Witchlight Part 15: The World's End

The group was just about to enter Motherhorn and confront Endelyn Moongrave, even though it was probably a trap.

Date: September 5, 2026

Characters present

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

Character level: 6

Another Hag’s Workshop

Through the secret northern path, the party entered Endelyn’s castle on the Motherhorn. Their plan was to rescue Boris the bird, even though only Philomena seemed to care much about him, and kill Endelyn. The path led them into a dark tunnel ending in a loose brick wall. From the other side, they heard the sounds of a busy workshop—hammering, sawing, and lots of small feet running about. As Lionidas carefully removed the bricks, the whole wall fell apart. Beyond the small storage room to which the newly created opening led, they saw goblins, building stage props and sewing clothes, and a brigganock drawing blueprints. They didn’t seem to notice the party as they entered. The storage room held an eight-foot-diameter flat wooden moon prop, which the party figured would be useful in creating an eclipse, and so they brought it with them.

Also in the room was a tangled marionette who went by the name of Break-a-leg. After Vex made sure it was fine with Endelyn dying, Shadow untangled its strings. In return, it told the group a bit about Endelyn’s machines and the castle’s layout. The machines were lightning-powered and could be disabled if you removed their lightning rods. Then he mentioned the Shadow Theater, which Shadow was quite interested in. But the stage was upstairs, and that was where Endelyn wanted the party.

As the Beatles entered the workshop proper, the goblins finally took notice of them. All at once, they turned their heads, looked for a moment, and ran off. The only person remaining was a human woman—the party thought they’d heard a goblin call her Skylla—dressed in some sort of costume. Philomena remembered that she was a member of the League of Malevolence. When she saw the party, she shouted an incantation and ran for the elevator in the center of the room, pulling the lever and rising up to the floor above before the party could react.

The incantation had animated a table and a broom, both of which were now moving toward the party. The broom, forming a pair of legs with its bristles, walked over to Eiri and tried to hit her with its handle. As you might imagine, it wasn’t particularly effective against the fully armored creature.

As the table walked over on its clumsy table legs, Lionidas hopped up on it and punched straight through it until it collapsed. The broom began to quiver with fear, and Eiri cut it in half. It would take more than some furniture and cleaning supplies to stop the party.

The workshop was connected to a makeshift prison. Clearly not the main prison, as Glister wasn’t there. There were two goblins in the cells, one asleep and one trying to eat its own toenails. It said its name was Kizz and that it was, unlike most, a good goblin. Good enough, in fact, that it promised to tell the party something useful if they fed it. It didn’t care for being let out, at least not for now. But it was very hungry.

Eiri and Philomena handed over some of the candy they’d bought in Loomlurch. This was the magical candy that had random weird effects, and so the goblin grew twice as large, and its head became so big that it had trouble holding it up. But at least it was no longer hungry, and shared a few cool secrets with the party. It said that it had hidden a fancy-looking key under a throne cushion in the prop room on the floor above. It didn’t know where the key led, but it seemed important. Also, goblins that misbehaved were turned into masks. Spooky. Finally, Kizz said that there was a secret, boarded-up belfry that was probably important somehow. The party made a note of it, thanked the goblin, and moved on up the stairs in the workshop.

The World’s End

The stairs to the castle’s second floor led straight to the stage, where a bunch of actors were rehearsing. Straight away, a goblin in a jester costume came up and introduced itself as Stagefright. Lionidas responded by saying his name was Lechonidas¹. Stagefright told them they’d be putting on a show to please Endelyn. Us players got to pick the name of it, and I suggested Abbey Road, but we eventually settled on The World’s End. Stagefright pointed up to a balcony above the theater where the skeletal hag herself sat, laughing. In a little birdcage beside her was Boris the bird. A knife floated in the air right next to his throat. In a much larger cage on her other side was a half-elf that the party recognized. It was Kirian Dawn—Vex’s fiancé.

Stagefright took them to a room full of props, told them which characters they’d be playing, and left them to find their costumes. Vex was going to play a failed magician², and already had the outfit for it. Lionidas’ character was a nervous apothecary, so he put on a white lab coat. Philomena was to play a foolish troubadour, Eiri a resurrected knight, and Shadow a proud princess. He was not pleased to have to dress up in a frilly dress and wear a wig and makeup. Vex found the throne mentioned by Kizz, and retrieved the golden key from underneath it. Once they were done, Stagefright came back and brought them into some kind of green room to prepare. There, they found Burley’s brother Hurly, but they didn’t have time to talk much with him as they were busy desperately trying to learn their lines³.

The actors who had been rehearsing were gone. The audience was full of little darklings. The lights were dimmed. The curtains were pulled aside. There stood Vex, fuming with rage at Endelyn, but hiding it as best he could.

“To be or not to be,” he said. “That is the question. And when your world is invaded, a lot of people cease to be. And so begins act one.”

The play began with Vex knocking on the door to a prop house. Lionidas answered, and Vex explained that there was an invasion and that the king was dead and he needed to hide in the chimney. Then, Shadow showed up, claiming to have killed the king, and that he would be ruling what was left of the world. Philomena came to hide as well, and chewed the scenery the way only a centaur can. Eiri was also there and probably did something. I don’t remember.

At the end of act one, the audience reactions were lukewarm, but Endelyn seemed moderately entertained. While the party talked over their plans and read through their lines in a panic behind the scenes, the darklings brought out some wine, growing rowdier and more critical.

Act two opened with a new set: the throne room of the murdered king, his dead body slumped on the throne. Philomena burst through the door, walked up to the king, and monologued about something. Then, Lionidas and Vex burst through the door. Lionidas revealed himself to be the long-lost brother of the king, and that the throne was his. Then, Shadow burst through the door. Lionidas challenged him to a duel. In an unexpected twist, Vex said he was the long-lost son of Lionidas, who challenged Shadow to a duel to the death, and won. The hag was particularly impressed with Shadow’s death scene. Then, in an unexpected twist, Philomena revealed that she was still loyal to the old king, and would oppose Lionidas’ reign, and galloped off. Then, Eiri burst through the door (which was probably falling apart by now), swearing her loyalty to King Lionidas, and said that she would hunt down the traitor.

By this point, the audience was actually quite impressed, and the party began to feel a sense of relief. As long as they didn’t screw up the third act, they’d be fine.

Act three took place in an alley, in which Eiri, now the king’s royal, loyal bodyguard, had cornered Philomena. They fought, with Eiri killing Philomena. Then Lionidas and Vex arrived. In an unexpected twist, Vex said he’d heard from a baker that the traitor’s reinforcements were on the way. Then, Philomena woke up and killed everyone, including herself. The end.

During the events of act three, Shadow, being dead in the story, had snuck off to get a look at the Shadow Theater. He hadn’t had time to see much before having to return to receive the darklings’ applause, but he did bring back a three-foot moon model that was a bit easier to carry around than the flat eight-foot moon. That one had been hell to roll up the stairs.

Now back on the stage with the others, Shadow bowed as the darklings, after a moment of stunned silence, broke out in thunderous applause. Endelyn clapped too, and magically commanded the cages to lower down to the stage as the knives in them disappeared. Vex ran up to and opened Kirian’s cage, casting Prestidigitation to create faint music and glowing lights, and Levitate to bring them both floating up in the air, spinning in a romantic embrace. All was forgiven.

Meanwhile, Philomena rushed to open Boris’ cage. He had a broken wing, and looked as sad as a bird possibly could⁴. Telepathically, it spoke to Philomena, saying “I don’t think I want to be a bird anymore.” Philomena didn’t even know Boris could do that.

Stagefright informed the group that Endelyn was pleased, and had offered them an audience in her private chamber to negotiate. They accepted, but first, Philomena tended to Boris’ broken wing. Lionidas offered Boris his teddy bear, but Boris didn’t like it. Something was different about it, though Lionidas wasn’t sure what.

Meanwhile, Vex caught up with Kirian and brought him outside to safety with Gleam, Amidor, and the little army of korreds and brigganocks. Eiri snuck off back into the workshop to fashion herself a sun costume.

The time to put the “End” in Endelyn was near.