The gleaming new stonework of the Sandpoint Cathedral dominates the small town. Thirty feet in front of the great double doors is a rudimentary stage decorated with drapes from each of the seven key gods that are linked to the new Cathedral. This stage is the centrepoint for dozens of stalls and barrows selling gifts, beer and presenting games to the hundreds of visitors that have come for the opening ceremony. This is the swallowtail festival.

The townsfolk regain anyone who will listen about life in the town with a shapeless scaffold at the top of the hill where once there was a modest church, and of course how impressed they are now the building is fully exposed.

The festival is officially opened by the town's mayor, Kendra Deverin. Followed by a safety announcement by the Sherrif Balor Hemlock. Then Cyrdak Drokkus takes the stage and delivers a lengthy yet entertaining account of the Cathedral's construction. The anecdote about the builder who struggled to take bricks up to the roof has everyone in stiches of laughter. "and he let go the rope" people keep saying to each other for hours afterwards. Finally the new Cleric Father Abstalar Zantus tells the parable of how Desna fell to the earth and was nursed back to health by a blind child. She transforms the child into an immortal butterfly as a reward for her aid. Parcival then pulls the release rope for the cart he has driven all the way from Windsong Abbey and a thousand swallowtail butterflies swarm into the air.

The travellers Rilln the Gripplis, Lazdon the Wanderer, Lenny and Santiago are mingling with the crowd. They travvelled here with the survivors of Santiago's gypsy group a group and the clergy that have taken them in. Parsival a noviate cleric of Pharasma is with them, though he is sure that he is probably supposed to be with Father Zantus and the other priests but he is not summoned and so hangs out with boys his own age for as long as he can get away with. He is sullen and quiet at the best of times, and this group, perhaps because they travelled together, have ignored that and seem even pleased to have his company.

The group have enjoyed some of the beer, and remarked that Clerics can drink alchohol a fact they were unsure of. When a group of girls catch their eye. Lenny, Santiago and Lazdon approach and open a conversation with the group. The girls quickly get bored, except for Shay who drags Lenny off to play a game on the coconut shy. She is impressed by his skill at the game and asks about his skills and training. He doesn't want to tell her the truth of course, so mutters something vague. To his shock this enigmatic vagueness, coupled with physical prowess, seems to make her even more interested. Lenny and Shay are wattched jealously by Lazdon and Santiago, who bet and joke about the outcome of what has clearly turned into a date.

Rilln is still puzzling out that Santiago and his family have met another Gripplis. He asks a few humans if they have also met one, and is shocked to find that most don't even know what he is. Except for one drunk that confuses him for a Boggard baby. He does find other non-humans in the town and is relived that nobody thinks he is a Goblin. Just in case though he keeps a low profile and stays with Lotharr at his side as out of the way as he can.

As the sunlight starts to wane, with all of the towns key figures at his side Father Zantus stands before the great doors of the new Cathedral ready to open it for the first time. He knocks a thunderstone and begs his new congregation to bow their heads for the Prayer of First Dreaming.

At this moment dozens of shrieks echo around the festival, and an explosion detonates at the feet of the new Cleric. Luckily for him a quick witted guard pushes the new Cleric clear and takes the full impact, dying instantly.

The Sherrif acts fast too, he ushers the group inside the Catherdral doors and is just in time to close the doors before a second explosion detonates on the Cathedral steps.

"There, up there" Lenny shouts to his friends, he quickly has his bow in hand. Ushers the girl to duck, and starts unloading arrows at the roof abouve the great doors. On the roof of the Catherdral a group of goblin warchanters urged their fellows on with a strange song, which they repeated over and over again.
"Goblins chew and Goblins bite.
Goblins cut and Goblins fight.
Stab the dog and cut the horse,
Goblins eat and take by force!"

"Goblins race and Goblins jump.
Goblins slash and Goblins bump.
Burn the skin and mash the head,
Goblins here and you be dead!"

"Chase the baby, catch the pup.
Bonk the head to shut it up.
Bones be cracked, flesh be stewed,
We be Goblins! You be food!"

Between the second and third verses a strange goblin in a dress and wielding an oversized goblin blade led a handful of goblins out of the well screaming
"Reta chop and Reta bite!
Reta slay and Reta fight!
Reta stab and Reta smite!
Reta kills it all just right!".
Reta and her 'horsechopper' proved a formidable foe, luckily Lotharr was up to the challenge and Santiago found the juvenile fire-pelt cougar a useful friend in combat with Reta and her group.

After nearly a minute of fighting, Lenny, Lazdon, Santiago, Rilln and Parcival have dispatched nearly a dozen goblins. Rilln climbed the Cathedral wall and found only one heavily injured Goblin warchanter with and arrow through his leg crawling towards a ladder on the far side. He yelled a warning to his new found friends and the townsfolk below who statred to prepare a defense. Parcival hammered on the door and tried to help Sherrif Hemlock, who was still on the inside, to open the door. The firework had damaged the door and moving it was hard work.

After a minute failing to get the Sherrif and the group out of the Cathedral, the chant renewed from the South side of the square, then a moment later a dozen more Goblins rounded the South corner of the Cathedral, a few of them were armed with rockets, desnan candles, and bombs. The warchanters held back and commanded the group to swarm the right hand side of the defense. Santiago and Parcival tried to hold them back, while Lenny had to race to get a clear shot. Rilln tried to leap down to offer aid but knocked himself out in the attempt.

A Dwarf rounded the flank of the bunch, while Lazdon laid in with every spell he could think of. The rockets and bombs from the goblins devastated the group, but just as the Sherrif managed to pull the door open and step out Lenny and the Dwarf had the battle won.

The townsfolk cheared, and Shay threw her arms around Lenny announcing to all who would listen how brave he was. In the background Father Zantus got Santiago, Parcival, Rilln and Lotharr back on their feet.

A scream from the North gate broke the brief celebration. Santiago immediately raced towards the noise, and Lenny called to the group to follow him. When they arrived they saw that the town's guards had all been killed fighting in and around the North Gate. Lenny noticed the gate was closed and locked, Santiago pointed out that any clever Goblin could have just climbed around the edge where the wall met the cliff. Lenny puzzled this fact while the pair raced into the fray. A visiting noble, a rapier wielder like Santiago, was ahead of them and charged a Goblin dog rider with a few hunting hounds at his side. He clearly hadn't seen the two other goblin dog riders who rounded from behind a building and counter charged him. The group of Goblins on the battlements rained down arrow fire onto him to further ruin his chance of survival.

The brave heroes charge, and are just in time to step over the nobles body and sabilise him. The Dwarf yells a warcry and races all the way around the fight, up the staors inside the tower and along the battlements to kill two of the Goblin archers before Lenny ran out of arrows. An impressive feat for a Dwarf. In the end they had managed to kill all the Goblins but Santiago had fallen. Luckily Sherrif Hemlock and Father Zantus are close behind and save him.

In the middle of it all a Goblin rogue had stabbed Lazdon in the back then dissapeared, after several days he will still be unaccounted for.

The mood for the festival is down after the fight. It seems the South end of the town was also attacked. However an old lady, and something of a local legend raises a cup of ale and announces that the beer from her stall would be free to everyone. The other stalls join suite and soon the town is back into a party atmosphere.

Sherrif Hemlock and his guards, and a few townsfolk ignore the party and focus on hunting for more Goblins and investigating the event.