Description
Circus Meridianus travels about Matheunis setting up near aldeia.
When traveling the circus forms a caravan of three dholes: pale, slime covered, wormlike creatures that are about a kilometer long. Each dhole has several buildings attached to it, painted in bright colors.
When camped the dholes form a circle around the circus, burrowing in the ground to created dunes or hills, or resting on the ground if the location is on solid rock. Inside the circle are the “big top” – an amphitheater usually carved from the ground by a dhole covered by a kinetic umbrella, a “fun house,” an area for byakhee rides, several shops, and housing for the circus employees.
(Several descriptions in this location paraphrase the works of HP Lovecraft and RE Howard)
Details
- Rulers:
- Emmerson, a green skinned human with a head that seems overly large for his body, wide flaring ears, and a curling proboscis flanked by tusks tipped with golden balls. (Level 3, 5 for social and mental skills.)
- Population:
- 30
- Region:
- The Beyond
- Circus Meridianus Hearsay:
Rumor Mill
The circus is a great place to hear the usual rumors of Matheunis.
- The Weird of Circus Meridianus:
Delicacies
At Leeks and Lizards the menu includes “spun honey between two sticks.” Customers can watch spiders create this sugary confection while they wait.
Under the Dome
The kinetic umbrella is an artifact that creates an invisible dome that repels solids and liquids but allows gases and energy to pass through.
- Points of Interest:
The Three Rings
Emmerson is the ringmaster for the show in the big top, usually wearing a green coat, black trousers, and shiny black boots. The first act is a man named Palmer (level 5) who juggles glowing razor discs. The second act is “the Flying Philosophers: Kelvin and Hubble.” The two nearly identical brother and sister perform on trampoline, high wire, and trapeze over a huge pool filled with “fetid black iridescent ooze that bubbles with greenish light and myriads of forming and unforming eyes.” (They are level 4, level 6 for acrobatics and have the hover ability from “controls gravity.”) The third and final act is a woman with black hair in a tight ponytail named Sinfield, who plays an ocarina fashioned from a starfish: “Tekeli-li,tekeli-li,” causing the Shoggoth in the pool to form pseudo-pods and dance in a slow disturbing manner.
The Funhouse
The fun house begins with the tunnel of gravity – a tunnel in which the feeling of “down” slowly rotates clockwise as you proceed down it. At the middle there are several chairs at what appears to be the ceiling from the ends of the tunnel but they are usable when at the center. The gravity then spirals back to normal in the second half. The second part of the fun house begins with the sign “Mirrors are windows to another dimension.” A maze of mirrors follows with some that make the viewer appear wider and shorter and others that change to taller and thinner, one mirror makes the viewer appear older the farther she moves from it and younger the closer they move to it. A final mirror shows the viewer with a goatee.
Rides
The byakhee rides consist of two byakhee that can fly one rider each up to a mile away and back for three shins. Byakhee look like humanoids with mole heads, bat wings and webbed feet.
Vendors
Vendors include “Umarth’s Oddity Exchange,” where customers can purchase up to ten random oddities or trade or sell theirs, and “Leeks and Lizards,” a tavern that features its namesake dish.