We played again tonight (after skipping last Saturday thanks to a birthday party).
Started with the race:
*The race was a 24x16 map with a 3-square wide-lane around the outside of an interior of rocky debris.
*The six runners (2 per team) started in the lower left. It was relay-race style, so the first runner would tag the other one on the next lap. Runners were not allowed to interfere with each other.
*One blocker from each team was positioned in each of the other corners of the track. Each blocker had a lane between their corner and the next one where they were allowed to go to block(Grapple or Bull Rush) the other Runners. Blockers were not allowed to interfere with other Blockers. If a Runner was in last place and a Blocker was holding them, the Blocker had to let go.
First up was two elves(one from each team) and Kyden. We rolled initiative and were off. I'll do the short summary of the race rather than the direct play-by-play.
Grabbing had relatively little effect, since whoever was grabbed was usually very quickly in last place. There was a ton of initiative shifting as everyone readied actions. Since both us and the Toothcutters knew it only mattered which of us won, the Nightwind Runner won 1st place by 3/4 of a lap. By the end of the first lap, Kyden was a 1/4 of a lap ahead of the Toothcutter's Runner and Thoon, though grabbed twice, managed to finish 1/2 a lap ahead of Shivrin (2nd runner of the Toothcutters).
The most interesting part was when we figured out our Blockers could Grab our Runners and drag them to get a bit of extra movement (and break other Blocker's grabs). We couldn't find the rules for dragging a grabbed opponent, but we remembered them existing, so we just made something up to keep the game going.
Final score: Thoon's Poons 7, Toothcutters 6, Windrunners 6.
On to the final event!
***
The arena was again 24x16, though this time all sand. We entered the Arena, the crowd roaring and our metal prize was revealed: A metal Fullblade (courtesy of House Wavir)!
The announcer is getting the crowd amped up for the fight when the crowd began chanting "Chain, chain, chain!" Some arena tenders come out and tie us together with thick leather straps. Mechanical effect: We started out 2 squares apart from the person we were chained to. If we ended the round more than 2 squares from one of the people we were chained to, we would be knocked prone and pulled within 2 squares of those higher in the initiative order. This ended up being kind-of difficult to track (who moved first? wait, initiative order matters or not? when do we get pulled?) but after the first couple rounds we were all clustered together next to the enemy so it didn't matter too much.
Chain-link order: Thoon--Kyden--Gilneas--Jak--Jinn. Walter the spider was not attached.
To top it off, they say we're going to be fighting a War Basrag, but when they open the cage tunnels, the arena's Master of Beasts (or half of him anyway) comes flying out and a huge lizard with spiny scales and eyes "glinting with intelligence". Thoon's Nature check reveals it as an Id Fiend, a psychic beast that feeds off of fear. Yay?
We sent Walter out to stop it and it charged, missing. Jak nailed it with a daily, swarming it with bats and doing a bit of damage. Gilneas dropped his spirit next to it and Kyden charged (missing). End of round, we suffered the wrath of the chain - Kyden, Gilneas, and Jinn dragged off their feet and proned in a heap.
The Id Fiend moves up and unleashes a Close Burst 5 that "only" dazed and slowed everyone but Walter(no damage), then did a psychic blast that immobilized Thoon and Jak and gave them -2 to attacks. Then revealed it was an elite by spending an Action Point and chomping into Gilneas.
Basic damage order:
*Round 2:Thoon bloodied, Gilneas bloodied, Thoon healed out of bloodied, Gilneas healed out of bloodied. Small damage to enemy.
*Round 3: Gilneas bloodied again. Jak bloodied. Moderate damage to enemy.
*Round 4: Enemy bloodied by Thoon (triggering its Daze+Slow power again, hitting every but Jinn and Jak), Gilneas dropped, Jak dropped(triggering his minotaur on-dropped power that did mba+5+3d6 thanks to some Shamanic daily+encounter juju). Second Id Fiend Action Point(solo, not elite), Thoon bloodied. Gilneas and Jak healed back to bloodied.
*Round 5: Everyone but Gilneas and Jinn Daze+Slowed again. Thoon dropped. Thoon healed back to blooded, Jak healed out of bloodied. Gilneas finishes it with an Action Point Stalker's Strike(+2 to hit, +3 to damage thanks to Kyden and Jinn). Victory!
A neat fact: Kyden's damage taken: 0, Kyden's damage dealt: 0. Thanks to being dazed, slowed, immobilized and/or prone for the majority of the fight. Even the Direct the Attack RBA he granted Thoon missed...
Reward: 150 coins and a Steel Fullblade and the adoration of a (not-quite) full house. Oh, and Gilneas (with a 21 Arcana check) carefully collected some Id Fiend Cranial Fluid used by certain psychics in the City-State of Draj while Thoon harvested 4 Survival Days from its corpse(nothing goes to waste in Athas).
***
After, Lord Rajen came to congratulate us and state that he was skeptical when he sent us to Balic (and didn't expect us to survive) the first time, but the Arena games gave him a bit more hope for our upcoming mission back to Balic.
As we left the arena, a well-dressed minstrel gave us a bottle of wine from "a secret admirer". Being given anything in Dark Sun makes one instantly suspicious, so Kyden poured a bit of it into a beggar's alms bowl. The beggar drank greedily and was dead in seconds. While Jinn looted a couple coins from the beggar's body (nothing goes to waste in Athas) Kyden carefully wrapped the wine and stashed it in has bag. "What an excellent gift, far more useful than regular wine!"
The games complete, we saw to our Caravan again, paying 5 coins a piece to join. Upon hearing that it was about a week to Alterik, the next city-state on our journey to Balic, we loaded up to our maximum weight on Survival Days - only 2gp each thanks the the verdant fields and abundant water around Tyr!
***
After an extended rest, we set off to try to find the cutthroat that had betrayed Kyden to the Templars a decade ago, heading through the Warrens... leading right into an ambush by the Toothcutters we'd humiliated in the Arena the day before. One elf with two swords stands at the end of the alley that we were told led to Slitbelly, while elves on the rooftops of the ally dump debris behind it to clog it and ready chatkchas(like giant throwing stars).
Jack hurled the one in front out of the door with his Gladiator encounter, then Kyden and Jinn rushed through the door, only to have Jak get mauled by chatkchas, getting dropped, triggering Kyden's daily, sending him charging back outside, missing the enemy but healing Jak - who promptly was dropped again.
Jinn rushed back out and we took down the swordsman to a mix of Kyden landing a Viper's Strike, Jak's 2nd 0-hp Minotaur MBA, and Jinn's 2-point Energizing Strike. We suffered another barrage of chatkchas before making it through the door(with Jak at 3hp). Once inside, Jak noticed that the metallic paint on was Kyden's fullblade chipping off - something to hash out with House Wavir later.
Inside, we readied actions ready to kill anything that came into the shoddy apartment we hid out in... and no one came. A short rest and about 5 surges later...
Peeking outside resulted in being sniped, so Jinn pulled a hole in the roof silently (with a Natural 20 - 1 skill - 1 Kyden's assist +2 Jak's assist = 20!)
An Athletics of 19 + 14 skill +2 Jak's assist = 35 Athletics(!) to hurl Jinn onto the roof. He explodes through the roof like a frikin' anime ninja, unloading a psychic Augment 2 Demoralizing Strike, cutting down both elven minion snipers on the roof in one swing.
A Half-elf Dilettante Burning Spray takes down two more, causing two more to attack and dive from the roof and two more to pop up, dealing a total of 10 damage to Jinn. We then had a sniper duel, with Jinn hiding, Jak trading javelins for Chachktas, and Kyden running around in the streets looking for the ones that dived from the roof - getting a
1 and then a
0 on his perception checks to find them, eventually doing so only because they put two Chachktas into him.
Looting the bodies, Jinn found 20 coins, a heap of chacktas, and some bone daggers (I say Jinn found since Kyden got another
0 on his Perception check).
At the market, we offloaded a heap of bloody weapons in exchange for an Erdlu to store extra foodstuffs or whatnot on for the journey.
[sblock=What the hell is an Erdlu?]"
The erdlu is a smaller version of the crodlu. It's body is covered in tough scales, and its folded forelimbs sprout useless wings..."
Picture.[/sblock]
Session over. Sanzuo decided the epic arena fight justified a level, so, on to Level 2!
