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badassindistress · 4 years ago

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The Thylead (Session 17)

Azelma has a dream about being chased by a beast she couldn’t see. When she wakes up there is a shadow dog at the foot of her bed.

In the morning, they go to the tavern to collect the 250gp for the chimeras and manticores. Mania buys a mail shirt for 60gp in preparation for the Games.

They got to the theatre where they are invited to sit next to the King and Queen. They decide to sit with Vallus. They watch the opening ceremony. After it, there’s a fight breaking out in the crowd as the opening fight starts. It’s a fight between a minotaur and beasts, but it’s more like a human sacrifice. Phryné calls out that this isn’t right and the Minotaur hears her. He calls out that he heard they need a captain and he’s challenging them to single combat instead of this beast fight. If they win, he’ll sail their boat. Cleophe, Azelma and Thalestris accept the challenge. He introduces himself as Bullbug, says it’s nice to meet them and hopes they do not kill him today.

The fight is very dramatic and played up for the crowd. Thalestris gets charged and flung about, for which Bullbug immediately apologises, but they have to put up a good show for the crowd. Azelma throws a firebolt over his head and then gets him through the chest with her giant shadow sword, which pleases the crowd greatly. Thalestris turns into a giant goat and charges Bullbug, locking horns until she knocks him over. She gets flowers thrown at her while Cleophe carefully punches him in the face. He winks at her and goes down. Azelma asks Cleophe to let her ride on her shoulder so they can do a victory lap together. Iliana magics some extra cheers in the crowd. Cleophe heals Bullbug a little and makes sure he leaves the arena safely. They shake hands on their victory.

The first proper event is the long jump. Mania gives Cleophe inspiration by telling her she’s meant to fly and casts Jump on her with her new harp. The first competitor bites the dust, the second is an Amazon who gets cheerfully booed, she doesn’t do that well. The crowd favourite manages to jump 51 feet. With magical help, Cleophe easily manages 57 feet and wins first place.

The long distance run is second, with Azelma running with Mania’s inspiration and Iliana’s magic support. An Auread friend of Mania is competing as well, next to the Gladiator and Amazon from before. Azelma manages to pull ahead in the first leg, the gladiator keeps up effortlessly and the auraed runs along with them blowing kisses to the crowd. In the 2nd leg the Amazon is falling behind and the gladiator is getting tired, Azelma uses bardic to stay at the top. In the third leg the Gladiator and the auraed get back to the top, Azelma is still doing fine in the fourth leg, neck to neck with the gladiator and the auraed falling behind again. In the 5th leg Azelma stumbles, getting exhausted and Iliana casts Haste, making her twice as fast. The Gladiator is close to winning, but at the last possible moment she sprints and leaps over the finish line first. She wins first place, the Gladiator second and the auraed third. The gladiator shakes her hand and introduces himself as Leiland. He didn’t think she was going to be his competition and invites her out for drinks with the other winners after.

The javelin throw is next, with the fan favourite being a bard who gets roses thrown at her by teenagers. She’s showing off, but she doesn’t get far. The auraed puts on a good show, the Amazon gets help form her stimfay making a windtunnel. Cleophe throws an inspired 32 feet, but Leiland the Gladiator makes the best throw of his life and gets 38 feet. Cleophe wins second place, much ahead of everyone else. She shakes Leiland’s hand as he tells her that was a damn impressive throw. She jokes that she’s glad Azelma didn’t exhaust him too much and they chat a bit about having tiny friends.

Thalestris competes in the discus throw, with Phryné giving her Enhanced Abilities and Mania giving her some half-hearted inspiration. The other competitors are Leiland, the Auread, the noble bard and the the Amazon. The Amazon looks at her confusedly. Leiland manages 27ft, the Bard 24, the Amazon 18 and Thalestris and the Auread both 20 feet, winning them a shared third place.

Before the wrestling starts, Phryne goes into a prophetic trance, fumes and all. With glazed over eyes she says that someone is going to do terribly and someone is going to be above average. She wakes up again and enhances Cleophe’s abilities. Mania shouts that “Cleo should show them those nice biceps” from the stands for some last minute inspiration.

The first opponent is dressed in the cloak of Sydon’s order, like Commander Gaius. Cleophe pins him without much issue. The second is an Aresian monk who gets booed which he does not seem to mind. He pins her quickly, she manages to flip him but in the end he beats her. Cleophe wins third place.

Before the boxing, Mania prays to Kentimane to get his approval for the fight. She gets filled with a feeling of readiness. The first fight is with a female veteran, who manages to get quite a few hits in, but who is no match for Kentimane’s fists in the end. With the Arms of the Father and her own enhanced ability, inspiration and healing, Mania wins the fight. The second opponent is the Sydon soldier. Mania cheerily tells him her god is better than his and Mania sends him flying with a particularly good right cross in only a few rounds. The third is the Aresian monk who beat Cleophe in the wrestling. He’s far stronger than Mania, but much less luckily. She knocks him out in two rounds and raises all four of her arms in the air to proclaim to the crowd that Kentimane is with them and the Gods support the Chosen Ones. The crowd is delighted.

They all get medals, the gold ones being worth 3000 gold. Mania, Cleophe and Azelma get laurel leaves and Cleophe has gained a lot of fans. Mania and Azelma are very popular too. Leiland the Gladiator invites the chosen ones and the others who placed out for drinks, to party before the relay race the next morning.

On the way to the party, Cleophe asks Mania why she called her Cleo. Mania explains she thought it was cute and that Cleophe merits a nickname that means glory. Cleophe explains it’s kinda funny, because all her sister’s names also start with “Cleo” so no one got that nickname in her family. She has four younger sisters, Cleodora, Cleeia, Cleomestra and Cleone. Mania is delighted to hear more about Cleophe’s family. Cleophe thanks her for beating the monk who pinned her and they talk about how satisfying it was to beat the Sydon soldier.

At the party, Azelma gets drawn into a discussion about proteins and workout regimens with Leiland, she keeps talking up her friends. Thalestris got overwhelmed and hid in a corner, wildshaping into a forg. The taverncat starts playing with her until Cleophe blows on its nose to make it go away. Cleophe invites her to hop on her shoulder and she does. For the entire party Cleophe, Chosen One and Gold medallist of the Great Games has a Shoulder Frog.

The Aresian monk comes up to Mania to ask her if she’s part of Eko’s army, something Mania knows nothing about. Where he comes from, nymphs cutting off their hair is a sign. The nymph Eko has a grudge against the Queen and cut off her hair to show she’s serious. It was something to do with a broken engagement. His name is Psy… and he’s not very talkative. Mania talks to him about the Titans and the Chosen Ones and tells him to carry the tale back to the powers of Aresia.

Bullbug the Minotaur is waving at them from outside. Azelma asks why they wanted to kill him in the first place. Apparently it was traditional to start with a sacrifice to Sydon, but Vallus put a stop to that. However, first combat can still be to the death. Depending on how much they’re willing to pay, he will be able to find them a crew. Phryne makes sure he knows what kind of mission they are one, he says it’s kind of her to warn him, but being a minotaur in Mytros isn’t safe either.

Inside, Mania flirts with the bard and the auread and gets invited to a drinking competition. She outdrinks the other auraed but not the bard lady. They spend the night exchanging getting friendly and furthering Mania’s PR campaign by drunkenly telling stories.

Azelma, happy she’s a winner, holds her locket while she falls asleep that night. She gets a dream of having her hair stroked.

The next morning, Phryne spends some time staring at Thalestris until she finally asks her if she talked to the Oracle too. Thalestris did not get a prophecy so Phryné is concerned she does not know the full scope of what the Chosen Ones are going to do. Thalestris says Makaila explained it to her and asks if Phryne wants her to leave. Phryne just wants her to know she doesn’t have to join them, even though it’s good she’s decided to help. Thalestris explains that she’s been in the Woods learning the ancient traditions, not really helping anyone except for safeguarding the traditions. Phryne says she’s sure the Gods appreciate someone taking the side of good of their own will. Thalestris keeps repeating that she’ll go if Phryné wants her too. They talk about Phryne’s own wishes, independent from the will of the Gods, which she doesn’t think she has. Her feelings are her own, but the follow the Plan of the Gods.

The final event of the Great Games is the relay race with 5 different challenges they divided amongst themselves:

Beach run - Phryne

Underwater - Thelastris

Cliff climb - Cleophe

Fire dash - Iliana

Harpy Cages – Azelma

Magic support - Mania

Mania gives every runner inspiration and Enhanced Abilities with some words of encouragement. Azelma starts out the race with the beachrun. The moment she encounters roaming lions, she casts Darkness on them, running past them safely. One lion pounces on the Aresian monk, knocking him prone. The next leg is underwater so Thalestris transforms into a giant seahorse and speeds throught eh water effortlessly, leaving everyone behind. She jumps out of the water dramatically, transforming mid-air and handing the baton to Cleophe for the cliff climb. Mania Levitates her and Cleophe practically flies of the cliff, she climbs that fast. Iliana gets the baton for the Firedash, which is running over hot coals and firesnakes. Ever the wizard, Iliana calculates he could Misty Step one third of the way. Mania casts Jump on her so she can jump further, Iliana summons Tenser’s Floating Disc at the halfway point and jumps from there, dancing through the air far out of reach of the snakes and flames. She hands the baton to Phryne for the last leg, the Harpy Cages. Mania starts singing to disrupt the Harpies’ song. Phryne barely makes it, but she manages to shrug off the Harpy song and she’s the first one across the finish line. The next team did almost as well, but finished with one point less. The Chosen Ones win the Great Games!

They get more laurel wreaths and 5000 gold. Acastus hands out the laurels at the closing ceremony. He seems annoyed at all the attention they’re getting, keeping a little tight smile on his face. Azelma smirks at him. Mania offers her second laurel to Vallus, who is surprised but puts it on.

Thalestris looks at the other Amazon and tells her great job. The Amazon says she doesn’t know her. Thalestres introduces herself as a druid of the old woods and sometime from Themis. She doesn’t actually call herself an Amazon and the conversation ends awkwardly.

They talk to Bullbug about getting a crew and ships’ supplies. A full crew would be 500 gold for a full month’s journey, which they gladly pay.

Iliana meets with Alcmene at the Academy. She’s impressed with Iliana’s Floating Disc. Alcmene pours out a purplish Ooze that can do the more mundane aspects of potion making. She also got 3 vials of potions of water-breathing that also helps your swimming speed, made from hag’s hair. The clean hags skull is now a Fear skull. (cast the Fear spell without components or spell slots once a day with the saving throw at disadvantage). The eye attached can now be seen through it, but people who spot the eye-spy can move it of course.

Phryne talks to Thalestris again to clarify she doesn’t want her to leave. She starts off with saying that she thinks Vallus thinks Thalestris is cool. It still doesn’t convince Thalestris. Phryne wonders out loud if she’s just incapable of communicating with Amazons. Thalestris says it’s not her fault, she talked with two people in the last 10 years. Phryné replies that she talks to sheep. Thelastris asks if it would help if she was a sheep and when Phryné excitedly says it might, she wildshapes into a sheep.

Mania and Iliana go shopping for ship’s supplies, Mania ostensibly to act as Iliana’s restraint, a task she’s very unsuited for. They purchase:

· Crew for a month 500gp

· Anchor of weighing 650gp

· 2 Repairkits 25gp

· Scroll for fill the sails 75gp

· Scroll for buoyancy 50gp

· Fishing gear: tackle&rod 10gp

the rest of the prize money gets divided up so they can buy brooches that keep your hair looking nice and spells that let you locate fish at their leisure.

And that’s all for this session of the Thylead!

@aporeticelenchus @leomundstinyblog @m-siecle @pioup-pioup @guineamaina @somuchbetterthanthat

#the thylead #thylead art #session recap #dnd #odyssey of the dragonlords #a talia original #talia paints #the games were so fun!#and unexpectedly tense #i very much enjoy our new animal friend #the image of a shoulder frog is v good #we rolled so many nat 20s this session #i'm proud of us

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