All Hallows Eve Festival

“HEY YOU! WELCOME TO HALLOW’S EVE!!
The lanterns are glowing, the pumpkins are waiting to be carved, and there’s a prize if you don’t make yours look like soggy bread!
The kids are in paint and costumes, Seraphis is sharpening her scary stories, and the tables are bending under food and drink.
There’s even arm wrestling — though for some reason everyone keeps dodging me.
SO GRAB A MASK, DUNK FOR AN APPLE, AND GET IN HERE — IT’S AUTUMN AND WE’RE DOING IT LOUD!”

— Rike Thunderale - Self Nominated Organizer

What Even Is the All Hallow’s Eve Festival?

The All Hallow’s Festival isn’t in the Inn’s calendar.
It isn’t a holy day, a prophecy, or a tradition anyone admits to planning.

It’s what happens when:

• The Inn drifts too close to an autumn world heavy with masks, firelight, and mischief
• Lanterns and pumpkins start sprouting in the Garden without permission
• Children arrive already in costume, faces painted, pockets bulging with stolen sweets
• Rika starts yelling about arm wrestling before anyone can stop her
• And Carmella declares herself queen of the costumes with the natural authority of someone wearing horns and scandal

Now the Inn is strung with lanterns, the tables are bending under food and drink, and the air smells of candle-wax, spice, and trouble.
Patrons carve pumpkins. Children paint faces. Seraphis is sharpening her stories.

Yes, even Freya is in costume.
Especially Freya.

Running the Festival

The All Hallow’s Festival is a lighthearted, eerie interlude session. Patrons can drift between events in any order, or the GM can weave them together as the evening unfolds. Each event is tied closely to the staff who run it.

The Apple Barrels (Briarhorn)

Rows of barrels line the garden, lanterns flickering on the water’s surface. Children squeal with laughter as they dunk for bright apples, while the larger barrels seem to ripple as if their fruit are waiting for prey. Briarhorn claps a patron on the back and bellows, “Harmless fun!” The nearest apple snaps its teeth in agreement.

Briarhorn’s Quirks:

• Roars with laughter at every splutter or bite.
• Calls every dunking a “sacred ritual of the harvest.”
• Loves when patrons try again, even bloodied.

Rules:

• Children’s barrels: Con save DC 8. Success = prize apple + cheer. Failure = splutter, disadvantage on next Charisma check vs children.
• Adult barrels: Con save DC 12.
• Success = clean apple, no harm.
• Failure = apples attack. Roll 1d4 piercing damage.
• Optional: Roll on the complication table below.

Complication Table (d6):

1. Apple latches onto your nose. Disadvantage on next Persuasion check.
2. Two apples bite at once — one clings to each ear.
3. Apple spits cider in your face. You reek of drink for 1 hour.
4. Apple refuses to let go; you surface with it dangling. Children howl with laughter.
5. Barrel tips, soaking you completely. Disadvantage on next Dex check.
6. Briarhorn declares you the “chosen one” and insists you go again.

The Pumpkin Carving & Arm Wrestling (Rika)

Rika stomps into the garden with two pumpkins the size of children, real children hanging from her arms. She drops them with a grin that rattles lanterns. “CARVE! MAKE IT TERRIFYING! OR ADORABLE! OR BOTH!” she roars. Between rounds she slams her elbow on a barrel: “WHO’S BRAVE ENOUGH TO TRY ME?!”

Rika’s Quirks:

• Children clamber over her constantly; she doesn’t notice.
• Cheers failures as loudly as successes.
• Demands arm wrestling “to keep patrons honest.”

Pumpkin Carving:

• No rolls unless a contest is desired. If so: Performance, Sleight of Hand, or Dex (artisan’s tools) vs DC 12.
• Nat 1 = pumpkin collapses into pulp (still earns applause).
• Winning carvings paraded with cheers and sweets.

Arm Wrestling:

• Contested Strength (Athletics) checks, best of three.
• Rika: Athletics +12 (overwhelming). If she likes a challenger, she “goes easy” at +4.
• Tie = stalemate → demands rematch.
• Victory = sweets, applause, and Rika’s lasting respect.

Optional Complications (d4):

1. Table breaks in half.
2. Lantern tips dangerously.
3. Rika suplexes opponent “for the crowd.”
4. Children swarm her mid-match, distracting her (opponent gains advantage).

The Costume Contest (Carmella)

A stage has been cobbled together at the garden’s edge. At its centre sits Carmella in a high-backed chair arranged like a throne. “Darlings,” she declares, “tonight we crown not pumpkins, but beauty. Step forward and show me splendour!” She gestures regally as the first contestant climbs up.

Carmella’s Quirks:

• In full diva mode: every word projected, every gesture grand.
• Tries to be polite… mostly. A sigh or a glare awaits the unprepared.
• Rewards effort, not mediocrity.

Notes:

• Primarily roleplay.
• If contested: Performance or Persuasion vs DC 13.
• Complimenting Carmella may earn fleeting favour (and future trouble).Children climb onto Rika mid-match, distracting her (opponent gains advantage).

Face Paint & Frights (Sylvie)

In one corner of the garden, chaos wears ribbons and a smile. Sylvie has overturned a table into a carnival stall, paint pots scattered in gleaming disorder. She dances between children, brushes flashing, leaving behind cats, jesters, and grins too wide. One girl skips away with such a grotesque painted smile that her parents blanch. Sylvie claps like she has staged a triumph. “Perfect! Fright is the purest applause.”

Sylvie’s Quirks:

• Treats the face-painting as a stage play, narrating her “masterpieces” with mock-serious gravity.
• Applauds parents’ discomfort more than children’s joy.
• Loves painting motifs that blur the line between cute and uncanny — stitches, too-wide eyes, smiles that curve a bit too far.
• Declares every design, successful or not, as “artistic scandal.”
• Adults foolish enough to stand still are “volunteered” as canvases.

Notes:

• Pure roleplay. Children adore her, parents squirm.
• Optional check if players join in: Dex (tools) or Performance vs DC 12.
• A Sylvie-painted face may cause odd effects: shadows lean away, lanterns sputter, or whispers follow. She insists these are “signs of approval.”

The Dancing Lawn (Tess + Kael)

Lanterns sway above the grass as Tess lifts her fiddle. Her bow dances across the strings and the crowd moves with it — first a reel for laughter, then a soft ballad drawing out half-spoken truths, and finally a dirge that hushes even the shadows. Beside her, Kael sits quietly with a drum at his knees, each strike resonant and measured, his stone-veined skin catching lamplight. His soft percussion grounds her flights of melody, shaping where the music wants to go.

Tess’s Quirks:

• Guides emotion rather than demands it — her fiddle invites rather than forces.
• Calm, elegant in motion, always in control of the room’s current.
• Keeps her violin nearby for a shift into sorrow or single-lines when needed.

Kael’s Quirks on Drum:

• His strikes are deceptively simple — each beat seems to anchor a feeling, slow the wind or stir memory.
• He never overplays; his restraint is part of the music.
• The Inn seems to echo his resonance subtly — chairs shiver, lanterns settle, shadows pause.

Notes:

• Purely flavour (no roll needed unless you want a joint performance check).
• Tess may shift tone: reel (rowdy), ballad (intimate), dirge (solemn).
• Kael’s drum lines support her transitions, keeping the music emotionally grounded.
• The music may tug at characters unexpectedly — those resisting Tess might find their heartstrings pulled anyway.

Fizz’s Potion Stall (Fizz)

A crooked little stall gleams with bottles in impossible colours. Fizz beams from behind it, tail twitching as he holds up a bubbling vial. “Guaranteed harmless! …Mostly.” A brave patron downs one, and in moments they’re floating three feet off the ground, meowing indignantly as children cheer.

Fizz’s Quirks:

• Constant salesman patter: “rare vintage,” “seasonal special,” “tested on Nibbles.”
• Absolutely insists every potion is perfectly safe.
• Secretly delighted whenever chaos erupts.

Rules:

• Drinking a potion: roll 1d6.
• Transform into a black cat (1 hour).
• Become partially transparent (30 min).
• Float 1 ft off the ground (10 min).
• Skin turns a bright unnatural colour (1 hour).
• Voice echoes like a ghost (20 min).
• Hair flickers like harmless fire (10 min).
• All effects are temporary, with no lasting harm. Mostly.

Tales by Firelight (Seraphis & Lucien)

The great hearth roars, chairs drawn close in a ring of firelight. Patrons trade ghost stories while children giggle or clutch their sweets. Seraphis sits upon a plain stool, a glass of wine resting nearby. Behind her, Lucien looms — arms folded, or silently holding her drink. When Seraphis leans forward to speak, even the fire seems to hush and listen.

Seraphis & Lucien’s Quirks:

• Seraphis offers her tales with calm inevitability — silence follows, whether invited or not.
• Lucien enforces order with a single shadow-backed glare.
• When a tale is poorly told, Seraphis sighs and delivers a dry remark sharp enough to sting.

Notes:

• Primarily roleplay; her linked tales can be slotted in here. (See side panel.)
• Optional Performance check DC 12 for players telling their own stories.
• Seraphis herself does not roll — her stories always succeed.

Sample Dry Remarks (for weak tales):

• “If the goal was to frighten me into boredom, you succeeded admirably.”
• “Your delivery suggests the real ghost here is pacing, waiting for you to finish.”
• “A tragedy, truly — not the story, but the time I shall never recover.”
• “I have seen children invent darker tales with a dropped candle and a blanket.”
• “Do sit down before the fire grows embarrassed for you.”

Finals Words

Enjoy the sweets, if you must. Dance if you are dragged. Applaud the costumes, however dreadful. But do not mistake this festival for safety. The Inn smiles tonight because it remembers autumn, and autumn remembers everything.

If you are sensible, you will laugh, drink, and retire early. If you are not sensible… the Inn is always delighted by poor judgement