She could at least respect the man's enthusiasm in chasing the story. It was almost like her own interest in Thassilon, but not quite the same; somehow she doubted that the man wanted to know about the Devil just out of a sense of curiosity. When he asked what was going on, Malika tilted her head to the side slightly. "Not a Desnan then, are you? It's the Swallowtail Festival: a big celebration held at the beginning of each Autumn. They should be releasing the butterflies soon in the town square. If you don't mind, I don't want to miss it." So saying, she started walking again towards the town center.

As all of you mingle in your various ways with antics galore, a hush suddenly falls over the crowd as you all turn to see a woman with short red hair make her way up the small wooden stage set up in front of the new Cathedral.



She raises her arms up to quiet any remaining whispers before she spoke.

"Dear friends and close family: We are glad to see you all gathered here in this time of proud celebration and accomplishment. And I can also see plenty of fresh faces from outside of town. I personally welcome you to our town as you can see everyone here is here to welcome you as well. Even Larz managed to tear himself away from work for once!



The woman finishes her welcoming speech with a bright mood that is instantly brought back down with the next man, who was dark of skin with nary a hair on his head. He wore a finely crafted set of mail with a sword at his side. Clearly this man commanded respect in his presence alone.



"I just wish to remind you all to be safe around tonight's bonfire. We have no need for further repeats of the tragedy of what happened to our last place of worship. A moment of silence please, for those that were lost that day."

Everyone respects his wishes as it went deathly quiet and many bowed their heads in respect for at least a minute. With that done, the next speaker scheduled should be coming up. However, no one steps up. Some of the towns folk start talking amongst themselves as the man and the woman up on the stage look very confused as well. Just then, a young man who looked very nervous and out of breath stepped up on the stage.

"I just.. came to say... with great regret... Lonjiku Kaijitsu will be unable to attend the ceremony due to sudden illness."

All of you hear grumbling from the locals, suggesting that this is something not surprising as Lonjiku is well known for disliking frivolity and festivals like this.



To make up for it, a pleasant looking middle aged and bearded man who wore long blue robes stepped up onto the stage and made his own speech.



"I too would like to thank you all for coming here. I'm sure you're all eager for the joy and revelry, so without further delay, I hereby declare the Swallowtail Festival underway!"

With an uproarious cheer, booths of various foods and long-traveled souvenirs open all around the town square open, gatherings of games and contests occur all around eagerly accepting anyone who wishes to show their skill in various events as every one seems to disperse in various directions to take part in the festivities. While no prizes are beign offered generally, the idea of bragging rights seems to more then attract quite a few people to try out.

Of course, showing your skill for people to be in awe of you is always a good start for the locals to get to know you better, or treat you with more respect if you are already local. So what would you want to try?

• Archery Contest


• Sack Races


• Walking The Beam


• Tug o' War


• The Greased Pig Chase

Thoroughly cheery after the various speakers' announcements, Malika wandered between the various stalls and booths to peruse the wares being displayed. She stopped and watched several of the competitions being held, but declined to participate in most. She had always been a terrible shot with the bow, much to her father's chagrin; and she had no desire to wind up face down in the mud either in the tug of war or the... greased pig chase. They didn't have those up north, and she didn't think it was any great loss. The sack race and the beam-walking competition looked like fun though, and since they were open to all comers she decided she'd try her hand at them.

Silver listened to the annoceers with curiousity and would rather investigate more into the history behind the last chruch, but the beam caught her eye and she found herself wandering over to it. It wasn't as if she would do a very good job here, but it would be worse everywhere else. She wasn't deeply concerned in winning, but she might as well enjoy the compitions while they were being held. She got up on the beam as gracefully as she could and readied herself. When they told her to go, she across almost slipping, but managing to caught herself as best as she could. She tried her best to get the end and not slip off the beam completely.

Seeing that she wasn't sucessful at the beam, she deside to head over to archery and try her luck. It was just in her line of sight, so maybe its possible that she could pull it off with her crossbow seeing it had been a long time since she had held a normal one. She asked the person running the station if it was alright and than stepped back to take her shot, praying for some kind of luck that would let her win atleast one event. She positioned herself and let her arrow fly... and it went over the target landing in the ground behind the target. She sighed and waited to grab her arrow and head back.

Roan nodded after the woman finished speaking and watched her leave him there after excusing herself. He couldn’t care less about the butterflies but he felt unmotivated to move against the crowd and that was the place with the biggest gathering of people he knew off and consequentially the highest chance of him overhearing something useful. Considering how that had been the only way he got any trustworthy information on this town, barring bumping into random strangers, the path he had to follow was obvious. A few minutes and a sigh later he went to where she had gone, moving on a slower pace than before to avoid bumping into anyone else.

Reaching his destination, Roan behaved exactly the same way as others in the crowd, excluding a continuous light tap of his right foot on the ground which began when nobody went to make the next announcement after the bald man. His attitude remained the same over the whole event, only chuckling once when he heard the reactions around him caused by the nervous man excuse. As soon as all the speeches were made and people started mobilizing into competitions, Roan went to check all the possibilities. ’What better way to show those fools their folly in laughing at my expense than beating them on their own games. ’ He thought so with a big smile resembling that of a predator.

Strutting to the tug of war competition he noticed only a few of the competitors as possible challenges to his victory and cracking his knuckles waited for the moment to begin. Feeling the texture of the rope on his grip he then proceeded to pull the rope…

-

Sweaty from the previous contest, Roan approached the archery competition. Whilst his archery skills weren’t where he trully excelled he felt as a hunter he needed to partake on it and with a sudden sense of invigoration he moved forward.Seeing the previous competitor turning back downcast he proclaimed at the same time he picked one of the available bows and arrows for the event and got into position. “Here, I will show you how it’s done.” Touching his left hand on his forehead to remove a drop of sweat, Roan then stretched the bow and aimed at the target, shooting a single arrow.

When Yobi arrived at the square with the others, the speeches were about to start. She didn't care so much for speeches, and was very happy most of them were cut short. The mayor's however, made her laugh. She knew Larz. Sort of. She didn't particularly like him, but she liked his devotion to his work, regardless of its nature. And that was it for that speech; however, the Sheriff got on the stage and spoke next, telling everyone something they should already know. She didn't mind the moment of silence.

But it went on for too long. And it apparently wasn't planned for it to be so long. She could see the confused looks on the faces of the two on stage, and the rest of the crowd seemed to notice as well. The confusion was settled by a young man who was out of breath, and Yobi, for one, was happy for the outcome. She hated Lonjiku more than she family-loved Ameiko. Her frustration didn't last too long, however, as the next speaker was already on the stage after Yobi's long growl. And she had no reason to dislike this man; he actually knew what he was talking about when it came to religion. And of course he followed the right Goddess.

But she wanted to see the butterflies. They weren't there. Last year, she remembered the butterflies being released at the end of the speech. She would have likely pouted had she not been standing so close to the games she liked. She immediately joined in the sack race, and soon after hopped (literally) over to the beam. Walking along ledges was something she enjoyed doing just for fun all year round. Made sense to put her skills to the test now. She didn't like having to wait for so many people, though. All of the local drunks managed to end up in front of her. There was also one of the people she had brought here, so that made up for it. When it was Yobi's turn, she practically ran as she crossed the beam.

Standing near the back of the crowd, Dhalgren had to crane his neck to see, being unfortunate enough to end up standing behind a group of rather tall individuals. He could hear well enough however, and he was glad the speaking was rather short. In his experience a lot of speeches for religious event and festivals usually took an excessively long time. To his surprise, it wasn't long before the speeches were concluded. He had found that not being local, most of the individuals on stage were unfamiliar to him, along with the references to others they made during their speeches as well. He assumed that the red haired woman must be either the Mayor of Sandpoint, or the head of some sort of notable council. The next man he pegged as the town sheriff, due to his serious demeanor especially with the content of his speech.

After the crowd started dissipating toward the various events and booths set up, he wandered a little taking in the various festivities. He walked over to the balance beam contest and stood in the crowd idly observing. Watching some of the more soused individuals attempt the balance beam made for a few good chuckles, but Dhalgren knew that he wasn't all that nimble himself, and probably couldn't do any better with a few mugs of beer in him. Turning away from the contest, he headed through the crowd to look for something more his style. He glanced quickly at the archery butts, but knew that wasn't his forte. While he could throw a javelin pretty well, he didn't do well with either a crossbow or bow. Walking away it didn't take that long to find a competition more his flavour, and he joined the line of people on one side of the classic rope pull contest.

Holding the thick rope between his hands he found himself near the back, next to the anchorman for his teams side. The man seemed a stout fellow with a large beard and burly stomach, as he stood braced with the rope twirled around his waist. Taking a moment before the signal to start, he looked over the opponents of the other team. He was intrigued to see what looked like another traveler new to Sandpoint like himself on the other team, but was unable to dwell on it as the signal was giving and he pulled hard on the rough texture of the rope with whitened knuckles.

Tug of War (16)

Sack Race Results!

Malika had a lot of trouble getting into her sack in the first place and even fell forward onto the ground when the race started, giving the other racers and Yobi a big head start! Though weather it was sheer grit or the magic in her blood, Malika was able to pick herself up and start hopping in her sack faster then all the others, catching up with them at the halfway mark. The others seemed to fall by the wayside or fall down as well, but Yobi and Malika kept on going as hard as they could until the finish line.

It was a close stretch, but Malika manages to jump out ahead just in time to claim first place!

Walking The Beam Results!

Despite her last win however, Malika's luck ran out when it came to the Beam challenge as halfway through, she stepped on one part that was unfairly greased! It took just one slip for her to fall over and land into the mud pit right under it for those who failed. Luckily, there was some bucket with fresh water and some towels to wipe yourself off as best you could.

Yobi however was much better at this as it was almost showing off for her. She not only seemed to run across the beam, but she even did a forward cartwheel on the beam right on the end, giving the crowd a good whooping cheer for their local acrobat expert.

Silver finally seemed like the least likely to be Camoens who`d do this challenge. A few people seemed to almost want to step forward and stop her, but relented before actually doing anything. It was certainly harrowing for the poor girl! She waved and flailed her arms so many times just to keep her balance. She even started to waver back and forth hard when she hit the greased spot in the middle! Yet she somehow manged to get her foot down on the safe spot as she hurried along the rest of the beam, safe and clean!

Archery Contest Results!

Sadly, such luck now ran out for Silver as her bolt went really wide off the target, nearly hitting a poor chicken who was walking around not far from behind the target.

Yet the day was surely saved by Roan as his arrow took flight with confidence and assurance as it hit dead center on the bullseye! Most of the other contestants were not as good, at best only hitting the circle outside the bullseye, so the winner came obvious to them all.

Tug Of War Contest!

Roan and Dhalgren were on opposite sides of a long thick rope with four other mean alongside them as they both started to pull on as hard as they could on the rope to see who would falter first! The two hearty men struggled and gave it all the could, struggling and grasping hard as the rope seemed to want to tear their arms off!Yet in the end, one last good tug sent Dhalgren and his men falling to the ground as Roan was victorious.

With the first bout of games done, it was finally noon as everyone awaited the Swallowtail Release. A large covered wagon was being pulled by acolytes in blue robes similar to Father Zantus' as the man himself took the stage. He raised his arms up to silence the crowd as he spoke

"Dear friends, families and all long traveled visitors. You are all here in good company as we celebrate this joyfully in the name of The Great Dreamer herself. She does not turn away those who seek freedom and the joy of the open road. We all know the old stories, How when she first fell to this earth in a great battle with the evil Lamashtu, a humble blind boy nursed her back to health, without any requests made of her or without any knowledge of just who he was aiding. When she had recovered, she granted the young boy a great boon: to turn him into an immortal butterfly so he could forever travel the world and see all the wonders it had to offer that he never could before. And so, in honor of Desna and her blessing of freedom, let us once again send out her children upon the winds!!!"

As that was the signal, the tarp was suddenly pulled out from the cart as thousands of swallowtail butterflies swarmed into the air like a spiraling riot of color as the crowd erupts into a hearty cheer.

It was then that Lunch was being served along long tables set aside for everyone who wishes to come and enjoy all that was being offered. All the food was being provided by the local taverns as you can tell that pretty much all of them went out of their way to make little cards alongside the bowls and plates so you know where they came from.

What was being offered definitely tasted some of the best you ever had! Like the Hagfish's Lobster Chowder or the White Deer's Peppercorn Venison. Yet far and away, you and many of the other people agree the winner was clearly the Rusty Dragon's Curry-Spiced Salmon with Winterdrop mead at the side.

Dhalgren strained against the rope, tugging in time with the others as his team pulled as hard as they could. He could feel the heel and toes of his boots grind hard into even the hard-packed soil of the square as he fought for purchase. The rope bound tight against his palms, and his fingers tingled slightly from the pressure of his grip on the rough braid of the rope. Even though he put out as much effort as he could, it was all to naught as he found himself in a cloud of dust on the ground from the other teams pull. Getting up and dusting himself off, he patted a few of the others on the back from his team for a good effort while receiving a few in return. Taking a moment to congratulate a few others form the other team, he noticed that the other traveler had already taken his leave from the contest. He chatted idly with a few of the contestants, before taking his leave and retrieving his pack and halberd from the sidelines.

It was then that the crowd gathered around a wagon, and he joined listening to the speech. As the speech progressed he touched the steel of his halberd, in a small tribute to his own god Gorum. Dhalgren didn't like other gods, mostly because he considered them insipid and weak. While his parents were never particularly religious, throughout his travels so far Dhalgren had learned to take pride in his own skill and independence, and strength of self. He believed that Gorum well suited such traits, and he strived do become stronger and learn more skills of battle. That said he did find the unveiling of the butterflies interesting, and he watched as they swirled into the sky in a fountain of colour.

That done, he mingled with the crowd enjoying some of the free food and drink. He generally stayed away from the more unique dishes, instead staying with familiar foods like the beef or venison. He chatted idly with a few locals, most of the conversation running about the various foods or drinks upon various tables.

While quite used to performing, Yobi was not so good with a bag around her legs. Sure, she almost won the race. She didn't mind at all that she didn't get first in that. Especially not to whom she lost. She wasn't going to let it bother her once she was on the beam. And clearly it didn't, since she did so well there. So it was no surprise that she shared everyone's mirth when it was time to eat, but the fact that she got to see the swallowtails would have done that even if she'd fallen flat on her face in both events. She made sure to eat the curry-spiced salmon, even though she'd seen more than enough of it only hours ago.

Also unsurprising was that she was just as excited as Ameiko about...well, everything, really, but specifically about how well everything was going. "Why would you expect any different? You had my help, and I make everything better!" She said this clearly in jest; it had become somewhat of an inside joke since her first time cooking at the tavern, and ruined almost everything. She was happy she didn't have to try so hard to keep the smile on Ameiko's face. She wanted to ask if Ameiko knew anything about her father's health, but she couldn't bring herself to say it, since it would likely melt the smile away.

“This is how you shoot an arrow.” Exclaimed Roan to the gathered onlookers and contestants alike after his shot had hit the center of the target. Leaving the shooting zone with a smirk at what clearly would be his second victory of the day, he returned the borrowed bow to where he had taken it before watching the next participant. Shortly after, the joy of the victory was gone when most participants were unable to even strike the target. Suppressing a sigh for the third time in quick succession, Roan ridiculed aloud the worst performances, disappointed at the lack of a challenge this competition had in comparison to the tug of war where he and that other man had essentially carried their teams. "Are you even aiming?”; “The target is there you know.”; ”Keep shooting like that and soon we will be mourning the chickens.”

Around noon, Roan moved toward the cathedral while noticing that occasionally the passers-by would speak about him when he passed. Satisfied that now he would be taken seriously by the locals, he kept moving until he saw a multitude of people gathered around a large wagon. Crossing his arms at the man speech, Roan looked at the sky and the flying butterflies, wondering how many he could hit with his longbow from where he was. When all of them had vanished from his sight, he walked toward the tables to enjoy the free food. His fist bite of venison finally revealed to him a positive characteristic of the city, especially after days of eating only rations and bland meat. Experimenting all the dishes exposed he was forced to admit this was one of the tastiest festivals he had gone too. With even that damned Hagfish Lobster being decent. Moving all around the place on this endeavor Roan still kept looking for any hint of his query, ready to intercept anything or anyone that could probably answer what he needed to know before he set off to accomplish his task.

Silver smirked at his insults to her skill, but she couldn't even see the fact that their was a chicken from where she stood, so she felt indifferent about almost killing it. She put her crossbow away, and turned to look at him with her strange coloured eyes that she tried so hard to hide, but now she felt it didn't matter. She felt that who ever this stranger was he should be more careful about what he said. She didn't like it when people questioned her abilities.

"I wouldn't be to worried about my skills, their are closer targets that I would like to stick an arrow in." She gave her normal pleasant smile, but their now seem to be much more to it than to be pretty. Being pretty was just a bonus for her. She curtsied respectfully, but felt that it was all more cocky now than before. Perhaps it was meant to be cocky. "Thank you for a good match." She walked away without giving it much thought and returning to a more pleasant nature, she was too excited about the butterflies to worry about her loses.

Some how Silver managed to make her way to be the speech by following the others around her and than saw the person ready to announce and knew she was in the right place. She watched trying her best not to be distracted by things around her. The speech was inspiring and made her feel at place with the gods she worshipped and even wondered if that was the goddess that could have granted her these odd abilities, but she decided not to dwell on these thoughts when the butterflies were finally released over head. She felt truly amazed to feel the power of Desna running over her skin as she watched the beauty of the butterflies unfold and enjoyed the food.

When you all finish your meals, you all take part in a few more games in the festivities, managing to find the time to relax and enjoy yourselves for once as you are surrounded by cheerful music, eager storytelelrs and even a few children running around trying to capture the still several dozen butterflies that are around the place.

After some time passes, A sharp retort, like the crack of distant thunder, slices through the excited crowd as the sun's setting rays paint the western sky. A stray dog that has crawled under a nearby wagon to sleep starts awake, and the buzz of two dozen conversations quickly hushes as all heads turn toward the central podium, where a beaming Father Zantus has taken the stage. He clears his throat, takes a breath to speak, and suddenly a woman's scream slices through the air. A few moments later, another scream rises, then another. Beyond them, a sudden surge of strange new voices rises high-pitched, tittering shrieks that sound not quite human . The crowd parts and something low to the ground races by, giggling with disturbing glee as the stray dog gives a pained yelp and then collapses with a gurgle, its throat cut open from ear to ear. As blood pools around its head, the raucous sound of a strange song begins, chanted from shrill, scratchy voices.



Goblins chew and goblins bite!
Goblins cut and goblins fight!
Stab the dog and cut the horse!
Goblins eat and take by force!

Goblins race and goblins jump!
Goblins slash and goblins bump!
Burn the skin and mash the head!
Goblins here and you be dead!

Chase the baby, catch the pup!
Bonk the head to shut it up!
Bones be cracked and flesh be stewed!
We be goblins! You be food!

All around the area, you suddenly see Goblins surrounding and causing havoc! Particularly a trio of them is near you all!

(Battle Map is Updated, Roll for Initiative!)

When the unknown woman screamed, Roan had just thought a plan to acquire some of the leftovers from before without raising any alarms about his actions and was in the middle of deciding the best way to keep the food from spoiling. Startled, he turned his head from one side to the other and saw on the faces of the crowd that this wasn’t a part of the festivities. Soon his ears were attacked by what could only be considered a mockery of a song, whose lyrics, if one could even call it that, clearly demonstrated the intentions of the singers.

“What in the name of the nine hells, is the town guard doing?!” Roan said aloud, his voice muffled to all, but those close to where he was by all the noise of what had become a battleground. Doing his best to ignore the distracting shrieks of those fleeing in panic, he gave a quick glance around him to assess the situation before joining the fray. Taking note of those close to him that hadn’t ran away of the conflict, his face showed a glimpse of recognition when he saw a man ready for combat a few yards away, the same one he had competed against earlier.

Yobi was watching the Father take the stage, but her attention was soon drawn away by screams. She looked around and instinctively reached for her bow. She didn't yet know what the commotion was about, but she was not particularly interested in being unprepared. She quickly strung her bow and nocked an arrow. About this time, she heard a song being sung. She'd heard a similar one before. People ran past, and it was rather annoying. I wonder if they realize there are more of us. Or that a swift kick in the head is all it takes to stop a goblin. "Calm down, people!" She yelled. It didn't take long to figure out that it wasn't going to work, since she could barely hear herself. "Can't let the goblins win. These aren't my people, but they are people." She looked around for goblins, and saw three nearby.

Silver attention had been caught off guard when the sounds of screams. She had been watching the stray butterflies that were left over and the a few children chasing after them playfully while she brooded about anything that came to mind, but now she was prepared to try and fight as best she could. Everything seemed to be drowned out by the echos of frantic people. She tried to find the ones that were in need in the crowd, but she couldn't pin point anything in the crowd. Than the goblins song touched her ears, filled with wicked intent, and she prepared for anything.

Busy chewing on a piece of breaded meat, Dhalgren had his eyes idly on the stage as he watched another person step on to the central podium. Stuffing the ;last of the morsel in his face and shaking his hands free of crumbs, he waited along with the crowd for the man to speak. It was thus that he and everyone else nearby heard the piercing scream shock through the silence. At first Dhalgren didn't do anything stunned by the sudden sound, his mind taking a second or two to process what that meant. The quick repeat of another scream shocked him into action, and he spun his head about trying to get a glimpse of what was going on. His hands tightened on his halberd, bringing it in a ready position close to his chest.

After a moment he watched the crowd part rapidly, to reveal the rushing of a group of goblins chanting a song with their rough voices. He saw as most ran away in fear, leaving only a few of them standing to face the nearest threat, a trio of the particular beasts invading the town. He wondered why there was no town guard as well, hearing the words from the other man nearby.

Here's the Initiative list! Goblin Rolls for Reference

Dhalgren 21
Goblin 3 19
Roan 18
Goblin 1 17
Silver 16
Yobi 10
Goblin 2 7

Dhalgren, you get first ups, Use the Map for reference/moving your character.

Taking a quick moment, he glanced at the others nearby him standing still instead of running with the crowd. Not quite sure what they would do, he made his decision. He was still going to confront the threat ahead of him, and with a quick exhale of breath steeled himself for combat. Quickly he dropped the butt of his halberd to the cobblestones, letting the shaft rest propped up against his left shoulder. Reaching an arm back, he withdrew a javelin from a loop securing a bundle of the weapons to his back. Reaching back with his arm clutching the javelin, he eyed his target for a moment. Suddenly, with a grunt he threw the weapon aiming for the middle goblin, of the trio that stood before him.

Almost as soon as the javelin left his hand, he swept his halberd back into his grip, holding it horizontally in a two handed ready stance.

The javelin hurls towards the goblin, but misses wide as it hits the house behind the goblin trio and splinters on impact with the building. The little green munchkin starts jumping up and down in place as is seemed to speak to Dhalgren in a mocking, sing-song voice. "Longshanks can't hiiiit, Longshanks can't hiiit!"

The goblin just to the right of the one that was making fun of Dhalgren started to wheedle up onto the nearby cart of food. It's little legs thrashed and wriggled in a rather humorous fashion as it tried it's best to get himself inside, but it was just able to as it tumbled inside, a little dazed at first before finding himself smiling proudly with it's sharp-toothed grin over it's supposed success.

((It is now Roan's turn))