Festival Of Lies

an adventure starring Chico, Lothario, and Luna.

## Short Episode Description

Chico, Luna, & Lothario mentor scouts at the Junior Adventurer's Festival. As they traverse the events, a dark purpose is uncovered... Festival of Lies is an actual play podcast of Space Knights

## Non Player Characters

* Barnabas Hendrickson
* Barrett Clan
	+ Alvor Barrett
	+ Corina Barrett
	+ Gene Barrett
* Chonk Lifting
* Opal Congrin
* Gerulf Artenie
* Harrison "Hop" Stout
* Karen Stout
* Louise Riplen
* Lithi Hawk
* Merryvine Triplets
	+ Aurora Merryvine
	+ Jameson Merryvine
	+ Frenick Merryvine
* Sarmine Kroft
* Theuban Al'Afeaa

## Plot Summary

Chico, Lothario, and Luna are sent to Fubi Plains to mentor scouts at the Junior Adventurer's Festival. The festival is a sort of summer camp for young scouts from all across Guaso that train to become adventurers. Many scouts are recruited by guilds competing for the best and brightest. When the three arrive, they find tents, campfires, and hotdogs all around.

Chico hops over to a concession stand to try out the hotdogs. He finds his family there being supervised by his uncle Gene. Two of his cousins, Alvor and Corina, along with a human dressed as a bunny named Hop, are there representing the Barrett Clan. He learns that the camp is holding a competition between troops to determine who is the best at physical prowess. It includes an obstacle course and arena fight. Chico gets excited and tells Gene he'll lead the Barrett Clan, but then gets an upset stomach from the hotdogs he ate.

Lothario notices a young punk demoness with her friends spraying graffiti on the tents. He introduces himself to her and asks why she's acting out. She introduces herself as Sarmine, her friends Chonk, Opal, and Lithi, and proclaims that they, the Purple Basilisks, were kicked from the scouts and can't participate in the festivities, so they're taking out their frustration on the camp. As she turns down Lothario's advances and leads her group elsewhere, Luna follows her to gather info on what's going on.

Luna approaches Sarmine and Co with a bag of gold and tells them she'll hire them to do a "landscaping" job. Chico prepares his team by drilling them on how to garden veggies and attach explosives to them. As Lothario looks for troops to mentor. He happens to run into the Merryvine family who have an unruly set of triplets named Aurora, Jameson, and Frenick. Lothario takes the triplets under his wing and begins teaching them survival basics.

Luna and Sarmine's gang prepare to disrupt the system by sabotaging the obstacle course. As they spray paint their landscaping vehicles, Sarmine warms up to Luna. Sarmine tells her why she got kicked. She overheard her scoutmaster, Gerulf, accepting a huge sum of money from a guild recruiter. Sarmine confronted Gerulf about the deal and was kicked as a result. Luna reassures her she did the right thing, and promises to set things straight. Instead of sabotaging the obstacle course, they decide to investigate

Chico, Lothario, and their teams gather at the obstacle course starting line. They scan their competition and note three particular troops: The Gardyloo Harlequins, the Masil Cobras, and the Jishop Bishops. Once the starting gun is fired, the troops begin moving to the rock wall. Chico's troop rushes up the wall and attacks the stronger looking Cobras. In the process, Hop loses his footing and falls off, but is saved by a magical anklet that produces a protective bubble to cushion the fall. Lothario and the Merryvine Triplets make it up the wall with no problems, taking a shot at the Harlequins. Chico and Lothario manage to take the lead as the other teams struggle against their attacks.

In the next section, Chico and Lothario have to push their teams to jump across a ravine lined with rocks. Chico is the first to go, and in a rush, his team trips up and flounders in the water. Lothario sees Chico up ahead and manages to maneuver carefully, but the other teams begin to gain on them. Once Chico pulls his troops out of the mud, he notices they're missing supplies, but instead of slowing down to look for them he assures them they'll be able to resupply later.

The final section consists of a corridor with swinging pendulums designed to slow down troops. Chico directs his team to use explosives to blast the pendulums hard enough to swing them faster in an attempt to knock over the others. Unfortunately, Corina falls out of the course on their way through. Lothario gets the message from Chico and times his and everyone's steps to avoid the pendulums, while the other teams struggle with the pendulums. Chico and Lothario reach the finish line first, followed by the Cobras and Harlequins. The Bishops disbanded mid race due to their leader not being present. After the troops make it to the end, they're qualified to enter the arena fight.

After the obstacle course concludes, Luna attempts to fish for answers. She approaches the leader of the Gardyloo Harlequins, Louise, with a bag of gold, asking where to go to donate to the scouts. Louise seems rather confused at being offered money in this manner, however the leader of the Masil Cobras, Theuban, explains that she would need to speak with Gerulf, but coments if she's looking for a lucrative business venture to look for a man in a red cloak named Barnabas, who is recruiting scouts into his cult of the Crimson Lament. He explains Barnabas is paying off Gerulf and other scout masters for access to the scouts before the adventuring guilds can speak with them. Theuban, who feels confident sharing the conspiracy, tells Luna to seek out Barnabas and use the password "Thalkor" to strike the same deal.

With this newfound knowledge, Luna gathers Chico and Lothario to discuss a plan to stop the conspirators from selling young adventurers to the Crimson Lament. First, they find the most offendable mother in camp to start gossip about Gerulf and fan the flames of outrage across camp, prompting everyone to storm Gerulf's office. Second, they arrange a deal at the scoutmaster's office between Gerulf and Barnabas as the camp storms in to expose the conspiracy. Chico and Lothario agree and work together with Luna to enact the plan.

Luna and Chico find Karen Stout, Hop's mother, tending to her son. Chico convinces them that the hotdogs are poisonous by pretending to be sick. Luna instructs Hop how to administer first aid to Chico by giving him various medicines to treat a stomach virus. After administering first aid, Chico crafts a badge for Hop before rushing to the bathroom again due to taking too many drugs. Karen becomes outraged after learning about the health hazard, then proceeds to drag Hop around to other camp mothers to gloat and gossip.

Meanwhile, Lothario looks for Barnabas' red cloak. He finds a man in what appears to be a brown cloak, but red on the inside, perhaps turned inside out to avoid detection. He follows him to the outhouse, where he mentions the password "Thalkor." Barnabas responds in kind, ready to strike up a deal. Lothario insists they handle the dealings professionally in a proper environment with the right people around, explaining that he needs these dealings private, but on the record for security. Barnabas agrees, and sets up a deal to take place with Gerulf at the scoutmaster's office.

As Gerulf and Barnabas arrive at the office, the camp becomes increasingly outraged. Troops begin throwing away hotdogs, accusations are made, and Karen begins forming a protest against Gerulf. Chico, Lothario, and Luna all convene behind the office building and begin barring the alternate exits to prevent any escape attempts. Katen's protest descends onto the office, where Gerulf and Barnabas are caught exchanging bribe money. Everyone in the protest is shocked, and the two culprits can't escape the situation. At this moment, Lothario steps forward and announces who they are and what's been going on. He exposes the Crimson Lament, Theuban's dealings, and the injustice directed to Sarmine. He concludes by reminding everyone that adventuring is all about doing the right thing. He then asks Gerulf to return Sarmine's membership, asks everyone to forgive Gerulf, and declares that guilds should earn their members the right way. Everyone cheers, except for Theuban and Barnabas, who are dejected at having their plans foiled and begin to awkwardly shuffle away from the crowd. Sarmine and her crew are thrilled to be reinstated with the scouts, and everyone continues the festivities in peace.