Session 19: Bloodfest!

The party woke up early the next day and began to prepare for the upcoming bloodfest. At the designated time, they arrived at the arena. A crowd was already forming outside as they were led inside to a prep room. Klanga left his assistant with theim who would notify them of the time of their fights. The group fights with the monsters would be interspersed among the individual gladiator fights.

The first fight of the day was Zhang’s gladiatorial debut. Opposing him was Mobad, an orcish deserter from the Red fangs. Both combatants faced each other from opposite sides of the arena. At the sound of the gong, they both circled each other, throwing javelins. Then Mobad charged. As Mobad closed with Zhang, Zhang bashed him to the ground with two mighty blows from his maul. The fight was over almost before it began. As Zhang left the pit to cheers from the crowd, he noticed that the body was dragged to a trap door on one side of the arena and dropped through.

Next, Kiki, Terlis, PPP, and Riya were called up to face the first monster of the day. Opposing them was a large pantherish looking creature with tentacles coming out of its back. The announcer identified it as a “displacer beast.” At the gong, the party charged forward. Kiki took the first strike but found that the beast seemed to project some kind of displacement illusion that caused her blow to miss wide. She corrected on a second strike and made contact. With the location of the beast now identified, the party made short work of the displacer beast to the roars of the crowd.

Zhang next faced off with a minotaur named Torg who had defeated a centaur in the first round. The minotaur was mocked by the announcer for failing to protect his puyg. The minotaur looked pretty angry and practically suicidal. Clancy attempted to use his psychic abilities to communicate with the minotaur to get information, but the minotaur seemed to have little interest in communication. He charged out at the sound of the gong and engaged with Zhang. Torg did land a blow on Zhang, but Zhang’s ferocity soon took the upper hand and he dropped the minotaur his knees. Rather than deal a killing blow, Zhang hit the minotaur with the handle of his maul and knocked him unconscious. However, the unconscious minotaur was then dragged over to the trap door. PPP quickly cast featherfall before his body was dropped through. Only time would tell if Torg survived.

The group then faced off in the second round against a bulette or “land shark.” It was armored and tough but again it proved little match against the combined attacks of the party.

Before their next monster fight round, the party got to watch the semifinals between the champion gladiator – a half-ogre named Grunus – and a hobgoblin warrior named Higulux. Grunus made short work of the hobgoblin. He looked like a formidable foe for Zhang to face in the finals.

The next fight was the final monster fight for the group. This time the announcer introduced a hideous beast “from the feywild” called a fomorian. It was a hideous giant with one large eye and one small one. It landed some devastating blows on Kiki before PPP confused it with strange dissonant whispers in its head. The rest of the party then ganged up on it, with Riya delivering the final blow with her star blade through its hideous eye.

Zhang then faced off against Grunus in the grand finale of the Bloodfest. the crowd was on their feet and the betting was fierce. The smart money was on Grunus, but some people hoped to win big on the underdog. As the combatants met, it was clear that Zhang would be more hard-pressed in this fight than in his previous two. Grunus was a formidable foe, fast, ferocious, and strong. Clancy used his subtle arcane abilities to mess with Grunus’s mind, making it difficult for him to attack Zhang. This helped to turn the tide, giving Zhang the advantage. However, as Clancy concentrate on his magic, it suddenly fizzled. He tried to re-ignite it but he could not make the magic work. It was as if the arena was in an anti-magic cone. Grunus now came back strong and struck Zhang some hard blows, but Zhang was able to hold on long enough to deliver the final blow. Grunus fell, slain on the battlefield and the crowd went wild.

After basking in the glow of the crowd for some time, the party collected their winnings from Klanga and headed back to the Den. They were greeted with a hero’s welcome and many drinks were purchased for them. The crowd also convinced them to sing a couple of songs. After some time, Gragim came down and congratulated them on their victories. He had arranged the requested meeting with the Grevious Wound who awaited them in their private booth. The party made their way to the booth. While Clancy and Kiki did most of the talking with Gruzza, Ebrut was entranced with Mid and began talking to her. After some conversation in which the party spun a story about being interested in getting into the dresium trade, Gruzza agreed to let them join the bidding for their dresium sale tomorrow. Meanwhile, Mid used suggestion to suggest that Ebrut stop by her inn later to take her to his ship and show it off. He happily agreed.

With most of their work done for the evening and still licking some wounds from the bloodfest, the party headed back to the Bug House. However, before they left, the final bidding party arrived. This one was a group of Mi-Go led by two familiar looking humanoids: the drow female and male wizard that the party had seen with the gnoll tribe all those weeks ago outside of the Citadel of the Arcane. Even the patrons of the Den, used to the banned races and undead creatures in their midst, seemed taken back by the arrival of the Mi-Go. For their part, the Mi-Go ignored the patrons and retired to a booth with their companions.