Festival of the Dawnfather's Rest

The Festival of the Dawnfather's Rest is an annual festival that celebrates the winter solstice, introduced as the main event of Arc 5. It is connected to the deity Pelor, who is also known by the name "Dawnfather".

## Description

The festival is celebrated in the city of Solaris in the night of the winter solstice. The idea behind it is that when Pelor is sleeping, and it's the longest night of the year, it's best to be together with friends as to remember that the sun will shine again.

In 21 AP, it is known as "one of the most marvellous and magical menageries in all the world", and people from all over Hyranor as well as from other countries come to visit it.

Typical activities at the festival are playing carnival games, eating, and singing. There are booths of merchants selling wares in the Merchant Quarters on the western side of the festival, and troupes performing acts in the town square. Storytellers tell the tales of beasts and the heroes that conquered them. Also, there might be orbula played at the festival.

### Schedule

The Festival begins at sunset with a firework and is a total of 12 hours long. An hour after sunset, snowdrop competition starts. At midnight, Fulldark is celebrated at the town square.

## Activities at the Festival

### Merchants

There are many merchants at the festival that come from all sorts of places. Some of them are skilled artisans, some are mages, and some rarely come to the Material Plane for other reasons than this festival. The merchants have their own quarter at the festival.

### Petting Zoo

The festival includes a petting zoo with different kinds of exotic animals. The petting zoo is its own section of the festival, and one that does not quite fit together with the rest of it: while most other parts are temporary structures that have been built and put down, the petting zoo is a barely gated off section that is filled with different vegetations and water features. This section does not exist in that way in Solaris on any other day. In 21 AP, the person responsible for the petting zoo is a purple Tiefling woman named Katrina Talon, who usually walks into town the day of the festival, followed by her animals, sets up a fence and has the biome spring up inside it. When the festival is over, she turns this section back again, and then leaves.

The animals at the petting zoo include drakes, pseudo dragons, pony sized unicorns, some more regular animals, and even animals that most people don't even know what they are called. The animals can look after themselves, and it would not be a good idea to pet them without asking.

### Mirror Maze [Spoilers for Arc 5 Episode 4]

The mirror maze is free to enter, but barely anyone ever goes there. It is located more towards the south of the festival. At the festival of 21 AP, the front of it is run by a fairy named Ginger Sprite, who claims to get paid by the maze itself, and also gives ominous warnings to potential visitors, telling them that the maze is a dangerous place. The booth for the maze has no flashy signage, simply a few mirrors popped up near the front that visitors pass by.

Ginger and her maze are known to have "Answers", and aside from people that want to be able to say that they made it through the spooky maze, only people looking for something go in there. The things they look for are usually very personal and abstract things, not physical things. Most people just go in and come out the same way, less than 1 in 100 actually find the real exit. According to Ginger, only 7 people never made it out at all.

People cannot enter the maze together, but have to go in separately. Pets or familiars who could not walk around the maze alone are allowed to accompany their person, though.

The maze itself is disorienting in the way that mirror mazes tend to be, and dimly lit.

The mechanics of the maze are that everyone inside has to make a survival check per round to find their way around. After three failed checks, the person gets back out. After three successful checks, the person encounters one of the two vampires living inside the maze, Vladimir Bites, or his sister Victoria Bites. They stab the person with their clawed hands, and, while still having them clawed, tell them to leave. If the person refuses, because they are looking for something and willing to risk "seeing what no man wishes to see", the vampire carries them away while they black out. They awaken again in a secluded room with a mirror, but their mirror image is not themselves, but the worst possible version of them. If they are able to face this, the mirror slides away to reveal a garden.

The garden is lush, green, and open at the top. There is running water somewhere, it is beautiful, and well taken care of. There are large trees, and just off-centre, there is the base of a wishing well with a big plant coming up from it, six or seven feet tall. At the top of the plant are two blooms, one of which is closed, the other open, and with face of an older woman. The two blooms are the sisters Chris, who is awake during the day, and Therum, who is awake during the night, and who have never actually met. They can give answers to those searching for them, and offer to rest in the garden.

### Games at the Festival

#### Ice Knife

The game "Ice Knife" was invented by Sougle Wackamole. At the festival of 21 AP, it is hosted by him, and located right across from the Whac-A-Gnoll game booth. The booth has big letters on the top that say "Ice Knife", and there is kitschy snow on each of the letter forms. The game was submitted on Patreon by Rachel.

**Cost:** 2 copper

**Game:** The player gets a knife which they have to throw at a spinning wheel (it gets spun by the host casting Mage Hand). The wheel is divided into big wedges coloured in blue, and very small silver wedges. The prospect of the game is to hit the silver parts, but the wheel has a magnet inside it that is supposed to make sure that the knife always misses the silver parts, moving it in its course. Mechanically, the game calls for a ranged attack roll with a dagger, and the DC to hit the silver wedges is 23.

**Prizes:** Should someone hit despite the hidden mechanism, they get a wooden snowball slingshot as a prize, and the host of the booth pulls back a curtain to reveal the grand prize. In 21 AP, this grand prize is an hourglass that is also a snow globe with swirling snow. Sougle has only one of these and is not supposed to actually lose it. To win the grand prize, the player has to pay again to get another knife, and then hit one of the silver wedges a second time.

#### Whac-A-Gnoll

The booth for this game is brightly coloured, with a big sign saying "Whac-A-Gnoll" on top. At the festival of 21 AP, it is hosted by a Tabaxi woman named Smudge and located right across from the Ice Knife game booth.

**Cost:** 2 copper

**Game:** Similar to real-life "Whac-A-Mole", the player gets a poorly made wooden hammer. The host of the game counts down from three, and little gnoll figurines start popping up from little holes. Mechanically, the game calls for a sleight of hand check.

**Prizes:** There are three prize racks, a small one, a medium one, and a big one in the back. Depending on how many gnolls were hit by the player, the player can choose from different racks. The small rack contains two feet long, poorly made plushies of B'doogas (homebrew monsters, find them here), the medium rack has little plush owlbears, and the big one has plushies of Eirden, the beasts the sky pirates ride.

#### Spell Sniper

In 21 AP, this game is run by a big, strong looking man, who appears to be a bit intimidating and grizzled, and wears an eyepatch.

**Cost:** 5 copper for three shots.

**Game:** A few glass bottles are lined up in rows. The player gets handed a cute little purple sparkling wand that is charged with cantrips. They are supposed to point the wand at the bottles and knock one of them down. The secret behind the game is that magic doesn't actually work on the bottles, but disperses instead. Hitting them with a stone, on the other hand, works, and makes the bottle fall. Sometimes, the game host tells customers, especially children, to try hitting the bottles with a rock instead of a cantrip.

**Prizes:** The prize for hitting a bottle are wide brimmed hats modelled after a Flumph. They have eyes coming out of eye socks on the top and tendrils coming down.

#### Strength Challenge

Near the games quarter, there is an area that is technically part of the games, where people try to out-strength each other either in a contest of pull-ups or by throwing dense metal balls as far as possible. The challenge calls for contested Athletics checks between the competitors. There are people whose job it is to be strong, and if they are bested by someone, that person can compete in the Snowdrop Competition. At the festival of 21 AP, two of these people are a large Half Elf redhead with a big beard, and a tall woman with shin length dark hair called Astrid. Because there is a spot open at Snowdrop for the winner of the Strength Challenge, most people that compete in the Strength Test only do so to get a last minute entry to Snowdrop.

## Snowdrop

A special part of the festival is the competition of young adults to become Snowdrop Champion. The competition is a combination of beauty pageant and skills test, but also includes blood sports, a bit like a "tiny, less deadly" version of the Hunger Games. Most contestants train and apply for it, but there always is one spot open for a last minute competitor who won the Strength Competition, thus qualifying for Snowdrop. None of the Strength Competition winners have ever made it past the beauty pageant, but it's still a thing to keep up the hopes of the people and give them a chance to compete even if they forgot to apply. It happens every year at the festival, and no other times. There is a structure built up for it that is similar to a stadium or colosseum.

### Competitors

At the beginning of Snowdrop, there are 50 competitors. After the beauty pageant, 30 contestants move on to bloodsports, and the best five then to the talent show.

Most people competing to become Snowdrop Champion are (their equivalent of) twenty-something years old, well-prepared, and have this as their plan for the future. Many competitors compete multiple years in a row if they did not win the first time around, since the only placement that matters is first place - there is no such thing as "Snowdrop Runner Up", only Snowdrop Champion. This champion then will never have to work again, though: Snowdrop Champions get money as long as they need it, funded by the crown.

The competitors have a room under the stadium that has little vanities and is all decked out for them to prepare themselves and get ready. Also there are attendants in nice clothes who help them pick their outfits and getting done.

### Round 1: Beauty Pageant

The beauty pageant is decided by both the crowd, who cheers louder for their favourites or stays silent for those they don't like, and by a jury.

When it is time, the contestants come up to the stadium. In the centre of it, a catwalk has been built. The contestants all walk out along the runway together, posing, gesturing, and flexing. Then, they stand in a line together, and the lights go out as the competition begins. For the competition, the contestants are illuminated in a random order for ten seconds each, which they have to use to look impressive, show off, and shout their name out to the crowd. Mechanically, a DC 20 persuasion check is necessary to persuade the crowd as well as the jury. After each contestant, it goes dark again for another thirty second, before the next one is illuminated.

There is no official dress code for the beauty pageant. Some of the competitors decide to go wildly elaborate with their outfits, some go pretty casual, trusting their natural charm, some decide to go for more of a sexy style, and some go in their normal formal robes, although that is considered boring.

After everybody had their turn, the contestants again stand in line, waiting. The catwalk is then dimly lit all the way around while the contestants deliberate. Because the contestants are still visible during that time, they usually do their best to still look good, to maybe convince the jury in hindsight, if necessary. After the jury made its decision, light pops up beneath the 30 contestants they chose, signifying that they get to move on to round 2.

### Round 2: Bloodsports

Round 2 starts about 45 minutes after round 1, and in the meantime, the contestants have time to get out of their fancy dresses and into their fighting gear. The stadium gets changed, too: druids come out and use Mold Earth to turn the catwalk into a much smaller circular pedestal, raised 30 feet high in the middle of the stadium, with a cliff facing. On this podium stands the referee / coach of bloodsports to watch and make sure no rules are violated.

The goal of the bloodsports is to be one of the last five people standing to be qualified for round 3, and getting the others injured enough that they can't fight anymore. Actual murder is not allowed, and anyone getting too close to it will be physically stopped by the referee and possibly disqualified.

Bloodsport ends very close to Fulldark, so the guests are dismissed from the stadium and only come back after Fulldark. In the meantime, the stadium and the five contestants left are being cleaned up, so that everything is nice and ready for the talent show.

## Fulldark

Fulldark is the most important part of the festival. It happens at midnight, at the halfway point of the festival. Everything else stops for it, no other event goes through it, and most people try to get as close to the town square as possible to witness it. There, Fulldark is centred, but since everyone goes there, the people end up standing all the way across the merchant's and craftmen's district of the festival.

At Fulldark, the essence of the festival shows: It happens at midnight, where things might seem like they are going to be dark forever, so the people get together to remember that there is light at the end, and the sun is always coming out again. To fully underline the darkness, all the lights of the festival get extinguished one by one at the exact stroke of midnight, until there is total darkness.

While the people get together for Fulldark, they sing a traditional song in a language nobody speaks anymore, that some people say might be an older version of Celestial. The people have forgotten what it means, and it probably doesn't sound like the actual words of the language anymore, but it is a traditional piece that most people know. There is no conductor or leader, one person just starts singing and the other people join in. Nobody is required to join in, but most people do, and it doesn't matter if they get a word or a tone wrong.

## History

It had very humble origins, starting as a town gathered along the shore of the Western Ocean each year staying awake and together for the longest night of the year.

## Trivia

* The festival only got it's name between the recording of the first and the second half of episode 0 of Arc 5.