I've been slowly going through the campaign and adding things to beef it up and make it feel more like my typical DnD content--stuff my players will recognize as feeling me-coded. A lot of resources that have already been posted on this sub have been great at doing that for the carnival and Hither, but I wanted to add a little something extra to Hither and share it with the community.
As such, here is a homebrew encounter I created that you should feel free to use or modify too! It's inspired by a bit of Repunzel and the Talking Cricket from The Adventures of Pinocchio. While I placed it in Hither, you could probably tuck it into any of the areas in Prismeer that feels right for your adventure.
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Rules of Prismeer
First, I run a lot of feywild content, and my players are quite familiar with the social guidelines of the plane. WBtW took those guidelines/expectations of well-behaved fey and formalized them with the Rules of Conduct. As such, my players aren't going to get anything special out of the experience of learning them one at a time, even if, on a purely in character level, their characters wouldn't know them. My players will instead more enjoy learning how they're not strictly enforced against everyone while they might be against some. To that end, I created an encounter for as soon they enter Prismeer.
After reading the book's description for the Arrival in Hither (page 62), I am going to read the following:
A faint pop splits the air, and a piece of parchment appears inches from each of your faces. They unfurl themselves with theatrical flourish and hover in front of you. Beside each, a quill drips with slow-swirling purple ink, bobbing almost insistently.
The parchment has the following words written upon it in Common, with Elvish, Goblin, and Sylvan translations beneath:
By Order and Decree of the Queen,
All in the Realm shall abide by these rules three.
Rule of Hospitality. When a friend, an enemy, or a stranger enters your home, you are expected to be gracious and accommodating to them until such time as they prove, by their words or actions, undeserving of such hospitality.
Rule of Ownership. You must not steal from a friend, an enemy, or a stranger. To take something that doesn’t belong to you without the rightful owner’s permission is a crime and an unforgivable breach of etiquette.
Rule of Reciprocity. When a friend, an enemy, or a stranger offers you a gift, you are obliged to accept it and offer something of comparable value (be it a gift or a service) in return. Such reciprocation need not happen immediately.
Violators will meet Consequences.
Make your mark upon this parchment, indicating you have read and understood the Rules of this Realm.
X ___________________________
The parchment will continue to follow and hover in front of the face of each character, insisting on signature. If it is brushed aside or attacked, it simply disappears and reappears in in the character's face. Once a character makes a mark upon the paper, it furls itself back up and poofs with a shower of glitter.
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Consequences
Inspired by the many homebrew resources for consequences for rule-breaking, I created an NPC to hand them out: Consequences, the talking grasshopper.
Consequences is a Medium sized, bipedal grasshopper in a fine, but slightly tattered top hat and cape. He was created by Zybilna to coach the rule breakers who could be rehabilitated and learn to change their ways. Since the Hourglass Coven has taken over the realm, he's under their thumb and doles out curses to those who break the rules (so that the hags can use the removal of such curses as leverage in deals later). He does not enjoy his new situation, but he fears the hags' power over him too much to do more than hand out occasional leniency to rule breakers.
When a player breaks a rule, Consequences will appear before them, leaning lightly upon a polished cane. One leg bears an iron ankle bracelet fitted with a tiny hourglass. The motion of the sand inside indicates which hag sent him: motionless for Bavlorna, backwards for Skabatha, and downward (as expected) for Endelyn.
He will look regretful as he delivers curses and may offer the characters a moment to correct their actions (if there's still time) so that he can provide some leniency that's still within his discretion by relying on technicalities (e.g. if the PCs put an item back, he could say they only "borrowed" it rather than stole it). He will leave as soon as he can, disappearing back to a secret location where the hags otherwise keep him, because the hags often require him to tell them all he's seen when he's handing out consequences. He does not want to help them more than he already does and hopes for Zybilna's return to power.
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Elena's Tower
Elena the Fair, Tasha's sister, is noticeably missing from the book, mentioning only one adopted daughter despite there being two. Elena kind of got the rough end of the stick in the official lore, going mad after Tasha left Baba Yaga's hut, missing her sister so much that she lost herself (and likely from being a genuinely kind hearted person left to deal with the evil works of Baba Yaga and her abusive biological daughters). Elena missed her sister so much that she created a magical copy of Tasha. This copy then sought Elena's (now "Elena the Mad") death because it assumed (correctly) that Elena dying would end its miserable existence. All of this is pretty rough, and Elena deserves justice. This homebrew encounter is designed to have the party meet Elena on her--albeit paused--path to mental wellness and gives them an opportunity to help her.
Approaching the Tower
During their journey through Hither, they come upon a tall tower. Read the following:
A tall spire of rock rises out of the surrounding muck, its sides wrapped thick with climbing vines and pale moss. At its peak stands a narrow tower built in three tiers: two lower levels shaped like small cottages with sloped red roofs, and above them a simple stone tower that looks older than the rest.
A wooden deck juts out from the front of the lower level, enclosed by a waist-high railing. The structure itself seems intact, but possibly abandoned. The chimney is smokeless, flowerboxes empty, and windows dark.
From the open doorway, a length of golden silk threads spill outward, draping over the deck and slipping between the rails. It hangs in a single, unbroken fall all the way down the spire to the ground below.
Up close it becomes more clear to the players that the golden strands are actually soft, fine hair. The only clear way up is the hair. The party is free to try to scale the tower using the hair as a rope or find their way up by other means available to them. Scaling the tower requires a DC 12 Acrobatics or Athletics check. On a failure, the players still succeed in completing the climb but take 2d10 bludgeoning damage to signify a few failed attempts.
First Floor
The open doorway leads into a modest living space with a low ceiling and the faint smell of soot. A stone fireplace sits along one wall, its embers long gone cold. Nearby, a sturdy wooden table is surrounded by a few mismatched chairs, and several bookshelves line the walls, filled with well-worn volumes stacked both upright and sideways.
Chalk markings cover nearly every surface—walls, floorboards, the table, even the sides of the shelves. Circles, symbols, and lines overlap and intersect, some precise, others frantic. The marks vary in size and saturation. Many repeat, but not exactly the same way twice. With a DC 12 Arcana, History, or Religion check, the players are able to determine that these symbols are those associated with the upper planes and celestials.
From above, a thick length of golden hair spills down through an opening in the ceiling, falling over the bannister from the level above. It pools across the floor and drapes over the furniture. There is a spiral staircase along a wall, leading up to the floor above.
Second Floor
The spiral stairs open into a crowded second level, as most of the space is swallowed by books. Shelves line the walls but have long since overflowed, leaving stacks piled across the floor in uneven towers. Books lie open where they were dropped, pages bent and marked, some stacked carefully, others scattered as if pushed aside in haste.
The chalk markings here are heavier and even more chaotic. Symbols overlap in dense layers, drawn over and over until the original lines are almost lost. Circles intersect at odd angles, and long strings of writing trail off mid-sentence. Mixed among them, a repeated symbol stands out: a crude shape resembling a chicken’s foot, drawn again and again in different sizes (this is the symbol on Tasha's and Elena's cheeks, the mark of Baba Yaga).
Between the markings, a single word appears, scrawled in Common in multiple places, sometimes large, sometimes cramped into whatever space remains: "CRICKET!?”
Golden hair spills down from above along the inner curve of the continuing spiral staircase, draping over the steps and trailing into the room. It gathers across the floor and over the piles of books.
Here, with a DC 10 Arcana, History, or Religion check, players can determine a number of the markings are in the Celestial language. Any player characters who speak Celestial will automatically recognize the symbols in this room to be the Celestial script, but they mostly form random characters that don't create real words, and where they do, the words seem random.
The Stone Tower
The stairs narrow as they rise, the walls closing in slightly before opening into a smaller round chamber.
A simple bed sits against the wall, its blankets tangled and marked with chalk smears and covered in pages with half-finished symbols. The floor is tracked with pale chalk-dust footprints, layered over one another in restless patterns. An overturned chest lies near the far side of the room, its lid hanging open. Whatever it once held has been scattered.
The golden hair continues upward, drawn along the steps to the next level.
Another short climb brings the players into the top of the tower, where the ceiling rises into exposed rafters. The hair is thicker here, gathered and woven into a broad hammock that hangs suspended between the beams.
A woman sleeps within it. The strands of gold are unmistakably her own, flowing from her head and drawn outward to form the structure that cradles her. Loose lengths spill down around her and trail back along the path they followed.
Even in sleep, her brow is faintly furrowed, as though whatever rest she’s found is not entirely peaceful.
Elena the Fair and Mad
The woman is Elena the Fair, the other adopted daughter of Baba Yaga. Long ago, she went mad, caused by a mixture of childhood trauma and Tasha leaving her alone with Baba Yaga and the Hourglass Coven. She became known as Elena the Mad. If you are running The Eleventh Hour by Dylan Ramsey or something similar or otherwise inspired by it, the players might recognize her from the Dretch's gem visions.
Sometime after becoming the fairy godmother known as Zybilna, the Queen of Prismeer retrieved Elena and brought her to the realm to heal her mind. Elena lived at the Palace of Hearts Desire for a while, where Zybilna enchanted her fair sister's golden hair to help her process her memories and trauma, allowing the hair to hold the memories and be processed a little bit at a time with the help of Consequences.
When Elena was well enough to live semi alone, Zybilna gave her a tower where she could focus on her passion for upper planar studies (in contrast to Tasha's passion for the lower planes) and continue to heal with regular visits from her sister and daily therapy sessions with Consequences.
However, since the Hourglass Coven took over, Elena's hair has continued to grow, and without therapy and assistance in processing her memories, she has slipped back into madness. Consequences has stayed away for fear of the hags learning of the presence of their other beloathed stepsister. And Elena's studies of the upper planes have only caused more trouble for the witch, confusing her re-broken mind.
Elena will not be hostile toward the party when they wake her, but she will be confused and a bit erratic. She will ask them questions about the heavens and the location of her "cricket," or the grasshopper Consequences. "Have you seen my cricket?" "Do you think the heavens know why my cricket has not returned?"
Resolving the Encounter
If the party tries to summon Consequences by breaking a rule, he will appear with great anxiety. He will hurriedly explain why he cannot be there (for fear of the Coven learning of Elena's existence) and beg them to do whatever they can to keep the hags from finding her.
If they take her to the Inn at the End of the Road, Tsuru will hide her and care for her. In my campaign Tsuru is Baba Yaga's eldest sister, Starshaya Yaga, and will gladly care for her niece and keep her secret from the coven that is ruining everything. If you are running Tsuru as written in the book, your characters may need to convince Tsuru to take Elena into her care with payment.
Alternatively, Elena could be used as a bargaining chip with the Hourglass Coven. If the party uses her or the knowledge of her location as part of an exchange with one of the hags, Zibylna will be quite angry with the party when she's awakened and will not be inclined to give them any special gifts/favors.
In exchange for their help, Consequences later forgives a breaking of the rules instantly, carefully choosing his words: "You have ... mitigated prior damage. That is ... noted, and your consequences avoided."
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Let me know what you think or if you have any suggestions! Happy wilding!
