Kain the Obsidiman Archer requested assistance in the re-dedication of the Amphitheatre of Roba. Gjorg Thrumval, a Questor of Thystonius, was holding a great arena battle to rededicate the amphitheatre. We travelled with Nez the beastmaster, Rose and Daldorer the nethermancers, and Reyis the shaman.
We arrived at the arena and watched as teams signed up. We watched as a pair of dwarves wielding shields accompanied by a large dwarven woman with a poleaxe behind them, claiming to be the Phalanx. Kain stepped forward and was informed that we would need to split into teams of three. Kain turned and chose the two closest, Nez and Daldorer, and when asked for the team's name he triumphantly declared 'The Winners'. Reyis, Rose, and I stepped up next, when asked our name Rose proclaimed 'Trifecta', suitable for the occasion. After us were a group wearing black armbands, calling themselves Flitwing's revenge. The remaining groups consisted of trolls named The Bonebreakers, a group of elves named Summerwine, a rambunctious group loudly decreed to be Rage, a laid back group named The High Mountaineers, a rather depressing group called The Raven Guard, and finally a lone Ogre who seemed lost.
We moved into a green room with snacks and were able to socialize with the other groups. A short time later Gjorg entered with a windling assistant, they advised that the battles were not about bloodshed and death, they were to celebrate the glory of Thystonius so attacking to stun would be preferred. He then rolled some bones to determine the pairings.
The initial pairings would pair the field down to five teams, who would then participate in a grand battle. The first round looked like this:
High mountaineers vs Rage
Summerwine vs The Bonebreakers
Winners vs Phalanx
Trifecta vs the Ravenguard
Flitwing's Revenge vs Solo Ogre
The Ravenguard were first to faceoff against the three of us in Trifecta. As three casters, not much was expected of us. We hammed our opponents turn after turn with more spells to debilitate them, playing to the crowd. As the Raven Guard spent much of the time battling to make it to us, they eventually surrendered.
Flitwing's Revenge was then pitted against the solo Ogre, he still seemed rather disoriented. Flitwing's quickly caused him down to a knee, and it was taken as a win. The Ogre, now enraged was ready to respond, but he was restrained by a pair of obsidiman elementalists on the sides of the arena.
Rage then entered and quickly over came the High Mountaineers in a plethora of shouts and slashes.
Summerwine then nimbly cut down the Bonebreakers, keeping the trolls strength from coming to bear.
Kain and his Winners then fought in a battle where the arena took life, with a thorn wall leaping between them and the Phalanx. As the dwarves advanced with glee, the arena quickly responded as a bubbling puddle of mud emerged ahead of them. The teams were hesitant by the reaction of the arena, and the crowd became disinterested. Eventually, Kain and his team won the battle.
After a short rest to recover the grand battle drew closer. During our times in the stands we noticed a female windling collecting wagers. During the break we noticed both the leaders of Rage and Summerwine be particularly familiar with the booky. Then she made a visit to the elementalists modifying the arena. While back in the green room, we made certain to discuss the concerns in a volume that the other finalist, Flitwing's Revenge, could hear us. They inquired more as to what we had seen, and we learned that they were here to fight in the name of their fallen comrade, a questor of Thystonius. They felt that Gjorg should be made aware, so we approached him and made our concerns of the booky perhaps rigging the odds once we found out that the two teams she had spoke with were not favoured over anyone other than Flitwing's Revenge. He took note of it, but gave somewhat probing answer, more interested in our reaction than weighing in on the situation. We accepted his indifference and went to prepare. Nez had been feasting with Flitwing's Revenge and when we returned most of Flitwing's had disappeared. As we headed to the arena Nez informed us that he did not feel well. It seemed one of our opponents felt that poisoning the competition. Reyis quickly went back to check on the status of Flitwing's Revenge. All of them had fallen violently ill, to better fight in the name of Thystonius he asked for their armbands and our group of 6 represented for them.
The five team grand battle quickly became a six v six battle. Our side backed up to the edge of the arena and awaited their approach. Summerwine approached defensively preparing to strike the next turn. Rage had one member enveloped himself in a strange dark cloud, we could see him inhaling the concoction. A quick signal between one of our opponents and the guarding elementalists saw an ice sheet appear under our feet. As our sole melee fighter was capable of flight, I feel this trap somewhat backfired. Daldorer struck one with fear, I taunted another, as my spell failed, Kain buried an arrow into an elf, while Reyis invoked a leopard on an elf and Rose prepared to fear the opponent. The battle truly began then, one of Rage stepped forward and buried his blade into Daldorer knocking him down. Nez and Kain let loose into an elf while I pulled a club out and ensorcelled the weapon. As he prepared to return to the battle Daldorer was downed. We responded by downing the air dancing elf. The battle raged on, they moved forward trying to push an advantage only to realize they had fallen into our trap and their own, some of them falling prey to the ice sheet. Two swirling fog clouds causing them jeer and fear, left them on the back foot as more and more we harried their ability to fight. A second member of Rage went down, the Troll who had been virtually unscratched had had enough of being virtually crippled and opted to retreat. As we turned upon the final members of Summerwine, the combined swing of a sword and the exhaustion of the battle caused me to stagger and black out momentarily. A pain spell from Rose elicited a surrender from the elves and they crept off. Gjorg then presided over us, declaring us a the winners quizzically. He pressed if we felt only one should stand. Before any of us could decide, Kain informed him that we won together as a team, as Thystonius would want. Gjorg accepted this and we were celebrated.
During the celebration I took time aside to deliver thanks to our host and commend the undertaking of the restoration.
More revelry of the passions, Barsaive was truly sputtering back to life. Hopefully it would be alive and strong enough to deal with the threats that were doing the same.Statistics:Posted by Xzandrate — Fri May 29, 2020 4:57 am
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