Excerpted from the journal of Etaf Gerin

 

October 19, 1376 (The Year of the Bent Blade)

 

The next challenge for us in the tournament was a fight against a monster. According to our sponsor, this was a break from the normal routine of the yearly contest – usually the previous year’s winner fought the monster, while the challengers fought one another. But this year we were selected to fight the monster. As we prepared for the fight, we overheard guards talking about the creature’s love of the cold – perhaps fire would be of use against it.

 

The creature was brought to the arena in a huge cage, which was opened by the guards with long poles. It was a huge and ugly beast, covered with slime, and it wasted no time spotting us and turning our way. I threw up a wall of fire to dissuade it, but it hid behind the wall, with no apparent ill effects. Neither did a psionic attack of fire energy appear to damage it, nor the cleric’s holy fire attack. With a mighty leap, the creature – which we later learned was called a Froghemoth – jumped the wall and landed right in front of us, ready to attack.

 

Giving up on the fire, we attacked the creature with normal weapons. These worked well enough, but the beast was huge, and before we could disable it, it had knocked Helios unconscious and swallowed Ahmed! Luckily the ranger wasn’t torn apart, but swallowed whole, and we were able to subdue the beast and tear it open to rescue him. Francis was able to restore all our wounds, including the monk.

 

Despite the misleading information we had received, we had triumphed. Omiata questioned the guard – we didn’t inquire about his methods, but I assume they were persuasive. The guard would say only that he had heard from Raknian himself that the creature was a cold-loving beast and vulnerable to fire, and that he had been ordered to let us overhear that information. It seemed that the tournament directors were no fonder of us than we were of them.

 

October 20, 1376

 

The day of the final tournament battle arrived! Our opponents were, unsurprisingly, last year’s champions, Auric’s Warband. Their team consisted of the warrior Auric, a wizard, and 3 flesh golems. We had them outnumbered, but knowing how powerful they had proven in previous matches, we expected a difficult battle.

 

We were not disappointed. Within seconds, the wizard had confused both BadAxe and Friar Francis – neither could focus their minds to act. Helios and Ahmed fought against the flesh golems, but without support from the cleric and the strength of the dwarf, they could not hold out long. The wizard was shrugging off my best attempts to negate his power. Things were looking grim.

 

Then Omiata single-handedly turned the tide of battle. With a single perfectly placed crossbow bolt, he killed the wizard – shot through the eye! Then he turned, and with another single shot, felled one of the golems! The opposing team was shaken, providing openings for Ahmed and Helios to destroy another golem. Though BadAxe and Francis were not restored, the fight appeared to be nearly won.

 

A sudden trembling shook the entire arena. Then the ground itself gave way and up rose a beast of darkness! It was a huge undead worm, dripping gore and rotted flesh as it rose above us. Everyone was silent for a moment in shock, and into that silence rang out the voice of Lord Raknian. “Now you will all fear our power! Behold the Worm of Kyuss!”

 

The crowd roared in terror. Our remaining opponents called out in surrender, saying that we must join forces against this monstrosity! As the crowd fled from the stands, we stopped our battle and turned against the evil spawn. Before we could close with the Worm and attack, it vomited forth a group of lesser undead, zombies and ghouls. The odds were not in our favor.

 

Freed from the tournament restrictions on summoned creatures, Ahmed brought forth his mighty bronze griffin, Rashaaba, and I summoned what creatures I could. Helios and the surviving flesh golem attacked the Worm as Auric used a magic wand against the lesser undead. Francis and BadAxe still struggled against confusion, but managed to strike a few blows nonetheless.

 

Suddenly several of the lesser undead exploded in a shower of rotten flesh! Wherever this detritus flew, it infected the living with a sickness – Ahmed in particular was badly affected. Valiantly he continued to fight, despite growing weakness. Helios once again fell, even as he struck blow after blow against the evil monster.

 

Despite all our wounds, our attacks were taking a toll on the Worm itself. Even as my allies were wounded, they struck mightily against the Worm. It fought mindlessly, destroying all it could reach, but eventually we wore it down. It collapsed into a pile of bones and rotten flesh, no longer animated by evil.

 

Raknian and Captain Okaral had remained in the stands, clearly hoping to see the monstrosity devour us. When it was clear that we were defeating it, they turned to flee. But Omiata was alert, and spotted them before they had gone far. With Omiata’s unerring aim and the help of Rashaaba, both were defeated before they could flee.

 

We were once again victorious in the tournament, and had defeated the evil schemes of Raknian as well. Our wounds, including Ahmed’s sickness, were well treated by Francis and the grateful clerics of the city. The entire city lay open to our search for the Tome now.

 

Last updated 12-06-2005 by Skip Franklin