Enormous swans glide through the water here, pulling ornate wooden gondolas draped in flowers. The swans disappear into banks of silver mist as they wend their way down the river. A jetty extends ahead, at the end of which a waiting swan preens its feathers.
Riding a gondola costs 1 ticket punch. Each ride is an hour long; it starts and ends at the jetty, and the gondola follows the river that marks the perimeter of the carnival.
Each gondola is pulled by a giant swan, which has the statistics of a giant eagle except that it has no talons, can attack twice with its beak as an action, and speaks Common and Auran. If the characters approach the swan at the end of the jetty, she bows her head, introduces herself as Feathereen, and explains that she can take the characters along the river that encircles the carnival. Each gondola holds up to eight Medium creatures.
Feathereen is erudite and haughty. She asks the characters several metaphysical questions as they travel, such as these:
“What is joy?”
“How do I know you exist?”
“In worlds so full of magic, is time an illusion?”
If the characters ignore Feathereen or make light of her questions, she rocks the gondola and tries to pitch her passengers into the water. Each occupant must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw to stay inside the boat.
Characters who impress Feathereen with their answers earn her respect; if she is questioned about the carnival, her gossipy nature is revealed, and she imparts the following information:
Feathereen saw the mime Candlefoot (see “Hall of Illusions”) make a disastrous attempt to propose to the mermaid Palasha. “He was about to declare his love for the mermaid in front of everyone, when the words left him with a gasp! It was most unusual, and he hasn’t spoken a word since. Palasha was very upset.”
Feathereen enjoys late-night debates with the bugbear Burly (see “Staff Area” later in the chapter). “He has a profound mind and is simply wasted guarding the staff wagons. He misses his brother tremendously. No one knows what happened to Hurly, but everyone knows he never really fit in.” (See area M5 in chapter 4 for Hurly’s current whereabouts.)
On the Story Tracker, note the names of any characters who impress Feathereen with their conversation. These characters gain debating talents that might prove useful in chapter 5 (see area P41).
If the characters annoy Feathereen, she is irritable for the rest of the evening, and the carnival’s mood lowers by 1 step (see “Tracking Mood” in Chapter 1: Witchlight Carnival). If pleased, she remains in high spirits, which raises the carnival’s mood by 1 step.