XIX. The Jarl's Tournament: Round 1
General Summary
Dev returned from he and Valoryn's excursion and told the rest of the party what happened—that Valoryn had disappeared after pulling a lever in the Jarl’s chambers. Lady Kohinoor was brought to nervous tears at the thought of another party member dying. Baui painted a red lotus on the wall with the Marvelous Pigments they had found. The lotus materialized, floating gently down into his hand, and he gifted it to Lady Kohinoor to comfort her. The group discussed possible avenues to try and save Valoryn, but couldn’t think of any that wouldn’t result in more possible death. Instead, they attempted to get a good night’s rest in before the tournament the next morning. In the middle of the night, they were awoken to screaming coming from below them. Discovering a trap door hastily hidden beneath a rug in their room, the party opened it and saw two prisoners being kept in a room below: a half-elven man and a Storm Giant woman. The group descended into the room and freed Regen Wakerock, a nobleman and diplomat from the Iron Islands, and Ordate Zofia Holvft, his employer. The two had been taken prisoner when the previous Jarl was overthrown. The party told Regen of their plan to expose the new Jarl in front of the crowd the next day at the tournament, and he decided to join them since Valoryn’s disappearance had left their team a head short. The arrangement solidified, the party took the rest of their long rest. The next morning, Achilla and the Shields entered the first bout of the Jarl’s Tournament, where they faced off against the Thirteen Heads. The party won a sound victory to the absolute delight of the crowd watching as Achilla and Baui eviscerated the Ettins and Oni that dared challenge them. The group took a short rest as they waited for the second match of the first round to finish, though they only needed to wait a few moments—the last thing they heard was the sound of dragons completely destroying the group of frogmen that went out to face them.
