Chapter 1: The Witchlight Carnival

Sarynn holds up a finger as if to speak, and pauses. Her eyes dart down and to the right, as though listening to something behind her shoulder.

Finally, she conjures up an image of a winged sprite, and looks sheepishly at Thaco as if to ask forgiveness.

Thaco whips up a grand griffin for Jules and a delightful dragonfly for Quennan. They take their place, hovering at your sides.

"Next."

For Sarynn, he pauses. The sheepish look asking forgiveness hits him hard. He works his pipe in his mouth, and stands there for a long time not saying or doing anything. Finally, he starts squeaking bubbles together.

He hands Sarynn a balloon animal, but it is a baby displacer beast holding a silver ball. "Find Star. You understand, kid?"

"Alright, all six of you get outta here."

Beven finishes the last of his tea and takes the hint to leave. Once they are outside, he asks. "What was that about finding Star?"

Sarynn bounces out of the staff area, holding the bubble balloon like a stuffed animal. Once outside, she looks at Beven quizzically, then points to her ears and waves her hand to indicate nothing.

(Assuming Twisp or others intervene,) she nods to Beven. She points to the displacer beast balloon and then to her eyes, panning her hand across the carnival.

Remembering the tragic story of star, Dirlagrauns cub, Jules nodes enthusiastically. Needless to say they would keep their eyes open for star. Maybe they could find him in Prismeer. And Burlys Brother! All the odd things that befell the carnival over the last few months. And now this strange meeting with Witch and Light. They seem to fear something. If cattlesteam was right - the Hourglass Coven.

And slowly. Very slowly the realization dawns on the gnome trickster, what Mr. Witch tried to tell them back in his cart. Of course! They are sworn to secrecy and couldn`t reveal what kind of danger looms behind all of this.

Coming back to the here and now, Jules shakes his head a bit. "And now?" he asks his new comrades. "The big top extravaganza? Or to Prismeer?"

"It would be a shame to miss the big show, don’t you think? I’ve heard that time passes strangely in the other realms. An hour or two more couldn’t hurt, could it?"

"If we're off to a grand adventure, it couldn't hurt to have some fun first," Reynard agrees with a wide smile.

Smiling to his friends, Twisp hums an old, half-forgotten song...

"Yes, there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the ones I want to go through time with."

But then his cuckoo bird familiar bursts out of his hat and ruins the moment. Cu-KOO! Cu-KOO!!

"Away with you!" Twisp scolds frumiously. "Or I shall thump you on the head!"

Twisp wants to sample all the treats but doesn't want to use up all his ticket punches. He decides to try a candied apple, Euphoreo cookies, and sugared mushrooms. Teetering towards a seat laden with sugary snacks he finds himself next to Beven.

"Hello, my friend! This is a far cry from the library eh?"

Calling out for some faerie bell nectar, Jules let himself fall on one of the chairs. Because of his height he is extra careful to get a good seat.

This maybe is his last time around the carnival for a time. Now he will accompany this extraordinary lot to the kingdom of Prismeer and most likely further down into the feywild. What an adventure! Sipping the sweet nectar, the gnome admonishes himself to take good care of where they go and where they are. Getting lost there is most likely something complete different then getting lost in Faerun.

Sighing for a heartbeat, Jules looks suddenly up as someone else takes the seat right next to him.

Quennen liked the sound of everything; except maybe tree sap lollipops. He wondered how willingly it was extracted, and what the Old One he had spoken to outside the festival might think.

He decides to indulge in several of the treats, given that this was the big send off. And shimmies his way into one of the empty seats.

Sarynn holds up three fingers at a passing pixie, and points to the eveningberry wine, euphoreo cookies, and the button mushrooms. Now laden with snacks and a balloon animal in her arms, she squeezes through a row of legs to find an open spot. Stuffing the cookies in her pack and the mushrooms in her mouth, Sarynn waits for the show to start.

Twisp, laden with treats, sits by Beven. The euphoreos turn out to be saucer-sized cookies dusted with particles of faerie dragon euphoria gas, which releases a relaxing & pleasant buzz as you consume it. The candied apple is suitably crips and tart, and not too hard or too sticky. The sugared mushrooms remind you of home, a kind of candy you might have enjoyed as a wee kit.Jules finds the sweet faerie bell nectar both sweet and nourishing.Sarynn loads up on cookies and mushrooms and has similar sensory experiences as Twisp when she digs into the 'shrooms. The eveningberry wine turns out to be sweet juice with zero alcoholic content.Quennan loads up on snacks and has a veritable feast of sweets.

Beven looks up from the treats in his lap, Eveningberry wine, Pixie tarts and a cupcake, and smiles at Twisp. "Indeed. On the whole I much prefer the roar of the crowd to the quiet of the stacks. Please join me." Beven nods towards the empty seat next to him. "Sorry we missed you at the beginning of things. What have you been up to this evening?"

Twisp arches a bushy eyebrow, making his spectacles more lopsided than usual. "I fully expected you to prefer the quiet of the stacks and dislike noisy crowds. You've surprised me, and I do like surprises!"

"I gather you had something to do with the mermaid and all that? Reynard, Sarynn, and I have not been as helpful to our hosts, I'm afraid. The lost cub we seek remains missing. I suspect we'll have better luck with the search when we get to Prismeer. Care for a mushroom?"

Quennen makes his way through the first of his snacks and a half of his second before anyone else has even sat beside him. It was always the way. The anticipation of the thing made him hungry and he would find himself without snacks before the show had even begun.

He thought it possible that he might even need the bathroom before very long. Always the way…

Beven waves off the offered mushroom with a smile. "Yes, we did help with the mermaid. I followed the mermaid and learned the story of her love losing his voice on the moment of their marriage proposal and Jules and Quennan tracked down the heckler who turned out to be the one that stole the voice. When we met back up, we put two and two together and forced the return of the voice. The happy result you got to see."

"Marvelous!" Twisp applauds Beven's account, the harengon's head still giddy from the Euphoreos. "Frabjous day!" Twisp's bandersnatch balloon bobs in time to his animated gesticulating.

Beven makes a note to look the word frabjous. "So what is this about a lost cub?" Beven asks. "A lost displacer beast cub is it?"