Fletching and Moondrop Traveling Carnival of Curiosities

The Fletching and Moondrop Traveling Carnival of Curiosities was a traveling carnival formed in Shadycreek Run by Gustav Fletching and Desmond Moondrop. It made its final stop in the town of Trostenwald in 835 PD, where the carnival became the site of a ravenous husk zombie attack caused by Kylre. This incident led to an investigation by the Crownsguards and the eventual disbanding of the carnival.

Description
The Fletching and Moondrop Traveling Carnival of Curiosities was a traveling carnival that operated in Wildemount. The fee to see Trostenwald performance was 5 copper pieces per person. Shows had two rules: no old or sick people were allowed inside the performance tent; spectators were not permitted weapons.

Show tent
The main tent was circular, made of heavy dark blue cloth and had lengthy streamers of white and silver attached to the top. It was held up by a wooden center column with a small platform set into the apex. The liminal space, where the cloth meets the ground, was encased in a heavy tarp-like material. The tent had two entrances, a patron's entrance and a larger performer's entrance on the opposite side. Patrons are sitted on a semicircle platform of seats separated into three sections. The four lanterns filled with magical flame lit the interior of the tent.

Performer's common area
The performance entrance of the main tent leads to a number of small tents and carts that were arranged around a small central common area with chairs and a large campfire. On the northern side, a medium-sized tent housed Desmond and occasionally Gustav, as well as a sizable tent where the Knot Sisters and Ornna slept, which was the largest among the carnival tents. On the southern side, a tent was set for Toya and Kylre, and a relatively small tent for Bo. Gustav sometimes slept in the main wagon.

Members

 * Gustav Fletching, carnival master. He was arrested, imprisoned, and fined after the attack in Trostenwald.
 * Desmond Moondrop, the Fool. After the trial in Trostenwald, he set out on his own.
 * Bosun, Bo the Breaker. He, Ornna, and Toya left Trostenwald together to form a new show after the trial.
 * Kylre, the Devil Toad. His act involved acting violent and then soothed by Toya's song.
 * Mollymauk Tealeaf, the Ice Spinner. He worked as a barker and assisted in set-up. He also juggled scimitars and read fortunes, though he did not have an act in the show. After the trial, the joined the Mighty Nein.
 * Mona and Yuli, the Knot Sisters. They performed an acrobatic act climbing the center tent pole; the act referenced Uk'otoa. When two Crownsguard in the camp were turned, they fled and were not seen afterward.
 * Ornna, the Fire Fairy. She, Bosun, and Toya left Trostenwald together to form a new show after the trial.
 * Toya, the Vivid Voice. Her act involved singing from the platform atop the tent pole to "soothe" Kylre. She, Ornna, and Bosun left Trostenwald together to form a new show after the trial.
 * Yasha Nydoorin, the Brute. She worked as security guard. After the trial, Yasha joined the Mighty Nein.

Before Campaign 2
The carnival began small, in Shady Creek Run. At a time when the Carnival was not doing well, the devil toad Kylre offered Gustav a deal, where Kylre could make the carnival "something great", but Gustav would have to bring him people to eat. Gustav wasn't willing to give him just anyone, but did offer to bring the elderly and infirm after each show.

Campaign 2: The Mighty Nein
In 835 PD, the carnival had set up in Trostenwald, east of the Loch Ward, around 150-200 feet from the southern bank of the Ustaloch, where they also had spent a week performing a year prior. The show was scheduled on the day of Grissen. The carnival employed Mollymauk Tealeaf and Yasha among others, with Molly as an entertainer and Yasha as a security guard. The fee to enter the tent and see the show was set at 5 copper pieces per person with exception to elderly and infirm individuals who were not allowed inside the performance tent.

The troupe performed a tale narrated by Gustav Fletching. Two fey sisters, formless and lost in the mazes of the underworld. There, where the body would break, they found a teacher in a mystical serpent, and the gift they received was the ability to bend with this maze that captured them and slither their way back to the surface. The fey sisters were performed by halfling sisters Mona and Yuli dressed in full bodysuits, wearing serpentine makeup, affixed with scales to their face and arms. Approaching the central pole, one leapt onto the shoulders of the other and they began to shift as one form to the music of the violin played by Desmond Moondrop. Suddenly, the top halfling slammed into the ground and the two begin to tangle and wrap like two battling snakes, as they intertwine around the base of this pole and telling the tale of struggle. The lights above begin to become a dull greenish-blue, and get darker, representing the imagery of the underworld. Using their serpentine-like forms as an extending ladder, they pulled themselves upward along the pole, climbing to the surface, as the lights begin to glow brighter. As they appeared at the top platform at the end of the pole, the audience erupted in applause.

Gustav continued his narration: "In a flash, beyond the ash, the gods all went and gone. The darkness came to grasp, reclaim, and suffocate the dawn." Ornna with a pair of metallic fans, alight with flame enters the tent. "But from that night, a burning light doth keep back shadows' bane. The strength to fight will set alight the morning sun again." She began to spin and dance to the accompaniment of Desmond's fiddle, waving the fans, which gave her the visage of a warrior-goddess battling the darkness around her. As Ornna ended her performance, a low drumbeat started to echo in the air and the tense fiddle grew in the distance once more. "Even as the sun would rise anew, bellowing roars will quake the lands of Xhorhas and beyond. Terrible beasts, now freed from their dark masters, scattered into our world." Kylre, struggling against his chains, entered the tent by Bosun and let out terrifying series of roars that scared the front row: children cried in response and couple of people prepared to run. "The devil-toad crawls hungrily into the land of the free folk, lording over nightmares as they say, and what truth lies behind the eyes of this beast? What would be learned when the guiding heart of innocence pierces the hateful soul and brings it to see beauty for the first time? I present to you the vivid voice of Toya." Standing on the platform atop the central pole, she begins to sing that spreads joy among the frightened audience.

An elderly spectator became transfixed by the singing. As he stretched his arm to reach out in her direction, he was transformed by Kylre into a husk zombie. Zombie attacked a young woman nearby slamming to her chest and ripping off a piece of her flesh, who then rose as another husk zombie. Before they could bite other attendees, the party was able to kill the both zombies and Caleb carved off and stored a piece of woman zombie's corpse. Hearing the comotions, a Crownsguard appeared just after the zombies were dealt with and took into custody Bosun, Gustav Fletching, and Mollymauk suspecting that they caused it.

The Mighty Nein took one of the carnivals horses, a mustang Fjord nicknamed Shelby to reach the banks of the Ustaloch, dumping the burnt corpses of the pair of turned Crownsguard and sending the horse off on its own. After the carnival disbanded, the Nein took the carnival's horse named Winter's Crest to pull their cart as they traveled north; the horse was later nicknamed WC, then renamed Water Closet.

Behind the scenes
The three creatures represented in the carnival's performance were Uk'otoa (Mona and Yuli), Desirat (Ornna), and Quajath (Kylre).