or five years, the faithful of Sandpoint have attended church in
smaller wooden structures rebuilt after fire destroyed the previous
temple, and while their new pastor Abstalar was helpful, kind, and wise,
church wasn’t the same. Now, the new cathedral is finally done. All that
remains is for the Swallowtail Festival to renew the site’s blessings from
the gods and it will be as if the Sandpoint Fire had never occurred.

PCs are in attendance, for whatever
reason, at the Swallowtail Festival on the first day of autumn in
Sandpoint.

The Swallowtail Festival begins promptly, as scheduled, on
the first day of autumn. The square before the church quickly
becomes crowded as locals and travelers arrive, and several merchant tents featuring food, clothes, local crafts, and souvenirs
are there to meet them.

Welcoming Speeches: The turnout for the opening speeches
is quite respectable, and the four keynote speakers each deliver
short but well-received welcomes to the festival. Mayor Deverin’s
friendly attitude and excitement prove contagious as she welcomes visitors to town and jokes about how even Larz Rovanky,
the local tanner (and notorious workaholic) managed to tear
himself away from the tannery to attend, much to everyone’s but
Larz’s amusement. Sheriff Hemlock brings the crowd down a bit
with his dour mood, his reminder to be safe around the evening’s
bonfire, and his request for a moment of silence to remember
those who lost their lives in the fire that claimed the town’s previous church five years ago. Fortunately, Cyrdak Drokkus is more
than up to the challenge of bringing the crowd’s mood back up
with his rousing anecdotes as he delivers a not-completely-irreverent recap of the long process the town went through to finance
and construct the new cathedral. He throws in a bit of self-promotion at the end, as is his wont, inviting everyone to stop by
the Sandpoint Theater the following evening to check out his
new production of “The Harpy’s Curse,” revealing that the lead
role of Avisera the harpy queen will be played by none other than
the famous Magnimarian diva Allishanda! Finally, Father Zantus
steps up give a short speech thanking everyone for coming before
declaring the Swallowtail Festival underway.

Mishann gets a lot of stares and turned heads, what with her appearance and all. But it is a thankfully friendly town, so Mishann's friendly nature gets her more than a few smiles and calms most suspicions. She is more than happy to do some strength demonstrations, such as wagging her tail up and down while a child sits on it.

Mishann is attentive during the opening speeches and such, but sticks with the friends she had already made before entering Sandpoint. Namely Joe and Insert-GMPC-Here.

  Joe hopes they used more fire resistant materials in the construction this time around.   Still, party time.  Procure snacks for himself and pals before inevitable interruptions is a must.

  He tries to remember if 'the Harpy's Curse' is the one about the lack of hugs.  Probably not, as it wouldn't be melodramatic enough.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:10, Fri 13 Jan 2017.

Mittens, Nathan, and Pyrus are all there.  Why not?  Nathan and Pyrus are both more than happy to take a ride on the Mishan tail.

"Oooh!  Oooh!  Me too!  Me too!" Mittens requests, "And thanks for the snack getting, Joe!"

One of the advantages of her minions being so small... small appetites.

"Yeah!  Thanks, Awesome Guy!"

Mishann smiles and nods to Mittens, scopping the kitty up with her tail and swinging her around in addition to the up-down motions. She knows she can offer more dangerous rides to Mittens, after all.

Mishann stuffs her face with one of the snacks (she likely asked for pulled pork) and says, "The way to a woman's heart is through her stomach! ....or was that the way to a man's heart? Eh. Everyone likes food, right?"

  Joe hasn't asked for a tail ride because he can't think of how to avoid sounding like he's saying a terrible pickup line doing so.

  "I think even some people who don't need to eat like food, Mishann." Other setting Darkthorne's can vouch for this.  "The rest of you get yours once you are not swinging around so much that more ends up on you, than in you."

"Wheeee!" Mittens cheers, enjoying the dragon rodeo.

Only the most adventurous of children aren't intimidated by the idea of the deluxe treatment.

Pyrus is happy with his little nibblet, and Nathan overjoyed with his portion.  When the ride's over Mits dual-wields a hot-dog and ice-cream.

"I find that this helps prevent brain-freeze and numb tongue."

At noon, Father Zantus and his acolytes
wheel a large covered wagon into the square, and after recounting
the short parable of how Desna first fell to earth and was nursed
back to health by a blind child who she transformed into an immortal butterfly as a reward for her aid, they pull aside the wagon’s
cover, releasing the thousand children of Desna—a furious storm
of a thousand swallowtail butterflies that swarm into the air in a
spiraling riot of color to a great cheer from the crowd. Throughout
the rest of the day, children futilely chase butterflies, never quite
quick enough to catch them.

Mishann is pleased with the affirmation that even people who don't need food still like food. She is also very happy to make Mittens happy and is sure to give her an arm-around and fist-drill-into-shoulder among her many buddy-buddy antics. To Pyrus and Nathan, she is sure to give them any ride they want also, but teases all of her allies by asking them to give her rides in return, followed by jumping on their backs.

Mishann does some butterfly chasing of her own, but doesn't put too much effort into it, lest she actually catch (and hurt) a butterfly. :)

  Joe wonders how confused said immortal butterfly was.  Considering there is no mention of curing their actual blindness in the process... He's probably overthinking these things again.

  "Considering the effort getting that many flying bugs into a wagon, it's certainly more of a spectacle than fireworks." Which is saying something, no explosions!

Mits is sure to show off that she can catch butterflies without hurting them using magic, but she releases them immediately after.  And offers a few tiny fireworks.

"Yeah.  You got a point there."

Lunch: Lunch is provided free, at the expense of Sandpoint’s
taverns. Each brings its best dishes—this event is a marketing push
by the taverns as much to win new customers as it is to feed a hungry crowd. It soon becomes apparent that the darling of the lunch
is, once again, Ameiko Kaijitsu, whose remarkable curry-spiced
salmon and early winterdrop mead easily overshadow the other
offerings, such as the Hagfish’s lobster chowder or the White
Deer’s peppercorn venison.

Consecration: Finally, as the sun begins to set, Father Zantus
takes the central podium, uses a thunderstone to attract everyone’s
attention, and clears his throat as he prepares to recite the Prayer
of First Dreaming. Unfortunately, the thunderstone’s detonation is
also the prearranged trigger for the goblins, who have slowly been
infiltrating the town while its citizens are merrily distracted.

A sharp retort, like the crack of distant thunder, slices through the
excited crowd as the sun’s setting rays paint the western sky. A stray
dog that has crawled under a nearby wagon to sleep starts awake, and
the buzz of two dozen conversations quickly hushes as all heads turn
toward the central podium, where a beaming Father Zantus has taken
the stage. He clears his throat, takes a breath to speak, and suddenly a
woman’s scream slices through the air. A few moments later, another
scream rises, then another. Beyond them, a sudden surge of strange new
voices rises—high-pitched, tittering shrieks that sound not quite human.
The crowd parts and something low to the ground races by, giggling with
disturbing glee as the stray dog gives a pained yelp and then collapses
with a gurgle, its throat cut open from ear to ear. As blood pools around
its head, the raucous sound of a strange song begins, chanted from
shrill, scratchy voices.

( There are thirty goblins raiding Sandpoint, but there’s no need
to run combat with all of them. You can focus strictly on the goblins the PCs encounter, using the following three encounters to
introduce players to the kneebiting horror that is the goblin

At this point, ask the PCs to make Spot checks. Those who make
a DC 12 check see that the shape that raced by and killed the dog
now hides at the edge of the wagon—a single goblin, licking the
blood from its dogslicer as it looks excitedly at the crowd, seeking
out a new target. Characters who make the check may act in the
surprise round.
The song is a nameless goblin rhyme, performed by several goblin warchanters and intended to give the goblins a boost of bardic
music to spur them on.

http://i994.photobucket.com/al...GoblinWarchanter.jpg )

One of the last things Mishann wants to do is breath fire in a panicked town that just got over a fire. That said, why waste an AoE on a single goblin. "Try to keep as many of these monsters alive as possible! I intend to find out why these goblins attacked and I don't know goblin ranking structure!"

With the flap of her wings, Mishann charges forward, a tunnel of dust and ash created by her wake as she slams the palm of her hand into the face of the dog-slaying goblin and slams it into the pavement.

  "Keep some jerks alive, got it."  While there is more than one goblin singing, one of them is now (for the moment) face down in the dirt with an arrow through the shin.

"Goblins chew and goblins bite," the chanters sing, "GACK!"

That's one less chanter.  It becomes very apparent that with only 5 hp, these goblins aren't much of a threat.  Two attack Mishan, and their weapons can't get past her rather tough defenses, one of them even breaking his weapon on her!  A goblin throws a torch at Joe who easily dodges the attack, and the torch winds up lighting another goblin's straw "armor" on fire!

The chant continues from the others:

"Goblins cut and goblins fight.
stab the dog and cut the horse,
Goblins eat and take by force!
Goblins race and goblins jump.
Goblins slash and goblins bump.
Burn the skin and mash the head,
Goblins here and you be dead!
chase the baby, catch the pup.
Bonk the head to shut it up.
Bones be cracked, flesh be stewed,
We be goblins! You be food!"

Nathan takes out one of the goblins attacking Mishan with a radiant arrow.  "It could be a catchy tune if they weren't all singing off key and off tempo."

Mittens punts the burning goblin into a barrel that was going to be a bobbing for apples game.  "They hate dogs!  Pyrus!  See if you can lure them to us!"

Pyrus nods.  "Arf!"

He makes himself look like a black dog and runs about barking at the dispersed goblins to try and draw them to the heroes!  Meanwhile, the goblin that was going to attack Mittens gets distracted by some roasted fish on the lunch table and begins stuffing his pockets with it!

Mishann calls out, "Make a catchy tune for us then, Nathan! Centralizing is a good idea, Mittens! Nice shot, Joe!"

A torch hits Mishann on the head. It was a very good, solid throw which is why Mishann actually squeaks. But the fire seems to do nothing as she turns around, her tail accidentally knocking another goblin unconscious before she charges the nearest torch-thrower. "We should probably go for the ones with torches first so they don't set the town on fire as quickly."