"I'm sure we'll be participating in the festival. I do hope I'll run into you at some of the events. I hear there are other interesting attractions here a theater, a museum and the Old Light. I'm curious about those as well."
With a sly wink, Felsi responds,
"Oh I hope to be seeing more of you as well. I won't have time for participatin' in many events, but I will be serving food here at the Rusty Dragon all festival long. All the taverns and inns of Sandpoint are serving free common meals throughout!"
You finish your meals, and after a merry back-and-forth between Duko and Talashia, you eventually decide to visit the theater, at least for a little while. The Sandpoint Theater is a massive playhouse for a town of this size. It rivals those you have seen in Magnimar and beyond. It is a spectacle to behold. Outside, jugglers, acrobats, and orators peddle their skills for coppers, but inside, there is a brief afternoon play going on. You purchase seats in the common area (free to those paying Poor CoL and above) and take a bench to watch a production of "The Pixie's Fancy," a tale billed as a story of romance, thrills, and comedy. The actors take stalwart poses upon the darkened stage, and a broad-chested man with long black hair takes to the stage, illuminated by a series of bullseye lanterns focused upon him from up above in the rafters.
"Men and women, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Sandpoint Theater, the jewel of Sandpoint, Light of the Lost Coast. I am your host, Cydrak Drokkus, and I thank you for your patronage this day. This afternoon, we have a thrilling tale for you. A wandering pixie has fallen desperately in love with a lost human in the woods, but while she watches him from afar, a mighty bear approaches..."
The lanterns are shuttered as Cydrak departs from the stage. Then a number of lanterns erupt in a brilliant flash of light. Magical dancing lights appear above the stage, illuminating the actors. A woman in a flighty blue dress with sewn-on sequinned wings hides behind a bush prop observing a woodsman. The curtains behind are pulled back to reveal a painted woodland scene. The woodsman looks out into the audience, as if calling out for assistance in his plight; he is hopelessly lost in the Dark Deepwood. The lights then focus upon the pixie while the woodsman actor holds his place. The pixie sings of her love for the woodsman, his broad shoulders and auburn hair, how she longs to sit upon his shoulders and dance upon his head. She even sings a baudy rhyme about how she would pleasure his manhood, which receives a great cry of laughter from the audience.
The magical lights return, illuminating the entire stage, and it can be seen that an actor in a bear costume, quite possibly made from an actual bear's hide, approaches the distraught woodsman. A great deafening roar is heard throughout the playhouse, and the woodsman turns to see the bear. At first he backs away in horror, pulling out a prop axe and threatening to cut the bear down. However the bear knocks the axe from his hands. The woodsman flees around the stage, the bear chasing him. Meanwhile the light focuses upon the pixie, who wonders what she should do. She is pained by the thought of the man being injured, but also afraid of having to face the faerie court if she reveals herself to him. The crowd laughs as the man is chased about by the bear. The pixie then makes up her mind and steps boldly from behind the bush. She cries out for the woodland creature to stop and the bear begins dancing about, prancing across the stage in hilarious fashion. The pixie urges the man to hurry away, and together, the two of them flee, the man pretending to run while the pixie is carried into the air by what you presume to be invisible wires, but possibly some kind of magic.
The pixie leads the woodsman out of the forest, and along the way they encounter a quizzical troll who tries to outsmart them with three very dull-witted riddles, the answers to which the pixie whispers into the equally dull-witted woodsman's ear. They also stumble upon an injured deer with its leg entangled in a hunter's trap, which the woodsman tends to after being convinced by the pixie. They encounter a number of other dangers as well, and in occasional soliloquies, the woodsman begins to admit his growing fondness for the pixie, but despite this, the pixie is unable to make him fall in love with her. The pixie laments that she could simply use her magic to charm him, but it wouldn't be real if she did so.
Finally, the pixie and the woodsman make it out of the woods and they can see the woodsman's home off on the horizon. Faced with the prospect of losing the woodsman forever, the pixie decides that charming him with magic is better than not having him at all, and uses her magic to persuade him back into the woods again, then using her magic to force him to lose all memory of the event. In the final scene, the bear approaches again, and the pixie proclaims that she will repeat their adventure again and again until the woodsman has truly fallen in love with her. She has great confidence in the matter as the bear begins to chase the woodsman around the stage in the background yet again. She departs to make the bear dance again and their adventure begins anew. With that the curtain falls and everyone stands and cheers.
Cydrak steps out upon the stage again to invite everyone to attend the evening's play, a tragedy, "The Boisterous King Bormar of Bogaton." He also reminds everyone that his players will be performing throughout the Swallowtail Festival, both at the theater and around town.
