RangerWickett
Legend
Tonight my GM ran a unique sporting event in the arena of Tyr. The High Game Prelate Madden had created a new non-lethal contest for all the old gladiators to compete in: Five Towers!
Five Towers
The game involves five ziggurats (with levels at 20, 40, and 60 ft.) capped with flags, four 80-ft. tall wooden poles, and platforms, staircases, and ziplines running between them all.
The flags on the top level of each ziggurat is worth 2 points, and scattered around on a few of the 40-ft. levels are smaller flags worth 1 point each. The goal is for your team of five to accumulate 8 points first.
The trick is, you are only allowed to ascend through specific paths. You can't ascend by jumping, flying, or teleporting, and you can only climb by going up the existing ropes or stairs. Typically you take stairs up to the 20-ft. tier of one ziggurat, then have to cross a wooden bridge over to another ziggurat in order to reach the 40-ft. tier, and then you have to take a rope bridge to a spot halfway up one of the 80-ft. poles. From there you climb a 40-ft. ladder until you're at the top, and then you zipline down to the 60-ft. level of one of the ziggurats to grab a flag.
And the ziggurats are about 40 ft. from each other in a pentagon, and the distance across the pentagon is about 80 ft, so there's a lot of space to cross. Of course, the two teams can fight each other, so that keeps things fun.
(Yes, it has a very strong American Gladiators vibe.)
Our First Match
After two years of 4e, our biweekly gaming group finally managed to reach 10th level and win the latest story arc just before Dark Sun was released, so we started a new game at 11th level. Our first paragon paths. Whoo hoo!
Our characters have come to Tyr because we think we are bad-ass enough to kill ourselves a sorcerer king, and we want to enlist help from the only city to have done it. In order to make a name for ourselves, we thought we'd compete in the games. The group consists of:
* A beast-headed giant from the wastes (minotaur swarm druid).
* An elemental warrior etched with fire (fire genasi fighter, who multiclassed to wizard so he can cast wall of fire).
* A shaman with a high-pitched voice (mul shaman, whose player figured that if his character is sterile, he may as well make him a castrato).
* The fastest halfling in the world (caravan leader halfling monk, who had a speed of 13 for most of the encounter -- he also has opportunistic shove which lets him bull rush as an opportunity attack, and . . . I think it's driving rain, a feat that lets him bull rush his entire speed).
* My thri-kreen titan (thri-kreen grappler fighter).
We faced off a team with an earth, wind, and fire theme. Earth guys knocked us off ziggurats, fire swordswoman attacked anyone who tried to use artillery, and wind women could glide across gaps between adjacent ziggurats.
The halfling and I raced the wind women to collect flags. Our fighter handled their swordswoman, while the druid and shaman used spells and spirits to keep the earth guys from causing us too much fuss.
This was the GM's first time running the event so he probably underpowered the other team, because it was a blow-out. Highlights of the night were the tiny halfling shoving a stout dwarf earth guy 50 feet along the edge of a ziggurat and then off the side, and the shaman's realization that he could summon his impassable spirit companion into the paths of the wind women, over and over again, so they had to waste turns hitting it to kill it.
But I got the MVP moment, when I collected two flags in one round.
I had climbed atop one of the 80-ft. pillars, and I'd pulled the rope up with me, holding it in my spare hands. The pillar was 30 ft. away from two different flags, with a zipline leading to either.
On my turn I ziplined to the top of one ziggurat (move action), yanked the flagpole free (standard action), tucked it into my shoulder harness (free action with thri-kreen hands), then action pointed, gaining a free jump thanks to my Thri-Kreen Hunter paragon path.
Thri-Kreen can take 'running jumps' from a standstill, and I still had the rope that was tied to the top of the pillar, so I leapt out sideways and used angular momentum to swing myself to the other ziggurat. I misjudged a bit, snagged the rope around the second flagpole, and slammed my face into the wall, but I was able to retrieve the second flag (with my action pointed standard action).
Starting the League
Afterward, we brainstormed, and decided on a plan to take down the sorcerer queen of Raam. Our method will be to drum up enthusiasm for the sport in Tyr, then try to export it to Urik and Raam, claiming that it does wonders to pacify the population. We'll be celebrities, and hopefully will get the ability to move about somewhat freely so we can research our mark's vulnerabilities. Maybe we can incite rivalry between Urik and Raam, arrange an 'inter-city championship,' and get one side to attack the other after they lose.
Yes, that is ridiculous, and probably out of flavor for the setting, but we're going to have a lot of fun.
Five Towers
The game involves five ziggurats (with levels at 20, 40, and 60 ft.) capped with flags, four 80-ft. tall wooden poles, and platforms, staircases, and ziplines running between them all.
The flags on the top level of each ziggurat is worth 2 points, and scattered around on a few of the 40-ft. levels are smaller flags worth 1 point each. The goal is for your team of five to accumulate 8 points first.
The trick is, you are only allowed to ascend through specific paths. You can't ascend by jumping, flying, or teleporting, and you can only climb by going up the existing ropes or stairs. Typically you take stairs up to the 20-ft. tier of one ziggurat, then have to cross a wooden bridge over to another ziggurat in order to reach the 40-ft. tier, and then you have to take a rope bridge to a spot halfway up one of the 80-ft. poles. From there you climb a 40-ft. ladder until you're at the top, and then you zipline down to the 60-ft. level of one of the ziggurats to grab a flag.
And the ziggurats are about 40 ft. from each other in a pentagon, and the distance across the pentagon is about 80 ft, so there's a lot of space to cross. Of course, the two teams can fight each other, so that keeps things fun.
(Yes, it has a very strong American Gladiators vibe.)
Our First Match
After two years of 4e, our biweekly gaming group finally managed to reach 10th level and win the latest story arc just before Dark Sun was released, so we started a new game at 11th level. Our first paragon paths. Whoo hoo!
Our characters have come to Tyr because we think we are bad-ass enough to kill ourselves a sorcerer king, and we want to enlist help from the only city to have done it. In order to make a name for ourselves, we thought we'd compete in the games. The group consists of:
* A beast-headed giant from the wastes (minotaur swarm druid).
* An elemental warrior etched with fire (fire genasi fighter, who multiclassed to wizard so he can cast wall of fire).
* A shaman with a high-pitched voice (mul shaman, whose player figured that if his character is sterile, he may as well make him a castrato).
* The fastest halfling in the world (caravan leader halfling monk, who had a speed of 13 for most of the encounter -- he also has opportunistic shove which lets him bull rush as an opportunity attack, and . . . I think it's driving rain, a feat that lets him bull rush his entire speed).
* My thri-kreen titan (thri-kreen grappler fighter).
We faced off a team with an earth, wind, and fire theme. Earth guys knocked us off ziggurats, fire swordswoman attacked anyone who tried to use artillery, and wind women could glide across gaps between adjacent ziggurats.
The halfling and I raced the wind women to collect flags. Our fighter handled their swordswoman, while the druid and shaman used spells and spirits to keep the earth guys from causing us too much fuss.
This was the GM's first time running the event so he probably underpowered the other team, because it was a blow-out. Highlights of the night were the tiny halfling shoving a stout dwarf earth guy 50 feet along the edge of a ziggurat and then off the side, and the shaman's realization that he could summon his impassable spirit companion into the paths of the wind women, over and over again, so they had to waste turns hitting it to kill it.
But I got the MVP moment, when I collected two flags in one round.
I had climbed atop one of the 80-ft. pillars, and I'd pulled the rope up with me, holding it in my spare hands. The pillar was 30 ft. away from two different flags, with a zipline leading to either.
On my turn I ziplined to the top of one ziggurat (move action), yanked the flagpole free (standard action), tucked it into my shoulder harness (free action with thri-kreen hands), then action pointed, gaining a free jump thanks to my Thri-Kreen Hunter paragon path.
Thri-Kreen can take 'running jumps' from a standstill, and I still had the rope that was tied to the top of the pillar, so I leapt out sideways and used angular momentum to swing myself to the other ziggurat. I misjudged a bit, snagged the rope around the second flagpole, and slammed my face into the wall, but I was able to retrieve the second flag (with my action pointed standard action).
Starting the League
Afterward, we brainstormed, and decided on a plan to take down the sorcerer queen of Raam. Our method will be to drum up enthusiasm for the sport in Tyr, then try to export it to Urik and Raam, claiming that it does wonders to pacify the population. We'll be celebrities, and hopefully will get the ability to move about somewhat freely so we can research our mark's vulnerabilities. Maybe we can incite rivalry between Urik and Raam, arrange an 'inter-city championship,' and get one side to attack the other after they lose.
Yes, that is ridiculous, and probably out of flavor for the setting, but we're going to have a lot of fun.
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