Faraine Upset in Round of 32 By Angel; Free Clinic Given

DATELINE: Khazigur City, Maimonides Arena, Revels District; 21 Bretranel's Month: Despite unfavorable odds as low as 36:1 in early betting and closing at 8:1 at post time, Baron Council Lord Grims Angel of Volsin soundly defeated crowd favorite and heavily favored local hero Lord Fandian Faraine of Naugor.
Angel opened the match with heat metal delivered through a ring of spell storing, an effect he used with enormous success against the Bronze Battler in the round of 64. Though creative and controversial, the use of the ring is clearly within the bounds of the rules of the tournament, as long as nothing was exchanged during the contest itself. While the Battler evidently had no way to counter it, Faraine used a spell to negate the effect, but this cost him precious time that left him open to a devastating charge by Angel's summoned Triceratops, TriHard. While the local adults in attendance were generally rooting for Faraine, who lives within sight of Maimonides Arena in the northwest quarter of the Revels district, the children adore the lumbering, bellowing dinosaur and thrilled to see him crash into the green knight with a thunderclap of force as Faraine maintained his stance.
Faraine returned with two hard slashes of his Holy Avenger but neither connected, and he went down for the count soon after that under a hail of spells and smites from the Volsin-area lord. Though his victory was greeted mostly with boos and catcalls from the disappointed crowd , he extended a gauntlet of friendship and helped Faraine back to his feet. The two were seen drinking at the Wings of Gold, one of the popular noble-class-only inns of the Revels district. Before the celebration, however, Angel called out a challenge in the audience and proceeded to put on a clinic regarding hand to hand combat -- or in this case, metal gauntlet to face combat.
Those who had bet on Angel certainly weren't booing, as a 5 gold piece bet netted a comfortable 35 gold after commissions of 1 unit.
Grims has tied with two other newcomers who made it to the round of eight in their first Spring Tournament in the past 50 years of the event. The furthest that any new contestant has made it in the tournament since it began 400 years ago is the round of 8, which Angel will if he wins the next round. And even this is a significant accomplishment, as it has been nearly two hundred years since a newcomer made it to the round of 8 - that was Lord Aiden Artaud of Naugor, who lost that year to Duke Elic Blanco of Coldhorn, and evidently did not compete again in later years. Elic was the paterfamilias of the Blanco Line which still holds Duchal power in Naarod, and the current Duchess had been represented by her Champion, Cyprian Machach, who coincidentally also lost to Angel in an earlier match.
The tournament games go on hiatus for the next two days to give the remaining 16 participants time to rest and recover, or to squander their break on drink and revelry as the case sometimes is. Eight matches will be held in two-by-two sequence in the Lesser Colosseum arena A and arena B, shrinking the field down to 8 remaining battlers and the final four, to be held in the Greater Colosseum. This in turn decides the championship round, to be held in the Khazigur Hippodrome, which anticipates crowds in excess of 250,000.
A late addition to this article straight from the desk of Domestic Investigations Chief Taron Carver of the Varangian Guard reminds parents to be especially careful to keep their children close in the crowds, and to keep a wise eye to the risk of pickpockets and kidnappers. Parents of teens, and teens themselves, are strongly urged not to attend unlicensed revelries in the district or in other districts; tragically, the bodies of 32 teens and young adults were found in an abandoned stretch of the House Absolute undercroft where an unlicensed party had been imbibing mushroom-based hallucinogenics that turned out to be poisonous. Details of this tragedy are minimal but tell an all-too-familiar tale of young people going too far in their quest for quick fun at the expense of better judgement.
Names will not be released until all families have been notified and bodies identified. The Guard is interested in prosecution of any adults connected to this incident, but the organizers were identified among the dead. However if you have any direct knowledge of the incident, or if your child or children are missing, you are urged to contact your local V guard office immediately.