Our intrepid adventurers find much to do on this festival day.  Whether sleeping until noon or lingering in the inn to avoid the early morning chill of late fall, or taking last-minute instruction from a worried Pastor Abstalar, they all miss the pre-dawn bustle of carnies setting up around the clear area at the base of the Old Light, disrupting the morning routine of old Gorvi the junker and his boys. For today the town was a bustle with strangers and town folk, merchants both local and from afar. Today is the Sunday nearest to the first day of autumn, the Sunday celebrated with the Swallowtail Festival. And this year the Festival is even more significant.<br/><br/>For the last five years Sandpoint has been without a church building. For the last five years, services have been held in homes, outdoors, even in sheds. Pastor Abstalar has been helpful, kind, and wise, but church just hasn’t been the same since the chapel burnt to the ground and old Pastor Ezakien died in the fire. But now the new church was done. The old chapel replaced by a cathedral. Sandpoint had out-grown the old chapel. The new cathedral was a sign of the town’s prosperity, and a proclamation that its people could overcome any adversity. All that remains is renewing the site’s blessings from the gods during this Swallowtail Festival and it will be as if the Sandpoint Fire had never occurred.<br/><br/>People have been up for hours, several merchants have set up tents to vend their wares of food, clothes, local crafts, souvenirs, and beverages. Others folk have arrived early to gain positions near the podiums and the tables beyond. Tables loaded with a picnic buffet ready for the congregation after the ceremonies.<br/><br/>It was the first day of autumn, and by noon the day was warm and bright. Pastor Abstalar requested the apprentices all dress in their finest, which for most of them was cheap peasant clothing slightly newer and brighter than their normal attire, but for the newest arrivals was their full armor, polished to best reflect the sunlight of the beautiful day. An idle comment from the sheriff cause undue concern with the Pastor, and he asked Ara, and particularly Ausk, to keep an eye out for trouble, though he had no real reason to expect any.<br/><br/>The food is good and there was great plenty and families were together enjoying the perfect weather and the carnival atmosphere. A young boy standing with his father near the head table tugged at his elder's coattails, his young voice over-loud in the murmuring crowd as he complained to his father that he couldn’t find his dog.<br/><br/>A tall young man with dirty blond hair badly in need of a trim wandered through the crowd. Everyone here was open and happy and carefree - all quite different from the sober gloom prevalent back in Chelaxia - his worn travel attire stood out from the Sunday best most were wearing, and the itch along his unshaven jaw reminded him further that he didn't fit in.<br/><br/>A fair girl with glistening amber eyes and wild black hair caught his gaze and followed it. She scowled and approached the daring, if scruffy, young man. "Hey there, new in town?" She tried to catch his eye to provoke a smile.  Blackwell, the gruff young thug that she was, scowled at the display.  She'd had her eye on the woman, and the newcomer looked to have stolen her chances.<br/><br/>There was plenty of meat, more than a plenty of tubers and fruits and breads and puddings and nearly every corner of uptown seemed to have some sort of contest or panel for judging produce or a specialized cook-craft, and all the entries were available to eat, once the contests were judged.<br/><br/>The Old Light loomed over the whole area, and tight under it's bulking shadow was where the midway was set up. Booths were set up for contests of luck and skill. And portable stages held acts both bizarre and banal. A group of gypsy-like Varisian were set up beside a small caravan of gaily-decorated wagons . They had a somewhat less advantageous spot, near the plummet called Junker's Edge. The smell labeled the area as the town garbage dump.<br/>