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The priest opens the cart door, and everone goes silent. Then, in an almost silent cascade, thousands upon thousands of butterflies erupt from the cart. They fill the whole street, children chasing after them and laughing, but never quite able to catch even one. The priest of Desna clears his throat loudly and tells the story of how Desna fell to the earth long ago, and a lone child nursed her back to health. For her deed, Desna gave her eternal life as a butterfly. By this time, most of the butterflies have dispersed, except for the one that has perched upon Catalina's hair. She appears to be oblivious to this fact. The priest isn't, though, as he is eyeing her closely.
There are three bars in town, and apparently they are giving away free food and drink. The first is the Rusty Dragon, which is serving curry baked salmon, The White Stag is serving venison, as always, and Finally, the Hagfish is serving very small rotisseried chicken. The Rusty Dragon is known for it's armosphere, The White Stag is more high end, and The Hagfish is a hole in the wall. All serve good food and drink, though. You can sample each and vote!
The Swallowtail Festival begins promptly at noon. The square before the Church is crowded with locals and travelers, and several merchants have set up tents advertising food, clothes, local crafts, and souvenirs. There is a podium set up near the front entryway to the Church, and four keynote speakers are giving their speeches. The Mayor Deverin's friendly attitude and excitement proves contagious as she welcomes you all to her town and jokes about how even Larz Rovanky (apparently a local tanner known to be a workaholic) managed to tear himself away from his tannery to attend. Everyone (but Larz) is quite amused. Sheriff Hemlock is rather dour, giving the crowd a safety briefing and he requests a moment of silence to remember those who died in the fire of the church five years ago and the "unpleasantness" that came before. Fortunately, Cyrdak Drokkus is brings the crowds' spirits back up with humorous anecdotes and a rather irreverant recap of the process the town went into to rebuild the Cathedral. He also throws in a promotion to stop by the theater tommorow night for "The Harpy's Curse". Apparently, the lady singing in the Rusty Dragon will be the Diva. Lastly, Father Zantus thanks the crowd for coming, and begins the Swallowtail release.
"That'll be one gold good sir," The barkeep says, "your room will be reserved for a week." As you pay the barkeep, you hear the town crier outside "FESTIVAL STARTS IN 15 MINUTES!". The Inn starts to empty as the eager patrons exit. You can hear them talking about the competition between the three taverns, mostly making comments about what they will be serving.
It is the first day of Autumn, and the sun is shining over the town of Sandpoint. The leaves of the trees surrounding Sandpoint are showing their first change of colors, resulting in a spectacular variety of colors, and a nice cool breeze is blowing in from the sea. The first day in Autumn is marked by the Swallowtail Festival, a day filled with speeches, a feast, and the big finale: the release of more than a hundred thousand Swallowtail Butterflies, the symbol of Desna. The festival doesn't start for two hours, though, so the town is just starting to fill with people from the surrounding farms and neighboring towns. You have come here for the festival, or maybe you came to escape something, or maybe you live in Sandpoint. It doesn't matter, what does matter is that today marks not only the start of the festival, but the start of your destiny.
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