Midsummer Carnival

After a hearty breakfast served by Bor and Tana, we made our way back to town to pick up Grum and Archie. After catching up with their respective duties, they seemed rather eager to escape their work and figure out what we wanted to do next. After Archie finished explaining the intricacies of a novel self-heating water kettle he had devised to his master, an impressive feat, to which the old dwarf did not seem to pay too much mind, he explained it would be time to go to mistress Amber to fetch the armour he had commissioned.
And indeed, once we arrived at her forge, she presented us with a well-crafted set of shining half plate armour, which fits Archie like a second skin. As he proceeded to pay for her services, Nysqwen approached her with what with some good will might be considered flirting. It was hard to tell whether she intended for something more serious than with Fesur, as apparently, she had already tried to beguile Amber when last she was at her forge. Anyway, what my dear friend possesses in strength and kindness, she unfortunately lacks in the more subtle arts of charm. Luckily for her, the smith did not seem too appalled by her somewhat clumsy words. Maybe she might get lucky if she continues her advances. Once we were out of earshot of the smithy however, Nysqwen turned to me and asked if I might help her with some flirting tricks. I have no idea, what made her believe I would be any good at that and the thought stung more than it should have. Some experiences just won’t stay buried… Baffled, I agreed to her request, yet I don’t know if I would really be the one, she should ask about these things.
 
As two days had elapsed since last we spoke with master Merreck Proudfoot, we next made our way to his alchemy shop to retrieve our ordered potions. Upon entering the small, crammed house, a green flash and smoke emerged from behind the counter, followed by a somewhat disappointed curse of a familiar voice. Master Proudfoot’s experiments still did not seem to yield whatever results he hoped for. When he noticed us, his merry expression returned to his face and gladly he produced the promised potions, for which we thanked him and payed as was agreed.
But where to go from here? What was there for us to explore? I began to feel that everyone around was overcome by a similar trepidation I feel at the thought of leaving our small group. Between us had emerged a trust and a friendship that was stronger than almost anything I have ever known, the exception being Cor. Quickly, Archie mentioned a certain dragon that was still roaming through Thundertree. Kyla agreed that we should be able to take the beast with our combined strength if we just got our planning right. I still am not convinced that we would not plainly all end up in his stomach and Grum seemed to share my reservations. If this is where our path is leading us, I will stand with my friends, but I have my doubts if we are ready to face such a foe. At the very least we will put in some research before we head out to battle him.
At this point, Merreck cleared his throat behind us and chimed in that he might have some use for the poisonous glands of a green dragon. In our conversation, we had completely forgotten about the halfling or the fact that we were still standing in his shop! Assuring him to bring anything of alchemical use that we will encounter to him, we bade our farewell and set out into the midday sun.
 
Traversing one of the central marketplaces of Neverwinter, we encountered a barker, promoting the annual midsummer carnival. From now until the midsummer feast in ten days, the carnival would provide entertainment and wonder to all who would seek it out. Excited, we immediately decided to go there, after Nysqwen reported the success of our mission back to her faction. Upon her return, she exuded quite a bit of pride and imparted to us that she had been promoted within her ranks for her duties towards the goals of the Lords’ Alliance.
With even more reason to celebrate, we made our way towards the carnival. The closer we got the more people were around us. And soon enough, a gigantic, colourful tent came into view with a big sign displaying the name “MIDSUMMER CARNIVAL”, the illusion of a meteor drawing circles around the letters. At the entrance, a humanoid creature with pointy ears, a bony statue, silver hair and conspicuously green skin welcomed us to the festivities. His neck was adorned with a chain, on which a metal eye seemed to be affixed that followed our every movement. These people have run the carnival for as long as I can remember and thus no one seemed to question who or what they were. Throughout the area wandered more of these creatures, friendly and helpful towards the visitors, yet ever vigilant. A variety of booths and small shops were scattered throughout the carnival, while in the back another tent was placed, which featured a sign displaying “The Bewildering And The Strange”.
And thus, we delved into the amusement that is a carnival. Kyla, Nysqwen and Teynos hurried to a high striker on first sight, the rest of us trailing behind. While their ambitions were great, none of them managed to actually succeed in ringing the bell. Quickly forgetting their defeat, we turned to a booth selling exotic snacks, from which we purchased roasted spider legs and what was advertised as eldritch tentacles. The former had a quite pleasant taste to them, while the latter disappointingly turned out to be merely overpriced squid tentacles. As a performer myself, I know how difficult it is to make a living from such ventures, thus I knew better than to blame the vendor for his exploits. Yet, I took a mental note to be more careful as to what I would spend money on in here.
With the food in our hands, we took some time to take a closer look as to what was offered around us. Apart from more exotic traders, multiple games were offered for the visitors. We saw a fighting ring, an area for target shooting, a pie eating contest and a throwing game, in which one was supposed to throw a wooden ball through a gelatinous cube, disturbingly similar to the one we had fought in the mines near Phandalin. Spectators who did not partake in such games, could marvel at jugglers, using everything from your common balls over knifes to small furniture and random objects, some of which were set on fire, sword swallowers whose throats were bulging with more than a dozen simultaneously inserted blades and a knife thrower. Everything was underlined with joyful music. Magically enhanced from one corner, and the shouts of joy, awe and fear of the visitors. A closer inspection by Archie revealed quite a few magic tricks being used to create illusions of more swords or juggling objects than were present in reality. But who can blame a performer trying to impress an audience? And the skill of concentrating on and interacting with the illusions still ascribed a vast talent to the carnival crew. I know full well how difficult it can be to maintain a convincing illusion for any extended period of time.
 
As we passed by the knife thrower, he was just finishing a routine of blindly throwing his blades at a rotating disk on which a volunteer had been fastened and called out for another brave soul to be strapped to the wooden contraption. ‘Ere we had a chance to interfere, Teynos had risen his hand with a broad smile and stepped towards the grinning thrower. While our new companion was secured, the performer stepped towards a flustered Archie and, still grinning, ushered him to assume the responsibility of throwing the knives. After an initial moment of hesitation, we offered our young friend words of guidance and inspiration, in hopes to guide his hands in handling the sharp blades. In what would have been unimaginable just a few weeks ago, the lad collected his courage and stepped forwards in the centre of the watching crowd. He gripped the first knife with a sure grip and as the disk with Teynos began spinning, he threw blade after blade with astonishing accuracy around the half-orc. The crowd burst into cheers and Teynos into an even broader grin. The show master congratulated Archie to his feat and said now would be the time for the second level. With these words, he produced a blindfold seemingly out of nowhere and with fast movements covered Archie’s eyes. This time, his hands trembled visibly more when he gripped the knife put into his hand. From where I stood, I could hear him mutter under his breath some kind of calculation, before his hand moved over his shoulder and in one motion propelled the knife right towards the Teynos’s face. The rotational speed of the disk was just enough to bring him out of harms way, as the point buried itself into the wood only a hairs breadth from his cheek. The crowd exploded. And Archie ripped the blindfold away to reassure himself he had not just killed a man we only met two days prior. Relieved, he returned to us, where each of us greeted him with congratulations and acknowledgement and, in the case of Nysqwen, a heartfelt hug.
 
Now it drew the two largest members of our party towards the fighting ring. There we were informed that weapons and magic were prohibited from the competition, it would be a fight with bare fists. The reigning champion was announced under the name Gravebringer, yet to face him, one first had to prove oneself in a few rounds of combat. Teynos was the first of our group to enter the ring, but he left his newly acquired pants with us, as he did not want to damage them already. The half-orc in loincloth was faced with a hulking bugbear, waking unpleasant memories of one of our very first fights as a group. Still, we placed our bets on our new friend, keeping in mind how he fared with a hill giant yesterday. In less than twenty heartbeats, the hairy creature was unconscious on the floor, with Teynos, beaten, bruised and breathing heavily, hunched over him. Kyla offered her healing powers to him, which he gladly accepted. But still, he was visibly exhausted from this skirmish, any further rounds for him would have to wait until the morrow. Kyla trailed off, intending to heal the bugbear as well. He was handed to the care of his seeming servant, a very familiar goblin. Droop seemed none to pleased to see us again, yet this time none of us meant each other any harm. The recovered bugbear and Teynos paid their respects to each other and acknowledged a good fight.
Now it was Nysqwen’s turn. Her opponent turned out to be a hulking human man, his shoulders broader than even hers, a grin exposing broken teeth. The man, Grog as the announcer called him, silently stepped into the ring, eagerly awaiting our dragonborn friend. Begrudgingly, she left her heavy glaive with us and went off to face him. Where in the first fight, Teynos was facing brutal hits which he countered with unbelievable speed, this was a meeting of two muscle packed and raging individuals, beating the ever-living shit out of each other. Of course, our money was on our friend. But, before long it became clear that what proficiency Nysqwen displayed in the encounters we had thus far was based on her familiarity with a weapon in both hands. While this Grog seemed to be steeled for nothing else but the bare fisted fight in such arenas. And so, we had to watch our friend slowly losing ground. Soon enough it became too much to bear for Kyla, who tried to hide a soft glow emanating from her holy symbol as she tried to stealthily heal the dragonborn. Unfortunately, her meddling was detected by some of the surrounding personnel, who interfered and disqualified Nysqwen for use of unsanctioned means. She returned to us in pretty bad shape but thanked Kyla for her attempted aid. She understood that she probably would have lost anyway and knowing your friends have your back in a pinch is worth more than keeping one’s honour and going to the ground.
 
Leaving the fighting grounds behind, we finally turned our attention towards the second tent. At its entrance we were greeted by another of the strange folk running the carnival who introduced himself as Geniri. He offered us a guided tour through their menagerie of exotic wild beasts. Accepting this offer, we followed him inside the tent, in which the sounds of the exterior seemed more muffled than pure fabric walls should be able to accomplish. He led us to a first cage which was inhabited by a large owlbear featuring purplish-white feathers and green eyes. On Geniri’s command, the creature named Timber went into a handstand, which he acknowledged by rewarding the beast with a sliver of meat.
The second cage contained five creatures the size of small horses. They had grey, leathery skin, were covered in spikes, bipedal and with two wings similar to bats. These cockatrices were attributed the capability to petrify people by merely scraping them with their claws, an unlucky alleged example of which was standing behind the cage. Geniri in a very melodramatic fashion expressed his condolences to the poor figure.
Next up was a manticore, a monster with the body of a large lion, dragon-like wings and a humanoid head. We were warned to keep away from the cage, as supposedly the beast had killed an all too curious visitor once.
Then Geniri led us to the gigantic central cage. With words of warning he bade us to step back as he drew away the cover with a quick motion to reveal an enormous red dragon. A deafening roar emerged from the cage and suddenly everything was drowned in blazing flames. Upon realising that we were not in the process of being burned alive, we saw Geniri, sweat on his brow, seemingly containing the flames with some form of magical barrier within the cage. Fully aware of what we had encountered thus far and how stupidly dangerous holding a dragon captive would be, I brushed the warnings aside and took a closer inspection of the cage. And indeed, knowing what I had to look for, the illusion became translucent and I could see a small flying snake, chained to the much too large cage seemingly having a blast in scaring visitors. Once more resisting the notion to expose the magical trickery, I understood the value of presenting townsfolk with a harmless spectacle. And all else in this tent seemed real enough.
After a few moments, Geniri dropped the curtain back around the cage and led us to the final exhibit, a cage with three creatures with humanoid, naked female bodies, talons and feathered wings, two in dark, one in white coloration. The latter had her unbroken gaze fixed on our guide. All three were sitting in silence as, how Geniri explained, their songs tended to bring much dismay to those who would hear them.
 
Thus ended our tour through the bewildering and the strange and we returned to the main festival grounds. Only much later we realised that there was one more cage within the tent, which Geniri had failed to show to us. For now however, we strolled further through the carnival. Teynos suddenly stopped in his step as a cloud of smoke, shaped like a dragon drifted by him. He quickly recognised its origin in a booth selling magical pipes. The vendor explained to him that each pipe was capable of producing a different shape in its smoke. While he browsed through the wares, the rest of our group temporarily split up to hunt after varying purchases. Archie showed some interest in firecrackers and small glowing sticks, Kyla and Nysqwen set off to find themselves masks and Grum found a merchant selling awakened shrubs, similar to the little tree folk we had encountered in Thundertree. He was rather enamoured by the idea of growing himself a small, plant-like familiar.
After strolling around for a bit, I found Teynos sitting by himself, delighted by the smoky dragons drifting from one of his newly acquired pipes. Following an impulse, I closed my eyes and focussed while whispering to the small clouds and encouraging them to attack each other. The half-orc seemed quite happy with this new spectacle and quickly offered me the other pipe which was said to evoke smoky ships. And before long, we had a veritable naval battle going, mighty dragons attacking large ships who tried to defend themselves best as they could with gigantic harpoons. As I looked around, I saw that a fair amount of people had taken notice of our display and were cheering for different sides of the fight. And even more to my delight, some of the other performers started to join in, some using multiple pipes to produce more participants, others aiding my magical directing of the combatants. The skirmish grew into a proper fight and then into a proper war that filled a large space within the tent, high enough to allow a good view for everyone around. The battle went on and on, the tides turning multiple times, until finally, only one ship was left, and the last dragon dissipated, mortally wounded. Applause as I haven’t heard in a long time branded from the people around, almost every visitor was watching at this point. All performers bowed deeply to our spectators and we couldn’t help but childishly grin at each other in face of such a reaction.
After the crowd dispersed somewhat, a broadly smiling merchant approached me and kindly offered one of his pipes for free, as this display was better advertisement than he could have hoped for. I gladly accepted and thinking about my dear friend, I chose a pipe producing a dire wolf. Kyla had in the meantime managed to find a mask in the shape of a raven face, while Nysqwen had found a very glamorous green-golden face mask.
 
My friends went off now, to find us all a proper dinner while I found a quiet place in a corner. The more I think about it, the more I wonder what the last, unseen cage might contain, or maybe worse, might no longer contain? Maybe we will have to investigate this circumstance a little bit. Regardless, this day just proves once more how glad I have to count myself to have such friends. After being alone for a very long time, apart from Cor and mainly Anataea, the joy and bliss resulting from our shared experiences are more than I could have ever hoped for. I can only hope and pray that they are filled with a similar sentiment and that our paths remain intertwined, regardless of what the future may hold.