KWN.3.3 The Tournament Begins

Session Preface

Even with all sixty-four members of the sixteen teams gathered, this elaborate waiting area is still only about half-full. The summation of dozens of conversations overlapping and the muted footfalls of the crowds climbing to their seats overhead bounces around the room, dampened only by the rich blue-and-green banners featuring the sigil of the Coliseum's outline. Along the walls hang a series of plaques, some inscribed telling of recent events, others still empty for future deeds. Throughout the room, luxurious chairs of imported velvet clustered in small groups provide a comfortable reprieve, while a self-serve bar at the opposite end of the hall features a number of ales on tap. Many of the competitors, locals by the looks of them, gather around the bar, chatting amongst themselves candidly. Other individuals stretch or check their gear, tightening straps, adjusting the fletching of an arrow, reading an old, worn tome, flipping a dagger from hand to hand anxiously. Others seem at ease, lost in their own internal preparations. Others still, pressed against the nearest walls, watch and measure the rest of the competition with focused gaze.
The thick wooden door through which you entered swings open and is just as quickly shut with a definitive thud. Standing before it is a drow woman dressed in a fitting, ornate green dress, her elven ears protruding from beneath long, curling elegant silver-white hair that falls to her shoulders. She carries with her a large crate that jingles and clanks as she approaches. She stops, clears her throat and looks on expectantly. The chatting contestants quickly fall silent, gathering in a semi-circle around the drow.
"I am Irisien and I will be your collective handler for the Champion's League. The qualifying round will soon commence. Each team should now step forward and receive your requisite equipment for this event. You will not open the bag until instructed. Take your final moments to prepare, then a gate that will appear behind you. Enter the arena and await further instructions from Grandmaster Zoar."

Session Summary

As the contestants make their way through the gated archway that magically appears, they find themselves in the center of the arena filled with thousands of attendees. The arena itself is sparse, entirely flat and barren ground. Overhead, a magical projection of the individual who introduced himself as Grandmaster Zoar the night before towers above them.
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it is my distinct honor to welcome you to the seeding round of the inaugural Champion's League! Today our sixteen teams will compete in a race to secure their place in the rest of the tournament on their way to glory and the privilege of holding high the Champion's Cup! Represented in the arena before you we have potential champions of several communities, several beloved establishments here within Everlund, multiple faiths, and factions all vying for the reputation and honor that comes with victory here in these hallowed halls! We'll save the introductions of each team for their first round bouts, because we don't want to keep you waiting any longer! You and our contestants alike are surely wondering what this qualifying round will entail. As you can see, each carries with them a satchel. At this time, contestants, please reveal your requisite equipment for this event! We firmly believe that a team is only as strong as their weakest link and today, we're going to find out just who that is for each of these competitors as they race through four challenges. Now, if our Arena Arcanists will prepare the stage, we're just about ready for the adventures to begin!"

The Seeding Round

As the party opens their satchel, they discover four interconnected ankle cuffs that magically adjust to their sizes.and clasp shut. The featureless arena pit before them drastically changes form as the ground beneath them rises and falls into dramatic shifting sands of a desert. The space seemingly growing in size, the party can just make out a dense jungle on the edge of the biome.
As the gate disappears, you find yourselves standing atop a dune with rolling hills of sand extending before you. The wind picks up, grains of sand stinging your exposed skin and aggravating your vision. Taking in your surroundings, you see what appears to be greenery and rushing water in several directions along the edge of the desert, though you hesitate for a moment, unsure which, if any, of these might not be what they appear.
The Grandmaster announces the start and all sixteen teams take off in several directions, some looking for higher ground, some charging straight ahead, and others moving towards what looks to be a source of water to follow. Crossing over several dunes, the party keenly observes as others begin to diverge in different directions, but note the team of wood elves moving steadily forward, winding back and forth eventually towards the jungle's edge. After an exhausting leg of the trek, the companions slide down a dune only to find themselves caught in sinking quicksand, along with another team. After managing to pull themselves free, they slow down just long enough to aid the mercenaries in freeing themselves and then proceed onward, reaching the end of the desert.
Your feet settle finally on firm ground, leaving behind the ever-shifting sands of the desert. Before you, impossibly tall trees rise overhead. The ground is covered in a dense thicket of fallen trees, bushes, and undergrowth through which it seems one party has already started hacking their way through, leaving a path of broken branches. Along one of the nearby trunks, a tangled series of vines rise into the canopy, where you can just make out a path of branches and vines that could be easier to navigate.
As other teams charge forward on foot, the party elects to climb into the canopy overhead and push forward. Saving time not having to cut their way through the dense undergrowth, the companions seem to improve their standings as they leap from branch to branch in the dense network of vines and limbs. Eventually, they come to a gap too wide to cross on their own and see a vine hanging in the gap they need to clear. As the discuss the chances of being able to catch the vine and have it support them all chained together, a menacing laugh from below disrupts them. Arcurth draws his axe and with a few thunderous strikes, chops into the trunk of the three supporting them before charging on with his own team. Aethuriel organizes the companion's efforts as they collectively shift their weights to push the falling tree in their intended direction. Each of them leaps off just in time as the tree slides further and eventually crashes to the ground, but they are safe to proceed, having cleared the gap, but now falling behind the other teams.
Pushing through the tree line, you finally find yourselves once again in a clearing having passed through the overbearing thicket of dense jungles. Ahead of you, the ground slopes downward to a wide riverbed. The river surges, spraying foam of white as it washes over jagged rocks and scattered trees fallen from the previous area. Given the size of the arena, the river feels impossibly wide, too far to leap across, you’ll need to find another way over or through.
The party quickly begins coordinating their efforts to leap from rock to rock despite the too-short lengths of their chains and make it about halfway across the river's width before they notice Evening Light Through Clouds upriver from them casting a spell that sends a white-foamed wave rushing towards them and washing them off the rocks. Caught up in the waves, the party manages to move from rock to rock dragging themselves against the currents eventually towards the shore, but now further waylaid by their competition.
On the other side of the roaring river, you push on with all remaining strength through a valley until the land suddenly turns to hardened, loose stone. Before you rises a menacing, jagged, near vertical mountain face. At the summit, you see your destination - the blue and green flag depicting the Champion’s Cut as smoke slowly curls from somewhere behind it. This final climb will determine your placing - and your competition continues to make progress behind you.
As the party approaches the jagged, vertical cliffside, they observe at least one team already near the pinnacle and several others climbing ahead of them, notably the Blood Hunters and the High Elves, as well as some of the Zhentarim, and priests of Tempus. With the first sturdy handholds out of reach for the Knights, Masterbreaker puts her teammates on her back and leaps into the air, grasping the wall at the full extension of her reach, immediately placing her team back into contention for one of the top four seeds. During this time, the Blood Hunters and Knights begin exchanging spells, with Pax eventually getting the upperhand and casting a magical darkness around the Mutants, preventing them from finding their positioning along the wall. As shouts of frustration come from the shrouded portion of the mountainside, the party push upward with their remaining strength, ultimately placing third behind the Tempus clerics and the High Elves.
Upon returning to the competitor's chambers, the once cordial environment now hangs heavy with competitive rivalry, even for some of the local teams who had been sharing drinks and cheers minutes before the race began. The Knights have a terse exchange with Gerron about who started their hindrances of one another, during which Pax gets his first good look at the young, blonde twins competing with the two veteran Mutants. Given their age, Pax determines they are either young prodigies who finished their rites early or Deviants, the abomination results of rites gone wrong.

The First Round

After several other rounds of combat unfolding in the arena, the Avengers find themselves up against The Stags at Bay, a group of hunters and regulars from the bar the Knights visited just the day before. As they enter the arena, they watch as alongside the illusion of Grandmaster Zoar, a massive spinning wheel appears in the air, spinning wildly through options for the environment in which they will battle to the yield, where it eventually lands on riverside. Immediately, the ground beneath the two teams shifts into a river and waterfall with treelines, cliffs, and only two bottleneck areas to cross the rushing waters.
As the bout commences, Pax quickly scrambles up on cliffside to give himself a better view, finding his first target and sending a pair of hexed arrows their direction. In kind, one of the hunters makes a quick mark of Pax, and fires an arrow and hitting the Blood Hunter, some magical element of the strike hindering him more than expected. Masterbreaker charges forth from the treelines, bringing her massive two-handed axe to bear against the first target she meets alongside the river. Unable to defend for his allies as he had grown used to in recent encounters, Tristain takes on a more supportive role, providing aid to his companions as they faced the opponents more directly. Finally, as one of the hunter's tried to flank behind the team, Aethuriel cut them off, using his elven heritage to teleport to a large stone in the midst of the river and cut off the flank. Between Pax's covering fire, Tristain's support, Aethuriel's positioning, and Masterbreaker's unfettered fury, the Stags at Bay quickly find themselves overwhelmed, outnumbered, and ultimately, defeated. With his back to the waterfall and caught between Aethuriel and Masterbreaker, the last standing competitor yields.
Overhead, Grandmaster Zoar congratulates the Avengers on their victory and the arena environment quickly dissipates as the arcanists begin preparations for the next battle, one that will determine who the Avengers face in the next round.

Session Overview

Date Played:
April 12, 2021
Party:

• Aethuriel
• Pax
• Tristain

Time Passed:
Eleint 3, 1493 (AM) - Eleint 3, 1493 (PM)
NPCs:

• Masterbreaker
• Grandmaster Zoar
• Irisien
• Gerron
• Arcurth
• Evening Light Through Clouds

Loot: