Use the following boxed text to describe the carnival to new arrivals:
The first stars of night twinkle above the apricot sunset. Giant dragonflies whir overhead, trailing streamers, and a low mist curls over the ground. Through a floral archway, you glimpse wondrous and vibrant creatures—elf stilt walkers, dancing faeries, and painted performers. Everywhere there is laughter, pixie dust, bubbles, and the wistful tune of a whistling calliope.
The Witchlight Carnival travels as a convoy of wagons, each one pulled by horses or foxes depending on its size. When they need to soar between worlds, the wagons and their draft animals sprout butterfly wings and take to the starry sky. On land, the carnival’s attractions unfold magically from the wagons, controlled by Mister Witch’s Witchlight watch.
When the carnival arrives at a new destination, a treant sapling named Northwind uses its Animate Trees ability to gently relocate trees that are in the way of the unfolded wagons. A great length of blue ribbon transforms into a lazy, sparkling river, encircling the site. The river is 20 feet wide and 10 feet deep at its center.
There’s no handbook for how guests of the Witchlight Carnival are expected to behave; certain actions are tolerated, while others cause offense. Politeness goes a long way: paying attention when spoken to, laughing at jokes, and joining in with games and singing. Every so often, you can raise the carnival’s mood by 1 step (see “Tracking Mood” in Chapter 1: Witchlight Carnival) if the party is consistently polite to carnival staff and fellow attendees.
Conversely, acts such as interrupting someone, being rude, or grumpily refusing to dance are unfavorable. Lower the carnival’s mood by 1 step if the characters actively offend anyone they meet.
Characters who are caught stealing or fighting are asked to leave the carnival; in this case, the carnival’s mood lowers by 1 step as 1d6 Witchlight hands (chaotic good) escort the troublemakers to the gates.
Roll on the Carnival Scenes table to bring the carnival to life as the players explore.
d8 Occurrence1Two girls in face paint (a lion and a hart) squabble over a painted wooden crown that their mother won at a stall.2A satyr with red-and-white-striped horns plays the pipes while leading a procession of dancing rodents.3An elf stilt-walker tosses colorful sugary treats down to children who pass by.4A painted sign of an elf wearing a jester’s hat springs to life and exclaims, “We hope you’re having a delightful evening!”5A giant dragonfly swoops overhead, and its rider spills a drink over a group of Witchlight hands.6With a puff of glitter, a man’s head suddenly turns into the head of a braying donkey, to the giggling delight of a group of mischievous pixies.7Giant, singing flowers burst from the ground and serenade passersby.8A lively jig springs up, led by a troupe of gnomish clowns.
Several meddling outsiders can be encountered at various times throughout the evening.
Kettlesteam is a kenku warlock whose patron is the archfey Zybilna of Prismeer. Having sensed that something is wrong with her beloved patron, Kettlesteam has come to the carnival seeking answers. The carnival owners refuse to speak to her—and until they come clean, she is committed to causing trouble. Kettlesteam uses disguise self to assume whatever form best enables her to mingle in crowds.
Characters can encounter Kettlesteam in more than one location; if they corner her, she provides valuable clues about Prismeer. For details, see “Catching Kettlesteam”.
Each member of the Hourglass Coven employs a thief that visits the carnival to steal from ticketless victims. These thieves enter and exit through the Hall of Illusions, using it as a gateway to their mistresses’ splinter-realms of Hither, Thither, and Yon. The carnival staff has been instructed by Mister Witch and Mister Light to ignore them.
These thieves possess a preternatural awareness of who is a carnival worker and who is a ticket-carrying visitor. Every night of the carnival, they haunt the dark spaces between wagons and attractions, scanning the crowds for ticketless interlopers. Characters who have tickets or who work at the carnival are not targets for these thieves. Some characters might catch glimpses of these spooky figures as reflections in mirrors, shadows in doorways, or out-of-place figures standing motionless in the moving crowd. Use these thieves as you please to add an undercurrent of dread or mystery to the carnival’s frivolities.
The three thieves are fiercely loyal to their hag mistresses and won’t willingly reveal anything if caught. They are as follows:
Bavlorna Blightstraw’s thief is one of her lornlings—a miniature version of herself. Use the quickling stat block to represent this toad-like creature.
Skabatha Nightshade’s thief is Sowpig, a Small ghoul with 17 (5d6) hit points. She appears as a little, gray-skinned girl wearing a pig mask and holding an oversized lollipop.
Endelyn Moongrave’s thief is the detached shadow of Gleam, a high elf acrobat who wears a crescent moon mask. (Gleam herself has vanished from the carnival. The characters won’t meet her until chapter 4.) Gleam’s detached shadow uses the shadow stat block, except it is a Fey instead of an Undead. A creature whose Strength is reduced to 0 by the shadow’s Strength Drain attack does not die but falls unconscious instead. The creature regains consciousness and the reduction to its Strength score disappears after it finishes a short or long rest.
Each thief has the following additional action options, which it uses to achieve its goals:
No Ticket. The thief targets one carnival guest it can see within 5 feet of it. If the target doesn’t have a ticket, it must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or be stunned for 1 minute. It retains no memory of events that occur while it is stunned in this way. The creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. A creature that successfully saves against this effect is immune to this particular thief’s No Ticket ability for the next 24 hours.
Sticky Fingers. The thief targets one stunned creature it can see within 5 feet of it and steals one item weighing 10 pounds or less from that creature. Whatever it steals disappears, reappearing in the space of the hag to which the thief is beholden.