Songs, Food, and Love

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The whole group headed into the Fun House with a key, to find Techna in the Music Room. She’s trying to create a new song all about the group, though they don’t let her know that. They all help her create new verses: juggling, fighting, storms, and skill. Techna was so impressed, she gave them her very special banana. They got the schematics off the piano, and even snagged a violin off the shelves. The janitor and the holy monk stay behind when everyone else left, to clean the room of all things.

While the performers head off to the Big Top, Kentaro and Dispara head back to the Train Station. Giggles and Rough N Tumbles are there, arguing about whether Rough needs help or not. But Watt takes the schematic, so he and McD start translating. If the Toymaker can be notified, maybe they can get what they need.

They all meet back up after the first performance and head back into the Fun House with a different key. This one for the pantry, and they raid all the elixirs and a random assortment of foods. Some’s going to notice, but Felix is already in trouble for losing the key to begin with. It’ll probably all fall on him.

Back at the Lost & Found, the Toymaker has found another needed part for the train. The Thingamajig that spins Heckna’s Eye. The group seems a bit nervous about such a public display of dissent, and let him know to head to the Train Station. He went with them, though Valara got distracted at the Petting Zoo. She called one of the crazy donkeys to her,wrestling it to the ground and then riding off on its back.

With all the attention that drew, the Toymaker and a couple others snuck off to the Station, but the others decided to head elsewhere until the Heckna-Tron was focused elsewhere. The Toymaker, Watt, and McD decipher another train part – the Chair – from the Gobbledygook. Likely Mister Light’s throne in the Tunnel of Love. They seem much more likely to go after that one. After the second show at the Big Top, the two healers made their way back to the Station to help clear up the remaining corruption on Giggles and Rough N Tumbles.

Returning to the Tunnel, the group finds it opened once more. After a quick discussion with Freckles and Dimples, they decide to head in with two of the Swan boats instead of just one. Heading into the first room, The Song of Love, several immediately fall prey to the Souloists. The rest of them react quite violently to the song – love and hate being what they are. Heckna will have to raise the Souloists again after they get through, for not one survived.

Players shoo.

Momentum is turning. The group has been introduced to the Fun House – though some of the simpler rooms, for sure. We’ve picked up two quests, and entered the first dungeon. Excitement is building, and everyone is having fun.

It was not unexpected that they shied away from the Thingamajig. Though, they will have to decide when to go after it at some point. Perhaps when they decide to also go after the first pet. But first the Tunnel of Love. Hoping to get them at least one more level before they’re through that and heading for one of the other targets.

Having fun with the random treasure books, too. Almost rolled the feathers needed to get Locke’s back from The Countess. The gamblers being able to afford the random things we roll has been fun, too. But they’ll have less time for that now that they’re going after things.

Not much reflection today, I need to prep for what’s next in the Tunnel. And also make sure I’ve got some treasure for them to gather from the dead. Maybe I’ll toss a magic crossbow in there for our sharpshooter to snag and play with. Many have fallen in that room, after all.

Catching Clues

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Unable to visit the Tunnel of Love, the larger group, now free to wander, headed over meet Olga at the Junkyard. Quite the scavengers, they really scoured the place, giving Olga trinkets and tickets in return. The old Janitor even gave MooMoo a lyre to pluck. Olga is going to regret that one, but maybe he’ll go try and make friends with Ernest. A real monkey might gather more buttons.

The gamblers and the scavengers all gathered back up at the Lost & Found to check in with Locke. They fill him in on everything that has gone on and start discussing theories on what they need to do next. He gives them a few more tasks to cause trouble, but also help their cause, or at least to help Locke. Though getting another song into Calliope’s rotation can only help everyone.

Dispara and Kentaro, the roguish duo, head out to cause much more mayhem than is their usual wont. First they cause a huge fuss over at Felix’s and leave with his lockbox. She’s not such a good rogue when there’s a lock in the way, but the big guy yanked it open after a couple tries. All for a simple key. Then they head back to the big to-do and meet Alice and Gary with his new toy. So off they go again, to cause a ruckus over at the Souvenir Shop. The big guy even gets security called on him for trying to steal a stuffed elephant. I swear I saw the lady slip a donkey under her cloak, but I’m no snitch. Back over at Carpe Colossus, they trade that stuffed donkey for the big stick Pinky had been swinging around.

Over at the Misery Go Round, the beautiful demon lady with the questionable sword manages to convince Calliope that a change in her musical line up would be a wonderful thing. The new song is so much nicer on the ears. Zephram, the old janitor, meanwhile, cleans up the nameplates of the unicorns, getting them all properly labeled once again. Doesn’t take one for a ride, though, maybe another time.

Another trip to the Junkyard, nets the rest of the group a little bird in a cage that Locke was looking for, and another present for MooMoo. This one much quieter, just a ball and cup toy. Then everyone heads back to the Lost & Found before the afternoon shows.

This time, the Toymaker is there to fill them in. He stamps each and every one of them so he can track them down should the need arise. They tells them a bit more of the history of the show, and all about the magical Train that used to ferry passengers to and from the carnival. He explains that there are some folks trying to fix it, but that when Heckna broke it, he scattered the most important parts all around the area. The next piece, he tells them, is stuck in Gertrude’s tree.

So, while the performers head to the Big Top, the rogue crew head out to the Grove, by way of Candy’s Candy Emporium to pick up bargaining sweets. With such a haul, she is powerless to resist allowing them to take their hand at removing the moonstone from the trunk of her home. They clumsily sneak back through the gate, the stone must have put the Kentaro off balance in his flying.

The firestarter had a visitor during his daily afternoon fire-gazing. One of the shadows stood right up and started chatting with him. Killjoy did not look too excited about this visit and looked more confused when she left than when she suddenly arrived. Wonder what that was all about.

Between performances, the whole group headed out behind the Petting Zoo to find the old Train Station, and the Choo-Choo Cadre who live there. Watt brought them inside and introduced them to Pieper and McD, the poor sick sot. Not to be deterred, though, Brother Elian and Valara set to work, after a quick chat about fixing the train, to fix McD. They got that schnozling right off him and healed his face, well, mostly anyway. Another day or two and he would have been lost for sure. Impressed by this, Watt gave them a key and tasked them with finding the Train Schematics so they can set to work in earnest to escape Heckna’s Revelia for good.

Players you know the drill.

We’re finally into the meat of this part of the campaign. We’ve found two pieces of the train and we’re on our way to more. They’ve also picked up hints and drips about what comes next. I’m very excited about where we are now and where we’re going.

My wizards have started to discover that they can get spell components from the Lost & Found, as well as the Junk Yard. My sharpshooter wants to make fancy bolts – I need to get on that after I write this. My investigators have sunk their teeth into the puzzle. It’s a good place to be. I just need to make sure I’m ready for whichever direction they go next.

I also had a fun time roleplaying some of the random folks in this session. MooMoo and his new lute. The three Children in a trench coat arguing capitalism with Kentaro. The unicorns talking to Zephram about random things. Even Gleam talking to Killjoy about his past. I didn’t have any particular thing for Watt, but I did have McD still speaking in Gobbydegook. Maybe he can teach the group instead of Sean.

I was not surprised by the group wanting to heal McD, even though it was supposed to be a Dr Stella thing. (They have let her fall by the wayside a little bit, so we’ll need to bring her back in.) I was already going to allow him to be saved, so why not let the party do it? They had been studying the bodies of those they killed, why not if not for this.

There was a little bit of questioning of the Toymaker about his stamp, and a tiny big of investigation. But not nearly as much as I thought their might be. Two of the players were out of the room for the conversation, though, so that might be why. It shouldn’t matter, but another reason to get Dr. Stella back in the fold, at least a little bit.

Looking forward to what the next adventure holds.

Gambling with Lives

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Back from their trip outside, a bunch of them looking a bit more excited than warranted, headed over to the Mystery Mine. Looked like they had a good time inside, only one of them looked a little rattled. Then off to the Big Top and the Orchard for their afternoon entertainment, or ours, really. They really would be great additions to the Carnival.

Meanwhile, back with the sneaky pair. Dispara and Kentaro headed over to the Snail Races. Everyone was distracted with the races, so they easily snuck back to the stables. There’s not a lot stopping folks, except the pixies. Seemed, they took the latter seriously. Didn’t try to bully them or sneak in and steal. They talked with the delightful folk, convinced them to trade cabbages for candy.

Over at the Big Top, between shows. Valara’s bag of popcorn exploded and started attacking her. They others tried to help, but the big lady managed to eat more of it than it did of her. I guess fiends don’t mind the poisonous stuff.

While the next set of shows began, the troublesome duo set their sights on the Flophouse Casino. Their first foray ended in retreat as they stumbled over some mangy thralls in the forest. Their second attempt got them through, and even though they got ripped off at the door, they headed inside after grabbing a couple steaks from the Sweatmeats. The beautiful Dispara headed upstairs pretty quickly. Not sure if The Countess is more interested in her, or visa versa. The big guy stayed downstairs to play the simple slots.

After the shows and gambling were all done, they headed back to the Hostel to take a rest. It’s the next morning when things get really crazy, even for the Carnival.

Pinky straight up attacked Heckna. Everyone crowded around and the new guys even showed up to watch. But Heckna just teleported off, and took them all with him. Everyone else knew better than to give into that magic. Most don’t come back from that. Not long after, though, they came tumbling back down into the Casino, but this time, it was all of them.

What no one expected, especially them, was that Jim took off running and the lady, Valara, chased him. The bouncers grabbed him, and she didn’t kill him, but it certainly looked like she wanted to. They got him out of the building and she started asking The Countess about him and some deck he might have had. Outside, the poor man was spilling his guts. He found a Deck of Many Things of all insanity, and he pulled cards. First pulling her to him, and then sending them both spiraling through the multiverse. He gambled it away to some random fey who took off before Heckna locked things down. That little riffler had been around for a little while, maybe that was what he had been waiting for. Sharpeye told him to find a costume and figure out any information he could so they could all get out of there and save his life.

Then they all got into a fight with Maphew. Who argues with a map, even a sentient one? But Scooter popped by, almost got Maphew away from them, and then distracted them off to the Tunnel of Love. That went about as well as you might expect. Heckna loves taunting Mister Light whenever someone meets him for the first time. He threw such a fit that the group couldn’t even ride the ride. Freckles and Dimples are going to have a job sorting it all out. Better watch what they say, too, the moon is already waning.

Players – you know the deal.

I was so stressed about this game, knowing what was coming, and hating how railroady it felt. Pinky attacking Heckna is a direct result of a quest the players completed earlier, but the teleport and then shooing them out of the resulting location felt so forced. I did give them a chance to opt-out of the teleport, though was grateful they all agreed to go. They met Sophie, sort of, and saw her horrible lab. And also learned The Toymaker has a table in the same place, but they didn’t have a chance to really talk to them about it, yet. Then dragging them off to the Tunnel of Love for another fairly “scripted” scene between Heckna and Mister Light. I had to make it all up, but the conclusion was pretty much set for both these scenes. The group could have attacked Heckna in either place, but they’re all too scared of him killing them that they haven’t even tried once.

I was so stressed about those two scenes, even after the game was over that I barely slept. Ugh!

The group got more information, got into a few conversations that gave them even more information. They have a couple big catalysts to move them into the plot proper. We’ve had the set-up: getting to know the carnival. Now we’re into free reign of everything but the Fun House, with a couple pathways into learning how to escape or defeat Heckna. We ran into one backstory, which gave me another chance to seed the second half – the fey realm they’re heading for. Or at least that some of them have reason to head towards.

As I type this, I realize I missed a chance to seed an NPC into a dream for one of my PCs. Elian’s worst fear was the loss of his friend, which is really his worst memory not an ever present fear, but I didn’t want to quibble. And it gave him back a bit of his memory about the event. I could have put the NPC in there that stole his friend, but I missed the chance. Then let them all rest without dreams. I love dreams, I need to use that more to start giving folks their memories back. But it’ll be a bit before they get back to sleep, so maybe seed some stuff in their waking hours, too.

My rogue pair are really sticking to the Casino, and now they will have less trouble moving around, but still no good reason to hook up with the group. Hoping to change that a bit today. See if we can get into how they want to solve the trouble with Heckna.

Making Friends

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The new folks are making friends. Tossed Pinky a spell without knowing it and sent her into a spiral. They followed for a bit, but no one tried to chat with her to find out what was wrong, or didn’t try too hard anyway. The Toymaker was quite happy, the heartless puppet. This isn’t going to end well for someone.

The sneaky crew found their way to the Junkyard and met crazy old Olga. She got them to go collect stuff for her, she still working on that crazy ice cream coaster. One step closer to flavorful screams to add to the mix. They even gave her a punny name for it – Gelat-Oh-No.

A bunch of them took a fetch quest from Candy to head out to visit Gertrude at her Grove. Got attacked by some thralls for their trouble, wonder who sent those? But they brought granny the basket of goodies and got her delivery for Candy in return. Some of them even seemed interested in her strange garden.

They headed over to visit Security then. Sean wasn’t too keen on the big crowd, and took Valara aside to give her a bag of popcorn. Wonder what she’s going to do with that?

The jester and the janitor broke off before that, though. Headed to the Misery Go Round. Took pity on poor Calliope and Diana. Chased away some of the Children. The young man even gave some of them a puppet show over by the Big Top. He could get some tickets out of folk if he did that on a stage. The Children are just chaos.

My Players: Stop Reading

We had a conversation before the game, some folks are still on rations, afraid of the carnival fare. They all organized their money making rolls to do at the beginning of the day. Only a couple of them playing games that require my involvement for dangers or prizes. It allowed for a lot more quests to be accomplished. They also spent a bit of time exploring the schnozling/clown problem.

A couple moving parts will come to a head now. Pinky and the trust of the resistance should propel them into the next act. Getting them invited to the carnival as a whole. Getting them into bigger discussions of Heckna and escape. And getting them to meet the folks placed around from their backgrounds. Lots of moving parts could come together at the next game.

I need to go review how it all works and what options are going to open up. I still don’t want to force them in a particular direction, but I do want them to be all together for the next big event. Will have to see how I can organize that. Once they start on the bigger plans, it should be less splitting up to play games. I have to remember Dr. Stella, as well, she needs to check back in, though the group hasn’t really tried to find her again, either. Thoughts and thoughts and thoughts. I don’t think the popcorn is going to be delivered in time. She wants to check in with Zephram first.

I’m a bit scattered today, as I write this right before the next game. I have some planning to do.

Big Top Circus

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Heckna has now taken a personal interest in the new folks. Met them after their big retreat. Looking forward to their shows and very amused by their antics. They’ll be heading north in no time. Even paid for them to all play Boat Blasters together. That big guy is light on his feet, or his boat, I guess, picked it right up out of the water. He and the sharpshooter won, of course, wasn’t really any other outcome if you’re a betting man.

Looking pretty rough and soaked, they scattered after. Some to food, some to rest, and some to play more games after not winning the prize, and some to the Big Top. The sharpshooter stopped by Pop a Clown and won the game. Dispara headed to toss more rings – Swoleston is going to get in real trouble if she doesn’t start cutting her off sooner. Kentaro musta been hungry after lifting that boat, he’s off to Babs again. The strange little man got even stranger – he built a fire in the Feasting Orchard! Min had a fit, but he must have charmed her, because she only set a guard on him, didn’t bury him in poison cupcakes. Then he tried to go race the snails, on his very own feet. Liz managed to keep him off the track until after the race, at least. He is certainly getting noticed, though I’m not sure he’s making friends.

The rest of them headed to the Big Top. The sexy lady and the quiet priest tried to audition an act with Arachne while the Janitor cleaned up to get the day started. She picked up the young man, but then they just fell all over each other. The Ringleader told them to come back later after they practiced a bit. They stuck around for the first round of small shows, though. All three of them. Then the young lady, Valara, followed Greenleaves out the back and convinced him to let her join his musical act. Tormirr the Sharpeyed had a great first show, hitting his mark every time, and his fancy friend really worked up the crowd. The Janitor cleaned up then stuck around for the Mentalists. The poor old elf isn’t so good at riddles, though. Maybe he’ll bring his friends next time.

After another gather up, where they said a bit too much in front of McNally, they split up again. Dispara and Kentaro headed out to finish up playing the midway games. Didn’t do so well at Catch a Dragon, but Fizzle just loves to play. The blind man tried to play with Harasken, but Sanza wouldn’t hear of it. Dispara almost won, took a long time to lose anyway. So, they headed back to the Cloud Maze again. The others headed into see Locke again, and came out two missions.

Valara, having made friends with Eena-Meena, and Kentaro headed over to security. Kentaro taking something off the top of the flagpole, and Valara auditioning to join his team. She didn’t do so well, not even attacking Jimmy, other than trying to get rid of his hammer. They love their hammers, it’s not an easy thing to do. He put her down gentle, and Shawn shooed her off. Killjoy, Dispara, and Tormirr headed off to hunt Locke-shaped blimps. This time they didn’t even hurt anybody.

Elian and Zephram headed off looking for the Toymaker, but failing that, headed for Dunkin’ Do Not. She wanted to check on Arms, but he was enjoying his messy tank so much, she didn’t clean it again. Tazrin, Tormirr’s hypeman, headed over to meet Fizzle. He did better than his friends at catching her. Zephram cleaned up after another show, and even asked Arachne about joining his coven, he was very much salivating at the idea of adding another member to his family.

When they all gathered back up again, raiding the Lost and Found for whatever they could find, The Toymaker found them, and handed over some small token. He asked them to go find Pinky, whatever could that be about?

Players stop reading here.

I think I need to take better notes – I’m not even sure if they rested last week. I know they intended to, but then I interrupted that plan with Heckna. It is just so hard to take notes with them all running in different directions. One of the gather back ups might have been a long rest.

We had a lot of good conversations. Valara learned a bit more about the Jawbreakers. Zephram learned a bit more about the werespiders in the Big Top. The Heckna meet-cute didn’t go as well as I hoped, most of the characters just stared at Heckna, but Tormirr and Elian – the two he invited did interact. I think Valara might have asked about her Deck, as well. I was hoping for a bit more interaction, but they were a bit gun-shy after the Jawbreakers.

They won’t buy healing potions, though. I don’t get it. Not from Locke, not from the machine Heckna called over. I know they’re worried about money, but they were hurting. If Dispara hadn’t broken the Helper in the Hostile, maybe they would have kept buying some there. They haven’t figured out the Cream Soda Potions are also healing, but those cost more anyway.

I need to do a better job at the Lost and Found’s magic offerings. This group is very used to being able to buy all sorts of magic items all the time. But it’s not a magic shop, it’s a carnival lost and found. Mostly Tormirr is trying to get stuff. I shouldn’t have edited what the bolt did, the price made no sense that way. Should have just had him reroll. I’ll have to toss a few good things in this week. But they’ll still be expensive. I need to make them use Identify or talk to Locke about things instead of just reading descriptions. A couple people have things they don’t know what they do, though Dispara actually asked about their spider toy. Might put one of those in Lost and Found soon.

Might also have a conversation about who has worked out a constant money source, who hasn’t. Do they want to keep running games half the night, or just make their rolls and keep going. Valara might want at least one show to describe before we gloss over things. I think I have a vegetable heist to run tonight, so they can make more veggie stew,. I’ll need to flesh out the Snail Race area today.

We’ve gotten to Pinky though, so maybe things will pick up and take off from here. And I was worried they wouldn’t want to engage with the midway. Players never do what you expect.