Monthly Group: Birthday One-Shot
In honor of the birthday of one of our number, our group changed it up and one of the players DM while the rest played.
Having adventure together for quite a while, The adventuring party decided it was time for a break and a vacation. Deciding to head for the coast, we ignored multiple calls to adventure knowing that we had been spread too thin.
Hopping from town to town, inn to tavern, we arrived out of town on our map along the way. This town was supposed to be the beginning of our vacation. Unfortunately, when we arrived, the town was empty.
Wandering through, the fighter, and leader of the band, Torbek, had someone go take care of the emaciated horses that had been tied for who knows how long to the post outside of the inn.
At the center of town however was a large circus tent. The party went to investigate.
Inside the tent the party heard the sounds of whimpering, as if from a small child. Drawing their weapons, the party went in and found nothing but a wagon with a small child whimpering outside. The small child described how everyone in town went into the wagon and how nobody had come out.
Something was obviously wrong here. Especially considering that wagon was not big enough for a town full of people.
Investigating the wagon on the party walked inside of it and found some magic items, particularly that of a ring of featherfall which the fighter took. Additionally were some disguise kits and other such sundries. The oddest thing, however, was the open wardrobe which contains stairs going and possibly downward and away from the wagon. Drawing their weapons, the party went into the unknown.
The party soon came across a room with a faceless person. We were asked each to sit in a chair and were asked each to be subject to this faceless person and doing some sort of enchantment. It appeared that if failed to resist the enchantment, we would believe our wildest dreams were in the next room whereas if we resisted the charm, we would be uttered into a different room. The two half-orc brothers, the fighter being one of them, and the human warlock, all “failed” the enchantment. The others were dropped into a room of darkness.
Those I should into the next room found themselves inside of a room with a strange and sadistic man yielding chains with hooks pulling the souls out of people. Deciding that this was a terrible thing, the fighter charged with his halberd, severely wounding the grotesque man with chains. The man fled through a strange door that appeared like a clown’s visage. Looking at the room, the fighter saw that this grotesque man had been storing these souls and bottles. The fighter began freeing these souls hoping that they find their way to a final rest of some sort.
Meanwhile, the other group found themselves in a hall of mirrors. This hall did not merely show the reflections, but showed the reflections of what might have been. Single, crucial forks in the lives of those reflected and what their life may have looked like had they chosen a different path. The Ranger was so disturbed by the visage presented to her, that she shattered panel of glass mirror that she was presented with.
Those back in the soul room continued onwards finding themselves also in the hall of mirrors. The fighter, though, sorry most disturbing sight: him carrying the dead body of his brother. He instinctively knew that this was the result of a decision in his past enabling him to not get to his brother in time to save him. In a moment of pain, the fighter dropped his halberd and put his hand to the mirror at which point he was sucked in! Out of the mirror came a different fighter. He was cold, jaded, and it perpetually angry. Angry with himself over the loss of his brother, having made different life choices that led to that moment. he did not know his companions, for in his experience he never met them. Having been explained what was going on, however, the fighter picked up the fallen halberd and trudged on with the body of his brother, swearing to get revenge on the woman whose carnival this was.
The next room was curious indeed with a being who appeared to be an amalgamation of each member of the party! This being was seated in a chair in a center of an otherwise black room. This being told us that we each must give up a memory to proceed, gaining a different memory in exchange, as well as the ability to proceed onward. Each gave up something, the fighter giving up the memory of how his brother died.
Being allowed to proceed on work, the party found themselves in a disturbing room: arriving massive tentacles was tormenting people in two separate cages, plucking a limb off of one of them and replacing it with a tentacle from their own person.
The fighter left at the tentacled mass, severing several of its tentacles in the process. The bard polymorphed the tentacle mass into a chicken. Taking the key from the chicken, the fighter unlocked the cages freeing the poor villagers that had been trapped within. severing the tentacle from the poor woman and healing her wound, the party proceeded onwards, promising to lead the villagers to safety.
The next room was disturbingly calm, as it was nothing more than a bedroom. This was likely the bedroom of the infamous Tasha for whom this carnival was named. Taking a rest, the party contemplated what horrors would lay and wait further inside this madhouse.
Will the party find their way out? Will they find this Tasha? Will they save the townsfolk?
Stay tuned for next month when we find out!
