Dark Carnival

A recap is probably in order at some point, so here's one:

===
Characters:

Regulars (that are at the carnival): Adric, Nyssa, Number One, Fitz, 
Anji, Ayna, Sandra, Magnus, Varne

Non-Regulars:

 The Tod Brothers
  - Magnus and Varne have met them in a professional capacity
    ("we never got paid for that one. Their bodies were never found." 
    "I thought it was slightly odd at the time. I had sabotaged the
    drive not the power plant. Their ship should not have exploded
    like that.") It is not yet clear whether M&V were to be paid for
    doing something *to* the Tod Brothers, or for doing something
    *for* the Tod Brothers (if the latter, then the Tod Brothers
    apparently attempted to do a bunk without paying up). Either way,
    Magnus has decided that the Tod Brothers owe him.
  - When M&V met them, they had "the 'dark and sinister' aesthetic.
    Something designed to set mortal teeth on edge" going, but
    weren't running a carnival.
  - Gideon refers to Magnus as "our oldest and dearest friend".
  - there are four brothers - Magnus says that Gideon likes to think
    of himself as leading the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
    The brothers are:
    - Gideon: The boss. Older than Ezra and Lineus. "a gangly-limbed
      giant, seven feet tall if he was an inch, the old-fashioned
      black suitcoat hanging off his stooping shoulders in a way that
      should have looked baggy, but didn't. He had the solemn,
      lean-jawed ascetic's face of a preacher or an undertaker, pale,
      but with incongruously blue and lively eyes." His smile is "a
      curving sickle-slash showing too many white teeth." He wears a
      tall black hat. His voice is "surprisingly smooth and gentle".
    - Ezra: Younger than Gideon. Black hat. Long red hair. Full
      beard. Inhumanly tall. Inhumanly broad shoulders. Tall.
      Glacier-cold blue eyes. "a rangy, red-bearded giant, even more
      massive than Gideon, clad all in black and with a pair of
      silver Colt .45s slung low on his hips." Blindingly fast on the
      draw. Does a trick shooting act, "but he tends to go through
      quite a few helpers". The monstrosities that attack Nyssa are
      his 'pets'.
      Usually not up yet at 10:06am, according to Magnus - but he
      seems to have been up as early as 9:40 on this occasion.
    - Ezekiel: No age data, unless I missed it. "a roly poly man,
      almost dapper in a black frock coat, with a red Van Dyke beard
      and eight stitches luridly mapping a nightmare river down his
      bald scalp." Has "a dead man's grin, long teeth glimmering".
      Wears "a froth of lace, the color of venous blood" at his
      throat, which fails to hide "a ragged scar that circumscribed
      the fat man's throat ... the kind of scar that ... a noose
      would leave". Has claimed to eat small children, has claimed to
      be a confirmed vegetarian - is thus either a cannibal or a
      vegetarian with a sick sense of humor. Smells of cinnamon.
      Jolly, but with an undercurrent of anger if things don't go
      his way.
    - Lineus: Younger than Gideon. "the least prepossessing specimen
      of the Tod clan". Nervous when we see him (is he always like
      that, or is it only because of Magnus suddenly showing up?).
      He has a "tangle of thinning red hair". Can cast glamours, as
      with the Klein bottle trap (Gideon refers to this as a parlour
      trick, but it's not clear whether he means absolutely or only
      in comparison to Magnus' powers). Nobody cares about him, and
      he's only kept around to do the menial jobs, like caring for
      the freaks. (And, if Magnus is right, to make up the numbers.)

 Delilah Tod
  - Gideon's daughter
  - a star performer in the carnival (details not yet available)
  - "She was a dark, voluptuous beauty, with dusky skin of a perfect,
    glossy shade that Cleopatra's should have been but probably
    wasn't.  Her hair was midnight-black and hung in a cloud of wild
    elflocks, while her slightly slanted eyes shone a deep green and
    flashed with tiger-fire.  A tight silken vest and a long and
    billowing skirt of the same diaphanous material were her only
    garments.  The vest left her arms bare, exposing a network of
    shimmering scales tattooed on each one, a pair of slitted
    reptilian eyes on the back of each hand."
  - The snake tattoos on each arm are some kind of alive, and she can
    inflict a lethal snakebite on anyone by touching them with
    her hand.
  - can speak (or at least can swear in) Egyptian, Romany, Aramaic,
    and Khmer
  - can heal with a touch
  - takes great care over her appearance

 Zack
  - "a little boy of about six". "a small boy ...  compactly built,
    with a round, honest face framed by a thick shock of unruly black
    hair." He has "narrow blue eyes." When we first see him, he's
    doing math homework.
  - his Mommy is a lot like the female Number One in appearance,
    personality, and behaviour - even down to the idiosyncratic
    reaction to "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" (which is
    "worse for Mommy even than the red stone on her chest that made
    her cry so much in the mornings", whatever *that* means).
  - his Daddy, he says, is Adric
  - he also has an Auntie (his Daddy's wife)

 Doctor Mekt
  - does "Terrifying Chronal Explorations" at the carnival
  - gaunt
  - robed
  - carries "a metal staff covered with a complicated array of
    circuitry and wiring", with which he can manipulate chronal
    threads (putting people into time loops, altering events in the
    recent (and possibly the less recent) past, etc.)

 Simple Simon:
  - "The clown was done up as a hobo in patchwork, with a ragged old
    sack thrown over one shoulder.  Tufts of patchy orange hair
    thrust out under his hat, while his face was painted corpse-white
    with a huge crimson smile that looked more like a scream or a
    slit throat.  He laughed again, a mad, hackle-raising sound of
    pure bestial lunacy."
  - the big red nose isn't makeup, it's his real nose
  - can disappear from one place and reappear in another

 The Amazing Doctor Enigmo, Fortune-Telling Phrenologist
  - one of the many carnival hazards
  - deceased

 Fetch
  - a hunchbacked midget in a black cape and burglar's mask
  - deceased

 Tex
  - a stunted, long-armed man in a cowboy hat
  - deceased

 Blind Eli
  - runs a sweet stall selling dangerous sweets

 Kumba, Lord of the Freaks
  - "billed on stage as their leader, and generally acknowledged as
    such by virtue of being the only one to boast not only a real
    living-van (albeit heavily-barred and padlocked at nights), but
    also three years' school-learning, and ten toes to count on"
  - his chest has a horny carapace
  - Fitz's reaction to an item of clothing on the line attached to
    Kumba's caravan (which might not be Kumba's clothing, of course):
    "He really wasn't sure he wanted to meet the owner of the spiked
    and padlocked dogskin long-johns - particularly as the spikes
    were on the inside and the lock was on the outside... and there
    was an attachment either for a third leg, or for a tail..."

 Igenlode, the Human Snail
  - the most recent addition to the carnival freaks
  - has the end cage
  - capable of leaving its shell, hermit-crab-like, and seeking
    a new one (the Tods don't know this)
  - the body within the shell is soft, pallid, bloodless, capable of
    squeezing through small gaps, human-like ("if anything human ever
    owned such a tentacled, questing face, or such a pointed little
    jaw as that which rasped now steadily against the bars")

 The Amazing Genuine Frog-Boy of Auvergne
  - part boy, part frog, and so far apparently harmless

 Shanta, the Living Ghoul
  - "a doglike face, skeletal body, skin hanging over its frame,
    sharp teeth, wicked claws"
  - has a thing for hot blood
  - has a wagon between the Human Snail and the Frog-boy, with
    a pile of cracked bones in the corner
  - deceased

 Something Else
  - takes over Adric's body, then (presumably) Kumba's
  - has magical powers of a telekinetic variety
  - "Oh, Magnus, how I've missed you... I've been looking for you
    for a very long time."

 Pirouette
  - the carnival's newest performer, due to debut this very night
  - "A small figure stepped gracefully into the light, a blood-soaked
    harlequin costume clinging obscenely to her slim form, and began
    to dance. Mad eyes stared unseeing from behind a domino mask
    cruelly affixed to the figure's face. Brown hair spilled out from
    under a conical clown's hat. A frozen rictus of agony contorted
    her visage. Despite the horror of her visage, the woman danced
    with skill and grace."


Mentioned on the original poster, but yet to appear:
 The Death-Defying Ahkanten Brothers
 Fritz, The Fire-Eating Moron
 Smeff, Lord of Lightning

 (also Mr G, who only appears in the very beginning and might not 
actually be connected to anything)

===

Varne says of the carnival: "It's very good, it's not what it seems, 
but I can't work out what it is."
Gideon claims that he and his brothers give people what they come in 
search of, though not necessarily what they think they want.
(In a more frank mood, he tells Number One "Piece by piece, we break 
your mind and your will, destroying your reality a little bit at a 
time.  In the end, what is left of you will be put to good use in the 
sideshow..." Whether this applies to the carnival's victims 
generally, and whether it's the limit of what the carnival is up to, 
is not yet resolved.)


The carnival is in a large clearing ("as big as it needs to be") in 
the dark woods near This Time Round. The clearing is fenced off, and 
contains a brightly coloured but battered Big Top, surrounded by 
smaller tents, refreshment stands and carnival booths manned by 
slack-jawed, vacant-eyed barkers. There's a calliope, playing loud 
cheerful and nerve wracking off key music. There's a Ferris wheel, a 
carousel, and a hoop-la, and the sickly-sweet smell of cheap candy is 
in the air. Silent clowns stalk furtively through the sawdust.

The characters currently being followed by the story aren't the only 
ones at the carnival; there is "a sparse crowd".

The cages and living vans are marshalled in a black ring under the 
spreading boughs of the massive, gnarled oak that dominates the 
eastern end of the clearing.

There's a Hall of Mirrors, where every mirror works a different 
spell.

There's a Tunnel of Love.

There's a Ghost Train.

There's a manager's tent (or possibly caravan), in which Gideon has a 
high-backed, well-upholstered chair.

The exact locations of things move around from time to time, 
particularly when someone is trying to find the exit.

===
Events so far:

Yesterday:

 morning: Adric gets flyer from Mr G, posts it in TTR.

 4:21pm: Nyssa kills Adric, then notices the flyer and decides to 
attend the carnival.

Today:

 8:00am: Fitz and Anji notice the flyer, and decide to attend the 
carnival on the assumption that the Doctor will be going and all hell 
will break loose.

 8:30am: Ayna and Sandra notice the flyer, and decide to attend the 
carnival (without telling anyone where they're going, in case they're 
told they can't go).

 8:45am: The Doctors notice the flyer, especially the bit about 'The 
Terrifying Chronal Explorations of Doctor Mekt', and decide to attend 
the carnival. (* So far, none of the Doctors have shown up at the 
carnival.)

 ?:??am: Magnus notices the flyer and decides to attend the carnival 
with Varne.

 ?:??am: Number One notices the flyer and, despite being immediately 
suspicious, feels obliged to attend the carnival. ("From the moment 
she'd first set eyes on the advertising poster, a sense of 
inevitability had settled on her like clinging fog.")

 9:06am: Number One, in female form, arrives at the carnival and 
meets Gideon Tod.

 9:12am: Gideon Tod introduces Number One to Zack, and leaves them to 
get acquainted. Number One tries to leave the tent, but can't. Number 
One turns herself male to prove to Zack that she's not his Mom.

 9:20am: The following people make their way to the carnival:
  - Ayna and Sandra, Ayna wearing a personal chameleon circuit that 
makes her appear to be a normal girl.
  - Fitz and Anji.
  - Nyssa, packing an assortment of hand weaponry and her 'Dummies' 
Guide to Black Magic'.
  - Adric.
  - Magnus and Varne.

 9:22am: Gideon sends Delilah to give Number One and Zack breakfast.

 9:25am: Ayna and Sandra arrive at the carnival.

 9:30am: The carnival opens for the day.

 9:31am: Number One knocks out Delilah and escapes the tent with Zack

 9:35am: Magnus and Varne enter the carnival and accost Lineus Tod, 
who leads them into a Klein bottle trap. Magnus bets Varne he can get 
them out within forty minutes. Gideon, predicting that Magnus will 
escape easily, sends Lineus to fetch Dr Mekt.

 9:37am: Number One is attacked by Simple Simon, and Zack is abducted 
by Fetch and Tex. Number One is turned back into a woman during the 
fight.

 9:42am: Simon achieves victory, and on Ezra's instructions takes 
Number One to the Action-Packed Wild West Shooting Gallery.

 9:50am: Adric, lurking in the safety of the woods, is drawn into the 
carnival. He meets Ezekiel Tod, who claims to know "what you really 
want", and furthermore that this is not (as generally assumed) 
domestic bliss with Nyssa, nor indeed domestic bliss with his Number 
One female fan, but a True and Final Death. He then cuts Adric's 
throat.

 9:55am: Ayna and Sandra meet Gideon Tod, who destroys Ayna's 
chameleon circuit, then apparently transforms her into the normal 
girl that the circuit made her appear to be. (Which means, among 
other things, that she no longer has her powers.) He also traps 
Sandra in a mirror.

 10:00am: (or thereabouts) Delilah regains consciousness, and sets 
about repairing the damage to her complexion.

 10:00am: Lineus (* who is busy - no detail yet) is late for feeding 
and mucking out the freaks. The freaks become restless. Igenlode 
slips into Shanta's cage and weakens the bars, allowing Shanta to 
escape (the culmination of many earlier bar-weakening visits).

 10:06am: There are screams. (* still unexplained)

 10:06am: Magnus and Varne escape from the Klein bottle, 31 minutes 
after their imprisonment. (Magnus, however, accepts Varne's claim 
that it's been 41 minutes, so either time's different inside Klein 
bottles, Magnus *wanted* to lose the bet, or the author stuffed up. 
Evidence exists to support all three options.) They are immediately 
imprisoned in a time loop by Doctor Mekt.

 10:10am: Shanta stalks and attacks Fitz and Anji. Fitz and Anji run 
away, and shake her temporarily by crawling dangerously under the 
carousel.

 10:15am: Delilah heads after Number One and Zack, but finds that 
Simple Simon has already dealt with them. Simon gives her a message 
from Gideon, telling her that she has to go and do Lineus' chores 
with the freaks because Lineus is busy.

 10:25am: Fitz sees Delilah walk past, and decides to follow her. 
Anji follows Fitz.

 10:??am: Nyssa buys cotton candy from Ezekial, then is lured by a 
phantom Adric to the Tunnel of Love, where she finds Adric's Badge of 
Mathematical Excellence (its edges stained a rusty brown) and then is 
attacked by hoardes of monstrosities (starting with doll-like walking 
corpses in tattered blue and yellow uniforms, and working up to 
leering clown-things, bat-things, etc.) and forced to retreat into 
the Tunnel.

 10:30am: Nyssa, seriously injured, encounters Ezra Tod, who throws 
her against a wall and shoots her in the shoulder when she tries to 
attack him. Near death, she is retrieved by Ezekial Tod, who tells 
Ezra he was "a trifle too enthusiastic", but notes: "Our little 
poppet may yet serve our purposes."

 10:30am: Ayna and Sandra escape from the tent where they've been 
imprisoned since Ayna's transformation.

 10:30am: Magnus and Varne escape from the time loop, and find 
themselves next to the tent in which Adric met his apparent end.

 10:30am: A burst of chronal feedback explodes from Doctor Mekt's 
staff, setting him on fire. This is witnessed by Gideon and Lineus; 
Lineus puts the fire out and helps Doctor Mekt back to his tent, 
after which Gideon sends him to fetch Ezra.

 10:32am: Magnus and Varne discover that Adric is only mostly dead, 
and speculate that the Tods have some reason for wanting Adric in an 
almost-dead state. To annoy the Tods, therefore, Magnus heals Adric. 
Adric's essence, however, stays in whatever dark place it has been 
sent to, and his newly-healed body is taken over by Something Else.

 10:??am: Delilah goes into Kumba's caravan with a whip. Fitz 
'rescues' Igenlode from the Frog-boy, and is attacked for his pains. 
Shanta catches up with them, and starts feeding on Anji.

 10:35am: Delilah kills Shanta (incidentally frightening off 
Igenlode), heals Anji's wound, and invites Fitz and Anji (well, Fitz 
carrying the still-unconscious Anji) to follow her into Kumba's 
caravan.

 10:40am: The Something Else attacks Magnus, depriving him of a 
kidney, prompting him to decide that rendering Adric completely dead 
would probably annoy the Tods just as much as healing him. 
Furthermore, he decides to write off the debt that prompted their 
visit to the carnival, and informs Varne that all the carnival staff 
are now fair game.
The Something Else, deprived of the use of Adric's body, goes in 
search of "a suitable body, something with limited intelligence and 
great physical strength", and settles on Kumba.

 10:40am: Gideon demonstrates to Ezra his newest performer, 
Pirouette.

 10:45am: Magnus and Varne investigate the Hall of Mirrors. They find 
Ayna and Sandra's trail, and start following it.

 11:16am: Number One regains consciousness to find himself (male 
again) a target in the Wild West shooting gallery. Gideon teases him 
about Adric and Nyssa's fates (apparently unaware of what Magnus has 
done to Adric - or perhaps Magnus hasn't actually made any 
difference...), and then heads off to put the refining touches on 
Pirouette. Ezra shoots Number One in the trigger finger, then leaves 
him to the gun-toting punters.

11:19am: Zack helps Number One break out. Ayna rescues Zack from 
Fetch. Number One and Zack and Ayna and Sandra join forces. Magnus 
and Varne show up, and reveal that Ayna's transformation is only an 
illusion, which Magnus breaks. Number One and Zack and Ayna and 
Sandra and Magnus and Varne join forces, at least for the time being.

===
Some questions that might yet be answered:

* Where have the Doctors been all this time?
* What's the story about Magnus and Varne and their connection with
  the Brothers Tod?
* Who is Zack really?
* What was Lineus busy doing between 9:35 and 10:30?
* What does Ezekial Tod have in mind for Adric?
* What actually happened to Adric? Has the death of his body freed 
him, or is he still trapped wherever-he-was?
* Who was that in Adric's body, and what's his connection with 
Magnus?
* What were the screams at 10:06am? (The obvious assumption is that 
they're connected to the escape of Shanta, but we're told a few 
minutes later that she hasn't attacked anyone yet.)
* What's happened to Nyssa?
* Who is Pirouette, and where did she come from?
* Is there some connection between those last two questions?
* What was Delilah doing in Kumba's caravan?
* Will I regret having asked what Delilah was doing in Kumba's 
caravan?
* What happens when Delilah and Fitz and Anji go into Kumba's caravan 
together?
* What will Number One and Zack and Ayna and Sandra and Magnus and 
Varne do next?