They got a list of places they could go see. Bhaltair suggests the Shrine of the Deodand to the others.
They go straight there
They arrive at a big arena, full of weird raggedy monks weighed down with chains that have weapons hanging from them. There's currently some of these monks fighting in the arena, watched only by other monks.
Warren asks Bhaltair if they're meant to be here? It feels like they're intruding
Runmae observes the fight and takes stock of what she sees. There's no consistent style, but these monks definitely know how to use their weapons. They're a bit scary.
Bhaltair says they should hope the weapon monks know how to use weapons
Runmae moves on and says she's been thinking about the Stoneseers, do they think she could learn to do that?
"Do what?"
"The rock stuff"
Bhaltair thinks anybody could learn to do anything, given time and resources.
"Not all of us learn as fast as you, sunshine, it took me 30 years to master blacksmithing"
Bhaltair thinks that sounds like a reasonable amount of time?
"Learning takes time! If you wanna do it, might as well"
"Fights first, maybe one of these guys will smack some sense into me"
Bhaltair asks who wants to fight?
Valaari can fight!
Naze isn't listening, he's watching the fight
Warren says maybe, sure
Bhaltair looks for the nearest, most approachable monk. They settle on Soldeth Lunfodd
Bhaltair casts True Speech on themselves as they approach
They introduce themselves, and say they're here to fight?
Soldeth grins, and explains their whole deal. They're trying to cleanse weapons that have "fucking rancid vibes" by using them in the arena, to siphon off those vibes to stop them building up in the city and worsening the social malaise.
The group explain the origins of their own weapons, and Soldeth confirms the vibes are rancid.
She asks if they'll be fighting individually or as a group?
They're non-commital. Bhaltair volunteers them to fight individually.
Soldeth explains there are three rules. 1. No killing. 2. Maiming is okay. 3. That's it
Bhaltair asks if they can pick the others opponents? They can. Bhaltair wants to pick the others opponents.
Valaari is okay with this, if they lose they lose.
Who first?
Runmae gets volunteered
Soldeth presents some possible opponents. Herself, Mantaruk, Gledd, and if they're feeling very spicy, Hakuul
Bhaltair says Hakuul, obviously
Round one, begin!
Foundry says this is an Extreme difficulty encounter. It's just one goblin!
Bhaltair asks if it's okay to play battle music? Absolutely
Hell yeah
Runmae charges the goblin and attempts to learn what she can about this goblin from the first hit. He rolls with the hit and gets back to his feet, he's agile.
Runmae is concerned about that knife. She tries to slow him down by knocking him to the floor.
Hakuul lands on his hand and cartwheels back to his feet, and then leaps onto Runmae's back and starts stabbing while pulling her in all directions.
He whispers "get gobsliced"
Runmae tries to get him off her, hooking him with her hammer and slamming him into the ground, though he rolls off at the last second and avoids the worst of it.
She swings again but he jumps over it, and slashes at her on his way down. He then slides under her legs, slashing at her legs, and then rolls her over him.
She's just getting manhandled around by this elderly goblin man.
Valaari bangs their spear on their shield to applaud this beautiful set of actions
Runmae is getting frustrated, swings again and catches Hakuul on the side but fails to bring him to the ground.
She then swings again and misses
Hakuul slashes at her torso and then climbs her like a tree and places his knife to her throat, and says "you're done. Yield."
Runmae sighs and goes "alright"
Hakuul backflips off of her, wipes her blood onto his rags, and then shakes her hand.
"You fought well"
"Thank you, but not enough to make it clean. Never enough to make it clean."
"Well I have low cholesterol so that should help"
Hakuul says that Runmae was a good challenge for a solo fight, he usually fights teams
"Oh yeah I could see you being dangerous with back up"
"No, Hakuul fights groups on his own"
Oh
Runmae goes and complains to Bhaltair about setting her up to fight the crazy murder goblin
"There's no shame in losing to somebody stronger than you"
"Not stronger, quicker"
Bhaltair suggests next time she could make better use of her longer weapon, he just had a dagger
"SON OF A BITCH"
Medical monks provide medical attention to the fighters. Runmae's ego is more bruised than anything, Hakuul somehow managed to get under all of her armoured plates and shallowly cut her. "What the fuck?"
She's so mad about this
Bhaltair says not to worry, she provided so much cleansing for that knife
Runmae gets out some of her dwarven whiskey that she's been rationing and takes a swig.
Soldeth asks if anyone else wants to fight?
Warren or Valaari are up next, they still want to fight individually
Warren flips a bonegeld to decide, but forgets to state who goes for which side so it doesn't help at all
Valaari picks a side this time, and Warren flips it again. Warren's up.
Warren is not enthusiastic about this. Naze says "at least you're not fighting the dodgy tetanus knife guy"
Mantaruk menacingly approaches Warren, slashes him with one of his axes and then kicks him
Warren attacks with his starknife, rolls a critical hit, and rolls a 1 on every single damage dice.
Mantaruk just snorts, it's so ineffective
The rest of the group ponder if there's any way for Warren to get Mantaruk off-guard so he can get sneak attack. If only that was something he could do
Runmae got cheered on and they're all heckling Warren instead
Warren feels their gaze and decides to try and Feint, to do exactly that
It's a critical success! Tactics work! Holy shit!
It does about the same damage as the previous crit. If only he'd feinted before that first attack
He prays this is enough to get a single cheer from his "friends"
Valaari bangs their shield, Warren is buoyed
Mantaruk sharply inhales, then hits Warren with one of his axes, and then punches him across the jaw with his other hand (which has an axe in)
"There's no shame in surrendering, Warren" which Warren doesn't understand
This arena is really highlighting how much they all need each other, when they fight on their own they're much worse
Warren attemps to climb Mantaruk to better get at the soft bits, but he gets shrugged off
Stabbing it is
Warren hits and rolls a bunch of ones again
He hits again! The damage isn't huge but he's chipping away at him
Mantaruk swings twice and Warren dodges both times, and then Mantaruk tries to demoralize him but the language barrier means he doesn't understand
Warren starts to bolt around Mantaruk and runs right into an axe, he rolls with the blow and critically succeeds on a feint again
He then takes advantage, making more small wounds
Mantaruk swings, Warren dodges, but gets hit on the backswing and is looking rough. Mantaruk tries to punch him again but he dodges it
Warren starts making more small cuts, it's a real David and Goliath situation. He's actually chipping away at him!
Warren didn't hear no bell, so even though he's about to be knocked out, he keeps swinging
Mantaruk knocks Warren out and he hits the ground like a sack of potatoes. Mantaruk looks to the other monks and goes "why didn't he surrender!?"
Naze moves up and drags Warren out by the feet, face down in the dirt.
Medical assistance arrives
So far the party has lost both fights. Valaari's turn.
They feel they've left the scariest to last
Valaari is also pretty scary, and Gledd seems intimidated
Gledd lets out a bestial roar and frightens everyone but Runmae (who is more scared of Hakuul)
Gledd then charges in and swings one of her axes at Valaari, catching them sharply
Valaari exploits vulnerability, imbuing their weapon with electricity (Gledd is a troll!)
Valaari then stabs with their spear but it glances off of Gledd's armour
They then raise their shield
Gledd lays into them, but they take some of the damage on their shield. She tries to intimidate Valaari, but Valaari has seen scarier things
Valaari intensifies vulnerability on their weapon and attacks, disabling Gledd's regeneration. They also notice that Gledd's armour is fused to their body.
Valaari debates between raising their shield and attacking again, but chooses offense. The spear glances off of Gledd's armour
Gledd almost splits Valaari in half with one of her axes, and Valaari drops their weapon. Gledd steps back immediately.
Valaari bows in respect, and in pain, recovers their weapon, and returns to the group
Bhaltair says they think they all did great.
Valaari thinks they should ask the Deodand Monks to go back with them to the Demon Wastes, these guys are dangerous
Soldeth asks them if anyone else wants to fight? Bhaltair says they'll do it!
"Who would you like to fight?"
"Oh no, I was joking"
Naze considers it but thinks his magic (and Zaphkiel) might be cheating
Bhaltair and Naze together will fight Soldeth and Mantaruk. The Horn of Rust could do with some cleansing
Bhaltair is up first! They cast Magnetic Acceleration from the Horn, targetting Mantaruk, peppering him with small shards of metal
Who's the dodgy tetanus knife guy now?
They debate how hard to go on this fight. Naze says he's blowing everything on this fight, they have to win one
Bhaltair does a Fortissimo Composition into Courageous Anthem
Soldeth uses all three actions to cast a 5th-rank Force Barrage, targeting Naze with 9 bolts of force
Naze casts a 5th-rank Divine Immolation. Soldeth fails and Mantaruk succeeds, so Soldeth is now on fire.
Zaphkiel moves in front of Naze, and then Naze uses their final action to cast Protect Companion on them
Mantaruk charges Zaphkiel and hits them with his axes, one hits and Zaphkiel blocks the others
Bhaltair does another Courageous Anthem as the previous one wears off, then casts Spiritual Weapon and attacks Mantaruk with it, getting a critical hit!
Soldeth runs forward and casts Weapon Storm, causing duplicates of her hammer to hit Bhaltair, Naze and Zaphkiel. It looks cool but doesn't do a lot
Naze casts a 5th-rank Divine Wrath. Mantaruk fails, Soldeth succeeds, making Mantaruk Sickened
Zaphkiel then bonks Mantaruk with their zaphy bits, but it's not super effective
Zaphkiel tries again, but it's the same damage
The others are cheering them on, though Warren's heart isn't in it
Mantaruk moves to get next to Naze, and Zaphkiel makes an opportunistic attack
Mantaruk then goes mental, attacking Naze/Zaphy three times and triggering Naze's orc ferocity for the very first time as he lets out a ferocious scream
Naze is now at 1 hp!
Bhaltair is a bit freaked out by Naze's scream tbh, and casts Vision of Death on Mantaruk, really hoping that it doesn't kill him (breaking the one rule)
Mantaruk sees a vision of his death, but it doesn't come true
Bhaltair waits a second to see if Mantaruk surrenders, and then attacks again with their spiritual weapon when he doesn't
Soldeth casts Fireball
Naze's down, Zaphkiel poofs
Mantaruk was caught in the blast, and surrenders
Soldeth is still on fire
Bhaltair uses the Horn to cast Needle Darts on Soldeth, peppering her with...needle darts. She shield blocks it
The spiritual weapon then moves up and attacks her as well, but she blocks it
Soldeth decides she's probably better up close than Bhaltair is, so she closes in and then critically misses
She then tries again and critically hits them! Oh god!
Spiritual weapon do a bonking good (critically good)!!
They then use the Horn again to cast Magnetic Acceleration, peppering her with a bunch of shards of jagged metal
Soldeth surrenders, they won one!
Bhaltair is breathing so heavily, full on panic. They're usually not in the fray like that
Soldeth puts out the fire, and the medics rush in
Bhaltair asks Runmae how they do that all the time?
The Deodand Monks cheer for everyone, they just want to see a good fight!
Both Bhaltair and Naze used all of their resources in that fight
The power of teamwork allowed them to pull through, there was a lesson here!
Valaari slaps Naze awake to tell him that they won!
He's gonna feel that in the morning. He's feeling it right now, but he'll also feel it in the morning
Bhaltair casts another Garden of Healing to help heal everyone and also calm down the vibe a bit
Once everyone's all healed, the monks ask if they want to go again?
"No we're good"
They got the one win they wanted. Bhaltair says they never want to fight again
Naze gets a bottle of water, sanctifies it, and then pours it on his face
Bhaltair asks Runmae if she wants to go speak to the Stoneseers about learning their skills?
Runmae does, but she also wants to go see the Sedimentary (and they apparently recruit from there anyway)
Bhaltair also wants to visit The Sun Gardens before they leave
Bhaltair and Valaari also want to learn a language before they leave
They can do a learning montage before leaving the city. They have everything they need to do, they can leave when ready
They decide to head to Sun Gardens and then the Sedimentary
The Sun Gardens were an attempt to replicate the legendary "sun" of the Uplands, but it's nothing like the sun. It's all bioluminescent fungi, which also dampens sound!
After the terrifying events of the fight at the Deodand, Bhaltair is visibly disappointed that there isn't actually a sun. They knew there wouldn't be, but they're still disappointed
Valaari pats them on the head as a gesture of awkward reassurance
It's been a while since Bhaltair last saw the sun, they'll need to use one of their bottled sunlights soon
They enjoy the garden nonetheless
From there, they head to the Sedimentary
The Sedimentary is a museum to stone in all its forms, artistic, civic, scientific and occult. When they arrive, it's full of sculptors who are preparing for the Statuary Pageant, which is next cycle.
A medusa in an in-season lilac gown, who hasn't started working on their sculpture, gestures for them to approach.
They approach
She introduces herself as Ssemaly, after assuming they already know who she is. "I'm the best, everyone is clear on this except for that shell-licker Zeze, and who gives a shit about someone that into basalt?"
Ssemaly's lost her inspriation, though, she needs something to inspire her next sculpture.
Bhaltair says they're a plant, that's kinda interesting
Runmae's ripped?
Warren's a rat
Ssemaly does suppose carving plant shapes would be a challenge, lots of small delicate parts
"Naze's delicate too, he has soft hands"
lmao
Naze takes offense, he just took like four axe hits
Bhaltlair suggests they could carve a statue of all of them
Ssemaly asks if they have three or four days to model for them?
Valaari doesn't think they have the time
Bhaltair asks why they don't do the monks?
"The monks?"
"Yeah the Deodand Monks, they're really cool. You could do this whole thing of trying to represent the corruption in their weapons" - Bhaltair
"Also the minotaur packs a punch" - Warren
Ssemaly can't say she's ever considered the monks, they have a reason for beating the shit out of each other?
Bhaltair says she should learn about that reason, and then try and capture that in her sculpture.
"I hear collabs are all the rage right now."
"Not a bad idea" she answers, as she rummages out 25 bonegeld and hands it to them. "For your services"
Warren is confused, what did they do? Why did she just give them money?
Bhaltair explains that they helped her to find a muse
"But we didn't find anything, we just talked to her?"
Runmae says sometimes that's all it takes
Bhaltair says they just helped her find what she's interested in. Besides which, does it matter, they got money?
Warren thinks this place is fucking weird
"What's the issue, you steal all the time?" - Bhaltair
"Don't say that out loud!" - Warren
"Warren, they can't understand us" - Bhaltair
Warren is paranoid that everyone in Vralkast might be pretending to not speak common to mess with them
Why would they do that? What would they gain from that?