly drowned,
returned an hour later, having heard from the authorities that Atsla correctly surmises that Thisraldion is trying to frame her,
Rock was dead. He gave a thrilling speech inciting the crowd and though she has no way to prove it.
proclaiming Rock a hero who had been cut down by Thisraldion.
Everyone attending meetings of the Hedgehog Court knew that Copperhat at the Headless Human.
Rock was “spying” on the Unseen Court for them, but Lerina had Copperhat the Headless spends most of his time in a bar called the
warned Olazdor that Rock might be a double agent. Headless Human, apparently drinking away his sadness at Rock’s
A search of Olazdor’s personal quarters on the second floor of death. His drinking buddy, the Borenbog, is actually a hired body-
Thistle Palace and successful DC 30 Intelligence (Investigation) guard, because Copperhat worries he’ll be discovered. He would
check discovers a small treasure chest under a floorboard, which leave, but his master the Voice of Rot ordered him to stay and
contains Rock’s famous diamond-encrusted gold pistol. This was ensure the fey courts continue fighting.
planted by a (now-dead) pixie whose family was being held captive The Borenbog is an obscure folk terror from the High Bayou
by agents of the Voice of Rot. (known with a DC 20 Intelligence [Nature] check), which can
The Rest of the Hedgehog Court. Nearly a hundred witnesses steal men’s will, passion, and creativity, which it stores in a gourd
corroborate that Lerina, Darbony, Lavac, and Beshela were all at at its hip. Though only the size of a dwarf, its stupefying presence
the rally for several hours before and after Rock died. affects a vast area. None have managed to kill it, for it is said that
Of the group, Darbony had several public arguments with Rock no given weapon can ever harm it twice, and most challengers
after the man flirted with women Darbony claimed were “his.” run out of ideas of how to attack it before it will die. It carries an
Lerina and Beshela both expressed public support for Rock, and
Lavac was a huge fan of the man. Copperhat the Headlesss. A some-
Copperhat the Headless. Copperhat claims he was at the Head- what infamous fey who acts a mix of trickster
less Human, drinking alone and waiting for Rock to swing by after and jester for the Unseen Court. Like actual
he performed for the rebels. He says that when Rock didn’t show members of the court, Copperhat has no face, at
up he hit up a conversation with the Borenbog, who has been very least none that anyone can see. His namesake
supportive for him ever since. The bartender—a hag named Elo- hat sits atop a seemingly invisible head, which is
cene—recalls that Rock drank there often, but next to the celebrity, enough to fool most minor fey into thinking he’s
Copperhat never made much of an impression. But the night Rock really one of the Unseen.
died, she remembers someone coming in and announcing the news, In truth he’s just a clever ettercap-like pixie who hides inside his coat and
after which Copperhat threw a massive fit. Elocene tried to throw levitates his clothes and hat, controlling his fake body like an oversized pup-
Copperhat out, but the Borenbog grumbled something and she pet. He normally travels between fey enclaves trading knick-knacks and favors,
decided it wasn’t worth the trouble. with a particular fondness for telling stories about the human world. People
Riffian of the Great Hunt. He feasted earlier that evening with find him amusing in small servings, but are quick to suggest new places for him
his fellow knights, then slept in his armor beside his horse under to go after a day or so. Copperhat is secretly a minion of the Voice of Rot, the
the stars. only fey titan currently awake.

Act One: Much Ado
Introducing the Borenbog. ideas are trapped in the creature’s gourd, and that by drinking
Read or paraphrase the following: from the gourd another creature can take those ideas for himself.
There are many stories about how the Borenbog is invulnerable
Hunched like a dwarf with a hangover, this squat, wart-skinned to all but one type of weapon; just what that weapon is, however,
goblin-like creature has a vindictive disdain in his red eyes, and he the stories never agree on. No single weapon ever works twice to
slowly licks his lips with thirst. One of the creature’s hands tightly harm the Borenbog, at least not in the short term. The only real
clenches a large sloshing gourd, while the other errantly twirls a long vulnerability the Borenbog has is his foe’s imaginations.
blade meant for gutting fish. The blade is rusted and blood-stained, The Borenbog’s gourd is enchanted, letting the creature have an
perhaps from the severed hands hanging at the creature’s belt. The endless supply of drinks, mundane, alcoholic, even magical.
creature meets your eyes and sneers, and the world begins to turn
dull and hazy. Mourning for Rock.
Suddenly Copperhat steps up and shakes your hand, and you When the party arrives, Copperhat quickly takes a drink from a
snap out of the odd malaise that had gripped you. (Only then do flask in his coat; this potion of glibness makes it nigh impossible to
you realize that Copperhat doesn’t actually have any hands to have realize when the faceless fey tells a lie (DC 35 Wisdom [Insight]
shaken.) The headless fey’s top hat tips jauntily to the side and he check).
holds up two glasses of wine. If the party comes to Copperhat looking for clues of who killed
“Please, drink with us. Ever since Rock died I’ve been truly bereft, Rock, he convincingly plays the role of a sullen bereaved friend
and the only one who would listen to my sorrows is my new buddy. who is sincerely happy to see the party. He’s not sure who would
Let me introduce The Borenbog.” have killed such an amazing person as Rock, but he trusts the party
The Borenbog sips from his gourd, indifferent to Copperhat’s will do the right thing.
enthusiasm. You notice that two of the bar’s other patrons—both Copperhat figures someone has to take the fall for the murder,
keeping their distance—are each missing a hand. and framing Thisraldion will cause the most chaos. He doesn’t
want to seem suspicious by just giving the party the answer, so he
oversized fish filleting knife, and it wears a belt of severed hands. wants them to “discover” for themselves the damning evidence he
It also drinks more than a horse, belches, farts, and is all around planted in Thisraldion’s bedchambers. So after recounting to the
an unpleasant boor. party the many good times he and Rock had together, and how they
The legend of the Borenbog tells of a group of fishermen who caused such a ruckus in the two courts, he offers his theory, which
brought beer to drink when they rowed out into a swamp to fish. comes in three parts:
The Borenbog, smelling the delicious alcohol, used his magic First, whoever killed Rock has to have powerful magic to avoid
to daze the fishermen, then climbed aboard the boat and drank all the divinations both sides have been casting. That means some-
himself into a stupor. Finally, the only drink left on the boat was one in one of the courts, and probably Olazdor or Thisraldion.
a gourd of beer one of the fishermen was holding, but when the But second, Olazdor isn’t smart enough to lie about something
Borenbog tried to take it, the man was too stubborn to let go, so like this.
the Borenbog took the fisherman’s knife and chopped off the man’s And third, Thisraldion was a jealous lover. Emphasis on lover.
hand. The pain snapped him out of his confusion, and he managed Copperhat, who weeps at the memory of his friend, can’t let go. He
to swim away, but his companions were never found. nods to the one-handed patrons here, and says that they still long
The Borenbog is a dour, grumpy creature who is jealously pro- for what they lost. So he bets Thisraldion would have wanted some
tective of his drink. He hates being bothered and normally only keepsake. The news said Rock was found naked. Who knows what
leaves his boggy hut to hunt or steal alcohol (Copperhat bribed the Thisraldion might have taken.
’bog with an entire abandoned stone giant brewery in the Anthras Copperhat says he’s afraid Thisraldion would kill him too, which
Mountains in order to be his bodyguard for a few weeks.) Some say is why he’s been lying to everyone who will listen, singing the mon-
that the Borenbog and his rotting swamp first held the secret of arch’s praises. But if he were braver, he’d go and look for clues.
fermentation, which was stolen by dwarves, men, elves, or whoever It’s what Rock would have done. He asks to be present whenever
is telling the tale. It is for this reason that the Borenbog hates the party presents their evidence to the two courts, so he can face
the civilized races, and terrorizes any he comes across who have Rock’s killer.
alcohol.
The Borenbog never smiles, and enjoys complaining. He takes Tangled in His Web.
no joy in his drinking, but gets viciously angry if denied it. The If the party accuses Copperhat of killing Rock without having evi-
Borenbog loves absinthe, and offering the spirit in a toast is one of dence, he feigns shock, and the Borenbog starts to move toward
the few ways to win his favor. them. Copperhat stops him, and says he forgives the party. In his
Matching his dull demeanor, the Borenbog has the ability to grief he has thought terrible things of people too.
strip men of their passion and creativity. Those who drink are par- Certainly, there seems to be no motive for Copperhat to have
ticularly vulnerable, and over the centuries many a drunken poet killed Rock. But the party might have figured out that Rock isn’t
has been warned to watch out for the Borenbog on his walk home dead. If they present such evidence, or if they start threatening
after a long night of seeking his muse. Tales say that the stolen Copperhat’s life, he’ll change demeanor and become suddenly
serious.

Act One: Much Ado
He says that Rock is alive, and that the war between the two he shot Rock. And in any case, the spidery fey never personally
courts was orchestrated by his master, the Voice of Rot. He’s not touched the arrow, just manipulated it with his webs.
quite sure what the fey titan wants, but it’s clear that things in
both the Dreaming and the Waking are turning chaotic. With the Autopsy.
Unseen Court weakened, the Voice of Rot will be able to reclaim Rock’s body was cleaned in preparation for burial, but not em-
his power and his territory. balmed. A DC 15 Wisdom (Medicine) check can tell that the
He knows the party wants to return to the Waking to save their arrow wound in Rock’s chest was not fatal. It did not reach his
king. A lot of people will die soon if the party isn’t there to save heart, and indeed only went in fairly shallowly. The wound to the
them; after all, Copperhat can always smell a corpse in the off- neck required two strikes. A check that beats DC 20 determines
ing. And the Voice of Rot can aid them. Fey titans exist in both that the amount of blood still in the body indicates the heart wasn’t
worlds. They can banish their enemies across the planes, or send beating at the time of death. If a PC tests his blood, a DC 21 Wis-
their agents as needed. If Thisraldion offered to send them home, dom (Medicine) check finds there was practically no alcohol in his
he’s lying. His power is pathetic next to a fey titan. system, but there are traces of a poison. He also has nothing in his
If the party helps Copperhat, he promises them—and this is a gastrointestinal tract.
fey promise that he must fulfill—that his master will send them The fey cast divinations to find out, “Who killed Rock Rackus?,”
post-haste back to the Waking, and will cause no harm to them which of course yielded nothing, because of course this body was
nor allow his minions to harm them for as long as they remain in never alive in the first place. Similar divinations by the PCs might
Risur, unless they attack him first. All he asks is that they find the seem to indicate powerful anti-divination magic, when in truth
evidence he planted to implicate Thisraldion, and that they name they’re just not asking the right questions.
the fey lord as Rock’s killer. Then he will bring them to the Voice of Close inspection of the body’s
Rot and send them back to the Waking. They can take Rock back hands and feet (or a DC 30 Intel-
or leave him here, as they prefer. ligence [Investigation] check if
If the party attacks, see Copperhat’s tactics in We Now Return they don’t specify where they’re
You to Your Regularly Scheduled Warfare (page 31). looking) finds that he has no cal-
luses, nor any scars or signs of ever
The Body. having suffered injury other than
West of the city, located near an idyllic flowered cemetery, the the two “killing blows.” It should
cheery Mosscat Mortuary has plenty of tall windows to let in light, become fairly obvious that Clover
which feeds the staff: intelligent cat-like plant creatures made of was not the site of Rock Rackus’s
moss. The mosscats, led by a high-strung mortician named Desulie, demise. No, what we have here is a
are only a foot or two tall, but can extend tendrils of moss to ma- sham-Rock.
nipulate objects. Desulie herself has the ability to assume the form Pause for effect. Yyeeaahh
of an elf, but with distinctively cat-like mannerisms.
The mosscats have just finished burying the body of Rock Rackus
(or rather, the fake body left by Copperhat). The party can dig it up Mid-Investigation Attacks
themselves, or wait a few hours for Desulie to get proper approval
and call in the gravediggers. Though he “died” three weeks ago, a Action. Tactical.
gentle repose spell has kept the body pristine. A pair of ambushes are each likely too weak to challenge the party.
The party can’t just blithely walk through a city full of fey on
Personal Effects. the brink of war, asking questions that might implicate leaders
The only thing found beside Rock was a half-empty bottle of liquor, of either faction. Thisraldion tries to drown the party when they
which Desulie has kept locked away, thinking she can sell it as investigate Krog Tunnel (and hopes to make it look like Atsla and
a relic of the celebrity. No one ever thought to examine it, but a Beshela targeted them). And right after they escape that death
DC 15 Intelligence (alchemists’ supplies) check detects soporific trap, Beshela’s actual attempt on their lives comes in the form of
poison. If someone drinks it, he feels drowsy and lazy, unable to elite satyr warriors (which she hopes the party will think have been
take any initiative or have an original thought for about 5 minutes. sent by Darbony, the satyr member of the Hedgehog Court).
A DC 30 Intelligence (Arcana) check (DC 25 if someone tries The flooding trick only really works in the tunnel, but the GM
drinking the poison) can determine the liquor is tainted with the can move the satyr ambush elsewhere if needed.
spittle of an obscure fey known as the Borenbog. The rest of Rock’s
personal belongings are at Thistle Palace. Flooded Tunnel.
While the party is in Krog tunnel examining the murder site,
Murder Weapon. Thisraldion attempts to make it look like Beshela and Atsla have
They also have the arrow found in Rock’s chest. The shaft has a conspired to kill them, but the trap is one the fey monarch expects
rough texture like bark, and the head is a carved eagle talon. Using the party to be able to survive.
legend lore or similar abilities on the arrow might reveal mislead- Once the party starts examining where Rock’s body was found,
ing information, since Copperhat was disguised as Olazdor when walls of ice seal the three exits of the tunnel, blocking out sound

Act One: Much Ado
and light from outside (a DC 15 Wisdom [Perception] check dur- Beshela’s Intervention.
ing the day to not be caught by surprise, made with disadvantage Beshela thinks Olazdor is guilty, but she needs Olazdor as an ally,
if at night). so she wants to pin the murder on Darbony. She has in the past
One round later, frigid seawater bursts from the walls down the bedded the randy old satyr and in post-coital chats learned many
length of the tunnel with intense pressure. All creatures in the tun- of his secrets. She uses some of those secrets now: with the aid of
nel must make a DC 17 Strength saving throw or take 3 (1d6) illusions and calling in favors Darbony is owed, she has convinced
bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone. the Debauched Brotherhood, the most elite warriors of the satyr
The crime scene is in the middle of the tunnel, 150 feet from any armies, to target the PCs.
exit, and the water immediately makes the ground difficult terrain. Disguised as Darbony, Beshela spun a tale to the brotherhood of
The tunnel fills a foot in depth each round, taking 15 rounds to how another satyr mercenary—named Dolax the Deathmask—had
flood completely. The 3-foot thick walls at each end of the tunnel assassinated Rackus on Darbony’s orders, because the human was
have magic that makes them hard to injure (AC 20, 100 hit points). interfering in his romantic endeavors (Dolax is indeed a satyr as-
Any creature that starts its turn adjacent to the wall takes 10 (3d6) sassin, but he died a few days ago in the ongoing warfare so he
cold damage, and a creature who makes a melee attack against the can’t readily dispute Beshela’s lies.) Beshela-disguised-as-Darbony
wall takes an additional 3 (1d6) cold damage. claimed that it would be disastrous to satyrkind if word got out
Breaking the ice wall drains the tunnel by one foot per round. he had provoked this whole war just so he could bed a few extra
Additionally, when the party nears the wall, two fey orcas are women, and the brotherhood think they’re doing a public service
summoned on either end of the party. Until the water is at least 5 by silencing the party.
feet deep they can only move at a crawl with a speed of 5 feet, but Right after the party emerges from the flooded tunnel, the De-
they’re still quite adept at grabbing prey and thrashing them to bauched Brotherhood attacks. They expect to be able to kill them
death. quickly, and if defeated confess that all they know is that Darbony
didn’t like the outsiders asking questions. They expect to be sum-
ADVERSARIES marily executed, but if spared would be willing to fight for the
• 2 fey orca party for a year and a day to repay the debt.
Fey Orca Adversaries

Huge fey, unaligned • Xeniam, boon satyr
Armor Class 17 (natural armor) • 1 satyr piper
Hit Points 149 (13d12+65) • 3 satyr springjacks
Speed swim 80 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA Xeniam, Boon Satyr
26 (+8) 21 (+5) 20 (+5) 4 (–3) 19 (+4) 8 (–1) Medium fey, chaotic neutral ranger (hunter) 9
Skills Perception +12 Armor Class 20 (natural armor)
Damage Resistances cold, lightning; bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing Hit Points 136 (16d8+64)
from nonmagical weapons Speed 40 ft.
Senses blindsight 120 ft., passive Perception 22 STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
Languages Sylvan 18 (+4) 20 (+5) 18 (+4) 12 (+1) 16 (+3) 17 (+3)
Challenge 12 (8,400 XP) Saving Throws Str +8, Dex +9
Hold Breath. The fey orca can hold its breath for up to 2 hours. Skills Deception +11, Intimidation +11, Nature +9, Perception +11,
Long Step (Recharge 5-6). The fey orca can use its bonus action to Perform +11, Persuasion +11, Stealth +9, Survival +7
teleport up to 130 feet. Senses passive Perception 21
Magic Resistance. The fey orca has advantage on saving throws Languages Common, Elvish, Primordial, Sylvan
against spells and other magical effects. Challenge 12 (8,400 XP)
Actions Defensive Tactics: Multiattack Defense. When a creature hits the
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 26 satyr with an attack, it gains a +4 bonus to AC against all subsequent
(4d8+8) piercing damage and the creature is grappled (escape DC attacks made by that creature for the rest of the turn.
20). Favored Enemy. The satyr has advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks
Deafening Whalesong. The fey orca unleashes a deafening blast of to track beasts, fey, and humans, as well as on Intelligence checks to
clicks and shrieks in a 50-foot radius. Any creatures in the area that recall information about them.
are mostly or completely submerged in water make a DC 20 Strength Hunter’s Prey: Colossus Slayer (1d8, 1/Turn). When the satyr hits
saving throw or are stunned for one round. a creature with a weapon attack, the creature takes an extra 4 (1d8)
damage if it’s below its hit point maximum.
Innate Spellcasting. The satyr’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma
(spell save DC 15). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring
no material components.

Act One: Much Ado
At will: charm person, dancing lights, minor illusion, sleep, suggestion Countercharm. As an action, the satyr can start a performance that
1/day each: conjure animals, fear lasts until the end of its next turn. During that time, the satyr and
Land’s Stride. Moving through nonmagical difficult terrain costs the any friendly creatures within 30 feet of it have advantage on saving
satyr no extra movement. It can also pass through nonmagical plants throws against being frightened or charmed. A creature must be able
without being slowed by them and without taking damage from them to hear the satyr to gain this benefit. The performance ends early if it
if they have thorns, spines, or a similar hazard. is incapacitated or silenced or if the satyr voluntarily ends the effect
~In addition, the satyr has advantage on saving throws against plants (no action required).
that are magically created or manipulated to impede movement, such Innate Spellcasting. The satyr’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma
as those created by the entangle spell. (spell save DC 18). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring
Magic Resistance. The satyr has advantage on saving throws against no material components.
spells and other magical effects. At will: charm person, dancing lights, minor illusion, sleep, suggestion
Natural Explorer: Forests. When the satyr makes an Intelligence or 1/day each: conjure animals, fear
Wisdom check related to forests or the Dreaming, its proficiency Magic Resistance. The satyr has advantage on saving throws against
bonus (+4) is doubled if it is using a skill it is proficient with. While spells and other magical effects.
traveling for an hour or more in a forest or the Dreaming, it gains the Bardic Inspiration 1d8 (6/Short Rest). As a bonus action on its
following benefits: difficult terrain doesn’t slow its group’s travel, turn, the satyr can choose one other creature within 60 feet who can
its group can’t become lost except by magical means, even when it hear it. That creature gains one Bardic Inspiration die, a d8. Once
engages in another activity while traveling it remains alert to danger, within the next 10 minutes, the creature can roll the die and add the
if it is traveling alone it can move stealthily at a normal pace, it finds number rolled to one ability check, attack roll, saving throw, or weapon
twice as much food as it normally would when it forages, and while damage roll it makes. The creature can wait until after it rolls before
tracking other creatures it also learns their exact number, their sizes, deciding to use the Bardic Inspiration die, but must decide before
and how long ago they passed through the area. the GM says whether a roll succeeds or fails. In addition, a creature
Ranger Features. The satyr also has the Primeval Awareness ranger can use its reaction when attacked to use the Bardic Inspiration die,
class features. adding the result to its AC and possibly causing the attack to miss.
Spellcasting. The satyr is a 9th-level spellcaster that uses Wisdom as Jack of All Trades. The satyr adds +2 to any ability check it makes that
its spellcasting ability (spell save DC 15; +7 to hit with spell attacks). doesn’t already include its proficiency bonus.
The satyr knows the following spells from the ranger’s spell list: Spellcasting. The satyr is an 8th-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting abil-
1st-level (4 slots): hunter’s mark, jump, longstrider ity is Charisma (spell save DC 18, +10 to hit with spell attacks). The
2nd-level (3 slots): pass without trace, spike growth satyr knows the following spells from the bard’s spell list:
3rd-level (2 slots): protection from energy Cantrips (at will): light, mage hand, prestidigitation
Actions 1st level (4 slots): disguise self, longstrider, silent image
Extra Attack. The satyr attacks twice when it takes the Attack action, 2nd level (3 slots): invisibility, shatter, suggestion
and can use a bonus action to attack a third time with its shortswords. 3rd level (3 slots): bestow curse, fear, major image
Ram. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 4th level (2 slots): compulsion, confusion
(2d4+4) bludgeoning damage. Song of Rest. After a short rest, if the satyr or any friendly creatures
Magic Shortswords. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one who can hear its performance regain hit points by spending one or
target. Hit: 10 (1d6+7) magical piercing damage. more Hit Dice, each of those creatures regains an extra 1d6 hit points.
Longbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, range 150/600 ft., one Actions
target. Hit: 9 (1d8+5) piercing damage. Multiattack. The satyr attacks twice with its longbow or makes three
melee attacks: once with its ram and twice with its pipes.
Satyr Piper Ram. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8
Medium fey, chaotic neutral bard 8 (2d4+3) bludgeoning damage.
Armor Class 18 (natural armor) Pipes. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6
Hit Points 127 (15d8+60) (1d4+4) magical bludgeoning damage.
Speed 40 ft. Longbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, range 150/600 ft., one
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA target. Hit: 8 (1d8+4) piercing damage.
16 (+3) 18 (+4) 18 (+4) 13 (+1) 13 (+1) 23 (+6) Powerful Piping. The satyr focuses and empowers its magic by playing
Saving Throws Dex +8, Cha +10 haunting melodies on its panpipes. All creatures within a 60-foot
Skills Deception +14, Intimidation +10, Nature +9, Perception +9, radius make a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw or are affected by charm
Perform +14, Persuasion +14, Stealth +12, Survival +5 person, fear, or suggestion (chosen when the satyr uses this trait). A
Senses passive Perception 19 creature that succeeds on its save is immune to Powerful Piping for
Languages Common, Elvish, Primordial, Sylvan 24 hours.
Challenge 10 (5,900 XP)

Act One: Much Ado
Satyr Springjack Masking of the Unseen.

Medium fey, chaotic neutral Throughout the party’s time in the Dreaming, Thisraldion and others
Armor Class 19 (natural armor) on the Unseen Court consider who among the party might be worthy
Hit Points 136 (16d8+64) of joining them. Certainly the party has powers that make them quite
Speed 40 ft. mighty in combat, which the court needs to maintain its supremacy.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA But a PC must also display the proper charisma and familiarity with
18 (+4) 19 (+4) 18 (+4) 10 (+0) 15 (+2) 19 (+4) the fey, and have motives amenable to the rest of the court.
Skills Deception +12, Perception +10, Performance +12, Persuasion At some point before the party leaves Clover, if you think one of the
+12, Stealth +12, Survival +6 PCs would be deemed worthy, the fey lords and ladies come to him
Senses passive Perception 20 or her and make their offer: fill the vacancy left by Ekossigan (as well
Languages Common, Elvish, Primordial, Sylvan as anyone who gets killed in the course of this adventure), but serve
Challenge 10 (5,900 XP) as ambassador of the Unseen Court in the Waking. Continue to work
Innate Spellcasting. The satyr’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma for Risur, but steer them to favor the fey, and when your mission is
(spell save DC 16). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring complete, return and take your throne.
no material components. Even Thisraldion, who has come to accept that the people of the
At will: charm person, dancing lights, minor illusion, sleep, suggestion Waking will continue to use technology, would still prefer his Waking
1/day each: conjure animals, fear allies to show more care for the effects their technology has on the
Lethal. A weapon deals one extra die of its damage when the satyr hits Dreaming. And if Olazdor or Beshela join the Unseen Court, finding a
with it (included in the attack). solution to the blighting effect of industry will be critical to avoid a war
Magic Resistance. The satyr has advantage on saving throws against in the coming years.
spells and other magical effects. If a member of the party is invited and accepts induction into the
Actions Unseen Court, he or she is tasked with designing a mask. Whatever the
Multiattack. The satyr attacks three times. adventurer can imagine, someone in the Court or among their minions
Ram. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 can craft it. Thereafter, that PC’s physical body will be invisible. They
(2d4+4) bludgeoning damage. gain the Mask of the Unseen Court boon, detailed in the Appendix
Longsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. (Magic and Training). Moreover, they can command immediate loyalty
Hit: 13 (2d8+4) slashing damage, or 15 (2d10+4) slashing damage from most fey, and will speak with authority even among humans.
if wielded in two hands.
Longbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, range 150/600 ft., one Don’t Railroad.
target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) piercing damage and the target makes a DC We like the idea of the two factions meeting for a dramatic reveal of
16 Strength saving throw or is pushed back 10 feet. the killer. It’s very Sherlock-y. But if the party makes a move early, just
let them. Ultimately they’ll need to go to the Voice of Rot, and that
might be while chasing Copperhat, or after capturing or killing him,
Elementary Deductions or going along with him as part of a deal. Stats for all members of
the two courts are presented in the Appendix (Fey Lords), in case the
Social. Montage. party picks a fight. Unless the party antagonizes multiple fey lords, the
The party reveals their findings. two courts leave whoever the party accuses to fend for him- or herself.
At Thisraldion’s invitation, the Hedgehog Court comes to the
entrance foyer (area 6) of Thistle Palace, where they and the Un- Riffian and other members of the Great Hunt are only here if
seen Court will listen to the party’s findings about the murder of the party requested them. Otherwise they’re busy chasing a fox
Rock Rackus. Copperhat the Headless attends too (along with his through the chessboard forest south of the city.
drinking buddy the Borenbog), since he wants to know whether As is traditional for the Unseen Court, Thisraldion has forbidden
his deception has been discovered. He has several escape routes anyone else to be present during the party’s presentation. No guards
planned in case the party correctly identifies him, though. or gawkers are allowed even within earshot of this vital business.
Gathered Suspects. And the Killer Is…

Thisraldion, Atsla, Karrest, Furg, and Sallin stand on the east side Leave it to the party to decide how to present their findings. Have
of the room. Olazdor, Beshela, Lerina, and Lavac stand on the the accused demand evidence. Throw in a few startled gasps from
west side (Darbony had assistants bring a chair for him to sit in). the other lords if the revelation is particularly dramatic. If the PCs
Copperhat and the Borenbog lean against the south wall. have figured everything out, the most perfect reveal would be for
The Borenbog wears a truly massive gourd strapped across his them to reach into their own absurdist web (the one Copperhat
back (which secretly holds a silk orb that leads to the Webway). Cop- gave them in Zeitgeist #7: Schism that leads to the same extradi-
perhat walks around the room with a bottle of surprisingly strong mensional space) to pull out a still-alive Rock Rackus.
wine trying to get everyone drunk. All the fey lords except Darbony What happens depends on who the party names. Even if their
decline. Keep track of who among the PCs drink, because they’ll be evidence is weak, the courts are just glad to resolve the matter. If
more susceptible if they fight the Borenbog while intoxicated. the evidence is downright pathetic, treat it as the Nobody reaction.

Act One: Much Ado
Nobody. If the party avoids naming anyone, the fey lords are We Now Return to Your
furious, start shouting, and eventually begin fighting. Barring PC Regularly Scheduled Warfare
intervention, Olazdor engages Thisraldion; Furg and Sallin square
off against Lavac and Lerina; Darbony runs away; and Karrest is Action. Tactical.
double-teamed by Atsla and Beshela. Within a minute Furg, Lerina, Copperhat the Headless flees through the field of battle in a bid to
and Karrest are dead, Sallin and Lavac have withdrawn, and the shake your pursuit.
remaining three lords—Atsla, Beshela, and Olazdor—have cornered This scene of course only happens if the party outs Copperhat
Thisraldion. When the monarch refuses to “confess,” Olazdor deliv- as the one behind Rock’s “murder” and the subsequent warfare.
ers a killing blow, then proclaims himself new King of the Unseen Several stages are all part of the same encounter. If the party waits
Court. more than a minute or so to pursue Copperhat, he gets away.
Thisraldion. Thisraldion attacks the party, but Olazdor comes The first stage is getting past the Borenbog, who wants to keep
to their aid, so it should be a quick battle. Once Thisraldion falls, the party from getting into the Webway. If the party does end up
Olazdor thanks the party, then proclaims himself king. diving into the Webway, the last PC to go hears Thisraldion (or
Olazdor. Olazdor throws down his weapons and presents his whoever is monarch of the Unseen Court now) announce that
chest to the crowd. He proclaims that the fey will keep the monarch they’re conjuring a barrier in the Webway—thorns, ice, fire, etc.—
they deserve: deceptive and villainous. He turns to the party and tells which will force Copperhat to exit so he’ll be easier to pursue.
them they’ll be excellent allies of the Unseen Court. Then he kneels In the Webway, spiders get in the party’s way. Once they make
and lets Thisraldion plunge a vorpal sword through his heart. it through, they emerge onto the Chessboard Battlefield, where
Darbony. The old satyr is completely blind-sided, and as Karrest Copperhat uses his illusions to turn the fighters upon the party.
drags him to the center of the room he screams that he’s being set Alternately, the party might pursue Copperhat directly from
up. Thisraldion starts to make a speech of condemnation, but when Thistle Palace, across the grand lawn and through injured fey sol-
Darbony won’t shut up the monarch just sighs and slices his head diers. Or they might have Riffian of the Great Hunt on hand at the
off with one stroke. palace, who will summon steeds for them, call forth his hunting
Beshela. If the party names Beshela, Olazdor interposes himself hounds, and lead them at high speed toward the Chessboard Forest
and confesses. He lies and claims that he was responsible for what- to find the fleeing Copperhat.
ever evidence would have damned his beloved, and he asks that
they kill him instead. Thisraldion obliges. Battle and Brew.
Other Fey Lord. Unless the party’s just making stuff up, it’s During this fight, the various fey lords only get involved if the party
unlikely they’d name anyone else on the two courts, but if so, the has previously cultivated a friendship (in which case you should
accused denies it, is dragged forward, and executed. make saves for them as normal to break free from being the Boren-
Copperhat. Copperhat tries to appear calm while feverishly pok- bog’s stupefy aura). Or a PC can spend an action and succeed a
ing the Borenbog to get his attention. He clears his throat and Charisma (Persuasion) check (DC 20 for Olazdor or Lerina, DC
quietly explains that the party won’t ever get home to the Wak- 32 for Thisraldion or Darbony, DC 26 for anyone else) to convince
ing without his help. Perhaps they would rather name Thisraldion, a fey lord to help.
who after all has lied about knowing how to send them home. The entrance foyer of Thistle Palace is about 40 feet by 50 feet
If the party isn’t willing to help him, Copperhat gives a nod with doorways leading out in many directions. This means all the
to the Borenbog, who smashes his huge gourd on the ground, re- PCs and the members of the two courts likely start in the Boren-
vealing an orb gate to the Webway. Copperhat dives into it, and bog’s stupefy aura. The aura also keeps the guards from interfering;
the opening keeps glowing for about a minute, but the Borenbog they just come to the edge and stand there, confused.
stomps it flat. It takes a full round to “refluff” the orb enough to en- The stupefy aura means that (except for rare immunities), he
ter it, and the Borenbog will fight anyone who tries to go through. will get to go first. He swigs a giant’s draught from his gourd, then
If somehow the party prevents this, Copperhat will try to flee closes with a PC and tries to hack their hand off. The following
across the Grand Lawn. Rather than coming across an active rounds he’ll go after other stupefied PCs, or anyone who tries to
battleground, the party will pass by dozens of wounded fey, whom reopen the orb that leads to the Webway.
Copperhat can trick into attacking them. Once he’s reduced below half his hit points, he shrinks back to
Medium, stupefies everyone again, and then drinks bayou brew,
which transforms the area around him into a copy of his High
Bayou home.
The Borenbog’s redundant defense is meant to stymie the party
and encourage the PCs to seek novel ways to harm their enemy.
Make them be creative—dropping chandeliers, throwing consum-
able items, digging out all the seldom-used spare magic items from
a bag of holding, or forcing the Borenbog into battle with the con-
valescing soldiers on the Grand Lawn. The ’bog is a lower-level foe
than the party, so they should be able to still hurt it even if they
have to use non-magical weapons.

Act One: Much Ado
If the party seems particularly stymied, that’s fine. The Borenbog

is slow and they can easily run away from it and find more weapons.
Aftermath
If the party manages to get into the Webway, the ’bog will chase
them, squeezing awkwardly if he’s still Huge. If the Borenbog is
defeated, the Unseen Court takes him prisoner but ultimately can’t
figure out how to kill him. In the long run they’ll banish him back
to his bayou, and give the party the Borenbog’s gourd as a reward.
The Dread Borenbog

Medium monstrosity, chaotic evil
Armor Class 20 (natural armor)
Hit Points 264 (23d8+161)
Speed 20 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
20 (+5) 8 (-1) 25 (+7) 6 (–2) 9 (–1) 5 (–3)
Saving Throws Dex +4, Int +2, Wis +4, Cha +1
Skills Intimidation +7, Survival +9
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 9
Languages Goblin, Primordial
Alcohol Sense. The Borenbog can use a bonus action to sense the
direction to the nearest source of alcohol within 1 mile.
Lucky Hands (2). When the Borenbog is affected by a harmful condi- within a 40-foot radius of the Borenbog must make a DC 20 Constitu-
tion, it can rip one of the hands on its belt free (no action required) to tion saving throw or be stupefied for one round. A stupefied creature
end the condition. can only use an action or bonus action each round (not both) and can
Magic Resistance. The Borenbog has advantage on saving throws only move at half speed. In addition, the only actions it can take are
against spells and other magical effects. very uncreative like walking and making basic attacks. A creature that
Quick Swig (2/Short Rest). The Borenbog uses a bonus action to succeeds on its saving throw against this aura becomes immune to its
drink from its magical gourd, gaining one of the following benefits. effects for 24 hours.
The gourd (AC 18, 50 hit points, double damage from slashing) is ~When the Borenbog is reduced below half of its hit points for the
attached to a knotty leather cord around the Borenbog’s neck. If the first time in a day, the aura surges with power. Creatures previously
gourd is taken, the Borenbog cannot use this trait and does everything immune to the aura are subject to its effects again until they success-
its power to both get the gourd back and kill the bastard who tried to fully save a second time.
take it. Take Hand. If the Borenbog successfully pins a grappled creature or
* • Giant’s Draught: The Borenbog becomes Huge size, reduces a stupefied creature to below half of its hit points with an
deals an extra 7 (2d6) damage with melee weapon attacks, and on attack from its gutting knife, the Borenbog also cuts off one of the
a successful melee attack it can push its target 15 feet away. target’s hands, impaling it onto a nail on the Borenbog’s belt and
* • Bayou Brew: All ground within the area of the increasing the uses of the Lucky Hands trait. Until the target receives
Borenbog’s Stupefy Aura becomes swampy, transforming from hard magical healing it is poisoned and takes 7 (2d6) damage at the start
surfaces into waterlogged spiderwebs and tangled roots suffused of each of its turns. A creature that loses its hand becomes immune to
with negative energies. All other creatures treat the area as difficult the Borenbog’s stupefying aura, even after the trait resurges.
terrain, taking 17 (5d6) necrotic damage at the end of their turn if Actions
they are in contact with the floor. Multiattack. The Borenbog attacks four times: three times with his
Redundant Defense. Any attack made against the Borenbog deals half gutting knife and once with his slam.
damage if the same type of weapon or energy harmed it in the past 24 Gutting Knife. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one
hours. For example, only one attack with a longsword can harm it nor- target. Hit: 12 (2d6+5) slashing damage.
mally per day, even if two longsword made from different materials are Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8
used to attack it. The GM should use their best judgment for attacks (1d6+5) bludgeoning damage and the target is grappled (escape DC
that don’t use weapons or energy damage. When the Borenbog takes 18).
ongoing damage, once that ongoing damage ends it cannot suffer that Entangling Spit. The Borenbog spits a glob of black saliva at a creature
same type of ongoing damage for 24 hours. it can see within 50 feet. The target makes a DC 18 Dexterity saving
~Martial scientist techniques ignore this trait. throw or takes 17 (5d6) acid damage and is restrained (escape DC
Stupefying Aura. The mere sight of the Borenbog makes life seem dull 18). At the start of its turn, a creature restrained by Entangling Spit
and uninteresting. Hostile creatures entering or starting their turn takes 17 (5d6) acid damage.

Act One: Much Ado
Webway Chase. Actions

Copperhat enters the Webway and throws handfuls of trinkets Multiattack. The ettercap makes three attacks: one with its bite and
in the pathway in order to attract other spidery fey to cover his twice with its claws.
escape. He only has a chance to move about a hundred feet in the Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 7
tunnels before his path is blocked by fey lord magic. He drops out (1d8+3) piercing damage plus 9 (2d8) poison damage. The target
the nearest exit, which deposits him right in the middle of the must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned
chessboard forest, a couple miles south of the palace. He won’t be for 1 minute. The creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of
able to reenter the Webway for hours, until the locals clear it out, each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
so he turns invisible and hides, hoping to turn the local warfare Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8
against the party. (2d4+3) slashing damage.
Should the party pursue through the webs, they have to make Web (Recharge 5–6). Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, range 30/60
their way through a criss-cross of eight 5-foot wide tunnels, all of ft., one Large or smaller creature. Hit: The creature is restrained by
which are blocked off about 100 feet from where the party enters. webbing. As an action, the restrained creature can make a DC 16
Copperhat can be tracked by the random bits that fell out of his Strength check, escaping from the webbing on a success. The effect
coat as he moved. A few creatures reflexively attack them as intrud- also ends if the webbing is destroyed. The webbing has AC 10, 5 hit
ers, but flee as soon as they’re injured. If the party happens to still points, vulnerability to fire damage, and immunity to bludgeoning,
have Mista Nyves with them, though, he clears a path without a poison, and psychic damage.
fight.
Webway Giant Spider
Adversaries Gargantuan beast, unaligned
• 12 dreaming ettercaps Armor Class 17 (natural armor)
• 2 Webway giant spiders Hit Points 165 (10d20+60)
Speed 40 ft., climb 20 ft.
Dreaming Ettercap STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
Medium fey, neutral evil 24 (+7) 21 (+5) 23 (+6) 1 (–5) 14 (+2) 6 (–2)
Armor Class 17 (natural armor) Saving Throws Int –1, Cha +2
Hit Points 76 (8d8+40) Skills Athletics +11, Perception +6, Stealth +9
Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft. Condition Immunities charmed, frightened
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA Senses darkvision 60 ft., tremorsense 60 ft., passive Perception 16
16 (+3) 21 (+5) 20 (+5) 12 (+1) 19 (+4) 15 (+2) Languages —
Saving Throws Int +4, Cha +5 Challenge 12 (8,400 XP)
Skills Acrobatics +11, Deception +5, Intimidation +5, Perception +10, Amorphous. The spider can move through a space as narrow as 5 feet
Stealth +11 wide without squeezing.
Damage Resistances cold, lightning Spider Climb. The spider can climb difficult surfaces, including upside
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 20 down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
Languages Primordial, Sylvan Web Sense. While in contact with a web, the spider knows the exact
Challenge 5 (1,800 XP) location of any other creature in contact with the same web.
Evasion. If the ettercap is subjected to an effect that allows it to make a Web Walker. The spider ignores movement restrictions caused by
Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, the ettercap instead webbing.
takes no damage if it succeeds on the saving throw, and only half Actions
damage if it fails. Multiattack. The spider attacks five times: once with its bite and four
Innate Spellcasting. The ettercap’s innate spellcasting ability is times with its talons.
Wisdom (spell save DC 15). It can innately cast the following spells, Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit:
requiring no material components. 20 (3d8+7) piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 18
At will: dancing lights Constitution saving throw, taking 18 (4d8) poison damage on a failed
1/day each: entangle, faerie fire save, or half as much damage on a successful one. A creature that
Spider Climb. The ettercap can climb difficult surfaces, including upside fails its saving throw by 5 or more is also paralyzed for one round. If
down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check. the poison damage reduces the target to 0 hit points, the target is
Spider Empathy. The Ettercap can speak with arachnids as though stable but poisoned for 1 hour, even after regaining hit points, and is
under the effects of a constant speak with animals spell. paralyzed while poisoned in this way.
Web Sense. While in contact with a web, the ettercap knows the exact Talons. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 15 ft., one creature.
location of any other creature in contact with the same web. Hit: 16 (2d8+7) piercing damage.
Web Walker. The ettercap ignores movement restrictions caused by
webbing.

Act One: Much Ado
Web (Recharge 5–6). The spider spits webbing at a 10-foot radius Copperhat the Headless
area within 100 feet. Creatures in the area make a DC 17 Dexterity Medium fey, chaotic evil
saving throw or are restrained by webbing. When a creature is re- Armor Class 18 (natural armor)
strained by the webbing, it makes a DC 18 Constitution saving throw, Hit Points 133 (14d8+70)
taking 18 (4d8) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much Speed 40 ft., climb 40 ft.
damage on a successful one. A creature that fails its saving throw by STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
5 or more is also paralyzed for one round. As an action, a restrained 15 (+2) 22 (+6) 20 (+5) 19 (+4) 8 (–1) 16 (+3)
creature can make a DC 18 Strength check, bursting the webbing on Saving Throws Wis +3
a success. The webbing around a creature can also be attacked and Skills Acrobatics +10, Athletics +6, Deception +11, Perception +7,
destroyed (AC 14; hp 15; vulnerability to fire damage; immunity to Performance +7, Sleight of Hand +10, Stealth +10
bludgeoning, poison, and psychic damage). Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from
weapons that aren’t cold iron
Pawn’s Gambit. Damage Immunities poison
Copperhat hides at the intersection of four squares in the Chess- Condition Immunities poisoned
board Forest. The Webway exit the party will likely emerge from Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 17
sits in a tree, 20 feet up, which will spell a modest fall if the PCs Languages Common, Dwarvish, Elvish, Primordial, Sylvan
aren’t careful. Copperhat hides a 100 feet away, up in another tree Challenge 11 (7,200 XP)
(DC 31 Wisdom [Perception] check), near a group of rebel sol- Giggling Departure (1/Day). When Copperhat would be reduced to
diers carrying the banner of the Hedgehog Court. When the party 0 hit points or killed, he takes no damage from the triggering attack,
appears, he conjures an illusion of Olazdor and orders the soldiers effect, or spell. Copperhat turns invisible and immediately teleports
to attack the party. away as per dimension door. Observers see his clothing fall to the
He has to stay within 50 feet in order to control his illusion, so ground in a tattered lump, and his top hat starts to drift downward.
he slowly moves through the trees, giving the adventurers a chance Then a tiny arm reaches up out of the collar of his seemingly empty
to detect his presence. If spotted, he shouts one final order for the coat and grabs the brim of his hat just before it lands. He pulls the
fey to “defend our ally Copperhat,” then strikes a PC who is un- hat into his coat, pulling a reverse magician’s trick. Then he—and his
aware of him. This makes his illusion of Olazdor vanish. hat—are gone, leaving behind only an empty suit and laughter on the
air.
Rebel Units Innate Spellcasting. Copperhat’s innate spellcasting ability is Intelli-
• • 1 lightning-split treant gence (spell save DC 16, +8 to hit with spell attacks). He can innately
• • 2 centaur cavalry units cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
• • 4 satyr springjacks At will: disguise self, minor illusion
3/day: guiding bolt, major image, mislead
Tactics. Magic Resistance. Copperhat has advantage on saving throws against
Copperhat always tries to keep confused soldiers between him and spells and other magical effects.
the party, preferring to throw webs from afar. If forced into melee, Mimicry. Copperhat can mimic animal sounds and humanoid voices.
he flanks with an ally and strikes with his dagger, then uses mislead A creature that hears the sounds can tell they are imitations with a
to get away. successful DC 15 Wisdom (Insight) check.
The treant just smashes the party in melee. A pair of satyr Sneak Attack (1/Turn, 7d6). Copperhat deals an extra 24 (7d6) dam-
springjacks try to protect Copperhat while the others fire arrows. age when he hits a target with a weapon attack and has advantage
The centaur cavalry units skirmish around the party. If things look on the attack roll, or when the target is within 5 feet of an ally of Cop-
bad, Copperhat turns invisible and flees toward another force, this perhat’s that isn’t incapacitated and he doesn’t have disadvantage on
one of loyalists about 200 feet away. He calls for their aid as well, the attack roll.
this time using an illusion of Thisraldion (the GM can just reuse Quick. Copperhat has advantage on initiative checks.
the same units, reskinning the treant as a catoblepas, the centaurs Vanish. Copperhat can use a bonus action to invisible. He remains
as elvish lancers, and the satyrs as fomorian archers.) invisible until he takes the Attack action or casts a spell.
The Great Hunt is busy chasing a fox a “square” away (about 400 ACTIONS
feet), and if the party gets their attention somehow, their hounds Multiattack. Copperhat attacks three times.
can easily corner Copperhat, who surrenders and tries one last Magic Dagger. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5
time to make a deal with the party. If it’s clear he’s going to die, he ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (1d4+8) magical piercing
tells them to get Rock from the absurdist web. He kinda likes the damage plus 7 (2d6) poison damage and the target must succeed on
guy, and there’s no reason to keep him trapped anymore. He hopes a DC 17 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature’s
he gets immortalized in song. Strength score is lowered by 1d4. When reduced to Strength 0, it
suffocates and dies. The creature recovers all of its lost Strength at the
end of its next long rest, or once it is targeted by a greater restoration
spell.

Act One: Much Ado
Web (Recharge 5–6). Ranged Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, range Innate Spellcasting. The treant’s innate spellcasting ability is Wisdom
30/60 ft., one creature. Hit: The target is restrained by webbing. As (spell save DC 18). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring
an action, the restrained target can make a DC 17 Strength check, no material components.
bursting the webbing on a success. The webbing can also be attacked At will: faerie fire
and destroyed (AC 13; hp 10; vulnerability to fire damage; immunity 3/day each: call lightning, lightning bolt, protection from energy
to bludgeoning, poison, and psychic damage). 1/day: chain lightning
Electric Healing. For every 1 point of lightning damage the lightning-
Centaur Cavalry Unit split treant would take, it heals 3 hit points instead.
Gargantuan swarm of Large monstrosities, neutral False Appearance. While the treant remains motionless, it is indistin-
Armor Class 15 (natural armor) guishable from a normal tree.
Hit Points 152 (16d10+64) Magical Attacks. The treant’s attacks count as magical for the purpose
Speed 50 ft. of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA damage.
24 (+7) 16 (+3) 17 (+3) 11 (+0) 14 (+2) 13 (+1) Regeneration. The treant regains 10 hit points at the start of its turn.
Skills Intimidation +5, Nature +4, Perception +10, Survival +6 The treant dies only if it starts its turn with 0 hit points.
Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petri- Siege Monster. The treant deals double damage to objects and
fied, prone, restrained, stunned structures.
Senses passive Perception 20 Two Heads. The treant has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks
Languages Elvish, Primordial, Sylvan and on saving throws against being blinded, charmed, deafened,
Challenge 12 (8,400 XP) frightened, stunned, and knocked unconscious.
Chaos of Combat. Any creature that is adjacent to or in the swarm’s Wakeful. When one of the treant’s heads is asleep, its other head is
space has a hard time focusing on magic. A creature casting a spell or awake.
concentrating on a spell makes a Constitution saving throw (DC 15 + Actions
spell level) or loses the spell. Multiattack. The treant attacks twice with its slam.
Charge. If the swarm moves at least 30 feet straight toward a target Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 18
and then hits it with a pike attack on the same turn, the target takes (3d6+8) bludgeoning damage.
an extra 42 (12d6) piercing damage. Rock. Ranged Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, range 60/180 ft., one
Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature’s space and vice versa, target. Hit: 30 (4d10+8) bludgeoning damage.
and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Animate Trees (1/Day). The treant magically animates one or two
Large creature. The swarm can’t regain hit points or gain temporary trees it can see within 60 feet of it. These trees have the same statis-
hit points. tics as a treant, except they have Intelligence and Charisma scores
Actions of 1, they can’t speak, and they have only the Slam action option. An
Multiattack. The swarm attacks twice with its pikes. animated tree acts as an ally of the treant. The tree remains animate
Pikes. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: for 1 day or until it dies; until the treant dies or is more than 120 feet
29 (4d10+7) piercing damage. from the tree; or until the treant takes a bonus action to turn it back
Pike Volley. The swarm uses an action to hurl a volley of pikes that fall into an inanimate tree. The tree then takes root if possible.
in a 20-foot radius area of a point within 50 feet. Any creatures in the
area take 100 (8d10+56) piercing damage. A DC 19 Dexterity saving Aftermath.
throw reduces this damage by half. If Copperhat gets away, the GM might choose to have him show
up at the Voice of Rot’s lair, or have him disappear until the party
Lightning-Split Treant finds their way back to the Dreaming in Zeitgeist #12: The Grind-
Huge plant, neutral evil ing Gears of Heaven.
Armor Class 18 (natural armor) If captured Copperhat doesn’t know the Voice of Rot’s ultimate
Hit Points 186 (14d12+98) plan, but he does know that it needed to distract the fey for a few
Speed 40 ft. more days until something momentous happened. He’s quite sure
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA his master is in no way allied with the Obscurati; indeed, he was
26 (+8) 13 (+1) 25 (+7) 15 (+2) 21 (+5) 15 (+2) told to be careful not to be discovered by them. Apparently the fey
Saving Throws Dex +6 titan fears the conspiracy but thinks the party is inconsequential.
Skills Nature +7, Perception +15, Stealth +6, Survival +15
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, slashing
Damage Immunities lightning, fire
Senses passive Perception 30
Languages Primordial, Sylvan, Treant

Act One: Much Ado
Reconstruction that they might confront the Voice of Rot. There is no time to rest.
Within half an hour a dozen bold fey knights will arrive, ready to
Social. Real-Time. guide the party on lightning-fast steeds across two hundred miles to
The fallout of the party’s actions gives them a chance to still save the High Bayou, completing the trip in about twelve hours. (Recall,
King Aodhan. the planar fluctuations make teleporting the distance impossible.)
If the party allies with Copperhat, they likely never have this The fey courts also insist the party accept treasure, as repayment
scene. for the debt they owe.
Merely revealing Copperhat as the one who tricked the two
courts is not enough to end the fey civil war. Now that bodies Rewards.
are piling up, the leaders are quite content to keep blaming the The party should leave Thistle Palace with the equivalent of 30,000
other side and ignoring the truth as long as it suits their goals. It’s gp apiece in gold, gems, and jewelry. This is truly extravagant
quite likely the party could bring back Copperhat to Thistle Palace, wealth—clothing woven of platinum and moonbeams, blue warpa-
expecting to be proclaimed heroes, only to find the fey leaders ar- int containing actual sapphires, wooden bracelets carved from the
guing and almost ready to come to blows. raft that delivered Kelland’s family to this land, and the like.
Give the party a chance to get involved if they want (including The fey lords can arrange to quickly buy one magic item per PC,
dueting with Rock Rackus, see below). But after a few minutes, but the party are expected to carry their wealth and use it to craft
good news for the party arrives and distracts everyone from pre- new items at the end of this adventure.
paring to fight. They can also earn the following rewards, depending on whose
favor they have earned. None of these can be traded or sold.
Librarians to the Rescue. • Granny’s Boon. Earned by befriending Lavac.
Alba and Zanel, the pixie sisters who run the Honorable Halls • Borenbog’s Gourd. Earned by defeating the Borenbog.
of Accumulated Wisdom, arrive and demand Furg hand over the • Mask of the Unseen Court. Earned by one PC (likely a
book he stole from their library: an original copy of the Book of Vekeshi Mystic) having the proper demeanor to join the
Kelland. He obliges (or directs them to the party if one of them Unseen Court.
accepted his earlier gift), and the sisters explain that the book can
help the party. Backup Option.
First, the fey titans exist in both the Dreaming and the Waking, The party might distrust the Voice of Rot and refuse to go to
since they both link and divide the two realms. They can grant him. In this case, Beshela is able to bring them by ship to awaken
their minions the power to be in either place with ease and, more She Who Writhes the morning of the 41st. The aquatic fey titan
importantly, they can banish intruders. This provides a way for the thrashes angrily at their presence and banishes them to the Wak-
party to get back to the Waking—either become minions of a fey ing, then gives chase all the way to Flint. The party can arrive
titan, or anger one enough to get expelled (but not so much to get just as Stanfield starts the ritual, but sendings from Torfeld Palace
outright killed). inform them that the king has been killed and hundreds slain.
Second, the book contains the words used by Kelland’s daughter
to taunt the Voice of Rot. The party could use this to draw the What’s Rock Up To?
titan’s ire. There are other fey titans, of course, but none of them If the party retrieved Rock from the absurdist web, he’s distraught.
are awake, and it seems like the party’s in a hurry. Even though he knows the party is trying to get back to the Wak-
Third—they produce a book on the history of Risur, and open to ing, he wants to stay behind to try to help here. Our intention is for
a passage about King Dukain—retrieving the Sword of the Black him to help the party escape peril when they return to the Dream-
Needles would reinitiate the last battle the Voice of Rot had with ing in Zeitgeist #12: The Grinding Gears of Heaven.
Risur five centuries ago. Obviously, even great warriors like the
party would have no chance of defeating the fey titan, but if they Fey-Aid Concert.
intentionally surrendered, the ancient pact between Risur and the What if the party wants to actually set things right among the fey?
fey titans would force the Voice of Rot to banish the party back to Mere diplomacy cannot accomplish that. Only one force is strong
the Waking. enough to unite these fractious fey: the power of song.
There would, of course, be some small negative consequences. This is an opportunity for a Docker PC to shine. While the
The Voice of Rot would be able to move freely from his domain and party prepares to leave Thistle Palace, the wounded warriors on
attempt to claim more territory for himself. But that can be dealt the Grand Lawn begin singing one of Rock Rackus’s hit songs, I
with later, once the king is saved and he can get around to beating Had a Threeway, which recounts the singer getting into trouble
the colossal serpent himself. The pixies end their exposition with for having two lovers at once. The injured fey have turned it into
two matching, optimistic grins. something of a drinking song, toasting as the situation gets worse
and worse for the man in the middle.
Thank You, Now Leave. Meanwhile a group of fey wandering over from the Hedgehog-
The two fey courts pause from arguing and thank the party. If the controlled wing of the palace starts singing a traditional song
PCs go with the librarians’ plan, Thisraldion will call the Great commemorating a famous battle. Tensions are starting to mount
Hunt, and order them to convey the party to the High Bayou so

Act One: Much Ado
since neither side likes their song being interrupted, but a Docker
PC (or anyone with a musical background) notices that the two To the Black Needles!
songs have the same basic beat and structure.
Don’t push this, but the PCs could seize the opportunity to cre- Action. Montage.
ate a duet or mashup that unifies the competing songs and captures The party rides with the Great Hunt to confront the Voice of Rot.
the spirits of both the fey warriors and the lords who command The dozen hours riding to the High Bayou pass in a blur of
them. At least two singers need to participate, and at least one of grandiose music played by the Great Hunt’s trumpeters (which
them must succeed a DC 30 Charisma (Performance) check. If the magically have full orchestral accompaniment), while the party
party rescued Rock he’ll let a PC take the lead, and if needed he tromps through the most beautiful landscape Risur has to offer.
automatically succeeds the skill check. The sun sets, and the riders hold forth torches.
Note, this is cheesy as hell. But if your party likes Rock, they The last hour is spent sprinting through the High Bayou, since
might enjoy this. the magical steeds can run across the bog water. Occasionally gi-
If the skill check fails (or if the party doesn’t try), the arguments ant spiders or crocodiles try to ambush the group, but the Great
intensify as the party mounts up with the Great Hunt, and one Hunt tears through them and presses onward with nary a pause to
of the fey lords encourages the party to go deal with their own shout huzzah. Distant drums thrum faintly beneath the patter of
troubles, and leave the Dreaming to lie in the bed it has made. The drizzle, and dim red eyes watch from beneath trees and the edges
party rides away to the sounds of a brawl on the palace lawn. of brush. Occasionally an ettercap will scuttle out of their path.
If the skill check succeeds, the song spreads across the entire Sometimes they sit completely still, only turning their heads atop
palace, until finally even the fey lords start smiling and joining in. husked, decayed bodies.
The party can mount up on the Great Hunt’s steeds and ride away Fey hounds guide the group across hills and peaks shrouded in
to the cheers of the crowd. webs and choked with marsh plants. Occasionally they lose the trail
and a PC must intone the words from the Book of Kelland: “Lies
are dead words made to walk. O Voice of Rot, do you fear to talk?”

Act One: Much Ado
Curse Your Sudden but middle of the canyon to the top of the spire, but millennia of webs
Inevitable Betrayal! have grown across it, creating tiers of dammed pools. Nothing of
interest is on top of it, other than a swath of wilting grass amid the
If the party goes with Copperhat’s help directly, they teleport through forest, where the Voice of Rot normally sleeps.
the Webway to the High Bayou shrine and arrive shortly after midnight The drizzle fades, the clouds part, and a beam of moonlight
on the 40th. Though Copperhat promised to help them, the Voice of shines upon a spot halfway up the massive staircase. Barely visible
Rot owes them nothing and will order his minions to take them pris- through a wall of spider webs, the glint of pale light reflects off a
oner. The party might cue in to the value of the Sword in the Stump, metal blade stuck in the trunk of a black, rotted, and fallen tree.
they might recall the lore and what it implies with a DC 21 Intelligence From beside the party, fifty feet away, the water stirs. With a
(History) check, or a DC 28 Intelligence (Arcana or Nature) check, or slowness only possible for something so immense, coils rise up
if the party looks truly lost, the sword itself might call out to them with from amid sunken trees. A withered, antlered skull 20 across
the voice of the long-dead King Dukain. drips as it pulls free of the swamp. Unlike the last time they saw it,
though its body is still certainly a serpent, its skull is that of some
A rumble, almost inaudibly deep, replies, “Talk we shall.” other beast. A single eye socket glares at them, dull and gray.
The hounds bark and resume their tracking, mile after mile, un- Then the eye lights up and locks on them. “Speak,” says the
til finally, through rain-darkened skies, a flash of lightning reveals Voice of Rot. “Speak, agents of King Kelland. And do not deceive,
the Black Needles. Spires of stone rise up amid berms of spider for I know when a lie is told.”
webs. The peaks ascend rapidly and roughly, such that even the
Great Hunt’s horses cannot climb them. From afar the tallest ridge Conversation.
seems insurmountable, but something in the shape of the webs and The Voice of Rot does not know the party’s intention. They may
tree canopy suggests a stone structure there. have thwarted his plans for the Unseen Court, but he thinks they
Riffian halts his riders and explains that they can go no farther. are trapped in this world and does not realize the “trick” of using
He offers a last bit of advice. Each fey titan has a weakness. The Fa- King Dukain’s sword. The sword lies in a toppled black stump on
ther of Thunder is a drunkard. The Ash Wolf is protective of other the stair at elevation “+60” on the map. The Voice of Rot (whose
wolves. And the Voice of Rot can be tricked into talking when it head is the size of a Gargantuan creature) waits in the southeast
could be fighting. corner of the map.
He shall have a hound guide them to their battle, and he prom- He sees them as no threat, but is curious. Smart PCs will dis-
ises his knights will defend their flank from any of the Voice of tract him, but if they mention their plans—or when they get within
Rot’s worshippers. But his oaths forbid him from fighting a fey 30 feet of the sword—he shouts, “Tricksters! You are like me, but I
titan. He seems incredibly forlorn about this. have no equal! You challenge, and I greet your deaths gladly.”
Spirits of the Dead. Philosophy of the End of the World.

A spirit medium PC hears ghostly howls, chittering, and other Before or during the coming battle, PCs who keep the Voice of Rot
animal noises, for the Voice of Rot controls the dead beasts of his distracted by talking to him will help the party immensely. Recall,
High Bayou. A few voices speak among this chatter as well, cry- the Voice of Rot feels compelled to engage and match those who
ing for help. If the spirit medium attempts to contact them, they challenge him. If no one talks to him, he will use his powers to
explain that they were observers working for the Unseen Court, harm the party (but not kill them; he leaves that to his minions).
tasked with watching in case the fey titan was active. But the Voice However if he’s engaged in a battle of words, he’ll pay less atten-
of Rot had his ettercap minions slay them, and now their bodies tion to the physical battle.
are under the titan’s command, and their souls cannot find a way Before combat this means that PCs who are trying to get close
to leave their rotting corpses. to the sword of the black needles can on any given round use either
During the coming battle, a spirit medium will have the ability their own Stealth check to oppose the Voice of Rot’s passive Per-
to control some of the Voice of Rot’s own minions. ception of 26, or the Charisma (Deception or Persuasion) check of
a PC who is talking to the fey titan. Attempts to hide automatically
Titan Shrine. fail once a PC gets within 30 feet of the sword, since the Voice of
The party must make their final ascent alone, covering a quarter Rot will sense the threat and give battle.
mile as the hound guides through the midnight rain. Finally they During combat if a PC spends a bonus action to address the
climb over a berm of webs and arrive at the bottom of one of the Voice of Rot, they can make a DC 30 Charisma (Deception or Per-
stone spires. The side of the hundred-foot high spire is sheer cliff suasion) check to compel the titan to respond on his following turn.
streaked with rain, and scraggly forest grows atop it. Immense And if the Voice of Rot is talking, he cannot use his bite attack,
carvings along the cliffs have been eroded by time and covered by his channel negative energy action, or his innate spellcasting trait.
brush, but they show that the natives of this swamp worship the The Voice of Rot is particularly intrigued by any eschatologists
Voice of Rot here. among the party. He senses their connection to the end of the
The hound has led them to a canyon of sorts, cut into the side world. An eschatologist gains a +10 bonus to these Charisma (De-
of the peak. A massive and ancient stone staircase ascends up the ception or Persuasion) checks.

Act One: Much Ado

Act One: Much Ado
The Sword in the Stump they can stay out of reach of his bite.
The titan moves from the southeast corner, up through the pools,
Action. Tactical. and tries to circle around the entire party. His mere presence
Drawing forth a sword abandoned by a king will let the party escape sickens living creatures, and he can easily crush a person just by
the Dreaming. twitching his body. He can will parts of the swamp to entangle his
The Voice of Rot calls forth allies from the swamp as soon as it foes—but his greatest threats are his bite and his voice.
realizes the party is going for the sword. The surprise here is that The blackwood treant lies inert on a 60-foot high stair; a DC
the fallen tree the sword is stuck in is actually an undead treant, 26 Wisdom (Perception) check realizes it’s a creature. It attacks if
and the party have to destroy it before they can remove the blade. damaged or if someone tries to retrieve the sword stuck in its body.
Whoever has the sword can then surrender. The Voice of Rot snarls Two rotted archers hide in the trees near that treant and can be
as it realizes what this means, and then it banishes them (and the spotted with a DC 22 Wisdom (Perception) check.
Great Hunt) to the real world. Gangs of undead ettercaps emerge from the swamp—two adja-
cent to each PC, and more crawl up from the web walls within 30
Versus the Voice of Rot. feet of the sword in the stump.
The battle probably occurs at night, with only dim moonlight oc-
casionally breaking through rainclouds. Under these conditions, The Voice of Rot
every creature treats anything more than 30 feet from it as lightly Gargantuan undead, chaotic evil
obscured. Armor Class 17 (natural armor)
Hit Points 307 (15d20+150)
Adversaries Speed 20 ft., climb 20 ft., swim 20 ft.
• The Voice of Rot STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
• 1 blackwood treant 35 (+12) 8 (–1) 31 (+10) 26 (+8) 19 (+4) 28 (+9)
• 2 rotted archers Skills Arcana +20, Deception +21, Insight +16, Intimidation +21,
• 8 ettercap exoskeletal gang Medicine +10, Nature +20, Religion +20, Perception +16, Stealth
+11
Terrain. Damage Resistances acid, cold, lightning, fire, necrotic, radiant,
Each step of the stairs is ten feet long and ten feet high. Huge walls thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from magical weapons
of webbing contain pools. The elevation markers show how high Damage Immunities necrotic, poison; bludgeoning, piercing, and
the tops of the webs are, and thus how high up the surface of the slashing from nonmagical weapons
adjacent pool is. The “tilde” elevation markers in the pool show Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed,
how high above “ground level” the surface of the water is (which is poisoned
also how deep the pool is). Senses darkvision 60 ft., lifesight, true seeing, passive Perception 26
For example, the party starts in a pool that is 10 feet deep, and Languages Primordial
north them is a wall that goes up to 30 feet above the ground—but Challenge 20 (25,000 XP)
only 20 feet above the pool they’re in. North of that is actually a Ever Moving. The Voice of Rot automatically moves 10 feet after each
shallower pool, and the stairs. creature’s turn. At the start of a creature’s turn, if it is adjacent to
The tops of the walls are solid and easy to walk across. Each the Voice of Rot it makes a DC 26 Dexterity saving throw or it takes
5-foot space of the wall has only an AC of 14 and 50 hit points, 21 (2d8+12) bludgeoning damage, is pushed away 5 feet, and falls
making it possible to breach a wall and start a catastrophic water- prone. On a successful save, a creature may allow itself to be pushed
fall that drains the next highest pool. away 5 feet without taking damage or falling prone.
The Voice of Rot can move easily through the water and even Innate Spellcasting. The Voice of Rot’s innate spellcasting ability is
through the web walls without slowing down. His movement does Charisma (spell save DC 23, spell attack +15). It can innately cast
not breach the walls. the following spells, requiring no material components.
Constant: freedom of movement, tongues, true seeing
Tactics. At will: bestow curse, create undead, entangle
If running this battle with a tactical map, you will need to keep 3/day each: circle of death, blight, geas, resurrection
track of the entire length of the Voice of Rot’s body. It’s recom- 1/day: finger of death
mended to use a Gargantuan miniature for the head (or an actual Life Sight. The Voice of Rot has blindsight 60 ft. but the trait only al-
snake skull when possible), and then coins every 2 squares trailing lows it to detect living creatures and undead creatures, and determine
behind him. His body is 15 feet wide (i.e., one square to either side whether a creature is living or undead. Constructs and other creatures
of a coin) and a total of 300 feet long (30 coins). When he moves, cannot be seen with this trait.
move the head, then remove sufficient coins from the tail end to Magical Attacks. The Voice of Rot’s attacks count as magical for the
fill in the spaces between where he started and where his head purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks
ended up. and damage.
If using a battle map, trace all movement from his head, and
avoid hairpin turns. The party should feel like if they move right,

Act One: Much Ado
Regeneration. The Voice of Rot regains 10 hit points at the start of its Friendly Death?
turn. The Voice of Rot dies only if it starts its turn with 0 hit points. If you want to end the campaign with this adventure, you’ll need to
Stench. Any creature that starts its turn within 30 feet of the Voice alter this scene. The Voice of Rot is not hostile, but is still compelled to
of Rot must succeed on a DC 26 Constitution saving throw or be battle the party if they make a move for the sword of the black needles.
poisoned until the start of its next turn. On a successful saving throw, Either before the battle, or after it but before he banishes them, the
the creature is immune to the Voice of Rot’s stench for 24 hours. Voice of Rot speaks of a distant gyre, a constellation of grinding gears
Titanic. The head of the Voice of Rot occupies a 20-foot square, the that consumes all dying worlds, as this world too shall some day die,
body trailing behind it is 15 feet wide, and the creature is in total 300 far from now.
feet long. Any part of the Voice of Rot’s body can be targeted, but its The shadows will sever the ties between this world and those that
head has vulnerability to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. feed it the energy it needs to live. They will bind it to new worlds, and
Due to its size, the Voice of Rot cannot turn more than 45 degrees for the old worlds will drift away, toward the gyre, to die. The titan tells
every 10 feet it advances (so it must travel at least 40 feet in order to them to look to the gyre for other dying worlds. Perhaps they will find
turn around). salvation there.
~Because the Voice of Rot is so massive, uneven ground and other This is similar to what the party will discover on their own in the
terrain features that represent difficult terrain don’t hinder the Voice coming adventures, though the Voice of Rot will be a foe, not a friend.
of Rot’s movement; instead, it considers areas of forest or developed,
settled areas difficult terrain. A Huge or smaller creature can move Blackwood Treant
through any square occupied by the Voice of Rot, and vice versa. Huge undead, neutral evil
~The Voice of Rot can make opportunity attacks only against Armor Class 18 (natural armor)
creatures that are Huge or larger, and can only be flanked by Huge or Hit Points 152 (16d12+80)
larger foes. Speed 30 ft.
~It’s possible for a Huge or smaller creature to climb the Voice of Rot STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
with a DC 26 Strength (Athletics) check but unlike normal, a Small 24 (+7) 15 (+2) 21 (+5) 16 (+3) 21 (+5) 18 (+4)
or larger creature that climbs on the Voice of Rot’s body provokes an Skills Athletics +12, Insight +15, Intimidation +14, Nature +13,
opportunity attack if within reach of its head. Perception +15, Persuasion +14, Stealth +7
Actions Damage Vulnerabilities fire
Multiattack. The Voice of Rot attacks twice. Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +18 to hit, reach 20 ft., multiple targets nonmagical weapons
(all creatures in a 20-foot cone; make an attack roll for each target). Damage Immunities cold, lightning, necrotic, poison
Hit: 38 (6d12+12) piercing damage and the creature is grappled Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed,
(escape DC 26). When grappling more than one creature with its poisoned
bite, grappled creatures have advantage on checks made to escape it. Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 25
Constrict. Melee Weapon Attack: +18 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Languages Common, Sylvan, Treant
Hit: 34 (4d10+12) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled Challenge 13 (10,000 XP)
(escape DC 26), and the target makes a DC 26 Strength saving False Appearance. While the treant remains motionless, it is indistin-
throw or its Strength score is reduced by 1d4. The target dies if this guishable from a normal tree.
reduces its Strength to 0. Otherwise, the reduction lasts until the Siege Monster. The treant deals double damage to objects and
target finishes a short or long rest. For every point of Strength reduced structures.
from a creature, the Voice of Rot regains 5 hit points. Until this Treespeech. The treant is under the constant effects of a speak with
grapple ends, the creature is restrained, and the snake can’t constrict plants spell.
another target. Turn Resistance. The treant has advantage on saving throws against
Channel Negative Energy. The Voice of Rot commands mystical forces any effect that turns undead.
to roil outward with baleful energies, dealing 45 (10d8) damage Actions
to all creatures within 30 feet. Half of this damage is fire and half is Multiattack. The treant makes two slam attacks.
necrotic. A creature that succeeds on a DC 23 Wisdom saving throw Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit:
takes half damage. 17 (3d6+7) bludgeoning damage plus 7 (2d6) necrotic damage.
Rock. Ranged Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, range 60/180 ft., one
target. Hit: 29 (4d10+7) bludgeoning damage.
Animate Trees (1/Day). The treant magically animates one or two
trees it can see within 60 feet of it. These trees have the same statis-
tics as a treant, except they have Intelligence and Charisma scores
of 1, they can’t speak, and they have only the Slam action option. An
animated tree acts as an ally of the treant. The tree remains animate
for 1 day or until it dies; until the treant dies or is more than 120 feet
from the tree; or until the treant takes a bonus action to turn it back
into an inanimate tree. The tree then takes root if possible.

Act One: Much Ado
Aftermath.
If the party fails to reach the sword, the Voice of Rot captures them. Slate. Whoever had the sword still has it. See the Appendix (Magic
Skip straight to Zeitgeist #12: The Grinding Gears of Heaven. and Training) for stats.
If the party gets the sword of the black needles and surrenders, The party might be ready to rush to Slate, but the Great Hunt’s
the Voice of Rot banishes them to the Waking, along with the horses need until sunrise before they’ll be ready to go again, and
Great Hunt. Smoke and fog rolls across them, and when it passes teleportation isn’t working over long distances here any better
they find themselves in the real world at the northern edge of the than in the Dreaming. Luckily, a nearby farm offers some rest, and
High Bayou, far from any enemies but still some 180 miles from stables for the horses. e
Rotted Archer Exoskeletal Ettercap Gang

Medium undead, neutral evil Gargantuan swarm of Medium undead, chaotic evil
Armor Class 18 (natural armor) Armor Class 18 (natural armor)
Hit Points 97 (15d8+30) Hit Points 86 (9d8+36)
Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft. Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
17 (+3) 22 (+6) 14 (+2) 11 (+0) 10 (+0) 15 (+2) 20 (+5) 17 (+3) 19 (+4) 6 (–2) 15 (+2) 16 (+3)
Saving Throws Con +6, Wis +4, Cha +6 Skills Perception +8, Stealth +9
Skills Intimidation +10, Perception +8, Stealth +14 Damage Immunities cold, necrotic, poison
Damage Immunities cold, necrotic, poison Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed,
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned
poisoned Senses passive Perception 18
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 18 Languages Common, Primordial
Languages Common Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)
Challenge 9 (5,000 XP) Chaos of Combat. Any creature that is adjacent to or in the swarm’s
Devour Soul. The rotted archer can use an action to devour the soul space has a hard time focusing on magic. A creature casting a spell or
of an adjacent dead or dying creature. A dying creature makes a DC concentrating on a spell makes a Constitution saving throw (DC 15 +
14 Strength saving throw or is instantly slain. Only creatures that spell level) or loses the spell.
have died within the last hour have a soul to be devoured. A creature Spider Climb. The swarm can climb difficult surfaces, including upside
subjected to this attack cannot be brought back to life via raise dead down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
(true resurrection and more powerful effects work normally). When Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature’s space and vice versa,
a rotted archer devours a soul in this way, it heals 27 (5d6+10) hit and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a
points and becomes hasted for 4 rounds (as if affected by haste). Medium creature. The swarm can’t regain hit points or gain temporary
Dread Howl (1/Day). The rotted archer can unleash a blood-curdling hit points.
howl that chills souls within a 30-foot radius. Living creatures in the Web Sense. While in contact with a web, the swarm knows the exact
area make a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or become paralyzed for one location of any other creature in contact with the same web.
round. On a successful save, a living creature becomes frightened for Web Walker. The swarm ignores movement restrictions caused by
one round instead. webbing.
Infused Arrows. When firing an arrow, the rotted archer can transform Actions
it into bone, dealing an extra 7 (2d6) necrotic damage and possibly Ravenous Assault. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one
paralyzing targets (included in the attack below). creature. Hit: 32 (6d8+5) piercing damage plus 9 (2d8) poison dam-
Feat: Superb Aim. The rotted archer ignores half cover and three- age. The target must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw
quarters cover when making a ranged weapon attack, and it doesn’t or be poisoned for 1 minute. The creature can repeat the saving throw
have disadvantage when attacking at long range. When the rotted at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
archer makes its first ranged weapon attack in a turn, it can choose to Web (Recharge 5–6). Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, range
take a –5 penalty to its ranged weapon attack rolls in exchange for a 30/60 ft., multiple targets (all creatures in a 10-foot radius area
+10 bonus to ranged weapon damage. within range; make an attack roll for each target). Hit: The creature is
Actions restrained by webbing. As an action, the restrained creature can make
Multiattack. The rotted archer attacks twice with its claws or three a DC 15 Strength check, escaping from the webbing on a success.
times with its longbow. The effect also ends if the webbing is destroyed. The webbing has
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 AC 10, 5 hit points, vulnerability to fire damage, and immunity to
(1d6+3) slashing damage. bludgeoning, poison, and psychic damage.
Longbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, range 150/600 ft.,
one target. Hit: 10 (1d8+6) piercing damage plus 3 (1d6) necrotic
damage and the target must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw
or is paralyzed for 1d4 rounds.

En5ider 306 ZEITGEIST 9 The-Last-Starry-Sky Part-1

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EN5ider Presents:

The Last Starry Sky

From the Pen of Seamlessly Updated to Fifth Edition by

Initial Treatment by Ably Produced and Facilitated by

Evocative Cover Illustration by Special Thanks to

Masterful Interior Illustrations by Open Game Content

2 | EN5ider Presents: The Last Starry Sky, Part One

Background Ending the Campaign Here.

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Character Themes in the Adventure.

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Things to See, Fights to Avoid.

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Great Huntsman Goggling and Gossip

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The Webway. Exploring the Dreaming.

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Sites of Interest. Thistle Palace.

Flashdrought Fountain. Two-Faced Politicians

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Lore of the Unseen Court. Skyseer Welcoming.

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Making Deals with Faeries. Negotiating with Thisraldion.

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Fey Orca Adversaries

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Satyr Springjack Masking of the Unseen.

Gathered Suspects. And the Killer Is…

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If the party seems particularly stymied, that’s fine. The Borenbog

The Dread Borenbog

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Webway Chase. Actions

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Spirits of the Dead. Philosophy of the End of the World.

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40 | EN5ider Presents: The Last Starry Sky, Part One

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Rotted Archer Exoskeletal Ettercap Gang