Vocath's Arena

Having no other apparent options for enlisting aid against the Xaryxian Empire, the four party members - including the recently rescued Valana - have agreed to Vocath's terms of fighting three consecutive rounds in his combat arena. The party was granted the opportunity to prepare for the combat so they wasted no time in stocking up on potions and new magical items. Eeblock acquired a tool to help enhance his spell casting. Thomas quickly opted for a magic shortbow to make his ranged attacks even more precise and deadly. Plenty of potions were also grabbed to ensure the party would have the ability to heal between rounds.
 
Once shopping was completed, the party made their way to the arena where they prepared for the first of their three battles. Jade immediately consumed a heroism potion as well as a giant strength potion. Coupling both of these with her barbaric rages will make her quite the force to be reckoned with. As the party stood close to each other, across the arena entered 2 huge, 4-armed, yellow skinned giants. The party was ready for them and quickly got off a round of attacks before the giants could make their first move. Only Jade dared go toe-to-toe with the foes, and for good reason. The giant she was engaged with attempted to grab her with each of its limbs in an attempt to rip her to pieces. Jade, however was too quick to be grasped by the beast. Meanwhile, the second giant focused its attacks on Valana who had managed to affect it with a spell which affected its attacking ability. Valana suffered a fierce blow but was able to cast a spell which paralyzed both of the giants. The party wastes no time landing fierce blow after blow upon the parayzed foes but were unable to defeat them before one of them broke the spell holding it fast. It immediately went after Valana and was able to strike her down, which caused the spell on the other giant to falter. The giant that struck down Valana now eyed Thomas and lands a blow on the halfling. Thomas is able to disengage from the giant, scamper across the arena and strike it down with an arrow through the eye. The second giant attempts to grab Thomas to rip him apart, but it certainly had underestimated the halfling's elusiveness as Thomas is as slippery as an eel, especially around lumbering giants. The three remaining party members focus all their attacks against the last giant and quickly defeat it. Eeblock quickly heals Valana back to consciousness, when she quickly heals herself and downs a potion to get herself back to fighting strength, albeit still fairly wounded.
 
After only a brief moment to regroup, the next set of foes enter the arena. This time it is a single giant bipedal creature with a lizard-like head with two companions, similar to the creature we defeated for Topolah, but not as large. One of them is apparently a juvenile as it is significantly smaller than the other. This time, the party was not as quick at the draw as the enemy and the giant gained the initiative. Valana and Jade are both hit by a breath weapon from the giant, striking Valana down. Jade is then swallowed by the larger of the two companion creatures. Thomas manages to elude the creatures and find a position where he can fire arrows at the creature that swallowed Jade while Eeblock and his homunculus sent attacks at the giant and the smaller of the two companions. Thomas is struck down by the giant just as Valana revives on her own, casting a hold person spell to paralyze the giant. Jade manages to hack her way out of the beast that swallowed her, slaying it in the process. Valana runs over to heal Thomas, getting him back into the fray but only briefly as both Valana and Thomas are struck down by the giant. Meanwhile Eeblock managed to slay the smaller of the two companion beasts leaving just the giant. Fortunately, Jade and Eeblock are able to defeat the foe, but not before Valana succumbed to her injuries. Eeblock was able to revive Thomas, who then consumed a potion and cast a couple of cure wounds spells upon himself to be at top condition for the next fight. But now, there are only three party members. Gaining the upper hand is imperative as there will be no spell casting help from Valana to disable any of the foes.