A Plot Revealed

Marthysan, the previous champion of the Ruby Phoenix Tournament, had apparently been kidnapped, and the party had followed the clues to the deserted New Harbor waterfront. While everything appeared quiet, the party expected the worst, and prepared for trouble. They weren’t disappointed. Sandoval had teleported out to one of the ships, and heard muffled voices coming from a nearby fishing boat, and as he went to investigate, he was attacked by Darys Shrike, the hulking fighter from the Aspis Consortium’s team.

Hearing Sandoval’s shout of warning, Sawyer rushed out across the water to his aid (towing Nicki along overhead like an invisible balloon). But before he could reach the bard, he was ambushed by Risha Coaltongue, who came dashing across the surface of the bay so stealthily that Sawyer wasn’t even aware of her presence until she swung her swords at his head. Fortunately, she tripped over some piece of flotsam, and missed clumsily. [DM Note: and thus began the unfortunate string of rolling 1’s for the DM’s attacks.]  At the same time, an enormous figure sprang out of hiding in the hold of another boat, and attacked Sawyer from behind. It was the Aspis team’s half-orc cleric, Mol Kor, but enlarged to twice his normal size. “Glorious combat for the glory of Gorum!” he roared as he bashed Sawyer with his greatsword.

Everyone else was hurrying out to join the fray as well. Shinjiro, on the far western side of the harbor, skipped nimbly along the fragile piers and then across the decks of the anchored ships. But suddenly, a mass of rubbery Black Tentacles rose up out of the water and from the planks of the decks, writhing and trying to entangle him in their grasp. Only his quick reflexes and years of training allowed him to leap free, but they now blocked his path to the fight. Marie, seeing the tentacles, used her Air Walk to race towards Shinjiro, activating her Freedom’s Call aura to protect any nearby allies from being entangled.

From his vantage point on one of the fishing boats, Zhustin had seen the half-elf sorcerer, Pirin Agramont pop up out of hiding among the coils of rope to cast the spell, and he retaliated with a Fireball right on top of her position. Badly burned, she searched in vain for the source of the spell, but Zhustin’s Greater Invisibility kept her from detecting him. Fearing becoming a sitting duck for more spells from an unknown source, she chose to become Invisible herself.

Bella, flying invisibly over the harbor, swooped down behind Risha to help Sawyer, but she found that Risha was just as evasive as Bella herself, and could not for the life of her manage to flank the Aspis rogue. But Nicki was almost directly overhead, and he knew that these were formidable foes, to have survived this long into the Tournament. He didn’t want to leave anything on the table, so he unleashed a trio of Enhanced Scorching Rays directly down onto Risha’s head. When the smoke cleared, there was nothing left of Risha but a thin layer of greasy ash floating on the surface of the water.

Sandoval was still facing the Aspis fighter alone, and he used his Jaunt Boots to leap quickly 10’ away, then unfurled his net over Darys’ head. Despite the entangling net, Darys shuffled forward and chopped at the bard with his greataxe. Without Risha to threaten his back, Sawyer focused all his attention on Mol Kor, slashing him across the gut with Suishen. With blood pouring from the wound, the huge orc backpedaled and gave himself the Breath of Life.

Just as it seemed that the party had things going their way, the waters of the harbor began to boil, and something huge came flying up from below their surface. It was the brine dragon, Huyanwo! It flew directly at Shinjiro, then breathed out a stream of boiling acid that enveloped Shinjiro, Bella, and Sawyer. Shinjiro, caught between a dragon on one side and the mass of Black Tentacles on the other, chose to stand and fight. He concentrated his focus on a Ki Flurry, battering the scaly beast with feet and fists. But the huge creature was barely fazed, and lashed out at the monk with all its fury. It snapped at him with fanged jaws, slashed him with razor claws, battered him with its huge wings, and finally whipped him with its enormous tail. When it finished, Shinjiro was staggering and barely conscious. Marie rushed into the mass of tentacles, protected by her goddess’s boon of Freedom of Movement, and cast a Prayer, hoping she could reach Shinjiro in time to save him. Zhustin watched the dragon all but devour Shinjiro, but held back from attacking it; he knew that sorcerer was still out there somewhere, and was waiting for her to reappear.

On the other side of the harbor, their friends were aware of the new danger the dragon presented, but they still had their hands full. Bella figured Sawyer could handle the half-orc cleric, so she used a Spring Attack to go after Darys Shrike, opening a gaping wound that bled profusely. Sandoval began singing, and then delivered a pair of painful blows of his own. Nicki fired off a Ray of Exhaustion at Mol Kor that left the huge cleric gasping for breath. Sawyer stepped up and hit the half-orc, but Mol Kor retaliated with a massive strike from his greatsword. Darys, caught between two enemies, turned to face Bella, hacking her with his greataxe, but Bella’s riposte sent the big fighter to the deck. Nicki blasted Mol Kor with a set of Scorching Rays. By all rights, the cleric should have been dead, but his orcish ferocity kept him fighting. He was screaming a prayer to Gorum as he raised his greatsword for a final blow, but Sandoval’s arrow hit him in the center of the chest, and he toppled slowly forward.

Marie was racing towards Shinjiro. As she ran, she cast Invisibility Purge, knowing that the Aspis sorcerer was lurking somewhere nearby. Sure enough, as she neared the dragon, the half-elf popped into view, cowering at the stern of the ship the dragon and Shinjiro were on.  Zhustin spotted her immediately, and let off another Fireball. He was leery of catching Shinjiro in its blast, so it didn’t hit the dragon, but the sorcerer felt its full force. She immediately threw up her hands. “Don’t hurt me! I give up!”

Shinjiro knew his only hope was to get far away from the dragon. He tried to Withdraw, but the dragon’s long neck allowed it to lash out and bite at the fleeing monk. It caught him in its jaws and shook him a few times before dropping him lifeless to the deck. It then turned its full fury on Marie, who had arrived just too late to help Shinjiro. It savaged her with teeth, claws, wings, and tail. Fortunately, Marie was able to Teleport to safety, and then used Channel Positive Energy to heal herself and return Shinjiro to consciousness (barely).

Now everyone was able to concentrate on the last remaining enemy, but it was a formidable one. Bella charged Huyanwo, but missed, and the dragon retaliated with its full suite of attacks against the rogue. Nicki dropped an Enhanced Fireball on the dragon. Bella was also caught in its blast, but her evasive reflexes enabled her to dodge its effects. Zhustin added a volley of Magic Missiles, and Sawyer charged in, delivering a critical strike from Suishen. Bella tumbled around the huge beast, managing to avoid its attempts to bite her, and then stabbed it in the back. With a gurgling bellow, it collapsed onto the deck of the ship.

Pirin Agramont was still begging for mercy, but the group was of mixed minds as to whether to take her prisoner or finish her off. “Get rid of those tentacles!” Marie commanded, and she immediately dispelled them. “Where’s Marthysan?” Sawyer demanded. “He’s in that boat over there!” Pirin responded, pointing a shaky finger towards where Sandoval had first heard voices. The bard investigated, and found a pair of terrified sailors huddled belowdecks on a small fishing boat, with Marthysan lying bound and unconscious between them. They insisted they’d had nothing to do with his kidnapping; they’d just been hired to sail out into the bay and hand him off to another boat that would meet them there.

As Marie began dispensing healing, they settled into questioning their prisoner. She revealed that the Aspis Consortium had established a partnership with the Golden League to rig the Tournament. The Golden League was making money by using sabotage, poison, and other nefarious means to eliminate favored teams and stack the odds in their favor for the betting. The Aspis Consortium and established similar liaisons with crime syndicates around the world, and were broadcasting the Tournament matches into gambling dens in a dozen different countries, charging admission to those who wanted to watch, and both they and the Golden League were getting a cut of the worldwide wagers.

“How are they letting people watch the matches?” Nicki asked with interest. She explained that the Consortium had a device that used a modified Arcane Eye spell to project a view of whatever the controller wished onto a tablet. They had an accomplice sitting in the stands, controlling the Arcane Eye to show the best view of each match, and magic users in each gambling den used Magic Mirrors to scry on the tablet, projecting the image of what it displayed to their local crowds.

“But why did you kidnap Marthysan?” Marie asked. Pirin shook her head. “I have no idea. That wasn’t part of our deal, but the Golden League has other partners in this, and they insisted that Marthysan be handed over to them. We didn’t take him – we were just here to make sure the handoff when smoothly. Same with the dragon. The Golden League had some side deal with him – something about letting him rule this island – and he was just here as insurance in case things went south.”

Pirin insisted her team had had nothing to do with the sabotage, poisonings, and such – that was all the work of the Golden League and their silent partners. Her team had just been supposed to advance to the finals of the Tournament, where they were to throw the final match and allow Gomwai to win. “We weren’t happy with how the Golden League was handling their end of things. They were being way too obvious – like collapsing those towers. Everyone knew that matches were being rigged, and it was affecting the odds, which was costing everyone money. It was almost like they wanted people to know the Tournament was rigged.”

By this time, Marthysan had recovered and had listened to Pirin’s story with great interest. He had no idea who might want him, or why, but at this point he wasn’t interested in trying to intercept whoever might have been waiting to take him. (Besides – the flash of exploding spells and the glow of burning sails would have alerted anyone offshore that things had not gone as planned.) Marthysan thanked the party for their rescue, then took custody of the prisoner and hustled off to report to the Emissary.

The party shuffled back to their guesthouse, and collapsed for some well-earned rest. The next morning dawned bright and clear, with a crisp breeze blowing in from the sea. By the time they arrived at the Grand Pavilion, the whole island was abuzz with talk of the previous night’s events. Everyone was speculating on what this would mean for the final rounds of the Tournament. As they approached the Pavilion, they saw a group of Tournament monks leading the Aspis accomplice away in chains. The party took their seats in the arena, and watched as the Emissary rose in his box and motioned for silence. “As most of you have no doubt already heard, the team representing the Aspis Consortium has been … disqualified.”

“’Disqualified’ - is that what they call it now?” Nicki snickered, but Marie shushed him with a stern look.

“This is unprecedented in Tournament history,” the Emissary continued. “As it would give the Hongal team an unfair advantage to grant them a bye in the semi-final round, we have decided to recall the contestant who was eliminated by the disqualified team in yesterday’s match. In the first semi-final match, the team from Hongal will face Ingrid Tornilsdottir!”

With little time to prepare, they hastily decided on a team strategy. Wanting to preserve as much spellcasting firepower as possible for the final, they fielded a team of Sawyer, Bella, Marie, and Sandoval. Sandoval cast Heroism on everyone and Marie cast Fly on Bella just before they emerged onto the sands of the arena floor.

Facing them across the arena was a stocky dwarven woman. As the Emissary gave the signal to begin, she strode across the arena towards them, reciting her dwarven lineage. “Hear me! I am Ingrid, daughter of Tornil, duke of the mighty city of Underarmor, son of Heapsage, son of Hrothgar once king of all Shropshire!” She went on and on, and Sandoval noted that most of the names and places she spoke of he had never heard of on any maps or any dwarven heraldry. Bella and Marie couldn’t believe she was wasting time with this boring drivel, but Sawyer was absolutely Enthralled. “Did you hear that?” he exclaimed. “She’s the daughter of Tornil! Tornil! And she’s from Underarmor!” The crowd, too, seemed impressed, and began cheering lustily.

Bella, realizing that the dwarf’s speech was some sort of ploy, charged, but the dwarven lass neatly dodged her blow. Marie also rushed forward. Sandoval began singing, then grabbed Sawyer by the arm and stepped through a Dimension Door to appear directly behind Ingrid. “Wow! Her great-grandfather was the King of Shropshire!” Sawyer gushed.

Surrounded by foes, their opponent shed her assumed form. Where an instant earlier had been a tiny dwarven woman, there was now a huge snake with a woman’s head, a Royal Naga. Marie swung at it, but as she did, she could feel the thing’s piercing stare boring right through her, and it unnerved her enough that her swing went wide. Bella ignored its gaze, and slashed it deeply. Sandoval used his Jaunt Boots to leap away, then averted his eyes and tried to afflict it with Crushing Despair, but to no avail. Sawyer fumbled through his pockets, looking for a pen and paper so he could get an autograph.

The Naga turned on Bella and struck with blinding speed, biting her again and again. Bella struck back, but one swing passed right through the Blinking Naga. Marie took a step back, averting her eyes, and called down a Flame Strike as Sandoval stepped up and delivered massive sonic damage from his echoblade.

Sawyer finally came to his senses, and realized that this giant snake wasn’t nearly as fascinating as he’d thought. He had the sense to try to avert his eyes from its gaze, but he wasn’t fast enough, and found himself blinded. Hoping that the target was too big to miss, he swung anyway. His blade connected with something solid, and the roar of the crowd told him that he’d finished the Naga off. The team was going to the finals!

The PCs earned 6,400 XP for the night, putting them at 143,398 XP, with 155,000 required for level 11. We’ll be at Joette & Rich’s next Sunday.