Crystal Chest of the Scarlet Sun
General Summary
In fact! The SNAFU Guild is home in Aquitaine !
Once upon a time, South of Morodar …
In the Longgrass Plains along the Warden Road lies the free city of Aquitaine. There, every mid-summer, Aquitaine holds a celebration to the city’s patron deity, Rhea the Lightgiver. This festival honors her and her good works with song, dance, feasting and a releasing of butterflies – which are considered the Children of Rhea and the namesake of the festival: The Swallowtail Festival.
You just barely made it in time to get a bath and a good night’s sleep before it’s officially midsummer. I hope you are well-rested and you quickly made any necessary repairs adventurers because Aquitaine’s biggest celebration of the year is underway. The normally complacent small city is full of bustling strangers, cooking food, scrubbing bristles across building stone, and voices lifted in song.
The Swallowtail Festival is not like the Aquitaine Great Fair of the change from spring to summer. Yes, there are pastries. Yes, there are ten different varieties of turkey leg barbecue. Yes indeed, there are once again pork ribs the size of Miro Teague's head! But all pastries are shaped like symbols of Rhea the Lightgiver. The most popular events are the different worship services at sunrise, sunset, and the Holy Blessing of the Well when the sun shines directly down into the cathedral’s sacramental cistern -when Rhea’s power blesses the holy water for the year’s baptisms.
That said, people are people; and a celebration is, after all, a celebration. Every bed at the Rusty Dragon Inn has been rented out, some locals have rented rooms to guests, and still the overflow area outside the city wall where caravans gather is a cheerful maze of wagons and tents. People sell lanterns painted with swallowtails, or with their lenses tinted to mimic the rays of the sun. Children trade sunburst bead bracelets.
And a pleasant, mild, androgynous voice can occasionally be heard drifting on the breeze, offering a chance at a contest: find one of the hidden Midsummer Keys, try your luck. If your found key turns the lock on this weatherbeaten crystal “elf-looking” chest, you win a prize from an alchemist’s hoard!
So many visiting merchants now take up the cry: a souvenir key included with every purchase!
So very, very many people bustling around Aquitaine with a pocket full of jingling keys … and an interest in a magic chest ….
Jesse Devonshire : I was raised by an alchemist. I’d like to get a look at the crystal chest to see what we can see through it. If it is a clear liquid with golden flecks, then great. If it is a dark potion with glowing green flecks swirling from within without being stirred, and it’s gradually spinning faster, and if it pulses like it has a heartbeat, then maybe leaving it shut would be a good option. Somebody should look into the history of this chest before the winning key is found. Marcos Galvos : the goblin in green-toned metal armor with a staghorn helm waves exuberantly to Jesse. Zhang Sephia : a harpy ranger from the Jade Empire has much curiosity about the number of keys (can the number have cosmic significance?) available and would really like a chance to win a key or twelve. Opening the chest sounds like a bad idea though. Too much has happened with chests lately and if this one is tied to the last two that we have encountered we already know that they are bad. Also, we must remember (beats wings unhappily) to NOT say the name of the chest again.
Jesse Devonshire : I was raised by an alchemist. I’d like to get a look at the crystal chest to see what we can see through it. If it is a clear liquid with golden flecks, then great. If it is a dark potion with glowing green flecks swirling from within without being stirred, and it’s gradually spinning faster, and if it pulses like it has a heartbeat, then maybe leaving it shut would be a good option. Somebody should look into the history of this chest before the winning key is found. Marcos Galvos : the goblin in green-toned metal armor with a staghorn helm waves exuberantly to Jesse. Zhang Sephia : a harpy ranger from the Jade Empire has much curiosity about the number of keys (can the number have cosmic significance?) available and would really like a chance to win a key or twelve. Opening the chest sounds like a bad idea though. Too much has happened with chests lately and if this one is tied to the last two that we have encountered we already know that they are bad. Also, we must remember (beats wings unhappily) to NOT say the name of the chest again.
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