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Part 1: Consecration
For 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, Father Abstalar Zantus was helpful, kind, and wise, church just 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.
Every year, the Swallowtail Festival is an enjoyable gathering, but with the added excitement of the town's new temple, this year's festival has outdone them all. The town's streets have been crawling with guests from all across the Inner Sea region, come to witness the event firsthand. The day has been filled with food and drink, fun and frolic, and new friendships that will last long after the celebration has come to a close. Now, with the sun setting on the western horizon, the town's dignitaries prepare for the definitive moment of the day, the dedication of the newly-built Sandpoint Cathedral. Everyone who is anyone in town will be in attendance, and visitors are invited to join them as well. The ceremony will begin with Father Zantus reciting the sacred Prayer of First Dreaming, giving glory to the Resplendent Goddess of Fortune herself, and his benediction will be followed by a fantastic fireworks display, sponsored by the local alchemist shop, Bottled Solutions. As the ceremony draws near, a growing crowd has begun to gather in and around Cathedral Square... |
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Veritas walks into the town square with three tree trunks of respectable size. They appear to have been moderately carved free of their branches.
But perhaps most ironic is the fashion in which he carries them, enveloped in a golden-reddish aura that apparently grants him the use of two additional pairs of limbs. |
Aegon arrived at the square reasonably early. The ceremony had partly been an excuse to extricate himself from the vulnerable position he'd found himself in at Risa's Place, but he also legitimately wanted to arrive early enough to have a good vantage point for the dedication.
He listened absent-mindedly to the lute player's song while waiting for the ceremony to begin, occupying his hands by slowly sharpening the edge of his blade with the methodical care of someone who'd carried a sword far longer than anyone should have to. |
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KA-BOOOOM!!!
A sharp retort, like the crack of distant thunder, slices through the excited crowd and echoes off the walls of the cathedral and down the nearby streets and alleys 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. If there was any mistaking just what the small creature was, it became abundantly clear as the first verse of the strange rhyme reached your ears... "Goblins chew and goblins bite. Goblins cut and goblins fight. Stab the dog and cut the horse, Goblins eat and take by force!" GOBLINS! Apparently, the nasty little things had taken the priest's detonation of a thunderstone as their signal to attack, and now they could be heard chanting and shrieking throughout the streets, along with the terrified screams of the townsfolk and their guests. Sandpoint was immediately thrown into absolute mayhem! People scattered in all directions in futile attempts to escape the filthy little marauders. The town's square was rapidly emptying, as several goblins could be seen in the area. On the western edge of the square, near the wagon where it had savaged the stray dog, a single goblin could be seen licking the blood of its victim from a sharp, jagged blade, and there was another just behind him. In the center of the square there was a woman holding an infant in one hand and the hand of her young daughter in the other. In all the chaos, her frightened daughter broke free of her grasp and started heading in the other direction, right into the path of a third goblin who was racing into the town square at that very moment. The woman cried out and reached desperately for her daughter, but she was unable to move quickly due to the baby in her arms. The goblin appeared to be aiming right for the young girl, but then it was distracted momentarily as it leaped in the air after a rogue butterfly that was still left in the area, but the insect wouldn't hold its attention for long... |
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