“Worst crime ever was play some rock’n’roll”
-HL d’Sivis

A benefit and awareness concert designed to draw attention to a pernicious new drug on the streets of Sharn ended in tragedy this week when an unknown spellcaster interrupted the proceedings by turning two of the participants into eldritch abominations.

Rosalina, a well known goblin bard currently under the sponsorship of House Phiarlan, announced the concert as an attempt to combat the rise of the drug nadai, which appears to affect users differently based on their ancestry (to some it is a soporific, while it induces violence in others). By attaching it to the Night Market taking place in the middle districts, she hoped to entice more beings to hear her message.

The market itself was full of vendors, contests, and attendees. A hattery owned by the gnome Greenfoot, selling fanciful chapeaux advertised itself with small clockwork mice who dance and doff their caps on command. A booth named Better Safe was in the business of selling extremely specific charms and wards, such as a protection against “being stampeded upon by your own herd of cattle, spooked by a thunderclap on a moonless summer night”. The stall’s owner, Gertrude, proclaimed complete customer satisfaction on all of her wares, as unlikely as the events described might be.

For foodstuffs, the hallmark of the event was the “Scrumptious” sweets sold by Syrup and Sugar, most of which carried a delightful hint of magic about them. The contests were indeed well contested by attendees. An amusing highlight was the ‘rat race’, where competitors could be shrunken down and act as the jockeys. (Any allegations of cheating leveled at your intrepid reporter who was a winning jockey are completely baseless and counterfactual.)

Unfortunately, all these whimsical events were overshadowed by the impromptu combat that broke out when two of the ‘special guests’ of Rosalina were cruelly cut down by a spellcaster who escaped the scene amidst the carnage as marketgoers raced for the exits. Eyewitnesses can only describe the perpetrator as a medium-sized humanoid with tanning skin and yellowed teeth who kept his features obscured under a hood as he slipped away.

Despite the interruption, Rosalina remains hopeful that more people will understand the potential threat of nadai, and contribute resources to fight its sale and use among vulnerable populations.