The Carnival's in Town

## Summary

This episode is the basic introduction to the players, the characters, and the world the campaign is set in. Six children and their pet squirrel and horse sneak away from their parent's place to have a celebration of their own. Hazel and Emily Binks prepare the food with Douglas. Alexander Jefferson looks over his horse, Oliver while Douglas tries to keep his squirrel, Chester, from having any apples. Instead he gives the squirrel a chestnut. Once everyone has food, Alexander joins in the eating while arguing with Emily about who the leader is. Matthew watches the argument and gets some mead from Hazel while watching. Cyrus Ferdinand nominates himself as leader and plays some bagpipes for the group.

After dancing for a bit, Cyrus and Matthew hear voices coming from the south. Alexander notes that people likely had the same idea they did but Hazel notices Oliver heading towards the noises. Everyone follows the horse with Cyrus and Chester helping Douglas. They come across a carnival sign leading to a set of grounds with many tents. They can hear haunting music coming from inside along with an announcement for the fantastical sights. Oliver runs off scared and Alexander gets miffed. There are some sweet smells luring the children inside as Douglas knew that danger was waiting.

In a puff of green and purple smoke, two figures greet them: Thalia Hollow and Melomene Hollow. They welcome the group to the Hollow Sisters Carnival and say that there is no entry fee since they're the first visitors there. Thalia is excited to make some new friends while Melomene reigns her sister in. They vanish in another puff of purple and green smoke. Alexander panics since he lost the horse but Hazel reigns him in saying that Oliver will find his way home. The group is conflicted about going inside until a pair of sweet shop owners approach them asking which treat is better. After some deliberation, all of them head into the carnival.

They hear many salesmen offering their wares including cider, cakes and masks. There are also some games including bobbing for apples and darts. Finally there's a man setting up a fireworks display. Hazel and Matthew go to get cider while Douglas and Chester get pies. Cyrus eventually goes to the darts with Emily holding his hand. The old lady eventually comes by Alexander, Matthew and Hazel selling soul cakes. Hazel is concerned but Matthew happily takes a cake so she takes one. The cakes are delicious but neither Matthew nor Hazel are lucky. The lady offers Alexander a cake and Alexander tries to deny it. Alas his stomach gets the better of him and while he doesn't bite first, he isn't a winner either. Chester gives three cakes to Cyrus, Douglas and Emily. Douglas is the one with the lucky shiling and he proudly hides it in his shirt pocket. Cyrus doesn't get a shiling but is shown to try out the darts by the shopkeeper. He lands two darts on the board.

The dartman tells them of a puppet show about to start in the back. Hazel and Cyrus head there right away with the others lagging behind after Douglas plays with a dart. Douglas' dart lands on the board and the dartman lets him keep the dart as a prize. They head to the puppet show and it shows a marriage between a woman and a monster under a blood-red moon. Five heroes arrive to save the woman and kill the monster. The children are directed to the center of the area after the play to go to the center of the grounds for an announcement from the Hollow sisters. Douglas hands the puppetmaster an outfit he knitted for the dolls before joining his friends in the center.

Thalia and Melomene make their appearance and announced that Hollow's eve can really begin after twilight. Melomene announces that it's time for a trick after the treat and every member of the party doubles over in pain. Alexander's skin hardens up and leathery wings sprout from his back turning him into a gargoyle. Cyrus's skin begins to rot and he feels light and cold becoming a wraith. Douglas' hands become webbed as he becomes an amphibious beast. Chester grows more legs as his tail falls off and becomes a spider. Matthew's legs fuse as he sprouts new legs becoming a jurigumo. Hazel's hair grows longer and white becoming a vampire. Emily's hands become claws as she turns into werewolf.

As everyone comes too, the stand owners are gone. Emily grabs Thalia asking what she did to them and Thalia swats Emily's hand away saying that they made some new friends. Thalia likes Alexander's new form while Melomene is more fond of Cyrus who now isn't a fan of her. They aren't fans of the werewolf though and they mention that the children will be there forever. The sisters vanish in the puff of smoke and Douglas calls them mean. Matthew makes the most of the situation and makes a rough sweater as an example. The rest of the party is mortified by their transformation, especially Hazel. Everyone but Emily and Cyrus hear hoofsteps coming from the north. A headless horseman named Gulliver approaches them. He feels sorry for what the kids had to deal with and offers to take them to someone who can help them. He doesn't like the Hollow Sisters and they don't like him or whom he wants to take them too. After much deliberation, the party follows him.

Gulliver takes them to a small tent where Calliope Hollow is mixing potions. She is forlorn to see the party in their monstrous forms and apologizes for his sister's actions. She says she can transform them back but it'll take a lot of work. If the spell isn't broken by sunrise, the children will forget their human selves. She tells them that they'll need a memory potion, a potion to restore them and a spell to break their connection to the carnival. In order to make the potion to restore them, they'll need five ingredients for that potion: the fur of a hellhound, the tears of a clown, the venom of a snake, the voice of a siren and the gear of a doll. Unfortunately the spell to disconnect them from the carnival has been lost.

Gulliver offers to take the children where they need to go and Calliope is grateful. She apologizes again and gets to work on the memory potion. The others leave after Emily dents the tent a bit. Gulliver directs them to the northeast tent where they can find the hellhound hair, the tiny central tent where they can find the clown tears and the southeastern ten is where they can get the snake venom. Cyrus hopes to shave Emily but is denied. Emily tries to punch him but gets only air.

They head to the hellhound tent first and smell meat and sweat right away. Chester doesn't want to go in that tent but they head in anyway. They find a mountain troll named Jinjin training the hellhound named Rotjaw. Emily asks if Rotjaw can let us have some of his hair. Jinjin says Rotjaw is stubborn and only gives hair to those who he respects. He warns them not to kill Rotjaw as the hellhound glares at Emily. Emily swallows her pride, goes naked and meets the hellhound in the middle of the ring.

Rotjaw slashes her in the face with his claws. Emily retaliates with a mighty roar and a mighty backhand. Rotjaw retaliates with a fireball but Emily rolls out of the way. The bale of hay catches on fire but Jinjin sits on it to put out the fire. Emily glares at Rotjaw but he is no longer phased. Emily thinks about her working with the animals in Salem and puts her foot on Rotjaw's chest demanding that he listen to her. Rotjaw is proud though and slashes Emily's leg. Cyrus notes that this hellhound won't go down easily. Emily tries smashing his head into the ground but Rotjaw slips away and backs up. Emily glares at Rotjaw and he shivers a bit. He blasts her with fire and hits this time. He circles her cutting her off from the others. Emily rams into Rotjaw and demands that he submits again. This time Rotjaw complies.

Jinjin is impressed as Hazel puts her cloak over Emily. Rotjaw nuzzles Emily and some fur of his falls off. Hazel and Emily pick up ten clumps of hellhound fur. Hazel is happy with Emily's victory and Emily says that Hazel needs to learn how to fight too if they're going to survive this night. Gulliver is happy for their victory and Emily's tail begins wagging. Emily tries to stop it but Cyrus teases her over it. As they head to the clown tent, Alexander asks why Gulliver ran off. It turned out he wasn't sure if they could take down Rotjaw without killing him. If they didn't he'd have to make a literal deal with the devil to get that hellhound hair and he wasn't going through that again. He mentions that performances would be key for the next ingredients and everyone turns to Cyrus. Cyrus is despondent to be dealing with clowns but decides to roll with it.

The children arrives at a small theater of sorts. It seems to fit only three people when it's much bigger on the inside. It's like a theater in London almost. After a drum roll, two clowns, named Farce and Folly, come on the stage backflipping everywhere. After demanding an applause from a less enthused Cyrus, they mention that they're happy to have an audience. Cyrus and Hazel ask for a cup of their tears. They decide to oblige if Cyrus can beat them in talents of acrobatics and music. Cyrus obliges and Folly gives a stunning acrobatic performance. Cyrus decides to try without his legs and surprisingly does a nice acrobatic maneuver involving his intangibility.

Farce is impressed and summons a grand piano from backstage. She plays a performance even using her gloves to play the lower notes while Folly turns her upside down and balances her. Hazel and Douglas embarrassingly clap while Chester gives a 10 for the performance. Cyrus pulls out his bagpipes from under his cloak and everything, even the lights, are dazzled by the music. Hazel even dances like before while the clowns applauded his performance. However they have one final test for him, the wheel of stabbing. They get rid of the skeleton on the wheel and want one of Cyrus' companions to take the skeleton's place. Douglas nearly volunteers but they mention that Cyrus has to choose who gets stabbed. Cyrus picks Chester much to the disbelief of the clowns. Chester straps in and the wheel spins. Cyrus throws two daggers at the spider and he's safe. The clowns cry that they were supposed to win. Hazel quickly gathers the tears in a vial. As Cyrus gets off the stage, Alexander asks him why he didn't pick him. Cyrus replies that it was for Chester's favoritism towards the clowns in the music performance.

Next it was time to get the snake venom. Gulliver warns the children not to play the snake lady, Iksa, for a fool and that she enjoys cards. She also doesn't like playing with her food. The children hear hissing coming from the serpent tent while it gets warmer. They step onto the sandy floor as pillars are shown. Iksa reveals herself and approaches the children. Everyone is terrified of her so Alexander stands up and asks for her snake venom. Iksa wants things to be worth the party's while. She decides to play cards with them and if they lose, she has Emily for dinner. Alexander consoles Emily and whispers to her that if he loses, he'll take the snake venom.

Alexander accepts the deal and he's taken to a card table. Iksa wonders if Alexander has cards. Alexander doesn't think he does but finds his deck in his hip along with everything that was in his pockets. As Hazel invites everyone over, she notices that Chester and Matthew are playing with silk cards of their own. Iksa deals the cards for a game of seven star stud. Iksa tries to cheat but Alexander notices. Iksa doesn't like being called out and summons two serpents to attack alongside her.

Cyrus tries attacking the serpent on the right with a slash with a spectral longsword but it dodges because Cyrus doesn't know how to swing a sword without legs. With not much else to do he gives inspiration to Matthew. The snakes bite both Hazel and poison her while Cyrus hovers over the snake's attack. Iksa summons bony pillars making Hazel, Alexander and Matthew rise from the sand and separates them. Cyrus, Emily and Douglas avoid their pillars. Hazel quickly heals Emily while also blessing her, Cyrus and Douglas. Alexander gets excited for his first real battle and enrages summoning three gargoyle spirits to assist in attacking Iksa.

Douglas begins panicking until Chester actually speaks with him. Douglas is surprised and then eventually learns to climb like Chester does. He eventually reaches the top of Matthew's pillar and yells at the snakes to leave his friends alone. The cry is like a yell and a roar at the same time. It scares the snakes. Emily takes advantage of the situation and lets out a mighty howl. Just then Rotjaw shows up to protect his friend. Emily snaps the head off of one snake while Rotjaw handles the other. Matthew summons a blast of dark magic at Iksa before climbing down the pillar with his spider legs.

Cyrus tries swinging at the snake again only to miss so he inspires Rotjaw instead. The snake bites Cyrus in retaliation and gets him poisoned. Iksa in a dangerous effort to protect herself, turns her skin to stone. Hazel summons some sacred flames and sends them flying at Iksa while also healing Cyrus. Alexander grabs Iksa and headbutts her. She loses several teeth and Alexander calls for a vail to put the venom into. Hazel throws Douglas one and Chester delivers it to Alexander catches some of the venom. As he does, the last snake alive fizzles into nothing. When the venom stops flowing from Iksa's mouth, it's replaced with blood. Iksa's eyes become normal and she looked around startled. She asks where her mother is and that she doesn't want to die.

Thalia and Melomene appear and Melomene pulls Iksa to her with her magic. Iksa asks Melomene for help and Melomene complies by snapping Iksa's neck. Rotjaw begins cowering and runs off. Alexander yells that he wanted to end this peacefully. Thalia just jokes about how Matthew could replace Iksa. Melomene also remarks that bloodshed can't be helped and that Calliope has answers. Thalia laughed that they trusted the wrong sister before the sisters vanished.

Alexander looks at his bloody hands while Hazel looks at Iksa's body in horror. Hazel attempts to revive Iksa in vain while Douglas paces wondering who's a friend and who's mean. Gulliver rides in and is remorseful. To take Iksa's venom was to take her life. Douglas covers Iksa's body with a blanket he made during the puppet show as Alexander confronts Gulliver. Gulliver said that the children attempting to escape was like a game to them and that Calliope has answers. Everyone follows Gulliver out of the tent while still feeling the heavy burden of what they did.

## Notable Events

* Salem's Children are introduced having a picnic in the woods
* The party arrives at the Hollow Sisters carnival
* Thalia Hollow, Melomene Hollow, Calliope Hollow and Gulliver are introduced
* The party is turned into monsters when the sun sets completely
* The party is tasked with finding ingredients for the potion to transform them back.
* Emily Binks fights Rotjaw the hellhound and eventually gains his respect
* Cyrus Ferdinand performs acrobatics and music
* Alexander Jefferson plays cards and eventually fights Iksa for the snake venom
* The Hollow sisters arrive and kill Iksa
* The party gets the Hellhound fur, clown tears and snake venom