The Tropic Thunder left the cove and sailed back to Sasserine in the fishing boat that took them out to the cove. In order to reach Vanderboren Manor, the heroes had to navigate a city thick with parades and festivity.
One year ago, a horrific brush with apocalypse in the far-off city of Alhaster sent deadly ripples across the entire face of the world. Even in Sasserine, the Wormgod's brief emergence into the world had an effect, as monstrous minions boiled out of the Spire of Long Shadows in preparation of the dawn of this new age. Only the intervention of a band of powerful heroes from the neighboring city of Cauldron saved Sasserine from a terrible fate. Now, one year later, Sasserine honors the heroes of that dark day with a wild parade and festival to remember the fallen and rejoice the victory of good versus evil.
Wormfall, as the holiday has been dubbed by city officials, is to be an annual event, a gigantic affair involving groups of trained acrobats, marching bands, garish costumes in homage to the heroes of Alhaster and Cauldron (and corresponding effigies of their undead and wormy enemies), and floats constructed in the image of enormous green worms and shrouded skulls. Kites of green worms born on sticks and strings dance in the air above the rooftops. Green lanterns burn above the streets, casting a sickly pale glow upon the cobblestones below, each with a removable shade and a layer of bright gold paper below to bathe the city in the warm sunlight of victory at the exact moment the worms fell and the heroes of Alhaster struck down their foul god.
When the Tropic Thunder arrived in Sasserine they found the city in the throes of Wormfall and had to navigate the teeming crowds of celebrating citizens in order to reach Lavinia's estate. No matter what route they took they found the going slow and frustrating. And of course, the crowd contained a few surprises for them along the way.
Harmony split from the rest of the group to take the little girl they saved to the Merchant Garrison. While the rest of the Tropic Thunder were moving through the crowd, a gnome targeted them for a "bump" so that he could accuse them of being "a bunch of rude, oversized louts". After slamming onto Harold on purpose, the gnome huffed and puffed and rolled up his sleeves while a half-orc desperately tried to intervene.
Harold apologized for the "insult", holding off a fight long enough for the half-orc to arrive and talk some sense into the drunk gnome.
During the height of the celebration, a float-wagon heading downhill bearing a huge humanoid form shrouded in wriggling paper-mache worms and bearing two burning lanterns for eyes rolled out of control towards an open-air tavern filled with revelers. Quarion heard the shouts of alarm and gave the Tropic Thunder some time to act. The heroes themselves were directly in the path of the runaway cart. Harold and Quarion tried to destroy one of its wheels. Quarion cast entangle to slow down the cart's progress as well. Graim warned the revelers in the tavern and all of them escaped out of the float's path.
Eventually the wagon slammed in the tavern with a tremendous explosion, sending furniture and dishware hurling in all directions. Worse, the Wormgod's eye lanterns shattered, spewing flaming oil in all directions and lighting the paper float on fire. Once the fire started, it spread quickly. The fire was contained by a bucket brigade before it spread to neighboring buildings and Harold organized a bucket brigade faster, which saved the tavern itself.
Led by a dangerous woman, a group of rogues posed as a band of street performers mounted on stilts and patroled the streets surrounding Vanderboren Manor, waiting for word of the Tropic Thunder's approach.
The woman, decked out in a form-fitting and sensual-if-macabre black bodysuit decorated with a white skeleton, was accompanied by an entourage of six acrobatic rogues who paraded about the streets on ten-foot-high stilts. The woman preceded the stiltwalkers, dancing and performing an impressive array of acrobatic flips and leaps, while the stiltwalkers themselves wowed audiences by juggling daggers and flasks of oil with burning rags stuffed into them. As they approached the Tropic Thunder, Harold and Harmony (who was waiting for them outside Vanderboren Manor) noticed that the acrobatic troupe seems to be up to no good just before they mounted their assault.
The woman and her killers were well-acquainted with the Tropic Thunder's appearances (with the notable exception being Harmony) and the killers stroke at some point before they reached Lavinia's mansion. The woman approached Graim and attacked from behind. At this attack, the stiltwalkers each threw a flask of alchemist's fire at the heroes, hoping the resulting explosions of fire damage them and cause a swath of chaos in the streets.
The attack worked like a charm. For some time, panicked crowds filled the square. The stiltwalkers could move through the crowds with ease, but everyone else had difficulty moving through the crowd. The woman tried to stay within five feet of her chosen target at all times, tumbling away to find a different target when reinforcements arrived.
One of the rogues was badly wounded and fled into the crowd, but the rest were killed or subdued.
It took the city watch a few minutes to respond to the attack. The Tropic Thunder remained at the scene of the fight and the large number of witnesses were more than enough to convince the watch that the heroes were only defending themselves. Due to Harold's diplomatic skills, the guards let the Tropic Thunder go after only a few minutes of questioning.
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