Raahim,

I had an interesting encounter recently.

There was word of a carnival outside of Sharn and having never been to one myself, I chose to check it out. To be honest, it was underwhelming at first. But I am to understand it had not yet opened so maybe that was why.

There were others that arrived as I did and we set out investigate the place when we were directed by an unusual sort of man to a woman who requested we all tell stories for her. As it so happens, I had one to tell that I had heard in my youth, but if I am to be honest, the detective’s story was the most intriguing to me.

The scariest tale though was the woman’s own, for she was not what she appeared but rather a manifestation of a curse that had been put on her and many others. Then we faced horrors designed around the stories we told.

The detective, Kester was his name if I recall correctly, was the one to finally end the fight, temporarily disabling a cursed hairpin and dissolving the manifestations, including the carnival itself? Or maybe rather the carnival vanished from around us once the curse was disabled.

My friend, everything about this has the sense of the Fey about it. I’ve heard of another traveling carnival… the Witchlight? which has the same feel to it that this did.

What’s more, though, is that there is an individual out there that caused this curse with many victims. Someone who is un-aging, charming, possibly jealous of the talents of others and sadistic enough to take those talents that define the individual in order to rob them of their purpose in living. Have you heard of such a being?

I look forward to hearing from you if we do not cross paths sooner.

Until then,

Your friend, Indaeros.

Brother,

It has been a few days since my last correspondence. I hope all is well back home. How are efforts going with father? I am sure he is still unhappy with me. I trust you can smooth things over in time.

Things here at the mines have been slow, so I took up a job posting from the Rook and Rose for the first time in a while. Turns out people have been going missing in the lower tier. The trend of them being “attractive” was the first clue to how nefarious this was going to turn out to be. I accompanied a hodgepodge group to investigat as we headed to a halfling’s place of residence to get an idea of where to start looking. (Seriously, why must their homes be so small? The poor Bugbear gentleman that was with us had such a hard time getting out of there. I was wise enough to stay outside.)

Anyway, I digres. We were handed a list of people that had reported missing loved ones. All parents of children, though it is definitely suggested mire than children have gone missing. Unfortunately those lost in the Lower Tier tend to be unmissed. Only parents care to cry out in such tragic circumstance… most of the time, anyway. It was suggested we split up to cover more ground in the investigation, which I agreed with but the others pushed back with the assumption we could be dealing with considerable forces enough to overwhelm our little band. I proposed a compromise as too many of us together would draw attention far quicker if we were dealing with such an enemy. Only a couple went out to speak with the families while the rest hung back from a distance and kept watch, ready to jump in if things got hairy.

We ultimately discovered the primary suspect was a goblin puppeteer with a shop in town and went to confront him on the matter. There isn’t enough room on this parchment to go into the details but I will say, the culprit was found and dealt with. Many of the children were rescued and many dolls recovered that we are sure are the victims of this foul creature’s cruelty that angered him. With time, maybe they will all be returned to their homes in safety. If by chance you can aid in the finances needed to remove these curses, I am sure the people here would appreciate it.

Until next time we speak,

Mulahey