Summary of Events:
When we left our adventurers last, they stood facing three grotesque and blood-soaked mechanical constructs in the underground combat arena, far beneath the cobblestones of Shatterback Alley.
Ears ringing with the roar of a crowd thirsting for carnage, the party quickly takes note of their position and springs into action. From the spectator’s seats, Iolair discreetly casts Haste on Rota and finds that it doesn’t work as intended. He feels the arcane energy leaving his fingertips but it does not reach his friend. Instead, Iolair perceives a faint glow around the arena’s circumference and realizes that the arena is magically warded.
As one of the cadaver collectors charges Rota, he swings out with his glaive in defense. Determined to get within range of this disgraceful contraption on his terms, he teleports forward and attacks one from behind before teleporting again to attack a second. Ren takes in his surroundings, searching for something to use for cover. Then, it hits him. He throws his raven-pommeled daggers toward the chandeliers above, disappearing from the arena in a flash of feathers as black as night. The crowd goes quiet with agonizing suspense as it tries to comprehend the scene unraveling before them.
Outside the arena, Iolair casts Prestidigitation with intention of defining the limits of the magical barrier around the combat arena. His clever experiment reveals that the magical warding is only guarding from the floor of the spectator’s seating upward and not downward. Having produced the desired result, Iolair discreetly makes haste for the stairs that his friends descended to gain access to the arena.
Back inside the arena, one of the mechanical beasts charges forward and slams into Rota with brutish strength. Chonka grips her battleaxe in both hands, yells “IN LIFE AS IN WAR, THE STRONGER FORCE WINS,”, and clashes violently with another enemy combatant. Following Chonka’s lead, Rota blinks across the arena three times in a row, attacking a different enemy each time and disappearing a moment later. Ren teleports from his perch above, slashing an enemy across the abdomen before quickly moving backward. The crowd above grows louder, cheering on both sides and signaling their approval of the carnage displayed.
One of the cadaver collectors begins to shamble toward the adventurers with murderous intent. Chonka takes this opportunity to leap onto the back of the mechanical beast and use her mounted position to hurl a javelin at another. Lady Kahn then proceeds to don her Dwarven Fire Starters and activates them before beating the mounted construct with her blazing knuckles. The enemy combatant tries desperately to shake Chonka off of its back and fails to do so.
Back in the stairwell, Iolair peers through the small slit of a viewing port in the arena door and casts Maximillian’s Earthen Grasp with the intention of discreetly securing the foot of one of the opponents, without any of the spectators noticing. The enemy construct tries to advance on his opponents and finds his foot immovable.
Rota, who is seemingly done playing around, says “I gUeSS iT IS tIMe tO GeT SeRIoUS” and casts conjure animals, summoning four giant ethereal goats. Ren digs into his pockets and scatters a handful of ball bearings across the floor in the direction of several enemies. Chonka’s mount starts to move in the direction of Ren, slips on the ball bearings, and falls prone. Chonka leaps off of it, executing a tuck-and-roll maneuver, and hurls a javelin as she lands. Rota’s giant ethereal goats charge toward one of the downed cadaver collectors and ram into it with their spectral horns. The spectators in the stands erupt with excitement, cheering and yelling in support of the adventurers and how they’ve seemingly taken control of the battle.
From the stairs, Iolair casts the healing word, LAR, restoring Chonka’s vitality. Having realized how long he’d been in the stairwell, Iolair turns to return upstairs in fear of being caught helping his friends. As he turns, he notices that a cloaked figure has been watching him from above. In the moment before the figure dashes away, he notes that it appears to be a woman with purple hair and face tattoos. He dashes upstairs after her but cannot locate her in the crowd of spectators.
Back in the arena, Rota’s glaive begins to glow with a pale pink light as he slashes away at his opponents, dealing devastating blows to Manziver’s champions. Ren teleports around the arena, slashing enemies and disappearing in puffs of black raven feathers. Several of the cadaver collectors attack in retaliation and claim the lives of two ethereal goats. Chonka cracks her knuckles, spraying sparks from her arcane knuckle busters, before charging forward and landing several firey blows on the enemy before her.
Back in the stands, Iolair searches the crowd for the hooded figure that was watching him in the stairwell. After some time, he sees her and they lock eyes. From under her hood, Iolair sees the woman recites some sort of incantation. The arcane ward around the arena glows slightly brighter before cracks begin to form first around its edges and then upward. A moment later, the faint glow around the arena disappears. Iolair looks back towards the mysterious woman and locks eyes with her once again.
The woman smiles and makes a gesture as if to say, “Well there you are. Have at it. You’re welcome” before whirling around and disappearing into the crowd.
Session End.
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