Ruby Phoenix Tournament - Day 3

The party had just begun their third match of the Ruby Phoenix Tournament, and found themselves facing the Chanters of the Sacred Song, a quartet of bards who combined lightning speed with sonic attacks that opened wounds and broke bones with nothing more than the force of their words. Before the team could even react, they found themselves hammered by a barrage of sound, while Shinjiro stood babbling incoherently against the wall, the victim of a well-placed Confusion spell.

Realizing this match would be no push-over, Bella feathered the nearest Chanter with a pair of arrows, but she ignored the wounds. Nicki moved out onto the burning coals, seemingly oblivious to their heat. He dropped a Fireball onto the two northernmost Chanters, enhancing its effect with Alchemist’s Fire, and the crowd roared their approval as the bards began to blister more than the soles of their feet. Sawyer also moved across the coals to engage, although in his case he was using Suishen’s Air Walk ability to stay an inch or so above their surface. The crowd was none the wiser, and admired his stamina as he slashed at one of the Chanters.

But the Chanters were anything but intimidated, and continued singing their painful song. Two focused their attacks on Sawyer, while a third sang at Nicki. Almost every syllable did damage, and while none was significant by itself, the ongoing onslaught of Weird Words was like facing an army of enemies. Steam rose around both Sawyer and Nicki as their blood poured freely onto the coals. The fourth Chanter stayed well away on the far edge of the arena, and cast a spell at Nicki. For an instant, he was almost overcome by how hilarious it was that they were about to be killed by words alone, but the Hideous Laughter died in his throat as he realized that his father would not be pleased by such a death, and that death would be no protection from his wrath.

Bella fired another arrow at the Chanter nearest Sawyer; it took her square in the throat, and she fell backwards, her song silenced. Nicki unleashed another Fireball, this time Empowered by his rod. Sawyer shifted his attention to the next Chanter in line, and Suishen began dicing her up. But the Chanters kept singing, and both Nicki and Sawyer knew they would not survive much longer. Bella charged the Chanter focused on Nicki, stabbing her with her rapier and hoping to distract her attention from the desperately wounded sorcerer. Nicki, barely conscious, blasted the Chanter nearest him with a trio of Scorching Rays. The crowd leaped to their feet in approval as the searing flames bore a hole right through her, leaving her face-down on the bed of embers. Nicki stumbled away off the edge of the coals as his vision dimmed; he only hoped he could gulp down a potion of healing in time to save himself.

Sawyer pulled out his bow, and unleashed an arrow at his assailant. When it dropped her, too, onto the bed of embers, he fired the next shot at the last remaining Chanter. The party assumed that as the lone survivor, she’d surrender. But she could see how badly Nicki and Sawyer were hurt, and the final round of Tournament matches was almost within her reach. With a tuneful shout of rage, she charged out into the middle of the coals and began singing at all three of the party members, hoping to bring down Sawyer and Nicki, and injure Bella enough to finish her the next round (Shinjiro was still out of the action, scribbling odd doodles on the wall of the pavilion). She opened her mouth, and her first word sent Nicki face-forward onto the dirt (fortunately, he’d managed to move off the coals, so his cooking would be delayed until he arrived in Hell). She alternated the rest of her song between the fighter and the rogue, and by its end, Sawyer was barely clinging to life.

But for Sawyer, he was either dead, or he was fighting, and since he wasn’t dead he charged forward and hacked at the Chanter with Suishen. As she turned to face the fighter’s charge, Bella slipped in behind her and opened a deep gash across her back. The mystic bard realized she’d made a fatal error by wasting words on Bella while Sawyer still lived. Flanked now by two deadly swordsmen, she knew she’d lost her opportunity. Cutting off her deadly song, she threw up her hands in surrender.

The Tournament’s healers rushed into the arena, as Sawyer helped drag the bodies of his fallen foes off the coals, to try to give the clerics half a chance of reviving them. Marie rushed to Nicki’s side, along with several clerics of Abadar, but Sandoval was pushing them away; after yesterday’s fiasco with the failed Feather Falls during the Spider Fight, he was reluctant to trust any magical help from the Tournament officials. But Sawyer and Nicki weren’t nearly so choosy, and gladly took whatever healing they could get.

The Tournament continued as the party licked their wounds and reflected on just how close they’d come to losing that match. If the matches kept getting harder, they’d be lucky to escape with their lives, let alone a victory. As they talked about strategies, one of the Tournament monks arrived, and summoned them to the Emissary’s box. When they arrived, he greeted them with a smile. “You have done well so far,” he said in a loud voice, so all the crowd could hear. “Now I have another challenge for you. I have a ruby bracelet, a beautiful thing made from 99 tiny gems, braided together with golden filaments. I have given it over to the protection of a guardian named Tsavati. She is somewhere in the bamboo forest north of Yun Chumo, and has been instructed to use deadly force to protect it. You have until sundown to locate the bracelet and retrieve it from her.”

One of the officials led them to the edge of the forest, growing on the slopes of Yun Chumo, the volcanic peak that formed the center of the island. Zhustin, Marie, Shinjiro, and Bella volunteered to handle this challenge, and they set off into the forest. The bamboo was dense, with tall stalks of bamboo roughly 8” in diameter growing so closely together it was difficult to push through them. They rose to a height of some 50’ above the forest floor, bare of any foliage until the top 10’, where their branches and leaves formed a dense canopy that allowed only a thin green light to penetrate.

Zhustin quickly picked up a trail. The city boy was proving surprisingly adept at tracking (“I read a book about it, back in Magnimar,” he explained). It looked like a humanoid creature wearing light boots had entered the forest near where they had, and was headed uphill towards the peak. Moving as quietly as they could through the rattling bamboo, they followed.

They followed the trail for about an hour before it abruptly disappeared. As they scanned the ground looking for tracks, Marie noticed that there were an unusual number of fresh bamboo leaves and branches on the ground at her feet. Looking up, she could see a place where the branches of the canopy looked broken, as if something large had moved through them. She pointed it out to the others, then cast Fly on Bella. As the rest of the group quietly fanned out, Shinjiro shinnied up the nearest stalk of bamboo. By the time he reached the bottom of the canopy, it was swaying alarmingly, but still seemed capable of supporting his weight. Scanning the forest, he spotted movement in the canopy to the southeast. He alerted the others and they immediately took precautions: Bella quaffed a potion of Vanish, and Zhustin cast Greater Invisibility on himself.

They moved slowly and cautiously through the forest, Marie and Zhustin on the ground, Bella in the air. Shinjiro found that he could move through the canopy by swinging his bamboo stalk forward, then grasping another. So far they’d seen or heard nothing but birdsong and the rattling of bamboo in the wind.

Suddenly there was a great crashing as if something was bursting through the canopy ahead of them, and Marie, Shinjiro, and Bella were caught in a sudden gout of crackling electricity. But despite the obvious attack, they could see no source for it, and the thousands of swaying stalks of bamboo made it difficult to pinpoint where anything might be moving through them.

Zhustin Summoned a small air elemental and instructed it to hunt down whatever was attacking them, but it simply hovered in mid-air, with no enemy visible. Marie Teleported from the ground to the top of the canopy, and opened her angelic wings to keep her airborne. She cast a quick Channel Divinity to heal back some of the damage they’d taken. Then she shouted to her friends, “Get ready! I’m going to do an Invisibility Purge.”

At that, Bella felt a rush of air and a rattling of bamboo, as if something very large had just moved past her through the air, but she saw nothing. As she shouted “It’s headed east!”, Marie cast her spell, and began flying in that direction. Zhustin became visible immediately, and as Marie caught up to Bella she, too, popped into view. Then Tsavati suddenly appeared.

She was a bronze dragon! As it appeared, it fired off a Lightning Bolt at Marie and Bella. Bella deftly dodged the bolt, but Marie took the full force of the spell. Shinjiro and Zhustin hurried along on the ground, and Zhustin’s air elemental tried to hit the dragon, but missed. Bella chased the dragon, which was still moving away from them, and caught up to it in mid-air. She stabbed deep into its vitals with her rapier, but it turned an cast a Ray of Enfeeblement on her. Zhustin managed to get close enough to Bella and Marie to cast Haste on them, and Marie teleported behind the dragon, to provide flanking to Bella. Despite her weakened muscles, Bella took full advantage of the Haste spell, and hit the dragon, once, twice, three times. Zhustin fired off a volley of Empowered Magic Missiles, but they simply deflected off the dragon’s hide with no effect.

As Bella drew back her sword, Tsavati suddenly vanished! As they whirled around searching for their foe, Marie heard a rattling of the bamboo, and saw the dragon several hundred feet to the southwest. “Two can play at that game!” she muttered angrily. Grabbing Bella by the arm, she cast her own Dimension Door, and they instantly teleported right next to the dragon.

Realizing she was caught, Tsavati suddenly transformed. Where there had been a bronze dragon a moment before, there was now a slight Nagaji woman, head bowed in surrender. Without hesitation she handed over the ruby bracelet. The party returned to the Grand Pavilion, arriving just before sundown to present the bracelet to the Emissary to the cheers of the crowd.

As the Tournament drew to a close for the day, the party trudged through the drizzle back to Yon Loi’s noodle house. Far from the festive atmosphere of the first night, tonight Yon Loi’s had few customers, and those that were there had an exhausted air about them. Marthysan had asked the party to meet him at 9:00 to discuss the odd happenings at the Tournament, and they waited as the promised time came and went.

Sansetsukon

The front door opened with a bang sometime after 9, and all eyes turned, expecting to see their friend. But instead, it was a falling-down-drunk local (who, true to his stereotype, promptly fell down). But as if on cue, a pair of patrons suddenly leaped from their seats and whipped out ugly looking weapons. Shinjiro recognized them as sansetsukon, a sort of three-part nunchuk.

Despite their aching muscles and barely-healed wounds from the past few days, the party’s reflexes weren’t dulled. Sawyer charged one of the thugs and Bella engaged the other. As the rest of the party fumbled to get out of their chairs. Nicki made a quick tactical assessment. “Two against seven. Somehow I don’t think they’d go with those odds.” Fearing there was more help on the way, he looked up to the balcony, and immediately spotted three more thugs getting ready to swing down on long silk sashes that had up until now simply served as decorations. Before they could leap, he blasted one with a trio of Scorching Rays, then ran towards the stairs leading up to the balcony.

Undeterred, the three new thugs swung down from the balcony, landing in positions where they could flank Bella, Marie, and Sawyer. The one behind Sawyer delivered such a Brutal Beating with his staff that it left the fighter Sickened. Zhustin clobbered one with a volley of Magic Missiles, as Sandoval began singing and moved to support Sawyer and Shinjiro leaped over the table to help Bella with one of the thugs attacking her.

The PCs earned 4,572 XP for the night, putting them at 131,741 XP, with 155,000 required for level 11. They also earned two more Victory Points, putting them at a total of 6 to keep or spend. We’ll be back at Rich and Joette’s next week, and I’ll be there in person, although Roger will be on call.