The proprietor, presumably, although it could be an employee, does not turn or reply to Tibitz' chastisement. If anything, the woman hastens her steps.
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While you wonder at the many sights and sounds, people--mostly Varisian--call out and to you, trying to entice you to their tent.
"Darts! Throw three darts. Any hit wins a prize! Can you hit the bullseye?"
"Deep fried butter! Get your syrup drizzled, deep fried butter right here!"
"Can you cross the spider's ladder? A game of balance that even a child could win! Look how simple it is?"
"Hoop toss! Hoop toss!"
"Hey! You! Woman with the wild hair!" a large, broad-shouldered and yellow-bearded Ulfen man shouts at you. "Show Narthi your inner power and passion by taming the savage beast on yonder pole!" Narthi, you assume, points while flexing with an impressively sized mallet at a tall pole bearing a track that runs the height from ground to the top where a stuffed lion's head rests. A lever rests at the base, arranged to kick a puck up the track toward the lion's head. "Can you make the beast roar? Can you make the beast thunder? Would you be Queen of the Carnival?" He looks at Tibitz and adds, "Or king?"
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"Hey, he's talking kinda like those people that hang out around those red lantern buildings back in Absalom," Zu comments as Narthi hollers at the group, and more specifically, Helvetica. "Even though I'm pretty sure they're talking about two different things. Huh."
The leshy shrugs. "Ah well! Let's try it! But you can go first Hel, if you want."
Narthi flips the heavy mallet--more like a maul--and offers the handle towards you. "Show your power!"
A boy in a plain, wool tunic holding his mother's hand stops and stares at Zu. "Mama! It's a real scarecrow!"
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Helvetica quivers with excitement at the proposition and takes hold of the mallet. "I'm going to make the beast thunder, because I'm Queeeeeen of the Carnivaaaal!"
Lifting the mallet overhead, her arms bending unnaturally outwards with the weight, she brings it down. Despite even the stalwart aid of gravity, the mighty blow that would ascend her to royalty barely encourages the puck to move. "Aw man! I have inner power and passion, I promise! Can I go again?!" she pleads.
"OOOO! Or maybe I should throw darts! Or cross the spider's ladder! What do you think Narthi?"
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As the crowd becomes more dense Tibitz remains vigilant. At another time and place during his life he would have been looking for things to find and take home to his clan, but today his is just mindful not to become a casualty of the carnival.
"No one evers beats at these games... they are all tricks and traps. To make you spend many silvers. What do you get... nothings. I am master-finder-hidey and I know what these things are. Why do 'umans always throw away their monies?"
The puck barely hops off of the lever following Helvetica's strike. The lion's head, which seemed stuffed and inanimate, suddenly opens his mouth wide and makes a slow, tongue-rolling yawn. "That's not going to cut it," Narthi says. "You've got to feel the power inside and channel it through your arms!"
He looks over at a little girl. "Hey! You! Show us your inner power!" He retrieves the mallet from Helvetica and hands it to the girl. She takes the hammer and totters over to the pole. Encumbered by the bulk, she drops the hammer more than swings it. The puck rises a few feet skyward. The lion animates again and meows.
"Good try! Good try!" he ruffles the little girl's hair. "But that's not going to tame this beast! Maybe one of your friends?"
Meanwhile, Aurora pays a copper to throw a set of darts. She finds that the targets are mounted on swivels with her first throw. The dark merely makes the target turn sideways. Her second throw lodges in the outer ring of a second, and the last simply spins another.
"One hit!" the attendant calls out. "Here's your prize!" He hands you a little, wooden butterfly with painted and simple articulated wings on a stick. If you wave the stick up and down fast enough the wings sort of flap.
Aurora and Tibitz' discussion is momentarily interrupted as a the lion head animates to open his mouth and roar ferociously in response to being struck by the puck.
"Good job!" Nathri says to the Calamitous Zu. "You win a ribbon!" He pulls a blue and red ribbon out of a satchel and hands it to the leshy. The top of the ribbon reads, Winner.
"But we still haven't tamed the wild beast! Come! Take a swing! Release your inner strength and fortitude and become king (or queen) of the carnival!"
"One copper for fried butter! Two coppers if you add warm maple syrup!"
"Archery! Archery! Hunt the White Stag of Stoval!"
"Walk the balance beam! Reach the end and win a prize!"
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"Alright! Thanks, pal!"
Proud of himself, Zu ties/fastens the ribbon to the stem that protrudes from his pumpkin head. Between that and the multicolored puffball riding on his back he is truly a majestic sight - or at least he thinks so.
He wanders over to where Aurora and Tibitz stand at the dart-throwing game. "I won something! It even says so, right on the ribbon. Oh hey, looks like you won something too!"
Zu peers closely at the painted wooden butterfly and gives a thumbs up. "It's even got little flappy wings, huh? Good job!"
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Helvetica gasps when little Zu tames the beast. "The King of the Carnival!" she proclaims. Hoisting the Leshy onto her shoulders she carries him around, singing his praises and commanding all below him to bow to their majesty.
Once Zu's had enough, she wanders over to the balance beam. "I want a prize too! I'll give this a try, watch me!" At this point, her hair is completely free. Standing on end, it sways in an invisible breeze and seems to be trying to help her balance as she braves the beam.
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Aurora starts to demonstrate the flappy-butterfly for Zu when Helvetica carries the leshy off on her shoulders. Before Aurora can give chase, she hears "fried butter..."
"Fried butter and syrup! Where is it? Hey, make way, make way, this is an emergency! A fried butter and syrup emergency!"
Finding the stall, she hands over her two coppers and tucks in.
"It was good, but not that good--" Narthi begins to explain but is soon lost in your quest for ever more interesting stimulus.
Helvetica handily dances across the balance beam, which she notices becomes narrower and beveled the further along she goes (not that this impedes her in anyway). "Wonderfully done! See folks? Nothing to it. See how fast she crossed?" the game attendant calls out. He hands the ganzi a crown wreath of cloth flowers.
Aurora enjoys the warm burst of fats and sugar stimulating her tongue as she bites into the fried butter.
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Helvetica cheers, raising the crown wreath into the air. "Every good Carnival King needs his Carnival Queen!" she declares, crowning herself. "King Zu! My love, what is our first order of royal carnival business? Shall we make peace with the butter stand and its crusty, melted gold, or launch a surprise attack on the dart throwers guild?!" She kneels and takes Zu's hand, looking deeply into the gaps she assumes are his eyes. What if I poke them? What would that even feel like?
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Ever the good pumpkin egg, Zu is happy to go along with Helvetica's antics. He strikes a dramatic pose and points to the butter stand.
"Peace to the citizens of the buttery kingdom! Then - we come for the dart throwers and the archers! Onward, to fun and tasty snacks!"
Boy, I hope all my future teammates are as lively as Helvetica!
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"Huzzah!" Helvetica cheers. Rising, she grabs hold of a pair of invisible reins. "Your will shall be done! Onward to buttery peace!"
Cantering over to Aurora, she leaps onto her back. "We, the Carnival King and Queen demand an offering in the name of peace! What say you, ambassador to the butter stand?! Should your offering prove satisfactory, we shall strike the dart throwers together before their power grows too much!" She points over at Tibitz arguing with the carny over the dart game.
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Aurora is wiping buttery drool from her mouth with her sleeves when Helvetica pounces on her.
"Er, <nom><burp!> Buttery peace is assuredly the best peace of all, O King and Queen! Let no dart-player gainsay us! Butter vendor! Two more sticks for the King and Queen! And plenty of syrup! And another two sticks for me!"
Aurora hands over copper coins for the "offerings" and passes a fried butter stick each to the "King and Queen".
"Now your Highness, I invite you to dismount, lest the scoundrel dart-players escape from this steed of the sea by virtue of their sneaky legs. Let me up upon my own fair mount, and we shall have peace, wholesome and tasty!"
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"Excellent proposition!" Releasing her captive, Helvetica waits for Aurora to mount her horse.
When they arrive, having done her best to "sneak" over, she groans at Tibitz. "Why do you have to be so sensible at a time like this? How are we supposed to invade now?!" in a little bit of a huff, she chomps down on Aurora's offering from the butter stand. Slowly, the folds of her scowl relax into awe.
"This... This is MAGNIFICENT!" she says, eating the whole stick of deep fried butter. "Oh my gods, where has this been my whole life? Carnival King Zu, how come you never get me anything like this?" she inquires, liking what's left of the snack from her hands and fingers. "Which one of the all mighty whatevers do I need to thank for this again, Aurora? The Divine Princess, was it? She's some sort of food goddess or something? Wait, is she the one who rides a pumpkin? That'd be fitting for a food goddess, that's probably right. Well thank the Divine Princess for this meal and freeing me from my pain or something," she says waving her hand around in ambivalence, her mind entirely too focused on other things to be bothered with saying a pray correctly.
A dark-haired man wearing a tri-colored sash at his waist hands the ysoki a stuffed animal that vaguely resembles a cat: it has two eyes, pointed ears, and a tail (it could be a monkey goblin). "Congratulations on your bullseye," he says with what sounds like sincerity. "Try for three in a row and win an even bigger prize!"
After the mermaid-mounting debacle, a barker--who sneaked upon you all without nary a sound--shouts from behind Tibitz, "Find things!? You want to find things? Then come into Lovely Madame Masque's tent and see if you can find that which needs finding! We only need four more participants! Cost of entry is one copper, but the winner takes half of the pot!" He rubs his forefinger and thumb together and grins while gesturing toward a large, brightly colored pavilion.
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"The Divine Princess is indeed the Goddess of Magic and Feasting and a few other things you're probably less interested in. She receives your prayer, Helvetica." Aurora smiles down at the wild woman. "'Feed your pain' is the correct wording, but we don't quibble over the words, it's the feeling that matters. I have no idea about the pumpkin, where did you hear that story?"
Aurora turns to face the barker. "Four, did you say? Well what a coincidence! Since my horse doesn't count so well, I'll leave him outside and the rest of us shall enter.
After you, chief-findy-darty-person!"
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Feed your pain, feed your pain, feed your pain, ok, got it! Helvetica taps her chin while she ponders Aurora's question. "Isn't there that story about a Princess who goes around dancing with Princes until midnight? She rolls around in her pumpkin carriage because of magic! Sounds like a Divine Princess to me..." she grumbles, her cheeks reddening as she feels like she has stumbled through the story but not quite sure what she got wrong.
Then the barker shows up. THANK THE GODS! "Yes! Four right here," she says handing the man four copper pieces. "You can't turn us down now, PLUS we're carnival royalty!" she claims proudly, adjusting the flower wreath on her head and ineffectually batting her hair down. "My King?" she says, taking a knee for Zu to climb up should he wish to.
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"Now, now Tibitz, that's no way to talk!" Aurora scolds the findy-sneaker. "This fried butter is a sacred blessing from the Divine Princess! If you are offered more you should accept it with good grace and feed your pain. Not that you deserve it, with behaviour like that."
To emphasise her point, Aurora bites into the last fried butter-stick, that she had in fact been saving for Tibitz. "Mmmmm. Soooo good." She lets the gooey warm filling drool down her chin before mopping it up with the back of her hand and licking herself clean, with no trace of self-consciousness.
"There will be plenty of time for sneaky-findy things. I daresay you will find an opportunity within this very tent. Now come along! After our King and Queen!" Aurora 'shoos' Tibitz along with a hand gesture as she slides off her horse and ties the steed off to a convenient post. She pets the beast and gives it the back of her hand, to taste the remnants of the butter-stick.
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"Aw, why don't we go try that Madame Masque's Lost-and-Found game or whatever it is, then?" Zu suggests as he gives Tibitz a friendly slap on the arm. "We've already tried something that each of the rest of us wanted to do so it's only fair we go do something that tickles your fancy now. Oh! Maybe it'll be one of those scavenger hunts! Those involve finding all kinds of stuff all over the dang place, you know. It'd be right up your alley!"
The sixteen other participants--all locals from Ilsurian--turn as the tent flaps part and the barker leads you inside. There is a momentary applause followed by an stilted end to such as you are led to your seats and it dawns on the others in the tent that you are not part of some sort of carnival pre-show. Those seated adjacent to you awkwardly divert their attention and pointedly keep their gaze off of you.
Three raised runways meet at a point like an arrow beneath a brightly colored pavilion tent. Where the runways meet sits a tall, rectangular box covered in mirrors. Off to one side is a raised speaker’s podium. Posters on makeshift signs depict an attractive woman in a provocative gown and silver mask, with the words “The Lovely Madame Masque” in bold print.
Having collected the entry fee from each of the participants, the barker moves to the center of the tent and shakes the copper filled coffer with an enticing jingle. Not much money for some, a month's worth for others. "Welcome! Welcome to the Lovely Madame Masque's tent and your opportunity to win half of this evening's pot! The game is so simple, children could play it, but wouldn't you feel bad taking money from children? So we don't allow children to play. But they could! All you need to do is use your eyes! Madame Masque will emerge shortly, and you must try to remember every detail! It should not be difficult for she is truly a beauty to behold. Now, please put your hands together for the one, the only, the lovely, Madame Masque!"
The mirrored cabinet parts along one of its seams. The glitter of shifting form and light in the moving mirrors is momentarily distracting. A lean and fit humanoid woman dressed in a provocative Varisian gown of red and black held together with silk ribbons emerges. She has long, dark hair with a subtle wave to it and wears a featureless silver mask with only two eye holes. She is bedazzled with rings, bracelets, earrings, sashes, flowers, and combs.
The woman slowly makes her way around the circle of chairs, wordlessly interacting with the participants, shaking hands, curtsying and miming a kiss to a woman's hand, shaking her hips to cause a faint jingle as the tiny bells of one of her sashes move, giving a little twirl.
In front of Zu, she stops, puts one hand on her hip and cocks a saucy pose while she taps a finger on her mirrored chin. After a moment, she throws up her hands and makes a dramatic shrug. She claps and bounces a bit in front of Aurora with what seems to be excitement of her own. She crouches down in front of Tibitz, tips her head to the side, and then taps the end of his nose with her index finger. She takes a long look at Helvetica, appears to make a picture frame between them with her hands and then gestures as if to suggest they should trade places.
Once she has finished her circuit, she saunters back into the mirrored cabinet. The doors close. The barker steps back to the center and raises a gold cape. "Now!" he says rapidly as he drops his cape, "Find the one thing that the Lovely Madame Masque wore the first time you saw her!"
The cabinet opens once more and three identically shaped and sized women in featureless silver masks emerge. One wears a yellow and white gown, another wears a green and gold gown, and the last wears a blue and silver gown. They all, at first glance, appear to be wearing completely different accessories. They each take a position equidistant from the center of the tent and assume a different pose. Wordlessly, four burly guards emerge from folds in the pavilion to keep watch over the crowd from the sidelines.
"Come, come," the barker says. "Feel free to take a closer look, move around, change perspective, just don't touch!" As if for emphasis, one of the guards dramatically draws his club and slaps it against his palm. "You have until this candle runs out to make your guesses. You can keep guessing until you get it right. First to guess correctly wins!" He lights a thin, short taper and holds it in the air. "Begin!"
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"Let the sharpest eyes win," Zu whispers to his three friends as he flashes thumbs-up with both viney hands. He thinks back to what Madame Masque was wearing when she paused to have a look at him and then quietly murmurs a few words to sharpen his senses. Once that's done, he joins anyone and everyone else that approaches the three new women in order to have a better look.
Just like hunting, just like looking for the one track, the one snapped branch, to show the way...
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"OH, IT'S ON, PUMPKIN" Helvetica says back to Zu. Ok, ok, ok, ok, I have to follow that smacktalk up with some work, ok, ok, time to look!
Darting up to the three women, she mimics the framing gesture that she was given to each one before inspecting each one closely. Colors are all wrong, so maybe the bracelets? Hrmmm...
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Several of the participants yell out their answers, some seemingly choosing things at random in an effort to get it right by sheer quantity of guesses. However, once Tibitz calls out his answer, the barker steps forward, arms spread wide. "Well spied, my tailed friend! We have a winner! What's your name, friend?" the barker asks.
The three Madame Masques clap their hands sharply in unison, and the ones wearing the yellow gown and the green gown both vanish in a puff of smoke. The woman in the blue dress saunters back to the cabinet, opens the mirrored door, and out steps a similar woman in the original red gown. The two stride back down to the middle and gesture at the embroidered red sash that each wears on their hip. They each remove their sash and hold it out in front of themselves for all to see so that everyone can see that they are, indeed, identical.
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"Aw nerts," Zu sighs, slightly kicking at the dirt in a dejected manner. "Guess my peepers aren't as good as I thought."
But then, as is his wont, Zu quickly perks up again.
"But I'm glad one of us won. Good job, Tibitz!"
The leshy slaps the ysoki on the back in a congratulatory manner.
"I think that means you get all the money or something, right?"
"Congratulations, my good Tibitz of the Graymanes!" the barker says. "You have won--half!--the pot. The remainder goes to the Caravan."
Meanwhile, the two Madame Masques return to the mirrored cabinet, shut the door and that is the last you see of her (or them).
The barker counts out ten copper coins into Tibitz's palm.
"That's all, folks! Madame Masque's one performance per night," the barker says to the stragglers. A few of them cast envious glances at Tibitz' winnings but make their way out of the tent with grumbles that contain wisps of phrases like, "probably rigged," and, "be he works for the carnival."
You make your way back to the midway to review your choices of entertainment. The large tent remains closed and surrounded by tough-looking men carrying clubs. The neatly painted sign in front reads, Jherizhana the Sphinx and the times that she is available, all of which have passed. There is a ragtag fortune teller's tent next to the zoo. Over the zoo, you see a humanoid with what seems like bat wings for ears swooping and circling, entertaining the crowd.
And there are, of course, yet more games and foods to try.
Before you can make up your mind, people in the midway begin screaming and scattering in random directions. Scuttling this way and that is a giant lizard-like beast. It hisses, charges, and snaps at the carnival goers who delay in their flight. The flying humanoid swoops down into the midway, cringing as panicked patrons rush in his direction.
"Please! Don't hurt the baby dragon!" he calls out between dodges and cringes.
Combat! Round 1. Bold may act.
Helvetica
Zu
Lizard (red)
Fuzzmodius
Tibitz
Aurora
Humanoid
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"Zounds! We can't kill it but we can't let it hurt anybody," Zu exclaims. Though he has no idea what he's getting himself into he taps into the aspect of the assassin vine, known for grabbing and entangling their foes.
"Rawr! Time for some dragon wranglin'! Fuzzy, down!"
As Fuzzy obediently clambers off Zu's back and idles in place the leshy cautiously approaches the 'baby dragon'.
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"A dragon?!" Helvetica says in awe. "We have to save it!" she agrees. Then when it is big and strong, it can grant me wishes and I can ride it!
She cautiously walks up with Zu, one of her hands starting to ripple with raw chaotic energy. "When it comes close, I'll try to get to the other side of it!"
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