Part One: The Festival of Melora

Area

The festival is primarily located in the main circular plaza at the center of Tideholde built around the town's solid monument. The pillar itself is a fifty foot monolith of pure, unblemished dark stone. Out of some mixture of respect and fear, none of the stalls have been set up within 30 feet of the pillar. Two elven paladins of Melora stand guard over the pillar as well, keeping pranksters away until the ritual planned for later in the day is complete.

The festival itself is unorganized and chaotic, stall owners jostling with one another for better position, at once trying to catch the flow of foot traffic while redirecting it away from their competition. The bulk of the vendors are allegedly selling baubles and trinkets from the newly discovered ruins, though many of them are likely low effort forgeries collected from the surrounding foothills.

Most of the townspeople themselves are shunning the festivities, preferring to stay away from the bustle and noise, but a few have set up food carts near the entrances to the square. The town militia is notably absent, more than willing to leave the protection of Melora's chosen to their own guards.

Activities

Simple carnival games. Feel free to improvise games and hosting characters as needed. Prefer simple attribute checks for success. Make sure no prizes of note are actually given out.

Examples:

• Ring toss/knock over the bottles (dex check)
• Perform music/poetry etc (performance check)
• Riddle contest

As always, if the players are willing to improv/act out any of the more creative challenges, add/subtract modifiers as you see fit.

Important Activity

After your players participate in a game or two or run around with one another a bit, they should encounter a local bard telling stories about the region, in particular speculating on the newly discovered ruins. If the PCs choose to listen, they should learn some small local history:

• The importance of the festival and ritual.
• That the ancient stone sea walls surrounding the town's port are believed to originally protect the town's livelihood from Dagon, Prince of the Depths.

If the PCs talk to the bard they should learn that there's an older mage who lives outside of town that could tell them more about the walls and the pillar.

Regional Flair

If you want to add some more Tideholde specific flavor to your carnival games here are some additional ideas:

• Annual challenge to climb the dark pillar. Since it's entirely smooth stone, no one has every succeeded, and the players should be guaranteed to fail here as well. Exceptional roles can get ten feet up, and they player should be approached by a local and given a commemorative bronze coin and a ribbon that says "Tideholde Pillar Jumper". They'll also be asked for their name so it can be put on a board in one the taverns off the plaza and told that the coin can be redeemed there for one free drink.
• As Melora is a goddess of nature, there could be a local tracking challenge. Finding a small creature hiding somewhere in the plaza should be rewarded with a small seashell amulet.

Notable People/Places

TODO: Add a few things here.

Conclusion

After the PCs have amused and introduced themselves a bit, it's almost sunset. As the day has gone on, more and more townspeople have arrived until the plaza is incredibly full. The High Priestess of Melora arrives on a palanquin, born by four elven paladins, dressed in shining armor with bright green capes. After she exits gracefully, she is greeted by the mayor of Tideholde, a squat, broad man with a permanent frown on his face. Briefly, they exchange pleasantries before passing one another what look like identical engraved ingots of silver. After placing both bars into grooves at the base of the pillar they perform an elaborate ritual together, whispering words of power as the paladins guarding them lead the gathered crowd in prayer. As the ritual winds down, visible lines of energy swirl around the outsides of the tower, flowing into the grooves at the base and lighting up the ingots inside brilliantly. As the sun begins to move behind the sea walls and the priestess and mayor smile at one another in relief, an alarm bell rings out loudly and smoke can be seen rising over the buildings to the south.

Notes

• If a PC succeeds at a perception check, s/he will notice that the two ingots have different inscriptions on them. Depending on their roll, they may notice that they are runes in different languages and attempt relevant knowledge checks to determine that the ingot originally held by the mayor is of elven origin, while the one held by the priestess is naga.
• If a PC succeeds at a knowledge/arcana check, s/he will be able to tell that the ritual is siphoning extra energy off of the pillar.
• If a PC decides to scan the crowd and passes a high perception check, s/he will notice a few members of the crowd all have the same sigil (four tentacles wrapped around a fish's head) on pendants around their neck. Asking townspeople about these pendants will tell the PCs about a small kuo-toa enclave that's recently been formed on a beach near the town. They've been friendly enough so far, giving the pendants to anyone who traded with them as good luck charms, but many of the locals are still incredibly skeptical.
• Remember to check your PCs passive perception/other checks. Depending on how high it is, you may even want to prompt them for some of these checks.