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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9413609" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 77: MACHINA ARENAPC Roster: Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 16             Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 10             Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 8/paladin 8             Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 10             Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 16NPC Roster:Beetle Darkcloud, halfling ranger 5             Robin the Balladeer, human bard 5Game Session Date: 6 July 2024 - - -The walled drow city of Du'dorach sat just ahead.  Wakuren and Xandro, astride their pachycephalosaurus mounts (the half-orc had opted not to summon Nimbus down from the Elemental Plane of Air, as horses did not seem to be found on the continent of Talonia, given the drow Ilyraena's insistence Nimbus was some sort of a "skinless lizard"), each cast a tongues spell so they'd be able to understand and speak the drow language.  Alewyth mentally cursed herself for having forgotten to prepare either the tongues spell or the comprehend languages spell; she'd have to rely upon Wakuren, Xandro, or Zander, the latter of which had had the tongues spell made permanent.  For that matter, their halfling guide Beetle understood enough of the drow tongue to be able to make himself understood.  But she made a mental note not to overlook the spell in the future, for Beetle had warned them they'd be passing through a lot of drow cities on their way to the Forbidden Lands."We'll need to register our animals," Beetle had warned his charges, adding that he and Andrea had done so when they passed here months ago without any issue.  So when it was their turn to enter Du'dorach through the massive, wooden doors of a gate through the outer city walls, a drow guardsman took their names, showed them a pen in which they could leave their dinosaur mounts, and then escorted them into a government building.  They went through a maze of twisting passageways, until the guard opened a door and motioned for the seven to enter.  Beetle nodded his thanks and walked through the open doorway, the others following.However, the room wasn't the bureaucrat's office the halfling had expected, with desks and lines and paperwork: there was a long, marble wall across the back third of the room, behind which sat a female drow administrator in black leather armor.  She looked down at the seven visitors, examined some papers in front of her, and said, "I will not be speaking with all seven of you.  Who speaks for your group?"The heroes looked among themselves and Zander Quilson spoke up.  "Um, I do, I guess."  He spoke in the drow language, as that was what the administrator had used."You are accused of bringing a dangerous animal into the city of Du'dorach.  How do you plead?"  If they hadn't yet recognized the general layout of the room as a court of law, the heroes certainly did now.Beetle spoke up.  "Dangerous animal?  I have been through your city with my fastieth before, and there were no problems.  The boneheads--"But the administrator cut him off.  "You misunderstand.  I refer to the orc."  And here she focused a glare down at Wakuren, whose half-orc heritage was visible in every facial feature and his general skin coloring.  Wakuren gave a sigh of disbelief.  "Do you have any documentation for him?"Zander began to try to speak up for his friend.  "Your Honor," he said, picking up on the fact that this drow woman was a judge, "This man is a half-orc, a valued member of our--"But again the administrator cut off further conversation.  "Then you are guilty as charged.  We will let the gods determine the extent of your punishment."  She leaned forward and pulled a lever on her desk, which had an immediate effect: it deactivated the horizontal wall of force the visitors had been standing upon.  (It had been covered with an illusory wall spell, making it look no different than any other section of floor in the building.)  All seven fell immediately, Wakuren the slowest of all because the feather fall effect of his shield of Cal kicked in after several seconds of free fall; fortunately, his head was well below the plane of the floor when the wall of force kicked back on.  Petey flapped his wings, leaving his perch upon Zander's shoulder and following after his master under his own power, not wanting to be separated from the elf.  But everyone else ended up sliding down a curving passageway, to be dumped unceremoniously at the feet of another drow, this one dressed in simple commoner's clothes."Good morning," said the drow functionary, although the morning had been anything but to the seven people before him (for by this time Wakuren had floated down the chute and joined the others).  "My name is Corlizar, and before any of you gets any ideas, I am a slave of the arena, so threatening me or attempting to take me hostage will get you nowhere, as my life is deemed nearly worthless."Beetle rubbed the bridge of his nose, where he could feel a headache starting to build.  "I'm sorry," he said, "did you say 'arena?'""Indeed," replied Corlizar, raising a clipboard and a writing stylus in his hands.  "Now then, I will need your names to get you processed.  Then you will fight in the arena, and if you survive your trials you will be released back into the city."  A young drow woman joined him; she wore a modest robe and seemed interested in hearing their names.  She also examined each of them with roving eyes, taking in every detail of these new arrivals.  Beetle sighed and provided his name, and the others did likewise, after which time the young drow woman left without another word."What all can we expect in this arena of yours?" demanded Thurloe."Your first battle will be with a group of Assessors," answered Corlizar.  "After that, you will be assigned a number of trials, all of which you must survive if you are ever to see the surface of the city again.  Generally, the number will be anywhere from one to five, depending upon the severity of the crime and the Assessors' judgment about your combat abilities.  After all, there's a rowdy crowd out there that demands entertainment - no sense in sending you against something too difficult or too easy for you to handle; that makes for poor viewing.""Lovely," exclaimed Robin once Xandro had translated the functionary's words for her.  She frowned at Wakuren, not wanting to blame him for this predicament but well aware it was his orcish heritage the drow had found objectionable."As you were all found guilty of the same crime, you will likely be allowed to fight together as a group," Corlizar told them.  "And those of you who survive will be presented with a metal disk, stating the gods have found you worthy to be allowed back into the city.  You'll want to carry that with you the whole time you're in Du'dorach.""How soon do we fight these Assessors?" Zander asked."Any time now.  It shouldn't take too long to get you processed into the schedule, this early in the morning.  A couple things worth mentioning: the viewing stands are covered in a permanent anti-magic field, so if you were planning on assaulting the members of the audience, especially those in the Distinguished Viewing Box, you may as well not waste your time.""But the spells will work on the arena?" Wakuren pressed."Oh, yes, absolutely.  It makes for a greater spectacle that way."A gong sounded and a female voice, amplified by magic to be much louder than normal, started speaking in the drow tongue.  "Ladies and gentlemen," she said, "we have for your entertainment a group of seven visitors convicted of the crime of smuggling a dangerous beast into the city!"  Corlizar pushed the seven through a set of doors that opened automatically, and they stepped out onto the arena sands.  The arena was a large oval, with four support columns evenly spaced throughout to hold up the weight of the rock above them; Wakuren recalled they were somewhere beneath the government building they'd been ushered into upon first entering the city.  It was dimly lit in the arena, and while Wakuren, graced from birth with darkvision, could see just fine (as he knew Alewyth would be able to, as well), the others would probably be able to see well enough not to be overly hampered in battle.  But he recalled the drow did not like bright lights.Wakuren spotted the female drow who had examined them when they ended up in the bowels of the arena; she stood on a balcony overlooking the arena just above the double doors across the way from where the heroes had just entered.  She was apparently a spellcaster of some sort, for while she described the horrid beast the criminals had let into the city, she cast an illusion of Wakuren's face in the air above the arena, exaggerating his features to make him look fiercer than he really was.  The she described each of the "criminals" in turn, while displaying caricaturized images of them in the air for the roaring audience to enjoy.  She had Robin brush her hair aside to show off her "freakishly round ears" and then giggle - apparently the drow of Du'dorach didn't deal with humans very often.  Zander, when his time came, was depicted as sickly pale, almost albino, if only to differentiate him from the dark-skinned drow in the audience.  And Beetle was made to scamper about in the air like a jester in a king's court.  "Very flattering," grumbled the little halfling.Eventually, the illusory "introductions" were over and the drow spellcaster announced the first match would be against six Assessors, which got the crowd's interest; apparently, that was a larger number than normal.  The doors below the female drow announcer opened, and out marched a half dozen automatons, each in perfect step with the one before it.  The were short and squatty, with one oversized arm ending in a malletlike hammer head.  Then the announcer backed away, into the protective anti-magic field that would keep her safe from stray spells during the upcoming combat.Thurloe stepped forward and tried casting a ray of enfeeblement at the closest of the hammerer automatons, but it had no effect; either they had some sort of magical protection, or their status as unliving constructs made them naturally immune to the spell's intended effects.  (With a mental groan, the spellsword suspected it was the latter - and he was, belatedly, absolutely correct.)  But then Zander stepped forward, standing next to the spellsword, and he cast a spell that definitely could affect the automatons as well as any living targets: a prismatic spray, which sent a rainbow of colored beams cascading from his fingers, to strike the Assessors where they stood.The effects were immediate.  One became suddenly pitted as acid coated its metal surface; it froze up and toppled over on its side, its internal mechanics dissolving and sending wisps of smoke rising up from its unmoving figure.  Two more were pummeled by blasts of electricity, which sent arcs of lightning shooting out in impressive displays until those two Assessors, too, fell over, no longer functional.  The fourth one was beset with an indigo ray and continued on as if nothing had happened; by the sheer randomness of the spell, it had been hit with an effect that could not affect its mechanical mind, although a living creature hit by the same effect could expect to have a permanent insanity spell take up residence in its brain.  The last two were actually struck by two rays each, and while the indigo ray had no effect upon the first one, the blast of fire that suddenly engulfed it did a bit of scorching damage, although the Assessor was still up and about after the attack.  But the last one was destroyed by a gout of acid and then whisked away to another plane of existence, where it no doubt suddenly appeared as a heap of steaming metal.The two remaining Assessors both moved forward as one, their massive hammer-hands aimed at Zander, which they had each assessed to be the greatest threat to their continued performance thus far.  The elf sorcerer went sprawling from the attacks, but he judged it well worth the price to take out four of them in one fell swoop - in fact, he'd do it again if he had the chance.Wakuren stepped forward and slammed his shield of Cal into the nearest Assessor, the one completely unscathed thus far.  Xandro came up behind the half-orc, casting a heroism spell on himself in preparation for combat.  Behind him, Beetle and Robin stayed put, although the latter pulled out her lute and started up her rendition of the song of inspirational courage.Alewyth cast an empowered sound burst at the most damaged Assessor, but the enhanced spell wasn't that much more effective than the standard model, and the automaton barely felt it.  But then Thurloe went with a more traditional damage spell, scorching ray, and took out the one Alewyth had just hit, leaving only the Assessor battling it out with Wakuren in the fight.  However, it didn't look like it would take much to put it out of commission; Zander tested that theory by casting a simple burning hands spell at it, and sure enough, that was enough to take it out.If the heroes expected cheers on their behalf for their combat prowess, they were sadly mistaken - even those who couldn't understand the drow language knew the taunts and boos being hurled their way weren't signs of encouragement.  But as their attention was cast momentarily on their audience in the shadowy benches above them to all sides, several spikes stabbed up from the arena sands near the downed Assessors, and then they were dragged back through the arena doors from which they had entered.  While the doors were open, a pair of hovering disks came flying out, causing the heroes to assume defensive stances in case this was some new attack, but the disks wove back and forth over the ground, fans on their undersides blowing the sand beneath them back into some sort of order, erasing the drag lines caused by the Assessors being returned for eventual repair.  Wakuren took the opportunity to cast a shield of faith spell upon himself, while Alewyth cast bless and then the half-orc followed up with a prayer spell.  They weren't sure what all they'd be facing in the arena next, but it didn't hurt to be prepared.Eventually, the drow spellcaster came back over and made an announcement to the crowd: the Assessors had determined the seven criminals would face three separate combats, each trial to be a group affair with all seven facing their foes at once.  Beetle gave a quick sigh of relief at that, for he'd worried they might be forced into one-on-one fights, and he knew neither he nor Robin were up the combat standards of the five dreamwalkers.A wheel started spinning over on the side of the wall, much like a vertical roulette wheel, but with potential combatants written on the wedges in the drow language.  The wheel came to a stop with the arrow pointing at a particular wedge, and the drow announced the first bout would be the seven criminals against a pair of maugs.  The crowd cheered and leaned forward, eager to see a more dangerous fight than the one the Assessors had managed."What's a maug?" asked Wakuren as the spellcaster left and the doors below her swung back open."I think we're about to find out," replied Thurloe, stepping forward in front of the rest.  As the two maugs stepped forward through the doors, he cast a slow spell on the first one, and it seemed to take effect.  But the answer to Wakuren's question was simple to deduce just from the maug's appearance: a maug was, apparently, a 9-foot-tall humanoid shape carved out of solid stone, and wielding a two-bladed sword.  Their elaborate carvings spoke of them being animated constructs more so than earth elementals, despite their solid stone build.Zander decided an elemental was the answer to fighting these two foes, and summoned a fire elemental immediately before them.  It towered over the smaller combatants and swung a blazing fist at the slowed maug, which was unable to dodge out of the way.  The other maug, though, seemed to take a moment and come up with a decision: the fire elemental wasn't a criminal and thus didn't need to be punished in the arena.  Armed with such logic, it sidestepped around the flaming elemental, moving around a pillar to get to the clump of criminals who did need to be punished.  But it didn't reckon with the taller elemental's greater reach or its desire to take out the maugs, and it managed to hit with another flaming fist as the maug advanced upon its targets.  The slowed maug struck at the elemental with its sword, the front blade passing through its body of flames without seeming to do a whole lot of harm.Wakuren cast a thunder strike spell at the advancing maug, while Xandro tried a different approach: he pulled out his figurine of wondrous power and hurled it at the feet of the approaching construct.  The dire tiger erupted to full size, snarling and clawing at the maug.  Alewyth tried catching the maug up in a hold monster spell, but it was able to shake off the effects without too much difficulty.Robin continued playing her inspirational song at the back of the arena, while Beetle, to look like he was actually doing something, had his javelin out in a defensive position and looked ready to stab anyone who approached the female bard.  Thurloe, one of the group's members who was actually supposed to be attacking their foes, decided instead to take the time to cast a stoneskin spell upon himself.Not content with a massive fire elemental attacking the slowed maug, Zander upped the stakes by casting another summoning spell and bringing forth another fire elemental, this one only about the same size as the maugs.  It showed up directly behind the slowed maug and started pounding it immediately, to little effect.  (It seemed creatures made of fire and monsters carved from stone weren't particularly effective at causing the other harm.)The advancing maug's mission told it to avoid the dire tiger (an unimportant non-criminal), but when it stepped around it the tiger pounced, and the larger of the two "non-criminal" fire elementals also pummeled it.  Between them, they managed to destroy it before it could get to its real criminal target, Thurloe.  The spellsword didn't look at all perturbed that they'd taken the maug out before he could to anything to it.As the remaining maug did its best to take out the greater fire elemental blocking its way to the criminals, Wakuren cast a mass bear's endurance spell, giving all of his allies a little more staying power.  Xandro moved up, Deathwhisper in hand, as his dire tiger pivoted and leapt at the second maug, biting and scratching it for all he was worth.  But then Alewyth cast a searing light spell on the sword-wielding construct, and that was enough to take it out.  Once again, spikes rose up to snag the unmoving bodies of the destroyed constructs and drag them back into the bowels of the arena, followed by the hovering disks that blew the sand back into smoothness in anticipation of the next bout.  In the time that it took for all of that to take place, the summoned fire elementals returned to their home plane, although the dire tiger merely backed off and stood by Xandro."The seven criminals will now face...the chain golem!" announced the drow spellcaster, as the spinning wheel came to a halt.  The doors opened back up and a massive pile of chains ambled forward, this thing even taller than the maugs had been.  Links of metal chain jingled and jangled with every step.Once again, Thurloe wasn't interested in any formalities like the official start of the bout; as soon as he could see the advancing chain golem, he cast a Mhaurgh's acid arrow spell at it, the missile striking the chain golem in the center of its mass and spraying it with acid.  Zander took the opportunity to cast a widened haste spell so he could be sure to include everyone, while Wakuren cast a divine power spell upon himself.  Xandro and the dire tiger moved up, ready for physical action, and then as if on a silent command the tiger sprang forward, leaping at the construct.  But the chain golem struck down at the tiger's head with a link-jangling fist, smacking it down into the arena sands as the tiger sank its fangs into the metal foe's leg.Alewyth summoned forth a greater earth elemental, using her summoner's totem to imbue the creature with a bear's endurance spell as it formed in the arena, rising up just in front of the chain golem.  It slammed a massive fist into the construct, with the sound of stone upon metal, accompanied by the sounds of hundreds of links being jostled about.  But the chain golem had been programmed to focus upon the criminals sentenced to die in the arena, and so it ignored the summoned elemental and sent both of its massive fists shooting across the distance to strike Zander Quilson, each clenched fist trailing an unraveling chain behind it.  The impact sent the sorcerer reeling (and his pseudodragon familiar flapping off his shoulder in a panic), then the fists dropped to the arena sands and the chain golem began pulling them back, the fists unraveling as the chains were pulled back into the construct's lower arms, where they knitted themselves back into shape.Thurloe moved up, but only to hide behind a pillar, safe from being in the line of sight of the chain golem, and thus, he reasoned, unable to be targeted by it.  He greatly preferred having to deal with but a single foe at a time.  Zander pulled himself up from the ground and dashed over to take cover behind the other pillar on the "criminals'" side of the arena (Petey flapping back over onto his shoulder in the process), and cast another summoning spell.  Another earth elemental sprang up from the arena sands, this one not nearly as tall as the one Alewyth had called forth, but still much taller than the elf.  At Zander's command, the newcomer elemental sprang to the attack, striking the chain golem from behind with its boulderlike fists.Wakuren was getting the idea that having summoned creatures do their battling for them wasn't that bad of an idea, so while he approached the combatants, it was only to touch Alewyth's greater earth elemental and channel a bull's strength spell into it.  Xandro, likewise, cast a heroism spell on Zander's smaller earth elemental, while the dire tiger pressed on with his own attacks.  Alewyth cast a magic vestment spell upon herself and let the summoned creatures pummel the chain golem to pieces, finally causing it to lose cohesion and collapse to the arena floor as a loose pile of chains.  The combat finished, the spikes rose up from below and dragged the lengthy chain back inside the double doors while the floating disks blew the sand back into smooth, battle-ready formation.  The wheel started spinning again, and the drow announcer called out, "For the final battle: the iron golem juggernaut!"This, apparently, was a crowd favorite, for the members of the audience - almost all of them drow - yelled and screamed in delight.  There were frowns among the drow dignitaries up in the observation box, however; they apparently didn't like how these criminals were using summoned monsters to do their fighting for them.  One of them raised a ring to his face and spoke a few words into it, and the announcer, hearing his commands, told the crowd. "And by special order, this final battle against the seven criminal visitors will take place in absolute darkness!"The crowd erupted in laughter and applause as the lights shut out in the arena, plunging it into absolute, pitch-black darkness.  Of course, Wakuren and Alewyth could still see just fine - as could all of the drow - but the others saw nothing.  They could hear the creak of the double doors on the other side of the arena opening, and they could feel the thunderous footfalls as the iron golem juggernaut took its place upon the arena sands.Thurloe couldn't see a thing, but he cast another protective spell upon himself, just to be as safe as absolutely possible: he obviously couldn't observe the results himself, but to anyone looking at him, he suddenly seemed to teleport a foot or so to his left as the displacement spell kicked in.  Zander touched a hand to his scout's headband and activated enough of its daily energy to imbue him with darkvision; he immediately got a good sight of the construct before him and almost wished he'd not have glimpsed their next foe, for it was a frightening thing indeed!  Standing a good 20 feet tall, it wore what looked to be plate mail armor and wielded a sword easily twice as long as the elf was tall; Zander didn't doubt for a moment that a single swipe from that sword would be able to cut him in half like an apple.  And enough time had passed since the casting of their summoning spells that Alewyth's and his elementals had all returned to their home planes.  Zander ducked back behind the pillar, out of sight of the juggernaut, but Petey flew sideways to the outer edge of the arena, keeping an eye on the massive foe for his master.Trying to recall what spells iron golems were immune to, Wakuren cast a chain lightning spell at it.  It jerked in place for a moment, and then continued its advance; the half-orc couldn't be sure, but he thought it was moving a bit slower than it had been a moment before.Xandro, having had enough of not being able to see what all was happening around him, cast a light spell on the hilt of his rapier.  That was better!  The dire tiger, eager for more battle, charged the iron juggernaut, but its greater reach allowed it to swipe its huge sword down upon the tiger's back, smashing it flat into the sands.  The tiger's slashing claws did minimal damage to the iron-plated juggernaut, it seemed.Alewyth decided to summon another earth elemental, although this time she could only manage one as big as Zander had summoned earlier, against the chain golem.  It sprang up and attacked the iron juggernaut, and while possibly due to a feeling of superiority, the iron juggernaut didn't refuse to fight the summoned creature back as the others had done; rather, it plowed its sword into the elemental's shoulder, leaving a deep gash in the solid rock making up its form.  Apparently the iron juggernaut thought summoned creatures were merely temporary obstacles that could be easily smashed down with enough power behind its blows.Robin continued playing her song of inspirational courage, her lute-playing experience allowing her to do so without looking at the strings in the minimal light coming from Xandro's rapier.  Then Thurloe added a bit more illumination when he cast a light spell upon his longbow as he pulled it from his back and set it ready to fire.  He made sure he was well behind the pillar and out of the iron juggernaut's view while he did so, however.Zander cast another widened haste spell upon all but himself, Robin, and Beetle - the other spell had worn off and the others were too far away to get those in the back as well.  Wakuren cast a summoning spell of his own, bringing forth a celestial brown bear into the arena, directly behind the iron juggernaut.  It roared, reared up on its hind legs, and brought a paw full of sharp claws scratching across the plate armor of the construct's back.  Figuring, "What the heck, why not?" Xandro summoned his dire elk, having it form on the other side of the juggernaut's back, across from the celestial bruin.  The elk swiped at the construct's back with its wide, sharp antlers, but it was difficult to see whether it actually did the juggernaut any harm.  Likewise, the dire tiger did its best with its teeth and claws, but against so heavily armored a foe, its best wasn't all that much.Alewyth activated her butterfly brooch with a touch and fluttered up into the air, while below her, the earth elemental continued with its powerful punches.  But the iron juggernaut gave back as well as it took, each metal fist or curved sword blade carving off another piece of the rocky humanoid figure.Thurloe peeked around his pillar, saw that the juggernaut's full attention seemed to be on the earth elemental before it, and cast a dimension door that sent him directly behind the construct, the celestial bruin, and the dire elk.  He'd been planning on firing arrows at it from a distance, but he felt safe enough back here with the two summoned creatures that he put his longbow away and pulled out his bastard sword.  It was a pity that the two spells he'd already channeled into it, the previous day, weren't particularly geared towards constructs (vampiric touch only worked against living beings, and he had a feeling the bestow curse was likewise something a golem would be able to ignore), but the blade itself could like deal some hefty damage....Zander cast a wall of force spell, but fortunately, while doing so he caught sight of Thurloe behind the juggernaut preparing to strike it with his bastard sword.  As a result, he had the wall of force cover the distance between the two pillars behind the juggernaut, but left a 5-foot opening at the bottom where the spellsword would still be able to get his blade in.  But that also meant Thurloe was even further protected from the iron juggernaut than he had been before.Wakuren cast a mass cure light wounds spell, mostly worried about Xandro's dire tiger, but a few of the heroes had taken a wound or two from their previous battles.  The celestial bear continued with its attacks, as did the dire tiger and dire elk, although they were merely whittling it down little by little.  Up in the air, Alewyth cast a new spell on herself - iron body - and then found out it made her too heavy for her butterfly wings to support; she came crashing down to the arena sands in no time, and dismissed the wings with another touch of her brooch.  The earth elemental struck twice at the iron juggernaut in rapid succession, sending loud clanging noises reverberating across the arena as the juggernaut's head was actually forced sideways from the force of the blows.But that allowed it to spot Thurloe standing there behind it.  Recognizing the spellsword as one of the criminals sentenced to the arena, it attacked his with its massive sword - only to have the iron blade smash against the wall of force Zander had constructed in its path.  Thurloe, recognizing the elf's handiwork, went for a sideways swing of his blade, passing it underneath the gap in the invisible barrier, the strength of his swing boosted by a charge of his torc of the titans.  The two spells stored in his blade activated upon contact with the spellsword's foe, but as he had anticipated, but were useless against a golem."Well, let's invite more to the party!" said Zander, casting another spell and summoning forth a second earth elemental.  It stood to the front and right of the iron golem's original facing, currently behind the construct as it tried attacking Thurloe.  It got in a good hit with a massive, stonelike fist.  Wakuren, in the meantime, crept up behind the dire tiger, touched a hand to its flank, and channeled a cure moderate wounds spell on the great cat.  Of the lot of them, it had suffered the most from combat wounds, and while it spent most of its "life" in statuette form, once activated it was as alive as any other jungle cat; the half-orc couldn't help but feel sorry for the pain it had taken on their behalf.  His actions caused more than one drow in the audience to frown in puzzlement, as this wasn't the action of a crazed, blood-thirsty orc!The dire elk, dire tiger, and celestial brown bear all pressed on with their attacks, the two earth elementals doing likewise.  Alewyth managed to squeeze in between the summoned allies enough to swing Sjondra into the iron juggernaut's armored knee.  But that opened her up to a full-on attack from the construct, who seemed eager to be able to cause harm to a criminal sentenced to fight for her life in the combat arena.  But Thurloe continued with his attacks with his bastard sword from the safety of the wall of force, and when Zander summoned forth yet another earth elemental, they finally managed to overcome the golem and pummel its armor out of shape.  It fell to the arena sands and stopped moving, but the elementals continued smashing their rocky fists at it until their duration on the Material Plane expired.  At that point, the spikes rose up again and dragged the damaged iron golem and its sword back behind the double doors, no doubt to be repaired for future arena combat.The drow announcer returned to her post and declared the seven criminals cleared in the eyes of Thunderwolf, the God of the Arena.  The double doors on the far side of the arena opened up, and out stepped Corlizar, distributing metal disks to the seven visitors.  "You are free to go," he said.  "But remember about keeping these on hand with you at all times - they're your proof that you've paid for your crimes."  He led them out of the arena and back up to the surface of the city - where they still had to register their dinosaur mounts, as Beetle had expected."You said there are armorers here in the city, and those who can cast spells and create magic armor and weapons?" Wakuren asked Beetle.  The ranged said that was true.  "Then I think I'm going to buy a magic gauntlet for my left hand," the half-orc declared.  "I'd like to be able to do some decent damage against golems in the future - those guys sure are tough!" - - -This was a simple little adventure, basically me pitting the PCs against a series of constructs appropriate to their level, using an Arena map from my Paizo Flip-Mat collection.  The fact that they were all constructs was for two main reasons: I hadn't been able to justify using constructs in the "dinosaur" half of Talonia, but more importantly, "Machina" rhymed with "Arena" and I'm a sucker for a good (bad) pun. - - -T-shirt worn: My "Iron Man 2" T-shirt, as Iron Man and War Machine make fairly good stand-ins for mechanical constructs of the type the PCs ended up facing in the arena.</blockquote>

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