The Hallowed Carnival was as spooky and twisted and fun as the name promised. All of these people of the carnival were zombies, headless ghosts, vampires, frightening creatures… they were all considered weird and unusual. Anomalies of man, just as she had always been called. Only her mother- and some of the Oasis clergy as they knew better- called her special and unique. That was how she saw these figures, whether phantom, creature, or gypsy. They were all very unique and very special in their own way.
 
Off at the edge of the forest was the apparition of a girl. In her hand was a piece of parchment paper with a child’s handwriting on it. For a moment she watched the girl as she tried to entice people to her, to take her paper and, from the sounds of it, go into the forest for her. With a small smile curled on her lips, Zephyra walked up to the small girl who was younger than her for certain. For a moment she was stricken with sadness that the girl had to die at such a young age, especially by decapitation as obvious from the marks on her neck.
 
The girl piped up with a bit of cheerful laughter- unusual for a specter Zephyra thought- as she touched the parchment and took it into her hands. The ghostly girl explained to her that if she wanted to help, she would need to hunt down the five banshee wives and take their treasured possessions and bring them back to her. For such a feat she would be rewarded. Then the girl, a bit too amused by this, added that if she were to die she could simply join the carnival and be her friend forever. “I’ll consider it if the banshees get the best of me.”
 
Stepping around the phantom she looked up at the charms hanging from the branches of the trees bordering the fairgrounds. Zephyra had read about charms like these in books. It was said that they kept evil spirits away. She passed through the treeline and into the forest. Immediately her long black leather boots were met with muck and mush of swampy terrain. Vacant nooses hung above her and the trees… they were the most unnerving. As if pressed against glass, bodies of mean were frozen and pressed against the bark, pleading for release. Jutted out were pieces of armor or weapons on some, rotting limbs on others.
 
Wispy lights passed through the dark leaves and then suddenly they swarmed closely to her. There was a loud wail and a banshee came flying furiously at her, ethereal hands and nails clawing and scratching like a rabid cat. She put her arms up in a cross before her upper body to shield her face and vital organs from the attack. Rippling red light thrust from her hands and pushed the banshee back. The banshee wailed and would not give up, swooping back for another assault. This time a single ball of red chaos energy was clutched in her hand and she threw it at the banshee and the ethereal creature burst into nothingness.
 

What dropped on the ground was a noose that Zephyra had been too startled to notice had been around the banshee’s neck. She bent down and picked it up and looked at the list the girl had given her. On it was a noose. She put the cursed rope in a bag on her shoulder.

Adventuring was going… well, going. Celyna still had yet to find anything incredibly dangerous, exciting, or crazy, save for a run in with the girl Nymph in the forest of fey. She trotted through the Foschei as her canine form, as she often did when traveling. People had a tendency to leave her be when she wasn’t human. She loved that. She loved the silence and the loneliness, because it gave her the ability to observe people without interacting with them. People were silly, she had learned, and also stupid. They got caught up in things they shouldn’t, they worried too much about things they ought not, and they simply paid too much attention to big things whilst forgetting the little things… and to Celyna, the little things were the things that mattered. As she approached the carnival, she heard all of the terrific noises coming from it, and started to see glimpses of the people and ghouls and creatures within. Perhaps here she would find adventure.

A short distance from the entrance, she stood behind a tree to change to her human form. She tossed her messy hair in her hands to try to tame it a bit, then slung her bag over her shoulder and strode forward to the fair. The welcomer was a bit different than she had expected. A little ghost girl who’d lost her head, Celyna tilted her head to inspect this a bit more. The girl ahead of her talked to her for a moment, and she continued on. Celyna paused, waiting to give an appropriate break between greetings, then walked up to the little girl. The girl handed Celyna a paper, which must have been enchanted as it laughed once it reached her hands. She nearly dropped it as the girl told her the rules of this scavenger hunt. Strange, she thought, enticing. After committing the list to memory, she tucked it into her bag for safe-keeping, on the off-chance that she may forget something. Perhaps this were a real adventure, literally dropped into her hands. She was very interested, and noticed the girl who’d been ahead of her seemed to be also. She had stepped into the muck of the swamp and left the fairgrounds as quickly as she had entered, and Celyna was curious if perhaps she could use a helping hand with the scavenger hunt.

Instantly, the girl ahead of her was attacked by a whirling ghostly thing, and she fought it off with magic. Two hits was all it took and the banshee was defeated, exploding into nothing. Something came close to Celyna, rolling on the ground and coming to a full stop. A worn wedding ring, rusty and ancient-looking, and it was definitely on the list. She smirked and picked it up, tucking it away into one of the more secure pockets of her bag. Celyna strode forward to catch up to the other girl, “Hello there! Are you okay?” She caught up in a moment. “I think you’re looking for the same things I am, are you not?” Celyna pulled the paper partially out of her bag to show what she meant and stuffed it back in, “Do you think you could use some help on this accursed scavenger hunt? I know I could. I’m Celyna, by the way, nice to meet you.” She thrust her hand forward eagerly, smiling in the most friendly way she could with her menacing mouth full of wolf’s teeth. It seemed to irk some people, but she never let that stop her from smiling and being polite, even if some people did look at her as if she had multiple heads afterward. However, she was sure this girl wouldn't have much of a problem with that sort of thing. 

( Hope you don't mind if I pop in )

It had been a while since Shawarl had set foot outside of the Laeto Rainforest. This time her adventures lead her to the Kochei, another forest. It seemed her life would always be centered around them. However, she had a purpose for this adventure out. A banshee's wail. A component in a ritual to unlock latent power. How she would capture sound, she had no clue. She was in the middle of pondering such a situation when she was stopped by a ghostly girl.  The ghost laughed eerily and spoke of a scavenger hunt. Not one to pass up a hunt, figuratively or otherwise, Shawarl accepted the paper. She tucked the paper away into her robes after a quick glance.

Ignoring the rest of the carnival, she proceeded further into the forest. It was when she passed the charms and enchantments that she regretted not wearing boots. Wet muck squelched between her toes, and rose above her feet. Each step she took made a schlorp sound, from the suction to the ground. 

Suddenly she was accosted by a phantasmal creature. It started off as a wispy ethereal ball, and then shifted to a gruesome humanoid creature. The creature began to wail. The sound grew louder and louder until it was a shrieking noise. In reaction Shawarl began to hold her fingers into her ears, to no avail. The sound was just too loud. She could hardly concentrate with the noise. " SHUT UP FOUL CREATURE!" With a howl of her own she punched at the banshee, her fists lighting up with a strange holy light. When her fist connected the creature dispersed, turning into an ethereal mist. 

With a loud plop a still beating, but wounded heart fell to the ground. Within seconds the heart stopped beating and Shawarl plucked the heart from the ground. With the other hand she plucked the list from her robes. Wounded heart, curious. She thought, and marched onward, the heart still in her hand.

It was not long before she encountered two other people in the forest. " If you are working together, would you mind a third?" Shawarl spoke loudly, still partially deaf from the banshee's wail. She offered the wounded heart as a sign of peace. A pretty smile on her face.

Zephyra took out the tiny roll of parchment the ghastly girl had handed her and looked at the list again. The noose was crossed off but she looked at the other items. How peculiar were they. Growing up, her mother had told her stories about other lands but never too much about this one. She should have told her how strange this place was. First was the Virens Forest and its disgusting creatures- ogres- that had murdered her best friend. Now it was this weird ambling caravan of odd creatures and people all dead or of some form of death.
 
So lost in thought was she that she did not notice the ring drop and roll across the ground, nor did she notice the woman until she spoke. Zephyra turned and looked at the woman who appeared normal enough. She was certainly not a banshee thank goodness. She wasn’t ready for another one of those just yet. “I’m alright, thanks. Sometimes I can’t control it and it just does what it does to protect me. Just as well I suppose.” The woman pulled out her parchment and it was identical to the one she had in her bag as well. “Yeah we are.” When she asked if she could help, she hesitated, never having been much of a social person. Finally she said, “Yeah sure, why not. Company could be.. fun?” She took her outstretched hand and shook it, noticing the woman’s very sharp smile. A smirk played at the corner of her lips. This woman was peculiar like she was. “I’m Zephyra, a pleasure.”
 
They had not been walking long when, in the distance, there was another wail of a banshee. It was a dying wail. That meant there was another person in here looking for these items. Not long after a very colorful woman crossed their path with a heart in her hand. Zephyra had remembered seeing a wounded heart on the scroll in her bag. She was a loud talker and offered the heart as a sign of peace. She nearly laughed, for the woman was going to have to tone it down least they be besieged by banshees. “Keep it for yourself we all have to get our own set of items. But the way I hear it there are plenty of banshees. Let’s go deeper in.”
 

Zephyra took a turn and they started walking directly in the opposite direction as the edge of the forest. Light got a little less generous the deeper they went. Then as they were walking, she noticed the wispy lights again. Almost like fireflies at first and then they coalesced quickly into a big ball of light and out from it popped a banshee. She breathed out a swarm of angry bats that Zeph flailed around to keep away from her face, her arms suffering the scratches. She let loose a stream of her chaotic force energy and it imploded the wailing beast. A worn wedding band and two other items dropped on the floor. Zeph bent down to pick up the wedding band and stuff it in her bag.