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It’s late when your caravan arrives in Highdelve. Most of the travelers are only stopping for dinner before proceeding on to the next town, but you have business here, and so you remain when the wagons pull out again. You’ve seen each other on the caravan, but, other than Meraina and Brialla, you haven’t had any reason to speak to each other. You may have planned on going your separate ways once you reached town, but when you get to the inn you find it unusually crowded. The innkeeper only has one room available, what with the festival tomorrow. If you’re willing to share, however, she has some cots she can set up and there should be room enough for the four of you. As you walk down into the common room for dinner, you find it, too, is more crowded than you would expect. A four-top comes open right as you walk in, though, and almost as soon as you sit the waiter comes by with bowls of stew and mugs of ale for the four of you. While you eat, you have a chance to get to know your new roommates.
Torgen is a burly dwarf with several heavy looking weapons of different types.
He carefully leans a couple against the table they are eating at and looks to his chance companions "well, eat already" he grunts before digging in.
Meraina has no problems sharing a room with her cousin, of course, but does hesitate slightly before agreeing to spend the night asleep in the same room as two men she barely knows. On the other hand, dwarves are known to be both honorable and, supposedly, completely disinterested in human women, so.... As for the half-orc, he does look rather savage, but she decides that it's always nice to assume the best of people rather than the worst, and in any case, if she's wrong, it's not like she's actually going to be alone. Brialla will be with her, after all!
Cheerfully, Meraina settles in at the table, talkative enough to make up for her cousin. "My goodness! Mister-- Torgen, wasn't it?-- Mister Torgen, do you think we're going to be ambushed at supper? This isn't the road with the possibility of bandits, you know," she chides with a grin. "This is a proper town. I think you won't need to use that hammer to eat this stew! But perhaps I'm wrong, it's very fierce looking stew, after all!"
Meraina tries to elicit chuckles from her tablemates, with possible limited success. She digs in to her own stew with gusto, however, and the ale as well.
Torgen chuckles "Aye, I'm not hammerin' the stew, it's just sitting 'ere in case I need it. On my back it might bump inta somebody 'ere and as just discussed I've got no room o' my own to stash em, so here they lie. That said on the off chance we are ambushed you'll thank me later. There's some unsavory business in this town I tell ya."
Torgen goes back to slurping up his stew with his spoon.
"Unsavory business?" Meraina exclaims with a little amusement as well as interest.
"Are you hunting a dangerous criminal, maybe? --I'm sorry, here I am asking rude questions and I haven't even properly introduced myself. I'm Meraina, and this is my cousin, Brialla. I didn't catch your name, sir," she chirps at the half-orc.
"My name is Kiliuk," the half-orc replies in a rich baritone. "Nice to meet you all." He carefully picks up his spoon, sniffs the stew, and begins to eat with gusto.
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You enjoy a pleasant evening in the bustling inn before retiring to your room. The next morning, you wake, sitting together once again at breakfast before emerging to find a town greatly changed.
Beams of sunlight stream past the snow-capped mountains as a joyous scene spreads before you. Overnight, the town's staid and utilitarian main square sprouted colorful tents, a pop-up theater, a spinning contraption made of barrel bottoms, some manner of race course, and more unexpected delights. Laughter and boisterous shouts echo from all the square's corners as its quaint cobblestone streets teem with villagers sporting festive clothes and wide smiles. Throughout it all, the smell of fried foods weaves through air laced with the warmth of a summer that's just begun.
Activities in view:
A1. Youths stand on and around tall wooden storage boxes, playing some sort of game.
A2. Lanes have been drawn and sack races are being run.
A3. A large, gilt statue of a dragon.
A4. A Barrel-Go-Round ride has been erected.
A5. A small puppet theater has gathered a crowd.
A6. A stand sells delicious-smelling fried food on sticks.
Torgen puzzles This isn't what I expected, might as well fill up though
Torget heads straight to the fried food on sticks and fills up on hearty looking kabobs.
"Wow! Brialla, look!" Meraina said, tugging at her cousin's tunic. "I didn't know we'd be coming here the same time as a festival! Oh, gosh, they even have puppets! Let's go look, can we?? We'll have time to find the jeweler later! Hey, they might even have a stall selling wares!"
With an enormous grin on her face that made her seem younger, Meraina set off for the puppet theatre, trying to tug her cousin with her.
Torgen enjoys his meat of questionable sourcing on sticks, but is careful to keep the sauce out of his beard.
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Buzzing about the multicolored tents here are townspeople eating fried dough and meat skewered on thin sticks. Rich, delicious smells permeate the air as a tall, broad-shouldered man works the crowd, telling snappy jokes and offering friendly handshakes.
”Well hi there! You must be a visitor to our fair town! Eh, get it? FAIR town?” He chuckles as he rushes off to greet the next group walking up. The next time he passes by, he says ”Anyway, welcome! What can I getcha? Funnel cake? Corn dog? Fortifies the bones, only one silver!”
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Strange voices and exaggerated accents ring from the front of a small performance stage, which is framed with a drawn-back velvet curtain. On the stage, elaborate puppets enact a melodramatic scene of confusion and betrayal. All the while, a rapt audience sits on rows of stools pulled close to the action. After a few moments, an elegant man acting as the lone puppeteer behind the stage holds up an "Intermission" sign, and the crowd begins to murmur.
Togen nods at the vendor and splurges on both a corn dog and funnel cake.
Meraina drinks in the show with enthusiasm even if she has a little trouble following the plot. At the intermission, she claps heartily, but subsides as it seems her applause isn't matched by the others.
"This is an interesting little show, isn't it!" she asks the person on her other side, knowing her cousin isn't the chattiest soul. "Everything's so colorful! Have you been to the market stalls yet? Do you know if anyone there is selling jewelry?"
Kiliuk goes and admires the gorgeous statue.
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"The puppet show is my favorite part of the festival, every year!" the friendly woman standing next to her says. "I haven't seen any jewelry stalls, at the festival, sorry. Not too surprising, I guess, since Carth is here running the puppet show."
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Fully 10 feet high and twice as long, the centerpiece of the square is a gilt statue of a gold dragon with outstretched wings. A plaque at the base reads: "Highdelve dedicates this statue and all of Protectress Square to Aurelliax, Our Gilded Lady. Long may her golden wings envelop us, and may we never fail her when she calls."
Standing next to the statue watching a group of children play is a cheerful-looking woman with white hair and ruddy cheeks. She greets you heartily when she spots you approaching. ”Welcome to Highdelve, traveler! My name’s Winette, Winette Qarl. I’m the mayor of this town. Are you having fun at the festival?”
"You have a wonderful town, mayor. And this festival is lovely - I had a hard time deciding what to look at first!"
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Brialla sees a middle-aged human man taking a break from a rather frantic performance in which he performed all parts without an assistant.
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"Oh, why thank you! You could always start with a bite to eat, although come to think of it, maybe that should come after the barrel ride. Wouldn't want to get sick!"
Torgen wanders about, free from his burdens for at least a morning as he wanders about, next checking on the dragon statue.
Kiliuk chuckles. "Yes, I'm certain that's not something anyone wants to see! The Barrel ride will definitely be higher on the list. This statue is beautiful, by the way. Is this the town's protector?"
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You hear several names, but the one that comes up the most is Carth, who Meraina already learned is running the puppet stall.
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Torgen arrives at the statue in time to hear Kiliuk asking about the statue. "Yes it is!" Mayor Qarl confirms. "This is Aurelliax, our protector and friend. She's here today, in fact. She always attends the fair, in human form. I don't see her just at the moment," the mayor says, scanning the crowd, "but I'm sure she's arround here somewhere."
Kiliuk is clearly impressed. "I've never had the opportunity to meet a gold dragon before! I suppose that's also a good reminder to always be polite - you never know when the next person you meet could be a dragon in disguise!"
He also adds in, a little more quietly... "Speaking of meeting someone - have you ever met a woman named Gilda, by any chance?"
"Thank you, Mayor. I'll do just that. After the barrel ride." he says with a wink.
"Oh, wow-- Brialla, we lucked out on right where we need to be!" Meraina exclaims to her cousin as she puts together what the others in the audience are saying about Carth. "HE'S the jeweler! Come on!"
Barely waiting to see if Brialla is following, Meraina bounces out of her seat and over to the elegant man who is taking his break. (It doesn't occur to her that he might want to keep taking his break.)
"Excuse me! Excuse me, hello, we've been enjoying your wonderful puppets, but we actually have a question about jewelry! Should we make an appointment for later?"
Torgen, sensing a challenge where none was intended by the half-orc follows him to the barrel ride, intent on proving to him that dwarves are tougher than half orcs.
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"Normally, I'd love to chat," he says. "As you can see, I've got my hands full! My apprentice, Richelle, was supposed to help, but she's been disinvited from the jubilee this year. Unless you can help me put on the show, I'm afraid I can't talk!"
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Shouts of surprise and delight echo from a strange contraption at the center of the crowd's attention. Axles of hammered metal connect the bottom halves of several large wooden barrels, each of which holds one or two shrieking occupants. After the next group of riders climbs into the barrels, a burly woman in a black leather apron gives the entire rig a heaving spin. A short line of people wait for their turn to ride.
When your turn comes, you can easily climb up into the barrel. With a sigh and a heave of effort, the burly woman spins the entire contraption, pushing three more times to quickly bring it up to speed, then about once every other rotation to maintain it's speed. As the arms spin around the central axis, each barrel spins freely on its own mount, your vision of the square becoming a brightly-colored blur. The ride lasts a few minutes, powered entirely by the strength of the woman running it, before she allows it to wind down slowed by its own friction. You climb out along with the other riders, and the woman wearily calls "Next." as the next eager group clambers in.
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"Oh!! I can help with THAT," Meraina grins. "Watch this."
She snaps her fingers in the quick patterns of magic as she knows it, causing the club of 'Punch' to rise into the air, dragging the puppet with it. A twitch of her fingers and Punch's club thwaps him on his own cloth skull. Meraina grins and imitates Punchinello's shrill voice. "OH LAWKS LAWKS AND FALLIN' SKIES, WHAT WITCHERY IS THIS!"
Torgen grumbles but congratulates Kiluk on his barrel ride before going to watch the commontion at the puppet show.
Didn't I just stay with them? How'd they get roped into this mess.
Meraina will pick up the Judy doll as well and add on, "That's what you get for calling your wife a witch!"