Something Rotten in Goka

The party had survived the third round of the Ruby Phoenix Tournament, only to be ambushed while trying to enjoy a quiet bowl of noodles. A gang of thugs attacked from all sides, clearly practiced at fighting together and ganging up on their victims to maximize the brutality of their attacks. But they’d never dealt with opponents as quick and deadly as these.

Sawyer, Marie, and Bella were each flanked by thugs. Sawyer had already been Sickened by the Brutal Beating one of the attackers had administered, but he whirled and slashed at the one who’d dropped in behind him, opening himself up for a bash from the other. Marie also took a blow, which she returned with her warhammer before Teleporting a short distance out of danger. Bella also got whacked, but she was so evasive that her attackers couldn’t seem to take advantage of their position. Her riposte was devasting; her twin blades flashed repeatedly, gutting one of her foes, but the thug was amazingly resilient, and he continued fighting.

Zhustin fired off a pair of Scorching Rays, dropping one of the attackers and injuring another, while Sandoval sank his echoblade deep into the belly of the one facing him. “Take one of them alive!” Nicki shouted “We need to find out what’s going on!” Shinjiro tried to comply by using his Stunning Fist, but the thug shook off his blow. Bella reversed the grip on her rapier and pummeled her foe with the blunt side of the blade and the hilt of her short sword. The damage might have technically been “non-lethal”, but she caved in his skull just the same. [DM Note: She came within 4 HP of killing him with non-lethal damage, something that’s difficult to do. I probably should have ruled he was unrecoverable, but they wanted so badly to question someone …]

One of the badly injured thugs lunged after Marie. He missed, but she didn’t, and he dropped to the floor. Nicki fired a trio of Scorching Rays into the last surviving thug, but he stayed on his feet, at least until Sandoval’s echoblade found its mark again. The blade’s singing was muffled by the thug’s guts as it set up resonant vibrations in his internal organs, killing him from the inside out.

Bella and Nicki turned their attention to their captive as the rest of the party continued to scan the room, anticipating another wave of attackers at any moment. Now that he had a chance to look at the attackers more closely, Nicki recognized the dense tattoos that covered their arms and torsos; he’d seen these on the Golden League agents who were taking bets from gamblers. They were Xun, the Golden League’s enforcers and soldiers.

The thug was only “alive” in the most technical sense of the word; he was more comatose than unconscious. It took a Cure Critical Wounds from Marie just to get him to a state where he could be questioned, and still each eye rolled in different directions from each other. “Who do you work for? Why did you attack us?” Bella demanded. The dazed Xun struggled to answer through broken teeth. “I work for the Golden League. They sent us to kill you because you’re messing up their betting. You weren’t supposed to be winning, and they don’t want to pay out on anyone else who’s bet on you.” He turned his head, as if listening to someone. “Yes, Mommy, I’ll be good.”

Nicki took over the interrogation, using his Corrupting Touch on the hapless victim, but the brain-damaged and terrified Xun told them nothing new. Before he could take the questioning to a messier level, the noodle shop’s door opened and Marthysan strode in. They had been waiting for him when the attack started, and he apologized that he’d been delayed when he missed the ferry that he’d planed to catch. He listened to the account of the ambush and what they’d learned from the captured Xun with grim interest. “This confirms what I’d feared,” he said when they finished. “There’s always been gambling at the Tournament, but this year it’s gotten out of control. But I don’t understand why the Golden League would go to such lengths to try to rig the results. True, there’s a lot of money changing hands, but not that much money. There are only so many spectators here on the island, and even if they were all betting, I can’t see how it would justify the expense that the Golden League has clearly gone to to try to influence the results.”

“Is there betting anywhere else?” Nicki asked, but Marthysan shook his head. “Not that I know of. You can’t really get betters excited about a contest they can’t see for themselves, and even if you magically communicated the winners of the matches, people wouldn’t trust the truth of what they were being told – it would be too easy to just report the results that were most profitable for the bookie.” He shook his head again. “I need to let the Emissary know what you’ve learned.” Taking the stumbling Xun with him, he left.

But something about Nicki’s question had triggered a memory for Zhustin. He recalled that at every match, there was a strange man in voluminous robes who always sat in the very top row of the stadium. He was Avistani, not Tian, which might be why he’d caught Zhustin’s eye in the first place, although he was always flanked by a pair of burly Tian men (men who, now that he thought about it, looked very similar to the corpses now littering Yon Loi’s floor). He’d never paid enough attention to really recall what the man did during the matches, but there was a nagging sense that something just wasn’t quite right.

After looting the bodies and picking up a couple more potions from Romby, they returned to Marthysan’s lodgings and retired for the night. The next morning dawned bright and clear, the previous day’s rain nothing but a memory. They arrived at the pavilion to learn that they would be in the day’s first match, although they had no idea which of the other 7 contestants would be their opponent. After much debate, they decided to double up their spellcasters, and fielded the team of Nicki, Zhustin, Sawyer, and Bella. Sandoval cast Heroism on each of them as they were led off to the waiting room.

As the doors to the arena opened, they saw that overnight, the Tournament clerics and wizards had used spells like Stone Shape, Rock to Mud, and Create Water to fill the fight stage with a pool of watery mud, effectively transforming it into a giant swamp. Only a narrow strip of earth in front of each entrance was solid, along with a handful of islands of dark stone that rose 6 inches out of the morass.

From the far side of the arena, their opponent waved at them. It was a corpulent figure who had caught their eye on the very first day they’d arrived on the island, the eunuch bloatmage/witch, Hok Fong. Along with his pig familiar, Xinai, he was impossible to miss as he cheered each match from his seat in the front row of the stands, buying every food item the vendors sold and stuffing them voraciously into his mouth (although readily sharing everything with Xinai). But despite his soft appearance, they’d seen him in action, and he was a deadly spellcaster, often killing opponents with a single spell.

As soon as the Emissary gave the signal, Zhustin cast Haste. Without hesitation, Sawyer dashed across the arena, using Suishen’s Air Walk ability to stay just above the surface of the muck. Before Hok Fong could even react, the fighter had closed with him. At this close proximity, Sawyer was aware of the heavy aroma that surrounded Hok Fong, but he gritted his teeth and swung Suishen in a mighty arc that should have removed the eunuch’s big head. But Hok Fong had a Blink spell active, and the blade passed harmlessly through the empty space momentarily vacated by his neck.

Hok Fong cast a spell, and Sawyer saw a horrible, fearsome sight appear next to him. It was a Hellknight Inquisitor, come to drag him back to Cheliax for judgment and consignment to Hell. As the dark figure drew back its blade, Sawyer thought twice about what he was seeing, and realized that the Phantasmal Killer was not real, and the illusion dissipated before the blade could strike.

Bella was reluctant to dip her feet in the muddy water, so she stood her ground on the far side of the arena, firing arrows at the bloatmage. Nicki needed to get closer for some of his favorite spells, so he used Dimension Door to teleport to the top of the water pyramid rising out of the swamp. Zhustin used Summon Monster to call forth a Bralani Azata next to Hok Fong, and it slashed the witch with its scimitar.

Frustrated by his last miss, Sawyer drew a deep breath as he prepared for his next swing. But as his lungs filled with the fumes given off by the bloatmage, he found his eyes growing heavy, and he collapsed into the mud, sound asleep. Knowing that a sleeping Sawyer was useless to the party, Bella took it upon herself to wake the snoring fighter by firing arrows into his bum. [DM Note: With hindsight I realize that there’s no way that, from over 100’ away, Bella could have known Sawyer was sleeping, as opposed to unconscious, dead, paralyzed, etc. but at the time I wasn’t thinking.] Sawyer awoke just in time to see Hok Fong leaning over him, laying his hand upon Sawyer’s chest. Sawyer felt an icy grip squeezing his heart, threatening to stop it, but the fighter’s heart was too strong, and Hok Fong’s Slay Living failed. Frustrated, the bloatmage flew away from the fighter, towards the annoying spellcasters. Unfortunately for him, he forgot about Zhustin’s azata, who scored a critical hit on the fleeing mage.

Nicki couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw Hok Fong move away from Sawyer and into the open. Seizing the opportunity, he unleashed an Empowered Fireball that would have incinerated the bloatmage were it not for the partial protection from his Blink spell. The crowd loved it just the same. But Hok Fong had plenty of deadly spells at his command: every time he cast a spell, he could use his Blood Pool to recall it as if it had never been cast, and he was preparing to re-cast Phantasmal Killer on Nicki. But Zhustin pointed his finger at the bloatmage and wiped his intellect with a Feeblemind. Suddenly reduced to the mind of an infant, the obese eunuch floated in mid-air, staring blankly at all the bright colors around him. The party had scored yet another victory!

As the party settled in to watch the rest of the day’s matches, Zhustin was scanning the stands for the robed figure he’d recalled last night. He spotted him across the arena, seated, as usual, in the top row. With Nicki and Bella following for backup, Zhustin made his way across the pavilion and took a seat a couple of rows in front of the man. While the rest of the crowd cheered or booed, or leaped to their feet in appreciation of a well-delivered hit, the Avistani man was not even looking at the arena floor. He wore voluminous robes that spread out before him, and his attention was focused on something inside his robes. “Ewww!” Bella snorted, turning away in disgust. Zhustin tried to strike up a friendly conversation with one of his bodyguards, but all he got in return was a dead-eyed stare.

Since the competition was in its final rounds, this day's extra tests and exhibitions were limited to teams that had already been eliminated, to reduce the chances of injury to the remaining competitors. The one exception came in mid-morning, when the Emissary rose in this box and called for silence in the pavilion. “We have a final challenge for all the remaining contestants! For generations, the brine dragon Huyanwo has ravaged the region of the island known as the Ridge of Graves. If any of you brave and skilled contestants would rid the island of the scourge, your names would be recorded in the annals of the Tournament, and you would earn the everlasting gratitude of the citizens of Xielan Island.” There was an embarrassing silence as none of the remaining contestants leaped to take up the challenge. The Emissary shrugged dramatically, and bade the games continue.

By the end of the day, only four teams remained. Besides the party, the surviving competitors included Risha and her team from the Aspis Consortium, the hobgoblin Gomwai, and a scarred alchemist-ninja named Seishuku. Tomorrow would see the final day of the Tournament, with the semi-final matches held in the morning and the championship match in the afternoon. They also announced the next day's semi-final pairings in advance. The party would face Risha and her team, while Gomwai and Seishuku would battle one another.

At sundown, the Emissary hosted a final night of festivities at the Grand Pavilion featuring high-wire acrobatics performances, fireworks, a tengu swordsmanship show, comedy skits, and elaborate puppet shows. The final four teams held seats of honor at the Emissary’s table, but Marthysan’s seat next to the Emissary remained empty. In fact, one of the skits called for Marthysan to participate, and the actors had to improvise when he failed to appear. Growing concerned, the party decided to excuse themselves early to go back and look for the paladin. As they took their leave from the Emissary, he had a worried look. “I am glad you are checking on him. It is not like Marthysan to miss something this important.”

As they returned to the guest house they shared with the paladin, Bella moved out first to investigate on the sly. As she approached, she could see the front door hanging askew on its hinges. She tossed a Light rock through the front door, and when she heard no reaction, she moved cautiously inside. The interior was trashed, showing signs of an obvious fight; blood was splashed on the walls, and a dead body lay sprawled over a table.

As the rest of the party joined her, Bella rolled over the body. It was a Tian woman bearing the tell-tale tattoos of a Golden League Xun. Searching her pockets, they found a folded piece of paper bearing a surprisingly good sketch of Marthysan’s face above some Tian characters. Marie translated: “New Harbor docks. Aspis handoff.”

It seemed that Marthysan had been taken, and the party wasted no time in heading for the docks. As they walked, Sawyer spoke up. “I keep hearing about ‘Aspis’ – what the hell is Aspis?”

Nicki answered. “The Aspis Consortium is a trade organization based in Cheliax. They’ve got trade interests and relationships all over Avistan and Garund, and have their fingers in all sorts of profitable, if disreputable, things. Lots of merchants will sell arms to both sides of a conflict, but they say that the Aspis Consortium will actually start the war to create a market. They certainly have the money to sponsor a team in the Tournament, and I figured they were just after the prize. But it looks like there’s more going on.”

By this time, they had reached the waterfront. The docks were deserted, the only light coming being the dim reflection of the brightly colored lights of the Grand Pavilion, far across the bay. A semi-circle of fishing boats and merchant vessels lay docked offshore. A rickety network of waterlogged wooden piers led out towards the ships, but there were more planks missing than present, and traversing them in the dark without falling into the water would require quite a balancing act.

There was no sign of activity on any of the boats, and the only sound was the quiet lapping of waves and the creak of ropes. “Does anyone else think this might just be a trap to lure us out here?” Nicki whispered. When he saw the looks everyone gave him, he grew defensive. “Well I’m just stating the obvous!”

Nicki moved behind Sawyer, and tied his silk rope around the fighter’s waist. “Don’t mind me,” he whispered, “I’m just going to be floating along behind you.” He cast Invisibility on himself, then activated the Boots of Levitation they’d won yesterday. For his part, Sawyer activated Suishen’s See Invisible and Air Walk capabilities, then moved off to the east along the shore, towing Nicki silently along 10’ overhead. When he reached the farthest dock, he moved out along it, staying just above its surface to disguise his Air Walk.

Marie cast Fly on Bella then began to follow Sawyer. Bella quaffed a Potion of Vanish, and began flying out towards the center of the formation of boats, hoping she’d find something before her potion expired. Shinjiro moved out across the docks, having no trouble keeping his footing. Zhustin also went Invisible, and moved to the west, then used a Dimensional Step to pop onto the nearest fishing boat.

Sandoval decided to go straight for the target. Casting Dimension Door, he appeared on the deck of a merchant ship near the center of the formation. He stood still, listening, and soon became aware of muffled voices speaking in Tian. The sound seemed to be coming from below decks of a nearby fishing boat, and he moved in that direction.

Suddenly, a shadowy figure leaped over the gunwale of Sandoval’s ship and charged at him with an enormous greataxe. As the blade clipped his arm, Sandoval recognized his attacker – it was Darys Shrike, the fighter from the Aspis Consortium’s team!

The PCs earned 5,257 XP for the night, putting them at 136,998 XP, with 155,000 required for level 11. You also earned another Victory Point in your match against Hok Fong. We’ll be at Leo’s next week, and Roger may be on call again.