GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Encounters 3: The Carnival of Madness

[Kromm]

Mama and papa!
Look at all the funny clowns!
It's a carnival!

— Little Ŧimmy, 9 years old, missing

Dungeons are great – right up until the players ignore the one the GM spent months designing. Ŧhe heroes might get there eventually, but in the meantime, there's a game session to fill. In a situation like this, it's good to have an adventure that can plausibly come to the delvers, no matter where they are: in town, in the middle of nowhere, or anywhere else they've wandered off to.

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Encounters 3: The Carnival of Madness offers exactly that. Carnivals travel, after all, so they can show up anywhere. Of course, to attract adventurers, you need to offer something more interesting than the county fair . . .

Everybody loves a circus – right up until they visit this one.

—

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[Refplace]

I liked it, good read.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Uh-uh, Hannibal. No way, no how.

(It is pretty good - inspired even.)

[Kromm]

Thank you! It's somewhat based on an encounter I created for my old Dawn of Magic campaign, though the original was remembered by the players mostly for the pie-eating contest.

[Anders]

IIRC there was a carnival of curses in Magic Items 2 for 3rd edition.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Anders

IIRC there was a carnival of curses in Magic Items 2 for 3rd edition.

I don't have it front of me, but IIRC it was "Poponax the Vile Clown" (the name stuck with me for some reason) in Magic Items 2, whose touring carnival gave out cursed items as the prizes for their games. He was the character attached to the Curses chapter.

[scc]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Little Ŧimmy, 9 years old, missing
Ŧhe heroes might

Kromm, there appears to be something wrong with these capital T's

Originally Posted by Kromm

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Encounters 3: The Carnival of Madness

Wierdly this one is fine.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by scc

Kromm, there appears to be something wrong with these capital T's


Wierdly this one is fine.

Its a joke, Through me off the first few times I saw them but I caught on quickly enough. I dont think it was hilarious but it was cute and didn't make reading hard so unless its a problem with Ctrl + Find Im good.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

IIRC it was "Poponax the Vile Clown" (the name stuck with me for some reason) in Magic Items 2

That's the guy. There's also the Clown Canon, a method of travelling very quickly and safely. It just looks ridiculous.

[Anders]

Adventure seed: The carnival needs more freaks! So they hire "comprachicos" (child-buyers). These vile people kidnap children and mutilate them so they are fit for use in the carnival. Victor Hugo describes them:

Originally Posted by Victor Hugo

The Comprachicos worked on man as the Chinese work on trees. A sort of fantastic stunted thing left their hands; it was ridiculous and wonderful. They could touch up a little being with such skill that its father could not have recognized it. Sometimes they left the spine straight and remade the face. Children destined for tumblers had their joints dislocated in a masterly manner; thus gymnasts were made. Not only did the Comprachicos take away his face from the child; they also took away his memory. At least, they took away all they could of it; the child had no consciousness of the mutilation to which he had been subjected. Of burnings by sulphur and incisions by the iron he remembered nothing. The Comprachicos deadened the little patient by means of a stupefying powder which was thought to be magical and which suppressed all pain.

So children have vanished. But they can be found at the carnival! Can the adventurers rescue the kids before they become part of the freak show... forever?