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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JollyDoc" data-source="post: 2742795" data-attributes="member: 9546">ROUND 2Giovanni sat in silence, staring at his hands and contemplating all that he had just heard.  He felt hollow inside.  He had arrived in Waterdeep thinking that he was worldly, that he had seen fantastic things and places.  Now he realized just how naïve he had been…and selfish.  He had been motivated by monetary gain…greed, to enter this tournament.  But these people…the things that they had been through, and were still going through.  He had heard the word ‘hero’ thrown about lightly all his life, but he had never understood the true meaning of the word until now.“So what do you think?” Vladius asked.  “Are you with us, or are we gonna have to kill you?”Giovanni looked up and smiled faintly.  To think, just a few hours ago he had thought the man an arrogant, pompous ass.  Now he knew for a fact that he was an arrogant, pompous ass…but his heart was in the right place.“I’m with you, if you’ll have me,” he said simply.“It’s settled then,” Dwilt said, offering his hand, which Giovanni gripped eagerly, “You’re one of us.  Welcome to the League.””I’ll brand you with our tattoo later,” Vladius smirked.“What’s our next move, leader man?” Shay said to Dwilt from a shadow-shrouded corner.“I overheard some of the other teams talking last night,” Dwilt replied.  “There’s a rumor about Brokengulf beating back a pack of ghouls years ago that used to lair in some old underground ruins south of this room called the Titan’s House.  They say he plugged the entrance to their warren with a stone seal in a pool there, but no one has ever tried to open it to verify this.  I suggest we start there.”_________________________________________________Later that night, after the other teams had retired, the eight companions slipped from their quarters, and out of the coenoby.  A long, natural tunnel led to a huge cave which resembled the coenoby, but was in a state of century-old abandonment.  It looked as if a surface structure once stood there, a cluster of stone houses that were buried under a million tons of rubble long ago.  Within the labyrinth of ceiling-high sections of ruined walls, the only remarkable feature was the idol that gave the cave its name, a ten-foot high, alabaster statue of a powerful giant armed with a mattock.  The cave floor sloped down to the south where a ten-foot deep pool of water was located.  A large stone plug was visible near the bottom at the eastern end.  Dwilt ordered his team to spread out around the vast chamber and look for anything which might appear out of the ordinary, as if it might not belong there.  Grim took it upon himself to wade into the pool, his stony flesh carrying him straight to the bottom like an anchor.  His dwarven sense of stone-cunning told him that there was nothing natural about the plug, and that it hadn’t been there for very long…certainly no more than ten years.  He also noted that it wasn’t going to be an easy task to remove it.  An hour or so passed as the group searched the Titan’s House from top to bottom, and came up with nothing.  “This is a dead-end, unless we want to work on dislodging that plug,” Dwilt said in resignation.“That won’t be happening without a crane and hoist, or without a lot of noise and pounding,” Grimm observed.“Maybe this is too obvious,” Giovanni said, almost to himself.  “It would be a convenient coincidence for us to ‘overhear’ a tale of Brokengulf plugging up some secret tunnel.  Maybe, since he obviously knows who you are, and probably why you’re here in the first place, it was a ploy to throw you off track.”Dwilt thought for a moment, “Well, it’s certain we’re not going any further down here tonight,” he said.  “What harm can it do to check out some place less conspicious?  I say we make a trip upstairs.”They retraced their steps back to the coenoby, and then down another tunnel on the opposite side, which emerged into a wide, ring-like corridor that was a mirror image to the main corridor in the level above.  Like that corridor, there were spiral staircases spaced at intervals along the hall, but they were blocked by locked iron gates.  “What do you think?” Dwilt asked Shay as he examined one of the locks.“Child’s play,” the rogue responded in a distracted voice.  Reaching into a pocket of his cloak, he produced a set of elaborate-looking lock picks, and set to work.  Within a matter of seconds, the hasp clicked open, and Shay stepped back with a bow and a flourish.  Grim stepped forward, and pulled back the gate.  It opened with an alarmingly loud shriek of rusted metal.  “Damn it!” Dwilt cursed, looking quickly around for any signs that the wardens had been alerted.  “There’s no help for it,” Shay said.  “This is probably the first time it’s been opened in decades.”Quickly, the company slipped up the stairs, only to find the top similarly blocked.  Shay made even faster work of the second lock, and the group held their collective breath as Grim tried to open the gate as quietly as possible.  It was no use, and this time as the squeal of metal on metal faded, they heard voices in the distance.  “Did you hear that?”  “Come on!”  Shortly, they heard booted feet approaching.“Gather round me, quickly!” Storm hissed as she stepped into the hallway.  The others obeyed without hesitation, trusting their team mate, thought they had no idea what she had planned.  The drow mage began muttering under her breath, moving her fingers in complex gestures.  With a final word, each member of the team saw all the others wink out of sight.  “There,” Storm whispered.  “We are hidden from view, but you must all stay near to me.  Each of you reach out and grab one another.  We must move together.”“Not good enough,” Giovanni’s voice said.  “They might still bump into us, or hear us move.  Stay here.”  Not waiting for approval, Giovanni called upon his innate magic to first render himself invisible by his own power, and then to briefly step between dimensions to travel several yards down the corridor, opposite the hall from where the wardens were approaching.  As the four guards appeared in the main passage, the warlock stamped his boots loudly on the stone, and then began running away from the rest of his group.  “That way!” the wardens shouted, and started after the sound of running feet.  Giovanni waited until he had led them far enough from his friends, and then silently stepped between dimensions again, rejoining the group.  “That takes care of that,” he laughed quietly.  “Not bad…” he heard Vladius say.  “You might just prove better than useless after all.”Stealthily, the group moved down the hall from which the wardens had originally come, passing first through a mess hall, and then a guard room.  Beyond this, they entered a second, smaller circular passageway which had three other corridors branching off of it from each compass point.  The western passage led to some sort of workshop.  From the one to the north came the growl of a large feline and several porcine grunts.  Six identical cells opened off the hall, each closed by a metal gate.  To the south, two smaller passages branched off the main hall, but there were also three padlocked doors of iron-reinforced wood, each with a small barred window set into it.  It was here that the group chose to investigate first.Peering into the first two doors, Shay saw what appeared to be empty cells.  Behind the third, however, he saw a figure curled in a corner on the far side.  He whispered to his companions what he had found.  “I’ll go,” Giovanni volunteered, and once more he dimension doored, this time appearing inside the cell, next to the prisoner.  He could see that the bearded figure was human, but couldn’t tell if he was dead or alive.  Cautiously, he nudged the man with the toe of his boot.  Instantly, the man jerked up right, staring around wild-eyed and terrified.  It was at this point that the warlock realized he was still invisible, and for all the prisoner knew, he had just been touched by a ghost.  Giovanni quickly reappeared outside the door.  “He’s alive,” he reported, “but I’m afraid I’ve probably scared him senseless.”“Take me in,” Dwilt said.“You’ll be visible,” Storm reminded him.“I know,” the civilar replied, “but we need information, and he certainly won’t trust me if he can’t see me.”Giovanni grasped Dwilt’s arm and transported the two of them back into the cell.  The prisoner’s eyes widened even further as he saw the armored form of the civilar simply appear before him.“Peace,” Dwilt said, holding up his empty hands to show he was unarmed.  “My name is Dwilt Riddick.  I mean you no harm.”  The man stared blankly at him, uncomprehending.  “Do you understand me?” Dwilt said, squatting down to bring himself to eye level with the prisoner.  The man stared at him another moment, then slapped his hand against his ears.  Dwilt understood.  He was deaf.  The civilar took one finger and began writing in the heavy dust on the floor.  ‘Dwilt,’ he wrote first, and then pointed at himself.  ‘Help you,’ he wrote next.  The prisoner looked at the writing, and then at Dwilt, a faint glimmer of hope in his eyes.  He pointed to his mouth, and shook his head.  Mute as well, Dwilt sighed silently.  Then the man began drawing in the dust himself.  As Dwilt watched, he made several squiggly lines, side by side, and then leaped to his feet, and ran to the cell door, sticking his hand between the bars and pointing towards the cell across the hall.  Dwilt stared at the lines for a moment.  Then, horror filled comprehension dawned on him.  Worms.  The man had drawn worms on the cell floor.  He stood up quickly and strode to the door.  “Open it,” he said.  He heard, but could not see Shay open the lock and swing open the door.  “Havok,” Dwilt said.  “Let him see you, and then take him back to the coenoby.  We’ll meet you there.”  Giovanni willed himself back into the visible spectrum, and the prisoner recoiled reflexively.  Quickly, Dwilt knelt to the floor again.  ‘Safe,’ he wrote, and pointed to the warlock.  The man nodded cautiously.  Giovanni stepped to him, took his hand, and vanished.The others retraced their steps quickly and as quietly as possible back downstairs and to the coenoby.  They found Giovanni and the frightened prisoner safely in their quarters.“Grubber,” Dwilt said, turning to the goliath, “can you do anything for him?”“Possibly,” the priest rumbled.  Holding up his hands to show he meant no harm, he approached the man and laid his hands gently on both of his ears.  Chanting in a voice that sounded like the grinding of stones, he prayed to Grumbar.  When he was done, he removed his hands.  “Can you hear me?” he asked the prisoner.  “Can you tell me about the worms?” he asked.  At that, the man covered his face, and flung himself to the floor, curling into a ball.  Grubber knelt next to him for a moment, studying him closely, and then stood.  “I’m afraid being deaf and mute is the least of his problems,” he sighed.  “He’s also insane.”_________________________________________  Grubber realized that the prisoner’s mental affliction was beyond his ability to mend, but he knew of a spell that might work.  The next morning, as the servants came in to the coenoby to serve breakfast, he sent word to Ekaym thru a runner, requesting that the merchant purchase a scroll bearing the spell from one of the local churches.Once again, the other teams were gathered around the postings for the day’s matches.  The first competition was to be between Auric’s Warband and Drunken Devilry.  Impotent Rage would compete in the second match against the dwarves of Pitch Blade, and the final match would be Crazy Eight versus the Varmint Patrol.  As soon as the members of Pitchblade read the bracket, the three brothers glared murderously at their opponents, and as the morning wore on, they made a show of whetting their blades, and decorating their faces with war paint.When the first match ended, Auric and Khellek were once more victorious, returning to the coenoby with a swagger and a smirk for the four remaining teams.  “Pitch Blade!  Impotent Rage!” called the warden, and the two teams moved to follow him.  At this point, the dwarves, Drusfan, Pharbol and Garlok by name, began shouting loudly at the members of Impotent Rage in dwarvish, and making obscene gestures.  “What are they saying?” Vladius asked Grim.“Oh…just something about your mother…and a donkey…and the garrison,” the mineral warrior replied.  “Don’t take it personally.”As Pitch Blade stepped onto the elevator, each dwarf began uncorking flasks and upending them, tossing the empty bottles back down at their rivals.  When the lift returned, Vladius immediately cast an incantation around Shay, and the shadow walker faded from view.  Havok also rendered himself invisible.    Dwilt quaffed a potion of his own, and instantaneously grew to twice his normal size.  Vladius was again in the form of a mephit, as was his wont when he expected trouble.    As the team reached the level of the arena, the crowd was already in a frenzy.  Talabir Welik stepped to the podium in the front of Brokengulf’s box.  “My lords and ladies, welcome to the second match in the quarter-final round of the Champion’s Games!  First I present to you, straight from the Storm Horn Mountains, the savage swordplay of Pitch Blade!”  The arena rumbled with the stamping of feet and roar of approval.  Talabir waited for the crowd to settle, and then resumed, “Their opponents, our local yokels-made-good from Daggerford, the caged fury that is Impotent Rage!”  This time the crowd surged to their feet, the thunderous accolades deafening.  Apparently, the underdog team had made quite the impression the previous day.  “On my mark...,” Talabir raised his hand, and then brought it down in a chopping motion, “Fight!”In a flash, the three dwarves pushed themselves off from the wall behind them, and, to the amazement of the gathered spectators, took flight, drawing their bastardswords as they closed, their blades igniting in flames.  “Uh-oh,” Vladius muttered, as he hovered over Dwilt’s shoulder, “they might be smarter than they look…which isn’t saying much.  Hang on for a second, and I’ll put you on even ground.”  As the wizard began weaving his magic, Dwilt felt his feet leave the ground, the power of flight responding to his will.  Just as Pharbol passed above his head, the giant civilar leaped leapt into the air, wrapping his chain around the dwarf’s weapon, and jerking it out of his hands to land in the dust at Grubber’s feet.  The dwarf’s eyes widened in disbelief, and then widened further in pain as a black-fletched arrow from Shay’s unseen bow lodged in his belly just beneath his breastplate.  Garlok flew over Grubber’s head, but as he passed, the priest flung out his hand, rumbling a prayer as he did so.  Garlok suddenly felt himself drifting towards the ground, the magical flight that his potion had given him abruptly dispelled.  Just as Grubber finished his incantation, he saw Pharbol diving towards him.  The goliath just had time to bring his maul up and club the raging dwarf as he landed.  While Dwilt was occupied with Pharbol, Drusfan used the opportunity to bypass the giant warrior, and charge straight towards the now unprotected Vladius.  However, so focused on his tiny prey was he that he failed to see Hawk rushing to intercept him at the end-point of his charge.  As the dwarf prepared to strike, the civilar smashed the flat of his sword against his skull.  Simultaneously, a burst of electricity from the blade jolted the barbarian, leaving him momentarily stunned and twitching.  Moving as quickly as his rocky form would allow, Grim closed to his incapacitated kinsman and slashed at him with his axe, leaving a gaping wound in the flesh of his thigh.Although now grounded, Garlok was no less determined to reach his foes.  Screaming in incoherent fury, he lunged towards Hawk, and the civilar tried to pivot and bring his shield to bear, but the sheer fury and power of the dwarf’s charge all but bowled him over.  Garlok hacked at him, his flaming blade slicing into Hawk’s sword arm.  Though the steel burned like fire, the flames of the blade did no harm themselves to the celestial-tainted skin of the aasimar.  Pharbol snarled, ignoring the pain of the arrow protruding from his gut, and dove for the ground, sweeping up his blade as he did so,  However, as he attempted to regain altitude, Dwilt’s chain entangled his feet, dropping him to the arena floor in a heap.  With an almost casual flick of his wrist, Dwilt then snapped the opposite end of his chain at the dwarf’s sword once more, again tearing it from Pharbol’s grasp.  Howling in rage, the barbarian rolled and scrabbled for the weapon, but before he could reach it, Grubber stamped one massive foot down upon it, and then cuffed the dwarf with the butt-end of his mallet, just as Dwilt’s chain lashed across the dwarf’s forehead, spilling blood into his eyes and temporarily blinding him.  Drusfan still stood rigid and immobile.  The magic of Hawk’s blade had left him all but helpless, a fact which Vladius was more than happy to take advantage of.  Taking careful aim with one finger at the dwarf, from barely five feet away, the mephit mage blasted a volley of streaking magical missiles into the barbarian’s face.  As if by magic themselves, two of Shay’s arrows materialized between Drusfan's shoulder blades.  A gurgling grunt of pain was all the dwarf could manage.As Garlok raised his sword to strike at Hawk again, the paladin brought the edge of his shield up directly beneath the dwarf’s chin.  Garlok’s head rocked back, throwing him off balance, and Hawk followed through, smashing the pommel of his own blade into the dwarf’s skull.  Another blast of energy surged from the sword, and Garlok’s eyes glazed over, just like his brother’s.  Suddenly, a corona of eldritch light flared around the stunned dwarf, and he sagged to his knees as Havok materialized behind him, his hands glowing with power.“All together now!” Vladius shouted to Grim as the mineral warrior raised his axe to finish Drusfan once-and-for-all.  As the blade fell, another barrage of missiles from Pyro nearly exploded the dwarf’s head, and he collapsed without a sound.  Pharbol bit at Grubber’s feet, still struggling to rearm his weapon.  Just then, a beam of green energy struck the dwarf, and he felt his strength leave him.  He struggled to stand, looking in confusion at the elf woman who had appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.  Before he had a chance to register more than this, the breath was driven from him as Grubber drove the head of his hammer into his midsection.  As he doubled over, the damnable chain of the civilar behind him entangled his feet again, and he toppled to the ground.  Fortunately, he landed right beside his sword this time, and the oaf of a goliath was no longer standing on it.  Grabbing it triumphantly, he rolled to his stomach, intending to slice Grubber across both Achilles tendons, but three rapid slaps from the free end of Dwilt’s chain demanded his more immediate attention.  As he rolled again to ward off the giant warrior behind him, Grubber’s hammer dropped one final time on the base of his skull, snapping his neck like tinder.Only Garlok remained, but in his stunned state he was far from a viable threat.  Hawk intended to subdue him into unconsciousness, thereby ending the match without further bloodshed, but his teammates seemed unwilling to show even that small bit of mercy.  In a flurry of axe blows, eldritch blasts, magic missiles, and hurled electrical orbs, the dwarf’s days as a gladiator were ended.___________________________________________________The applause and screams of the spectators seemed to threaten the very foundation of the Field of Triumph as they roared the name of their victors:  “Impotent…Rage!  Impotent…Rage!”  Only one face among them showed no sign of elation or joy…Prendergast Brokengulf.</blockquote>

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