Huren (the 9th month) 20, 1610 (continued) - The Festival
About an hour before sundown,
Lord Bellweather rings the tent city's bell and all 300+ settlers gather around for the opening ceremonies to the
Zone C First Annual Settlement Festival.
A cleric of
Celestian,
Kadisia Samarigan and a cleric of
Pelor,
Stephen Minard offer up prayers as part of the opening ceremony.
All the PC participate in the
Archery Contest -
Sigmund's team of himself,
Keyolin Ay'ovath and
Kemril Mansard win with 13 points (escalated to victory by two bulls-eyes from Kemril).
Second Place is a tie between
Egon Spenglyr's team (
Wicar Gainey Ansala Bower and
Shadow's team (
Isenphie and
Bera).
Third place goes to
Wyd's team of
Beodda and
Gormahee Wagner.
Finishing in last place is
Teddy's team of
Arthur Trent and
Linden Carmichael.
As the sun goes down the town shifts into dinner mode where the
Storytelling Contest takes place.
Participants compete for the loudest applause. Egon and Sigmund go head-to-head with Sigmund delivering a story about a
Hadamon Ronin Dwarf that uses a sword (highly unlikely). His buddy
Ebert Hoffman the medicine healer is in the audience for support. Sigmund manages to get
Cashere to enjoy the show and even the gambler
Aldon who was ready to ring Sigmund's neck at the start but seemed to soften towards the end... perhaps it was the transformation from human to ape that mesmerized the audience.
Egon also steps up on the stage to deliver a riveting tale. He neutralizes the hostile
Chelminda (a jealous dancer), wins over
Danja but upsets the teacher
Sarachael. He is nearly heckled, but
Wyd Mar'jinn comes to his aid to intercept the rotten vegetables allowing him to continue unhindered. He uses portent and his new Owl familiar to keep the crowd from being hostile.
In the end Sigmund's story drew a shade more applause and he was crowned the winner.
Egon's date and archery teammate retire for the evening to her tent quickly forgetting Sigmund's "cheating ways".
Teddy Blackbird engaged in
A game of "Regiment" with
Anicia Vandercreft -
Lord Pike Bellweather's niece. For a 14 year old girl she has rather remarkable insight. The talked at length about the rules her uncle has place on her, her longing to speak and see friends from Etolar, Lady
Idina Bellweather's unhappiness about being on Alpha, Teddy's Tiefling traits and potentially "adventuring". Teddy use quiet diplomacy game strategy to shift the lead he had to her favor. He almost shifted too much for a near trouncing, but a fast read of her strategy allowed for a very close game in which she won. She has the "Ally" disposition towards Teddy as the two connected well.
Teddy then gets some dinner in the dinner tent and makes a direct path to
Linden Carmichael whos eating food by himself. Linden is eager to see Teddy. The share a bit about each other's past and present endeavors. Being that Linden is an accomplished accountant, Teddy asks him to look over the Blackbird Company's books. He also encourages him to keep up the archery. It seems Linden was not the favored son and the black sheep of the family who could never earn his father's praise and disappointed him with his hunting skills. He was possibly abused as he unconsciously flinches as Teddy goes to pat his back in encouragement.
Shadow tried his luck at the
Goblin, Troll, Dragon Card Game with
Grim Fields the arborist/farmer,
Lee Spans the Mechanic and
Egelric Loams the local fletcher. Shadow attempted to cheat, but raised the suspicion of the table... Egelric became openly hostile and Shadow opted to cut his loses and play no more.
Later Shadow encounters his teammate
Bera seated on the ground in the food tent eating. Shadow learns of Beras goals of helping the lumberjacks find timber... Shadow mentions the walnut grove just outside
[Ruins of Telmyr]. . Bera has the beginnings of a map with not much on it... Shadw helps him plot the forest. Bera asks about how to get his bowstring fixed (it snapped during the archery competition). Show takes back to the hostile Egelric and fight nearly breaks out as Bera early knocks over the card game. A fight is avoided and Bera is curtly told to stop by in the morning for the two to move on.
Shadow is visited by
Chiplin. They lace their otherwise innocent conversation with thieves cant'. Chiplin is actively gathering intelligence as to who has money, what items are needed and where schemes can be applied. Chiplin believes lumber is soon going to be an expensive commodity and a "highway tax" may be in order. They agree to keep gathering information and to keep an eye on
Bera (exploring for timber) and
Jargon Burley (a lumberjack).
Sigmund has a conversation with Kemril about the days events. Kemril has a large entourage following his back-to-back bulls-eyes. He pulls away long enough to share pleasantries and Sigmund smooths over Kemril's disappointment with Sigmund's shooting in the tournament). Sigmund then warns the militia the's he's going to "do a lap". He transforms into wolf and takes a dash around the tent-city. After his trot he looks up to the stars. There are 28 days in a month and in 8 days the main moon of Alpha will be a new moon.
Wyd has drinks with
Gormahee Wagner... Gormahee listens to the lizardfolk through an ale-fogged brain and reacts to his tales with outlandish business possibilities (Kenku BBQ, Alpha hops brewing). In the end Gromahee staggers away wishing his new found "business partner" well.
As Wyd sits drinking he is getting used to the human's ale. He wishes for more when
Jagbar sits with him an attempts to pump Wyd for information, coin and any means to make money that can be though off. Whey Jagbar learns there is a tab on the ale, he orders more than they can consume. Wyd gives away some information on Sigmund and Egon but manages to keep his coin. Jagbar tells Wyd hes a bounty hunter and the bounty he was hunting died (
Felpip). He's looking for work, but the offer to explore the
Ruins of Telmyr sounds like "too much work" for Jagbar. He down's his ale and leaves.
The party turns in for the night.
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