Chapter 1, Session 4: The Show Must Go On.
General Summary
He took it, he doesn't know it but he has it... a piece of the King's Crown!The Cirque Arcadia show began to die down, with the lights out and silence across the stage... for a moment. However, as the stage was set to be dismissed, the party watched as several glowing globules of light emerged and faintly glowed in stasis, leading the audience to believe a second act was being signalled; however, the party began to notice things going awry when they heard a soft wailing outside that was quickly building in pitch and volume; becoming louder and louder. Soon enough, Fionn realised it was The Wailing Woman and the party watched as several of their own members (with the exception of Auriel and Mallus) and the audience (as well as the gymnasts and performers in the show) fell unconscious at once before, led by Stretched Ink; still on her throne as part of the show, the crowd recited a statement:
- Stretched Ink warns Peregrine of [Whispering Light and his 'theft'.
We searched when waking to no avail.
But he falls asleep now, eyeless muse,
And in his sleep he sees you clearly,
You took his severed part
You WILL return it.
At that point, Mallus began to panic and they desperately attempted to wake up Fionn and the rest of the party. The orbs that had settled on the stage meanwhile plunged into the nearest unconscious gymnast and forced them to rise to fight, with their eyes taking on the appearance of black spaces filled with stars. With that, the circus tent devolved into havoc as the party (with Peregrine on the other side of the stage due to performing and unconscious whilst Hermione and Esmerae were also both still fast asleep) being thrust into the conflict.
During the fight, the party watched as Stretched Ink rose from her throne and, with her smile still plastered to her face, she announced 'this way I wander' and left the tent moving towards the cirque arcadia caravans.
The battle wore on for the party as, soon enough, thanks to Auriel's work protecting the group and supporting their allies. Esmerae and Hermione joined the fight and (after some disgustingly weak rolling on the DM's part) the group started to handily defeat the possessed gymnasts, mostly non-lethally knocking them out with the exception of Esmerae who tapped into her more monstrous nature to tear one of the performers throats out to empower herself, though the party faced further when, with their hosts broken, the dark spores freed themselves from the body of the performers and assaulted the party afterwards. Though the party had an additional threat to face as well as a group of powerful Quori Abstracts appeared and began to psychically drain and kill innocents in the stands who were still asleep and unable to protect themselves. Seeing the danger, Fionn and Mallus confronted the first of the Abstracts.
During this fight, Peregrine came to consciousness to find the party fighting and a gap in the circus tent; creeping through it, Peregrine found a possessed gymnast announcing 'this way I wander'. She knew the performer to be a halfling named 'Tiny Hornblower' and, as she span them around to look them in the eye, she was shocked to see their possessed eyes matcher her own and she was even more surprised when they instinctively assaulted her.
Peregrine reacted by, in a purely defensive move, knocking Tiny out with the pommel of her dagger and then she used burning hands to almost destroy the Dark Spore that emerged from their chest. Though the impact of burning hands shocked Peregrine and left her terrified of her own magic.
Hearing Peregrines screams, Esmerae left the rest of the party to fight the creatures whilst she went to assist Peregrine. In a blood-crazed state she emerged and, seeing Peregrine shrieking in terror, quickly dispatched of the Dark Spore using Eldritch Blast and helped Peregrine track down Stretched Ink after seeing her silhouetted shape emerge in the distance before melting into the shadow of a nearby caravan. Taking a moment to look outside, Esmerae also noticed every individual in the area had seemingly been knocked unconscious by the wailing woman, leaving the streets filled with unconscious forms and quickly realising Quori and Nocta Mori. Disregarding this, Esmerae helped Peregrine track Stretched as they moved towards the small cabin at the back of the circus, the cabin belonging to [Whispering Light.
The rest of the party soon managed to defeat the majority of Quori and Nocta Mori in the circus tent and, amid the silence, Hermione took a moment to look outside the tents front entrance to see the streets filled with unconscious forms and newly born quori and nocta mori... but, more alarmingly, she also noticed a pair of The Venator tearing through the creatures and sniffing the air. Tearing through Quori and Nocta Mori as they moved closer and closer to the Cirque Arcadia tent. Alarmed by this, Hermione warned Auriel, Mallus and Fionn who decided it would be wise to finish off the last of the Quori and Nocta Mori before making a hasty retreat as many in the group could easily be identified as dreamers.
Mallus and Fionn were the first to leave, with Auriel and Hermione following soon after, fleeing into the streets of Bloomwilt to get distance from the Venator.
Meanwhile, Esmerae and Peregrine continued tracking Stretched Ink and watched as the
Nightmare crept through the shadows into Whisper's cabin. Rushing forward, Esmerae managed to distract Stretched Ink (with assistance from Peregrine's Silvery Barbs spell) giving Peregrine enough time to wake Whisper and convince him that they needed to escape as hastily as possible, with the blind firbolg being very confused by what was happening. Soon after, in a display of surprising humanity, Esmerae managed to appeal to Stretched-ink's nature and convinced the girl to overcome her possession. Leading to Stretched falling unconscious and the Dark Spore being drawn into the fight as Whisper started feeling his way towards the circus tents with the goal of waking up his circus so that they can make a quick getaway from Bloomwilt.
Esmerae, at this point seeing the Venator coming closer and closer, tried to convince Peregrine to go with her to escape. But the tiefling was unable to leave behind her circus family so easily and so she kept moving towards the tents, carrying Stretched Ink as she did so... slowly coming to, Stretched told Peregrine that the creatures possessing her wanted something that Whisper took from them, a piece of the King's Crown. When Peregrine confronted Whisper about it, the Firbolg dismissed her and highlighted that they were more interested in saving the members of the circus for the time being than answering her questions. At this point, Esmerae left Peregrine to find safety from the Venator.
Reaching the circus tent, Peregrine woke up the musicians of the circus and got them to start playing their instruments, hoping the noise would wake up the audience before the venator arrived. Sensing time was running out for her, Peregrine moved to leave. Saying a final goodbye to Stretched who reminded her to 'fly high'... watching Peregrine run into the distance and away from the circus.
Report Date
11 Oct 2022
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