#And so another year of Chaos begins - with the Wonderful Wizard of Gauze!

[hriobzagelthewanderer]

A masquerade mask, made of beech. Painted green - decorated with emeralds. The image of a hot air balloon flying over a cityscape can be made out among the intricate gold leaf designs. On the back - runes in a foreign script, but one Hriob has seen before.

With it, was a note:

"Your mask, as ordered. Using magic as you put it on will activate the illusions. I hope it suits your needs. - MT"

Shaking hands quietly grab the note, then the mask, as the Shaman - eyes faintly bloodshot, silent and fidgeting with desperate focus, trying to resist the urges of the spirits already running rampant through his head - briefly gives a sigh of relief, before donning the mask-

A burst of green light overwhelms the room, and where once a grey-cloaked figure in body wraps crouched over the parcel, now stood a much similar figure, if only in stature... instead of monk-like clothes, however, fine bright silks criss-crossed over his exposed skin, underneath a fancy, almost sparkling Pearl-and-Emerald tuxedo, with a far more streamlined, golden masquerade piece covering the skin around his eyes down over his nose. Where once he held a staff of twisted, living oak, ash, and thorn, now was a small, slim, polished wand of ebon-stained elder, capped with white pearlescent fittings on either end with the faintest hints of emerald and gold accents around their edges.

A powerful, subtle, all-encompassing glamour, but still only an illusion in the end... however, the spirits loose upon the world, not yet at full presence yet already heavily felt by their Shaman, already found their power solidifying, making more real what was still only illusion...

"Ah, about time. The Show Must Go On, after all... and I have much to see, to do, to meet, and to perform for! I wonder, though, if I'll be seeing any lost girls, cute dogs, tin-men, strawmen, or lions in the next few weeks... Time will tell, it seems! Onwards!"