“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, esteemed dignitaries, and visitors from afar!. I am Enrico Gondolfino, and I welcome you to that most glorious, most incredible, most amazing, most astounding, most thrilling, and most magnificent entertainment ever presented in one spot – The Circus Gondolfino!” He paused as the crowd erupted in cheers. “I have assembled, at great personal expense and no small personal risk, the most talented performers, the most fearsome beasts, the most amazing freaks, and the most entertaining clowns in this or any other Land!“ (More cheers and applause.) “You are about to see feats of daring and agility that have caused the deaths of almost all who have attempted them! You are about to see wild beasts, capable of killing everyone in this tent!” (gasps from the crowd) “You are about to see entertainments that have delighted and amazed Lord Strahd himself!” (oohs and ahhs from the crowd) “For the rest of your days, you will tell your friends, your family, your children and your grandchildren of the day you saw … The Circus Gondolfino!” The band struck up a cheery march, and a pair of women on white horses came cantering into the tent, and began to circle the ring in opposite directions.
A sudden flash of lightning illuminated a grisly tableau. A man and woman held Jane. They may once have been her parents, but their rotting flesh was already revealing the bones beneath. As Jane saw their true features, her cries of joy turned into screams of terror. Behind them, a crowd of animated corpses huddled at the base of the ladder. Three white faces turned to face the party eagerly, their maniacal red grins framing rows of crooked yellow fangs. Floppo, Flatto, and Blotto had come out to play.
At the sight of the hideous clowns, Mary and James were filled with terror, and collapsed into the fetal position. The horde of undead descended on them, apparently intent on tearing them to pieces and devouring them. Luckily the rest of the party appeared at this point. Jerry got off a really good Fireball that took out about half of the undead and seemed to do considerable damage to the clowns. Chuck attempted to Turn, and while the results weren't what he had hoped for, he did manage to chase off three of the four ghasts that were chewing on Mary and James.
For all the hyperbole of Gondofino's introduction, the party found the circus itself quite ordinary. Besides the women acrobats, there were trained dogs, a trained bear, a "high wire" act (that was only 15' off the ground), and some trapeze artists. Everyone was proficient, but not outstanding, although the local crowd was amazed and enthralled.
In the middle of the show, they began setting up a cage in the middle of the tent for a wild animal act. While the roustabouts set up the cage, three clowns came in to entertain: Floppo, Flatto, and Blotto. They had white faces, large red noses, wild multi-colored hair, baggy raggedy clothing, and enormous feet. They pranced around the ring, tripping each other, hitting each other with ladders and hammers as they attempted to “help” the roustabouts, doing pratfalls, spilling imaginary buckets of water on the crowd – all the cliché things clowns are wont to do. Several times one would select a child out of the crowd, and entice him or her into the ring, presumably to help the clown with something. While two of the clowns distracted the child, the other would sneak up behind it, elaborately miming to the crowd to keep quiet. Then it would leap at the child and grab it with a ferocious roar. In every case, the child ran screaming and crying back to its parents while all three clowns rolled on the ground laughing.
The wild animal act was the highlight of the circus. A barechested man in a loincloth entered the cage with a pair of lions. He had them perform a number of tricks, then added two tigers to the mix, and ultimately a black jaguar as well. For the finale, all five cats formed a pyramid and the trainer climbed on top. It was really most extraordinary.
After the big cat show was complete, the roustabouts began to disassemble the cage. As they did, Floppo, Flatto, and Blotto reentered the ring. At their appearance, all the children in the tent began to scream and cry. They put on another act to distract the audience from the roustabouts, although this time they were unable to entice any children out of their seats. This didn't seem to bother them, though. In fact if anything, they seemed to be almost strutting around the ring. They seemed less like clumsy buffoons, and more … well, intimidating. Even the adults seemed to shrink away from them as they passed close.
Soon the show ended, and everyone filed out of the tent. At this point, the party decided to split up. Mary decided to try to find out more about the fate of Jane's parents. Along with Chuck and Jerry, she paid a visit to the House of the Dead. This large stone building was built into the wall surrounding the cemetery, with a heavily barred archway through the building itself being the only entrance to the cemetery. There was a pull chain outside the gate, and Mary gave it a tug. After a few minutes, an iron door in the middle of the passage way slowly opened with a squeal of rusty hinges, and The Undertaker emerged. He was a tall, impossibly thin man dressed in a long black coat with a high collar, and a tall black top hat. His face was very pale, the skin drawn and leathery, and the hair that emerged from beneath his hat was wispy and white.
Mary asked if it was too late to purchase additional rest for someone. "It is never too late," came the reply, sounding as if it were coming from the bottom of a deep well. When asked the cost, he explained, “You can give your friend Eternal Rest for 500 raven-wings. You can give him a century of Rest for 100 raven-wings. You can give him a lifetime of Rest for 50 raven-wings, you can give him a decade of Rest for 20 raven-wings. You can give him a year’s Rest for 10 raven-wings. Or you can give him a week’s Rest for 1 raven-wing.” When Mary asked if someone would want to have rest or not, he simply raised one eyebrow, as if the question had never occurred to him.
Mary then decided to go to the inn and talk to Jane, who had seemed more chipper that morning than she had the day before. That quickly changed as Mary started asking questions about her dead parents and how they had died. When Mary asked the little girl if her dead parents would want more rest, she burst into tears and ran from the room. Questioning Ernst provided no new information, although when asked about the condition of the bodies, he referred them to Constable Muller.
Meanwhile, back at the circus, Phil decided to do a little exploring, accompanied by James and Joe. He started poking around behind the big top, in the area where the circus folk kept their wagons and where the circus acts entered the tent from the rear. He was quickly intercepted by a group of roustabouts with billy clubs who made it clear this area was off-limits. Phil wouldn't take no for an answer, and kept pressing to "just have a look around". James offered his support (Joe was hanging back enjoying the free show), and the roustabouts were just about to rough up this old man and his "nancy-boy friend" when Gondolfino appeared. He quickly stepped in to calm things down, giving Phil and James free tickets to the show and offering to let them come back in a couple of days to watch them tear down and pack up the circus. The confrontation was avoided (although I suspect both sides wished it hadn't).
The group eventually all met up back at the inn, and decided to have a talk with Constable Muller. He was across the street, keeping an eye on the men's guesthouse, and was happy to talk to the party. He had no explanation for Jane's parents death - "Tain't natural" was how he put it. There were no marks or obvious signs of injury or disease on the bodies. The party asked where they had lived, and he gave them directions to a small house in the northeast part of town. The house was little more than a shack, although clean and well maintained. It had two rooms: a main room that served as living room, kitchen, cobbler workshop, and Jane's bedroom, and a small room separated by a curtain that had been the parents' bedroom. The only door to the house had obviously been broken in (Constable Muller had broken it down after neighbors heard Jane screaming inside), but nothing else looked out of place.
As the sunset bell began to ring, the party decided to split up. Most of the party decided to spend the night in Jane's former home, thinking that whoever killed her parents (or the parents themselves) might return. Mary and James returned to the inn, taking one of Ice's portable radios with them so the two groups could stay in touch. The drizzle of the day had now turned into a steady rain, and thunder rumbled in the distance.
Around midnight, James and Mary heard screams from downstairs. Rushing down to investigate, they found Ernst holding Mama back while also trying to close the front door of the inn, which was standing wide open. “It’s Jane!” Mama screamed “The child! She took the key from the nightstand and went out into the night! She said her parents had come back for her!”
Ignoring Ernst's warnings to stay inside, Mary and James rushed out into the rain, summoning the rest of the party by radio. They could hear a child's voice calling “Mommy! Daddy! Here I am!” from the direction of the cemetery. A flash of lighting revealed Jane running around the corner of the ominous stone building. Mary and James followed.
As they rounded the corner, they saw Jane rushing towards a pair of figures standing in the rain beside the cemetery wall. About ten yards behind them, a ladder was propped up against the cemetery wall and a group of shadowy figures were clustered around its base. “Mommy! Daddy!” Jane cried in delight, and threw herself into the couple’s arms.
The battle was on. The clowns did not succeed in instilling fear in any of the rest of the party (beginning a pattern of excellent saving throws for the party and terrible rolls by the DM that continued throughout the rest of the night). A pattern of waving colored lights appeared in the air, and Phil and Jerry were transfixed by them. That left only Joe, Chuck, and Ice to fight off the half-horde of remaining undead, who were quickly joined by a half-dozen or so roustabouts wielding short swords. Luckily, the party was fully equipped with Stoneskins, which warded off most of the initial damage. Mary quickly regained her composure, but found herself getting pinned between undead that Chuck was turning (they'd move away from him, and find her in their path) and previously turned undead that seemed to be getting "un-turned" and found her as their first target as they returned to the fight.
Ice activated the Ring of Blinking that he'd gotten from Merlin's cave for the first time, and found that it made it impossible for him to use his sword. But that was fine with him, since he also had his Glock. With most of the enemies unable to get a fix on him, he began using his pistol to good effect. After taking a few well-placed hits from him, the clowns simply disappeared from the battlefield, and Ice redirected his fire to the big cats. More hypnotic-type spells kept going off from some unseen source, but the party's excellent saving throws kept them from being affected.
Jerry and Phil shook off their trance after a few rounds, but almost immediately found themselves under attack from the lions and tigers from the circus. Jerry managed to cast a Haste spell, on the party, which increased their rate of fire dramatically. James also finally wiped away his tears and was able to join the attack. Joe meanwhile was slicing through undead like a hot knife through butter (he'd attempted to use his own pistol at the start of the battle, only to find that its clip was mysteriously empty).
By the time the evening ended, the undead had been pretty well whittled down, as had the roustabouts. Only one lion was left alive. Something or someone was still casting spells, and something kept hitting the party with needle-like pricks (to no effect). And the clowns were unaccounted for.
No comments:
Post a Comment