Characters
Panthalassa, a necromancer with a missing arm
Daytona, a dhampir gunslinger fresh from Hell (again)
Garazi, a beautiful young witch with a bird familiar
Willard Corn and King Beebo, a farmer and his monkey (?)
Heck, a revenant seeking vengeance on witch hunters
Khamaat, a newly awakened mummy
Events
Autumn had ended and winter brought the first snowfall to Hemlock Hollow. Adrian Vergara and Ivara Graymalk crunched through the snow to pay a visit to Garazi's family home. Adrian brought a picnic basket of food and drink for Garazi's family, but more importantly he brought his translations from the book of necromantic lore they had obtained while in pursuit of the Fraternitie du Cadavre. Adrian explained that the book noted that the Nightmother bestowed the ability to raise the dead indirectly upon her cultists; to access that power, the cultists needed to construct an avatar of the Nightmother that she could inhabit--the "goddess" herself could then resurrect the dead on their behalf.
Meanwhile, Ivara visited Heck in the lower level of the house. She gave Heck the results of her mother scrying the location of the witchfinder Grigori Trask; Trask was inhabiting an old fortress north of Chancel. She also gave Heck a note from her mother for Panthalassa the revealed that her missing arm was somewhere...on the Ghost Moon?! Finally, she gave him a letter to be opened later; this letter was from Ivara herself and she intimated that Heck, in his living incarnation, may be her father!
While en route to the Skarnesti Circus, the group saw firsthand evidence that the War in Hell had spilled over onto Earth. First, they smelled smoke--which proved to be coming from a village that was aflame. The cause made itself apparent: a number of demons were running amok, the chief of which was a corpulent demon with a massive maw. The demons were chasing a woman, who would turn out to be Khamaat.
The party moved to fight the demons, but most of the party found themselves unnerved by their infernal presence. During the battle, Daytona was swallowed whole by the corpulent demon and it was only through the efforts of the dinosaurs that Panthalassa summoned that he was freed from the demon's gut. They did notice, however, that the demons bore the mark of Legion.
When the group arrived at the Skarnesti Circus, they found it far less bustling than they expected. They were approached by Melusine, the circus's "snake dancer" and former lover of Daytona, who explained that Zoskia Skarnesti, the circus's ringmaster, and Felvolio, the circus's star clown, had both gone missing. She brought them into a tent where an argument about what to do about that was already in progress.
Of course, the group got themselves involved in the mystery. They got the sense that the circus had some odd visitors. The local constable had told them to move on; a woman (who was described as looking similar to Serafina) tried to join the circus, but Zoskia had turned them away; a trio had been seen stalking around the fairgrounds, seemingly uninterested in the circus's attractions.
After searching Zoskia's wagon, they uncovered several clues--which they did not follow up on. Instead, they split into two teams: Panthalassa and Daytona went into town to talk to the woman who had wanted to join the circus and the rest walked into the northern woods to find the three strangers who seemed out of place at the circus.
Daytona and Panthalassa discovered that the town was populated with members of the Yezhuli, a heretical sect of the Church of Holy Blood that practices bigamy. After talking to the constable, they obtained the location of the Maitland residence--the home of the woman who wanted to run away with the circus. The constable also showed them that his jail was currently empty--he had not arrested Zoskia and Felvolio surreptitiously.
Meanwhile, in the woods, Heck was able to track the three strangers to their camp, though only two--an older priest with an eyepatch named Father Ambroys and a young nobleman with a rapier at his side called Jean de Cote--were apparent. The third, the nobleman's Polnezna half-sister Winter was recalled from her sniper's nest to join the group. They explained that they are all members of the Hounds of Velun, a secret society that believes a tsar should be returned to Krevborna's throne.
However, they disagree with Valton Blakely's quest to resurrect a dead tsar to lead the country--they want to find a living descendent instead. As such, they were led by the priest's mystical visions to the Skarnesti Circus--they were milling around the fairgrounds in search of the party because they wanted to give them a map to an old abbey on an island that Blakely is using as the headquarters of the Fraternitie du Cadavre.
Back in town, Panthalassa made her way to the Maitland house. She knocked at the door, and when the man of the house answered she told him that she was having "woman problems." He promptly sent her around to the back of the house where one of his wives was taking laundry down from the line. Panthalassa immediately saw the resemblance between this woman, Agniezka, and Serafina--there could be no doubt that they were sisters. Agniezka confided that her husband was abusive and that she wanted out of the marriage; Panthalassa told her that if she could manage to sneak away that night, she would help her get to safety.
Both the group emerging from the forest and the group exiting the town were surprised to hear a discordant calliope playing on the circus fairgrounds. As they approached, they could see that the Skarnesti Circus's familiar black-and-white striped tents had been replaced by green-and-white striped canvas. A new sign was hung above the ticket booth that read FELVOLIO'S CARNIVAL. The sign also included the image of a sinister, god-like clown surrounded by animated laughing mouths.
Once they had bought tickets from the elderly clown at the ticket booth, he let them in after saying "All hail the God of Dark Laughter!" which really set the tone for what followed. They saw their deceased friend Rudolpho in a monkey suit dancing to the sound of the calliope; Garazi was knocked into a mud puddle at the pillow fight contest; the ring toss proved to be obscene--they were meant to toss rings onto the upturned codpieces of gyrating clowns. Worse yet, entering the "Tragic Kingdom" exhibit shrunk the party down to size and forced them to face off against a giant ant for survival!
Eventually, they heard the sound of heralding trumpets and an announcement that the show in the big top was about to commence. Once in their seats, they found the spotlight trained on them and they were invited to the stage--where they were forced to fight many clowns to the death. The odds tipped against them when a mechanical contraption pulled up and even more clowns spilled out. Felvolio, the master clown and secret cultist of the God of Dark Laughter, also joined in the fray but ultimately the fools were defeated.
Of course, once defeated, the big top began to creak and groan--it was about to topple to the ground. The group ran for it, but as soon as they cleared the tent they could see that Felvolio's Carnival had been replaced by the Skarnesti Circus once more. The Skarnesti carnies were still trapped in glass bubbles floating in the nearby pond, but they were quickly freed.
That night, Serafina and Viktoria arrived in separate carriages. Serafina explained that she wanted the group's help in taking down Patchwork Jack. There was a wrinkle here, though--Serafina wanted to take him alive. The group balked at this and Serafina was outvoted. They have put themselves on the path of death.
Meanwhile, Viktoria presented Panthalassa with two replacement arms that she had crafted: one a perfect replica of the arm she had lost, the other decorated with raised scars depicting a variety of ancient fossils. Panthalassa chose the latter, and the doctor prepared to operate...
