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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1506421" data-attributes="member: 1210">Enter the YipsThe contest has begun.  Music ripples through the air, the smell of pastries baking mingles with the scent of jam being warmed and readied to apply on said pastries.  The judges are gathered at a series of long tables hung with garlands of spring flowers.  Mama is sulking, having taken herself away since she was rejected as a judge.*While Ed, with the other judges, starts tasting the entries in the jam contest, Federico is working on a new series of fruit acts, involving everything from eating disgustingly rotten fruit to juggling them.  He’s having a good time, and children are laughing at his antics; hopefully he won’t see the town drunk again.***Sandy has traveled long and hard to check into a few things for his benefactors.  He’s got a lot on his mind, but he’s looking forward to rejoining his clan and seeing how everyone’s doing.  He learned from the Bakeswells that the party was in Blackwood; so he set out at a determined pace, and now, a few days later, he can see the little town ahead.  The road he is on winds between a few outlying farms and then up the hill on which Blackwood mostly sits.  Sandy hasn’t been here before so he takes a moment to scrutinize the town.  It’s a single-road town, and pretty much all the buildings are right along the road.  It looks like there’s a single watch tower that has a sort of unused, abandoned look (Ah, the fall of empire, Sandy thinks) on the far side of the town square, which seems to have some kind of gathering going on.  Whistling to himself, Sandy strides forward.  Then he catches a glimpse of movement in the rows of corn to his left.  Glancing in that direction, he sees a pair of kobolds sneaking along.  They don’t see him see them; so Sandy keeps walking, picking up the pace a little but not doing anything to give himself away.  He flicks his eyes left and right-There are more of them, he realizes.Indeed, to either side he catches signs of several kobolds sneaking slowly into the town.  Sandy pauses for a moment.  He shrugs out of his backpack, rifles through it, pulls out a blanket and cuts a piece free with his dagger.  Using some wine, he paints a symbol on it: the nautical sign for ‘danger.’**  Then he picks it up and rushes towards the square.The kobolds stay under cover.***Ed is obviously enjoying herself.  She’s sampled many jams already, and most of them are very good.  A select few are far beyond that- for instance, that one-eyed feller’s apricot jam was remarkable!  But the Peachtree entry hasn’t come up yet.  Ed chats animatedly with the other judges as she waits for her chance.Federico is keeping an eye on her from his position where he’s juggling fruit.  He’s made quite a few of the humans laugh; it makes him happy to be able to bring humor to their day.  He has quite a crowd, including Martini, which makes him easy for Sandy to spot.  “Federico!” Sandy cries as he runs up, his ‘danger’ sign undead by the ignorant folk all around.  He leans close and quietly says, “There’s trouble!” Quickly, Federico ends his act for the moment and he, Martini and Sandy move off.  The stout fills the others in and they move towards the watch tower.  “Does this place even have a guard?” wonders Martini.Doesn’t look like it. “How many are they?” the ranger asks.“I’m not sure- I saw about four or five, but who knows how many I missed?”Trinia emerges from the crowd, moving towards them with her wolf.  The whole group climbs the ladder that leads to the tower’s platform.  Looking out-“There must be... at least a dozen of them,” Martini groans.“Oh, I’m scared!” Federico whimpers.  “We’ve got to warn the townsfolk!”“You’re right.”  Sandy grimly starts clambering down the ladder.  “Maybe there are some warriors who can help us...” Yeah, maybe.  In this town of Blackwood, population 99.  *Actually, her player missed this game. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> **Sandy is a stout; they like the water.Next Time: The jam contest is most rudely interrupted!</blockquote>

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