All Adventures are Local - Chapter 1

Meadface grunts hard when Mönkhbat picks him up and swings him over his shoulder into Hophead, who tries to catch his brother. Hop's arms fling around, fingers finding grip on Meadface's clothes making his face stop moving mere inches above the ground. They wobble, making weird noises simultaneously, in stereo. Hophead looks up at Mönkhbat awkwardly, not able to put his brother down safely.

Combat! Mönkhbat is up!

Meadface wobbles, shaking his head, not quite recovered from the blow, or maybe it's the alcohol at this hour. When Mönkhbat shows the gold coin the brothers share a look before breaking out into a thunderous laughter, reminding Mönkhbat of boulders rolling down a mountainside and causing a gnome mother to jump and hurriedly drag her children along the edge of the clearing around the stall. The people that gathered for the fight start to wander off again and soon the turned over stall and spilled booze is all that indicates there was a fight in the first place. The brothers clap Mönkhbat on his shoulder, Meadface finding a place to sit and Hophead pulling the stall back upright before moving around it and lifting up a tarp, draped over several crates filled with gourds full of Fires of the Mists. You didn't actually think that was all we brought for today, did you? Tell you what, you give me that gold, I'll give you 3 of these gourds and... He reaches for his chest, pulling the string lacing up the top part of his shirt out, a thick bush of chest hair springing free. This "rope" and we call is even. What do you say?

Maighan: the lady slams the lid of the box shut, looking slightly offended, but with a twinkle in her eyes. I said 12 for 8. I thought you were an honest woman, but if you try to screw me over, I think we're done here. She raises an eyebrow at Maighan, waiting for an answer expectantly.

Maighan: the woman looks at you with a slight frown, unhappy with the lack of movement in offered gold. Hmm. I see you're a tough one. However, you do not offer nearly enough to cover the costs of these fine ropes. She reopens the box. 11 gold. That really is a very fair price.

Mönkhbat: you walk away with your gourds, booze comfortably sloshing around behind your back. Nothing much more eventful happens as you move down the street. You see three lads being lead away by a few guards, bruises and cuts adorning their faces. If you look a bit beyond you can just see a glimpse of Maighan standing at a stall selling ropes, a very confused looking woman standing on the other side.

Maighan: The woman smiles, picking up one of the 8 meter ropes and handing it go Maighan as she accepts the purse, peeking inside to verify the amount of coins. Her eyes grow wide and she looks up in shock. This... I... But.... It's a pleasure doing business with you madam. She stares back down again, completely flabbergasted.

Alata, Nàdair and Roddric: The actor waves and winks at the girls, smiling his most famous smile, before turning his back to the audience for a second. When everyone is quiet he turns back around, a serious look on his face. His voice flows gracefully, loud enough for the entire audience to hear and filled with warmth. The story he tells is a well-known one, he tells if every year, yet when he's done several people have pulled out their handkerchiefs, dabbing at their eyes.
What the real name of the man in the clouds was and where he came from, was unknown. In the village below, nobody cared, as the man in the clouds, this man was known. The man in the clouds never came down. Alone, but perfectly happy he was. And that had a very special reason, because on the wall of his house hung a beautiful painting. The man in the clouds could watch it for hours, in beauty his days flowed by. A higher happiness he couldn't achieve, then to watch and watch the beautiful painting. And often you could see people walking up, to the man in the clouds with his beautiful painting. The door of this house was always open to everyone. "Come on in," he always said hospitably. And everyone gave him, because that's what you're supposed to do, some bread, or some wine, as a kind of entrance fee. Over the years that had become the standard.

You brought the man in the clouds something and sat next to him in a chair. And then everything became as clear as glass, as the beautiful painting momentarily made you forget, how sad and empty life sometimes was.
It was a landscape, so stunning, so magnificently empty. It must've been like this when the world just begun. You could see how everything got a shape and a colour, in the light of an endlessly rising sun.

One day the man in the clouds was visited by a stranger that shook his hand and said: "It seems you're the owner of a canvas, that's known down below as the beautiful painting."
The man in the clouds said: "please, come in."
The stranger stepped in front of the landscape and then became completely flabbergasted.
"It's unbelievable, where did you get this? A masterpiece and look at that, with frame and signature! Sir, you're set for life! That's a huge fortune hanging on the wall."

The man in the clouds wanted to forget what the stranger had told him that day. But something had changed, only by knowing, that beauty could be expressed in money. He more and more often started to tell the visitors "Don't touch it! Don't get too close!"
Slowly he changed into a guard, a careful man with a beautiful painting. And then the fears and the dreams came. Thieves that cried "give me that piece!" And so the lock came on his front door. And less and less people visited the man in the clouds.
Sometimes the man in the clouds, for a moment, thought back on the time when the beautiful painting still gave comfort and warmth to everyone. But he wasn't allowed to think like that, those days were over. He had to protect it, if needed with his life, this he was obliged to the beauty of the landscape. He would never forgive himself if the painting was stolen. So everything he could close he closed shutter than shut.
But still his fear grew, no night passed, without him hearing the thieves. And they would surely find it because they knew it was hanging on his wall. Therefore he locked the landscape away in a closet.
But the spot where the beautiful painting had hung looked more and more empty. And eventually the man in the clouds became mad with desire and he put the landscape back up on the wall.

He watched it for hours and hours that night, the shapes, the colours, and the rising sun. But the radiance had faded, the beauty gone. Like he couldn't properly see anymore.
Then suddenly he saw everything clear as glass, there in a frame hung his fears on the wall. It was that night in the clouds that he understood and he threw the beautiful painting in the fire. The man in the clouds saw the colors on the landscape change, and the rising sun go up in flames.
Then he got up, took the lock from his door, and amazed the man in the clouds stood still. He saw a landscape, so stunning, so magnificently empty. It must've been like this when the world just begun. He saw how everything got a shape and colour. In the light of a beautifully rising sun.


Time Elapsed Since Festival Start - 3 hours

Current Party Locations
Group 1: Maighan - Among the cloth vendors.
Group 2: Mönkhbat - Drinking and wandering.
Group 3: Alata, Nàdair and Roddric - Near a side stage with a small play happening.

Group visibility
At this point, all three groups are out of touch with one another. It would take ~5-10 minutes of an hour block for one group to find any other group.

Mönkhbat: As you stroll along the street you lose sight of Maighan, who's wandered off away from you. The crowd here becomes thicker, people no longer moving in two streams but seemingly random changing direction, bumping into each other, and you.
Please roll a perception check

Maighan, Alata, Nàdair, Roddric: Maighan, you find the others hanging around in the back of the crowd after skillfully walking along the back of a bench nearby, meeting up with them just as Alata starts to usher Nàdair in the direction of the stage.

Time Elapsed Since Festival Start - 4 hours

Current Party Locations
Group 1: Maighan, Alata, Nàdair and Roddric - Near a side stage with a small play happening.
Group 2: Mönkhbat - Drinking and wandering.

Group visibility
At this point, Mönkhbat and the others are out of touch with one another. It would take ~5-10 minutes of an hour block for one group to find the other.

Mönkhbat: You feel a little tug on your gourds and then a hand moving into your pocket.