dnd5e-wbw

[dnd5e-wbw]

Chapter II: New Opportunity

Next morning, as PCs enjoy a complimentary breakfast in the local tavern, they're approached by a human warlock named Madryck Roslof. His adventuring days are behind him, and he looks quite old and frail. Nevertheless, he's delighted to make the company's acquaintance.

“I’ve acquired many treasures and made important contacts during my lengthy adventuring career,” says Madryck. “I would like to pass the treasures I possess and the favors I am owed to you. In exchange, I ask that you travel to Prismeer, a domain in the Feywild, and find out what fate has befallen the archfey that rules it. This archfey, Zybilna, is my patron and inspiration—the source of my power.

“I have been unable to contact Zybilna for the better part of a year, and I fear something terrible has happened. My adventuring days are over, but Zybilna has been good to me, and I would like to know she is well before I take my leave.

“Every eight years, our world is visited by a traveling extravaganza called the Witchlight Carnival. It recently returned and is camped not far from here. This carnival contains your only route to Prismeer -- a fey crossing, if you will.

“Seek out Zybilna of Prismeer, help her if you can, and return with proof that she is alive and well. Upon your return, all the hard-won earnings of my adventuring career shall be yours!”

Prismeer is a domain of delight ruled by Zybilna, who dwells in the Palace of Heart’s Desire, a magnificent structure in the heart of the domain.

Zybilna can assume many forms and is brilliant, secretive, and wise.

When she presents herself to mortals, Zybilna usually assumes the form of a statuesque woman with long white hair and a small tattoo shaped like a chicken’s foot below one eye.

This information startles each of the PCs:

Archeburn realizes that sounds like his mother!

Merric remembers the woman who helped him get out of town when his flight bgean.

Quentin recalls the woman who advised him to hide instead of return home.

Sondryn recalls the priestess who prayed to restore his sight.

Verdana remembers a kind patron's comfort after her mother died.

While the promise of reward for service is certainly enticing, more appealing still is the thought of joining another carnival company. And, not just any traveling entertainment, but Witchlight Carnival, itself!

[dnd5e-wbw]

Chapter I: Coven Tree

By mid-morning, the company arrives in the community called Coven Tree, finding a green and pleasant village with a tidy cluster of central shops, a “common house” with rooms to let, and log-walled tavern called Woodhouse. Other structures, homes and farmsteads, lie at a distance, as does the community’s sanctuary. Behind that lies the cemetery, complete with dead tree that draw the eye. Somehow, it seems to be casting shade without any leaves.

The people who live here are humble and honest, treasuring what they have rather than wishing for more. They’ve heard of carnivals and other such entertainments, but most never wander this far off the high road. The obvious carnival wagon -- bearing the words Mylo Mysteriosos, no less -- gathers quick attention. Where’s Mylo? The villagers demand. Is this him – the one with white-fire for eyes?

“No, indeed, my good people!” Merric harrangues the crowd from the caravan roof he rode in on. “Alas, brave Mylo is no longer able to travel after coming face-to-face with the dreaded werebeaver, but rest assured -- we are most certainly his Company! Entrusted not only with his trademark wagon, lock, stock, and barrel, but joined by the magician’s only living heir and grandson, Arch Magus, himself! I'm Wee Cheatum, manager of the operation, so please -- step close and let me know what it is you need!”

End the curse! The villagers all called out together. Use Mylo’s magic to save Coven Tree! Sondryn takes particular interest in the mention of a curse, and asks the villagers to explain. 

Several years ago, a coven of hags established a lair in the nearby forest. After preying on the village for a time the community rose against the coven, following the lead of a dwarven forge priest who’d fashioned magic-nullifying manacles. After clapping these on the hags, the villagers dragged them back to the cemetery, hung the hags from the big tree there, and burned them straight back to hell.

The coven cursed the ground over which they burned, however, such that everyone in the village who’s died since will not stay buried. Each night, they rise from their graves and prowl the village, attempting to kill anyone they lay hands on. Come morning the dead return to their graves, but they always rise again the following evening. What is more, only those who participated in the coven’s destruction have died since the hags were burned, including the dwarven priest!

There are six undead currently in the cemetery, four of whom are human zombies. The halfling among them returns as a ghoul, while the dwarf priest suffers the indignity of rising each night as a ghast. None of them have the wherewithal to break into the villager’s homes, but they will attack any living thing they find out in the open after dark.

“Let’s see here,” Merric called next. “The standard rate for re-deading the dead is 25 gold per head. These other two you describe are something particularly foul, however, and they require more. Normally, two hundred gold would be our bottom-line offer, but I see you people are in something of a pinch. So, we’ll call it one hundred gold for the entire job and you make up the rest in trade.” (Persuasion 15)

For what remains of the day, the company gets their mounts properly stabled, a decent meal into themselves, and plenty of opportunity to prepare for the task at hand. They decide to leave the caravan parked near the cemetery, so Arch and Verdana can stand safely on the roof to fire arrows and cast spells, while Quinton, Sondryn, and Merric defend on the ground below. They choose a spot well away from the six graves in question, assuring they’ll have time to reach when the dead rise.

Sure enough, no sooner as the sun set and the last bit of twilight fled the sky than the dead rise, straight up from their graves without disturbing the ground. Quinton nearly cleaves the dwarf ghast in two when it rushes up to him, but Sondryn incinerates both ghast and ghoul by calling upon radiance of the dawn. Arch, Verdana, and Perkins pick off slower zombies, with Quinton joining in on the last. The night is strangely silent for a moment before Verdana calls, “Merric! Look out!” The coven tree, itself, has become partly animated, creaking over in its middle to swing a heavy bough at the gnome!

The bough misses and Merric rolls out of its reach, coming up on one knee with his bow and arrow. Quinton charges and delivers a terrific chop to the tree. Arch makes use of catapult with a broken headstone and clobbers the animated menace badly! It’s truly Merric who ends the thing’s flailing with well-placed arrows to sensitive areas. The moment it stops twitching the entire tree bursts into roaring flame, driving the company back to the caravan. The spirits of the three hags, hidden away inside the dead tree, face their final immolation, at last, shrieking their way back into hell as the skeletal structure shivers and collapses into a roaring bonfire.

Sondryn perform the ceremony funeral rite while Quinton and Merric gather up undead parts and toss them into the flames. Arch and Verdana come down from the rooftop to attend. The commotion and roaring fire has attracted the village’s notice, so by the end of the hour ritual most have come to join, forming a closed circle around the flames, with the company stands before the long side of the caravan.

After the solemn silence lingers after for a moment, the bonfire collapses again, into dying coals and ash -- a six foot wide circle that will remain scorched until the end of time, but the curse on Coven Tree has been lifted. The strange shadow of the place has passed, already. A thin crescent moon and twinkling stars shine down, and the villagers burst out cheers of celebration: Thank the gods for sending us Mylo Mysterioso!

Each PC receives 20 gp and 400 XP.

[dnd5e-wbw]

Introduction: Mylo Mysterioso

On a fine night in in the middle of spring, the travelling company's stage magician passed away. Hardly surprising considering the old fellow's advanced age and addiction to drink, but he and his grandson were very well liked, so the entire company attends his funeral. Immediately after the final prayers were recited, the company's Boss tried cheating Arch of the magician's caravan. Never mind that the old man called the boy "grandson," or making him the stage magician's assistant all those years.

The first wasn't true and the second didn't bring in coin the way it was supposed to. What was worse, the Boss refused to pay Arch for the old man's final performance. Outraged by this behavior, other members of the company hurry to Arch's defense, but that only earned the Boss' anger. "You're fired!" the foul man bellowed. "Gather your things and get out! And, take all the rest of these complainers with you!"

There wasn't a battle but it came very close, especially when Verdana and Merric retrieved her mother's horses and hitched them to the magician's caravan, the only home Arch had ever known. They remained concerned that the Boss would send loyal goons after them -- until Merric announced he'd cut the other horses' tethers, so the Boss and his boys would be busy chasing them down for the afternoon.

Around mid-afternoon, the new-formed company driving Mylo Mysterioso's caravan turns off the main road the Boss is likely to travel, taking a lesser route making for a place called Coven Tree. Evening comes on before they can reach that community, however, so the company draws up beside a stream and a gnarled oak.

Verdana hurries off at once, hoping to bag some hares in this grassland for supper. Arch begins searching the caravan for every scrap of food it has to offer, while Sondryn and Quentin see to it the animals have plenty to drink and grass to crop. Merric, however, is deeply engrossed in the oak.

He spends time walking around the tree, examining its roots, staring up at its boughs and spring-green crown, then rapping knuckles against the trunk. Sometimes, he even pressed an ear to the bark and rapped again. Quinton and Sondryn finally catch him at this and ask what he's doing.

"It's an oak," Merrics tells them with ear and cheek pressing bark. "An old one, too, so there's gotta be a door."

Door? The other men look aside, at one another. To what?

"My house," the dryad replied. She was green and leafy and leaning out from oak's deep heart, with breasts over Merric's head. "It's not a literal door, so you can stop that now."

"Oh!" The halfling jumped back and looked up, at leafy beauty. "Hullo, miss! Didn't mean to catch you indecent."

The dryad stepped out fully, now that he'd left her some room. "Indecent?" She inhaled deeply and sighed. "Never heard of it. Who are your friends?"

"Who?" Merric wodered, then followed her gaze. "Oh, them. The big one's Gruntt, a Genuine Miniature Giant. The other's called Sondryn Stareyes, for obvious reasons. I'm Wee Cheatum, the brains of this operation."

"I see." The nymph nodded. "And, the sapling clattering about inside this rolling whatever it is?"

"Him?" Merric looked around, at the caravan, and the big-painted letters -- Mylo Mysterioso. "Why, he's our magician. And, we call that a caravan. A house on wheels."

"It has offspring?" The nymph nodded at SOndryn's conveyance.

"No, no. That's just a cart."

"What does it do?"

"Hold things that don't fit in the caravan."

"Why don't you just make a caravan bigger?"

Merric arched one eyebrow. "Well, ma'am, that'd take a whole lotta lumber to accomplish." Then, he looked around the dryad, at her oak.

"Oh, I see. Forget I asked. I think your fart is charming."

"Cart." Quinton and Sondryn said that together, not yet believing what they were witnessing.

"No," Merric corrected them. "She's right. I did. In fact, I've had to pave the dwarven trail for the past hour now, so getting back to the reason I knocked . . ."

"Yes," the dryad agreed. I was wondering, myself."

"Well, it's like this -- we're gonna camp here tonight, if it's all the same. Me, my mates here, and the half-orc girl who just ran off. She'll back back in a bit. You two will hit it off, I'm certain. She's green, too."

"Yes, your horses says she's lovely, indeed."

"Thing of it is--" Merric went on as if the oak-spirit hadn't spoken "-- I don't wanna hafta get up in the night to deal with any fey nonsense. I am a Lighfoot, you realize."

"Yes, I couldn't possibly miss that."

"So, you know that I know that you know what that means."

"Yes." The dryad sounded displeased, but all she did was heave another sigh. "I'm afraid that I do."

Merric nodded once. "I knocked, you answered, quick chin-wag, and we done. So, there'll be no nympheromone enchanting my friends. Not even Stareyes, though he definitely needs it. He may not look it, but he's pretty handy."

"I'll say he is." The dryad's lingering gaze moved from Sondryn, down to Merric. "That's the only thing he's interested in."

"Well, he is a priest."

"Pity. As for the Gruntt . . ." the dryad fixed her gaze on Quentin, but only for a second ". . . plenty of interest, but not in this form."

"Alright, that's what I'm talking about!" Merric waved both hands overhead, getting her attention again. "There's a compact between your people and mine, I remind you!"

"Yes-yes!" The dryad sighed a third time, and pouted. "But, we didn't know you'd be travelling with others when we agreed."

"That's what the fine print's for." The halfling slapped the back of one hand in the palm of the other. "Always. Read. The. Fine. Print! That's how Kweene Kwaerka lost Greenwoode, you know."

"Really?" The dryad's eyes narrowed sharply and she leaned over again, much loser. "I haven't heard a thing about that."

"And, you won't, if you don't abide by the Compact!" Merric held up a dirty pinky finger, circled like a hook. "Agreed?"

The dryad hooked her little finger with his, saying, "Agreed -- but if anyone else comes along . . ."

Merric waved the rest away: "All yours, with my complements. Just, leave us their pocket change."

Later, over hare stew after sundown, Verdana finds Quentin and Sondryn's account of meeting a dryad exceptionally dubious, indeed. Arch didn't see or hear anything of the conversation, but agrees it sounds rather odd.

Merric rolls his eyes and mutters, "I have no idea what they're on about."

Several hours later, around midnight, three of the Boss' goons attack the camp but are quickly dispatched, never expecting Merric would be sleeping the cart to surprise them and alert the others.

In the Hour of the Ghost, Arch dreamed that the Old Man came over the grassland, walking upright and easily like he hadn't for a long time. His dingy stage robes looked pure as starlight, as well, and the beard on his chest was fuller and whiter than every before.

Do you remember all he talked about?

The Old Man asked, and Arch did. Of course, he did! Hadn't they been talking about illusion for years?

Forget all of that now.

And, just like that, Arch forgot.

That was only useful when you were taking over the act. But, since you managed to escape something altogether different is needed now. This isn't a stage and there isn't any audience, so a new kind of magic's needed now.

Arch saw the sense in that.

Good! Then listen close, m’boy. Listen and remember, then get it scratched out just as soon as you wake. There's ink and quill in the cupboard and a fresh parchment in the drawer. Get it down quick, and don't miss a jot!

Level Up

All PCs advance to Level II. Thanks to Mylo Mysterioso's starlight visitation, Arch becomes a wizard-conjurer.

[dnd5e-wbw]

Character Creation

Archeburn ("Arch") Human Wizard / Entertainer

At only 16 years old, Arch is assistant to the show's stage magician -- Mylo Mysterioso, whom Arch calls “grandfather” even though the old man really isn't. In fact, Arch’s mother was his stage assistant for a long time, and they pretended to be father and daughter. She ran off with a handsome customer when Arch was seven, however, and the old man looked after Arch after that.

In fact, Mylo had been a well-known illusionist in his prime, but a series of tragedies turned his passion from magic to drink, until the only work he could get was stage magician in low-rate travelling show. The old man had enough left in him to mentor Arch's in arcane magic, however, imagining that one day he'd take over the act.

Arch’s best friend is Verdana. She was born and reared in the travelling company, as well, so the pair of them grew up together, playmates from childhood.

Merric Meadowsweet Halfling Bard / Criminal

Considered remarkably handsome and exceptionally free-spirited among halflings, Merric was never content with the notion of staying home to farm the land or herd shaggy cattle, all the while hoping that trouble stays far away. It never does, in fact, so just as soon as he came of age Merric set out to make his own way in the world. True, he had to stoop to theft to stay alive early on, and being a halfling meant he had to be extra nimble among big folk, but even when he got caught Merric always charmed his way out of genuine trouble.

Always that is, until he made up song about the wrong fellow -- a nasty old sorcerer, in fact, and a man of particularly ugly aspect who abuses his noble heritage, lording himself over everyone. Greatly offended by the mock-epic he created to shame him, Merric was forced to flee into hiding someplace the sorcerer couldn't find him. A passing carnival provided the perfect opportunity to "disappear" so Merric's spent the past year working with them.

Generally, he wanders the the carnival grounds providing music and song . . . and picking the pockets of those who clearly find themselves superior to others. He's also kept an eye on Arch and Verdana, who're just kids, after all, and made something of a friend out of strong-silent Quentin. Sondryn's a good enough fellow, of course, but too religious for Merric's tastes.

Quentin Human Fighter / Soldier

Remarkably tall, broad shouldered, and strong, Quinton is easily one of the biggest men in the traveling show. He's also the most quiet. Clearly of humble birth yet considerable martial experience, he joined the company three years ago offering little explanation about his origins, aside from saying he'd fought in a war and had no home to return anymore. With no ability to perform, he accepted work as a roustabout and has since come to be regarded as leader of the company's laborers.

In addition to the work of setting up and tearing down the show, stowing everything properly for travel, and supervising others, Quentin also patrols the grounds while others perform and grift. If trouble ever breaks out, he's quick on the spot to stop it or toss the responsible parties out. He doesn't become involved in the conflicts between performers, however, unless they attempt to work violence on one another.

While Quentin cannot be said to have made any true friends in the company, he does make certain the old magician, Mylo, doesn't wander anyplace dangerous while he's drunk. To make certain, Quentin's taken the habit of sleeping under the magician's caravan, so he can hear the man wandering off and go after him.

Sondryn Half-elf Ceric / Noble

The lesser son of a minor noble, Sondryn suffered blindness as a child resulting from a curse cast by a criminal his father had condemned. The curse withered Sondryn's eyes in his sockets, and his outraged family killed the warlock responsible, preventing his ever being able to remove the curse. Neither could other wizards, sorcerers, or druids the family consulted.

It wasn't until he came of age that Sondryn tried something his family always avoided -- turning to the divine for assistance. Sondryn found the miracle he needed, at last, when the Lord of Light restored his vision, replacing his missing eyes with twin spheres of celestial radiance. Having literally "seen the light" Sondryn immediately committed the rest of his life to the sun god.

He never returned to his family, however, nor tried to take up the noble life he left behind. Once ordained into priesthood Sondryn set out to bring the Lord of Light's blessings to those least likely to find them. It took some doing, but he finally managed to convince the travelling show that a "revival tent" set outside their gate was the perfect away to gather more income.

Verdana Half-orc Ranger / Entertainer

Like her best friend, Arch, Verdana was born in the travelling show, although her parents were properly wedded. His father was a performer who played the company's strong man, while mother was druid who looked after all the animals. When she was a girl, Verdana joined both parents in their work, playing the Beast Girl during performances and helping with the animals at other times.

As she grew older, however, Verdana didn't like the looks most men cast at Beast Girl's skimpy costume, so when mother died unexpectedly she took over all care of the animals. Her father taught her how to hunt and defend against unwanted attention, as well, so Verdana steadily became the company's scout, searching for trouble on the road ahead.

Verdana's father also died under unusual circumstances just a few years ago, so she's come of age almost entirely on her own, with Arch as her only confidant.