The Tinkerer’s Carnival (5e Quest)

Adventure Background

This quest can be implemented at any town or city that could host a large traveling circus. The Tinkerer’s carnival is a traveling circus known for the fact that it is run mostly by animated toys

Overview

The party will learn about the Tinkerer’s Carnival being in town. Head to the carnival and find something is wrong with the carnival then set out to fix it.

Hook

Any party can hear about the Tinkerer’s Carnival in a bar or around town. They also may be gifted tickets to the carnival by a familiar NPC.

Stages

The Tinkerer’s Carnival is set up with 5 large circus tents ringing a central tower. Once the party enters the carnival they should be prompted to visit one of the five tents Party’s choice to view one of the attractions of the carnivals. The attraction options are Trapeze tent, clown tent, magician tent, animal tent, and the juggler tent. After the party goes to a tent the show will begin normally until a flash of green energy causes the toys preforming the show to go rogue. Once the rogue toys are dealt with the party should seek out the Tinkerer to find out what is going on. The Tinkerer will be in front of the center tower and will insist that there is nothing wrong and that their toys can’t go rogue. On a high perception check a party member will see green energy arc from the top of the tower to another tent DM’s choice. Screaming will then be heard coming from that tent. The Tinkerer will insist that the party follow him to see what is causing the screaming. Upon entering the tent the toys will already be going rogue and the party will be forced to deal with them. Once that tent is dealt with the party should return to the tower. If a party member didn’t see the green energy from the tower earlier have the tinkerer as the party for help investigating his toy animation machine to find out what is wrong. Entering the tower will have the party run into the carnival’s mascot and the villain behind the rogue toys. For a comedic tone the villain can be the Tinkerer’s evil twin or something goofy like that. The villain can also be an existing villain from the campaign if they fit the part. Once the villain and the mascot are dealt with the Tinkerer should reward the party with some gold balanced for their level and the quest is done

Trapeze Tent

The Trapeze Tent hosts the carnival’s acrobatics show preformed by the Trapeze Dolls.

The trapeze tent should be a 100ft diameter circle with a ring of seating encompassing it. There should be 4 platforms raised 30ft in the air with trapeze and tightropes spanning between the platforms. Feel free to add any other acrobatic obstacles to the tent for the players to fight around.

When the toys go rogue they will grab a child and hold them hostage on one of the platforms. If the Trapeze Tent is the first tent the players go to the toys should take the child as a volunteer and go rogue when the child is already on the platform. If the players go to the Trapeze Tent second they should arrive to the child already being held hostage.

The toys shouldn’t actually attack the child just prevent them from leaving until the players destroy the rogue toys

Inhabitants

Trapeze Dolls

Number	Hit Points	Armor Class	Attack
5	2	10	+1 to hit / 1 piercing damage

The trapeze dolls automatically pass any acrobatics checks needed to navigate their tent

Clown Tent

The Clown Tent hosts the carnival’s comedy show

The toy clowns that inhabit this tent before going rogue play slap stick and throw pies in each other’s faces. When they go rogue they start throwing pies at the audience and start up the pie cannon at the center of the tent. The cannon won’t stop launching pies until all of the toy clowns are destroyed

Inhabitants

Toy Clowns

Number	Hit Points	Armor Class	Attack
2	12	12	+2 to hit / 0 damage 1 round blinded

The clowns attack by throwing pies into people’s faces and blinding them for 1 round. On initiative 1 the clowns can also target a 10ft square and have their giant cannon launch a huge pie at that area. All in the area must make a DC 12 dexterity check or take 1d8 bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone

Magician Tent

The Magician Tent hosts the carnival’s magic show and is only ran by one toy.

The lone toy magician doll stands at the center of the tent and summons the props they use for their performance. Before the magician goes rogue they will be preforming card tricks and card throwing stunts using mirrors that send the cards teleporting from one to the other. When the magician doll goes rogue they will summon three rings of mirrors to surround them and begin attacking whoever is closest to them. Each ring of mirrors should have at least two different types of mirrors. One of the types of mirrors if walked through should move a person into the ring closer to the magician while the others send them back a ring. Once the magician doll is destroyed the mirrors should disappear.

Inhabitants

Magician Doll

Number	Hit Points	Armor Class	Attack
1	15	14	+2 to hit / 1d4 slashing damage

The magician doll attacks with deadly throwing cards that are not blocked by the mirrors

Animal Tent

The Animal Tent hosts the carnival’s exotic animals show

There are several life sized stuffed animal toys that perform stunts inside the tent elephants lions zebras monkeys and camels. Before any of the toys go rogue the different stuffed animals will be doing their own stunts around the tent. For the animal tent only the lions go rogue and begin attacking the other toys. The other animal toys are unable to fight back and the players must save them by destroying the lion toys

Inhabitants

Stuffed Lions

Number	Hit Points	Armor Class	Attack
2	18	10	+1 to hit / 1d4 piercing damage

Juggler Tent

The Juggler tent hosts the carnival’s juggling show

In the center of the tent sits the large sized juggler toy that has many arms and many juggling pins that are constantly being thrown into the air and caught again. When the Juggler goes rogue it begins to spin around and throw its juggling equipment at anyone that moves. On its turn it will attack up to three people that it saw move since its previous round then turn 180 degrees to face the other direction

Inhabitants

Toy Juggler

Number	Hit Points	Armor Class	Attack
1	22	12	+6 to hit / 1d6 bludgeoning damage

The Juggler toy only attacks creatures that it witnessed either walk towards it or attack it

Central Tower

The central tower is where the Tinkerer holds the machine they use to animate all of the toys.

When the adventures finally enter the tower the Tinkerer will follow them and everyone will see the villain on a second floor balcony sabotaging the animation machine. After the party enters the villain will notice them and have the mascot of the Tinkerer’s Carnival the Top Hat Bear go rogue and block the stairs to them and attack the party. Once the Top Hat Bear is destroyed the villain will either surrender or run away DM’s choice. After this the quest is mostly over

Inhabitants

Top Hat Bear

Number	Hit Points	Armor Class	Attack
1	39	11	+2 to hit / 1d6 bludgeoning damage

The top hat Bear is a large sized creature that has a vulnerability to fire damage but if it is hit with fire its attacks will then deal an extra 1d4 fire damage

Conclusion

When the quest is done the Tinkerer will shut down the carnival until he can replace the broken toys

Rewards

The Tinkerer should reward the party with gold depending on their level and a Rust Bag of Tricks with DM's discretion.

Experience

Combat Awards

Name of Foe	XP per foe
Trapeze Doll	10
Stuffed Lion	25
Toy Clown	25
Magician Doll	50
Toy Juggler	50
Top hat Bear	100

The minimum total award for each character participating in this adventure is 150 experience points.

The maximum total award for each character participating in this adventure is 300 experience points.

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