Lost Things

The party rode together to Madrick’s pumpkin farm and got their first look at one another on the road. Omar kept moving and talking in bright jester clothes. Gren filled the wagon ride with music on mandolin and banjo. Vogon clanked, hissed, and shifted form without trying to seem ordinary. June stayed quiet and watched the others.

At the farm, giant pumpkins glowed in the dusk and pixies circled the porch. Madrick told them each had lost something at the Witchlight Carnival years ago and said those losses tied them together. He explained that Zybilna had gone silent in Prismeer and that the carnival was the way back into the realm.

Over pumpkin tea, Madrick told them more about Mr. Witch, Mr. Light, and the carnival that appeared only once every eight years. Omar angled for payment and came away with a toy prize. Gren kept the conversation easy. Vogon treated his own shapeshifting as normal. June listened for the hidden cost in everything Madrick said.

Madrick gave them a scorched fey map and sent them on. They rode toward the Witchlight Carnival and saw its lights, music, performers, and drifting bubbles ahead of them.

The party reached the Witchlight Carnival and entered through a riot of lights, music, paper wings, and wish-laden dandelions. Vogon accidentally swallowed a magical seed on the way in.

Inside, the group volunteered for a mind-reading act. Maddox was in familiar territory, and June, Gren, Vogon, and Omar all took part in the performance. After that they moved through the grounds, rode attractions, and tried carnival games.

At Lost Property they met Dirlagraun and learned his cub, Star, had gone missing. June spotted a blue-skinned girl in a pig mask slipping through the crowd. The party also saw enough odd details around the carnival to start treating the place as more than a fairground.

They finished at the Hall of Illusions with several loose problems hanging over them: the missing cub, the pig-masked girl, a ruined proposal, strange laughter magic, and Maddox’s vanished former partner.

The party tracked down Kettlestream, who had stolen Candlefoot’s voice, disrupted Palasha’s show, and caused trouble around the dragonfly rides. Once cornered, Kettlestream said she was trying to force Witch and Light to admit something had gone wrong with Zybilna.

The group got Candlefoot’s voice back and watched him hurry off to find Palasha. They left Kettlestream in safer hands and came away with a warning that the Hourglass Coven had touched the carnival and that Witch and Light were hiding part of the truth.

After that they returned to the Hall of Illusions. The mirrors showed Maddox as a soot-covered child, Omar as a younger version of himself, Vogon something tied to his strange origins, and Gren the rigid world he came from. June stayed outside rather than look.

From there they headed toward the Big Top with more reason to press Witch and Light for answers.

Under the Big Top, the party joined the performance run by Mr. Witch and Mr. Light. Gren worked subversive notes into his music. Maddox performed a card trick for a crowd that included Warduke. Vogon took to the air and joined the show in his own way.

While moving through the carnival, they met Ween and learned what had happened to Reuben. He had followed Sowpig through a mirror in the Hall of Illusions and vanished.

The party then entered the snail races and turned them into chaos with lassos, caltrops, blocks, and every other dirty trick they could manage. Vogon won the race and claimed the prize.

They finished with the carnival spirits higher and with stronger reason to focus on Reuben, the Hall of Illusions, and Mr. Witch’s watch.

The party moved through the last parts of the carnival. They rode the mine through visions of their fears, went through the Pixie Kingdom and the Bubble-Pop Teapot, and kept pushing the carnival’s mood upward until Witch and Light could not ignore them.

On the carousel, the wooden unicorns spoke to the party about what each of them had lost. Maddox’s missing partner, June’s stolen name, Gren’s fiddle, Omar’s marbles, and Vogon’s missing piece had all ended up in Prismeer.

Candlefoot added to that with his parable of the lantern. Between that tale and the carousel’s verse about clocks, lights, and time, the party had enough pieces to treat the way into Prismeer as a puzzle hidden inside the carnival.

They got into the staff area and sat down with Mr. Witch and Mr. Light. The owners admitted they had also lost contact with Zybilna and that the old bargain with the coven still hung over the carnival. The conversation ended before they could say everything, and the party left focusing on the Hall of Illusions as the likely way through.

The party stopped waiting for answers and went into Witch and Light’s wagon. Omar handled the public distraction and ended up in the Witchlight Monarch ceremony while June and Maddox searched the wagon with Vogon watching from above. Inside they found evidence of the owners’ habits, old grievances, and a photograph of two children from a bleak colorless world.

When they confronted Mr. Light with the photograph, he admitted more of the truth. He and Mr. Witch were bound to the carnival and to Prismeer more deeply than they had said.

At the same time, Omar was crowned Witchlight Monarch as the carnival’s joy peaked. With the fair at its happiest, Witch and Light chose to trust the party instead of deflecting them again.

Mr. Witch warned them to mind the rule of three. Mr. Light told them to find the alicorn and free the Queen. Then the party passed through the mirror and emerged above a swampland on a crumbling causeway in Prismeer.

The party arrived in Hither on a broken causeway above black water and fog. They worked their way down, camped beneath the archway, and learned quickly that the place did not follow familiar rules. The sun stayed fixed, shadows moved strangely, and the tide rose like the swamp was breathing.

They headed for a crashed balloon at Slanty Tower. After getting past the tower’s snake guardians, they climbed to the top and found Sir Talavar trapped in a silver cage beside the body of the creature that had tried to help him. Talavar told them the Hourglass Coven had seized Prismeer and split Zybilna’s realm among themselves.

To free him, the party had to go farther through Hither to find the right key. Rabbit brigands tried to rob them of a memory. Gren talked them past worse trouble with a murder ballad. The trail led them to Jingle Jangle, a goblin obsessed with keys who lived in a cave shaped like a lock.

Jingle Jangle gave them the key Talavar needed and pointed them toward Downfall, Agdon Longscarf, and a scarecrow named Clapperclaw. June also received a mysterious iron key from the trees.

The party returned to Slanty Tower and freed Sir Talavar from his silver cage. Once loose, he explained how Prismeer had been divided. Bavlorna ruled Hither, Granny Nightshade ruled Thither, Endelyn ruled Yon, and Zybilna was still the rightful ruler beneath all of it. He also gave June the Blade of the Summer Queen, which immediately caused him to shrink.

They pushed deeper into the flooded country after that. When the swamp became too difficult to cross, Vogon turned himself into an alligator-shaped raft and carried the others. On the way they ran into an underwater battlefield where two animated suits of elven armor were still fighting an old war.

The party got through the fight, with Maddox helping turn it through trickery instead of force. They eventually reached the Inn at the End of the Road, a walking inn full of strange guests.

At the inn, Talavar explained the Feywild rules of reciprocity, hospitality, and ownership. The party came away with clearer directions toward Clapperclaw and Downfall and with more certainty about what had happened to Zybilna.

At the inn, June received a charm from a pair of unsettling twins. Omar and Maddox spent time with Rivelo and came away with magical gifts.

Instead of going straight after Agdon, the party detoured to the lake and found Eldin, who raved about a serpent in the depths corrupting everything he loved. They pushed past the ranting and found the serpent itself.

Out on the water, the fight turned into a rescue. The party closed in on the creature in skiffs armed with harpoons and discovered the black patches on its body were giant leeches. They cut the parasites loose while lesser spawn attacked the boats, brought Eldin back into the fight when things worsened, and calmed the serpent instead of killing it.

The serpent’s release ended in a wave that knocked the group unconscious. Eldin vanished, leaving a ring behind. The party woke with new items and moved on with a better sense of how Hither’s problems actually worked.

On Brigands’ Tollway, the party finally dealt with Agdon Longscarf on his own ground. They turned the encounter into a contest instead of a straight fight. Vogon became the tortoise in a literal race against the hare, and Maddox found the moment to drop Agdon with magic. Agdon ended up giving over directions and stolen goods.

After that, the party traded with stilt walkers in the swamp and gathered water from a strange stream. Each of them saw different visions reflected there, including battles, crowns, shadows, and signs tied to Hither’s rulers.

They reached Downfall and found it muddy, ceremonial, cruel, and absurd. Clapperclaw was there among the heads of dead bullywug kings, and Maddox learned the scarecrow would not guide them onward until his stolen stag skull was recovered.

King Gullop took notice of them almost immediately. When Gren tried to leave without following the proper performance etiquette, he was arrested.

The party took stock of Downfall, Clapperclaw’s missing skull, Bavlorna’s cottage, and the miserable bullywug politics around King Gullop. They also examined Bavlorna’s book of grievances and learned she kept careful track of every slight.

Omar received a summons from Illig, Baron of Muckstump. Before dealing with that, the party turned south and got pulled into a fight with hostile sprites in a dead white tree and the tree blight they served.

Maddox soaked the blight in oil, June ignited it with a torch-fired arrow, Vogon’s moonbeam tore into it, and Omar pulled Maddox back after the thing nearly crushed him. Wild magic made the fight worse for the blight, and the surviving sprites scattered when it finally burned down.

After that the party met Octavian Meliom beneath a toadstool. He told them Bavlorna had stolen his heart and left him numb in the bargain.

Illig’s revolution in Downfall was loud, theatrical, and not much different from the rule it was replacing. Omar and Gren tried to push the talk toward elections and something better than another king chosen by murder. Maddox quietly rigged the ceremonial gift crate meant for Bavlorna so it could cause trouble later.

Illig stabbed King Gullop in the eye, sent him into the water, and pushed through a fast vote to declare himself legitimate before anyone could stop him. One bullywug tyrant replaced another.

After that, Omar got swallowed by a giant toad in one of the huts while the others argued with its keeper and worked to get him back out. Vogon also kept spotting small bug-eyed watchers around Downfall that scattered whenever he approached.

The party then turned back to the real objective and climbed the slick stairs into Bavlorna’s cottage. They entered its first foul rooms and heard laughter and movement deeper inside.

Inside Bavlorna’s cottage, the party searched through filthy rooms full of shallow pools, dishes, taxidermy, half-finished clothes, and clutter. The whole house felt half alive.

The deeper they went, the stranger it got. A mirrored passage shrank them almost to toy size before returning them to normal. A cupboard of stolen objects yielded the phrase “spittle spew.” The distillery upstairs looked ready to explode if handled wrong. June found routes the others could only use when he was small, and Vogon left his raven behind in the brewery while the group spread through the upper floors.

Their search eventually brought them to Bavlorna herself. She was taking tea with a black-clad guest named Charm and surrounded by lornlings. Maddox stepped forward with the recovered book.

Bavlorna turned her attention fully to the party and asked what desperation had brought them into her house.

The audience with Bavlorna started badly when Maddox handed the recovered book to Charm by mistake, thinking the black-clad guest was the hag. Bavlorna took over the room and turned the conversation into a list of obligations.

While the others dealt with her, June was still mouse-sized and dealing with trouble of his own. The distillery explosion sent Glom, Bavlorna’s stitched-together cat creature, into motion, and June had to change shape and flee through the walls to stay out of its reach.

Bavlorna offered three chores in exchange for Vogon’s stolen energon cube. The party handled the first two, with Vogon retrieving the book and moving the crate where she wanted it. The third sent them down into the clogged pool to deal with whatever was blocking the pipe.

In the middle of that mess, Omar and Maddox recovered the glowing cube and forced it back into Vogon’s chest. Vogon woke restored, swore freely for the first time, and reclaimed more of himself.

The party finished their business in Bavlorna’s cottage the hard way. Maddox leaned on deception while the others searched upstairs rooms, handled lurking dangers, and worked through the last of the hag’s clutter. They came away with strange items including spell scrolls, potions, a marionette, and a signed ticket.

The most important thing they found was Octavian’s stolen heart. Getting it out cost them more hazards and fights, including wasps, lornlings, and a scramble through Bavlorna’s upper floors while June and Gren searched room by room.

Once outside, they tied off several loose ends quickly. Octavian got his heart back and gave Gren a set of pipes in return. They also returned the stag skull to Clapperclaw, which meant the scarecrow could finally guide them as promised.

Morgort brought them to the balloon, Mushy handled the departure, and the party left Hither carrying new tools and one major victory.

The party’s escape from Hither almost failed immediately. With Morgort piloting the balloon and Clapperclaw aboard, they rose out of Bavlorna’s domain and were hit by an air elemental. Maddox nearly went over the side, Vogon kept the balloon together, Omar drove the burner hard, and Gren’s music helped steady everyone until they broke clear.

They landed in Thither, where swamp gave way to tall trees and warm light. The dark mark on the back of June’s neck had followed him from Bavlorna’s house, and the forest reacted to it.

Their first ally there was Nibs the Miser, a cursed old man who spun gold into gifts as penance for a greedy life. The party treated him with the proper respect and each received something in return. Maddox got a bag of holding. June got gloves suited to stealth and theft. Gren claimed a bard’s weapon. Omar walked away with a Feywild outfit.

Nibs pointed them toward Will of the Feywild, the Getaway Gang, and Little Oak, and put Skabatha Nightshade’s workshop at the center of the next part of the path.

On the road through Thither, the party found Alabaster, a clockwork rabbit courier hanging in a snare while a group of unsettling children below tried to bait them into violence. Vogon and the others freed the courier cleanly. Maddox and Omar kept the children from turning the situation worse.

The party kept moving until they reached Little Oak and met Will of the Feywild, Sloane, Bobby, Zenner, and Star. The place was a refuge for escaped children hiding from Skabatha and trying to free the rest.

Will laid out his rescue plan for Loom Lurch. The party would pose as travelers in the goblin market and secure a meeting with Granny Nightshade while Will and the Getaway Gang slipped in from another side to free children from the workshop and mill. They also traded everything they knew about Skabatha, the boggles, the kitchen cages, and the Wayward Pool.

When the party shouted for Jaggerbad, an iron dragon carrying a tavern on its back descended out of the sky and opened its doors to them.

At Jaggerbad’s Sky House, the party met Eliwick Tumblestrom, traded stories, and watched Gren push into a near-draw against a famous bard. Omar and June made the performance even more theatrical.

June got pulled into a heist after receiving a coded message. He slipped into Professor Whittlegrin’s room through disguises, traps, a rival thief, and a shower of glitter, and came away with a Sky House Skeleton Key.

As the party moved through the Sky House, their missing memories snagged harder. June realized how many names had vanished from his past. Maddox found the beginning of his life with his partner missing. Gren could no longer place where his prized fiddle came from. Omar had no clear memory of losing his marbles. Vogon’s records had been quietly corrupted.

At the Wayward Pool, dressed in unicorn disguises, they met Lamorna and learned that Zybilna had been usurped and imprisoned with Eladon’s horn. Lamorna pointed them toward Yon, Amador, and the Palace of Heart’s Desire. Zarok attacked from hiding, failed to bring Lamorna down, and fled.

After Zarok attacked Lamorna and failed, the party pressed him for information. They heard names like Kelek and Warduke, learned more about the League operating behind the scenes, and got a clearer sense of how the stolen unicorn horn and Zybilna’s imprisonment fit into a larger scheme.

With that, they followed Mushy through a ring of mushrooms and stepped onto a twilight island covered in enormous poppies. The flowers started putting people to sleep as soon as they got close.

Gren and Omar slipped into another plane of the fight while the Nightcap creature attacked across the line between sleeping and waking. The battle turned into a scramble against something that refused to stay in one reality at a time.

June finished the creature off. The party left the island with loot, bruises, and more proof that Prismeer’s strange stasis had spread far beyond the palace.

The party found a stack of smaller and smaller chests until a chest weasel burst out of the last one. Instead of causing trouble, it traded information and a Horn of Plenty for attention.

That clue pointed them toward the Plane of Pleasantries, but first they had to break out of a looping marsh where every landmark repeated. They solved it by walking backward and reached a meadow full of sleeping figures watched over by winged caretakers and their queen.

There they found Reuben still asleep after fleeing heartbreak at the carnival. The party talked their way through the problem, convinced the queen that true love was reason enough to wake him, and brought him back. On the way out, June’s true form flashed into view when a portal stripped away his disguise.

They returned near Little Oak with Reuben awake and the Getaway Gang reunited. Fresh draconic tracks in the mud showed that something very large had passed close to camp and then taken to the air.

The party reached Loom Lurch with Will’s plan set. His crew would make a distraction from the west while the party went in through the front, moved through the Goblin Market, and tried to get close to Granny Nightshade without ruining the rescue.

Inside the market, they traded for magical candies and immediately dealt with the side effects. Gren’s footsteps turned musical. Maddox’s head swelled to twice its normal size. June shrank. Omar ended up surrounded by fireflies. Around them, Loom Lurch was full of disturbing toys, strange fungi, and shadowy creatures.

The meeting with Granny Nightshade became a set of bargains. June learned she could get her name back by bringing Granny a wild-haired boy named Will. Maddox accepted a deal for information about his missing friend in Yon in exchange for his final breath. Granny also tried to trade Gren for the location of his golden fiddle, and he refused.

When alarms sounded, the heist turned into a scramble. Gren caused chaos in the workshop, the party got back to Little Oak with Will, and eight children were rescued. PUD betrayed them, Granny’s people were alerted, and Zenner was left behind when the sewing room trap caught him.

While the party slept near Little Oak, something moved through camp and left behind a twisted brand with the message, “you’re too slow.” They were being watched.

The party compared what they had learned from their first trip into Loom Lurch. They had rescued children, but Zanner was still trapped in the sewing room, June’s true name was still somewhere inside, and they still needed boggle oil to get out of Thither. Gren and the others questioned the rescued children in detail and learned more about Skabatha’s routines, the hidden rooms, the prison beneath the kitchen, the boggles in the shadows, the animals in the garden, and the way the children were gradually losing their memories.

June realized that her missing name had not simply been stolen. It had been given up as the price of being forgotten and left safe, and she had lost the memory of making that bargain. Maddox was still carrying the cost of his own bargain for information about Chrundle, and Will of the Feywild was becoming harder to read, with his shadow and eyes suggesting something darker was gathering around him.

The party settled on a plan for the return to Loom Lurch. June would be the first person Skabatha saw at dawn and would use that advantage to move where the hag could not perceive her. The rest would follow the route they had pieced together from the children, move through Loom Lurch room by room, rescue Zanner, free more captives, recover June’s name, and secure the boggle oil.