Editing Yunauth:GMNotes (section)

=== Preparation ===

1 week before the festival, there are several things remaining to be sorted out.

Arbitrate the argument over the size of pies.

Arbitrate an argument over which weapons to use in the archery contest (mainly either a longbow, a MW longbow, a shortbow or personal weapons). No one is offering up a small-sized MW longbow though, so the party will have to find or make one.

Decide which kind of pies to serve. Meat pies are more appropriate in honor of Rak, but there's a shortage of meat (+1 to pie eating rolls, but needs a good hunt [Survival skill challenge]). The local fruits don't make for great pies especially without a good source of sugar (-1 to pie eating rolls). Fish would work fine but it's a bit more expensive since they'll have to get some extra from the local fishermen's guild considering how much they've already bought for the following feast (they need 1000gp worth of fish, payable from kingdom funds, though the king himself won't pay it).

To collect meat, the party will have to organize a hunt. There's 30 hunters available, averaging +2 Survival. Each group can make one check per day (5 days available for hunting). DC 10 to collect 1 person's worth of food, +1 per 2 over. Meat makes up about 1/3 of the collected food. There's a -1 penalty if they go in 10 or more groups and a -2 penalty if they go in 20 or more groups. The bakers need meat for about 100 people, which is a bit more than the hunters can handle.

There's some debate about changing the paintball fight (with slingshots) to a game of ribbon tag.

There's an argument over which drinks to serve at the drinking contest. There's a short beer that most people don't think makes for a good spectacle (DC 10), a fortified ale (DC 14) and some dwarven brandy (DC 18).

Decide which order to host the events. Each event lasts 1 hour. There's an hour break for cleaning up and setting out tables. Then there is a feast and, once night falls, the grand hunt.

Last year, some wizard used ''obscuring mist'' in the sneaking contest. Some people want to ban all magic in that contest. Some people want to ban all magic in all the contests. Others say that magic is just another skill and if it improves your ability to hide, it should be fair. Others will settle for a compromise and just ban a few spells that are obviously too good for particular contests (obscuring mist and invisibility)

An ankheg will interrupt preparations if the party doesn't find it first.