Fuego - Gnome Bard
Dirk - Reborn Human (Undead) Rogue
Verso Saint'Pierre - Goliath Barbarian
Jirram Windfoot - Halfling Cleric
The circus comes to town. Ring Master Cornelius of the eponymous Corenelius' Colossal Cavalcade of Captivating Cosmic Curiosities, seeking a financial turn around after the devastatingly poor performances in Hestrem sought to go the long way around the Aer'sa to avoid the extortionate taxes in the Northern Confederacy states.
The Sodden Bogs demonstrated how poorly chinked the wagons were and the dry winds for Martok chapped everyone's lips. But for the last couple of weeks, the thin trail the spun out between the hills to the west has been more or less easy going. At an unexpected sign post in the middle of the foothills south of the Aer'sa, Ring Master Cornelius decided to orient the circus to the small village of Londhill, seeking rest, a resupply, and an audience to fill the circus' coffers.
Upon finding a the small lumber town of Londhill, the circus sought to persuade the locals into attending a performance, when the recalcitrant locals revealed the abduction of 5 children over the last 5 nights. The circus' fixers investigated the disappearance, starting with the logging camp, where suspicions were pointed toward the Circle of Fire and Ash. The fixers went on to investigate the home of the last known missing child, a young boy named Tobin. They found a trail leading into the Aer'sa and embarked despite the waning light. While following the path, they met Aveena, a widowed herb woman who was also seeking the return of the children. At about sunset, the fixers - joined by Aveena - found a mysterious pair of trees that had merged, creating a wooden gate. After pushing through the opening, they began to hear the jubilant cries of children's laughter.
Emerging into a small clearing surrounded by the dense, hyper-saturated old growth forest, our adventurers quickly realized they in the near reaches of the Feywild. Dirk immediately spotted a little girl hiding behind a tree. She soon scampered off and Contorta, Dirk, and Jirram decided to follow, while Verso, Fuego, and Aveena held back. Sitting in the middle of a small glade adjacent to the pond were all five children missing from Londhill, cavorting amidst the bobtails and ferns with two pixies.
When confronted, the pixies made it clear that they had lured the children away from Londhill in response to a foul theft of an Iris by none other than Aveena. A bargain was reach - the children for the return of their flower. Suspecting dishonest bargaining, the adventurers split up - sending their fastest members, Dirk and Contorta, through the feywild gate and back to Londhill to retrieve the flower while the Jirram, Fuego, Verso, and Aveena remained behind. During their return to Londhill, Dirk and Contorta were ambushed by wolf spiders and brutally slain. After a day of waiting, Verso, Fuego, and Jirram decided to return to Londhill on their own. There they found the Reborn, an intelligent undead version of Dirk, and Contorta's corpse. Verso collected and buried Contorta's remains on the edge of the Aer'sa. While the others retrieved the a crystaline flower from Aveena's cottage. Upon receiving their flower, the pixies released their hold on the children and the circus folk started back to Londhill with Aveena and the children in tow.
After returning the five lost children of Londhill, the circus fixers were well rewarded by Lond, with a heavy sack of 125 gold coins. Cornelius emerged from the circus camp and suggested that to drum up business, the performers ought look for more customers and maybe show the people of Londhill what they were missing. With the aid of Madame Zhara, the circus folk wowed the people of Londhill with an enticing show of mystic arts and muscle. The next day, they set out to visit the largest nearby settlement, a place called Haldir's.
Upon arriving, the party was welcomed with a blood curdling scream and a dead body. Also a group of militant priests of Ranis. The party found no obvious signs of struggle around the body while the Ranites prepared a funeral pyre for the body. Careful investigation yielded a journal alluding to a clandestine between Al'Helien, a woman Elaedrin with a spring-time countenance, and an unknown individual two days west of Londhill and signs that the body had been expeditiously drained of blood.
With a murderer a foot in Haldir's inn and circus tickets to sell, the circus fixers looked for likely culprits amongst the patrons and staff. With the help of Haldir and his lead guardsman, Quiln, the common room was sealed and an agreement struck whereby Haldir would allow the fixers entertain his customers and stay in the crime-scene bedroom in return of solving the murder.
Dirk, still some what stung by high recent brush with death and subsequent rebirth in his unliving corpse, avoided the Ranite priests in the inn and worked the inn-staff. Verso sought to do what he was told, and got special dispensation to leave the inn to hung up circus fliers at Haldir's and down the road - all under the fawning eye of Ebril, Quiln's second in command. Fuego entertained the crowd, while Jirram stirred up mischief with the other patrons - including persuading a somewhat weak-of-heart monk of Sestras to cultivate interfaith relations with the Ranites - in the courtyard of the inn, while the Ranites burned the corpse in a funerary pyre. As the investigations wore on and corpse was committed to cleansing fire, the Sestrian monk was nowhere to be found - leading Fuego to presciently suspect the monk to be the murder they fixers saught. Fuego's suspicions were confirmed after blood was found on in the monk's room. The fixers decided to take their ease for the evening with a watch kept to make a decision the following morning.
Chapter 6 - Prowling 101
As Dirk and Jirram embarked on their exploration of the clandestine meeting spot between the murdered Al'helien and a mysterious person, they were surprised to hear the slightly aged call of a past-middle age woman. Morgan, an arcanist stumbled upon the low valley where she anticipated meeting Al'helien.
Together, Morgan Dirk, and Jirram explored the structure, finding a number of small private quarters in various states of disarray. Their search culiminated in finding the ensorceled spirt if a dwarf capture in a rune-covered quartz stone. The erstwhile companions continued exploring, finding a door that refused to open unless the proper word was spoken. Unable to answer the riddle, the group doubled back to explore a few larger rooms, one filled with acid, and another room with wirey man-shaped, cat-sized creatures encased on foggy glass orbs. After witnessing one of the creature commit suicide, the party attempted to console the remaining creature.
Chapter 7 - Library Lacerations
The circus fixers continued their investigation in to the abandoned Rostram-affiliated wizard college.
Dirk had a sudden revelation and took his compatriots back to the a pair of double doors in pursuit of knowledge. Together the party explored the wreckage of an immense library, where they faced successive waves of undead skeletons. In the library they discovered an ancient tome ("Ye Lyfe & Times of Ye Tre-Folk: A Newe Cronicle of Ye Arde'griarilan Elves" and an ornate pair of heliotrope ribbons that Verso wrapped around his arms.
Remembering the lonely mephit trapped in an unbreakable glass orb, Dirk had another revelation and plunged the orb into the previously discovered pool of caustic acid. In thanks, the mephit, Fulgor, retrieved a potion case for the party and a explored the frigid mist in the room next to the library.
The fixers continued their explorations, finding a spellbook, a few pages of a tome for conjuring three being of power (Ka'shaar the Soul Broker of the Whispering Ledge; Anya Sundar, Void Caller; Ossifex, Astral Broker of the Divine), and a key with a question mark worked into the head. Morgan scampered off with the key in question and sought to open a door, only to trigger an alarm and spawn the ire of a wave of rats. Bruised and bloody, the party sought a place to rest once more.
Chapter 8 - A Bloody Good Time
While Fuego and Dirk worked on overcoming their reluctance to plumb the misty depths below the Rostram school, Verso, Morgan, and Jirram surged onward.
Jirram lead the way, descending through the fog down along a slick icy spire. Morgan and Verso followed with a rope tied to a heavy work table in the hidden laboratory. The earthen caves were frigid, so everyone donned extra clothes and robes purloined from the dead.
They plunged forward, quite literally, into a room of grinding sheets of ice above a small reservoir of icy ground water. Verson and Morgan both fell into the frigid water before clambering out. Together they removed the desiccated roots spanning the room and lit a small bonfire to warm themselves while the rested.
The next chamber revealed a number of bloody, tortured corpses imprisoned in icy stalagmites. Moving forward cautiously, they found a small mustachioed fey wielding a brass sickle and wearing heavy bronze boots carefully butchering the corpses of an satyr and an oread. After a brief battle, the party discovered a sack beneath a pile of offal with correspondence from an mysterious "G" and a small hidden chamber, where journal described the final days of the school.
Moving forward, they found a rough tunnel freshly dug and an older path. Electing to explore the established path, the party found a huge chamber choked with root and icy blue eyes belonging to a creature sitting in the shadows at the nexus of the dead growth.
Chapter 9 - Plunging into the Deep
Once again whole, the five circus fixers delved on ward, discovering the root of the misfortune that befell the Rostram school. Finding the final chamber in the caves beneath the school, the party encountered a sentient undead elf half wrapped by an icy rime, named Thieron of the Opal Halls. He made overtures to the party, seeking to make a deal. He offered knowledge, wealth, and physical affection - in return for information relating to a perceived assault on the power of the Queen of Air and Darkness. It was all for not, as Dirk and Jirram sought to set fire to the desiccated roots, but their exit was likewise barred.
After a brief combat encounter with two more red caps, the fixers cleverly disarmed him of his magic icicle rod and subdued him while they violently attacked his immobile form. Once more returned unto death, the magical cold and ice began to dissipate.
With the evil excised from the school, the party made use of a rough earthen tunnel that led to the surface and appeared ready to return to Londhill.
Chapter 10 - A Bargain Proposed & Rejected
Returning to Londhill to report their success in vanquishing the evil under the old Rostram school, the circus fixers and their erstwhile companion, Morgan, found Londhill a buzz with excitement for the coming circus performance. Morgan bequeathed Ponder, the crystal working dwarven spirit stuck in a quartz crystal, to Haldir for safe keeping.
They rested at the circus camp and arose to find Ziggy Flapjack plagued by food poisoning. To figure out which foodstuff was contaminated, the party returned to Londhill where they found Audrid Crow, a wise woman who lives a few days east of Londhill. After a short bargaining session, Matron Crow traded her services in herbs and alchemy in exchange for a short jaunt into the Aer'sa, where the fixers would fill an ensorcelled vial with the some water from the dryad grove.
Bodily escorting Audrid Crow to the circus, Verso, Dirk, and Morgan left the crone in the foodstuff tent while they checked on Zippy. The party also borrowed on their good deeds done at Haldir's to gain Haldir's services in preparing food for the circus in exchange for free admission. A few hours later, Audrid Crow found the culprit - a pair of dodgy cheesewheels. Now the show could go on!
Chapter 11 - Lil' Londhill Show
The fixer put on a circus show
Awoken roughly by Dirk, the fixers found themselves surrounded by a awakened shrubs and a vine blight - as if the hand of the Aer'sa was turned against them. After a short combat, the bushes and vines rendered inert, the party resumed their rest and traveled on the next day. After a few days, they found an immense, constructed flower in the shape of a bird of paradise. And they had someone following them. Not ones for subterfuge, the Jerram called out the skulker, who introduced himself as Izera, a Githzerai monk acolyte. He lead the party to Zerth Adaka and his apprentice Kalla.
Jerram worked a minor miracle and cured Adaka's septic leg wound and the party took tea with the Gith. They discussed the nature of the multiverse and existence before discussing the Aer'sa. Four locations were discussed:
A druid camp, roughly north west about a day's walk
An elven temple to the north, approximately 4 days away, across the river
A summer fey refuge, to the north east, approximately 3 days as the crow flies, perhaps 4 days on foot.
A winter fey refuge, to the north west, approximately 4 days as the crow flies, perhaps 5 days on foot.
Restocking their supplies from the inventory of the crashed spelljammer, the party set off to the druid camp.
Restocking from the wreckage of the spell jammer, our party decided to first look to the druids about a day's March east of the wrecked ship. There they found an eclectic group of individuals a human warrior, hobgoblin crossbowmen, an elf, an orc, and the hulking rat like creature named Shonda. Shonda explained some of the goings on with the Fay in this area of the airsoft and invited the party to participate in the displacer beast hunt. Showing no fear The party agreed and cornered and slew a displacer beast on their own. Harvesting it's pelt and two tentacles the party celebrated with the diverse crew of hunters before bidding a dew and heading down the valley and into the air saw. Where they face a ankheg, a large chitinous insect.
They moved onward, seeking out the bridge that the githzerai had mentioned only to be interrupted by a group of bullywugs professing their allegiance to Mab. Using deft persuasion, Morgan persuaded the bullyWhugs that they were indeed agents of the Erlking, a power of the wild fae unaligned with either the winter or summer courts.
They crossed the river over the decaying marble bridge and found within a half hours walk and abandoned temple to Lord boric. Well Morgan debated stealing an idol, a wisened elven man stepped from the columns and persuaded them not to offend Lor'Boric. He also provided a more precise location for The Dryad Grove.
With another day's walk to the party found themselves cresting the top of a hill reportedly the location of the dryad grove. Circling north and west and using geometry they determine that reality was being distorted by some sort of illusion and keeping the party from reaching the dryad Grove. Just as they thought to go back for another attempt to pierce the veil, they heard the baying of hounds. If you short moments they saw you set of large fay looking dogs blinking surging randomly between the legs of a tall white horse. Astride the horse was an Elvin looking woman with long upswept ears a flowing robe of glittering green gold and burnt umber.
Confronted by a Lady Marisidhe and her blink dogs, the circus fixers discussed the forest and their intent to visit the dryad grove. After a brief bargaining session, the lady of the summer court traded her knowledge of the surrounding environs and a secret path to the glade in exchange for two future services, whose total duration would be no more than six days.
Lady Marisidhe lead the party to a cave from which the River Naiad tumbled out and over a fall. Scrabbling up the muddy slope, the party entered the cave while Lady Maris left them to their exploits. Sneaking through the cave, the party came upon a fungus-infected set of wolves. After the last corpse splashed into the water, the party continued until they found a fungus-filled cave and a small group of Myconids - sentient mushroom folk - who had a symbiotic relationship with the Dryads.
After negotiating with the Myconids and the lead dryad, Oak Sage, the party entered the peaceful grove and took a long rest on the banks of the lake at the center of Dryad's small lake. The next morning, as they prepared to leave, Dirk picked up the ensorcelled bottle from Audrid Crow and plunged the vial in to the water to fill it up. And fill up it did. With an immense slurping sound, the bottle began to drain the lake. Summoning the Dryads to help, the party fought to recover the bottle. After a but a few seconds the lake was drained and the Dryads distraught. Understanding that the party had been fooled, the Dryad merely expelled them from their grove.
Promising bloody vengeance against the Crone, Dirk and the party headed down from the grove. As they descended the hill, they saw that the river Naiad had stopped flowing. An about an hour after their journey, they saw the icy spire off to the east collapse with a loud fracturing sound and an ominous boom. They stopped by the Lor'Boric temple, where the same aged elf greeted them and informed them that whatever magic once inhabited the bottle, it was now a mere glass bottle. It seemed that they had been well used with little leverage over the crone. What would they do next?
Chapter 15 - A Lust for Revenge
After having been unwittingly used as pawns of Audrid Crone, the party began the long return to her cottage - promising carnie justice. Their trip to the south was marred by mud, a collapsing eco system, and an awful rotten smell. While the fauna fled to the north, the party once more encountered Shonda and his folk, all of whom were following the game to the north. As the party rested in Shonda's abandoned camp, Dirk was beset by a gigantic bipedal frog man and abducted while the party fought against ambulatory mudmen.
The journey to the south was rough for Dirk, as we was repeatedly vomited and swallowed, subdued for three-hour increments at a time, while his cohort of carnies followed his trail.
Dirk awoke to the soft humming of an older woman, blindfolded and bound to a bed. Once his friends arrived, the area was found untouched by the magical blight and when offered a chance to facilitate the designs of a mysterious voice, the carnies refused and were once more beset by mudmen as the illusions covering Audrid's glade was dispelled.
After dispatching the mudmen and freeing dirk, a loud clear voice called from beyond the hut "Crone, reveal thyself. Thou hast much to explain!"
Chapter 16 - Arrival of the White Nights
After confronting the Lady Isoldesidhe, one of the nobility of the Winter Court, the circus fixers, exactors of Carnie Justice, our party continued their investigation of the ruined cottage Audrid Crow, the crone, once called home.
Inside the ruined cottage, Morgan located a small wooden tree that radiated a minor transmutation aura - what she would later discover is a Quall's Feather Token - Tree. Two of the fey liegemen, a wizard and a hunter, discovered a pool of tarry material - what the robed man called a 'Banderhobb', a construct favored by hags. With no warning, a massive boulder was flung from the northern reaches of the desolate glade, instantly slaying the hunter. With a ragged yell, three trolls crested the hill with brown ichor leaking from their orifices their eyes wild with bloodlust.
A vicious battle ensued, wherein the Winter liegemen were slain and the Lady and her wizard were severely taxed. All through the combat, Dirk and Fuego made veiled references to betraying Winter once more. And of course, Morgan revealed her possession of winter's rod of the pactkepper. Upon concluding the fight, the Lady offered a deal - accompany her to the Feywild, where she could leave a message for the Queen of Air and Darkness and she would both intercede on the carnie's behalf with Mab and deliver the party to anywhere they wished to travel within the Aer'sa.
The party retreated to discuss, but growing impatient - and a little worried about their safety, the Lady and her wizard fled the once-pastoral clearing. After a short rest, the party set about the path to Glimerion via the Hestrem, preferring to avoid the Aer'sa.
It was a long journey to Glimerion. Along the way, our intrepid band of carnies encountered a large number of refuges, most of whom headed to the west. Their stories echoed one another - the land had turned against them and they had but naught to flee. A couple weeks into your journey through the Sodden Bogs, the party encountered a band of Dowhar, large penguin-like fae potion traders. After some negotiations, Morgan sold her Rod of the Pact Keeper, eschewing its association with the Queen of Air and Darkness. In return, the party acquired a number of potions and a selection of special unguents tailored to Dirk's… delicate constitution.
From there, the party stopped in Pedrin's Cross, a small river-side village and hopped a ride with a bunch of gnomes bound for Glimerion. Glimerion's two sister cliffs, the Iffee and the Brahss, towered of the River Wisp and a small inlet to the north the river stood clogged with merchant ships. Further investigation revealed that the ships had a draft too deep to pass further north. The multicultural and ramshackle district, the Sloos, was packed with idled ship hands. The carnies headed into Glimerion proper, looking for the circus's whereabouts and perhaps word from Audrid Crone. Neither revealed themselves. With the circus six-weeks gone, some began to wonder if they were truly lost in the feywild. After being politely thrown out of the Unseen Moth and Thistle, the party found their way to a reputable low-cost inn - the Copselight in the Sloos.
While enjoying their evening meals, Morgan purchased use of the bathhouse, while Jirram and Dirk made friends with some of the out-of-work deckhands. A number of vile sneezes began to wrack some of the patrons. Sensing something amiss, Morgan worked a incantation and discovered a strange illness in the air and riming the surfaces and edges throughout the inn. As she called out a warning to Dirk and Jirram, the table beneath their tankards gave a jolt. Exchanging glances with their tablemates, all were shocked when a table leg whipped out from beneath them and impaled a deckhand through the chest, instantly slaying him and sending the common room into a fervor.
Reacting to the sudden, violent upheaval in the Copselight Inn the erstwhile carnies leapt to action (or out windows, as the case may have been). Verso reigned supreme, hurling furniture around the room, while Jirram and Dirk fought about the edges. Fuego shouted encouragement from the rear window and Morgan… lathered? Washed her hair?
Once the furniture was reduced to kindling, the carnies took stock of their predicament and took a look about. Only two tables, a log from the fire, and a set of curtains were affected. Their investigation took them out to the courtyard, where they encountered the Glimerion Guard, clad in their wooden half plate and carrying swords. The guard Captain inquired as to the safety of the inn and shared rumors of violence elsewhere in the town. Thanking the carnies for protecting the common wellbeing, they hurried off to check for other signs of violence in the Sloos.
After resting in the Copselight overnight, the carnies elected to look for local work while they waited for the circus to show up. They elected to visit The Whispering Glyph on the top of the Iffee seeking to sell their services to the Gersan clergy in their exploration of the caverns below the Brahss, seeking the lost library of Vancilia Aerion. As they traveled to the bookshop, they heard whispers and hushed conversations of other furniture come to life, battering the populous.
Once at the Whispering Glyph, the party met Antonin Greal and Scholar Jessit. During the discussions, Verso revealed the existence of the teleportation device the carnies recovered from the Rostram School and traded an ancient elven tome from the same location for knowledge of how to use the teleportation device and two teleportation ring addresses - one to the Whispering Glyph and one of the Gersan chapterhouse in Waymeet.
With the teleportation discussion set aside, the party agreed to escort Jessit and another Gersan to the library of Vancilia Aerion in exchange for 1000 gold apiece (5000 gold total) with half of it paid upfront for expenses. The Gersans will also supply climbing kits, 100 ft of rope, and grapnel for each of their escorts. They provided direction to their meeting place and agreed to embark the following day.
After a brief shopping trip, the carnies met with the Gersan priest Scholar Jessit and his pupil, Scribe Pedrin, inside the Svartalf shop, 'Selen's Brasswords and Filigree". The proprietor of the shop, Selen, revealed a narrow, smelling secret passage and the circus folk and the priests plumed the depths below Glimerion.
Navigating tight confines, they eventually found an open area where upon they were beset by darkmantles. After slaying the beasts, the party found a headless corpse of a long-forgotten Gersan (or Albactine) worshipper and a sigil carved into a stalagmite - they were on the right path. They continued onward, finding a narrow path along a bottomless chasm. Skirting the narrow path, the party were beset once more by striges rising from the deeps, leaving the party battered and desperate for some rest.
After purging the millennia old kitchen of brown mold and decanting a rare and delicious bottle of elven wine, the circus fixers took continued their explorations of the sunken palace of Queen Vancilia Aerion. They found a salon, while a moldering set of bookcase, which revealed a number pair of useful tomes and time-worn hidden door leading to a bedroom. Poking their heads in, the party found the room covered in ochre resin and a large resinous cocoon on the top what once was a bed. Deciding to rest before awaking whatever vile horror was surely in the cocoon, the party returned to the watch tower and slept. Upon rising, Pedrin, the gersan acolyte, informed them that he heard movement outside.
Closer inspection by the party, revealed small shards of resin along the walkways of the courtyard and resin in the entry hall of the palace. The salon showed that the secret passage had been used, but Dirk's safe guards (spikes lodged to prevent the doors from opening) had been unmolested. Cautiously investigating the cocoon, they found it had been ruptured. But throwing caution to the wind, Verso elected to check the other quarters - finding one unoccupied and covered with a fine silvery dust. In the other, they found a corpse. While Verson investigated the corpse under Jirram's watchful eye, the corpse revealed that it still had a bit of life left and began grappling Verso.
Meanwhile, Fuego investigated a writing desk in the resin covered chamber, and when his first attempts to open a drawer we foiled, he attacked the desk inadvertantly ruptured an acid filled boil perched atop the desk surface. As Fuego wailed in pain, a tall, immatiated figure bound in resinous bandages emerged from the resin room unseen and proceeded to coordinate its attacks with the figure grappling Verso. After a minute of combat, both creatures were slain and the party took a moment to catch their breath.
After a harrowing battle with a resin-covered creature, the circus fixers caught their breath and sought to plunder the corpses of their ambushers. While Morgan and Dirk explored the ruined bedrooms, Verso's curiosity got the better of him and he opened the yet undisturbed guest chambers, disturbing two twisted dwarven corpses animated by some maddening force. The unseeing (but uncannily preceptive) bodies ripped themselves, open exposing unnatural fleshy maws full of sharp teeth where no mouth should be. Verso, worn from his previous combat encounter, stood no chance and was rendered unconscious.
A quick thinking Dirk and Morgan contrived to draw the creatures away while administering a potion to revive the wrestler. Through windows and skylights, the fixers evaded the creatures and fled to the watch tower where they made their stand and made quite a bloody mess as they rendered these abominable corpses as a butcher would a side of beef. Finally, assured they had dealt with the hazards in the palace, the fixers continued to explore the place, carefully searching for what they could have missed.
Ultimately, in the Queen's study, the found a bookcase that gave way leading to a hallway that sprialed down into the earth, terminating in circulate chamber with a ewer carrying elven statue and a fresco mounted into the wall. The fresco featured a circular, scything wreath of octopus-like tentacles. Unpompted, Dirk gathered the ewer and mimed as if to pour water into the center void of the fresco. A quicksilver-like viscous liquid poured forth, creating a window into a palm frond obscured area. After a few tentative tests, the party stepped through the window.
After abruptly being challenged by the Queen Vancilia Aerion, the Circus Fixers we drawn into an extended fight with the twisted elven monarch. As the Queen struck and retreated, morphing this region of the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo to suit her needs. Each such encounter allowed the queen to reveal twisted elven henchmen, warped by foul magics of unknown origin.
While the Queen temporarily retreated, Morgan began destroying the queen's memory crystals, soon joined by Fuego and Verso, releasing an elemental spirt each time a crystal was destroyed. Eventually, the Queen was struck down, her body pierced by a slithering tentacle that pierced the black void on the edge of Limbo, drawing her dead body and screaming spirit into so other, no doubt horrible, realm.
With the Queen removed from her realm, the firmament began to crack and buckle under the onslaught of the elemental chaos. Fuego used his recently acquired knowledge of reality bending to temporarily impose stability long enough to the Fixers to pillage the library and destroy the Queen's remaining memories of her daughter, only for the central pillar to yield an time-bent elven bard in fine clothing. The fixers whisked him away back to the prime material plane as the region of stability began to crack and break apart.
Back in the mortal realm, the Fixers reunited with their Gersan patrons and revealed what they had experienced. Jessit, shocked but glad to have the knowledge contained in Queen Vancilia's library, offered to return the party to the Whispering Glyph, where they could unload the library in their bag of holding and collect payment. With a few twists of the Teleportation Device, Jessit brought everyone, including the rescued elves, back to the smoke tinged bookshop and sought out Antonin Greal, the proprietor, for payment…
After returning from the depths beneath Glimerion, the Circus Fixers found themselves in the warm bookshop of the Whispering Glyph with the scent of wood smoke in the air. Afraid they'd find ruination, all were releved when Antonin Greal, the shopkeeper and member of the Gersan faith, emerged from the recesses of the shop with masks warning of smoke, some airborne plague, and rumors of rebellion afflicting Glimerion. While Verso unloaded the Queen Vancillia's library in a stock room, the rest of the gathered adventurers and the Gersan priests were privy to Morgan's 'atunement' with an warlock implement nee' ocher colored sea star tentacle.
After resting, the circus fixers followed rumor's to Lord Zor'Brechten's court, the Duke of Glimerion and highest in the court of the Lord of the Moon. There the party met a local lordling, Learic Tarenriel, and were shown to the court. The duke, a distemperate embodiment of disaffected nobility, tasked three groups of adventures with discovering the where abouts of the Glimerion Guard Capatain, one Valen Silverspike Bajern Sorrilswitch, and bringing the Duke his head. They also discovered the Verso' predecessor with circus, Barnibus Gunger, was a member of a robed group given a similar task as . Never ones for subtlty, Barnibus was simultaneously humiliated, upstaged, and reduce to gales of laughter by the Circus Fixers.
After being escorted from the Court of the Moon, the circus fixers decided to start their investigations with the Amalites in the Galanth-Vara. On their way, the encountered a diseased, delirious man dragging himself to the Galanth-Vara. Jirram interceeded upon the mans behalf and cured the man of his afflication. The man readily explained that he was sick for a number of days before his memory became foggy. He agreed to accomanpy the fixers to Amalite grove, but when the arrived, the found the grove beset by two ambulatory mounds of plant debris, fences, and furniture while a half dozen wooden-armor clad people mill about the monstrosities.
After dispatching two enormous piles of plant material and a handful of animated suits of wooden armor, may of which still contained the corpses of their former owners, the circus fixers made their way into the Galanth-Vara where they encountered not only a dozen score refugees, but their circus companions returned from the Feywild.
Not only had Cornellius' Collosal Cavalcade of Cosmic Curiosities made it through the feywild, they had picked up a few allies along the way - including a Genesai Portal Keeper named Proja. Verso caught up with Tarnock and Dirk had his neckholes plumbed by Madame Zarha. After some negotiation with Mother Gylledhia, the fixers secured temporary charms against the disease that afflicts glimmereon in exchange for seeking to information related to Glimerion's Affliction.
After taking their ease Galanth-Vara, the Circus Fixers were bound and determined to make good on the bounty on Guard Captain Valen Silverspike, well known cousin-fucker. With a two-day ward against disease, they set out to the Moonbeam Sliver, headquarters of the Glimerion Guard and presumed base of operations for the rebel (and cousin fucker) Guard Captain Valen.
Traveling across the bridge over the River Wisp and up the stair Moonlit Stair to the upper Bahss, the party encountered roaming patrols of elven younglings keeping the peace. Those patrols thinned out appreciably as they approach the guard tower. A structure of foggy, semi-transparent stone, the tower rose 70 feet into the air and two large doors stood ajar, the silent testamonial of a hasty exit.
As they party entered the tower, they found one half of a pair of sending stones droning with a low moaning sound. The sound cut off abruptly as Fuego attempted to communicate through the stone and it has since been quiet. Exploring the unguarded guard tower, they found a self-flaying svartalf whose infectious tentacles nearly did Verso in. They also found a guardman, one Trien Salienar, whom they convinced was a asleep for years while Glimirion fell into ruin at the predations of the Valen. They ascending one level in the tower, where they found animated office furniture that was no match for the fey circuses and slurping tentacles from the beyond. The tower is once more quiet.
Having entered the Moonbeam Sliver, headquarters of the Glimerion Guard, the carnie fixers continued their exploration of the seemingly abandoned outpost. Encountering an evidence lock-up, Fuego retrieved a bandolier of daggers and some loose gold. Dirk managed to upset an acid trap that rendered a lock into a pile of acid eaten slag before Verso forced the door. Behind the door, they found an abandoned office packed with legal tomes. After some careful searching, a hand crossbow, some coins and a journal written in elven script.
The circus folk next slunk up one more set of stairs, leading to the top of the tower. The stairwell was populated by portraits of a number of elves of varying genders and ages - all of whom were posed with a silver shield. They emerged in a small lobby, where a massive painting of the Lord Commander, well, commanded their attention. Rifling through the secretary's desk, the found a log book missing a few pages and various office-related brickbrak.
As the party continued into the Lord Commander's office, they caught the sound of muttering in the next room. Under an invisiblity spell, Dirk explored further, finding a man pierced by all manner of tiny wooden needles strapped to a table as a thin elven woman stooped over him muttering. Using a minor magical distraction, Dirk and Jerram diverted the woman's attention allowing Dirk to slide in for the kill. As combat broke out, the man strapped to the table came to the woman's defense and whatever spell lent the woman her appearance faltered, revealing haggish countance of Audrid Crone. Through a variety of trick and distractions, Audrid evaded the fixers - or had appeared to, until Morgan smote both Audrid and another of her allies, as they made a hasty escape upon a flying broom.
We once more join the circus fixers in the Moonbeam Sliver, headquarters of the Glimerion Guard. Having slain not the Lord Commander, but the Court Advocate, plundered the Lord Commander's private quarters - finding armor, swords, a magic shield, keys, books, and coins. Also the mangled corpse of woman.
They once more wound their way down the tower, stopping at the Brahss entry to investigate the crash site of the flying hags. Morgan remained in the tower with Jerram and Dirk investigated. As they examined the crater and shattered flying broom, they were assailed by a flurry of darts. Hiding in the surrounding trees, a brief stand-off ensued before their brown robed assailants left the scene. After a long rest in the tower, which was only just interupted by someone pounding on the door to the tower, shouting for Verso.
The carnies continued down into the tower, finding the stair easily unlocked with the keys found in the Lord Commander's quarters. The first floor in the tunnels was deathly quiet. After quick discussion of where to go, the party decided to open a double door leading to a fetid dinning room filled with corpses of the guards. With a halting jerk, three corpses pried themselves from the stick, shit-covered floor to attack the party.
Once the last guard collapsed to the floor, his armor sundered by repeated blows, the tower fell quiet once more.
We once more join the circus fixers in the Moonbeam Sliver, headquarters of the Glimerion Guard.
Having thrown spell and blade at the large, ambulatory mushroom and the stinky corpses it consumed, the fixers continued exploring the guard tower. After turning a few corners and working their way methodically through the floor, they determined that this must be the general lockup portion of the tower.
Finding a number of macabre sealed cells, each one filled with the dying (or near dying), they found one lone survivor - a svartalf rogue, Vaelos of the Furrows, a dealer of information. Having been taken into custody, the rogue recorded the descent into madness that afflicted the guard tower and then hid in a small secret passage used to escape from the guard into The Tunnels. He offered to trade information in exchange for money, but the party did not wish to part with that much gold and instead left him to rot.
After leaving the svartalf to wait out the disaster, the party found the general holding pen. Covered in in filth and a few bloated corpses, the party was dismayed to find a painting on the far wall - a ghastly tryptic painted with stool and spewtum. In the center most panel was non other than the haggish countinance of Audrid Crone, flanked by two women, one with a flat round face with a grinning rictus and the other a homely woman of middle years.
Behind the party is a door that leads back to where the mushroom was fought and a stair that will lead them on downward.
Upon rejoining the circus fixers in the glimmering guard tower, it was decided that the horrifying prisoner cells really should be looked at once more. After finding flying swords in bodily fluids turned into a paste, Dirk decided that maybe well enough was left alone.
As the fixers descended the stairs of the tower they found themselves enveloped by a sweltering fog. Hot and stinking they fell an indeterminable distance into a black abyss. An overwhelming, otherworldly presence pushed and prodded at their sense of self. Dirk, Fuego, and Verso were overcome while Jirram remained strong in his own identity. As the dim light came up, all four found themselves seated before Lady Marissidhe, the summer lady. She had called in one of her favors. And in doing so, had polymorphed Dirk, Fuego, and Verso into fae hounds of Winter. After some discussion, Jirram also joined his compatriots are a hound of Winter.
The lady explained she was on an errand for her liegelady, although she didn't specify exactly whom. While on this errand she found her self underground in a muddy cavern and triggered a trap. Unable to continue on her own, she called for aide. There were at least two more chambers to explore - a large cavern and a small passage that continued further. Lady Marisidhe instructed her bond-holders to make the way safe.
Venturing further, the circus fixers turned circus dogs found an immense muddy cavern filled with decomposing vegetable matter and swamp water. Moving through these piles were goat like beings who naturally attacked the fixers on sight. After a protracted battle the circus fixers slew the creatures and made the way safe for lady Marissidhe. At the end of the cavern was a small tunnel maybe 20 feet wide and 30 feet long inside of which they found a couple of shoddy work tables 3 bedraggled sleeping rolls and 2 heavy wooden chests filled with alchemical ingredients. This couldn't be it could it?
Summoned unto the side of Lady Marissidhe, her faithful hounds continued their exploration of the muddy caves.
As Morgan began to nose about a large worktable covered with alchemical bricabrack, a summon trap was triggered summoning a horrible, stinking frog-demon. Working together, the fixers turned hounds surrounded the demon. With fang, claw, and spell the fixers managed to return the demon to the depths of the Abyss.
Continuing their exploration, Morgan found a large stone tablet while Verso sought to strike a bargain with the fey lady. After a short, somewhat vague exchange of promises and exchanges, Verso was returned to his humanoid form and soon after retrieved the hunk of Winter's Ice for Arctis Tor and gave it to Lady Marissidhe.
After vouching that the small, muddy laboratory space was safe, the Lady came to look over Morgan's shoulder whereupon her eyes locked on the factured stone tablet. While her exact reason for concern over the tablet was unclear, the fixers had only just picked up on her distress when she thanked them for their service and returned them to the stair of the Moonbeam Sliver.
Gathering their thoughts briefly, they decended the remaining stairs and found a short hallway. Picking the more simply-constructed door, they found themselves in a roughly triangle-shaped room filted with hastily constructed wooden vats. Exploring further, they found that the vats held fleshwarped monstrosities that were likely former guardsmen. Sparing these monstrosies from drawing another breath, the fixers slew them and searched for a possible motive amongst wreckage before moving on.
The fight was on, as the circus fixers lobbed attacks at Audrid Crone, green hag and seeming mastermind of the downfall of the Moonbeam Sliver. Lobbing enchanted arrows, psychic daggers, and the ashen roots of Yggdrasil, the circus fixers wrecked havok in the stables of the Moonbeam Sliver. As flame, smoke, and the otherworldly slurping enveloped the straw and wooden framed structure, caprine archers fell and the Crone slipped out of their grasp multiple times, all while the mutlilated, multilimbed centipeed like body of Valen Silverspike clubbed at Jirram and Verso. As Valen begin to flag, a trio of robed martial artists lead by none other the Barney Gunger gave Audrid Crone the opportunity to flee, but not before Valen's monstrous existance was brought to an end.
The circus fixer, having slain the fleshwarped monstrosity Valen Silverspike and once chased off Audrid Crone to the wilds around Glimerion, were still engaged with a life and death struggle with the martial artists who gave Audrid Crone time to escape. Barney Gunger only had eyes filled with bloodlust for Verso. While they fought, Jirram, Dirk, and Fuego engaged the other monks. Morgan, of course, was still locked in a mental struggle while she attempted to recover from touching the mind of Valen.
With a well-placed charm and a number of magic arrows, the combat resolved with one dead monk and a one-monk bucket brigade. As the stable structure collapsed, the circus fixers emerged into a gloomy night in the slews with Vessa, the woman-headed goat paramore of Valen Silverspike. Driven by a twisted and sinister nature, Fuego offered Vessa closure by showing her the severed head of Valen. The fixers also managed to find a Periapt of Wound Closure beneath the hulking corpse of the guard captain.
As they emerged, the party once more felt themselves being pulled in the hot, muggy between space, but where lady Maris' beautful feminine lips filled their minds eye. Marisidhe's lips parted into a delicious, almost seductive smike, blood began to burble from between her teeth. And the darkness became bitterly cold, and dry - like the wind-swept vastness of the tundra beyond Keldar-that-was. A raspy voice of glacial movement on barren rock gloated that Maris' power - and both her obligations and debts - were now hers to command. And the fixers were hurled from the between-place and back onto the dirt path through the Sloos. In the moments the fixers had been in the between-place, the late summer evening had turned cool as a thunderclouds moved in and a heavy, soaking rain washed the Sloos.
Disconcerted by the experience and no small amount paranoid, the fixers made their way to the Copselight Inn, under management by Avery Krillia. Avery cut the fixers a deal for a secure room for the night and shared with Dirk, Jirram, and Fuego the evens of the last few weeks since the fixers had saved her, her inn, and patrons. The next morning, the Sloos was overcast and unseasonably cool. The fixers decided to make their way to the moonlit court to claim the reward for Valen Silverspike.
The fixers were greeted respectfully by Learic Tarenriel and escourt to the throne room. Perched langorously on his throne, Lord Zorbrech'tien was adorned in find maroon clothes while wearing a pale silver fur cloak. Once introduced to the Lord, the party offered the head of Valen Silverspike and Lord Zorbrech'tien sent a functionary for the promised chest of 10,000 GP. Just as a the functionary disappeared around a corner, a crack of thunder accompanied a whirlwind that began to form at the edge of the throne room. AS the whirlwind move forward and grew slightly in size, an incredibly large house cat prowled out of nothingness, followed by a long limbed, delicate featured and beautiful elven woman. The cat and woman spoke in turn, each heralding the arrival of none other than both Queen Mab, the Lady of Air and Darkness and Queen Titania, the Lady of Light and Life.