Charlie's shoulders slump, he was hoping to go by them unnoticed as he didn't want their attention. He had after all stolen Goliath from their pens. He quickly tries to scoot the bear behind the corner of the building, but it is nearly impossible to hide a semi-wild bear.
Charlie steals a glance at one of them. It's 'Daring Danika' the lion-tamer! She knows exactly what I did!
Dendillion's spell foils their latest trick, and they're really not happy about it.
A freakish looking clown snarls and turns his attention to Dendillion. "Well, well, WELL, look at what we have here! Ladies and gentlemen, people of all ages, allow me to introduce a bunch of cheap imposters! By all means, let us watch them as they peddle their cheap imitation show! Save your coin everyone! For we are coming soon with a real show, not some amateurish parade of feeble animals and struggling charlatans.”
The clown strides right up to Dendillion, does a freakish little dance, then says to all, "Allow us to demonstrate in a time honored tradition! A circus COMPETITION!"
The crowd goes wild, though there are snickers after Dendillion's little ploy that Jellico catches.
The other two from the Celestial Meagerie step forth.
A man brandishing fire sticks spits into the flames on one and sends them into the air! "YOU!" he points out Haldan, "Let's burn!"
The woman with the lion looks into the crowd, "MUMBLING CHARLIE! I don't know what you did with Goliath, but I challenge YOU!"
This is a miniature circus and competition. Three of you have been challenged. If you forfeit, it'll look bad for your circus. Each round you will do the following:
Execute a warm up by the skill of your choice. Any skill. Roll high enough, and you'll earn yourself a bonus for the blustering portion (think WWE promo). The blustering is a Performance check, nothing else can be substituded.
The opponents have a set DC, so I don't need to roll for them. Dendillion embarrassed them though, so they're off their game. The DC for your blustering part is reduced by 1.
Once everyone has had their one-on-one duel, it's a single instance of 3-on-3.
Haldan: Go
Charlie: Go
Dendillion: Go
Charlie moves his way through the crowd. "W..w...w.hat are y..y..y.ou doing here Danika?" His stutter grows worse with the stress and his nervousness.
Goliath pushes his way through and Charlie pulls his whip loose just in case he needs to keep him back.
Charlie slinks through the crowd, he then puts on a tremendous show.... But Danika beats him out with the ol'head in the lion's maw! The crowd goes wild for her!
Haldan: Go
Dendillion: Go
Score:
Wayward Wonders: 0
Celestial Menagerie: 1
"My my, is that really the colour of your teeth?" Dendillion snidely asks Jellico. He doesn't wait for an answer though, instead strumming a few chords on his lute. Seconds later, he breaks out into song.
You think you're safe without a care
But here in Abberton, you'd be wise to beware
The pike with the spike that lurks in your drawers
Or the flying drake that will fill you with horror
Need Old Nan the Hag to stir up a potion
So that your lady might get an abortion...
"Now, you see, these fine folks here," Dendillion waves a sweeping hand at the crowd, grinning. He starts a performance of a different sort, a kind of mocking comedy. "They get the message. But you, sad little clown, likely down get the inferences. See, the 'pike with the spike' is a-" he stops short, places a hand on his mouth in mock shock, and add, "Oh my, I do apologize. Far be it for me to tell you about a thing you've never had!"
”Come Hermann, were on.”
Haldan sets up the cards and has Hermann pull 3 volunteers from the crowd. While he is collecting the volunteers, Hermann flings insults at the man he is affectionately referring to as “Flame Boy.”
Haldan has each person pick out a card from the deck, does some impressive shuffling afterwords and lays out 3 cards. With the remaining cards, Produces Flame and launches the cards into the air with a flourish, harmlessly landing away from anything.
”Well, I only have 3 cards left so they had better be the right ones. Shall we see?”
Casting Prestidigitation, he reveals the image of the first person on the top of the card. And then does so for each of the volunteers.
”Well, they definitely look like the right cards.”
Hermann hops up onto the table and reveals each one while Haldan “just could not look.”
Tiny does his best to clap excitedly as his companions perform.
Dendillion's performance woos the crowd! They cheer and laugh in time with the song. Jellico sneers at the defeat, but the crowd is too excited at Dendillion!
Flame-eater versus flamethrower. Haldan too gives a decidedly better performance! The crowd seems solidly, though not completely, on the side of the Circus of Wayward Wonders.
Current Score:
Wayward Wonders: 2
Celestial Menagerie: 1
Attempting to aid...
"Haldan. Charlie? Shall we wow them? Follow my lead..."
Charlie follows Dendillion's lead, Goliath's low growl at the lion adds in some unintentional bass to his song as Charlie cracks his whip at at completely the wrong intervals.
Dendillion turns and whispers to Charlie and Haldan. "I know we haven't practiced this, but remember the Fire-Breathing Bear trick I'd suggested? I'm going to adlib some music, increase the tempo, and the two of you do what you can with Goliath and fire. Ok? Here we go..."
With supreme confidence the musician turns back to the crowd. He starts picking notes, playing out a mournful tune with a slow cadence. Charlie walks a number of paces away from Goliath, putting himself among the crowd.
"There once was a bear most foul, who often did let off a growl-" Dendillion starts, prompting a whistle from Charlie that gets Goliath to growl. "He roamed the forest fair, leaving naught but despair, and many a corpse behind him."
"One day, there came a hunter. Sword gleaming, and a whip made of wonder. He promised to tame the foul beast," Dendillion prompts Charlie, who stands out with a heroic pose, his whip in hand.
The bard starts to increase the tempo of his song, and with a sideways glance to Haldan the cardsharp sneaks out, his cloak thrown over to to hide him somewhat. "The hunter knew not the legend, you see. The bear had a magic in he. The hunter did learn, with a SINGE and a BURN, that fire the bear did breathe!"
It's at that moment that Charlie lets out another whistle. Both Goliath and Haldan leap to action. The bear begins chasing his master, with Haldan tossing out flaming cards in front of the bear to make it look like Goliath is breathing fire! The three run around the crowd, Dendillion playing faster and faster, repeatedly shouting, "Oh burn, ye poor hunter! Oh burn, oh burn! 'Fore long, your body will bleed, will bleed!"
Dendillion's performance is so dominating that the crowd is deafening. Chants of "Wayward Wonders" have an effect akin to a slap across the face to the others.
Thoroughly defeated the trio from the competition sulks off with their tails between their legs.
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Charlie smiles a rare smile as they put on the better show. He certainly wasn't new, not confident in his showmanship quite yet, but Dendillion certainly seemed to make him look better in front of the crowd.
He watches Danika sulk away and his heart breaks for a moment. For a brief moment while he was on the run after his families unfortunate incident, looking for anyone to take him in. At that moment he found Danika. She was always so brave and had a confidence he never had. She had a way with people and animals. For a short while they were an item, that is until he saw how she treated the animals and those around her. She used Goliath as a training lesson for her lion and Charlie knew he needed to get out of there. The cruel things he saw her do caused him to shudder. She was kind to him in the beginning, but that all seemed to be a facade.
That was some time ago but one's heart never truly heals from love. While he would never go back to her he certainly didn't want to see her hurt. Shaking his head Charlie clears it from his thoughts. "Whatever r.r..reason they are here it isn't good. W..w..we can't have competition following in our shadow."
Their presence means nothing but trouble, Chark concurs. No doubt in my mind. Mark my words, I do not trust anything about the Celestial Menagerie, and neither should you.
To the barn?
As the party wends their way to the barn, you hear a slightly high pitched voice comes from behind a rock, "Well lookie hoo! It's the rejects."
Jellico steps out, and this time he's got a new sidekick.
"Jimbob here is going to ruin your day since you ruined mine!"
Round 1:
Haldan: Go
Hostiles: TBD
Chark: TBD
Dendillion: TBD
Charlie: TBD
Tiny: TBD
(Scout)
(Search)
(Avoid Notice)
(Detect Magic)
(Search)
”Consider this a warning. Move aside.”
At the top hat.
Haldan's missiles strike true, though it'll take more than that to deter this duo.
Jellico grabs spins a pair bowling pins in his hands and hurls them at Tiny, cracking him in the skull!
for He then
for
The automaton rumbles forward, closing with Goliath and popping him twice with a pair of spring loaded fists!
for
for
Round 1:
Haldan: MM
Hostiles: ATK!
Chark: Go
Dendillion: Go
Charlie: Go
Tiny: Go
Jellico: 10
The bear tumbles back, falling hard to the ground as it is instantly knocked unconscious by the automaton. Charlie shifts behind the rocks, using his shield as cover as he slams it into the rock 'em sock 'em.
Goliath doesn't look very well as it looks like the automaton broke some bones with it's mechanical punches.
HP 11/30
AC 19 (21 w/ shield)
Wooden Shield [AC Bonus +2] [Hardness 3] [HP/BT 12(6)]
Hero Points 1/3
Goliath
HP 0/24; -2 CHA (Dying 3)
AC 16
Charlie's shield smashes the automaton, which pops a few springs with a comical sound!
Round 1:
Haldan: MM
Hostiles: ATK!
Chark: Go
Dendillion: Go
Charlie: Hit
Tiny: Go
Jellico: 10
Carny: 5
Chark gasps audibly as Goliath falls, pummeled by the automaton. Without even thinking about it, she touches a tattoo on her arm, and a burst of bright whitish flame erupts from her hand and washes over her and her companions, the warmth from the flame licking over every wound and knitting the flesh together.
She turns to Jellico, her face in a snarl. You'll pay for that, you overstuffed orange-haired pretender. Your teeth have so many gaps, it looks like your tongue is in jail.
"He's stolen property anyway!" Jellico's smile is a coulrophobic's nightmare.
Round 1:
Haldan: MM
Hostiles: ATK!
Chark: Heal
Dendillion: Go
Charlie: Hit
Tiny: Go
Jellico: 10
Carny: 5
"His teeth really are foul, aren't they?" Dendillion quips with a rhetorical question. Not waiting for a reply, the bard begins playing a series of power chords. The music thrums in the air, filling his friends with courage.
Seeing an opportunity, he switches to a familiar picking pattern. The magic takes hold of one of the thrown pins, which flies back at Jellico with deadly force!
"Ow!" Tiny shakes and rubs his head where two large welts are quickly sprouting.
Not wanting to get walloped again Tiny drops low into his stance and steps forward and tries to take the strange robit out.
If the automaton is still up, here’s what I’ll be doing:
Dendillion gets his revenge with the thrown pin, striking Jellico in the nose and breaking it! Coupled with the bardic performance, the sickening laugh vanishes.
Tiny strikes the creature with his well-trained hand. The creature is rocked back, all the way back, and it weebles back violently into Tiny for . Tiny hits it a second time! Gears, springs, and confetti burst from its body.
Haldan steps up and delivers a shocking grasp. The automaton shakes and then completely explodes!
Jellico curses a rather un-clownlike litany of phrases. He litterally bounces towards Tiny. With a dagger he tries to stab the tough dwarf:
for
Round 2:
Haldan: BOOM!ZAP
Hostiles: ATK!
Chark: Go
Dendillion: Go
Charlie: Go
Tiny: Go
Jellico: 28
Carny: 24
"Uff" grunts Tiny as he gets headbutted and stabbed."
With tiger like grace Tiny moves to the far side of the villain and attempts to take him down.
Tiny then looks down to his own wounds and does his best to patch himself up.
Now flanking, Tiny strikes the clown with a tiger claw strike. His fingertips come back with a combination of blood and grease paint on them.
He then makes a quick move to patch himself up
Round 2:
Haldan: BOOM!ZAP
Hostiles: ATK!
Chark: Go
Dendillion: Go
Charlie: Go
Tiny: Hit
Jellico: 32
Oh, yes, Jellico, people clap all the time when they see you, Chark chides, her voice dripping with syrupy venom. They clap their hands over their eyes.
She moves forward and an arc of bright white flame erupts from her hand at the clown.
Chark's spell catches Jellico! The flame consumes the clown, and for the second time in one day, Chark immolates a person to death!
Unfortunately the clown didn't have much:
Chark steps up to Jellico, her face dark with anger. Your face would make an onion cry, she says coldly.
Once the party has tended to everyone's wounds, she takes a few moments to refocus, calming down and getting back into the embrace of Sarenrae.
Tiny sits down and rubs his head "Those pins hurt but did ya have ta kill 'em? Seems a little harsh."
Tiny sits down and rubs his head "Those pins hurt but did ya have ta kill 'em? Seems a little harsh."
I regret losing the foolish soul at the Mad Mug, Chark says, but have no such compunctions about Jellico. She smiles at the acrobat. Please don't let it trouble your tender heart, Tiny.
Tiny sits and presses some loose cloth against his tender head.
Charlie looks down at Jellico. "K..k..killing this one isn't going to go well. The C..c..celestial Menagerie is going to want retribution." Charlie is afraid they may have just made far more trouble for themselves than he was hoping for.
HP 15/30
AC 19 (21 w/ shield)
Wooden Shield [AC Bonus +2] [Hardness 3] [HP/BT 12(6)]
Hero Points 1/3
Goliath
HP 13/24; -2 CHA (Wounded 1)
AC 16
"Yes, this is a mess. It shouldn't have come to this, even if it was self defense," Dendillion agrees, fretting over the situation. "We've waited here for too long, and should get going."
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”Oh, hey guys, I found something else in the clown’s pocket. Some sort of material like a handkerchief. Let me just pull it out to see if its anything special. Oh well would you look at that, it seems to be attached to another one. This uh, this just keeps going and going... I just... HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!”
At around the 30ft handkerchief mark, you realize it was Haldan doing some sleight of hand as he looks at the group with what can only be described as his “waka waka” look.
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Hermann walks up to Haldan slowly, looks back at the group, and deadeye smacks Haldan in the face before walking away shaking his head.
”And I think I speak for everyone on that one.”
The Lindell farm is at the end of a dead-end road, surrounded by trees and undergrowth. The barn is two stories high. The area is quiet.
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Charlie turns a bit pale and a bit horrified as Haldan begins pulling a joke handkerchief out of the clowns dead body. He shakes his head and turns away. "Gnomes, what the hell is wrong with them?"
He heads off towards the barn's front door and slides it open.
Dendillion does his best to ignore Haldan's joke. He moves closer to the front door, but let's Charlie take the lead. He holds his lute like a weapon now, bracing himself for whatever nastiness is to come.
Charlie, Goliath, and Dendillion approach, apparently forgetting that the plants around the building are deadly!
The scrub suddenly comes alive!
(Scout)
(Search)
(Avoid Notice)
(Detect Magic)
(Search)
The plant immediately reaches out for Tiny!
for and
[for and .
It gulps Tiny down in one fell swoop!
It then goes after Haldan!
but misses!
Round 1:
Plant: Feed me Seymour
Chark: Go
Dendillion: Go
Haldan: Go
Tiny: Go (grabbed, is slowed 1, and has to hold his breath or start suffocating)
Charlie: Go