Fortunately generations of city planning meant that the riot didn't get too out of hand, at least not before a chief's son who had been assisting with a project got out the product of that work from storage.
Standing atop a building where he could be seen while friends wafted the smoke from burning coals into the crowd, Gonwyllmyn called out with a rich, booming voice, "People, People! Are you so truly overcome as to lose yourselves like this? Is this not meant to be a joyous occasion, not one for violence?"
This announcement was mostly ignored, although more than a few people paused to look up and take note of the pungent vapours in the air. Gonwyllmyn just kept at it though, until more and more people were paying attention to him than fighting, as well as the honestly kind of obnoxiously sweet smell in the air. Soon enough after that the park he was shouting down at had become something of a sink where confused and possibly angry people drifted in and just sort of got stuck listening to a very charismatic man ask for further peace and calm, as well as appreciating the smells in the air.
By the time the king had the situation under control Gonwyllmyn was being hailed as a hero by everyone who heard his story. About the only ones who were annoyed were the shamans who had asked him to help stockpile the various herbs they had been collecting from some of the forested hills in the western part of Redhills, considering that he had burned the wagonload of the stuff they had been studying. Still, while no one was quite sure how far the riot might have gone without his partial intervention, he had definitely helped minimize the damage, both in the immediate sense and in the sense of creating a lasting black mark upon what the festival was trying to do. Things could be corrected later and the next year would be better as intended.
For his part, Gonwyllmyn was rewarded with a major appointment in coordinating the reconstruction of the damaged areas, where he proved both adept at the administrative work and able to get competing interests to reach compromise. In this, he saw to fresh construction and the implementation of new techniques that allowed new buildings to rise up higher than ever before, allowing more people to fit into the same space and thus providing extra room for parks and fountains to be put in. While some joked that the rioters had ultimately been rewarded for damage to their own homes, this did spark a boom in construction as the city began to renovate itself, new and improved buildings going up higher in order to make more room for beautification projects. As Gonwyllmyn's skills became known and he was moved on to assist and manage with ever greater projects, it became an inevitability that he would be made the heir to the king going forward, having both the connections, the skill, and the charisma to make it a smooth trip.
