So, literally from rags to riches in a day or so. I can work with this. I’ve cleared my debts, but there’s still this heinous (and totally true) accusation about me poisoning someone that I need to clear up.
I don’t really trust the judicial system here though. The dwarven Judicial Guards – Arbiters – are something to … Dredd (sorrynotsorry). The system is unforgiving, and punishment is always the same, and always essentially a death penalty: work in the mines. And I’m not really suiting to mining.
I also don’t want to live in our new house for the rest of my life, and some of this money is waiting to be spend on some sweet metal weapons. I whip up a simple but effective disguise (the best lies have some truth in them), and head out with the others to do some shopping. Since metal weapons bypass DR, I pick up a nice new rapier, two daggers, and 40 metal-tipped arrows. These’ll look nice embedded in Sovra’s corpse, right Arvos?
On our way back though, we’re tempted by a merchant in an alley, selling “special wares”. This may be a trap, but what if it’s not? We have money to spend, and I’ll take any advantage I can when it comes to combat and survival.
Yeah, it’s a trap. Tooootally a trap.
The “elf woman” is really a tengu, and it means to rob us of our new wares. And it’s not just one! There’s one on the other’s shoulders, and on the rooftops and walls that line this courtyard are a number more. We start out strong with Kary killing one outright in some hot (not really) bird-on-bird action. From there, though, it’s not so stellar. There’s only three of us – Kary, Ghirgaz, and myself – and we’re quickly reduced to two as the tarp above us is cuts and falls on us, and Kary is paralyzed by whatever they’re dipped the tips of their crossbow bolts in. Eventually, we all fade to black after putting up the best fight we could.
Predictably, we wake up in a dungeon / holding tank, bound and weaponless. Apparently, we’re up next in the fighting pits. We thankfully don’t have to fight each other, but as we’re lead down the hallway, cheering crowd getting louder, we see our foe: a huge Stygian Scorpion. We’re weaponless, still a bit out of it, and disoriented from going from deep darkness to bright light.
We don’t have time to adjust, if we want to survive. All along the edges of this fighting arena are muderholes with spears sticking out of them, and in between some of those are weapons – mostly bashy smashy weapons, but my eyes catch a glimpse a dagger – maybe not the most useful against our foe, but better than bare fists. I duck and dodge to grab it, and Kary does the same then flies off. Ghirgaz is a natural weapon – not much need of a club, him.
Kary and Ghirgaz waste no time – K flies up and throws down the maul on the scorpion while Ghir just starts beating it about the face. A small scorpion climbs up out of the sand and stings Ghirgaz – by the time I see it it’s too late, but I’m still able to throw my dagger at it and kill it. Now only under attack from one side, Ghirgaz lands a blow that pushes the scorpion back 20ft away from the center of the pit, and it lands prone.
Being handy with poisons, I see an opportunity to contribute to this fight in a more substantial way – the small scorpion that stung Ghirgaz is a Stygian Fat Tail Scorpion – and those have quite a potent sting (+6d6 DAM), as Ghirgaz can no doubt attest to. I dodge past the spears, and wanting to keep my momentum, cartweel-pickup the dagger, cartwheel again, and sink the poisonous dagger blade into the head of the huge scorpion, finishing it off.
The stands are silent for a moment, and then erupt in cheers. These underdogs have given them quite a show – and it seems they have a favored combatant in Kary. They’re all shouting “BIRD MAN! BIRD MAN!” Some weapons are thrown down, and I collect a sling. The announcer informs the crowd that they’ll get more of us soon, and that after the following fight, we’ll be back and up against SUBAK. Kary removes the tail of the huge scorpion, and we head back to the holding area.
During our short rest, I’m able to extract an application of poison. It’s good for 1 minute/3 strikes, and will do +2d6 and the victim will need to make a DC12 save for blindness. The others in here are mostly scared enouogh for their own fate to be worried about us. One woman though, upon hearing that we’re about to fight Subak, comes up to me. Apparently Subak decapitated her husband recently, and gave me two important things:
- A shiv – while not a formidable weapon, it’s an extra weapon. Everything helps.
- Information: Subak is blind in his left eye.
Now that is something I can work with! And good thing too – we have to head back out. Upon entering, we see Subak – arguable one of the crowd’s favorites, and I can’t blame them. He’s a large reptilian creature, with metal and glass shards glues to his back and arms. A formidable foe, confident in his abilities. ANd he just stands there, almost taunting us by just waiting. So, I seize the moment and act first (rogues get advantage vs enemies that haven’t acted, and that grants sneak attack: +3d6 DAM) by throwing the poisoned shiv at Subak, and landing the hit! Further, he fails his save and is now fully blind! Kary takes flight (much to the crowd’s delight), and Ghirgaz closes.
While blind, Subak still apparently has a sensational sense of smell when it comes to blood. While I’m fully hale, my friends are not quite, and Subak locks on to them, but especially Kary. An audience member throws a spear down to Subak (like he needs the help), he somehow catches it, and launches it at Kary. He scrapes Kary, but more importantly, hits and cracks the ceiling. Subak diverts his attention to Ghirgaz, and attacks, and is thankfully unaware of me. I pick the poisoned shiv back up, but am unable to hit. Thankfully, he’s still unaware of me, but that doesn’t matter for long. Kary dives down at Subak, sword in claw, and deals a stunning death blow to his head.
The crowd loses it, chanting “FREEDOM” to their swift and unexpected victorsm but the announcer has other plans. He quiets the crowd, and announces that we will have one last trial, tomorrow, against The Markovian Brothers (wait, I thought there was only supposed to be one Markovian?). At least we’ll have all of our belongings back for that fight.
Still, smells like bullshit to me.
Session Date 03/02/17 XP: 2,000 Total XP: 24,086. *LEVEL UP TO 7!*
Title: Tom Waits – In The Colosseum
