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Maybe I should have been a little more direct about it, but I was waiting for someone to pick a place to eat and didn't have time to update Monday. On the with game.
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Although Jamir had suggested an unspecified alternative, your bellies had begun to rumble and the Rusty Dragon was mutually agreed to be acceptable. Sabyl agrees to accompany you, and your small group of acquaintances heads to the Rusty Dragon for what proves to be a delicious dining experience. Food and drink are being served en masse, but somehow, Ameiko and her staff manage to make it a memorable experience. There are two choices, spicy eel or sauted pike. Both are served wrapped in sticky rice and seaweed and sliced. There is both a house lager and a local white wine vintage provided with the meal to wash it down. Ample proportions of both are available to all.
A fair farmer's daughter with sun-bleached hair and freckled face takes notice of Jamir and begins to bat her eyes at him playfully. She brushes past Jamir on her way out and whispers in his ear that she'd like to meet him behind the Goblin Squash Stables at Two Bells (2 o' clock, which is an hour after the test of strength is scheduled to begin, which would give him plenty of time after). Meanwhile a pair of young dwarves stare and point querulously at Thrindar from across the room, speaking in whispers to each and repeatedly shaking their heads as they swallow beer after beer and the foam fills their beards. Kelvyn notes there is a Keleshite man and woman, seafarers by the look of their scant garb, sitting at a nearby table with a small group of what appear to be fellow sailors. While most of the sailors speak in Common, telling tales of the high seas, the two Keleshites converse privately on occasion in their native tongue, doing so most often to quip on the subject of how things are done "differently" (or perhaps best translated "properly") in the Empire. Nuko catches sight of a dark-skinned Varisian who appears to come from the interior like himself judging by his tribal markings. He even has the town name of Rogan tattooed in Orcish on his left arm among other tattoos, though he does not appear immediately familiar.
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These are all minor NPCs which I have provided as narrative hooks for you to do with as you like. You may even feel free to come up with elements of their back-story in your own description. However, one of them might be a red herring or an NPC of actual importance to the story. This I have decided in advance. Nevertheless, how you choose to role-play any interaction with them is up to you to decide and narrate from your own character's perspective (if you choose to do so). Story-related consequences of such interactions (if any) will come at a later point in time. And yes, I do literally mean for you to role-play the NPCs in your narration should you choose to interact with them. They are effectively under your narrative control for now.
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After your meal at the Rusty Dragon, you take a short time to rest and relax. Then you make your way to participate in or observe the contest of strength. In the Sandpoint Cathedral's west nave, before the shrine of Gozreh (whose bestial spirit serves as the patron of strength in Sandpoint) people are gathering to witness as men and women of great brawn show off their muscles and demonstrate minor feats of strength. One man holds two balancing halflings up high in one hand while carrying aloft a great boulder in the other. A woman lifts a band of enormous logs over her head. Some are attempting to climb a rope that has been tied to the top of a beam set between two twenty-foot-high poles. At One Bell, Mayor Deverin quiets the crowd and lays out the rules. Present a heavy object, hold it above your head as the Mayor counts to ten. Any challenger who cannot do the same is eliminated. The first challenger to succeed gets to select the next heavy object, and so forth, until an object that only a single contestant can hold aloft to the count of ten remains. If an object is too heavy for all contestants, it is discarded and something else is chosen. A swarthy sailor calls out that he'll show the power of the sea and holds aloft a partly full barrel of fish. Several challengers follow suit and bookies begin to place odds.
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Although theoretically according to Pathfinder rules the character(s) with the highest Strength score should automatically win, the nature of the contest is such that there is an element of luck and stamina to it. Objects of relatively low weight are generally being introduced first, and some objects have unusual centers of gravity. Hence this challenge is decided by the sum of three Strength checks rather than the raw Strength score.
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