The new solar year began at about the beginning of this lunar year. At about the same time, Gan ad-Din introduced Cothon-Gadeed to the new song and dance performing troupe, the Chroniclers. After playing their way through the taverns of Cothon, Gan had hopes to tour Ittiyqa in the same way, and perhaps Baldashmun as well, and then have the Chroniclers work their way back to the Dual Cities overland.
To this end, he chartered Najm's ship, Saint Iskameen for transport to Ittiyqa. But there was more to Gan's plans. He also harbored hopes of enrolling in the Games there--the Zihuitlani Games, which are the major Games of that city, in the way that the Tripartite Games are the major Games for Cothon-Gadeed. Others were interested, either to participate with Gan, or to watch and support him from the stands: Bartholomew Pettibone, of course, accompanied by his friend Hanaïs; Sesel and his wife Zaida al Rashid, as well as their captain of the guard Rand al Marashi to act as Gan's squire; and Fa Min and her own squire Demitrytus, who was interested in debuting in the Arena herself to introduce her new fighting school; and Heijo and Raoden also came.
In Ittiyqa, the company rented out an entire small inn for themselves and proceeded to present themselves to the quastors (gamesmasters) for permission to present a team of fighters for the Games. For the paltry sum of 5000 dinars, Gan ad-Din, Rand al Marashi, Fa Min, and Demitrytus were duly entered into the rolls of fighters and scheduled to take part in the Games as gladiators.
The Fighters:
- Gan ad-Din
- Rand al Marashi
- Fa Min
- Demitrytus
These fighters engaged in several fights, broken up in different kinds of duels. Fa Min with Demitrytus as squire were matched against Oleg and Grimr; Gan ad-Din and Rand battled Black Pietr and his squire Amaya; and then, after their success in both battles, the entire group was matched against another team in a an objective-based battle where they were tasked with taking a torch from a pit with a feshenga serpent to use to light their own bonfire, while defending or attacking against the other team.
Given that Fa Min is an elementalist--some kind of strange magic-user from a far away land--she was matched against the magic-user Oleg. While Demitrytus fenced with the horn-helmed barbarian Grimr, Fa Min sank Oleg into the earth to his waist and pinned him to the ground, and Oleg ultimately submitted--and the crowd acclaimed mercy.
Meanwhile, Gan ad-Din made an ostentatious entrance into the arena through magic and fire in his match against Pietr. He gave a great speech introducing himself as the Bearer of All Things, Right Hand of the Istrid, Princess of Flames, Renyu-friend and bathed in the fires of ru'un, and many other pretentious things. After this glorious speech, Black Pietr answered simply:
 |
| "I'll kill you just the same." |
Well, Black Pietr's confidence was misplaced. He never even landed a blow on Gan. Meanwhile, Gan landed stroke after stroke against Pietr and finally laid him low. Meanwhile, Rand battled Amaya, fencing spear against sword; but when Pietr was laid out in the dirt and Gan turned to assist his squire and called for Amaya to yield, she did so, laying down her own arms, and she went forth from the gate of death, defeated but not slain.
The last match was fought against a team of three humans and a pair of semi-canine gadhars under the control of the Beastmaster, one of those opponents. There was a pit opened in the middle of the Arena for this, and a wooden bridge laid across the top for passage back and forth. Gan advanced onto the bridge and fought the enemy captain, a female duelist with a fine sword; meanwhile, the rest of the other team rushed for the stairs to get the torch in the pit to be taken back to their own bonfire to light it. The gadhars engaged the feshenga, but the humans were ultimately bogged down in battling Fa Min and Demitrytus and would be cut down. And Gan, on the bridge, would also fell his opponent.
But in an heroic show that played to the mood of the crowd, Gan and his team allowed mercy for the other team and had them healed of any fatal wounds, and then escorted them as captives to Gan's own bonfire, where the torch lit the great fire to the riotous acclaim of the crowds.
Any accounts by the player-characters who took part in these matches, or who observed them from the stands, will earn that player-character 100 xp per level if posted to this chronicle.
The Lucre
- 5400 dinars (that's at 100 dn per hd, doubled for captains like Pietr, Oleg, and "the Kensai") from ransoms of the slain and the surrendered back to their families or societies (ransom money does not affect xp)
- the Torch of Zihuitle, a great torch of silver and gold; would be worth an extraordinary 10,000 dinars if sold, but as a trophy of victory it is incomparable
- Pietr's equipment:
- masterwork mail (+1 AC but non-magical) (4000 dinars)
- shield +2
- helm of protection (+1 AC/saving throws)
- masterwork sword (+1 to hit, non-magical) (1000 dinars)
- Amaya's equipment:
- fine plate armor (600 dinars)
- shield +1
- spear +1
- Boots of Foundation (+1 to hit in melee; if the wearer takes a round to steady their footwork without attacking, attack at +3 to hit next round)
- Oleg's equipment:
- warhammer +1
- masterwork linnothorax (+1 to AC, non-magical) (2000 dinars)
- fine shield (100 dinars)
- Grimr's equipment:
- mail +1
- fine shield (100 dinars)
- masterwork axe (+1 to hit, non-magical) (700 dinars)
The Learning
- 10,000 xp for winning the matches and earning the Torch of Zihuitle
- x amount of xp, where x is the number of dinars earned by sale of any of the equipment taken by the victors--at the moment 0 (the total value of non-magical equipment is 8500 dn; magical equipment doesn't normally have a price on the open market, but could also be sold)
- 391 xp from Pietr
- 171 xp from Amaya
- 271 xp from Oleg
- 113 xp from Grimr
- 389 xp from "the Kensai"
- 170 xp from "the Peltast"
- 216 xp from "the Beastmaster"
- 223 xp from two gadhars (100 + hp ea.)
- 278 xp from the feshenga (250 = hp)
- 3492 xp each to Gan ad-Din, Rand al Marashi, and Fa Min (Rand was a squire to Gan, but was played independently by another player, earning him a full share)
- 1746 xp to Demitrytus
- 1080 dinars each to Gan ad-Din, Sesel, Fa Min, Heijo, and Najm, who all went in together as "investors" in the team, to split the proceeds evenly. Sesel and Fa Min are expected to share their split with Rand and Demitrytus, respectively, at mutually agreeable fractions
- the Torch of Zihuitle
- the equipment from the defeated
- victors have first refusal of any equipment they wish to keep for themselves
- investors may then be allowed to take equipment they are interested in
- dinars from sale of leftover items will be split five ways, like the split in dinars above, while the fighters will earn xp according to the selling price
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