A glass cabinet stands near the entrance to this tent. If the characters approach it, read the following boxed text aloud. If they investigate the tent first, skip ahead to “Approaching the Hall of Illusions.”
A wooden mannequin of a grinning, raven-haired young woman in witch’s attire and a green flowing cape hovers inside a glass cabinet. At the top of the cabinet, a sign reads “Tasha the Wizard—Known for Her Hideous Laughter.”
A halfling couple holds hands as they approach the glass cabinet. One of the halflings is wearing butterfly face paint. As he drops to one knee and pulls a small box from his pocket, his sweetheart bursts into laughter and begins rolling on the ground. The halfling in face paint begins sobbing and darts into the nearby tent without getting his ticket punched.
Characters who succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence (History) check recall that Tasha was one of the names reputedly used by Iggwilv the Witch Queen, a legendary archmage. Any creature that comes within 10 feet of the mannequin must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or be affected as if by a Tasha’s hideous laughter spell. Whether the saving throw succeeds or fails, the creature can’t be affected by the mannequin again.
The halfling in face paint is Rubin Sugarwood, and his halfling sweetheart is named Ween Sundapple; both are commoners (lawful good). Ween got too close to the glass cabinet and fell victim to its spell. If one or more characters follow Rubin into the Hall of Illusions, see “Chasing Rubin” below.
After recovering from the cabinet’s spell, Ween remains outside the tent and calls out for Rubin, hoping he will return.
This large tent is painted with a mural of shifting images that show grinning faeries diving into pools of color. The helical stripes of the tent’s pointed canopies rotate in spirals, and the whole display seems designed to befuddle onlookers. A clown dressed in muted garb stands at the tent’s entrance, blinking at you.
Entering the tent costs 1 ticket punch.
The veil between the Material Plane and the Feywild is thinnest inside this hall of magical mirrors, and the door to Prismeer lies deep within. The Hourglass Coven’s thieves slip in and out of the tent as they desire, and most of the carnival staff prefer to give the attraction a wide berth, believing it to be jinxed or haunted.
Candlefoot, a Witchlight hand (neutral good), is the reluctant ticket-puncher at the Hall of Illusions, and he does all he can to avoid entering the hall. All the color has leached out of his skin, hair, eyes, and apparel, giving him a strangely monochromatic look. And his problems don’t end there.
A kenku named Kettlesteam stole Candlefoot’s voice, so he communicates through mime. If the characters give him a writing implement and some parchment, he can also write out his thoughts.
Additional roleplaying notes can be found in the bio for Candlefoot.
A Fey Romance. When the mermaid Palasha (see “Silversong Lake” later in the chapter) joined the Witchlight Carnival, Candlefoot discovered that her songs had the power to bring back his coloration. (The change lasts only as long as he can hear her sing.) This surprised them both, and when the pair met, they fell in love. Recently, Candlefoot was about to propose to Palasha when his voice was snatched by Kettlesteam. If questioned, Candlefoot tries to explain his sorry circumstances through mime and asks the characters to help him recover his voice from Kettlesteam so he can go through with his proposal.
Here’s a fantastic opportunity for you to explore your hidden talents as a mime. To indicate that he has lost his voice, Candlefoot might move his lips, then shake his head while holding a hand up to one ear. He might bob his head and flap his arms like a bird to indicate that Kettlesteam is the culprit. He doesn’t know where the kenku is, but he knows she has been causing mischief throughout the carnival and sometimes uses magic to conceal her true form.
If the characters agree to help Candlefoot, he performs a few delightful magic tricks for their amusement using his prestidigitation cantrip, which he can cast without the verbal component.
Tall mirrors line the interior walls of the tent. The mirrors near the entrance reflect onlookers in their youth; the images grow steadily older, until the mirrors deep within the hall reflect onlookers in their twilight years. As the characters scrutinize their reflections, ask the players to describe what their characters looked like as children and what they might look like in old age.
When the correct incantation is spoken aloud in front of any of the hall’s mirrors, the mirror transforms into a portal to the Feywild domain of Prismeer (see “Through the Looking Glass” later in the chapter for more information).
If the characters chase after Rubin when he enters the hall, Candlefoot looks shocked but doesn’t follow them inside.
Any character who spends 1 minute searching for Rubin finds him with a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check. The halfling is gazing worriedly into a mirror, and a little girl in a pig mask can be seen in the pane, whispering to the halfling’s youthful reflection. As soon as she sees the characters, the girl turns and disappears. This figure is Sowpig (see “Thieves of the Coven” in the Carnival Overview), who is trying to lure the halfling to Thither so that Skabatha Nightshade can tempt him into a nefarious bargain. Rubin reveals that girl in the pig mask asked him if he had any regrets, and said that if he did, she knew someone who could help him—he just had to follow her.
If the characters fail to find Rubin after 3 minutes, they come upon him as he steps into the mirror to join the girl in the pig mask. After he passes through the pane, his youthful reflection takes the girl’s hand and walks away with her. The ring he intended for his sweetheart drops to the floor inside the hall as he disappears. Characters who try to follow Rubin are unable to pass through the mirror as he did.
On the Story Tracker, jot down the names of any characters who succeeded on the Intelligence (History) check to know that Tasha and Iggwilv are one and the same, because this information proves useful in chapter 5. Also note if Rubin was led away by Sowpig, as the characters might encounter him again in chapter 3 (see area L13).
If the characters reunite the halfling couple, Ween accepts Rubin’s proposal, and the carnival’s mood rises by 1 step (see “Tracking Mood” in Chapter 1: Witchlight Carnival). If Rubin and Ween are not reunited, the mood of the carnival lowers by 1 step as word of Rubin’s disappearance spreads.