The Carnival at Moonbright

The air became sulfurous to the smell as the citizens of Moonbright and the troupe of the Arcana Emporium watched the paladin bring his arm down and aim at the lock on the cage. Taking quick aim, he pulled the trigger again. The ammunition shot out of the weapon’s barrel, hitting the lock perfectly, causing it to shatter and open the cage door. Elysium stood still during the entire process, blood coming down his face from the gaping wound in his forehead, then crumpled as he collapsed onto the ground dead.

The paladin looked up at Gisela, his blackened teeth showing in a smile. The man instantly vanished from sight, with the invisibility spell taking hold. Gisela took her greatsword out, readied herself, and focused her fey magic below her. The spell cascaded over Torra in her werebear transformation and Artos, the male bear on Torra’s left. Surprisingly though, it also gave notice to another creature. Under the veil of his invisibility, which she thought was him teleporting away again, the spell wore off his magic, causing him to come back into view as he made his way toward the exit of the main tent. Her anger rose, and she dived down, letting her wings catch her just as she made the first of many attacks.

From the rafters, Myla watched as the crowd frantically ran towards the exit. She knew that she had to do something. She leaped between rafters and platforms to get closer to the fight without directly engaging. She placed herself close enough to Kota, the female bear to Torra’s right, and linked her mind with it. Myla focused on her psychic ability and tried to send calming images to Kota, hoping to draw it away from the fight and out of harm. She pulled two daggers from her side and aimed them at Torra’s transformed form. Though she didn’t want to harm Torra lethally, it would at least distract her enough not to attack others. She threw the first dagger, jumped across to another platform, then threw the next one. Myla watched as they hit the target but bounced right off of Torra with no damage done.

Myla became worried. She called to her weapons, and they vanished from the ground where they were lying and instantly found themselves back in her hands. Looking around, she noticed that none of the physical weapons were doing damage. The werebear form wasn’t affected… Myla would have to rethink her strategy.

Torra was a naturally strong firbolg, but her transformation gave her an unyielding strength. In a rage, she used her claws to swipe at Lyla and Rhokhishi, who were surrounding her. Lyla ducked under the large arm, but Rhokhishi was hit. Thankfully, Rhokhishi’s armor is part of her performance because the claws did not sink into her chest, but the impact of the creature’s attack still caused her to drop back a few steps. Lyla and Rhokhishi retaliated back. Lyla focused her ki outward, causing fire to erupt from her hands, and Rhokhishi harnessed necrotic energy to hit and sear Torra’s skin.

Gisela kept on her target. Just overhead of the dark paladin, she activated the rune magic taught to her by Bruna, grew in size, and attacked him repeatedly. Each hit clanged across his armor, cutting into his skin, but the paladin didn’t act outwardly towards each hit. His eyes went black, his yellow teeth became gray, and he attacked Gisela, trying to get around her and closer to the exit.

Leaf and Mr. Muffins were still in the stands as the fight occurred. Neither focused on melee combat, they unleashed spells from their arcane focuses. Leaf called out energy to ring against the side of the dark paladin’s head. Barthemus pulled an orange crystal from his pouch, slammed it in the rotary barrel, closed the contents, and spun the barrel until it landed on the crystal. He aimed at the paladin and pulled the trigger. As if an explosion erupted from the hand cannon, three motes of fire split, curved upon each other, and landed right at the side and back of the paladin, erupting him in flames for a moment and singing his skin. Barthemus then grabbed a small device from his side, pressed a few buttons, and looked towards the exit as he watched his cannon slowly walk over and aim toward the paladin.

BOOM!

Mr. Muffins’ designed device erupted, sending a forceful blast of energy racing across the tent. Gisela moved just in time upward as it smacked against the paladin, pushing him five feet back and almost knocking him down. The paladin looked around, a look of worry on his face as he was surrounded. He disengaged himself from Gisela and ran past the cannon and into the night.

Seeing the paladin running, Gisela Lyla ran out of the tent after him. Cutting him off, the fight kept going. Blow after blow of Lyla’s unarmed attacks, Gisela’s greatswords, and the paladin’s scimitar rang out as citizens were huddled into tents by the carnival troupe. From one of the tents, Lyla heard someone yelling out to her.

“Lyla!” Lopper yelled from the entrance of his shop.

Lyla dodged another attack from the paladin and turned to see Lopper yelling from the entrance of his shop. In the satyr’s hand, he held out a silvered dagger. Realizing what Lopper was offering, she looked back towards the tent and locked her sight on her sister.

Myla! Regular attacks won’t work on Torra! You have to use a silvered weapon. Catch!

“Throw it to me!” Lyla yelled to Lopper.

Lyla stepped back and watched as Lopper handed the weapon to Rotkyl, who used his dwarven strength to throw the dagger at her as hard as he could. As it streaked through the air, she bent down and jumped into the air, flipping her body upside down to kick the dagger and change its directory. The kick caused the blade to fly past the paladin and toward the tent’s entrance. Myla, already moving from platform to platform inside the tent, leaped up and grabbed one of the ropes, swinging herself across the tent above everyone else before letting go and somersaulting through the air. She caught the dagger and dropped to the ground, turning around to run back into range.

Myla ran up the stairs before grabbing another rope, cutting it loose, and using it to swing herself to another platform. From the top, she had a better view of the area. Across the way, Mr. Muffins used his arcane hand cannon to send a shockwave around him, knocking out Artos and sending electricity through Torra’s form. Torra roared out, taking swipes with her massive paws and raking her claws into any flesh she could reach.

Myla used the platform to spring herself off, barely reaching the rafters. She ran across, grabbed the trapeze swing’s bar, threw her legs around it, and let go of the rafter. Her body upside down, she swung across the stage, getting in range to throw the silvered dagger. As she arced down, she carefully aimed not to hit Mr. Muffins or Rhokhishi, who were next to Torra. She threw it, and it flew through the sky like a falcon in a dive, not even looking to see if it hit its target. She repositioned herself, jumped onto the other rafter, then used the platforms to bring herself back into melee range with Torra. When Myla looked up at her, she saw the dagger had placed itself right into her left shoulder.

Rhokhishi saw Myla running over, readied her hands, and readied herself for Myla to jump. The moment her foot connected with Rhokhishi’s hands, she pushed Myla up and over Torra, pulling the dagger back out and landing behind her, flanking Torra between them.

Outside, Leaf joined in the fight against the paladin. With his spells, he distracted him while Lyla punched and kicked across the paladin’s body. Gisela screamed, taking slash after slash with her weapon, hitting against the armor.

Focus! There is no point in revenge if you die as well. Calm yourself, look for an opening, and take it!

Gisela flew back a few feet, watching as Lyla dodged another attack. Within seconds, Gisela saw the opening. She reared the greatsword back and swung it horizontally through the air. For a moment, Gisela believed she missed until she saw the blood trailing down the paladin’s back. She looked up just in time to see the paladin’s head lean and fall off his shoulders before watching his body collapse onto the ground. This was not the time to stop, though. Gisela listened around her, hearing Torra’s roaring inside the tent. She turned around and flew off into the rest of the fight.

Lyla and Leaf stood over the body of the paladin. Leaf kicked him once, twice, and again in the side, yelling out with each hit.

“Stay. Fucking. Dead. You. Piece. Of. Shit.”

Leaf stopped and walked a few feet away, keeping a close eye on the body, worried it might get back up and start fighting again. Lyla reached down and checked his pockets.

There were a few coins but nothing else. Lyla looked at his other side and saw the holster for the ranged weapon he used. She grabbed it, stood up, and took a look at it. While simple in design, it was dangerous. On the side of the barrel, the words Sir Ulric were engraved into it.

“What is that?” Leaf asked.

“I’m not sure. It looks similar to Mr. Muffins’ weapon, but I don’t see anything magical about it.”

She first felt the burning in her hands, then saw the smoke rise from the weapon. She threw it to the ground and used her waterskin to wash off what she could from her hands, but the burn marks of the acid had already left their marks. The weapon continued to burn until finally melting completely into metallic goop on the ground.

“What the hell?” Lyla asked herself.

Gisela pushed herself into the tent, flew over Torra, and landed behind her, next to Myla. The group surrounded the werebear, keeping away from her teeth and claws, distracting her just enough for Gisela to get around and grapple her. Torra roared out, trying to escape, but Gisela locked her hands around the creature and dragged her back towards the cage. Rhokhishi ran up to help, only to be stopped as Torra reached out and grazed her claws against Rhokhishi’s chest. She flew back, falling prone on the ground, her head smacking against the side of the stage and knocking her unconscious immediately. Blood started to pour down the back of Rhokhishi’s head, pooling on the ground.

Myla ran over with Mr. Muffins to the interior siding of the tent, pulling some rope and chains from its walls. Mr. Muffins moved over to Rhokhishi to ensure she was okay as Myla ran past and followed Gisela and Torra to the cage.

With a burst of strength, Gisela managed to pull Torra back into the cage and slam it shut. Myla swung the chain and rope around, tying knots into them, securing the cage enough to stop Torra from getting out again. Taking a step back, Gisela and Myla looked at their work, ensuring it was finished, then turned around to see someone on the ground.

Holding Elysium’s body, Shaynth cried as they looked around at the horror that took place. While Shaynth was not an overly emotional gith, it was clear from Myla’s knowledge that Elysium was like a parent to everyone. There was no judgment of one’s past. Elysium cared for them all, and now he was gone…

Gisela carefully lifted Elysium’s body. She walked back to the stage and laid him on the ground. Lyla and Leaf managed to bring the paladin’s body in as well, thrown off to the side as Lyla walked over and held her sister’s hand. Shaynth kneeled down again, using their hand to push Elysium’s eyelids down.