NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="seasong" data-source="post: 780544" data-attributes="member: 5137">I just can't write it succinctly. It's gonna take more text, and more posts, than I had expected. Oh well. We'll just start with Greppa <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />.Olympiad: Service DayAlthough there is bleed over into the other days of the official Olympiad (Theralis being as military-oriented as they are), the second day is the formal day for all military tournaments, athletics and shows.Stumbling out into the noonday daylight, Bellos, Greppa and Merideth stuck together more closely today, moving swiftly from event to event, and cheering each other on in those events they participated in. Then they went and watched the grappling contests, Bellos out of a manly love of watching butt-kicking going on, Greppa and Merideth for more prurient reasons.ConjuringArcanists typically run three major competitions. In a fit of insanity, Greppa decided to participate in all three...The first, of course, is a game fondly known as conjuring. A table is set up and both arcanists prepare themselves on either side. Using prestidigitation, they summon miniscule elementals and planar creatures, conjure tiny sandstorms, cause electrical crackles across the "landscape" of the table, and otherwise go to war with each other using only the most minor of extradimensional energies. More a game of concentration and creativity than power, the arcanists paired off with each other must attempt to take the other's "land" until one side or the other has gained at least three quarters of the table.As the rules are almost non-existent (other than that only the one spell is allowed), fights are typically won in a matter of minutes, as one side manages to get an edge early on and destroys the opposing armies and energies in a violent clash of tiny, marching creatures. Underdogs have come out on top often enough, however, to keep it interesting.Today seemed to be Greppa's day. In his first fight, he started with a veritable wavefront of barely visible flames, beating a path to victory for his inch-long fire serpents over his foe's unfortunately-chosen ice fortress and demi-infernal grublings. His opponent, smiling gently, simply remarked on the advantage a sun mage had over ice - at which laughter erupted, and Kyriotes, never caring about Greppa particularly, just said, "And so why did you use ice against a sun mage?"His second battle, too, went well, although not so easily. He opened again with a miniature firestorm, but only to hide the tiny motes of light preparing their siege of stinging sunbursts and beams of light. His opponent, better prepared for the fire with vicious, finger-length earth serpents and a wave of moisture to carry them, was caught by surprise by the lights, but nonetheless managed an impressive (and very nearly fatal) assault before the Greppa, sending his motes flying over the heads of the serpents, took just enough undefended land to win the table.His third round, however, he drew Kyriotes as his opponent, and Kyriotes calm concentration, level gaze, and immense experience in matters of summoning tactics, completely overwhelmed Greppa's forces with an immense, organized front of tiny creatures, an immense array of conjured elemental attacks, and erupting inch-high walls... all at the same time. Like all of Kyriotes' opponents, Greppa retired from the competition in under a minute, to watch the remainder of the battles, and to play variants with other arcanists (including "hop", in which the attempt is to force the opponent's summonings to move to one corner of the table - kind of a conjuring sumo).</blockquote>

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