The Carnival at Moonbright

Across the enclosure of the Athenaeum, an elven creature with orange hair and skin stood at the entrance. She gazed around the room, drew a longbow from behind her with her left hand, and placed her right hand on the hilt of her sheathed sword. Behind her, two nymphish creatures passed her and split to stand near the front bookshelves, their bodies smoking as if under intense heat. The elven creature stopped her search as she saw the party at the other end of the hall. Taking a few steps, she spoke across the Athenaeum towards them.

“You have stood in the way for too long… GIVE IT HERE!” She screamed in fury as she pulled an arrow from her quiver, readied it, and shot it toward the group.

The arrow swiftly made its mark, piercing into Leaf’s shoulder as he moved to grab his spellbook from the pocket inside his robes. The arrow’s force flung him back, spinning around the table and hitting the floor. Screams rang out as civilians threw themselves in between bookshelves to hide. The nymphs slowly crossed the room, throwing bolts of fire across the way at the party, just missing them and igniting the bookshelves behind.

Gisela took flight, soaring above desks and chairs in the way, and activated one of her giant runes. As she swung her sword down onto the elf, Gisela grew five times her average proportions, giving her extra power to try and slice into her. The elf was too agile, though. Moving at the last second, she sidestepped, using her bow to parry the swing. Gisela’s sword hit the stone floor, sending sparks flying between them.

“And it seems you have something that doesn’t belong to you. That was Sir Ulric’s sword.” The elf spoke to her, spinning around and aiming another arrow toward the half-orc she saw coming her way. Just narrowly missing Rhokhishi, she pulled her sword out and reached out with her arm to try and pierce into the creature, missing by a hair.

Mr. Muffins moved closer, using a desk as a partial cover as he bent down and pulled out a metal cube from his pack. Putting a crystal into the center of it, it whirred to life, its arms and legs pushing out of the body, and opened its chest cavity into a barrel-like protrusion. He commanded it closer and readied a shot from it.

The elf was faster. Seeing that she would be surrounded soon, she took a leaf from one of her arrows, whispered to it, and threw it into the air. It spun for a second lazily before gaining momentum and flew by the faces of those near here. As it spun, a powder took to the air, catching the nose of Mr. Muffins, as Gisela and Rhokhishi fought off the effect before it took them.

Barthemus blinked and wiped the powder away from his face. He felt dazed as he looked around. His friends were fighting…

...but why? The elf may have attacked, but she didn’t attack him! Maybe this was a misunderstanding…

He spun around to try and talk sense into his friends but saw the nymphs lighting more bookshelves aflame.

Those are the real criminals! Burning books… Those are who we should be fighting.

He ordered the cannon to turn around and attack the nymphs. Instantly taking his command, the mortar used its metal feet to turn around and sent out a wave of energy toward the closest nymph. As it forcefully hit the creature, it pushed it five feet back, throwing it against another bookshelf causing it to catch fire.

Across the room, Leaf stood up, trying to figure out the best course of action. The fire nymphs, the elf with their power and agility, if they didn’t hurry, there’s a good chance that every book in the Athenaeum will become ashes. He moved forward and watched as Myla ran past him.

Myla approached one of the bookshelves that hadn’t caught fire yet. She leaped up, using her acrobatic skill to propel herself to the top. Running across the shelving, she jumped outward. As her body spun around, she aimed her daggers at the elf. She landed on the shelf and flattened herself against the top to cover herself as she heard the elf cry out from the blades making their mark. She focused on her daggers and instantly felt the weight of them in her hands again as they teleported back to their owner.

The elf parried another attack from Rhokhishi as Gisela slashed at her from behind. Flanking her, she ducked down into a defensive stance, using her sword and bow to block and parry.

“Where is the body of Sir Ulric? GIVE IT TO US!” She screamed. As her voice echoed, her body seemed to shimmer. Twisting in her spot, her body seemed to ignite in flames, the heat pushing Gisela and Rhokhishi back as she immediately disappeared.

Lyla pushed Rosemita towards her desk and moved toward one of the civilians who hadn’t made it out yet. As she reached down toward the human, he looked up at her. His eyes were sunken in, and steam rose off his body. He opened his mouth, and a screech exploded out as if the heat was boiling him alive, and he exploded. Lyla threw herself back, patting out flames that caught on her shirt. Turning around, the elf instantly appeared in front of her.

“YOU!” The elf shrieked, swinging her sword towards Lyla. Lyla dipped, putting herself into a modified horse stance, and punched into the elf’s sternum. The creature exhaled forcefully, and Lyla placed her other fist in front of her. As her Ki pushed through her body, ice formed onto her fist, forcefully leaving her arm, and slammed into the elf’s chest.

The elf realized that the tides were turning as the two nymphs were being extinguished from Mr. Muffins’ eldritch cannon. Readying herself, she disappeared again in flames, melting the ice around her body. The party darted around, trying to stay prepared for her return.

Leaf had gotten onto a desk and pulled himself onto a bookshelf to try and get a better vantage point. Looking around from the height, he wasn’t ready for the elf to appear next to him. She grabbed hold of his robes, placing a dagger to his neck.

“None of this would have happened if you had just given us the damn book, wizard.” She snarled in his ear. “I will take it from your burnt corpses if that’s what I have to-.”

She instantly gasped, and her eyes opened wide. She coughed, and blood started

spraying out. Leaf looked down and saw Rhokhishi near, still in throwing stance, and a javelin pierced through the elf and stuck into the stone next to them. She looked into Leaf’s eyes, then unfocused as she slumped into the wall motionless.

Within minutes, the world came back into focus as citizens of Moonbright ran in, carrying buckets of water and flinging them onto shelves to extinguish the flames. Thankfully, any fires too hot to take out were in places that were secluded enough not to catch anything else. Healers entered and placed Rosemita on a stretcher, who had fainted due to the frightening event.

Leaf searched the elf’s pockets for any clue about what had transpired. After searching, he could only find a single torn piece of paper. On one side, it showed an invoice for Moonbright’s Magical Mixtures, a potion shop in the Ghostway district. On the other side, written in elvish, were three words:

ANNIS COMMANDS THEE