WELCOME TO THE CARNIVAL The Witching Hour’s Carnival sits in the middle of a dense forest, a Have every character make a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw. On a few days travel out from the closest town. From the exterior, failure, the character drops everything that they are doing and walks onlookers see a ginormous tent with a gloomy glow, illuminating the toward the source of the song, The Witching Hour’s Carnival. The nearby mist, but inside they would find all the vendors, fortune song is sung by three harpies within the carnival tent. tellers, monstrous creatures, and games. Despite the clouded night and the tent’s ceiling, looking above, they’d see the sky’s If all of the characters succeeded on the Wisdom saving throw, have constellations shining accurately. the singing continue followed by the the shattering of light and sound from the fireworks draw them to the carnival instead. When The adventure begins away from the tent during a night of travel, they find the carnival tent, read: camping on the side of the road. Once the sun has already gone down and the first of the traveling party’s watch has been going on for a few hours is when they begin to hear singing. A Tent in the Distance THE ALLURING SONG Drawn by the weaving voices, you find a ginormous, striped tent During the characters first watch read: in the distance. There are many other people beginning to gather around the entrance to the tent, seemingly brought to it Midnight Song like you are. You hear a loud whistling above then the bursting As you watch the flames dance within your campfire, a beautiful of many colorful fireworks. Once the explosions die down, the song, sung by three divine voices, twists through the air into singing has stopped but you know it came from inside the tent. your camp. It stirs those sleeping awake and the urge to discover the heavenly creatures creating this song begs you to search for the source. Sample file Written by Jonny Cordova The Witching Hour’s Carnival 4 A SHOWMAN’S WELCOME As the characters join into the crowd before the giant striped tent, a gith named Genniri (chaotic neutral, male, Githzarai illusionist) will step up, above the crowd, to address the people making their way in. As he does, read or paraphrase: The Welcome A mystical sign hangs above the entrance of the tent. Each letter looks like a window into the night sky. They are covered in stars and have meteor zipping through them temporarily. It reads “The Witching Hour’s Carnival.” Standing below the sign is a tall and thin Githzarai. He is wearing multicolored trousers, a jacket covered in patches with the sleaves torn away and nothing but his lightly tattooed chest underneath. To top off his outfit, he has a tall hat atop his silver colored hair. He has a curled, long mustache, which you might find very odd on the face of this Gith. There is a glass purple eye dangling from his neck, that scans the crowd of people. He begins to address the crowd, amplifying his voice as he does, “Welcome one, welcome all to The Witching Hour’s Carnival. Here you will find exciting games and challenges, creatures uglier and scarier than your in-laws, and mystifying mages with the ability to see your fortune. Enter if you be so willing, it is only a measly gold piece per person. And for the sick and injured, have no worry for Granny Youth will be happy to heal you of whatever ailment that you are burdened with. Now come! Enjoy! For tonight will be a night you will never forget!” CARNIVAL SHOPS AND GAMES Once they enter the carnival, read: The carnival workers The Carnival’s Interior Eye necklaces. The eye necklace that sits around Ginniri’s neck is also on all of the carnival workers. It is Granny Youth looking The carnival is set up as many different tents all underneath the through the necklaces to learn more about the people at the main giant one encompassing the rest. In the center is one of carnival. But the workers don’t know that it is her and instead the largest tents. It is named “The Bewildering and the Strange” say that the necklaces look to whatever they find interesting. and in the back of the carnival, behind “The Bewildering and the Strange,” is another large tent titled “Granny Youth’s Silver hair. Some of the workers have silvered hair and some Transcending Revivification.” All throughout there are many more than others. This is caused by Granny Youth taking part of different vendors for food and games and scattered about are their souls and charming them. Those with silver hair believe to many performers. As you look above you, instead of seeing the have been cured by Granny Youth, while the others without tent, you see the night sky even more prevalent that it was silver hair work at the carnival to see the world or because their before you entered. friends joined it amongst other reasons. Promotion. The workers are great ways to guide the story by adding more intrigue about Granny Youth and the monsters that It is best for the characters to go through the vendors and games are within “The Bewildering and the Strange.” before moving onto both “The Bewildering and the Strange” and Granny’s performance. It is also suggested that they don’t go to see Granny Youth’s performance until after going through “The Bewildering and the Strange.” FOOD AND SHOPS There are vendors that sell more traditional food all around the cost of copper like the following: • Warm, fruit pies consisting of apple, strawberry, or cherry. • SampleRoasted corn on the cob with different spices to be added. file • Candied apples, gooey candies, and hard candies • And turkey legs of course. Written by Jonny Cordova The Witching Hour’s Carnival 5 Along with these normal foods, there are also unusual foods that are • Fortune tellers who read the Fates’ messages through more expensive ranging from 5 to 10 silver, like: tarot cards. To have your fortune read is 5 silver. If they go to the fortune teller, you can make your own fortune or • Fried and crispy giant spider’s legs. • Steamed rust monster. use the one below. • Grilled crawlers. • Eldritch tentacles (which are really just octopus and squid.) Fortune Reading Some of the trinket vendors might include: The first card that the fortune teller reveals has an illustration of a tall, stone tower breaking apart in an otherwise empty field. • Fireworks, whistles, puppets, and dolls are found amongst The fortune teller says to you, “The Tower, upright. There soon many of the more enchanted items. The fireworks are will be disorder and chaos. A disaster. But how will you manage sold for 5 silver each and the other common items are 5 it?” They draw the next card revealing a picture of a person copper. wrapped in robes, wandering in the darkness holding a gleaming • Grow-a-Pal, a place where you can buy a new friend who lantern. They say to you, “The Hermit, also upright. You must you care for and grow by looking after a pot of an uncover the truth to this disorder that you face, and if you do,” awakened shrub. Some of which are just pots of soil or and she draws the last card, this shows an illustration of partly grown regular plants, but they have a caged Asmodeus sitting in his throne, but it is upside-down. The teller awakened shrub just in case anyone grows suspicious. continues, “you will find freedom and release. You will restore The Grow-a-Pal is sold for 5 gold. the disorder, but if you fail you will be trapped within the • A vendor smoking and selling a pipe of smoke monsters, disorder forever.” who with each puff of the pipe creates hydra and werewolves amongst many other creatures. This pipe is sold for 1 gold. • Rods of Illumination that glow in neon greens, purples, reds, and blues. The rods are priced at 5 silver. • Ghost Lanterns, which are actually just an orb of light drifting within a lantern. The ghost lanterns are sold for 5 gold. PERFORMERS Some of the carnival workers preform different tricks, mixing in some illusion magic as they do, in various parts of the carnival. Some of them might be the following: • A juggler who ignites the items they throw into the air in flames. A successful DC 11 Intelligence (Investigation) check reviles the fire to be fake. • Sword swallowers who might be shoving one or two blades down their esophagus, but definitely not the twenty or thirty that appears to be sticking out of their throat. A successful DC 11 Intelligence (Investigation) check will also show that rather than the twenty swords that the swallower might show, there are only three or four. • Performers throwing knives at their partners strapped to a spinning wheel who, once they’ve had a few good throws in, look to the crowd for any volunteers who might want to have knives thrown at them or be the one throwing the knives. Sample file Written by Jonny Cordova The Witching Hour’s Carnival 6 GAMES The games and challenges within The Witching Hour’s Carnival are a well mixture of the fair and impossible. • High Striker, a game where the contestant swings a hammer down onto a small lever to send a puck up a tower to ring a bell.