The midway is set amidst a dusty field. Rickety wooden fences surround it, and a ramshackle collection of tents and wagons lie at the back.
Food and drink
There are several places to get food, mostly fried meats and breads. It tends, generally, to be food of the local area, but mixed with spices brought in from wherever the circus has visited. There are wines of any price and quality, and ales weak enough to keep circus-goers from getting too rowdy. There are areas in the two front quarters, where people can set up picnics with their food.
Games of skill
Shoot a crossbow and win a prize! Toss a ball and hit the duck!
Prizes: colorful sunglasses with large round lenses, forever flowers in perpetually bright colors, super-bouncing moldable clay, a hemispherical jar of eye-agates in liquid, colorful wooden birds that fly when thrown, hula hoops, dolls, porcelain nesting dolls.
The Big-Top
At the end of the midway is the big-top, a great tent ringed with pastel paper lights, visible from across the lake. Here are the women on horseback, the rough riders of the world, and the flying ladies of laughter, and other “elegant exercises on the slack rope and the trampoline”. Actual battles of the worlds fought. Water jumps. Jumping over dinosaurs! All the fearful frolics with fate in one place.
1. New Women On Horseback
2. The Royal Tiger
3. The Flying Ladies of Laughter
4. Colonel McCabe and His Rough Riders
5. The Flying Foxes
6. The Water Weirds
7. Taming the Giant Jungle Lizards
The big top seats 10,000.
The “battle” involves feats of riding in the context of a stylized battle between colorfully-armored knights and barbarian trapeze artists. The giant jungle lizard show has trapeze artists swinging amidst actual giant tyrannosaur-like (but only sixteen feet high) dinosaurs as the creatures roar and snap at the men and women swinging past them.
The Great Catharine Wheel
The circus has a great wheel on which people can ride and observers can place bets. It’s a ferris wheel decked out like a roulette wheel. The wheel is 200 feet high. What you see from the Catharine Wheel is not the surrounding area, but the surroundings the circus has passed through.
The axle of the Catharine Wheel is an angel statue toiling to keep the wheel turning, it’s wings folding and unfolding as it turns the gears.
“In France the condemned were placed on a cart-wheel with their limbs stretched out along the spokes over two sturdy wooden beams. The wheel was made to revolve slowly, and a large hammer or an iron bar was then applied to the limb over the gap between the beams, breaking the bones. This process was repeated several times per limb. A special grace, the retentum, could be granted, by which the condemned was strangled after the second or third blow, or in special cases, even before the breaking began. Afterwards, the condemned’s shattered limbs were woven (‘braiden’) through the spokes of the wheel, which was then hoisted onto a tall pole so that birds could eat the sometimes still-living individual.”
The Fairy-Go-Round Carousel
There are ninety “horses” on the carousel, each one of ten creatures: sphinx, hydra, minotaur, dryad, griffon, manticore, harpy, hippogriff, satyr, and centaur. The center of the carousel is a plaster tree, with bare branches, as if it were autumn.
The creatures will whisper conversations to their rider, and perhaps steer some likely prospects to the mystical maze or old granny or the flea circus. Or, if the character seems like someone who should be distracted, to the Girl With Kaleidoscape Eyes. Hearing the creatures requires a perception roll (at +4 if they specifically listen for the whispers).
There are brass rings that, if caught (agility at +2) allow the character to stay on the carousel for the next ride. Each ride, there is a +2 to the chance of hearing the whispers. Suggested whispers:
“Rider, what is your name?”
“Where are you from?”
You have traveled far. What do you seek?”
“Old Granny can help. Old Gran’ can always help.”
“Rest, and leave your cares for tomorrow. Relax in the tent of the girl with kaleidoscape eyes. You won’t regret it.”
The Midway: Old Granny
Tells the future in her cards. She can also offer a future that’s better than the one she sees. All it takes is a little bite. Try this, child! She can hand out scarabs if she thinks it’s worthwhile. Granny’s table has tarot cards, a crystal ball, a marble-white skull, and a pot of tea. Her crystal ball connects with a larger glass device in the ruins of the Mansio Solis (The Fell Pass).
“You carry a heavy burden.”
“You have many enemies.”
“You are about to meet a man.”
“You have come a long distance.”
“You have met strange friends along your trip.”
“Only two places may you find what you seek: where you began, and where you will end.”
Old Granny is a 2nd level sorceror and beetlepede spy.
Granny: (Autumnal Swarm: 5. Sorceror: 2; Survival: 27+9=36; Move: 12; Attack: dagger at +5+1=+6 or spell; Damage: d4+1; Defense: +2; Special defense: slo-time 4 yards, Magic Resistance: 3)
Granny’s bug form (Autumnal Swarm: 5; Survival: 27; Move: 16; Attack: mandible at +5; Damage: d8; Defense: +5; Special Defense: slo-time 4 yards; Magic Resistance: 3)
Granny has these spells in her spellbook:
| First level | aura of confidence, charisma, clean slate, fool’s magic, hair, leaping, sense magical aura, suggestion, understand languages |
| Second level | animal undead, illusory self, minor phantasm, sensory assurance, shadows |
She has six spell slots. She normally memorizes sensory assurance, minor phantasm, suggestion, and sense magical aura.
| Spell | range | formula | ingredients | duration | casting | reaction | effects |
| Minor Phantasm | 60 yards | wgi | colored chalk | concentration | 1 | active perception | 7 yard radius |
| Sense magical aura | self | wg | 2 minutes | 1 | none | 20 yards, 2 feet wide | |
| Sensory assurance | 2 yards | wgi | paper chain | 2 minutes | 2 | perception | take tricks at face value |
| Suggestion | 2 yards | wg | 2 minutes | 1 | willpower | internalize suggestion |
Granny’s specialty is poisoner and she has several poisons ready that she can put in the tea she offers visitors if she thinks she needs to either weaken them, make them less smart, hurt them, or search them.
| Poison | Action time | Effect | Doses |
| Killing poison | 1 hour | 1d4 injuries | 1 |
| Weakening poison | 10 minutes | -3 strength | 2 |
| Fogging poison | 1 minute | -2 intelligence | 1 |
| Sleep poison | 1 minute | sleep 1d20 minutes | 6 |
| Fogging poison | 1 hour | -4 intelligence | 2 |
| Weakening poison | 1 hour | -4 strength | 2 |
She can also create other poisons given enough time, as described in the specialty.
The Flea Circus
Watch the fleas through a huge lens: they all seem as large as a man! They walk tightropes, do somersaults in the air, and jump from bar to bar. And they look at you back through the lens.
The Boy with the Lightning Bolt Hands
“Lightning streams from his hands. His power can heal—or destroy.”
Light plants on fire. Brings small animals back to life. He looks like a 13-year-old boy, and he can do d10 points damage per round—or shock a dead creature back to life, healing one injury in the process. This only works on creatures dead from one or two injuries.
In the back room are several dead rabbits, squirrels, and other cute fuzzy creatures.
The Girl with Kaleidoscape Eyes
“Come, my friends, and see, the girl with kaleidoscape eyes! See the show of lights! Her eyes are a mirror to your soul!”
The girl enters the room and rests on a couch, surrounded by mirrors that hang from the ceiling. The light from her eyes bounces from the mirrors and fills the room, a living kaleidoscope of colors that shift, collide, merge, and grow.
A child of the hot air witches, 10-year-old Esmerelda’s eyes light the room—literally. Dots collide on the walls. Viewers must make a Willpower roll or be mesmerized for the two hours of the show. They won’t be robbed or searched unless they’ve already acted suspiciously or the circus thinks they have something important. The Girl is mostly used to break groups apart so they have less support in other shows.
The Family of Glass
They’re not really of glass, but they are very odd. They are tall and thin, and their skin is translucent. With a bright light behind them, you can see the wine course through their systems, see the shapes of what they eat in their stomachs, melt away, see the waste build in their bowels. “That was disgusting. I want to see it again.”
The Fire-Eater
Eats fire—and then is consumed by it. Nightly! Eats fire, and is burned from within, white hot, you can see his insides, and then he become dust before your eyes.
Lost and Found
The lost and found of the Flea Circus can find anything —for a price. “What are you searching for?” “What price are you willing to pay?”
The Most Beautiful Woman in the World
“And her sisters from many lands.” Beautiful women of many human cultures. There are seven of them; they are pupae. There are two heavyset guards, one on each side of the stage. They are 2nd level warriors and beetlepede spies.
Guards: (Autumnal Swarm: 5. Warrior: 2; Survival: 24+5=29, 24+5=29; Move: 14; Attack: scimitar at +5+2=+7; Damage: d8+1; Defense: +2; Special defense: slo-time 8 yards, Magic Resistance: 4)
Guard bug forms (Autumnal Swarm: 5; Survival: 24, 24; Move: 16; Attack: mandible at +5; Damage: d8; Defense: +5; Special Defense: slo-time 8 yards; Magic Resistance: 4)
The Midway: The Zoo
They have dinosaurs! Birds of wonderful plumage! Birds of paradise. Platypuses! Monkeys, apes, and baboons. Two-headed snakes! Huge water tanks with fountains!
