Session 001 - The Witchlight Carnival!
General Summary
The first stars of the night twinkle above the apricot sunset. Giant dragonflies whir overhead, trailing streamers, and a low mist curls over the ground. Through a floral archway, the players glimpse wondrous and vibrant creatures – elf stilt walkers, dancing faeries, and painted performers. Everywhere there is laughter, pixie dust, bubbles, and the wistful tune of a whistling calliope. The party stand around the archway and discuss how they arrived at this location. During the chatter, they discovered that each of them has been to this place before, and since that visit they had been missing something: Myrtle Shellback, an elderly Tortle monk, lost three inches of height and cannot tie or untie any non-magical rope. Wirth, a towering Firbolg cleric struggles to remember names and must knock before entering a room or opening any door. Nishara Mistwood, a Kalashtar druid lost her sense of fashion and must knock before entering a room or opening any door. Talia Starfinder, a Half Elf ranger, lost her sense of direction and must knock before entering a room or opening any door. After orientating themselves to their surroundings, they notice a silver statue of a dancing faerie that is mounted on the roof of a ticket booth and is surrounded by fluttering butterflies. The booth is decorated with an animated depiction of the night sky, with shooting stars arcing across it.
An elderly goblin perches behind the ticket counter, peering at the party quizzically through a spyglass. He introduces himself as Nikolas Midnight, and each of the party members respond in kind. After the introductions are out of the way, Nikolas Midnight informs the party that an unknown benefactor has purchased four tickets into The Witchlight Carnival and has asked to give these to Myrtle Shellback and her companions when they arrived. Nikolas Midnight refuses to divulge who the benefactor is, despite the wary party members questioning him.
Once Myrtle Shellback hands out the tickets to each of the party members, four children excitedly come up to the ticket booth and are disheartened that they don’t have the silver pieces to purchase a ticket. Nikolas Midnight askes the party if they will kindly donate the tickets to the children, explaining that the carnival is every child’s dream. Talia Starfinder and Nishara Mistwood hand their tickets over immediately, while Wirth and Myrtle Shellback reluctantly give their tickets over after an agonising amount of time.
Nikolas Midnight is grateful for the party’s generosity and offers four more tickets in lieu of a pact, that will conclude when the Witchlight Monarch is crowned at midnight. The party agrees, and the following pacts are put into play. Myrtle Shellback's pack is that she cannot tell a lie knowingly, Nishara Mistwood is required to carry around a small pumpkin as through it were a precious egg, Wirth can’t talk about his favourite subject, and Talia Starfinder must greet all trees with reverence. Before the party enters the carnival, Nikolas Midnight informs them that each ticket is good for eight attractions, and for those who want to sample more of the carnival’s offerings must buy another ticket.
As the party enter the carnival they are exposed to bright colours, large tents, and a lot of excited children and their parents surging into the carnival. Immediately the party notice a twelve-foot-tall walking tree garlanded in golden ribbons marching down the thoroughfare. Emerald clouds swirled above the tree and rained down golden, spinning sycamore seeds. The party noticed fairgoers try to catch the seeds before they hit the ground. As the seeds gently fall, a chatty squirrel scampers along the boughs of the tree, handling dandelions to select passers-by. Talia Starfinder eagerly talks to the tree named Northwind, expressing reverence. Each of the party attempts to catch a falling sycamore seed before it touches the ground, Myrtle Shellback fails complains of her old bones, while the others easily capture one each. Nishara Mistwood, feeling sorry for the old tortle, gives her seed to the grateful Myrtle Shellback.
A witchlight hand travelling with Northwind and the squirrel Redd, compliments the party and provides a gift in return for the sycamore seed. Myrtle Shellback receives the gift of being easily amused and any conflicting personality traits being suppressed. Both Wirth and Talia Starfinder's seeds turn into a single gold piece each. Redd, the squirrel, hands out dandelions to Nishara Mistwood and Myrtle Shellback, explaining to them to make a wish and blow the dandelion’s seeds into the air. Myrtle Shellback wishes for her youth, with Nishara Mistwood holding off on making her wish just yet.
The party then decides to experience the carnival in full, opting to try each of the games available nearby. They first approach a booth where they can hear “Prizes! Prizes! Prizes! Catch the faerie dragon by the tail and win a piece of its hoard!”. Myrtle Shellback confident in her abilities opts to go first, handing her cane to Nishara Mistwood, and is blinded folded. Attempting to listen to an elusive, giggling red faerie dragon, Myrtle Shellback tries three times to catch it, and three times she fails. When she exits the booth, she is handed her cane back from Nishara Mistwood, who has druid crafted some flowers on its handle, much to the delight of the tortle. Nishara Mistwood enters next, easily capturing the faerie dragon on her first attempting, receiving a bottle of Witchlight Wine and a replica unicorn that is filled with candy. Both Wirth and Talia Starfinder attempt the game, but sadly fail.
On Myrtle Shellback request, the party next travel to the Goblin Wrestling event. As they passed a group of trees Talia Starfinder excitedly greets them, while Nishara Mistwood druidcraft’s flowers to bloom. When they arrive at the Goblin Wrestling event they hear “Strong folks! Test your mettle in a goblin wrestle!” and without waiting for further information, Myrtle Shellback strides into the wrestling pit easily pinning the goblin down, receiving a Cuddly Toy Spider, for her efforts. Talia Starfinder emboldened by Myrtle Shellback's show of skill, enters next where she fails to pin any of the goblins. Wirth goes next, where he trips over his feet, and lands on the floor where one of the goblins easily pins him. Nishara Mistwood joins in on the fun, taking on two goblins, and easily pins one of them, winning another bottle of Witchlight Wine.
The party following Wirth’s lead, head over to a game called Outstare the Cyclops, where they hear “What do you do when the eye of the cyclops falls upon you? You stare right back if you’ve got the stamina!”. As each of the party locks eyes with the cyclops, they feel a sense of unease, feeling that the eye bores into them, as if it can see through to their very soul. Wirth falls needing to look away, Talia Starfinder outstares the cyclops winning a trinket of a tiny pair of sharp, iron scissors. Nishara Mistwood stares straight into the cyclops eyes when a butterfly passes by, causing the cyclops to blink, winning Nishara Mistwood a Cuddly Toy Spider. Myrtle Shellback fails, which she claims is because she hasn’t had her afternoon nap.
The party discuss their next destination, and they opt to attend the Snail Races which they can see from where they are. To get to the races, they travel through a group of fifteen trees, which Talia Starfinder greets enthusiastically. It is during this that the party is attacked by four rats, who bite and injure Talia Starfinder. Myrtle Shellback jumps into action killing one with her quarterstaff and another one with her claw. Wirth kills a third rat using his mace, and Nishara Mistwood kills the last one with a burst of poison spray. Alerted to the area by the noise, two witchlight hands investigate and question the party on what happened. The party retold the events, and the witchlight hands thanked them and casually walked away. Before moving on, Wirth heals Talia Starfinder of her injuries on her leg.
As they approach the snail races, they notice the grandstands next to the racecourse are filled with cheering fairgoers ringing bells, swinging rattles, and waving flags. On the starting line, the party see eight giant snails which are having their shells scrubbed by pixies. Above the circular course, they notice a wooden gantry handing from the branches of a central tree, where two goblins officiate the proceedings. Paying for entry into the race with a punch of their tickets, each of the party members choose their snail to race; Myrtle Shellback chooses the blue caparison wearing Nimblefoot, Nishara Mistwood chooses High Road, which is wearing a purple caparison, Talia Starfinder chooses Whizzy the orange caparison wearing snail, and Wirth selects Queen's Majesty, the snail wearing black. A highly competitive, fast-paced race ensues with Talia Starfinder ultimately winning with Whizzy. As a prize she wins a Potion of Advantage.
Invigorated the party continues to enjoy the games on offer at the Carnival, next trying their skills at the Gnome Poetry Contest, where they attempt to outperform a gnome in a best of give poetry contest. Each of the party fails at the game, one after the other. Refusing to be downtrodden, the party excitedly heads over to the next game, which involves guessing the number of feathers on one of a group of caged cockatrices, after they listen to the witchlight hand exclaim “Birds of a feather? How about feathers of a bird? Step right up and guess how many feathers festoon this fiendish fowl!”. Nishara Mistwood easily guesses, winning another bottle of Witchlight Wine, Talia Starfinder fails, as does Wirth. Myrtle Shellback wins a Witchlight Glove Puppet.
As they walk out of the booth containing the cockatrices the party witness two girls in face paint, one with a lion and the other with a heart, squabble over a painted wooden crown that their mother won at a stall. Attempting to appease both children Nishara Mistwood druidcraft’s another replica crown and offers it to the children, to which they screamed at her in response. Furious Nishara Mistwood crushed the crown in front of them, and the children ran off. Eager to get Nishara Mistwood's mood up, the party head over to the booth where they could hear a witchlight hand yelling “This almiraj is no mirage. Adorn its horn with two or three rings to win a prize!”. The witchlight hand explains to the party that they must toss rings over the horn of a wooden statuette of a cute bunny-like creature with a horn like a unicorn. Nishara Mistwood, Wirth, and Myrtle Shellback fail, however Talia Starfinder wins a Witchlight Glove Puppet.
After the game, Myrtle Shellback notices a reflection of something in a pile of the rings, and she is overcome with a sense of unease and a fleeting memory that she has seen the silhouette before. Urgently turning around, Myrtle Shellback scans the throngs of people, and sees what appears to be a little, grey-skinned girl wearing a pig mask and holding an oversized lollipop. A vague recollection comes to Myrtle Shellback, that the little girl may be named Sowpig. As Myrtle Shellback moves to intercept the girl, an elf stilt-walker tosses colourful sugary treats down to a group of children nearby. As Myrtle Shellback arrives to the spot where she saw Sowpig, she finds that the pig mask wearing little girl has disappeared. Rushing over to the party, Myrtle Shellback quickly tells the party of what she saw and questions if they too saw her, to which the party denies.
Report Date
12 May 2023
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