# Bavlorna's Cottage - Whole cottage is perched atop tall, thick wooden stilts - Dense fog - 4 flights of wooden steps rise out of the swamp, leading to a trapdoor underneath the cottage ## Map ```leaflet id: bavlornas-cottage image: bavlornas-cottage.jpg height: 450px minZoom: 6 maxZoom: 10 defaultZoom: 7 zoomDelta: 1 unit: feet scale: 1 ``` ## Locations ### Preservation Pool [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Map|Back to map]] - Accessible through the cottage's trapdoor entrance from [[Downfall]]'s Murky Lake. ```ad-info title: The pool A recessed pool lined with moldy clay tiles takes up most of this large square room. Stagnant water fills the depression to a depth of one foot. Rising from the pool’s center is the head of a stone well that gives off an unpleasant, pungent odor. In one corner of the pool stands a tall, dirty, freestanding mirror in an oval frame, and floating on the water is a large lily pad. Creaky wooden floorboards are arranged in a ten-foot-wide raised walkway around the pool. This walkway is crowded with shelves, tables, and stools in all shapes and styles. Almost every available surface is littered with stacks of dirty plates, scraps of food, and old junk. Dressing dummies are pushed together in one corner, and a wooden staircase spirals up from another corner. Five closed doors lead from the room. ``` - 7 Dress dummies: 4 medium, 3 small - 1 has what looks like a hat, but is actually a [darkmantle](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/darkmantle) - Darkmantle grabs someone's hat and attempts to flee - Magic mirror in the pool - Conjuration magic - Portal - "Bandersnatch" makes it go to several places - [[The Witchlight Carnival#Hall of Illusions]] - [[Rumblecusp]] - Pool - Magic [bobbing lily pad](https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/bobbing-lily-pad) Secrets - Bavlorna bathes in the pool every day to keep her skin rejuvenated, but the well that supplies the water isn't working and the water level is low. - A [gelatinous cube](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/gelatinous-cube) is the cause of the blockage in the well. It stays 10 feet below the well - Water is slightly acidic. DC 15 Nature. ### Taxidermy Workshop [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Map|Back to map]] ```ad-info title: Description A horse’s head leers at you with glossy eyes, its lips drawn back from pointed yellow teeth. The head is affixed to a large, eight-limbed armature made of wicker and wire, situated so that it faces the doorway where you entered. Near it is a wooden crate. Flies buzz about this disordered room, landing occasionally on animal carcasses that lie strewn in small piles. On a low table rests an assortment of tools—saws, knives, scrapers, a hand-cranked drill, sewing thread and needles, and awls—around several taxidermic subjects in various stages of completion. A shelf that looks on the verge of collapse leans against the wall between two windows and bears the weight of dozens of stuffed horrors. Each one is an artless combination of two or more animals. ``` - Crate (with Bavlorna's name in Sylvan) - curled-up 8-legged reptile carcass with spikes (basilisk) - Worktable - glass eyes - 1 wooden eye, belonging to [[Skabatha Nightshade]] ### Fabric Storage Room [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Map|Back to map]] ```ad-info title: Description Scraps of cloth and bundles of yarn are piled throughout this small room. ``` - 2 1-foot-tall pincushions sewn into humanoid shapes - 1 is on a tiny wooden rocking horse: [[Skabatha Nightshade]] - 1 has wooden wings: [[Endelyn Moongrave]] ### Rickety Stairs [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Map|Back to map]] ```ad-info title: Description A flight of stairs runs along the outside wall of the cottage, with wooden doors at the top and bottom of it. A rickety railing hugs the edge of the staircase, which looms above the foggy lake. A steady droning sound comes from a shadowed corner above the door at the top of the stairs. ``` - Goes up to the second floor - DC 10 Perception to see that the second and third steps are rotted, so they give way when trod on. (DC 15 Dex save, otherwise they fall into the lake (takes no damage)) - [Wasp nest](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/swarm-of-insects-wasps) is in a corner and is disturbed if not dealt with first. ### Trove of Lesser Goodies [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Map|Back to map]] ```ad-info title: Description A large cupboard stands alone in this dark room. Fine scrollwork frames the cupboard’s two doors, which are bridged by a circular panel of dark wood. The panel is inlaid with a silver hourglass sigil. ``` - Locked cupboard with an hourglass sigil. The hourglass must be turned upside down to open it. - small compartments, pouches, containers - 1 is a teacup-sized ceramic cauldron with a paper inside that says _spittlespew_. (Password to open cauldron in [[Downfall#Bavlorna's Cauldron]]) - Loose buttons of various shapes, colors, and materials - Stray cutlery (all from different sets) - Unopened love letters (not written or addressed to Bavlorna, but to long-dead people with whom Bavlorna has had dealings) - Old, frayed, coiled-up belts - Pressed flowers and loose dried petals - A horseshoe - Feathers from various birds - A chipped teacup ### Balcony [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Map|Back to map]] ```ad-info title: Description This ten-foot-wide balcony runs almost the length of the cottage and is covered from end to end with living frogs. At each end of the balcony, attached to one corner of the cottage just beyond easy reach, is a clothesline draped with patchwork garments. The two lines stretch out over the lake and disappear into the thick fog. ``` - Frogs croak in unison, alerting Bavlorna to intruders. - Frogs leap into the river if one of them is killed. - Bavlorna sends three [[Lornling]]s that look like her if she is alerted. ### Spiral staircase - Leads up to [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Hallway]] ### Hallway [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Map|Back to map]] ```ad-info title: Description The walls of this dank hallway are covered with scores of portraits depicting grumpy, sad, frightened, and angry people. The figures include humans, elves, halflings, bullywugs, and goblins, among others. The portraits are rendered in a variety of mediums, including paintings, etchings, and sketches. All are displayed in gaudy, gilded frames. A framed oval mirror two feet wide and five feet tall hangs in the middle of one wall. ``` - Leads up to the second level from the [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Spiral staircase]] - Oval mirror (transmutation) is stuck to the wall with _sovereign glue_. Creatures that look into it see their own faces reflected back at them, but without emotions. But if they smile into the mirror, it swings inwards and a hidden passage is revealed: [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Secret Passage]] - Door can also be spotted with DC 10 Perception, and then forced open ### Guest Room [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Map|Back to map]] - dusty, uncluttered - modest bed, shadow boxes (contain mummified pixies pinned to boards). - glass on one of the shadow boxes is broken, and the box is empty ### Secret Passage [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Map|Back to map]] ```ad-info title: Description A moldy scent hangs in the air in this dark, L-shaped hallway. ``` - The closer characters get to [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Study]], the smaller they get. - Normal closest to hallway - 1/2 size halfway through - 1/20 size closest to study - disadvantage on STR checks/saves, weapons deal 1d4 less damage at 1/2-1/10 size, 2d6 less if smaller - Tiny door not immediately visible: 2-inch wide, 4-inch-tall mouse hole - Barred on the other side with a steel needle but they can go through and find themselves in [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Study]] - Shrunken creatures return to their normal size after 1 minute. DC 16 athletics to push off the cabinet if they get stuck underneath it. ### Study [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Map|Back to map]] ```ad-info title: Description Two creatures are having a conversation over tea in the middle of this room. The first figure is seated in a timeworn armchair. She is a tall, lean woman of gray complexion, dressed in black with a wide-brimmed hat obscuring her eyes. The other figure is a toad-like creature with bulging eyes and cracked skin. It is clad in a shapeless garment and sits on one end of a love seat with its legs pulled up beneath it. Flies flit into and out of its mouth, which hangs agape when it isn’t speaking. Two tiny versions of the creature cling to it like pets. The room is filthy. Dirty dishes and bits of discarded food lie everywhere. The furniture was perhaps once of fine quality, but now stains of mysterious origin mottle every surface, and the upholstery has been patched numerous times. Set with its back to the wall in one corner is a hulking wooden cabinet. Sturdy legs support the bottom of the cabinet six inches above the floor. A decrepit wooden staircase climbs up the wall in another corner. ``` - Bavlorna - Charm - 2 lornlings Upper left Corner Cabinet is a potion cabinet. - Two doors, made of wood, covered with dark patches of moss - There's a lock in the middle of the right panel, obscured beneath the hanging moss. Bavlorna swallowed it. DC 15 Dex to pick the lock: - [x] Potion of invulnerability - [x] [Potion of Freezing Fog](obsidian://open?vault=dnd-vault&file=items%2FVault%20of%20Magic%2FPotion%20of%20Freezing%20Fog) - [x] [Blue Rose Tea](obsidian://open?vault=dnd-vault&file=items%2FVault%20of%20Magic%2FBlue%20Rose%20Tea) - [x] [Dust of Sneezing and Choking](obsidian://open?vault=dnd-vault&file=items%2FMagic%20Items%20for%20Dungeons%20%26%20Dragons%205e%20SRD%2FA-M%2FDust%20of%20Sneezing%20and%20Choking) - [x] [Trollsblood Elixir](obsidian://open?vault=dnd-vault&file=items%2FVault%20of%20Magic%2FTrollsblood%20Elixir) - [x] [Potion of Diminution](obsidian://open?vault=dnd-vault&file=items%2FMagic%20Items%20for%20Dungeons%20%26%20Dragons%205e%20SRD%2FPotion%20of%20Diminution) - [x] [Cloud and Mist Immortality tea](obsidian://open?vault=dnd-vault&file=items%2FVault%20of%20Magic%2FCloud%20and%20Mist%20Immortality%20Tea) - Top shelf: stuffed cat that comes alive when the cabinet is opened. [[Gloam]] is [[Endelyn Moongrave]]'s cat, and Bavlorna has stolen it. If it is attacked, it breaks the Dust of Sneezing and Choking. There is a tiny door beneath the cabinet. DC 10 Strength to force it open. It leads to [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Secret Passage]]. ### Stairs to third floor [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Map|Back to map]] This is a staircase leading from [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Study|the study]] to [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Bavlorna's Bedroom|Bavlorna's bedroom]]. ### Aviary [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Map|Back to map]] ```ad-info title: Description Slivers of light enter through cracks in the shutters that cover three tall windows. The light reveals the shapes of several pedestals. On each one rests an object with a patchwork cloth draped over it. Wilting ferns in crumbling clay pots give the room its earthy smell. The floor is covered in a layer of straw. ``` - Two balconies: - North: "Yon" - East: "Thither" - There are cages for 7 taxidermy birds (each bird has mismatched heads and bodies from different species) - Birds squawk when cloth is removed. - Each bird uses the [hawk](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/hawk) stat block, except it is an Undead, has immunity to poison damage, and is immune to [exhaustion](https://www.dndbeyond.com/compendium/rules/basic-rules/appendix-a-conditions#Exhaustion) and the [poisoned](https://www.dndbeyond.com/compendium/rules/basic-rules/appendix-a-conditions#Poisoned) condition. ### Meat Locker [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Map|Back to map]] ```ad-info title: Description This room is freezing. Chunks of frozen meat dangle from the ceiling on hooks and chains. Along the walls, more meat is stacked in piles on metal racks. A small, frost-covered wooden coffer sits in the middle of the floor. The cold seems to be radiating from it. ``` - The door here is closed and cold to the touch. - The rules for [extreme cold](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg/adventure-environments#ExtremeCold "extreme cold") apply if characters stay here for an hour or more. - Wooden coffer can be opened with a DC 10 Athletics check (made with advantage if a crowbar or similar is used). - Contains the still-beating heart of [[Rubin Sugarwood]] in a Bag of Colding. ### Kitchen [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Map|Back to map]] ```ad-info title: Description In this gore-spattered kitchen, a stout figure with a stained apron, iron boots, a crimson cap, and a bloody meat cleaver chases a pair of vultures around a butcher’s block while the squawking birds fight over a scrap of meat. ``` - Dirty cutlery and mismatched plates and pots in piles around a wash basin - Slab of blood-encrusted wood in the middle of the kitchen. NPC: [[Bloody Toes]] ### Cages [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Map|Back to map]] ```ad-info title: Description Three large iron cages hang from wooden beams that extend out from this balcony over the lake below. Trapped inside one of the cages is a smiling satyr. “Hello there!” he says. ``` - Cages store soon-to-be butchered meat. - DC 25 Athletics to bend bars of cage, or DC 15 Dex to pick the lock. NPCs: - [[Rubin Sugarwood]] - When released, he picks up a stick, whispers to it, and hands it to the one that set him free. Until this flower wilts and falls off 24 hours later, it acts like a [stone of good luck](https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/stone-of-good-luck-luckstone) that doesn’t require attunement. - [[Charm]]'s dead body, without a shadow. ### Pantry [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Map|Back to map]] - Dozens of pickling jars on wooden tacks - Inside the jars: pig snouts, toads, a [campestri](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/campestri) (see [appendix C](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/twbtw/creatures#Campestris "appendix C")) that bursts into song if released, cooking ingredients. ### Dining Room [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Map|Back to map]] ```ad-info title: Description This room has two exits. Above each door, mounted on a wooden plaque, is a severed goblin head with its mouth agape. Other furnishings include a sideboard, two cupboards with doors made of wood-framed glass, and a large banquet table covered with plates of half-eaten food and a swarm of feasting flies. A chandelier hangs above the table, its tallow candles filling the room with dim, flickering light. Six mismatched chairs flank the table—three chairs per side. ``` - 2 [[Lornling]]s hide in the mouths of severed goblin heads mounted above doors. - They will tell the party that Bavlorna has a magic mirror in [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Preservation Pool]] that can transport creatures to [[The Witchlight Carnival]] in exchange for their lives. The password is _bandersnatch_. (They argue about the password, whether it's _blunder scratch_ or _bangle stash_ or _banter catch_ or _bumble snatch_.) ### Hooch Distillery [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Map|Back to map]] ```ad-info title: Description A contraption made of entangled copper tubes connects to a pot-bellied boiler and a dozen cylindrical containers, which in turn sprout even more tubes that feed into buckets. Barrels are clustered in the southeast corner, and a worktable in one corner of the room has bits of copper and metalworking tools strewn across it. Light filters in through the green, diamond-shaped panes of glass set into the window. ``` - Bavlorna distills her supply of mushroom-based alcohol here - The complex network of pipes takes up most of the room - Six buckets collect the alcohol - Each barrel weighs 250 pounds. - DC 12 Dex saving throw for anyone who messes with the still. On a failure, `dice: 1d8`. On a 1, each creature in the room makes a DC 15 Dex saving throw, taking `dice: 3d6` fire damage on a failure or half as much on a success. - The mushroom concoction is a [Bloodlink potion](obsidian://open?vault=dnd-vault&file=items%2FVault%20of%20Magic%2FBloodlink%20Potion). ### Bavlorna's Bedroom [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Map|Back to map]] ```ad-info title: Description A ball of light bobs above the rafters, casting shadows over this room, in which the owner’s messy habits are on full display. Rumpled and moldering rugs share floor space with food scraps, stacks of dirty dishes, and tipped-over clay pots whose plants have long since died. A bed that occupies one corner of the room has a pile of straw in place of a mattress. In the opposite corner stands a squat chest of drawers with a watering can resting atop it. The only other furnishing of note is a stocky wooden chest with a sturdy iron padlock. It sits in another corner between two closed doors. ``` - [Will-o'-wisp](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/will-o-wisp) is trying to get back the things it lost in life, which are in Bavlorna's drawers. - Chest of drawers has clothes that Bavlorna wears occasionally, in her toadish form. - Rusty watering can on chest with about a gallon of water. - East door: leads to [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Bavlorna's Hoard]]. - South door: leads to empty balcony looking out to [[Downfall#Murky Lake]]. - 4 almost-dead [twig blight](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/twig-blight)s in tipped-over pots. They are thirsty but can't reach the water. If they are watered and repotted, one of them pulls out a black-enameled iron key out of the dirt in its pot. It is the key to the treasure chest. - Padlocked treasure chest has initials B.B. on its lid. It takes 1 minute and a DC16 Dexterity check with thieves' tools to pick the lock. - 12-inch-tall marionette that Bavlorna stole from her sister, [[Endelyn Moongrave]]. It has faces on both sides of its head. One is a moon, and the other is a sun. (worth 25 gp) - Unpunched ticket to [[The Witchlight Carnival]]. It's old and is signed by the original owner, [[Isolde]]. - Three spell scrolls of [identify](https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/identify) tied together with a string. ### Bavlorna's Hoard [[Bavlorna's Cottage#Map|Back to map]] ```ad-info title: Description This musty room looks like a miser’s attic. Lying in tall heaps are discarded blankets, quilts, cushions, and clothing of all shapes and sizes, not to mention musical instruments, toys, dolls, jewelry boxes, flower vases, child-sized caskets, and broken furniture. Among the heaps of junk are a few oddities, including a stag’s skull hanging on one wall, a white porcelain jar with chicken legs standing on a table, a fancy helmet placed on the faceless head of a wooden mannequin, and a five-foot-long bronze statue of a giant frog squatting in a corner, its mouth agape and filled with impenetrable darkness. A weak croaking sound calls your attention to a tiny, shriveled figure lying on the floor. It lets out one final gasp before dying. ``` - A [[Lornling]] was killed by [[Charm]]'s shadow. ```ad-info title: Charm's shadow collapse: true A shape moves in the gloom—a dark humanoid figure lurking among the junk. It clutches a large spool of thread in one hand as it heads for the door. ``` - Charm's shadow tries to leave with the spool of thread, the color of frustration and self-doubt. Anyone who wears a garment made of this thread will feel these negative emotions. Loot/junk - [x] Stag's skull on a wall hook, which belongs to [[Clapperclaw]]. - [ ] Porcelain jar made of white clay on a wooden table. The jar has legs that have been painted to look like the legs of a chicken. Inside the jar are two broken pieces of a wishbone. If the characters touch the two pieces together, they hear Bavlorna’s voice in their heads say, “Skabatha forgets the first creature she sees when she wakes up, although her memory of it returns each night when she sleeps. A creature forgotten by Skabatha in this manner is [invisible](https://www.dndbeyond.com/compendium/rules/basic-rules/appendix-a-conditions#Invisible) to her.” - [ ] Wooden mannequinn wears a [Helm of teleportation](obsidian://open?vault=dnd-vault&file=items%2FMagic%20Items%20for%20Dungeons%20%26%20Dragons%205e%20SRD%2FA-M%2FHelm%20of%20Teleportation). - [ ] [Dagger of Venom](https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/dagger-of-venom) ```ad-info title: Bronze Frog Statue collapse: true Your limb disappears into the darkness, and it feels as though your fingers were pushing through cool mud with eels swimming through it. ``` - Magical darkness, extradimensional space - Reach into it and say/think of an item that's inside the mouth to pull it out - Contains [[Jamedi Cosko|Jamedi]]'s memories, in the form of a lunchbox, and [[Lira]]'s hat of disguise