Standing near the back of the crowd, Dhalgren had to crane his neck to see, being unfortunate enough to end up standing behind a group of rather tall individuals. He could hear well enough however, and he was glad the speaking was rather short. In his experience a lot of speeches for religious event and festivals usually took an excessively long time. To his surprise, it wasn't long before the speeches were concluded. He had found that not being local, most of the individuals on stage were unfamiliar to him, along with the references to others they made during their speeches as well. He assumed that the red haired woman must be either the Mayor of Sandpoint, or the head of some sort of notable council. The next man he pegged as the town sheriff, due to his serious demeanor especially with the content of his speech.

After the crowd started dissipating toward the various events and booths set up, he wandered a little taking in the various festivities. He walked over to the balance beam contest and stood in the crowd idly observing. Watching some of the more soused individuals attempt the balance beam made for a few good chuckles, but Dhalgren knew that he wasn't all that nimble himself, and probably couldn't do any better with a few mugs of beer in him. Turning away from the contest, he headed through the crowd to look for something more his style. He glanced quickly at the archery butts, but knew that wasn't his forte. While he could throw a javelin pretty well, he didn't do well with either a crossbow or bow. Walking away it didn't take that long to find a competition more his flavour, and he joined the line of people on one side of the classic rope pull contest. 

Holding the thick rope between his hands he found himself near the back, next to the anchorman for his teams side. The man seemed a stout fellow with a large beard and burly stomach, as he stood braced with the rope twirled around his waist. Taking a moment before the signal to start, he looked over the opponents of the other team. He was intrigued to see what looked like another traveler new to Sandpoint like himself on the other team, but was unable to dwell on it as the signal was giving and he pulled hard on the rough texture of the rope with whitened knuckles.

[url=http://orokos.com/roll/174122]Tug of War (16)[/url]