Urbs Magna II: By Sword and Spear Report

The party moved into an area with three giant centipedes. The Eknoi mage, Teleptyon Marathonos summoned the natural predator of the centipede, the shrew, but his command of the Ar was not advanced enough to summon a "giant" shrew, and thus, the natural power dynamic between the two species was dramatically inverted. The party saw the effect of the centipede's poison as the shrew was bitten and began to writhe in agony before it was paralyzed. Alexandru managed to kill the first centipede and Kegho killed the other, with the third scurrying into the darkness. Pitying the suffering shrew, Teleptyon cast a cantrip to end the shrew's misery.

Finding a wooden door, Alex placed his ear to it and heard what appeared to be the sound of moving air beyond it. After Kegho kicked the door open, they made their way up the stairs and out of the caverns to be greeted by the mysterious cloaked figures who led them down there in the first place. Having successfully passed the trial, the adventurers were somewhat forcefully inducted into a secret brotherhood of gladiators--The Order of the Gladius-- a group ostensibly formed to advocate for the interests of the arena fighters, but was actually tasked with protecting the city of Eknopolis from the strange beings living in the caverns underneath. As a sign of their membership, the party was branded on their left wrists with the symbol of a sword encircled. They were then introduced to Rukh the leader, Sefu the Beastmaster, and Priscianus the green second in command. They were then led to their new cells, now much more comfortable than their original imprisonment and told that their training would begin the next day at dawn.

As they huddled in their cell, awaiting the day's fatigue to drag them into dreamless sleep, Kegho shared a secret that he had kept for months with his companions. Fearing that he may eventually meet his end in the arena, Kegho told Alex and Theo to shout for "Ükhilflin" if the need arrives, this being his dog's true name.

The party’s training went smoothly. They were trained to kill with flash instead of with a soldier's efficiency. The party quickly absorbed the techniques demonstrated by Rukh, except for Teleptyon who was tagged by Rukh as the mostly likely to die first in the arena.

After a week's training, the party was thrown into the arena to participate in 'Bira's Games,' or the pitting of lightly armed gladiators against wild beasts. As the party was raised into the arena from the hypogeum, Kegho shouted the name of his dog in, perhaps, a vain attempt at divine assistance. However, Ükhilflin seemed to not respond to his entreaty. With trepidation, the four adventurers huddled in the center of the arena to await the ferocious beasts that would be released. The arena's eastern gate opened and two large wolves ran out onto the sands. They were faster and stronger than expected, having been trained by Sefu for a good show. Shortly after the four engaged in melee with the two hungry wolves, the arena's western gate opened and two more wolves were unleashed on the party! The Vagabundi were largely ineffectual and Alex took the brunt of the damage, being nearly unmanned from a gruesome injury to his groin delivered by the vicious bite of a wolf. Finally, the southern gate was opened and two more wolves ran out, but one of them looked familiar. Ükhilflin, whom the rest of the party knew as 'Miniho,' had been captured and was sent in to fight the party! Kegho was delighted to see his faithful companion return to him in his time of need, taking it as a sign of favor from his Gods of the Steppelands. Entering into a primal rage, he and Ükhilflin began to systematically slay the wolves. This gave Theo the time to apply first aid to the 'dolorous blow' suffered by Alex, staunching the bleeding at his groin by firmly pressing the dirt of the arena floor against the bite.

When all of the wolves had fallen to the adventurers' blades, the arena's Master of Ceremonies cried out, to the cheers of the blood-thirsty crowd, that “In order to win the match, all the wolves must die!” Meaning that Ükhilflin could not remain standing.

However, as usual, Alex had a plan.