Date: May 30, 2026

Characters present

• Farvex Dusk: human warlock
• Shadow Claw: tabaxi cleric
• Philomena Gainsborough: satyr/centaur wizard
• Johan Andersson: elf druid

Character level: 2/3

Battle of the Bunnies

Vex’s plan had been to cast Tasha’s Hideous Laughter on Agdon, activate his Witchlight Monarch charm to grow a pair of butterfly wings, grab Agdon’s scarf and drag him into the water¹. While that certainly would’ve looked super cool, Agdon was just too fast. He pulled out a branding iron, the head of which was glowing hot with the shape of three rabbits jumping, and pressed it against Vex’s shoulder. Immediately as he did so, Vex could no longer see him. He then stole Vex’s Weird Al CD. Other harengon were approaching from two boats, and each boat had a longbow sniper firing arrows at them. On a distant boardwalk, Johan appeared, shouting his greetings at the party. Apparently, he had indeed just popped up somewhere else in Hither after stepping through the portal. One of the snipers hit him right in the chest. Vex threw a spectral card² at the sniper rabbit in return, and it hit perfectly, slicing its jugular vein. It fell to the ground, blood spraying from its neck.

Johan, hurt, turned himself into a pink pony and ran closer to the party. Philomena and Shadow cast spells at the rabbits approaching from the boats, some of whom were carrying bagpipes and playing that song the rabbits had been singing earlier. Philomena apologized after killing one of them with an ice spell. Johan, back in elf form, created a fog cloud around the rabbits, obscuring their vision as they approached, walking carefully to not fall over while traversing the network of boardwalks. Agdon Longscarf hit Philomena with his iron, and it was enough to drop her unconscious. The remaining sniper was hiding behind a barrel, and Vex activated his charm, sprouting massive monarch butterfly wings. He flew into the air and took out the sniper with another well-aimed card.

Johan ran up to Philomena and healed her with his druid magic, after which he conjured tangled vines and, for some reason, potatoes, on the ground where Agdon stood. His scarf got caught on the vines, and his eyes grew wide with fear. He didn’t seem to be able to take the scarf off, and now he was stuck.

“Do you really think your patron is good?” Agdon said to Vex. “She tortures people!”

“I have a hard time believing that, especially from the mouth of a thief and brigand,” responded Vex. He landed before Agdon, whose men seemed hesitant to approach.

“Zybilna hung me up by my scarf on a giant tree, and left me there for ages!”

“How long?” asked Philomena, who was just walking up after being healed.

“A really really long time.”

“But more specifically?”

“A really really really (really) long time.”

“Well,” said Vex." I suspect a master thief like yourself might be deserving of such a punishment."

Philomena walked over to Agdon and tried to pull his scarf off. All it did was choke him.

“No, please don’t kill me!” Agdon rasped. He begged on his knees. The rabbits watching seemed to find it pathetic. “Don’t you know what Zybilna does to people? Before her, I was free to rob and steal and do whatever I wanted. Then she came, and demanded my scarf as punishment. My own scarf that I made from lightning clouds and speed! When I refused, she hung me up on that tree, until Bavlorna came and took me down. Zybilna is needlessly cruel!”

“You must’ve done a lot of thieving for her to do that, but I’m sure you deserved it all the same,” said Vex. “And you,” he said, turning to the other rabbits, “We’re bringing Zybilna back, like it or not. This is your chance to turn your lives around and do good. If you stay on your wicked path, you will be punished much like your leader here.”

The rabbits weren’t exactly enthused, but some of them at least seemed to consider Vex’s words. In either case, they were done following Agdon, who wasn’t as much of a wily, swift, and stand-up hare as they had been led to believe. They returned to their boats and took off.

“But what will I do now?” asked Agdon through tears. “I couldn’t even give up my life of crime if I wanted to. I made a deal with Bavlorna when she saved me, and now I have to steal for her.” He took out the stolen CD.

“Hey, my Weird Al CD!” said Vex and snatched it back. “But look, we’re on our way to annihilate Bavlorna. We know her weakness. Once she’s gone, you’ll be free to do whatever you want, as long as it doesn’t hurt others.”

“Yeah, see those potatoes?” said Johan. “Imagine that, but way more of them. You can put them in the ground, and more of them will grow! That’s how I spend my time back home.”

Due to a surprisingly high persuasion roll, Agdon’s eyes lit up. “Yes, I could become the biggest and strongest farmer in all the land, and I could rule over all the other farmers who will tremble in fear of my superior yields”.

Despite his obvious megalomaniac tendencies, the party let him go. They headed on down the boardwalk, and came to the biggest tree stump they’d ever seen. It was the tree that Agdon had been hanging from, cut down by his harengon cronies. Now the top of the stump had been turned into a small town where a whole bunch of harengon lived. One approached them, saying that she had a sick child and needed help.

“But why do you need help?” asked Johan. “Isn’t your daughter the one who’s ill? Oh, you mean you need help with your daughter. Well, good thing I’m a doctor!”

“A doctor? I thought you were a farmer,” said Vex.

“I am, but then Rosalina got sick. She’s my cow. She needed a doctor, so I thought I’d become one.”

The rabbit child had a cold and was just being dramatic, but Johan’s magical broth healed her right up. The rabbits thanked the party and offered them some random trinkets. Vex got a fey whistle like the one they’d encountered at the geyser. It wasn’t very useful in the feywild, seeing as just about everyone except the party could hear it.

The Old Lady and the Toad Dudes

Having rested up for an hour or so in the harengon stump town, the Beatles headed on toward Downfall through the muddy swamp. The other side of the stump was fortunately not as flooded, and they could trudge through the mushy ground just fine. After a while, they spotted a house ahead of them. It looked like a tavern, with a warm yellow glow coming from the windows, a smoking chimney, and the comforting smell of a good meal all around it. The only thing strange about it was that it was walking around on a pair of legs³. The door opened, and a voice from within welcomed them inside.

The voice belonged to one Tsu Harabax, an old human innkeeper. She invited them in, following the rule of hospitality, and Vex figured it meant that she wasn’t on Bavlorna’s side. She overheard the group discussing this among themselves, and added that she did indeed not like Bavlorna. She expected the group to follow the rule of reciprocity and give her something in return for the stew she served, but when she learned that they were on their way to fight Bavlorna, she said she could ask for no more. She also told them that Bavlorna—or Lorna Slackjaw as she was called around these parts—didn’t like visitors. She could, however, be enticed by hearing a tragic story. Furthermore, she was always accompanied by a group of miniature versions of herself, called Lornlings. Something the group would have to look out for. They thanked her for the info, and stayed the night.

The next morning, Tsu told them that her tavern had walked a bit off course, and they were now downriver from Downfall. They could get on a raft and travel upstream, and check out the magical waterfall on the way. That they did, with Philomena using a long stick to slowly push them up the river, and they did indeed come across a magical waterfall. The river split (or rather merged, since they were going up it) in two, with one path leading to a waterfall and the other continuing up. They looked where the water from the fall crashed into the river below, and each of them saw a different magical vision in the water. Johan saw a satyr trapped in a cage (or a “dude chilling”, as he phrased it); Shadow saw a woman in iron boots chopping meat; Philomena saw a nasty, slack-jawed, toad-like woman in a pool, attended by miniature copies of herself; and Vex saw talking bullywug heads on pikes. Johan thanked the water for his vision and threw a golden coin into it as payment. It hit a frog right on the head. He cast Speak with Animals and apologized, but frog just made fun of him and hopped off.

Continuing up the river, they eventually came to an open lake. Or at least they thought it was—the fog was now so thick that they could barely see twenty feet ahead. Figuring that they must be reaching Downfall, Vex cast a spell to disguise himself as a bullywug. A group of bullywugs rowed up to them on boats and greeted them in Sylvan. They were all dressed as dandies. Vex’s disguise immediately became ineffective when Philomena introduced them and remarked that Vex and Johan didn’t speak Sylvan. Then they looked at Vex more closely, and saw that his appearance was an illusion. They wouldn’t believe that he was Agdon Longscarf either. But when he took the form of a dusty old man and said that he was “an old wizard who definitely had nothing to do with Zybilna”, they finally believed him.

The party had hoped to get directly to Bavlorna, but the toad people insisted on taking them to meet their ruler, King Gullop XIX. The toads escorted the group to land, where they found a broken hot air balloon being repaired by yet another bullywug. One of the toads, called Bloff, explained that the traitor Wigglewog had stolen a balloon and burnt down their balloon factory. The group followed the toads along a row of stepping stones across a body of water. The toads hopped right over, but the Beatles had to walk on the stones. Philomena went first, and discovered that one of the stones was actually a living stone creature, and it was not happy to have been stepped on. She apologized, and the group went on.

They could see the balloon factory on the other side. It stood out because it was the only building on fire. The group heard screams from inside, and rushed to help. They burst through the door to find two bullywugs filling up buckets from a tank of water and throwing it at the fire. The water, that is; not the tank. Philomena and Vex tried to use their spells to snuff out the fire, but it didn’t work. It wasn’t just fire—it was little living embers running around and burning everything. The embers set Philomena and Johan on fire. Vex teleported to the tank and threw a bucket of water—not just emptying it, but throwing the entire bucket—at the embers. Shadow tried to kill them with spells while Philomena put out the fire that she was on. Johan jumped into the tank, splashing water everywhere. Vex had some experience putting out candles by throwing cards at them, and decided to try the same on the embers. The card went wide and broke a window.

Johan stepped out of the tank and threw some water in the air. It turned into a cloud that began to rain on the embers, putting out every single one of them⁴. The toad people thanked the group, but Johan wasn’t listening. His attention was focused on the floor where a small circle of mushrooms had appeared. Inside the circle was a broken pen. He could feel himself drawn to it, and picked it up. He cast Mending to fix the pen. He tested it on the floor and discovered that he was able to write—an ability that had apparently been taken from him eight years ago at the Witchlight Carnival.

“Look, a fey crossing!” exclaimed one of the frogs and pointed at the circle.

“That circle will transport us back to the material plane,” said Vex. “Hurry! We might not have much time. Let’s send back Lionidas!”

“Now I can write prescriptions again,” said Johan. “I’ve done what I came here for. There are people back home whose lives depend on me. Rosalina, I’m coming!” He stepped into the circle and disappeared.

Before it could vanish, Vex shoved Lionidas into the circle.

Date: May 23, 2026

Characters present

• Farvex Dusk: human warlock
• Lionidas: leonin monk
• Shadow Claw: tabaxi cleric

Character level: 2

Into the Feywild

The party stood on a wide stone road that glowed faintly blue in the foggy twilight. Ahead, the road had collapsed, and they saw that it was actually a massive bridge stretching across a vast, misty swamp. Behind them was a thick wall of fog. Once they’d found their bearings after their short but distant journey, the group debated where to go. It seemed that the only options were north, to where the bridge was broken, or south into the fog. Going forward would mean they’d have to spend all of their pixie dust to fly across the gap in the bridge, so they settled on the fog.

Vex led the way, and the others stayed close to not get lost in the fog that was now so dense that they could barely see their own feet. Vex almost stumbled on a small milestone right ahead of him. It said “Queen’s Way”, but the chiseled text had been scrawled over in black ink saying “Hither”. Below that was what the party suspected to be the rule of threes that Mr. Light had mentioned. At the very least, it was three rules:

Rule of Hospitality. When a friend, an enemy, or a stranger enters your home, you are expected to be gracious and accommodating to them until such time as they prove, by their words or actions, undeserving of such hospitality.

Rule of Ownership. You must not steal from a friend, an enemy, or a stranger. To take something that doesn’t belong to you without the rightful owner’s permission is a crime and an unforgivable breach of etiquette.

Rule of Reciprocity. When a friend, an enemy, or a stranger offers you a gift, you are obliged to accept it and offer something of comparable value (be it a gift or a service) in return. Such reciprocation need not happen immediately.

This text had likewise been scrawled over with a massive “fuck Zybilna”. The group continued south down the road. A few paces later, Vex walked straight into a another milestone. When he looked closer, he realized it was the same one, defaced in much the same way. Turning back, the party saw that they were right where they had started—by the collapsed bridge section overlooking the swamp. The group tried heading south again just to make sure it hadn’t been a magical fluke, but once again found themselves returning to their starting point every time they stepped into the wall of fog.

Examining their options, the party looked out over the swamp. It was foggy, though not as bad as the thick wall behind them, and far down. As they looked, Lionidas realized that there was something—or rather someone—they couldn’t see.

“Wait a minute,” he said. “Where’s Johan?¹”

They all looked around and discovered that Johan wasn’t there. When they thought about it, they hadn’t seen him since they all stepped through the mirror.

“Maybe he appeared somewhere else,” said Vex.

“Yeah, like he stepped into the mirror wrong or something, said Lionidas.

“That’s definitely possible,” said Vex. “I read a book once where a wizard was trying to teleport, but he got the words wrong and teleported diagonally. Anyway, let’s keep a look out for him. I’m sure he’ll pop up.”

Looking out over the swamp, they saw a precariously leaning tower, a massive stump connected to a network of piers, and tall hills.

They also saw a hot air balloon swinging about wildly in the wind and eventually crashing down near the leaning tower. They decided to go and investigate that—whoever was in the balloon could’ve been injured and, even if they weren’t, could probably use their help. But first, they’d have to find their way down. Looking over the edge, they spotted a group of large mushrooms growing on the side of the bridge, and carefully made their way down from mushroom to mushroom until they could set foot on the muddy ground. As they did, they spotted a giant crane which flew away in fright. Walking in the general direction of the balloon, they soon heard singing up ahead.

With sticks and stones, we’ll break your nose;
We’ll beat you blind and steal your clothes.
But none among us can compare
To one wily, swift, and stand-up hare

Scarf that’s glorious, thief notorious,
His deeds are truly meritorious!
With a wink and a grin, he’ll show his cunning:
At flash of his scarf, he’ll take off running.

Quick as a bolt, his long scarf trailing,
Grasping, grasping, you’ll end up flailing.
You’ll pout, you’ll moan, you’ll huff, you’ll sneer;
Thanks to Agdon Longscarf, brigand prince of Prismeer!

“Quick, hide!” said Vex in a hushed voice. Lionidas dropped flat to the ground. Vex and Shadow both ran for the same stump—the only hiding place in sight—but Vex was first, and Shadow ended up standing on top of the stump when the squad of singing harengon (rabbit people, about five feet tall) arrived. There were six of them, and two of them were wrangling a giant snail, much like the ones that the group had ridden during the carnival. Their leader held up a fist, signaling for the others to halt.

“You there!” The leader of the rabbits pointed at Lionidas. “This is a robbery! But we don’t want anything you’re carrying. No, all we will take from you is the feeling of receiving your greatest gifts.” She held up a hollowed-out gourd with a golden cap and explained that it would take their memories if they chose to touch its golden knob.

Lionidas, lying before the group of harengon—who all had their clubs raised—stood up and spoke.

“How can I give away something that’s already gone? I mean, that feeling happened, and then I didn’t feel it anymore the next day.” He went on trying to debate the rabbit leader for several minutes. Shadow also spoke:

“The greatest gift I ever received was this symbol.” He pointed to the blue dragon emblem on his shield. “If you take that from me, you will awaken the wrath of Bahamut.” The rabbits looked at each other and began to laugh. When it became clear that neither the mud-covered lion nor the cat on the stump were willing to give away their remembered feelings (except Shadow’s memory of being beaten by his father), the rabbits attacked. They did so with disastrous incompetence.

The first thing that happened was that Lionidas ran up to the leader and clawed the shit (and life) out of her. The others reeled as she fell to the ground, her body quickly disintegrating and leaving behind nothing but bones. One of the rabbits wrangling the snail was so distracted that he lost control of the snail. It had been distressed by the fighting, and managed to kill its rabbit handler. Don’t ask me how one gets killed by a giant snail, but it happened. As the rabbits approached Shadow, they spotted Vex hiding behind the stump. He stepped out and spoke, using his magic wand to amplify his voice:

“Get back! I am a servant of the secret fire, wielder of the flame of Anor, monarch of the Witchlight Carnival, sovereign of all England! The giant snail will not avail you, rabbits of Hither! Go back to the shadows!” This was too much for the rabbits. They bowed before him and begged to be spared. He let them run, but told them to leave the gourd behind. Once they were gone, Lionidas inspected the gourd. As he removed its cap, motes of light flew out of it and scattered in the sky. The group caught their breaths and continued in the direction of the crashed balloon.

A Trek Through the Swamp

On the way, the ground got even swampier. Bubbles grew from the mud and erupted in multicolored gasses ahead. Lionidas—the secretly blind—tried to hold onto Vex to avoid the bubbles, but Vex slipped away from him after he stepped on one of the bubbles, which erupted with a green gas that made them both cough. After that, Lionidas quickly popped another gas bubble, which caused him to grow a crown of mushrooms on his head. Now, this was a real pickle for Lionidas. He relied mostly on his empowered sense of smell to navigate, but now all he could smell was mushrooms. He took a guess and walked off in the wrong direction, disappearing into the fog. The others made it across the bubbly mud with little trouble, and discovered on the other side that Lionidas was nowhere to be seen. They called out to him, telling him to follow their voices. When he finally made it, he was covered in slime and could only speak gibberish².

Shadow and Vex debated what they were going to do. Lionidas was becoming something of a burden to the party, and their quest was too important to jeopardize. They decided to let him continue with them, but if they found a way back to the material plane, they’d drop him off. Out of character, we were pretty sure we wouldn’t find anything like that anytime soon, and so Lionidas was actually safe.

They found the balloon stuck with its basket hanging about thirty feet off the ground from a slithering, thorny black plant right next to the leaning tower. Someone unseen in the basket heard them coming and whispered for their help. It introduced itself as Sir Talavar, emissary of Titania the summer queen. Once the party had explained their business and Sir Talavar recognized that they were on the same side, he explained further. He and one called Wigglewog, who had not survived the crash, had come to Prismeer to ally with Zybilna against the fomorians. To their horror, they had discovered that Prismeer had been taken over by three hag sisters called the Hourglass Coven. Hating each other, the sisters had split the realm into three parts and frozen Zybilna in time, along with her castle, using something called Iggwilv’s cauldron. Bavlorna Blightstraw was the witch controlling Hither, and she lived in Downfall, the area by the giant stump to the north. Wigglewog and Sir Talavar had run into Bavlorna, who had imprisoned Sir Talavar in the birdcage. Wigglewog had grabbed him and made a run for it, crashing the balloon during their daring escape. Also, they had to be quiet because there were two giant boa constrictors sleeping before the tower’s entrance.

Vex snorted some pixie dust off of Shadow’s shield, allowing him to fly up to the basket. He discovered that Sir Talavar was some kind of small pink-purple fairy dragon, and he was trapped in a birdcage. Vex brought him down so that shadow, who had spoken little of his apparent criminal past on the streets before, as he put it, “swinging too far in the other direction” and becoming a priest, could pick the cage’s lock. Despite his particular set of skills, he found himself unable to do it. The lock was simply unpickable. Sir Talavar said that it was Bavlorna herself who had locked him in the cage. Since meeting (and brutally murdering) her was already the party’s goal, they brought the little dragon north toward the place they now knew went by Downfall, just like that German movie.

On they way, they ran into a group of bugbears wandering about, carrying baskets full of eggs. They initially mistook the group for slave owners due to Vex’s carrying around Sir Talavar in a cage, but Sir Talavar was quick to explain what had happened, and emphasized that the party were trying to help him. Then the bugbears calmed down and suggested they seek out one Jingle Jangle who lived on Telemy Hill. They snickered quietly to themselves when the they learned that party hadn’t heard of her. Apparently, Jingle Jangle had keys. All of them. That sounded just like what Sir Talavar needed, so the party listened to their directions and changed their course. Before they left, the group also told the bugbears of their planned journey to Downfall and their quest to kick Bavlorna’s ass. The bugbears told them of the bullywugs (ugly frog people) whom they’d likely encounter in Downfall. The bullywugs had formed their own imitation of a fey court, which they called the Soggy Court. The party made a note of this and headed for the hill.

Telemy Hill and Beyond

Telemy Hill wasn’t far and, much to Lionidas’ relief, there weren’t any magical bog gases on the way. It was a tall hill, looking almost like a mountain from afar, and had a narrow path winding up and around it. The Beatles followed it, and were greeted by a grove of pine trees, swaying contentedly in the windless air. They said they were the voices of the hill, which was apparently alive, and asked how long the group intended to stay. The party explained that they were there to see Jingle Jangle. Jingle Jangle was there, the trees said, but she hadn’t been herself lately. It would seem that a group of rabbits had stolen one of her happiest memories. With the group having confronted a similar fluffle and released the stolen memories, they suspected that would no longer be an issue. They thanked the trees and continued up the hill, finding a keyhole-shaped cave opening. Following the path down, they came to a cozy cavern decorated all over with keys of all kinds. In the room was a goblin wearing chainmail made of keys and wielding a flail made from a large padlock. It was, doubtlessly, Jingle Jangle. The party introduced themselves, explained why they were there, and let Sir Talavar explain his situation.

“Oh, Jingle Jangle thinks Jingle Jangle has just the right key!” said Jingle Jangle.

“Really? How come you have Bavlorna’s key to her birdcage?” asked Vex.

“Pure coincidence, really. Jingle Jangle was in Downfall earlier when Jingle Jangle saw Bavlorna through her window. She was locking that poor Sir Talavar in the birdcage, and then she threw the key out the window!”

“Wow, it’s really lucky that you were at the right place at the right time.”

“Luck, or maybe fate. Jingle Jangle thinks it’s her fate to find and collect every key in the realm.”

“I think it’s my fate to defeat the hags and free Zybilna,” said Vex. “And I think it’s Lionidas’ fate to drown in the bog—he’ll be trailing behind us as we make our way through the mud, and his feet will get stuck. We won’t hear his cries for help because we’ll be whistling a jaunty tune, having for a brief moment forgotten that Lionidas is there with us. Once we realize what’s happening, it’ll be too late. We’ll turn back and call his name, but the only answer will be his last breath bubbling up through the mud.”

“Jingle Jangle, uhm…” said Jingle Jangle. “Jingle Jangle isn’t so sure about all that, but Jingle Jangle thinks the first part may be true.”

The key was indeed the right one. Sir Talavar was most thankful for being released. He gave the party a magical dagger that went to Shadow, and hurried off to inform his queen of what had happened to Prismeer. The group got to spend the night at Jingle Jangle’s residence on Telemy hill and rest up. She was thankful for what they’d done with the stolen memories, and she felt much better now that her lost memory had been returned. She told them that she used to have a phobia of being locked in a room without the key, and made a deal with Bavlorna to help. But hag deals are rarely favorable, and she ended up obsessed with keys. She also explained that there was a way from Hither to Thither, and that a scarecrow named Clapperclaw could show them the way.

The next day the party said goodbye to Jingle Jangle and the swaying trees of Telemy Hill. They were once again on the path north to Downfall, though their detour to the hill had brought them a good way east. They walked into marshland once more, and this time it was even wetter than before. They had to hop between solid but soggy bits of land to avoid getting knee-deep in water. They walked across a field where a battle must once have taken place, filled with bones and suits of armor. Suddenly, two suits rose from the marsh and stood up. They had helms that looked like the heads of owls. They didn’t attack. They just stood there, much like the party. Vex waved at one of them, and found that it waved back. Walking closer, he noticed that it was mirroring his movements. The other mirrored Shadow.

Lionidas walked right past them, and after some discussion about what to do, the DM said something along the lines of “you can probably just walk past them,” but we didn’t think that was quite creative enough, and pretty much turned it into a puzzle ourselves. First, Vex tried walking backward so that the suit or armor would walk into the water behind him. This worked, but it wasn’t deep enough for the armor to get stuck. Next, he cast Tasha’s Hideous Laughter on the armor, and it fell, rolling on the ground, laughing in silence while Vex hopped over it. Then there was the one mirroring Shadow’s movements. Shadow wasn’t quite sure how to get past it. He and Vex discussed what might happen if they simply removed all the armor pieces one by one. Vex carefully lifted the helmet (Shadow couldn’t do it, or it would’ve tried to rip his head off as well), and the whole suit of armor collapsed into the marsh.

They were getting a good bit closer to Downfall when they heard the sound of rushing water nearby. Deciding to investigate, they came across a well with water bursting out of it like a geyser. The ground around it was covered in water. Shadow saw that there were some small items floating on top of all the water spraying out of the well. They were all interested in what it might be, but the water sprayed thirty feet into the air and Lionidas wasn’t willing to spend his pixie dust on this. But Vex had an idea, and he threw himself into the water and flew up. He missed grabbing any of the items and fell back down to the ground, using Feather Fall to avoid hurting himself. In the end, Lionidas was able to bring the objects down to the flooded ground with a wind spell. Just as they picked up the items to investigate, three wisps of light appeared before them.

“The rule of reciprocity!” it said. “if you take any of our things, you’ll have to give us something of equal value in return.”

The items were a whistle that only a fey creature could hear, a sundial that only works with moonlight, and a sock that produced one piece of coal every night. The party returned the items, except Lionidas who wanted to keep the sock. Vex remarked that with the sock, it would only take them a few weeks to have enough coal for a barbecue. Lionidas offered up a regular sock in exchange, but the wisps were unimpressed. Having returned the items, the party introduced themselves and mentioned their business with Bavlorna. This pleased the wisps, who said that they were the spirits of people whom Bavlorna had killed. They also explained that Bavlorna had corrupted the wells, allowing her to turn the whole place into a swamp. One of the wisps, speaking with the voice of a child, offered the group a magical boon that would help them with any one thing they did in the next hour. The party all accepted.

The water from the well was raising the water level unusually fast. Soon, the water was up to their knees. They all lost their footing and began to drift away. Luckily, the DM rolled up a random encounter with a raft, and the party all got on. They also found a long stick that Lionidas used to steer. That way, he could feel useful, even though they were really just drifting down the stream. After a while, they crashed into a pier in a place that looked like it might be Downfall. Jingle Jangle had mentioned that they’d have to pass through Brigand’s Tollway, where the harengon bandits would demand they pay a toll. As they walked up the pier, they noticed that there was a small, hunched figure draped in a dark cloak walking beside them.

“Johan? Is that you?” asked Vex. But it wasn’t—the creature cast of the cloak and revealed himself to be a harengon with a particularly lengthy scarf. It was Agdon, the brigand prince of Prismeer. And his friends had been lying in wait, but now they came out of hiding and drew their weapons.

Date: May 16, 2026

Characters present

• Farvex Dusk: human warlock
• Lionidas: leonin monk
• Shadow Claw: tabaxi cleric
• Johan Andersson: elf druid

Character level: 1

The Voice of Candlefoot

With the halfling lovers reunited, the party’s attention turned to the mime outside the Hall of Illusions. It was Candlefoot, the same mime they’d seen perform together with Palasha the mermaid during the Big Top Extravaganza. Johan walked up to him and waved. Candlefoot lit up when “spoken” to in his own “language”, so Vex tried to explain the entire plot to steal Mr. Witch’s pocket watch through miming. It wasn’t very good, and Candlefoot seemed to suggest with his gestures that Vex explain with words instead. But before he could, Candlefoot mimed some more, and the group got the idea that he was actually unable to speak. Then he mimed something about a bird.

Nobody caught his meaning, so Vex tried telepathy. While he couldn’t speak, Candlefoot could, fortunately, think. He explained to Vex that the kenku Kettlesteam had somehow stolen his voice just as he was about to propose to Palasha, and he’d been unable to speak ever since. At least he could still mime. Vex said (or rather thought) that they’d track down the bird, who no longer had any reason to go around causing trouble, and get Candlefoot’s voice back. Then he proceeded to explain the pocket watch plan to Candlefoot. He was down, and expected that Palasha would be too. Vex relayed the conversation to the rest of the Beatles, and they hurried off to find Kettlesteam.

Lionidas with his heightened sense of smell was easily able to track down the kenku, who had magically disguised herself as a gnome, fooling only those who used their eyes to look. It turned out that Kettlesteam was still going around causing all kinds of trouble just for the fun of it, so Vex cast a charm spell on her and told her to knock it off and give Candlefoot his voice back. Kettlesteam handed him a small straw doll with a necklace of thorns, and told the group that if Candlefoot removed the necklace, it would end the curse. The group ditched the sadist bird and ran right back to the hall of illusions.

On the way, they encountered a group of children playing a game that involved running at high speeds. Johan stumbled and fell on one of them. When it began to cry, he tried to make it better by offering the child a potato. It didn’t help at all, but Vex made it feel better by making an illusory butterfly land on its nose.

Returning to Candlefoot, they were able to lift the curse just as Kettlesteam had described, and the mime was delighted that his speech had returned. He thanked the party, and decided that his proposal to Palasha had been delayed long enough. With a few encouraging words and pats on the back from the party to ease his nerves, he found the mermaid in the river behind the Hall of Illusions, and spoke to her for the first time in… several days? How does time even work at this carnival? Anyway, there was nothing to interrupt Candlefoot’s marriage proposal this time. Although Johan’s attempt at miming in the background certainly didn’t help. But Palasha said yes, to many cheers from the Beatles, and she also said yes to joining their little conspiracy against (but really for) Mr. Witch and Mr. Light.

As thanks, Candlefoot gave the group a quick lesson in acting and miming, which somehow made Johan worse at it. They thanked Candlefoot, who also invited them to the wedding, which they happily accepted. Right as they were about to leave, Vex stopped and turned back to Candlefoot and Palasha.

“I almost forgot,” he said. “When we were in the hall of illusions looking for the heartbroken halfling, we saw a strange figure in the mirror. It was a child wearing some kind of mask. Do you know anything about it?”

Candlefoot looked unsettled. “I’m not sure what it is, but I’ve seen it too. And it’s not the only strange thing in there—sometimes I’ve spotted a shadowy, dark figure in the mirrors. It has some kind of crescent moon mask affixed to the side of its head. But it always disappears when I look closer.”

“Very strange,” said Vex. “Perhaps we can learn more about it later.” As the party left, everyone except Johan were confident in their new acting skills. But the skills they needed next were of a different sort—leaving the Hall of Illusions, they came across Goblin Wrestling.

The rules were simple: there were two goblins, and they had to pin at least one of them to the ground and get a prize. Lionidas did it with little trouble. Shadow failed miserably as the goblins pushed him, causing him to slip. Splashing into the mud, the goblins climbed on top of him, victorious. Johan was next, and he also won. Finally it was Vex and his below-average strength. To help him, he cast a spell to charm one of the goblins, making it unwilling to attack him. Johan also used his earth-shaping magic to turn part of the muddy ground into a curious-looking garden gnome. When the bell rang, Vex and the non-charmed goblin ran toward each other, both slipping and falling at the same time. Luckily for Vex, he landed on top of the Goblin, giving him the victory. He won a second unicorn horn filled with candy, and he stuck both of them to the brim of his hat.

As a final bit of fun before the crowning ceremony and thievery, the group went to visit the one carnival attraction they had left: a place called Pixie Kingdom. On the way there, Johan thought he spotted something strange. In the corner of his eye, in the middle of the crowd was a dark, shadowy figure with a crescent moon on the side of its head much like the one Candlefoot had described. It wasn’t just a shadow, it was a woman of some sort, with a wide, unsettling grin. He pointed it out to the rest of the party, but it was gone by the time they turned to look. They moved on.

It’s Not Murder if It’s a Tulip

The Pixie Kingdom was a small grove with many tiny attractions—a pug to ride on, a hamster ferris wheel, and lots of other fun things that the group never got to experience because of what Lionidas did.

A tiny pixie greeted the gang as they approached, and told them they’d need appropriate pixie names before they could enter. Using their dates of birth, the pixie consulted a chart and gave them the following names:

Johan became Fluttershy Rainbowdream.

Shadow became Sunny Rainbowsprinkles.

Lionidas became Amazing Glittercloud.

Vex became Starlight Sparkledust.

Then the pixie gave them thimbles filled with a potion of shrinking. They all drank and became small as little pixies, and got the high-pitched voices to match. Finally, they were sprinkled with pixie dust and found that they could fly.

They began their pixie adventures by riding the pug, whose name was Pinecone. Then they ate some sandwiches. It wasn’t until they joined the game of hide-and-seek that things got out of hand. When one of the pixies started counting, Shadow (or Sunny) went and hid in a bird’s nest. A heron was there, but she let him hide because he was polite. Johan (or Fluttershy) tried to hide behind Pinecone the pug’s floppy ear, somewhat unsuccessfully. Vex (or Starlight) created an illusory rock and hid inside it.

Lionidas (or Amazing, which he was about to become the opposite of) hid among some tulips.

“Help us settle a debate,” said one of the tulips. “Which one of us do you think is prettier?”

“You’re both equally ugly,” responded Amazing. He then proceeded to try and rip off a petal from one of them.

“Help! Help! Murder! I’m being murdered!” cried the tulip. Several pixies came flying when they heard this, and saw Amazing fly away with a flower petal. Starlight also heard the cries, and abandoned the hide-and-seek to investigate. He was able to calm the Tulip down and heal it by casting Druidcraft, after which he called out for the Beatles to help him find the perpetrator. Sunny stayed hidden with the heron, but Fluttershy came. Funnily enough, so did Amazing. He was flying down toward the others, who couldn’t see who it was due to the tulip petal he held in front of him.

“That’s the killer!” Shouted Starlight and summoned a spectral playing card to throw at him. Fluttershy took off one of his clogs and threw it as well. Both hit, and knocked Amazing unconscious. One of the pixies had summoned Burley when the flower started shouting, and he now showed up to pick up the three tiny Beatles who weren’t hidden. He carried them to the edge of the carnival grounds, and Fluttershy protested the whole way about having to leave his thrown clog behind. Burley put them down, and they returned to their original size. After Vex and Johan tried to explain the situation, Burley fed Lionidas a cookie that woke him up.

“What do you have to say to your defense? Why did you torment that flower?” asked Burley with a tone and expression that wasn’t even remotely pleased.

“What’s the big deal? They’re just some enchanted flowers,” was Lionidas’ defense. “If I picked up a rock and threw it away, you wouldn’t say I’ve hurt it.”

“Those were living, awakened flowers! They had faces! Didn’t you see their faces?”

“Well, no,” said the blind lion.

“Alright, look,” said Burley. “Normally I’d kick you out, but since you’re part of an important time-sensitive mission, I’ll have to make an exception. I won’t let some evil witches destroy the carnival just because you’re an idiot. But your ticket is useless now, you’ll have to get a new one.” Lionidas took his ticket out of his pocket, and it disintegrated into dust. “And you’ll need a disguise,” Burley continued. “Wait, wasn’t there one more of you guys?¹”

“Yeah, Shadow—or Sunny, I guess—is still at the Pixie Kingdom,” said Johan.

“Alright, you go get him,” said Burley. “I’ll go get a disguise from the lost and found, and you,” he pointed to Vex, “take this token to the rewards booth.” Burley handed him a token like the ones they’d apparently won at the various attractions. “Redeem it for some magical face paint.” They were glad to have Burley on their side as they got to work.

Cleaning up the Mess

Johan retrieved Sunny from the Pixie Kingdom. He found that his clog had grown back to its original size, and had destroyed part of a pixie house in the process. The pixies were glad to be rid of it. Sunny left the heron and the Pixie Kingdom, returning to his former stature and becoming Shadow again.

Vex returned to Lionidas with two kits of face paint. Burley had brought plenty of clothes, but the only thing that fit Lionidas was, fittingly, a clown outfit. As Vex applied the face paint, which would magically disguise the wearer as whoever and whatever they wanted, Shadow showed up together with Johan, who had managed to acquire a massive amount of cotton candy on the way. He was handing it out to anyone who wanted some. The gang explained what had gone down to Shadow, and they sent Lionidas—who now went by Clownius Maximus and appeared to be human clown with a haircut that resembled a lion’s mane—into the woods.

The goblin at the ticket booth saw a clown appearing out of the woods and walking up to him.

“Hey, can you let me in? I’m running really late.”

“Shouldn’t you be using the staff entrance at the back? This entrance is for visitors.”

“Yes, but uhm—”

“There’s the clown!” Shouted Vex, running up to the ticket booth from inside the carnival. “Hurry up, the show’s about to start!” He turned to the Goblin. “There’s no time to explain, just let him in!”

The goblin was suspicious, but agreed to give the clown a ticket on the condition that he sign a fey contract. Clownius did so without looking, and was now contractually bound to greet every tree he came across with great reverence.

“I’ll be following up on that, you know,” said the goblin. “I’ll make sure you don’t break the contract, and that you don’t get up to any funny business.” Clownius hurried back inside with his new ticket, and immediately came across the tree that had rained seeds for them to catch.

“Greetings, oh beautiful maple!” Clownius got down on all fours and put his forehead to the ground before the tree. It found it charming, and gave him a maple seed. Then the group had to hurry back to the big top for the coronation ceremony of the Witchlight Monarch. On the way, Vex stopped by Dirla the displacer beast to let her in on the plan®, mentioning that the Hourglass Coven might be behind the disappearance of her kitten. She wasn’t hard to convince, especially since all her carny friends were in on it too. When the group reached the tent, Burley took them aside to his own tent to discuss the plan®. A gnome also showed up, but it turned out to be Kettlesteam in disguise, ready to help.

Once they’d hashed out the plan®, Vex, Johan, and Clownius entered the circus tent and took their seats on the front row. Johan gave away the rest of his cotton candy to other visitors. Suddenly, the goblin from the ticket booth appeared, none too pleased to see Clownius in the audience.

“Well well well, I thought you were supposed to be part of the crew, yet here you are sitting in the audience!”

“I’m part of the show! They’re gonna say, ‘we need a volunteer from the audience’, and it’s gonna be me!”

“That doesn’t make any sense, you’re clearly a clown and not regular spectator! Furthermore, this is the coronation ceremony. It’s not a circus show, it doesn’t have any clowns.”

“I think he’s got the program confused,” interjected Vex. “Let’s take him to Burley to straighten it out.”

“I’ll speak with Burley myself and find out if that clown is even supposed to be here,” said the goblin and walked away. Burley told him that Clownius was the slow cousin of one of the real clowns, and that he wouldn’t be called up on stage. That settled the matter.

Hail to the King, Baby

Big boxes of fireworks were rolled into the ring. In the center was a golden throne. Mr. Witch and Mr. Light walked out to thunderous applause, bowing and smiling. Dirla and Candlefoot were walking on either side of Mr. Witch. They stood on the left side of the throne, right in front of one of the boxes of fireworks. Mr Light began to speak. He explained that his magical scepter would choose one person to become this year’s Witchlight Monarch. It would choose the one guest who had contributed the most to raising the carnival’s spirits. His speech went on for quite a while, but he eventually began waving his scepter around. That was the cue.

Kettlesteam was sitting a few rows behind the others. She quietly spoke a few words of magic, and her appearance changed to that of the shadow creature with the crescent moon. Candlefoot had described it to her in Burley’s tent, and while her disguise wasn’t perfect, it was close enough to fool someone standing some distance away. Presently, Candlefoot pointed to Kettlesteam and whispered in Mr. Witch’s ear:

“What’s that creature over there? Do you see it? The one with the crescent moon.” Mr. Witch went pale. Dirla tapped with one of her tentacles on the box of fireworks. A pair of eyes appeared in the dark of its handle. Inside were no fireworks, only Shadow. Shadow, to the group’s surprise, had a particular set of skills. Skills that made him a nightmare for people like Mr. Witch. It would seem that he was, in a very literal sense, a cat burglar, and he reached his hands out through a hole in the box and snatched Mr. Witch’s pocket watch without a sound. It was flawless.

Darla told Vex telepathically that they had done it. He quietly relayed this to the rest of the group in the crowd, and they all breathed a sigh of relief. Suddenly, a spotlight shone on Vex. He had been chosen by the scepter to be the Witchlight Monarch².

Mr. Light brought Vex down to the ring. Vex created fireworks with his wand, and all the boxes of fireworks except one went off as well. He got to sit on the throne, and Mr. Light put a crown on his head. Then the carnies picked up the throne and paraded Vex around the carnival. Then they threw him in the lake and he drowned. Nah, just kidding.

Once the celebrations wound down, the group of conspirators met up again. Shadow discreetly showed off the pocket watch, and Burley brought the group into the staff area. As they made their way through the hedge, they saw Mr. Witch and Mr. Light burst out of their wagon with panic in their eyes.

“Looking for something?” asked Vex.

“It was you!” cried Mr. Witch.

“This wasn’t really how we wanted to go about things,” said Vex, “but you’ve left us no choice. People—and kittens—are going missing, aspects of people’s personalities are getting stolen, and Zybilna is frozen in time. Someone has to put an end to it. Don’t worry, you’ll get the pocket watch back, but first you need to tell us how you’re involved with the Hourglass Coven and how we can get to Prismeer.”

Mr. Light responded in a very roundabout way that he couldn’t speak of the Hourglass Coven, but they weren’t not indeed (hypothetically, of course) not not responsible for the things the group had (hypothetically, of course) lost eight years ago. He couldn’t say much more, but he could show them the way to Prismeer. Mr. Witch and Mr. Light brought the group back to the Hall of Illusions. They led them deep inside, walking by mirrors showing the misters in their elven youth. They came at length to a mirror, showing seemingly nothing but an ordinary reflection. Mr. Light explained that to get to Prismeer, they’d have to stand before it and recite the words hither, thither, here and there; wander yonder, show me where.

Clownius, whose magical disguise had worn off and turned him back into Lionidas, stood in front of the mirror and spoke the words. The mirror slowly began to distort, warping like a funhouse mirror. Then it swirled, its center spinning around faster and faster. It began to glow blue, and then there was no reflection at all, just a portal. Lionidas stepped through, disappearing into the mirror portal. Shadow returned the pocket watch to Mr. Witch, much to his relief, and stepped through. Johan walked through backwards.

Before Vex could step in, Mr. Light stopped him. He spoke, in a rhyme I don’t recall, warning him about the rule of threes—the past, present, and future. He also said they’d need to retrieve a special unicorn horn to free Zybilna. Vex looked at Mr. Witch and Mr. Light and said, “The witches gave you quite a scare, but now we’re off to save the fair,” and stepped through the mirror.

Characters present

• Farvex Dusk: human warlock
• Lionidas: leonin monk
• Philomena Gainsborough: satyr/centaur wizard
• Shadow Claw: tabaxi cleric
• Johan Andersson: elf druid

Character level: 1

It was time for a circus. Not just any circus—it was the Big Top Extravaganza. What was so special about that, you wonder? Well, so did the party, so they went over to the huge circus tent at the back of the carnival and waited in line. As they did, they were approached by the handsomest elf they’d ever laid eyes upon. He had long, flowing red hair. His face carried all the features of a professional model, and a good one at that. His clothes were simple farmer clothes, but they were clean and fit perfectly. On anyone else they might’ve looked cheap, but on him they came across as effortlessly fashionable. He also wore a cloak that billowed like an ocean wave, despite the lack of wind. Just for fun, the party all rolled wisdom saving throws to see if they were spellbound by him. Most of them failed, and stood staring at the beautiful elf. The spell was broken, however, as soon as he opened his mouth. He spoke with the most backwater country bumpkin accent they’d ever heard. The group let out a collective sigh. The charm was gone.

He introduced himself as Johan Andersson, a druid. He’d been delayed, but had eventually made his way to Madryck Roslof after receiving the invitation like the others. Now he’d finally found the carnival and caught up with the group. He’d brought a sack of potatoes. After their introductions, the line finally began to move and the party found their way into the tent. They took their seats on the front row.

As the bustle of the crowd died down and everyone was seated, a spotlight appeared as Mr. Light entered the ring. He was a pale shadar-kai elf dressed as a jester. After welcoming the crowd and getting them excited for the entertainment to come, he introduced the circus’ first act: a goblin juggler. The goblin came into the ring to a roar of applause, bowed, and began to juggle. First with three balls. Then another. Then another. And another. Once he was juggling about ten balls at the same time, he began encouraging the audience to throw more things at him to juggle. Johan threw a potato. Vex threw a Weird Al CD¹. The goblin juggled them with little difficulty, along with several other items from the crowd. After a while, he began throwing the items back. He threw the CD at Lionidas who, being blind, failed to catch it. It struck him right in the forehead.

The next circus act was a magician, also a goblin. Apparently, his brother was supposed to be there, but had fallen ill. This goblin was sweating profusely and greeted the crowd with a face that said what am I doing here oh man oh no. He needed a volunteer for his magic trick, and Philomena was the first to raise her hand. The goblin’s stage fright rose to new heights when he saw that she was sitting next to Vex, a fellow magician whom he recognized. Vex thought he could do it better, and the goblin knew it. When Philomena walked up to the goblin, he asked her if she could do magic, because he most certainly could not. Fortunately she was a wizard, and she did a fine job of sawing the goblin in half, somehow using only Prestidigitation. It was unclear if she used magic to make it look like she sawed him in half, or if she actually did saw him in half and used magic to make it look like he was fine. Either way, the crowd was amazed.

Next up was a bugbear named Burley. The group knew of him already—they’d heard from the swan at the lake that he had a brother, Hurley, who disappeared some time ago. Burley was as his name suggested, and he lifted massive weights with ease. He even invited the party down to the ring to sit on a bench, which he lifted and spun around in the air. After Burley, a group of acrobats performed daring stunts in the air. Near the end of their routine, one of them fell. The crowd gasped, but Vex quickly cast Feather Fall as Burley ran to catch the acrobat.

After that incident, Mr. Light invited the audience to participate in the circus. The whole party eagerly volunteered. Mr. Light asked the group what they called themselves, and when no one answered, Vex blurted out “The Beatles”². Johan threw berries into the ring, and made them grow into tall plants with his druid magic. Philomena did something. Shadow summoned a illusory clone of himself, and the pair performed a beautiful dance around the ring. Lionidas got strapped to a giant rotating target by a clown who tightened the restraints just a little too tight, smiling all the while. Vex threw razor-sharp cards at the target as it spun, and didn’t hit Lionidas a single time. It was especially impressive to the audience that Lionidas didn’t flinch a single time. Of course, they didn’t know he was blind. The audience was amazed by it all, and Mr. Light could’ve changed his name to Mr. Delight. As the Beatles returned to their seats, Vex whispered to Mr. Light that they needed to talk. He didn’t react.

The final act was a mime and a mermaid performing a musical act. It was every bit as great as the other acts, and after the circus, the mood at the carnival was as good as it could possibly get. When the party exited the tent, they met Burley who asked them to follow him. The party agreed, and were taken to a tall hedgerow behind the circus tent. As Burley approached, a path opened in the hedge, letting the group into the carnival’s staff area. The hedge surrounded a circle of circus wagons. Burley brought the group to the most decorated and fanciest of all the carts, inside of which Mr. Light and Mr. Witch sat waiting for them.

Mr. Light was still in his jester costume. Mr. Witch was a heavyset elf with a top hat and a large coat. His face was grim and he did not speak. Mr. Light welcomed them, thanked them for their performances and Vex’s saving of the acrobat, and asked what they wanted. This was the party’s chance to ask for their lost things back. Vex began a dramatic monologue about how as a young, aspiring magician, he wanted nothing more than to see the magic of the Witchlight Carnival, and how sorry he was for sneaking in, and what amazing things he’d be able to do if they gave him his ability to create new magic tricks back. The two elves looked at each other with concern. Then Mr. Light turned to the party with a look of pity.

“Have you all lost some part of yourselves here?” he asked. The Beatles nodded. “I’m afraid we can’t help you. We’re not the ones responsible, there are others—”

“You mean the Hourglass Coven?” guessed Vex. Mr. Light’s expression turned to fear.

“Sorry, you have to leave now. We can’t help you,” he said. Vex used his magic to respond telepathically:

“Perhaps you can’t talk about it, but can you think about it?

“Burley!” exclaimed Mr. Light. The bugbear, who had been waiting just outside, opened the door and escorted the group out of the wagon. He brought them back toward the hedge. But just as they approached it, he turned and brought them behind another circus wagon.

“I overheard your conversation,” he said. “There’s something going on with the carnival, and Mr. Witch and Mr. Light won’t talk about it.”

“Yes, we heard that your brother, Hurley, had gone missing,” said Vex. “And Darla, the displacer beast, had lost her kitten as well.”

“Indeed,” said Burley. “Many bad and strange things have been happening lately. I think you can help. I think Mr. Witch and Mr. Light know a great deal more about it than they let on, but they’re afraid. You’ll need to give them a very strong reason to talk. If you were to take Mr. Witch’s pocket watch—a magical device that he uses to keep the carnival running on time—he’d have no choice but to talk.”

“Alright,” said Vex. “We’ll help. But how are we going to get our hands on this pocket watch?”

“The best time to take it would be during the Big Top Extravaganza, but since that’s over, you could try during the crowning of the Witchlight Monarch in a few hours. Then he’ll be distracted. I’ll help if I can, but you can’t tell them I’m involved.”

The group discussed the plot among themselves, and got a few more details out of Burley. Mr. Witch wore the pocket watch in his pocket (no surprise there) on a chain that they’d have to cut somehow. The Witchlight Monarch was a title awarded to the visitor who had done the most to raise the spirit of the carnival. The group determined that Philomena had a good chance of winning, having not only sawed that goblin in half, but also having done whatever it was that she did while the others were dancing, throwing cards, and growing plants. They also learned that the mime and the mermaid—named Candlefoot and Palasha respectively—would be happy to assist them in their scheme. But Thaco, the clown that had tightened Lionidas’ restraints a bit too much and a bit too eagerly on the spinning target, could not be trusted.

With that, they thanked Burley and went back through the hedge to the carnival. They wanted to speak to Candlefoot and Palasha and make sure they were ready to help if needed. On the way to the lake where Palasha the mermaid could be found, they ran into the talking tree again. It gave the group some dandelions and told them to make a wish. We got to write down our characters’ wishes on a piece of paper and hand them to the DM. I thought that wishing for what our characters had lost eight years ago was a bit obvious, so I went with what Vex wanted most at that very moment, and wrote down four muffins (blueberry). The wishes weren’t immediately fulfilled, and we didn’t get to know their significance, or even if they had any. Then the Beatles entered a poetry contest, and did pretty well. Vex won a unicorn horn filled with candy.

At the lake, Palasha the mermaid was singing an enchantingly beautiful song, much like she’d done during the circus. But this time, someone was booing. It was Kettlesteam, the kenku who had previously been trying to disrupt the circus by pissing off dragonflies. Others joined in on the booing, and the excitement that hung in the air all around was noticeably dampened. Palasha began to cry and swam away. The group dashed toward Kettlesteam, who fled. Johan waved his hands, and ensnaring vines erupted from the ground, grabbing Kettlesteam’s feet. Vex told Kettlesteam to quit her shenanigans, and the group told her what they’d learned and let her in on the plan to steal Mr. Witch’s pocket watch. Kettlesteam was dismayed to learn that what she had been trying to accomplish for quite some time, the Beatles had done in a few hours. Still, she agreed to help if she could.

The group guessed that Palasha had swum down a river connecting the lake to the area just behind a place called the Hall of Illusions, where Candlefoot usually was, according to Burley. It was a maze of mirrors, and outside stood a display case with a puppet of the famous witch Tasha. Just before the door were two halflings, one down on one knee with a ring in hand. The other halfling fell onto the ground and began laughing uncontrollably. The halfling with the ring was devastated, and ran into the Hall of Illusions with tears streaming down his face. The party approached the other halfling, who was rolling on the ground with laughter, and found themselves involuntarily doing the same thing as soon as they went close enough to the puppet. Eventually they all calmed down and stood back up. Clearly the timing of the puppet’s laughing charm had been very poor, and now the halflings’ relationship was in jeopardy because of a simple, magical misunderstanding. The Beatles offered to go inside and fetch the other halfling, whose name was Rubin.

Inside was a bunch of mirrors, to no one’s surprise. As they explored the maze, they found mirrors showing themselves at different ages. Philomena looked long into a mirror showing her as a centaur in her youth. Eventually, they found Rubin. He was looking into a mirror, and he saw in it a child wearing a pig mask. It disappeared when the party arrived, and Rubin said nothing about it. The party and explained that Ween, his girlfriend, didn’t actually find his proposal hilarious and that it was just a spell. He was relieved to hear this, and they brought him out. As it turned out, Ween actually did want to marry Rubin.

And that’s all we had time for!

Date: May 2, 2026

Characters present

• Farvex Dusk: human warlock
• Lionidas: leonin monk
• Philomena Gainsborough: satyr/centaur wizard
• Shadow Claw: tabaxi cleric

Character level: 1

Snips, Snails, and Pie Eating Contests

The group, all dressed in their new fairy wings, were at the carnival. It was in a large forest clearing filled with tents, booths, and excited people of all kinds. Just ahead of the party, a giant walking maple tree was throwing helicopter seeds at a crowd below, who were trying to catch them. The party joined in, and all failed to catch any. The tree felt sorry for the party, and threw some more seeds at them. This time, Vex and Philomena caught one, and were rewarded with a magical charm that made them easily amused. They would go on to laugh when least appropriate.

The gang met a goblin who apparently collected buttons. Those of the party who had buttons to spare (who doesn’t?) gave them to the goblin, who gave them to a monkey who was very pleased. Vex kept his spare suit buttons in his magical top hat of holding, which was much bigger on the inside than the outside. It also had a randomly rolled personality—this time it was overprotective and summoned a magic hand to pat Vex on the cheeks.

The party’s first stop was the lost and found. After all, they had all lost something at the carnival. There they found Dirla the displacer beast, who didn’t have what they were looking for. That would’ve been too easy. What she did have was two human children, left there by their parents for Dirla to look after. After an incident where Dirla accidentally scared one of them away and the party retrieved him, Dirla gave the party a small mirror ball. She said it belonged to her missing kitten, whom she hoped the party could find. The party went to check out some giant dragonflies.

The dragonflies were offering rides, and the party all wanted in on the fun. They noticed that one dragonfly, carrying a frightened dwarf, was flying erratically, nearly throwing the dwarf off. Philomena noticed that a kenku nearby was seemingly casting a spell on it. She pointed it out, and the party was so intrigued by the kenku that they forgot about the dwarf.

The kenku was called Kettlesteam and was apparently a sadist. She said there was no greater joy than the joy of ruining things for others. After a charming spell and some mild persuasion, Kettlesteam revealed that she was actually a warlock of Zybilna (there’s apparently lots of those about) and was really just trying to make a ruckus. She too knew that something was wrong, and wanted to speak with Mr. Witch and Mr. Light about it. She had overheard them talking about something called the Hourglass Coven, and was now trying to draw them out of wherever they were hiding by making as big of a mess as possible. If that involved injuring dwarves, then so be it.

The party left Kettlesteam, who was no fun, and decided to go snail racing. Despite the reputation of snails, these ones were fast. And huge. Each party member got to ride on one. Lionidas won on his snail, Breakneck, and got a magic wand as prize. Next, Vex won a bag of pixie dust in ring toss.

Philomena insisted that they go to the unicorn carousel, in no small part because there was a centaur there, which excited her a little too much. The centaur, however, wasn’t quite as excited, apparently having been turned into a centaur by a hag. She was unable to talk about it, but suggested they talk to the unicorns. After solving a puzzle involving figuring out the true names of the unicorns, the party did get some info. They learned that Zybilna had been frozen in time by the Hourglass Coven—a trio of hags. They had divided the realm of Prismeer among themselves into three pieces, called Hither, Thither, and Yon.

One hag was called Skabatha Nightshade. She lived in a doll house in a dead tree in the woods. For whatever reason, she had lost the ability to remember the first creature she sees when she wakes up. Another hag was called Bavlorna Blightstraw, and she lived in a swamp. Her weakness was people moving counterclockwise. Finally, there was Endelyn Moongrave. Her residence was a theater on a mountaintop. The group didn’t learn of any of her weaknesses, but apparently she had predicted that she would die during an eclipse. The party pondered this information for a few moments, and then decided to check out the swan rides.

After getting pulled around on a lake on a raft by a swan who enjoyed debating philosophy, the party played a game where they tried to catch the tail of a small fairy dragon while blindfolded. Then they joined a pie eating contest, which Lionidas won. He ate more pies than anyone ever had before. After that, they faced their deepest fears in a spooky minecart ride. After looking into the proprietor’s magical eye lantern, all their fears appeared as illusions during the ride. They saw an illusion of the safety bar breaking their legs, because Lionidas was afraid of losing the use of his limbs. They rode through a tunnel so narrow that they could barely fit, because Shadow was claustrophobic. They encountered a giant spider with chainsaws for legs because that’s what Vex was afraid of. They all agreed it was terribly frightening. Finally, they saw their names on tombstones because Philomena feared death. All the tombstones had lovingly carved epitaphs except Lionidas, whose tombstone just said “Lionidas”. After the ride was over, he was still so frightened that he’d have to make another wisdom save later, and maybe gain a level of exhaustion.

After that, the gang stared down a cyclops in a staring contest, and floated around the carnival in giant bubbles while we ate cotton candy in real life. The end.

Date: April 25, 2026

Characters present

• Farvex Dusk: human warlock
• Lionidas: leonin monk
• Philomena Gainsborough: satyr/centaur wizard
• Shadow Claw: tabaxi cleric

Character level: 1

Let’s just dive right in.

We’re off to See the Warlock

Farvex Dusk, a magician going by the stage name Vex, sat in a coach with three strangers. There was a lion man, staring silently straight ahead of him at the satyr woman opposite him. Next to the lion sat a cat man in priest garb. They were all headed to such a specific backwater location that they suspected their affairs were more than likely related, and that their meeting on this carriage was no coincidence. Vex, dressed in a purple suit under his traveler’s cloak, broke the silence and asked who the others were and if they perhaps had received a strange letter from one Madryck Roslof. In the ensuing discussion, they learned a few things about each other: not only had they all been summoned to the same man for the same mysterious purpose, they had all snuck into the Witchlight Carnival eight years ago and gotten kicked out. None of them seemed too keen to talk about the experience. Vex made a comment about having unfinished business there with, as he called them, Mr. Lich and Mr. White, and the lion man seemed distressed at the mere mention of the carnival.

The lion was called Lionidas, called so because he was a lion, not the other way around. He carried a teddy bear with him, and never made eye contact. The cat cleric was called Shadow Claw, though no shadow did he cast. Not that anyone seemed to notice in the coach. Finally, there was Philomena Gainsborough, the satyr. She was the shyest wizard the rest of them had ever met. All of them figured that the others had lost some part of themselves getting thrown out of the carnival, for such was the price of entering without a ticket¹.

Philomena, Shadow, and Vex passed the time by casting silly cantrips, creating fireworks, loud noises, and minor earthquakes. The coachman was greatly dismayed at this, and Shadow responded by making one of his horses appear as a frog. The coachman nearly threw them out, but Vex persuaded him to continue.

The coach eventually pulled up by a soggy cabin with a sunken thatched roof, standing all alone next to a small pumpkin patch in a small glade by the forest road. The whole area was crowded with birds of all kinds. Before they even approached, an old balding man opened the door, introducing himself as Madryck Roslof. He invited them for tea, and they all gladly accepted.

Inside, Madryck prepared tea and stale biscuits, and when Philomena asked if he had any other tea flavors, he brought her coffee. The inside of the cabin was as filled with birds as the outside, and Madryck explained that one of the birds was a total jerk, and had probably been a human at some point. Vex tried speaking to it telepathically, and it responded with “Piss off”.

After the tea, Madryck gave them more details about his reasons for summoning them. He explained that he was a warlock and told them of his patron—the archfey Zybilna (whom Vex already knew of, her being the source of his magic as well) and how she helps those in need. He told them of her fading influence on the world, and his weakening connection to her magic—Something Vex also had noticed. Madryck was worried, and needed a group of folks known for their bravery to travel to Zybilna’s realm of Prismeer in the Feywild to check on her, and help her out of whatever danger she might be in. He spoke briefly of fate and the group’s connection to the Feywild. The group figured they had been chosen partly for their past incidents at the carnival, though they didn’t understand why.

As they discussed their mission, another bird flew in through the open window, crashing and sliding across the table, scattering plates and cups in all directions. It carried in its talons a rolled-up parchment. It was a poster for this year’s Witchlight Carnival. It had started.

The carnival, Madryck explained, was the group’s way into the Feywild. From there, they’d have to find their way to Prismeer. He told them that they’d have to engage with the carnival and not stand idly by if they wanted to find what they were looking for. Vex was glad to accept the mission, knowing that he’d lose his magic without Zybilna, and visiting the carnival would give him a chance to get back what he’d lost there. Lionidas reacted with fear when he heard he’d have to go back there, but agreed after some persuasion. After all, a journey there would give him the opportunity to set right what went wrong all those years ago. Philomena and Shadow seemed indifferent at first. Madryck assured them they’d be paid, though he cryptically added that the true value of the journey would not be monetary. Shadow was on board, as was Philomena once Madryck ensured her that he’d pay for their entry tickets.

We’re off to see the Carnival

Having made up their minds to help Zybilna and Madryck (and Vex, though the others did not know it), they took a closer look at the poster. It said that this year, the carnival would be held where the water meets the forest. With Madryck bringing out a map of the region the carnival typically appears in, the party made quick work of deducing this year’s location and set off at once. The coachman had taken off, but Madryck grabbed a pumpkin and turned it into a big magical pumpkin coach like in Cinderella. Saying their goodbyes, the group set off once more.

Philomena and Lionidas dozed on the way. The mention of Zybilna had stirred something deep in their minds. In their dreams, they both recalled long lost memories of their childhoods, involving a tall woman with long white hair helping them in times of need. Perhaps they were all more closely intertwined with this mystery than they knew?

Meanwhile, Vex sat deep in thought. He conjured spectral playing cards and threw them out the window of the pumpkin with great force, sticking them to the trees.

“Ouch!” said one tree.

“Sorry!” responded Vex, and threw no more cards.

Eventually the self-driving pumpkin carriage came to a path beside a river, and followed it upstream into a forest. It wasn’t long before they spotted lights of all colors in the trees, and up ahead they could see people of all kinds walking down the path. The excited murmur from the crowd ahead and the sweet smell of cotton candy grew in intensity as they approached. Somewhere ahead, a fairground organ was playing a whimsical waltz. Finally they saw the ticket booth. Vex hopped out of the pumpkin with excitement. The others followed. Lionidas was last, but he seemed less frightened in the friendly atmosphere of the carnival.

The goblin at the ticket booth had tickets reserved for Madryck’s friends, though oddly he had five of them². He gave the group their tickets, a map of the fairgrounds, and each a pair of huge fairy wings to wear. Apparently, this was mandatory for all guests. The party shrugged, put their wings on, and entered.