Festival of Flame

Arrival at the festival

Grenak, Reese, Mruno, and Valen gather in Eldenhold's market square at a table reserved for Lady Arabelle Thorne's guests. They have been left to represent themselves without supervision.

Grenak immediately wants to find a pub. Reese jokes that Grenak is always thirsty and suggests speaking with Lady Arabelle first. Mruno agrees that a pub is attractive, partly because it may be safer and easier to defend. The early conversation establishes the party's different temperaments: Grenak is direct and eager for drink or a fight, Reese is familiar with Grenak's habits, and Mruno is wary but sociable.

Old Man Griggs and the first warning

The party notices Old Man Griggs, referred to as the Rat King, searching through trash. Valen approaches him sympathetically and offers him food. Griggs accepts it but continues searching.

Valen asks Griggs about the visions he has seen. Griggs answers that the sky is opening and the rings are breaking. Grenak repeats the phrase about the rings and jokes about cheap jewelry. Grenak also mentions having an engagement ring picked out for Bertha.

It is the first clear warning that something larger is moving beneath the festival. Griggs offers no explanation for the opening sky or the breaking rings.

Lady Arabelle's arrival

Lady Arabelle approaches and recognizes Reese, Grenak, Mruno, and Valen by name or reputation. Her first question is whether they have exploded anything yet, a reasonable concern after the earlier incident involving chickens.

Lady Arabelle asks the party to keep from leveling the district. Grenak promises that he has not broken a door in several days. She knows they are capable of serious public disorder and has invited them anyway.

Drinking, debts, and festival chaos

The party continues talking about drinking, fighting, and where to go next. Grenak discusses Bertha and marriage. Mruno returns after being absent or hiding because of gambling debts. The group jokes about running from problems and about the likelihood that people would want to avoid Mruno's creditors.

The conversation reveals Grenak's focus on drinking and marriage, while Mruno's gambling debts remain active enough to create future complications.

The halfling's transmutative drink

A commotion begins near the fountain, where a halfling is shouting about a beverage that leaves adults and children in unusual colors. Grenak, already a green orc, drinks it anyway. The urgent question becomes whether he has changed shade—and whether he can remain exceptionally green if everyone else joins in.

Grenak approaches the halfling and argues that there is no problem with the ale. The halfling explains or demonstrates that the beverage is turning people different colors. The party continues to treat the incident as entertainment rather than an emergency.

The halfling is Pip Thistledown. Whether the drink changes Grenak at all is impossible to tell, since he was already green, and nobody pauses long enough to determine whether its effects are permanent.

The fountain incident

Grenak brushes the halfling with one massive shoulder and knocks him into the fountain. Pip struggles in the water and protests that this violates the code. Grenak attempts to ignore the entire incident.

Grenak then turns attention toward Sergeant Braska Holt, who is arm-wrestling recruits nearby. Grenak challenges her. Braska proposes that the loser buy the winner a beer. Grenak loses the first contest, drinks, and wins the rematch. Grenak asks about the Valerian Guard but does not accept the apparent opportunity to join or work with them.

Reese's history becomes public

During the festival conversation, Grenak begins telling strangers about Reese's deceased wife. Grenak describes the loss dramatically and gestures through a tragic version of the story. Reese objects that Grenak is telling strangers about a deeply personal event and does not want to discuss it.

The exact circumstances of Reese's loss remain his own story to tell. Grenak's decision to tell strangers anyway becomes both a public embarrassment and a fresh reminder that social boundaries are not among his practiced skills.

The fiery egg

Lady Arabelle begins a public speech about peace, prosperity, and unity. At the edge of the crowd, a street child carries an unusual egg toward a vendor. Flames move inside its shell.

Mruno notices that the child may be about to cause trouble. Mruno warns the others and casts Major Image, creating the appearance of a guard approaching the child. The child ignores the illusion. Mruno then tries to warn the vendor directly and makes an unsuccessful insight attempt.

Grenak studies the child and concludes that he appears to be a poor street urchin rather than someone acting with clear malice. Grenak nevertheless intimidates him for wasting food and adopts a disappointed-parent attitude. The child explains that a man in black gave him the egg and said it would teach the nobles to stop pushing out the poor. He also claims that the vendor caused his parents to lose their home.

Valen approaches the frightened child and asks who gave him the egg. Valen offers to trade a copper for it so the child can buy food. The child refuses, raises his arm, and prepares to throw the egg at the vendor. Valen slaps the egg out of the child's hand.

The crowd sees armed strangers interfering with a poor child. Six angry dockworkers surround the party, and the confrontation is seconds from becoming a fight.