Cirque Solace

When the Cirque rolled into town, I was skeptical at first. I knew what they were selling, they made it quite clear to everyone. "We cure what ails ya! Through happiness, health! Step right in, and feel your worries — and your wounds — wash away!" But, my leg hadn't been working quite right after I broke it a while, and I figured I could use some entertainment anyways. By the time I walked out of that tent, I felt like I could run miles without stopping!

-A satisfied customer

  In the Waste, healing is harder to come by than it is beyond the Sands. For the majority of the world, clerics and paladins take up the mantle of curing the sick and the wounded, or bringing the dead back to life. However, the Waste's very nature prevents them from performing that job, for the moment one crosses into it all contact with the divine is lost. Even druids and rangers, who also often take up the role of the healer, are less common in the Waste than elsewhere. While they are not absent, the natural energies of the Waste sometimes feel tainted, or somehow wrong, and many are driven away because of that.   But that does not mean magical healing is entirely absent in the Wild Waste. Instead, it merely comes in a more unusual form. Bards. While druids are uncommon, and divinely powered magic users are unheard of, bards can be found throughout the Waste. Bardic healing is as potent as any other's, albeit a bit unorthodox. The Waste's nature tends to separate people, and not everyone can just walk on down to the local doctor, especially in smaller towns or when the healing required must come from a more experienced healer. Because of this, and the fact that staying still simply doesn't appeal to most bard, a group of bardic healers have taken to traveling the Waste, offering their services when needed. This group, and the specially outfitted railtrain they ride, is called Cirque Solace.   Cirque Solace is definitely not your average railtrain. While it certainly has some passenger areas and living spaces, where its inhabitants stay during travel and sleep at night, many of its cars are incredibly outlandish. There are stages, and saloons, and animal cages, and fortune tellers, and all sorts of spaces for entertainment, all packed into their own train car.   At the surface, none of this appears to have anything to do with healing. However, the effects of a day spent at the Cirque say differently. One might be so distracted by laughing, or gasping, or oohing and aahing, that they entirely forget the pain of a broken arm. But that pain never returns, even when the day is done. Through sheer entertainment, Cirque Solace is capable of healing even the most grievous of injuries. As their motto goes, "Through happiness, health!"