The Xanathar's Game
Kuhl watched in a lowered stance, leg muscles taut with anticipation, as Quid, the flamboyantly dressed master of ceremonies, hoisted a ball aloft. The sun-elf held it there for an instant, balanced on his fingertips. It was strange how moments could extend themselves. To the half-elf it seemed a long time before the ball was tossed with a casual flick of the wrist. He had time to note the sturdy stitching holding the leather sphere together and see the myriad of painted eye symbols on its surface - recognizing that each was unique and different from the others. Then the ball was falling, eyes blurring as it spun, and the crowd roared.
"Eyes on the ball," Raelyn called out. "He always does something crazy with it."
An unbidden smile came to Kuhl's lips despite the tension of the moment. There were eyes on the ball. Painted ones. But he was pretty sure the drow's play on words was accidental.
"But mind the pits," Sophiya said. "Remember the roper can reach beyond the edges."
The dark elf and genasi jogged forward and Kuhl and the other teammates followed their lead. Having been warned, he was not surprised when Quid gestured and a ring on the sun-elf's finger glowed golden and the ball changed trajectory. Instead of dropping to the sandy floor under the tower the master of ceremonies stood atop, it flew across the arena to careen off the opposite wall.
"Go!" Raelyn screamed.
She led by example, running hard to get to the ball as it bounced with a spray of sand and rolled a few feet before coming to a stop. The half-elf sprinted, feeling the sand leech a bit of speed and energy with every step. At that moment he was actually glad for Dawnbringer's early morning training regimen. Otherwise he'd have been quickly out of breath.
Unsurprisingly, Sky made it to the ball first. Even without her boots of speed, and despite Kuhl's conditioning, she was still faster than him - than everyone else apparently as well.
But they hadn't needed to put in so much effort. Their opponents had barely moved, taking up defensive positions at a lazy trot.
"Throw the cat girl into a pit first?" the minotaur with one broken horn asked in a rumbling voice, cracking massive knuckles.
Kuhl barely heard the noise of the watching crowd anymore and had even gotten over the surprise that a beholder looked down from overhead through some sort of scrying that transmitted his image from afar. Now that the game had started his opponents and team members had his full attention.
"Not her," Kal'dir, the male drow with the dragon tattooed on his chest, answered from behind his black and silver mask. "Someone else first. Let the audience enjoy her novelty for a time."
"Don't throw the half-elf in yet either," Nadia said with a predatory glance Kuhl's way from the depth of the dark swath of makeup across her face. "Let me play with him a bit first."
"Tabaxi, not cat girl," Sky said, tail lashing as the palm of her free hand slapped against the ball she'd scooped up. "And the name is Red Sky in the Morning!"
"Sky, no!" Kuhl cried.
But the tabaxi already dashed forward, heedless of it being eleven of them versus one of her. She made it further than she should have alone. Sand churned under her bare feet as she twisted and spun, ducking under the blue scaled muscular arm swung by the dragonborn and dodging past the lunging grasp of the bugbear. A crack from the whip of the crimson leather and silver chain clad Paladin of Pain sent Sky scurrying dangerously along the edge of the roper pit. Tentacles swept up to grab at her, but she stayed one step ahead of them. By the time they forced the tabaxi away from the pit and towards the waiting arms of the towering half-ogre, the half-elf was there, having run all out to try and help Sky if she needed him.
In the Underdark, in Gracklstugh, Kuhl had tried to topple a raging two-headed stone giant with a shield rush. This time he had no shield to absorb the blow. Pain reminiscent of his collision with the stone giant exploded in his shoulder as he sent his opponent stumbling back. Sky exploited the gap created to run by untouched.
"Like blindsiding people?" Nadia grunted.
It was the only warning the half-elf received before he was knocked sprawling.
"That was for Nikk," the giant of a woman said. "But now you owe again for Groz."
The half-elf heard the words and some part of his mind recalled that Nikk was the bugbear he had punched during his capture and that Quid had announced the half-ogre as Groz, but more immediate needs pressed. Nadia's blow sent him tumbling towards the roper's pit. For an instant he locked gazes with the single saucer sized red eye of the creature with rock like skin at the bottom. It was said they fooled their prey by pretending to be stalactites, but with writhing tentacles and a gaping maw of razor sharp teeth, it looked nothing like one now. Kuhl rolled back away from the pit's edge as seeking appendages slapped the sand behind him. He scrambled to his feet only to have the half-ogre filling his vision as he bore down on him.
"Him not for play, Nadia," Groz growled. "Him roper food."
The half-elf dodged a push from a massive hand that, even one-armed, would have sent him plunging into the pit behind him. He then seized his attacker's thick wrist in a two handed grip and pulled, pivoting with his hips and then adding a push of his own with his shoulder. Even using the half-ogre's strength against him only earned Kuhl a few staggering steps from the big brute towards the pit's edge, but it was enough. Tentacles swarmed up and wrapped one of Groz's legs to try and drag him down as prey.
But the half-ogre was massive and strong. He planted his feet and became the proverbial immovable object - until Kuhl added his own strength. Together he and the roper moved the resisting Groz forward to the brink of falling.
"I'm coming!"
Nadia's voice made the half-elf aware of her nearness and impending attack. At the same time the half-ogre spun with a desperate surge of effort and swung. A bunching of Groz's muscles warned Kuhl and he ducked the elbow aimed at him. It sailed over his head - but the accompanying backhand smacked into the oncoming Nadia, dropping her down onto the sand.
"Look at that!" Quid's magically enhanced voice boomed out over the arena. "Cat girl and the half-elf have some moves! Groz is in trouble!"
Despite announcing that one of the home team struggled against being shoved into a roper inhabited pit, no worry was in the sun-elf's tone, only excitement.
"Time to share that plaything," the Paladin of Pain called out.
Her whip cracked with lacerating pain against the half-elf ankle and lashed around it, then she pulled. She knew her weapon well, taking an angle to yank him completely off balance and he hit the sand hard.
From the ground Kuhl caught a glimpse of Sky's athletic leap to get a line of sight over the minotaur and big female orc barring her way to her goal. She threw and the ball flew true, arching towards the wide-open maw of the beholder sculpture hanging on the wall and past the waving, outstretched arms of the defenders. Then the black masked dark elf rose up from behind the orc and minotaur with an athletic leap of his own.
"Mite!" The male drow yelled out as he slapped the ball down.
"Valiant effort!" Quid announced from above. "But denied by Kal'dir."
"Valiant effort," the crimson leather clad and helmeted woman echoed down in the arena. "Take the blessing of Loviatar as a reward."
For an instant Kuhl went rigid, fists clutching handfuls of sand in a vice grip as he convulsed from the agony lancing out from where the whip wrapped his ankle, then the pain receded.
"Move!" Sophiya yelled.
The half-elf felt the embrace of the whip around his ankle slacken and slide off. He looked up to see Raelyn attacking the Paladin of Loviatar with an onslaught of kicks and punches. The crimson and silver clad woman absorbed the blows on her raised arms as she backed away, whip dragging a trail through the sand after her. Next to him, at the edge of the pit, Groz was almost free of the grasping tentacles of the roper.
"He is out of the way enough!" the drow woman screamed. "Do it!"
Kuhl crawled forward on hands and knees as fast as he could, suspecting what was coming. Back in their cells the genasi had expressed frustration for not inheriting spell casting aptitude from her archmage father, but in their strategy sessions she revealed she did have an aptitude for the elemental magic of her djinn ancestry. Sophiya yelled and stomped and a wave of concussive force thundered around her. The half-elf's desperate scramble gave him enough distance to be mostly outside the area affected.
Mostly.
The burst of force flipped him into a somersault to land on his back, sand cascading around and on top of him.
"First blood…" the enhanced voice of the sun-elf called down with obvious surprise. "Visitors… Groz downed into the roper pit."
Though the cheering of the crowd had become background noise to Kuhl, their silence now seemed deafening.
"Ha!" Raelyn shouted. "Yes! Let's see you bring that one back!"
The announcement by Quid of the fall of Groz had caused a stunned lull in the fight between Loviatar's paladin and the dark elf. The crimson clad woman cracked her whip to keep the drow back while she circled.
"Nadia," she called out as she kneeled. "We need you."
With a touch and a whispered prayer the unconscious leader of the Dead Eyes watchpost stirred. It reminded the half-elf of his own healing magic, which he applied to his ankle as he climbed to his feet.
"Ash Mite! Ash Mite!"
The silence of the crowd was replaced with a growing chant as the pair consisting of the goblin in shimmering green dragon scaled armor and his wolf mount ran towards Kuhl's team's goal, ball clutched under one of the rider's arms. The three Waterdhavian youths, Xia, Claudio, and Arthright, left back on defense, were scattered by a warning growl by the wolf, but Captain Staget stood his ground.
"ASH MITE! ASH MITE!"
The audience's chanting volume grew with their anticipation as the goblin lowered his padded lance and the pair picked up speed. The gray haired Watch Captakn tried to dodge at the last moment, but he was sent tumbling back with lance shuddering force from the strike against his chest. A crescendo of cheers erupted from the onlookers.
Raelyn had named the Paladin of Loviatar the most dangerous member of the other team because of her ability to bring fallen members back into play. Kuhl could do the same. He started running before Staget even stopped rolling. The gray-haired Watch Captain ended up lying curled up in a ball near the edge of one of the pits. Luckily one of the spike pits at the corners of the arena instead of the larger center one with a roper inside.
As he ran, the half-elf saw the goblin wolf rider in his periphery stand in his saddle and raise his lance in salute to the crowd. They sent cheers, whoops, and whistles in return. He dropped back down onto his mount and turned towards his goal. But his way was not unopposed.
The female halfling, Samara, stood in the sand under the sculpture of the beholder with the gaping maw, feet planted.
These unfolding events receded from Kuhl's perception as he reached Staget. He wiped sweat from his eyes as he dropped to his knees, sliding through the sand the last couple of feet to the Watch Captain. The man moaned when the half-elf pulled his hands aside to get at his injury.
No blood. Not even a tear of the tunic. The padding at the end of the lance did cushion the blow, but obviously not enough to keep from breaking ribs. Kuhl took a deep breath, whispered a prayer, and let healing magic flow.
"Ash Mite! Ash Mite!"
He looked up as the chant started once more. Rider and wolf seemed happy to oblige the audience. The lance was already lowered and now the wolf lunged into a sprint, teeth bared while the goblin leaned forward in the saddle. Samara, it seemed, would be the next victim of the popular pair.
But the halfling seemed perfectly calm as the wolf and goblin bore down on her. The wolf emitted a warning growl as they neared. Surprisingly Samara gave a growl of her own, one no less feral. Then she changed, nose elongating to a snout, clothes ripping at the seams and gray fur sprouting from her skin as she grew in size. But she also lost her straight backed posture making her hunched final form around the same height. The half-elf had seen similar transformations before, in Blingdenstone, among the svirfneblin gnomes.
"Samara is a wererat?" Staget asked as he sat up.
"Ash Mite, Ash…" the chanting of the crowd abruptly stopped.
Whether through the quickness afforded to her by her hybrid shape, the surprise of the goblin at the changes in his target, or a combination of both, the shifted halfling dodged the thrust of the lance, swept around the snapping teeth of the wolf and leapt up to tackle the rider off his mount.
They fell in a tangle of flailing limbs and ripping claws, the ball covered with eyes rolling free of the combatants.
"She is a werebeast," Quid announced from above. "Not the first time in Blood and Fortune but her timing was… PERFECT! Skulkers, this is going to be a memorable one!"
"I've got it!" Esvele yelled out as she picked up the ball. "I've got it!"
The noble woman held the ball up as she looked down the arena towards the opposing team's goal, then the ball seemed to fly right out of her hands and fall back to the sand. It didn't lay there long, floating up and bobbing as it moved away from her.
"I had it," she said, brow scrunching in confusion.
She glared up at the tower platform where Quid watched, but the sun-elf's arms were crossed, his telekinetic ring was not the cause of the ball's odd behavior.
"Wait," Esvele said. "I see footsteps."
"It's the duergar," Raelyn shouted. "He's invisible!"
She ran with Sky and Sophiya towards the ball.
"Kal'dir!" A gruff voice yelled out from an invisible source.
The ball sailed in an arching pass to bounce then roll near the drow wearing the black and silver mask. He picked it up.
"Cat girl and human," Raelyn ordered. "Help me make this duergar reveal himself so he won't be able to use this trick again. Genasi, help the others defend our goal."
She moved forward in a slight crouch towards the place where the footsteps ended and from where the ball had been thrown, hands up and ready to grapple.
"Tabaxi," Sky said. "Not cat girl. And how do we do that?"
"Forcing him to attack us will drop the spell," the drow woman responded.
"Sounds fun," Sky said, mimicking Raelyn's stance and popping her claws.
She stalked the same position from another angle.
"Sounds painful and dangerous," Esvele said, but also moved to encircle their invisible prey,
"My name," the genasi called back over her shoulder as she ran back to defend. "Is Sophiya. A month! A month in a cell together! My name is Sophiya!"
She motioned for Kuhl and Staget to join her as she jogged through the sand.
"I'm too old for this," the Watch Captain grumbled as the half-elf pulled him to his feet.
"Duty calls, captain," Kuhl said, leading the way to their goal at a run.
"Duty?" Staget asked. "Tell me when did it become a duty of the Watch duty to play in the mad game of a beholder?"
Despite his complaining he did follow the half-elf. Together with the Sophiya they formed up to defend their goal. On the other side of the arena the minotaur, bugbear, and big female orc made a wedge in front of the masked drow with the ball.
"Helm's watchful eyes," Staget sighed. "The three biggest? It couldn't be the woman in red leather? Or even the taller one with black face makeup?"
Those two individuals were positioning themselves defensively, along with the blue-scaled dragonborn.
"You haven't felt her whip," the half-elf said. "Or been hit by the other. Not pleasant"
But he actually agreed with the Watch officer.
"We're sorry we ran before," the noble scion youth, Claudio said, joining their ranks.
"We won't again," his friend Arthright promised.
The uncertainty in his voice said the opposite and Xia, their tea house server companion, was silent, pale, and looked ready to bolt at a harsh word let alone from a charging minotaur. Not that Kuhl could blame her. She was a wisp of a thing. What had she been thinking following her fool friends into Undermountain?
Not that he was in any place to judge. He was older, wiser, more experienced, and here he was right beside her.
"Stay behind me," the half-elf whispered.
The shou girl wordlessly nodded and did as asked.
"At least they don't have a half-ogre with them," Sophiya said, eyeing the oncoming group. "I'll try the same spell again. So do run. When I tell you."
There was a brief respite as the minotaur, orc, bugbear, and following masked drow stayed well clear of the central roper pit as they moved across the arena. Sounds of surprise came from the audience and Kuhl took a moment to take in the entirety of the arena at a glance.
"As I said," Quid's voice boomed down from above. "This Blood and Fortune will be remembered."
Sky, Esvele, and Raelyn still hunted the duergar. He seemed to be trying to use movement and invisibility to escape the trio hemming him in between them, but what drew the eye was the green patch of plants rapidly growing from the sand in another part of the arena. The ivy-like branches twined around Samara's feet and climbed up her legs. The wererat clawed and ripped the greenery growing up her and whatever she tore free withered and misted away in her grip after being separated from the main mass, but more new growth took its place quicker than she could shred. Within a few breaths the restraining vines had progressed up to her waist despite her efforts.
An auburn haired young man, really still a boy, younger than even the Waterdhavian youths, stood nearby over Mite, the fallen goblin rider. The boy was strange not only for his unexplained presence in the arena, but also because a pair of small stag antlers sprouted from his forehead and because he wore the saddle previously borne by the wolf named Ash like a backpack. He held one hand out towards the magical foliage as if he directed its growth.
Kuhl had no time to try and understand what he saw as the minotaur and the others now neared.
"If they don't fall for my spell," the genasi whispered. "I'll be vulnerable for a moment."
The half-elf did not miss she spoke in his direction.
"They won't touch you," he promised, taking a breath to resolve himself.
In that odd slowing of time that sometimes preceded dire events, he took in the forms rushing towards them, minotaur leading the wedge, horns lowered despite one being broken, yellow eyes narrowed, hooved feet churning forward across the sand, and bull's snout emitting snorting breaths as he came on.
"Scatter!" Sophiya shouted. "Now!"
This time Kuhl wasn't trying to crawl out of the radius of her spell. He cleared away from her, even catching and dragging Xia along with him when he noticed her slow reaction to run out of the corner of her eye. The genasi drew in a breath and let it out in a yell to accompany her stomp. A thunderous boom erupted and sand exploded up in the air around her.
But no one was caught up by her spell. Their opponents had stopped even as teammates scattered.
"You think we didn't know you'd try that?" the masked drow laughed from the back even as the thunderous wave of sound echoed off the arena walls.
Kuhl sprinted forward, shoving Xia back as he did. He caught up the unbroken horn aimed at the genasi just before it gored her and forced it aside. Together he and the minotaur crashed into Sophiya and he felt a slight breeze touch his sweat soaked skin despite them being deep underground. He tried to drive the bullheaded man face first into the sand through his grip on his horn.
The half-elf was very strong, but there was very strong for a human or elf and then there was monstrous strength. With a toss of his bull neck, the minotaur sent him tumbling. Kuhl scrambled back to his feet the moment he hit the sand. Claudio and Arthright had not run. One had leapt up on the back of the bugbear and the other clung to a leg. Both were, however, being peeled off and the big female orc drove back the poor outmatched Staget. But they fought for all they were worth while Sophiya took on the minotaur, magical tattoos twining her arms and legs blazing bright blue as she did. She used a better point of leverage than the half-elf had, using grips under his elbows to try to push him up and back rather than attempting to control him through one of his horns. But his strength was greater and her knees buckled despite her tattoos brightening with even more intensity.
As Kuhl hit the minotaur from the side it occurred to him that maybe Nadia was right. Maybe he really did like blindsiding people. Together genasi and half-elf toppled the minotaur. Kuhl punched the sand as he did, summoning pale, luminous vines with his magic and hoping it would hold the bull-headed brute down for at least a few moments.
"What is this?" Quid called out from above. "Is there more to the half-elf than muscles? Or was that genasi magic we've not seen before?"
Kuhl spun, looking for who might need help, but found Kal'dir had slipped through the chaotic brawl under their goal. He'd have already scored had he not stopped to talk to their shou teammate.
"Why, you're trembling," the drow with the silver dragon tattoo spiraling around the ebony skin of his bare chest and back said, mask up to reveal his handsome face. "Has no one ever told you that it is the trembling in the web that brings a spider? Oh, don't worry dear one, I am not a spider. I squash them whenever I get the chance. Would you tell the Lolthite that for me please."
He glanced up and saw the half-elf and genasi rushing towards him and he flashed Xia a white toothed smile before lowering his mask.
"Have to run," he said.
And he did run, followed by a leap towards the open maw of the beholder sculpture above. He lifted the leather ball as he did.
"Stop him!" Sophiya screamed as she jumped.
Kuhl jumped as well and collided with the airborne Kal'dir. Yet somehow the dark-elf managed to twirl with the blow in a way that still gave him a good look at the circular mouth of the sculpture and he tossed the leather ball through.
"SCORE, Skulkers!" Quid's voice rang out from above.
The half-elf landed from his leap, crumpling to his knees in disappointment. The masked drow raised a gauntleted hand and waved it in a dismissive gesture as he retreated to regroup with his teammates at a jog.
"No!" Raelyn shrieked from across the arena, her displeasure audible over even the cheers of the crowd in celebration of the point earned by the home team.
Near her, Sky and Esvele also glanced back towards their goal. Their momentary distraction proved a grave error.
"Ye want me to reveal myself!" a gruff voice yelled. "Have it your way."
The gray-skinned, white bearded, black leather armored duergar winked into sight, enlarging to a massive size as he did. He struck out with growing fists, knocking Raelyn and Esvele down and snatching up Sky in a two handed grip before even she could react.
"Scratch me she-cat?" the now giant of a dwarf rumbled. "Well into the pit with ye then!"
"This looks like it for the cat girl," the sun-elf announced in his spell enhanced voice. "Too bad. Really wanted to see her make another run and leap at a beholder. She was a natural."
He actually did sound remorseful and already spoke of the tabaxi in the past tense. Kuhl jumped back up to his feet and luminous, silvery mist formed before him. It carried him to the duergar and his struggling captive in a step, bypassing the intervening distance. The half-elf struck the enlarged dwarf with every bit of strength he could muster and the duergar dropped Sky in surprise.
He turned and grappled with his unexpected assailant, trying to bring the overwhelming power of his enlarged form to bear. But momentum carried Kuhl forward and he attacked with reckless abandon, driving the giant dwarf back. By the time he realized where he was it was too late. As the duergar toppled over the edge of the pit his flailing hand latched on to the half-elf's shoulder and seized it in a desperate, unbreakable grip.
They fell together towards the waiting spikes at the bottom.
Whew! Had *no* idea what I was getting myself into. Sorry for the delay in posting. Had to get caught up from my vacation and I found this really hard to write. Let me know if it flows and works for you. So I am letting the competitors use spells that are verbal and somatic with no verbal components. It turns out Sophiya, Eldritch Knight, has some she can use, Thunderwave the most prominent. Hopefully it adds to the excitement. Also, I get to play in a 20th level 1 shot. I chose to just advance Kuhl up to 20th rather than make someone new. We never got to finish the Mad Mage and I asked my DM to tell me what magic items he thinks I would have given we had completed it. I figured that would be a fun way to build the 20th level version. But he preferred I just put together a wish list like everyone else. I forewent the Holy Avenger so I could go Necklace of Prayer beads and went with a less powerful sword. Yes I was very tempted to ask for Dawnbringer.
