Witchlight Part 3: Proposals, Pixies, and Pocket Watches

Picking up where we left off outside the Hall of Illusions, the group was looking to get more carnies in on the plan to steal Mr. Witch’s pocket watch and get his attention.

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.