Witchlight Part 14: Korreds & Brigganocks, or: The Great Misunderstanding

The korred queen Argantle was just about to tell the party why they all hated brigganocks so much.

Date: August 29, 2026

Characters present

• Farvex Dusk: human warlock
• Lionidas: leonin monk
• Shadow Claw: tabaxi cleric
• Philomena Gainsborough: centaur wizard
• Eiri: spiritling barbarian

Character level: 6

Ten Things I Hate About Brigganocks

Queen Argantle told the party about brigganocks. They were tiny little creatures who liked to mine. They did this all day and night, making a terrible noise that was excruciating to the korreds. To make matters worse, they were allied with the nasty witch Endelyn Moongrave. They made blueprints and machines for her. Machines that used stolen korred hair, which could be magically animated to control the machines. Very evil. The korreds had tried to intimidate them into stopping their annoying and evil work by placing scary statues outside the mine, but it hadn’t seemed to help. The korreds had also infiltrated the tunnels of Brigganock Mine, and heard of a secret tunnel that led right to the mountain Motherhorn where Endelyn resided.

The party decided they’d pay the brigganocks a visit and deal with them. The queen was so excited to hear this that she started to dance. A larger group of korreds, previously disguised as rocks, began to dance too. Lionidas and Philomena danced so well that the korreds taught them a dance to control korred hair, in case they came upon any hair-powered machines.

As the party set forth from Lockbury Henge for Brigganock Mine, they soon came across a gloomy goblin child flying a kite with an unnerving face painted on it, and five little bows tied to its tail. Not a great idea to fly a kite in a thunderstorm, the party figured, and walked up to the goblin child. Speaking to her, the group learned that her parents worked for Endelyn, and that she had been cursed after stealing some stage props from the hag’s theater. Now she had to hold on to the kite until the bows on it were untied, which was easier said than done.

Vex tried to pull the string to bring the kite down, but was almost lifted away by the strong winds. Philomena cast Fireball on it, which destroyed the kite and its bows, successfully undoing the curse. She told the child to run off to Lockbury Henge and wait for the party to free her parents. Then they continued to the mine.

On the way, Vex brought up an alarming fact: they might not be able to produce an eclipse after all. A solar eclipse occurs when you’re in the shadow cast by the moon. The problem was that their moon, Gleam, had no shadow. Endelyn had taken it from her, perhaps for this specific reason. After a long debate, and some good rolls, the party figured that any metaphorical moon would probably (probably) be fine. They decided to create sun and moon stage props and put on a play for Endelyn, which would end with an eclipse and also her death. That’d be cool. Then they could save everyone she’d captured at their own leisurely pace. With that conclusion, they arrived at the mine.

The Tiny Miners

Much like the queen had described, the entrance to the mine was besieged by an army of angry-looking korred statues. They were all facing the entrance, a narrow cave opening in the rocky landscape. The sound of metal grinding against stone was almost unbearably loud, but faded as the party entered the darkness.

The cave tunnel went on and on, seemingly for hours. The Beatles felt themselves growing tired, their legs unwilling to move after their long journey, and their eyelids heavy like the boulders of Yon. Lionidas collapsed, and nobody could wake him. He got to ride on Philomena’s back while the party pressed on, despite their exhaustion, in the darkness, lit only by the small glowing orbs Philomena had produced.

Eventually, they came across a group of what they assumed was brigganocks. They were indeed tiny, no bigger than mice. They were roughly humanoid, almost goblin-like, with noses and beards that reminded the party of moles. Before the party could speak to them, they scurried away with an unnatural speed. The party followed, at a natural speed.

Before long, they came upon a human man with a brigganock on his shoulder. With a dagger pointed at the party, he asked why they were intruding in Brigganock Mine.

Despite the knowledge that the brigganocks were on Endelyn’s side—and the assumption that this man was on the side of the brigganocks—Vex did the usual “we’re here to kill hags”-speech. By the man’s surprised reaction, the hags’ scheme of imprisoning Zybilna and making everyone miserable wasn’t entirely known to him.

He introduced himself as Molliver, a member of Valor’s Call, just like the dwarf Elkhorn they’d met in Thither. He was now helping the brigganocks, whose best architect had been kidnapped by Endelyn and forced to work on her machines. According to Molliver, the korreds were helping Endelyn by giving her their hair to use in their machines.

Realizing that the whole thing was a terrible misunderstanding, the party cleared it up and explained the korreds’ perspective. Turns out they all hated that wicked Creeping Lyn, and no one was helping her voluntarily. The brigganock on Molliver’s shoulder said, in its squeaky little voice, that they could stop bothering the korreds with their around-the-clock mining now, since they were on the same side. Molliver said he’d visit the korreds, and bring them back to discuss the whole situation. Meanwhile, the party got to go with the brigganocks to take their test. Only then would they get to know how to find the secret tunnel to Motherhorn.

On the way down the mine, they went through a tunnel with walls adorned by glowing gemstones. The brigganocks said they were wishing stones, containing people’s wishes. Deep below the mine, they had a city called Wish Come True, glimmering with the light of a thousand wishes. It was hidden away from the world, and from the gaze of the evil hag.

After a while, they arrived at a chasm with a wooden bridge. In the darkness beneath it was a swirling, purple haze. This was the test. As the group set foot onto the bridge, three flaming skulls floated up from the haze below. They chanted something in unison about the party’s memories and people’s wishes. Then, each of them described a wish, and the party had to figure out whose wish it was. The first one was simple. So simple, in fact, that I forgot it. The second was someone’s wish to have their child returned to them. The party had no trouble remembering Dirla the displacer beast, whose wish they had recently made true. The third wish was to keep the people happy so they’d be distracted from the horrors happening behind the curtains. After some discussion, the group determined this to be the wish of Mr. Light. The skulls returned to the mist and allowed them to pass.

A brigganock in a tiny house—almost like Skabatha’s doll house—strapped to a pony, greeted the party on the other side. His name was Obud and he was the elder of the brigganocks. The party introduced themselves, with Lionidas calling himself Legonidas this time. Obud gave them wishing stones based on the wishes they made waaaaay back during session two. To refresh your memory, I thought it was too obvious to wish for whatever they’d lost at the carnival, and so Vex wished for four blueberry muffins. Obud determined this to be a mediocre wish, and so the magic of the gem wasn’t very powerful. Lionidas had done the obvious and wished for eyesight. Obud thought this was pretty unique, and the stone was a bit more powerful. Shadow had wished for a nice pair of boots (ha ha). Philomena had wished for her family to realize how mean they’d been to her mother, a strange wish that the group would learn more about later, and Eiri had wished for a cool sword. The party also learned that Johan Andersson had wished for more potatoes. The gems wouldn’t fulfill their wishes, but they’d allow them to cast any spell they wanted, once. The spell level was determined by how unique their wish had been.

The korreds also showed up with Molliver to discuss peace with the brigganocks. It was mostly a repeat of what the party had told Molliver before, and both sides agree to help out and send along a squad to Motherhorn with the party. But first, Obud told them the truth about Mr. Witch and Mr. Light.

Mr. Witch (real name Naeryx Crumple) and Mr. Light (real name Urmius Umbridge) were two shadar-kai elves from the Shadowfell—a dark and twisted shadow of the Feywild. There, they had run a suitably dark and twisted carnival for many years. Then one day, they met a woman named Isolde. Much like the Misters, she ran a carnival. But it was a much cheerier and happier Feywild carnival. They argued over whose carnival was the best. The argument ended with them deciding to take over each other’s carnivals to see what it was like. And so, the Witchlight Carnival became the merry and colorful attraction that the party was familiar with. But Mr. Witch and Mr. Light realized that this happy carnival was much nicer, and didn’t want to switch back. The hourglass coven knew this, and had used it to extort them.

Shadow Puppet Theater

Taking note of the new information, the group wasted no time in setting out with their new allies toward Motherhorn. The brigganocks led them through a tunnel that only appeared after Obud cast a spell to reveal it. The tunnel was short, but when they emerged back out into the rain, they found that they were way over on the other side of Yon, so far as to be north of the evil-looking witch castle atop the mountain.

As they walked the treacherous stone path toward it, they faintly spotted a hooded figure walking in their direction. Next to it was something looking like a large wagon in the darkness. They greeted the figure with hesitation as it approached, but it gave no reply. As it moved its wagon up to the group, they saw that the side of it had a pair of curtains, like a theater stage.

The curtains moved aside, revealing a cast of shadowy puppets that looked all too familiar to the party.

Then the puppets began to change. Most of them walked off stage, but the one resembling Eiri shrank, until it was just a little wispy ghost with an oversized helm. Despite the puppet show being all shadow and entirely quiet, the group got the distinct impression that little puppet Eiri was sad. More wispy ghost puppets floated onto the stage, and seemed to play out a scene where Eiri was saying goodbye to everyone. Eiri explained that her parents were traveling musicians¹, and she often had to leave her friends behind.

Then the scene changed. Now there was only Vex’s puppet, about eight years old, wandering through shadowy woods, looking for something. He jumped with joy when he found a little shadowy dog, and rushed over to pick it up. Vex told the party that it was his parents’ dog, Alfredo, a chihuahua who for unknown reasons was blue. He’d once lost it while taking it for a walk.

The next scene showed Lionidas, looking roughly the same age as he was now, sitting at a table with someone reading a newspaper to him. Despite the lack of actual audible dialogue, the party felt themselves understanding the conversation. The man reading to the blind lion said that the great Magician Vex was coming to town. Shadow Lionidas said he’d love to go and that he’d always wanted to see a performance, and what a pity it was that he couldn’t see at all.

“Lionidas, I didn’t know you were such a big fan!” said Vex.

“Well, I’ve mentioned it before,” responded Lionidas.

“I didn’t think you were serious! Tell you what, after we’ve got your sight back, killed all the hags, and freed Zybilna from her castle, I’ll put on an epic show for you all. I’ll be the best I’ve ever done now that I’ve got my magic creativity back.”

Then the party quieted down as the scene changed once more. Now it showed Philomena, as a satyr, surrounded by judgemental looks from her family. She was crying, and they made her leave the forest because she wasn’t a centaur anymore. Her mom was walking her out of there and comforting her.

The next scene showed Shadow, talking to his mom, who gave him a pair of teardrop earrings² as a going-away gift before he left to meet Madryck Roslof and the party.

Then the little theater looped back to Eiri³, as a child again, holding a wilted flower in her hand. This was a painful memory for Eiri, but she explained that once the object a spiritling bonds to is destroyed, they die. When she was a child, she had a friend who was bonded to a flower.

Then it was another scene depicting Vex, the same age as now, right before getting in the coach to leave for adventure. He was arguing with another man, a half-elf, whose shadowy form was somehow recognizable as one of the people from Vex’s family portraits. Once again, the party was able to understand the conversation without dialogue. The half-elf was accusing Vex of risking his life for something he didn’t need, and prioritizing his magic and career over his relationship. Then he stormed off. Vex, staring at the ground, explained that that was his fiancé Kirian Dawn⁴, an famous actor in Waterdeep, who didn’t want him to leave on a dangerous quest to regain his magic when he had everything he needed in Waterdeep. Vex never got the chance to explain that he was really leaving to help Zybilna, so she could continue helping those in need. Philomena was amazed that Vex was going to marry the famous actor who played the main character in Bamlet⁵ at the Waterdeep City Theater.

Next up was another Lionidas scene, only it wasn’t Lionidas as the party recognized him. It was just a lion. He was in a forest with his dad (Papanidas) who was teaching him to hunt. We forgot to ask any further questions about this.

Then the party got to see Philomena again, as a little centaur this time, prancing about and frolicking in a field with her cousins. She said she was sad that this could never happen again, because she’d never forgive them for turning on her when she became a satyr.

Finally, there was a scene of Shadow, setting sail from the island of his home toward Waterdeep in search of his father. There, he’d end up in the company of shady people and learn to steal.

Suddenly a lightning flashed nearby with a deafening boom, and the mysterious figure—whom they’d been too distracted to pay attention to—disappeared, along with the wagon. Ash rained from the sky (along with the regular, watery rain) and two burned pieces of paper came drifting down in the wind. Vex and Philomena caught one each, and read them out loud to the party. Together, the message read thus:

Come to my theater and perform your lines to perfection if you ever want to see Boris alive again.

Boris, Boris, Who the Fuck Is Boris?

I forgot to mention Boris, didn’t I? Oh well. There’s so much happening during every RPG session that I’d never finish writing these if I mentioned them all. And in my defense, I never thought Boris would become plot relevant. But here we are. Alright, remember part zero where there was a rude bird? Allow me to quote:

Madryck explained that one of the birds was a total jerk, and had probably been a human at some point. Vex tried speaking to it telepathically, and it responded with “Piss off”.

That bird was called Boris, and Philomena had brought it along. She would occasionally bring him out of her pocket, and he’d shake his head and look disapprovingly at the party. That’s Boris. Okay, great. Now that we know about Boris, let’s continue with the story:

…and that’s where the session ended.