As the four of you venture into the town proper, you quickly see that there is a lot of excitement over this competition.  Vendors have stalls set up along the streets selling all sorts of edibles, drinks, trinkets, and even a few games that makes the entire affair look more like a faire more so than anything.  Though if M’aiq holds up his bargain, the number of people that have been attracted from all the local hamlets and villages will certainly provide a nice boost to Everybody Gets Laid’s reputation.  At this point in the day alcohol consumption is relatively low as people are likely pacing themselves for the late evening competition; in the meantime the crowd looks more like an unorganized mass of bodies going every which way.  There are many attractive people among them, but a group of them (http://designsbytes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/my-group-anime-wallpaper_0.jpg) does manage to stand out as a result of their high energy, slightly inebriated speech, and personalities that all but screams groupie.<br/><br/>The town center itself has two stages of simple construction at opposite ends of the cobble stone plaza that provided plenty of room for the crowd to assemble.  The stages themselves had barricades around them to prevent people from getting too close, plenty of space for a band to set up their equipment, and already had the various magical apparatuses needed to amplify your music.  One of the two stages had a small crowd around it with several individuals standing around a cylinder of some kind.  It quickly became apparent that was where they were holding the raffle and that both the mayor and the Thunder Cocks were coordinating it.  With thirty minutes left until the drawing, the leader of the rival band was clearly tired of hyping up the crowd and let the rest of the band jam for a bit to fill the time.  It wasn’t so much of a performance as much as a glorified sound check as they took turns doing their independent solos occasionally chiming in with one another.<br/><br/>They all looked rather thankful when 5 minutes remained and they stopped playing so the mayor could ramble on about how honored he is to present this competition and thankful for all the people who have come to his town.  A good portion of the crowd began making its way from the vendors to the center as the other no-name bands, their hangers on, and curious people of the audience were all eager to see who will be challenging the Thunder Cocks.