Session 70: DAN's Intoxicated Carnival

General Summary

Carnival Games

The session began with you all standing outside a large circus tent in this traveling carnival. A pale, curly-haired woman with a pistol and a microphone was singing a sad song, a one-eyed murid was tending to animals in a pasture, unicyclists, clowns and so forth were running about, and the sound of just general happiness could be heard scattered everywhere.
Upon entering the large circus tent, you saw that there was a stage set up for a trapeze performance, and the ropes were swinging as if there was something happening, but there was nobody performing. Ghosts, probably, and a Spirit of Contentment was also chilling at the center of this stage. An audience filled the stands and clapped now and then. You were able to see the familiar face of DAN speaking with Steve and juggling in the distance, and a target shooting game. A white halfling with black horns, black lips and a black tail was blindfolded and throwing knives at the target. He always hit the center.

"Only once, north of Voldtaren, did he miss. She'd never let him forget it."

From him you learned of tickets and prizes, and ALT tried to beat him at throwing knives, but his mystical, drunken abilities seemed a bit too accurate for the lil robot. You inspected the prize shelves and a plan was set in motion to play games for six hours straight to get a cool-sounding "Ringleader's Whip". Gila's Tail also took some time to speak with a nearby doctor by the name of Dr. Bliss. The doctor seemed a bit confused by the questions, but was able to explain that life is boring if not free. He grew defensive when Gila's Tail asked about the previous ringmaster, and he stumbled over an explanation that she "settled down and found a different life."

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The games went on for about an hour and a half before they started to get tiresome. Hysteria chose to find some tickets to steal instead of play anymore games, Lost started a betting ring scam, and Bobcat got some additional tickets from a challenge of strength against a big strong guy. The new efforts cut all the six hours of gaming down to just this hour and a half, and a strange event began around this time as well. Gila's Tail and Lost were near the pasture when Gila's Tail suddenly started to see everyone around him as a white tiefling with black lips, black horns and a black tail. This change in perspective came with a strange need to kill this tiefling as well.
It wasn't just him. All the audience members watching the singer started to stab each other as well, and the brawl that broke out amongst everyone resulted in the deaths of many commonfolk. The singer went inside shortly after to get on stage, and Dr Bliss emerged to calm GIla's Tail down, but they didn't seem to care about all the death. In an effort to get more tickets, you also looted the dead bodies of these commoners. Gila's Tail confronted Dr. Bliss about this, demanding to know what is going on, but he insisted on not worrying about it. However, he did offer Gila's Tail some...suspicious drugs which he rejected.
Meanwhile, tickets needed to be spent, and you ended up with enough tickets to buy a Ringleader's Whip, a signed painting of Lady Ivory, some swirly glasses, and a fake mustache. With your items collected, it was just about time to start fighting, but first a confrontation with Poodle Murphy was had.

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Silenced Despair

"Her voice was like spun sugar, and it wrapped me in a song of regret and vengeful wishes. A bit of whiskey and a gun is all she could ever want or need."

With Gila's Tail broken free of this madness, he had Dr. Bliss take him and whoever else over to the tiefling from his visions. Meanwhile, ALT approached Poodle, the singer, and tried to get her attention. They felt the song trying to take over their mind, but they were able to resist the influence. The song stopped, and she turned towards ALT with red eyes and tears rolling down her cheeks. ALT asked her if she wanted to kill that tiefling guy, and she paused for a moment before confirming that that is what she sings about. She was confused, and admitted that there's nothing she can do about it, and that she doesn't want to sing something else. ALT finally asked why it is that she wants to kill this person...
Meanwhile, Gila's Tail was interrogating Funeral Wells and trying to get a straight answer. This tiefling didn't seem to understand what he was talking about, and wasn't sure why anyone would possibly look like him. This confused rambling was cut short as, in the other room, Poodle answered ALT's question.
"How would you feel if a coworker, someone you were meant to love like family, killed the one sister you had? There was a night, the one night he missed...there was so much blood, and she was spinning, and it was going everywhere and he just...laughed. He teetered to the front of the stage as she kept spinning."

---

Poodle went back to the stage, started singing, and you went back to Funeral Wells for some more questions. On the way over, Gila's Tail used some special magic to make the stage completely silent. ALT asked Gila's Tail to make this knife thrower a bit less drunk, but, as he approached him, he was interrupted by the sound of a pistol's hammer being pulled back. Gila's Tail was in the midst of treating this guy when the sound of a gunshot was heard. Gila's Tail was hit, and she demanded to know why he would silence her.
She began to sing again as ALT tried to tell her to not shoot her guests. You all felt something trying to invade your minds, trying to push your "self" out of you and replace it with her "self". Hysteria was the only one to succumb to this as memories of this singer's past filled their mind, they felt her anger, vengeance, and they effectively became her until the effect was removed. Their current mental state became apparent as they lunged towards Funeral Wells, and, at the same time, Lost tried to calm them down.
Hysteria stabbed into the tiefling, Lost's magic managed to calm them, and Hysteria's blade miraculously missed their target. The other carnies were arriving at this point, and they attempted to ascertain what was going on. Poodle was stunned and a tattoo artist, Molly, was tending to her. ALT tried to get everyone to apologize, and Funeral insisted that he apologized the very night it happened. Gila's Tail tried to get him to sober up, but he again did not want to sober up as the memories were too intense. Gila continued his confrontation, motivationally demanding that Funeral face his demons, don't hide from the memories and to sober up and do better.
"The thing is...when you hurt someone, when someone you love as much as I loved her dies because of what you did, well... it's just so hard."

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Medicine, Music and Memories

As the emotional confrontation began to calm down strangely quickly, Poodle was back on stage and some of you approached DAN and Steve as they made their way through the carnival. They wanted to get some information outta them, but the two were rather keen on continuing their work and kept saying something about how "snitches get stitches". ALT let them continue their work after the awkward encounter, and Lost approached with hopes of juggling with them for a little bit.
Meanwhile, ALT, Hysteria and Bobcat were lining up attacks against a nearby spirit of Contentment. DAN, as this spirit was hit, received a strange flash of reality. The world was black and white for a split second, they saw visions of the Mothlights, split up words of the mission they're on, and then it was back to normal at the carnival. The spirit was vanquished with surprising quickness, and attentions were turned towards the further spirit while the carnies started to make their turns as well.
DAN, outside the tent, began to see more pieces of reality, another flash of black and white, and then they remembered everything. They knew why they were here, they knew that this is just a vision created in some horrible monster, and they knew that this Steve must not be real. Steve was looking at DAN as if he too was gaining some conscious awareness of what is going on. Something that had yet to be seen in any of these rooms, this person was aware of the situation, and they spoke to DAN with knowledge that DAN likely would not have had access to.
"That damn Calliope…I hear it everywhere. She’s still playing it, y’know? Lady Ivory, The Queen of the Keys,*He waves his hands in the air dramatically* but she’s gone…she left and I’ll never see her again.”
DAN responded, "Yep. Yeah... but the memory of her still remains, man." Steve sighed again, "That's the problem."

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ALT turned towards Hysteria and asked if it would be okay if they shot a random person. Hysteria signed "You first.", and ALT took a shot at Dr. Bliss. The doctor responded to this onslaught of attacks from the tiny robot with a rather casual, "Hey! No rough housing!"
As DAN was freed, Gila's Tail would fade. Bobcat lost his last gang member and Gila's Tail had a message as he left, "Boss! Just don't die, man. Just don't die."
Combat continued with all the carnies getting involved at this point. The effects of Poodle's song weren't felt unless you got on stage, but she would shoot anyone that she felt wronged her. Because of this, Bobcat collapsed unconscious from one of her attacks, and each time he tried to get back up something else would be there to get him down again. It was an unfortunate position which Lost and Hysteria tried to help him out of, and their intervention led to them also being targets from Funeral Wells's knives. One-eyed Myra, the murid with all the animals, would cause a new creature to appear each turn. She had a masterful control over them with a combination of punishments and treats.

Dr. Blissard would try to use his strange experiments on you all, but he was mostly unsuccessful aside from a rather beneficial poison that helped Lost. Molly Hoey, meanwhile, was giving people tattoos. They only ever did beneficial things from what was seen, but they hurt like hell and nearly knocked Hysteria out.

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Each round, Steve would say something to DAN as well.
Steve: "Ugh, there’s a lot of flings, a lot of guests and fans, but there was only one Ivory. I loved her… and, well, she said she loved me too. Doctor said she ran off with another guy though, settled down somewhere, y’know? Ugh. I don’t remember much after that, but I do know I was depressed and only getting worse. Be careful, DAN. We’re a lot alike, as I’m sure you know, but just remember that a journey built on obsession only leads in one direction."
DAN: "You don't have to tell me twice. There is obsession, and then there's trying to get things where they belong. I will get you back."
Steve: "I’m sure you will…maybe you already have. Come with me. You can join me here. We’ll be together again at the center of it all, and maybe we can fight our way out with your help. I’m…I’m so scared, DAN.”
DAN: "It's gonna be a little bit longer, but this place that we're currently at is not...it's not the right place. Don't worry, we will find you."
Steve: "But you could just find me now."
DAN: "No, this is not you."

Steve: “Oh, sure it is. I'm realer than nothing, anyways. Here’s the thing, DAN. I know you think that this is a dream, but when were you told this? I am the Steve that you’ve been looking for, dragged into this situation by forces outside of anyone’s control. Am I physically here? Probably not, but just think back to what that lady said to you. The Darkness outside is trying to get inside Tympi, trying to pull what’s inside her out into the world…couldn’t something else have been pulled in here? I can take you with me, before things become awful here. Before you friends start to ruin everything. Let’s just leave.”
DAN: "I would definitely like that. The only thing is, if we can't bring these guys with us to stop, that it's not gonna work out so great because we're gonna keep doin this. So unless you plan on stopping all of them at the same time, we're just gonna have to stop this dream. If this is about us being connected, and this is really you, we need to get to you so we can turn back the bond. Before that time comes, we're on our way to find you. This connection- it's not the connection we need to be back together man, you know this. It's very nice talking to you though, and that you're doing alright, comparatively speaking."
Steve: "I see, you’re really committed to something then? More committed to it than you are to me? In that case, I’ll just come with you."

---

Combat continued, Dr. Bliss died, another spirit appeared as ALT predicted. The calliope stopped playing, everything seemed to grow kinda ominous, and we'll be picking back up with whatever happens next.

In-game Date:
Daulok 26, 308

Report Date

01 May 2023

Primary Location

Howdigo

Secondary Location

DAN's Carnival

Related Plots

• A Broken Cycle
• Unanswered Questions