FESTIVAL - The Sun's Crest Festival - June/July 2021

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Marullus
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FESTIVAL - The Sun's Crest Festival - June/July 2021

#1 Post by Marullus »

See the announcement here: viewtopic.php?f=353&t=5669&p=304891#p304891

The Sun's Crest Festival

From June 2 to July 11, the sun never fully sets on the town of Gaul. Seeing as they have equally long winters and the northlands never quite get as sunny and warm as the Southlanders are accustomed, this gift of light and warmth is considered a generous gift from Baudh. Great celebrations are held in the town's festival grounds - given the long nature of the day, most of them are spontaneously organized by the citizenry.

This festival represents a freeform, in-character roleplay opportunity for any characters currently in the game. Everyone is allowed to participate, despite being out on expeditions for all or part of this time period (as players, we will ignore any incongruities that occur). Please feel free to improvise and create fun for your fellow players! Particularly creative ideas that engage others well will be awarded XP. :)

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Re: FESTIVAL - The Sun's Crest Festival - June/July 2021

#2 Post by Rusty Tincanne »

Ablesforth the Wayfarer, cleric of Eruanna walks into the street at midday with a stool in his hand. He sets the stool down and steps up, clearing his throat. Brothers and Sisters, hear me, please. I came to this town with naught but a calling from Eruanna and the items on my back. When I sought purpose, I was asked by Brother Mylo to delve into the depths of the earth to seek out and destroy infernal creatures. I balked in fear and chose to venture into the wilderness instead.

On that trip, I almost died twice. Were it not for the bravery and loyalty of Brothers Idriss, Fingers, Silent, Rhybek and Neegan, I would not have made it back to you all. I would not have the chance to confess that I was afraid to do what was asked of me - to answer Eruanna's call. I am ashamed of this, but, Eruanna-willing, I can still do what needs to be done for this community. I pledge my life to rooting out the Infernal in the wilderness for you all. I leave after this festival with any and all that would accompany me on this Blessed Quest.


The large man steps down and returns to the Infirmary, stool in hand.

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Alethan
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Re: FESTIVAL - The Sun's Crest Festival - June/July 2021

#3 Post by Alethan »

Rusty Tincanne wrote: The large man ... returns to the Infirmary, stool in hand.
Gross. ;)
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Re: FESTIVAL - The Sun's Crest Festival - June/July 2021

#4 Post by Rusty Tincanne »

:oops: :lol:

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Re: FESTIVAL - The Sun's Crest Festival - June/July 2021

#5 Post by Zhym »

Pendleton Kettleworth, gentleman scholar and ostensible adventurer-in-waiting, saunters by the festival grounds during a study break. He listens to Ableforth's testimonial with raised eyebrow.

"Not much of a festival yet," he muses to himself. He expects that the usual festivities will eventually arise—competitions of skill in archery, acrobatics, story-telling, and such. And, perhaps, some gentlemanly duels of sport with light swords rather than the brutish armor and heavy weapons favored by most of the folk of this town. But what is most needed, he decides, is a test of knowledge and learning. But what sort of contest with allow the scholarly to show off their mental abilities? A conference or workshop, perhaps? He fears that such an event would be sparsely attended. Perhaps something more game-like. A quiz, perhaps? Of arcana? Yes, that might do nicely.

Okay, so I'm thinking of something like a pub quiz, but I'm not sure how to structure it. Would it test player trivia knowledge (and how do we do that in the age of Google?) or would we use intelligence check rolls to simulate a quiz?

Also, a dueling competition might also be fun.

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Re: FESTIVAL - The Sun's Crest Festival - June/July 2021

#6 Post by Marullus »

The Frogmortons would put up a 50gp prize to the winner of a riddle contest. Would that fit the mark? Easier to adjudicate as player-fun.

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Re: FESTIVAL - The Sun's Crest Festival - June/July 2021

#7 Post by Zhym »

Riddles are a little lowbrow for Pendleton, but he can intellectually slum it. ;)

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Re: FESTIVAL - The Sun's Crest Festival - June/July 2021

#8 Post by onlyme »

Marullus wrote:The Frogmortons would put up a 50gp prize to the winner of a riddle contest. Would that fit the mark?

Halfpint would be all for riddles. Markd not so much.
Would this be for someone to come up with a riddle and us vote, or you come up with a riddle for someone to solve?

Unrelated---
Two google immune games I have played with success on message boards are Sheep and Mafia.
Mafia would easily score us 500 posts if it worked. Basically, the rules are:
moderator assigns roles via PM to players. Generally 1/4 of players are mafia, 3/4 are citizens. Mafia only are told who each other are.
Moderator declares morning, and players randomly vote on one player to arrest for being a mafia member, with citizens having no idea who that may be.
At end of deadline (usually set a some hour of day, like 2pm, etc. moderator announces arrested player's status and declares night.
Mafia vote via PM to announce one citizen who is killed off.
Moderator announces killing, and declares morning, and rinse, repeat.
Game goes on until mafia are eliminated or equal the citizens (at that point, they can openly vote to arrest/kill citizens.
The only caveat to this one is not allowing admins ( if they can see other folk's PMs) or players with multiple PCs can only have 1 play at a time.


Sheep is handled through PMs.
Moderator posts several survey type questions (similar to Family Feud; Other than earth, name a planet; What is your favorite class of D&D character, etc. ) questions should have fairly closed grouping of answers.
All players send answers via pm to moderator.
Moderator organizes answers. Players get the number of points based on whomever also answered the same answer. (3 players answered Jupiter, those three each get 3. One player answered Saturn, he/she gets one)
So, the idea would be to answer what you think everyone else would say, and not specifically what you believe.
Moderator posts answers/ scores.

Anyway. 2 possible games for the festival...
Dandelion - female half-orc beautyqueen in training (The Lone City in the Wildlands) OSRIC
Halfpint - female halfling badgirl wannabe (Lab Lord- The North Marches) LL
Mark'd - charismatic human fighter (Lab Lord- The North Marches) LL


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Re: FESTIVAL - The Sun's Crest Festival - June/July 2021

#9 Post by Marullus »

Marullus wrote:The Frogmortons would put up a 50gp prize to the winner of a riddle contest. Would that fit the mark? Easier to adjudicate as player-fun.
Zhym wrote:Riddles are a little lowbrow for Pendleton, but he can intellectually slum it. ;)
For more highbrow... a Lore contest is fine. Sample mechanic: Take turns impressing others with what you know about creatures in the southlands or mystical creatures in general. (These can also add to the bestiary info in the other threads and I like to include player-generated lore into future stories.) Wilhelm the Sage will be dubious, so roll under your INT on a [4d6] to see if your lore is compelling. Whomever wins by the greatest margin will get a magic item prize from him.

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Re: FESTIVAL - The Sun's Crest Festival - June/July 2021

#10 Post by Alethan »

Earc of Toll's Tower
The Stone Dragon’s Tale

Late in the afternoon, sitting around one of the communal fires outside the Golden Tooth Tavern, Earc visits with other travelers telling tales of their adventures. He sits back and listens to the lore of the local elders, as well, enjoying their stories and wondering how much of it is true and how much of it is embellishment.

A silence settles over the crowd for a moment. Then a sudden gust of wind swirls a cloud of dust into a funnel, which shortly blows itself out. Earc casts about nervously, looking up, rather than out to the nearby woods. In the lull of conversation, he clears his voice, sets down his ale, and begins…

“For many years, my grandfather lived under the shadows of the Iron Hills in the south lands. He was a trader. A good one, at that. He lived an honest life, bringing Dwarven mined materials to the villages of men in exchange for the golden wines of the Reapers, imported from much farther south.”

“He traveled through much of the realm, spending a lot of time in the Grey Desert, which was a part of his trade route. But he came to live in his home village – my home village – after he’d retired from trading. When I was a little boy, he used to tell me and my brothers of the amazing things he’d spied during his adventures – dwarven gold that shone like the sun; magical charms that ward off disease, hunger, or thirst; blue sapphires the size of my fist that were brighter and clearer than the Azure Sea!” He holds up his fist for emphasis.

“Of course, my hands were smaller then,” he adds with a chuckle.

“He had a pendant on a chain he’d wear around his neck. ‘It’s steel,’ he’d tell me when I asked about it. ‘Simple, but strong. Made by a smithy under the iron hills. It needs to be strong to hold this pendant.’ He’d show me the details as he described them – the filigree in each link, the tiny but clear purple Amethyst set at the clasp. The pendant was a swirling grey-coloured stone, with flecks of gold in it. It was long and pointed like the tooth of a cat, only a bit rougher and much, much larger. It was set with two more Amethysts on either side of it. He said he’d found it in the desert, that it was a charm, protecting him from the dangers found within.”

Earc pauses and takes a drink of ale.

“Many nights we would sit there by a fire. He would tell us his tales so often that I had them all memorized, word for word. And for a long time, that’s all he ever talked about – the fantastical stories a little boy wants to hear of…”

“One summer night… a warm half-night, just like this one, he was telling us his stories. We were at the fire with the rest of the family, visiting after our supper and listening to grandpa. Out of nowhere, the wind picked up and a dust devil – a big swirling cloud of dirt and sand– blew through the yard. The fire almost went out because it was filled with so much debris!”

“Grandpa suddenly looked very nervous and glanced about. We turned to the woods and the house and the barn to see what spooked him, but found nothing. When I looked back at him, he was staring not at someplace eye-level off in the distance, but up at the night’s sky. The wind picked up again and we had to shield our eyes from the stinging grit.”

“Blinded by the disturbance, I had no idea what was going on about me. But then I heard a sound… a loud, low noise, like a swoosh maybe. Or… like the noise your cloak makes when you shake it out. Only… larger, somehow.”

“I looked around and could barely see the shadowed forms of my brothers and parents. My uncle sat next to me, so I could clearly see the look of terror set on his visage. He was mumbling something about being sorry and… something that sounded like ‘stoon draca’…

“The wind and dust swirled again, only this time it was accompanied by a great blast of heat and a smell of sulfur and earth. It felt like I was laying on the coals of the smithy! It started to hurt to breath, as if my lungs weren’t working, like they were filling with sand. But… that passed. Through the swirling sand and dust, I felt like something was watching me. I chanced a look up into the air and saw two eyes, glowing purple and staring right at me. I pulled the hood of my cloak over my head and crouched on the ground by my grandfather’s feet, afraid to move and unable to see where I was going even if I’d wanted to.”

“I… I can only assume I passed out from fright. Or from the heat or… something to that effect. When I came to, I was half buried in dry, grey sand. I eventually shrugged it all off and stood up. Looking around, I could see… they were…”

Earc pauses, looking at the smoke rise up from the fire, floating into the sky, and grimaces.

“They were all stone. My family. They were all turned to stone. Not… not their clothing, though. Or their possessions. Just their skin. Smooth and grey and… stone. You hear stories about the Medusa that turns you to stone, but people always say the person and all their possessions were turned to stone. I don’t know. Maybe it’s different for different creatures, but… ”

“I tried to wake them. I… I threw water on them and smacked grandfather on the arm and then the head and… it was mostly anger, I guess. I didn’t really know what I was doing. But it was then that I noticed it. The pendant. His necklace was there, hanging outside his shirt. I could see the dull glint of the steel chain. The two Amethysts on the setting shone clear, almost with a purple glow. But the stone was gone, like it had been plucked from the setting. Grandfather’s shirt was torn in several places near where the pendant had rested. Slashed, really. Not torn.”

“I was always a smart kid, so with my family gone, it was easy enough for me to apprentice with a sage from a nearby city. There, I had access to quite a few books. I spent hours of free time pouring through them, looking for some reference of the ‘stoon draca’. During my fifth year of study, I finally found something in an ancient illuminated manuscript that supposedly came from the Grey Monastery, which was swallowed up by the desert several hundred years ago. It was just a page from a book, a drawing with a caption.”

“It showed a large, grey dragon with great, black leathery wings. Its eyes shone bright purple and it had a gaping mouth of pointed teeth. It had four legs and… and long claws on the ends of each toe. Except for one. I thought at first it was a mistake by the monk, but… it seemed so purposeful! The first toe on the front left foot was missing its long, pointed claw.”

Earc sighs, picks up his mug and finishes off the last of the ale within. “Anyway… that’s how I met a stone dragon.”

He frowns, “I need another drink…”

When he leans forward to stand up and head back into the bar, a dull grey chain falls out from his shirt. A chain with an empty setting, fixed on either side was a small purple Amethyst.
My entry for the lore contest. Stone Dragons. Save vs. Dragon Breath or turn to stone. Purple Amethysts for eyes. INT check (15) [4d6] = 12

Also an Origins story for Earc and why his idiom is earth and stone. He survived the paralyzing breath of a stone dragon. But it changed him...
Dragon foot. Bamboo pole. Little mouse. Tiny boy.

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Re: FESTIVAL - The Sun's Crest Festival - June/July 2021

#11 Post by Alethan »

Earlier in the day, at the Limerick contest, Bandy spent some time visiting with the Frogmortons, catching up on news and assuring his uncle that he's being safe. When his turn came, he stood up on a crate in front of the crowd and told some stories about his friend, Tom Cobley...

"My friend, Tom Cobley, has recently passed away. Apparently he tried to dodge when he should have ducked. Or... he dove when he should have dipped? Anyway... he got stuck like a pin cushion with some goblin arrows. So I thought I'd write some limericks in honor of my fallen friend."

Timid Tom was exploring a cave,
Where he had him a very close shave.
Stepped on a bugbear,
That had dozed off in there.
Turns out Tom is faster than brave.

Tom fried eagle-horse up in his kitchen,
It was, as they say, finger lickin’
He cried when his meal was all gone
“Yep, I knew it all along!
“Hippogriph tastes just like a chicken!”

But Tom ate too much stodge
And he couldn’t duck, dip, dive, or dodge
So when the arrows started flyin’
Poor Tom ended up dyin’
He shoulda never stopped being a hodge.


Bandy bows his head in silence for a moment. Then he raises it back up, along with a large pint of ale, and says, "To Tom!"

Then Bandy drinks the pint all in one go, a brave task indeed for such a little halfling...
Dictionary References:
Stodge - (noun) food that is particularly filling.
Hodge - (noun) a typical name for a farm labourer; rustic
Dragon foot. Bamboo pole. Little mouse. Tiny boy.

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Re: FESTIVAL - The Sun's Crest Festival - June/July 2021

#12 Post by onlyme »

Markd, who attempted to drink an ale in peace, hears the ode to an obscure halfling from parts unknown in the southland, if he even existed.
He quickly and mockingly retorts:

Heroes do not lose a duel
and come home with nary a jewel
unless you speak of old times
where men deserved our rhymes
Like that famous cavalier, Ewell.

To the old heroes.
Dandelion - female half-orc beautyqueen in training (The Lone City in the Wildlands) OSRIC
Halfpint - female halfling badgirl wannabe (Lab Lord- The North Marches) LL
Mark'd - charismatic human fighter (Lab Lord- The North Marches) LL


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Re: FESTIVAL - The Sun's Crest Festival - June/July 2021

#13 Post by Rusty Tincanne »

17 June 2021
Bremen watches the Sun's Crest festivities from behind the bars to his cell. As others wander the streets with plates of roast beef and boar, he solemnly spoons cold gruel into his mouth, washing it down with rancid water. Despite making friendly connections with some of Gaul's most unsavory characters - men who are happy to maim another man for a few silver coins, mind you - Bremen curses Markd with each passing moment. He no longer cares why Markd made the accusations.

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Re: FESTIVAL - The Sun's Crest Festival - June/July 2021

#14 Post by onlyme »

Halfpint, freshly back from the goblin adventure and missing her well-mannered pony, visits the Sun's Crest Festival. She walks up to the make shift oval in the field below the town, where they occasionally hold horse races.

She speaks with the volunteer on duty,
G'morning kind man. I see there is to be a race to help finish off the festival next week. I no longer have my dear Peck to run She fights to hold off the tears, But, I love to watch those beautiful animals race. I planned to enter her, but now just want to donate her entry fee to help raise the pot. Maybe it will help attract more participants and excite the crowd.

She hands over 20 gold pieces.
Dandelion - female half-orc beautyqueen in training (The Lone City in the Wildlands) OSRIC
Halfpint - female halfling badgirl wannabe (Lab Lord- The North Marches) LL
Mark'd - charismatic human fighter (Lab Lord- The North Marches) LL


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Re: FESTIVAL - The Sun's Crest Festival - June/July 2021

#15 Post by Marullus »

The Master of Horse shows empathy for Halfpint's loss and graciously accepts her donation.

(+20 tribute XP)

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