Disposable:Racial Profiling/1 Bears on Unicycles

Starring: Duen (Andrew), Cameron (Ian), & Rynn (Brad)
Guest Starring: RJ Flannagan (Frog Prince ringmaster); Biyo Venna (man attacked);
Challenge: Tengu clowns; Giant juggler and bears on unicycles; Bernaditi (Crocodile man)
Location: New Elizabetha; Midnight Circus (inside Harrow Deck?)
Date Played: 27 Nov 2011

The Greatest Show On Galorian

Cameron: The Frog-Man told me I did better this time. Falcon did not attack old lady with rat in her hair. This is a good thing. I even got 3 coins. That's 1 more than last show. This is good thing. The city we are in is beautiful, or so I am told. I don't like all the water. The sea is a bad thing. Too much water, and too much salt. It makes my gears ache.

Rynn: New Elizabetha. Another month, another city. Life in the Umbra Carnival is interesting - new faces, new locales. Same old performance. I did the usual array of skulking and flipping around, and the rubes loved it. Managed to make some "extra" coin off of their adulation.

Duen: We have come to the next town. This life is not what I expected for Ursala & myself as we walked out of the desert, but our bellies are full & life is good. Tonight, Ursala impressed. Ursala & I were chosen to be the final performance before the Ringleader's old "kiss the frog" routine. I think we were a fitting act. Rynn had a little fun with me during my performance so I decided to leave him a little wet... although Flannigan was less enthusiastic. Wha ha ha! As a group, I think we need to discuss possible additions to Cameron's act... The falcon act was... uhhh... less than impressive.

Frog-gone It!

Rynn: R.J., our bizarre but awesome ringmaster, failed to show up for today's main show. Me and the lads went out looking for him. Luckily, a talking frog-man is hard to miss, so the locals were pretty forthcoming about having seen him. We tracked his last known location to a local fortune teller crone, "The All-Seeing" Hajek. R.J. had visited her earlier that day, and she used a mystical deck of cards called a "Harrow Deck" to attempt to help him find what he was looking for - some library of a woman named Sonnorae.

Duen: A half-our before curtain & RJ is nowhere to be seen. Not very professional, not like him at all... We decide that we must find him before the show. We find a lead that he may have visited "The All-Seeing" Hajek. When we went to see her in her overly small hut. She took out her "Harrow Deck" & told us she could take us to RJ with the deck. The show must go on & the show can't go on without him so we agreed to go after him...

Transported?

Rynn: Okay, something really damn weird is going on. I mean, outside the moderately high amount of weirdness I see on a daily basis. After Duen strongly suggested that I NOT get my fortune read by Hajek, she sent us to where R.J. went using that weird deck of cards somehow. I don't really understand what happened, it was all a blur. But a moment later, we found ourselves standing in a long-deserted marketplace in a strange city. Under a painted sky. With a wooden sun on a track. What the HELL.

Duen: After a bumpy ride in a tornado, we were transported to a weird world with a false sun on a track & fake clouds. We found a weird man with an odd face (although all these hairless, little people look odd to me) being attacked by crow-clowns...

Attack of the Killer Bird-Clowns!

Rynn: As we took in the new environment, we started to explore and look for R.J. We approached what looked like a large tent. As we drew nearer, we witnessed some guy being chased by what looked to be, uh, crow clowns. Yeah. You heard me. Dudes dressed like clowns, with bird costumes. They were assaulting the individual with some loony swords. (This all reminds me of the one time my cousin Zorrbyn gave me some weird mushrooms.) Cameron, being the fearless sort (really - I think he is literally incapable of fear), addresses the attackers, and they turn their attentions on the three of us. Violently. I do the usual hide-n-seek tactics, lashing out and zapping them when their gaze is elsewhere. With the might of Duen and the stalwart resilience of Cameron, we manage to thrash the clown bird fellas soundly. They sort of, um, turn to paper when gutted. Gawd. I did pick up a nifty dagger that has a bouquet of flowers hidden in the handle. Maybe our carnival's magician, Matheus, could use it in his act when we get home.

Duen: It was a little sad to see people of my own profession stoop to attacking a man 4-on-1 so me & my compatriots intervened to even the odds. After a little scuffle, the little birds were... dealt with. The little man told us this was a story-book land & that we would need to talk to the lord of the land, Zassrion to get RJ back & the 1st step to that is to talk to the ringmaster of the Midnight Circus.

Insights

Rynn: The man we rescued turns out to not really be a man, but some sort of animated "storykin", with features resembling a marionette puppet. He was appreciative of the timely intervention, and told us some useful stuff: Sonnorae was dismembered by a group of seven conspirators, and each of them retains a part of her body. Also, the dude's master is someone named Zassrion. This Zass guy hangs out in a traveling fortress, and he is trying to find a way to "become real". To find the fortress, we need to get ahold of gems from Zassrion's scarf, they should point the way. And the seven conspirators each have one (or more?) of those gems. Handy. When we asked where they are, the man (whose name I didn't care to ask) said to talk to the ringmaster in the Midnight Circus. He would know more. Then he took off.

The Midnight Circus

Rynn: The big tent we were headed towards earlier was in fact the Midnight Circus. So we went. And despite it still being daytime, it was open. We entered, and there was a giant who was juggling in the main ring, surrounded by bears on unicycles. The crowd saw us and was enjoying our rather unorthodox looks, and the jealous giant didn't approve of the loss of attention. A pie to Cameron's face started a fight that could have gotten deadly real fast, if I hadn't quickly won over the crowd with my best aerial trapeze stunts. I did get clocked by a juggled vase but good, that is gonna leave a nasty bruise.

Duen: The storykin who visit the Midnight Circus have no taste. They through tomatoes at me during my act! How crass! For some reason, they loved Rynn's trapezing which was enough to get the giant & his unicycling bears to admit we were their betters & leave.

A Crocodile Man is like an Alligator Man

Rynn: The audience cheered us, and the dejected juggler and bears left the ring. I should have thought to pass a hat to capitalize on the adoration. But in this weird place, their money probably would have just been something like wood chips or cat turds. I slyly peered into the back curtain, and witnessed a fancy crocodile man sipping tea. How distinguished. I informed the lads, and we went in to talk to him. The conversation was interesting. He offers tea. I dumped mine out behind an end table when he wasn't looking, but the other guys imbibed. He is indeed the ringmaster, but he says he doesn't have any parts or gems of Sonnarae. Although it doesn't really match with what the guy outside said, I believe it. He said we could look for the conspirators in different places. I don't remember everything, but here's some on the locations:

• The king of the briar patch has her feet.
• Marzalee the Weaver re-molds Storykin from "man-molds".
• The waters of Demon's Fen (near the lake) houses a conspirator.
• The Prophet's Garden was the site of her dismemberment.
• Sanguine Playhouse (sounds like a bloody creepy place).
• Smith's Caldera is a volcano, and the home of the feared Tick-Tock Man.
• The Outside, also called the Trackless Dearth - lies beyond the artificial sky.

Duen: We spoke to a Crocodile Man who turned out to be the ringmaster of this circus. Imagine! A Crocadile Man as a leader of anything! Too similar to an Alligator Man for my tastes. I decided to keep my insults to a minimum & stay quiet although it took all my effort...

Rewards

• 708.5gp each to Duen, Cameron, Rynn, & Slush

Wiki recap rewards:

• Rynn: Circus clown (Usable once): Your acrobatic stunts amaze the audiences and you are adept at directing their attention. When this ability is used you may use Acrobatics instead of Bluff to create a distraction to hide.
• Duen: Sprint (Usable once): Your prey does not escape. As a full-round action you may sprint, moving ten times your normal speed when making a charge.

Being on good terms with Bernaditi allows you to use the Midnight Circus as a "home base". Bernaditi also has goods for sale, so you may purchase items here.