It's true, I have been thinking about what a scary circus would be like in Krevborna. Below is the results of that pondering. Keen-eyed fans of the Ravenloft setting will notice that I have appropriated "the Twisting" power associated with the Carnival from that setting. I feel like it's fair game, since WotC abandoned it--even though it's the best idea to come with the Carnival--in their presentation of the domain in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. Of course, I've put my own spin on the Twisting, or, as I'm calling it, "deformography."
The Skarnesti Circus
The arrival of the Skarnesti Circus is preceded by the appearance of fliers calculated to whet the appetites of the curious and those who crave novel entertainment. No one ever observes who—or what—nails these fliers up in public spaces, but they invariable appear a week before the Skarnesti Circus descends upon a town or village.
When the wagons of the Skarnesti Circus rumble into view, they set up camp and begin to erect the circus’s colorful tents, temporary buildings, and lurid canvases advertising the acts that will amaze, horrify, and delight the crowds. Roustabouts and carnies hustle to and fro and the smell of cheap fairway food begins to waft from the area claimed by the circus. When the sound of off-kilter calliope music begins to play, the Skarnesti Circus is officially open for business.
The entertainments offered by the Skarnesti Circus include acrobats, clowns, trained animals, stage magicians, hoochie coochie shows, feats of might by circus strongmen, and a freak show, among others acts. Few are disappointed when they trade a few coins on the midway for entry into the Skarnesti Circus’s brightly hued tents.
Of course, a fair number of the circus’s performances are based on trickery or are mundane acts dressed up by pomp, burlesque, and greasepaint. However, some of the circus’s performers are something more than natural. Among the Skarnesti circus’s many amusements are the following performers, each of which may draw the characters into their dramas.
Zoskia Skarnesti is owner and operator of the Skarnesti Circus; she also serves as the circus’s “barker,” enticing the crowds to part with their coin for the promise of a spectacle. Zoskia is very much a character—her role is that of a ghastly and lurid ingenue whose act is a burlesque on the very real horrors that stalk Krevborna.
Zoskia also possesses a strange ability, which she calls “deformography,” that she uses to keep her circus full of physical curiosities and man-made freaks. When Zoskia calls upon the power of deformography, she can change the flesh and nature of her target whether they are willing or not. Some are made beautiful when subjected to Zoskia’s deformography, but more often their flesh is rendered grotesque, frightening, or uncanny. This physical transformation is often accompanied by the target developing unique supernatural talents. The powers the target acquires are out of Zoskia’s control, but they are frequently tied to the formative experiences in their personal histories.
Those who undergo deformography invariably find themselves bent to Zoskia’s will. Although she doesn’t always make her subjects into vassals, all of the monstrous roustabouts who work at the circus are people who attempted to steal from the carnival or otherwise offended Zoskia—she has altered them into hulking brutes who labor at her command.
• Appearance: Zoskia styles herself to deliberately appear morbidly alluring: she dyes her blonde hair black, wears skin-tight black dresses, and uses cosmetics to make her skin as pale as a Vampire’s dead flesh.
• Personality: Zoskia affects a persona that is a mix of camp, macabre gallows humor, and sexy double entendres.
• Motive: Zoskia delights in shocking or stunning audiences into submission with the strange and astounding acts offered by her circus.
• Flaw: Zoskia endorses no justice save what she metes out personally through her powers of deformography.
• Adventure Seed: Having offended the sensibilities of a conservative community, Zoskia Skarnesti and her circus are now on the run from a mob that wants to burn them at the stake for indecency and “crimes against public morality.” Zoskia will seek out the characters’ aid in either escaping their pursuers or incapacitating them so she might transmogrify their bodies with her deformography.
Before she encountered Skarnesti’s Circus, Vandia was a woman trapped in an abusive marriage. Hoping to be transformed into a woman capable of holding her own against her husband, Vandia consented to Zoskia’s deformography. Interestingly, unlike most people who are transformed by Zoskia’s deformography, Vandia’s physical form was scarcely altered; rather that becoming a grotesquery, Zoskia’s power only enhanced her quiet, subtle beauty.
However, when Zoskia was done with her, Vandia found that her beautified body was largely immune to physical injury. Though she appears fragile, blades now pass through her flesh without causing lasting wounds and blunt force leaves no mark upon her flesh. Vandia leveraged her newfound resilience when her husband again raised his hand against her; she found the inner strength to rise against him and slay him.
After her husband’s death, Vandia again sought out the Skarnesti Circus and now performs in an act in which sword and daggers are stabbed into her body to the astonishment of the punters. Vandia makes a tidy profit by charging members of the crowd extra if they want the opportunity to stab her with weapons or slash her with razors. It does not speak well of the male of the species that so many in the audience relish the opportunity to visit violence upon an attractive woman.
• Appearance: Vandia is a delicate woman, with the pale hair and flawless skin of a doll.
• Personality: She is quiet and appears to be shy; she is an extremely guarded person who distrusts strangers.
• Motive: Vandia identifies people in the audience who are being abused; under cover of night, she seeks out their abuser and murders them without mercy.
• Flaw: The sound of raised, argumentative voices make her feel uncomfortable.
• Adventure Seed: Vandia has been tracked down by her deceased husband’s brothers, looking to exact vengeance against her. Although she is immune to most violence, they have uncovered a way to kill her. She is in need to protection because her brothers in law are cut from the same cruel cloth as her former spouse.
Pyros, The Lord of the Inferno
Daniel Furio was left a disfigured orphan when his family home burned to the ground. Covered in hideous, debilitating burns that left his body a puckered mass of scar tissue, he was forced to live upon the streets as a vagabond and petty thief. Additionally, Daniel’s injuries left him with psychological scars as well. He now suffered from a devastating fear of fire.
The answer to Daniel’s prayers came in the form of the Skarnesti Circus arriving to perform in his village. Unable to pay for entry, Daniel snuck into the circus, but was caught in the act by Zoskia Skarnesti. Nevertheless, she took pity on him and made him an offer: if he would consent to it, Zoskia was reshape his flesh through the power of deformography—though she couldn’t guarantee it, Zoskia felt confident that she could at least alleviate some of Daniel’s pain and debility.
Daniel’s transformation was better than he or Zoskia had dared to hope. Though now an unnatural hue, his skin was now unblemished and unmarked by burns. His fear of flame left him. Daniel also found that he could exert mental control over fire and make it dance to his whim.
As payment for Zoskia’s ministrations, Daniel agreed to tour with the circus to pay off his debt to her. Reborn as Pyros, the Lord of the Inferno, his act involves fire-breathing and juggling flaming knives. At the climax of his performance, Pyros commands flames to assume unnatural shapes to the amazement of the crowds. Pyros was supposed to remain with the circus for a year, but he has found he enjoys the traveling life and has chosen to remain with the Skarnesti Circus.
Melusine, The Serpentine Seductress
Lillian Ware began her tenure with the Skarnesti Circus as a teenage runaway. Initially, her jobs included selling tickets, vending fried victuals from the food stalls, and assisting in the set up and tear down of the circus’s garish tents, but as she became accustomed to life with the circus she desired more. She saw the dirty glamor and minor fame of the circus’s popular acts and wanted that for herself. She took to begging Zoskia Skarnesti to be transformed into a star attraction.
Though she was unable to promise that Lillian would emerge as a future star of the circus, Zoskia ultimately relented and used the power of deformography on the pleading young woman. When the transformation was over, Lillian had become a snake-like woman, her skin covered in green scales, her tongue now forked and flicking, her eyes the yellow of a poisonous asp. And yet, this alteration did not truly render her monstrous, despite the negative associations that serpents being to mind; though she had acquired an obviously unnatural body, her movements and demeanor attained a sensual and exotic serpentine allure that had been alien to Lillian’s natural form.
Adopting the name Melusine, she became a celebrated dancer and snake charmer on the main stage of the Skarnesti Circus. Those who watch her dance are enthralled—both by her slippery, enticing motions and often in a more literal sense. Some members of the audience become obsessed with Melusine and fall utterly under her sway; this enchantment gives her the power of suggestion over them, but it also makes them desire her with a feverish fixation.
• Appearance: Portions of Melusine’s body are covered with fine green scales that render her strangely captivating.
• Personality: Melusine finds that she is growing increasingly cold-blooded; her ability to empathize with and relate to her fellow creatures is slowly ebbing away.
• Motive: She lives for the appreciation of the crowds and craves adulation.
• Flaw: Sometimes those who have become entranced by Melusine’s serpentine dance becomes dangerously obsessed and fixated on her.
• Adventure Seed: Melusine has been abducted by an obsessed fan. The characters are hired by Zoskia Skarnesti to rescue her star dancer before the circus moves on to another town.
Dogface, The Hirsute Brute
When Zoskia Skarnesti first laid eyes upon the man who would become “the Hirsute Brute”, she knew she beheld a bestial predator clothed in the finery of a dandy. Zoskia observed how the man reacted to watching Melusine perform; the way he licked his chops recalled a wolf spying a particularly juicy and defenseless lamb. She knew his type immediately: he was a rake, a breaker of hearts, and a despoiler of virtue.
Zoskia had the correct measure of the man’s character—he was indeed a cad and a bounder, a man who used his handsome face, his stylish clothes, and his charming wit to bed (and then discard) a succession of women. Such an affront to womankind could not stand. Zoskia cornered the man, tempted him backstage with the promise of a “private performance” from Melusine, and then used her deformography to transform him into a fur-covered monster with a face that horrifies rather than enchants.
Rechristened “Dogface” due to his hideous, hairy visage, the man now performs an enforced penance for his treatment of women as part of the Skarnesti’s Circus. Now possessing monstrous strength, Dogface performs feats of physical might and terrifies those admitted to the circus’s House of Horrors. Because of his intimidating size, he is also employed keeping the roustabouts in line and Zoskia forces Dogface to serve as her personal bodyguard.
• Appearance: Dogface’s body, including his face, is covered in a thick brown pelt. His face is twisted and hideous.
• Personality: Once sociable and extroverted, Dogface avoids company whenever possible. His isolation has inspired a newfound love of animals because beasts do not judge him based on his repellent appearance.
• Motive: Dogface wishes to break free from Zoskia’s control and find a place where he can live in isolation.
• Flaw: The revulsion that people evidence when they look upon him fills him with self-hatred.
• Adventure Seed: Perhaps the characters could be convinced that Dogface deserves to be freed from Zoskia Skarnesti’s yoke. Is he a changed man or would they risk him resuming his vile ways once he gains his freedom?
Felvolio, The Mirthless Clown
Sometimes when the Skarnesti Circus visits a particularly devout community the pious residents protest against the sinful temptations that its carnivalesque attractions present. On one especially contentious occasion, a village preacher incited his flock to mob violence against the circus and its carny cohort. A riot ensued, and the circus nearly burnt to the ground.
To placate the whipped up fury of the mob, the following day Zoskia Skarnesti proposed a private meeting between herself and the preacher behind the violence that was visited upon the circus. Of course, Zoskia had no intention of offering him concessions; instead, she warped his form using the art of deformography. The preacher was twisted into a hideous clown. Though it appears that he is wearing the makeup of a knave, his face has been discolored into a permanent, richly colored rictus grin.
Renamed Felvolio, the former preacher was set to work in the circus as the chief of its capering clowns. Although he once regarded himself with solemn, deadly seriousness, Felvolio is now forced to play the part of a ridiculous, prancing, yet archly menacing, fool. His act, combines morbid gags with a visage that is by turns comedically pathetic and genuinely unsettling.
• Appearance: Felvolio looks like a man made up as a terrifying clown, but that is the actual physical form he is currently accursed with.
• Personality: Felvolio’s preferred brand of comedy is mean-spirited and malicious.
• Motive: Although he is forced to act the part of a comedic fool due to Zoskia’s control over him, deep within he is still the censorious preacher he was before his transformation.
• Flaw: Felvolio seethes with impotent rage.
• Adventure Seed: Unbeknownst to Zoskia Skarnesti, Felvolio has been inducted his fellow circus clowns into a cult that reveres him as the “God of Dark Laughter.” When he judges that the time is right, he plans on fomenting a revolution within the circus with the goal of having his followers overthrow Zoskia as the circus’s leader.
Professor Mohzig, The Puppetmaster
Every performer’s worst nightmare is to have a boisterous heckler in the audience, and Madeline Mohzig was the worst of their obnoxious lot. Although she was a learned professor of mechanical sciences at Creedhall University, Madeline Mohzig used her considerable intellect to belittle other people—especially those she viewed as her inferiors.
Of course, when Professor Mohzig attended the Skarnesti Circus and loudly defamed the carnies on the stage she had no idea that Zoskia was watching her antics from the wings and growing increasingly more irate at how her performers were being treated. Waylaid as she exited the circus, Madeline Mohzig was subjected to Zoskia’s deformography. This was one of the strangest alterations that Zoskia Skanesti had ever witnessed; Professor Mohzig’s head split over, her brain spilled out of her sundered skull, and her body quickly rotted away into dust. Bewildered by this turn of events, Zoskia scooped up Madeline’s brains and placed them in a jar filled with formaldehyde.
Trapped within the jar, Madeline Mohzig’s brain retained its consciousness and she found that she could now psychically “see” her surroundings. Moreover, she found herself gifted with the power to move objects with her mind alone; using her understanding of mechanical constructs and her telekinetic abilities, she assembled a metal body for herself out of scrap metal. Her brain still resides in its jar, but the jar has since been mounted on her scrapyard body as a makeshift head.
Seeing few other opportunities left open to her, Professor Mohzig has officially joined the Skarnesti Circus. She creates mechanical dolls that gambol and jape for the entertainment of the children who visit the circus.
• Appearance: Professor Mohzig’s body is a crude mass of scrap metal—her form changes regularly as she accumulates news bits and bobs.
• Personality: Mohzig can communicate telepathically—she attempts to portray herself as sweet and nonthreatening.
• Motive: Ultimately, Mohzig would like to move her consciousness into a fleshly body once more.
• Flaw: Though she tries to keep it contained, she still judges others harshly.
• Adventure Seed: A child goes missing at the circus. Professor Mohzig has abducted them and is trying to inhabit their body.