Succession - Cursed Compass

General Summary

The Wardens having finished a harrowing series of battles with a gold dragon, a trio of angels, and a group of ropers, placed the orange activation crystal into the sigil immediately teleporting to a new location. As they blinked into the sunlight of a wide arena stadium visions began to form below them in a scene.

One More Cycle

The arena stood empty, awaiting it's first challengers, but in the stands off to the side the same father son pair appeared and began talking to each other.
“Father I am ready,” Tsama challenges.
“You are not ready," Kanai coughs, "to compete in the tournament this year. You will wait one more Cycle and then you should be ready to take the throne. Here is something my father once gave to me,“ handing Tsama a knife. “Always keep it in your boot.”
“But Father I am ready,” the boy insists.
“You are not,” the man punches Tsama in the chest, and removes his hand and places it on the boy's shoulder before he notices. He begins coughing again, “If I lose you must immediately flee, You must go somewhere, where no one knows you. Where you can start a new life. If you do not, they will come for you, and take your life as they have taken mine. You are 15 now. I had hopped you would be ready by now. That you would end this circle of violence and death. That as the new King you could change the rule that the old King must die. That we could move forward as a society built on the strength of all it’s citizens. That we will continue to grow. That you will lead us through prominence and divinity. But, you are not ready. You are not determined enough, you lack commitment to your course of action. This is not your fault, while your mother was here I allowed you to play as a child does, as opposed to leading you into becoming a man sooner. cough You will be ready soon. But you are not now.”

The 105th Nitrebury King’s Tournament

The scene pivots as a charismatic drow appears in the center of the field wielding something to amplify his voice, "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I am your announcer Baeloth the entertainer. Today we are here for the greatest of spectacles. The best of reasons, truest of beliefs, that which predates now to the core of all bi-pedal species. That might equals right. That physical strength is the best way to understand who is best to lead. Welcome to the 105th demi-decade of the Nitrebury King’s Tournament."
The crowd cheers as he continues, "We are proud to be entering our quarter finals today. With the victor of the tournament becoming the next monarch of our fair city state.
The rules of the tournament are simple:

1. This is not a tournament to the death. Though you can kill your opponent.
2. The King must die to become King - We implemented this rule after Terry the traitor, he lost the tournament and swore fealty to the new champion and then murdered him in his sleep and reclaimed power.
3. There are no charm based affects.
4. Magic is allowed, but if you destroy our city we will destroy you - Melvin the meteor was the reason for us instituting that rule.
5. This is a fight of brawn, but we respect brilliance. If you can convince all the remaining competitors to give up, and crown you victor the tournament will end, though if we are swapping Kings, the King must die. - That Terry the traitor, he murdered his childhood friend Donovan the determined, through this rule, he knew he wasn’t strong enough to defeat Donovan who was a respected Nitrebury general. So he conceded through The Rule of respect.
6. The tournament is open to anyone strong enough to join.
7. No precast spells such as mage armor. You may use that spell but it must be cast during the fight. We as a society pride ourselves on our long tradition of ruling by strength of purpose and vigor.
8. The eighth and final rule is contestants may not use the Wish spell. This rule was implemented after Wally the Wish, wished himself King. And King he did become, but the God’s they are sneaky and Wally became King, 5 seconds before the then King Abadan the Axe removed his head, with his axe.

Currently the reigning monarch for the last 6 cycles, this will be his 7th tournament he is already the longest ruling King in the history of the tournament beating out Raleigh the Rabid by 2 cycles, unfortunate what happened to Raleigh, Raleigh eaten alive by his own rabbits. The current King Kanai the knife, who during his first tournament utilized a knife he kept in his boot to stab the then King Christopher the Cleaver and win the tournament.
Your remaining competitors are:
Isobel the ironmaiden Skadi the vagabond Mildred the maniac Ciaron the coming storm Kovertal the colorful Grigor the angel of death
Match 1 will be:
Ciaron the coming storm vs Grigor the Angle of Death
Match 2 will be:
Kovertal the colorful vs Isobel the ironmaiden"
As the matches begin the match between Ciaron and Grigor is a quick magical tour deforce with Grigor pausing time to buff himself. Some quick thinking sent Ciaron into the sky out of reach of Grigors spells. The bought was quick with some devastating magic flying before Ciaron managed to disintegrate Grigor with a well placed disintegrate dusting him.
The second match pitted Kovertal vs Isobel in a battle of brawn. The combatants locked in close combat where they stayed brutally pulverizing each other until Kovertal was able to get a well placed swing off with their longsword severing Isobel's head.
The third match pitted Kovertal vs Skadi the vagabond. Kovertal opened with a fierce salvo of attacks but Skadi used his invisibility to dodge out of the range of Kovertal's smoky echos. This allowed Skadi to target Kovertal directly, unfortunately as attacks break invisibility, Kovertal was able to hold their attack until Skadi was visible again bringing them down.
As the Wardens watched on Myra seemed to be becoming paler with each death commenting that she didn't understand why such bloodshed was necessary. Amelie asked if people didn't do this where Myra was from commenting that one of her sutors was a competitor who liked being in the oil a bit too much. Due to an incident with a flame he did not move very much anymore but generally she understood it as a way of resolving issues. Myra commented that it didn't seem to her to solve any issues only creating new ones. She commented that at least the fights in Kolis-Tane didn't result in so much death, prompting Raijun to ask excitedly if Kolis-tane had a fighting pit as the matches began anew.
The penultimate match pitted Kovertal vs Ciaron in a chance to fight the king. While Kovertal had a fierce opening salvo Ciaron was able to ride the winds escaping Kovertal's range and flying high above the arena into the air above the stands. There he summoned Retha, the ever growing storm, a blue dragon spirt that fiercely lashed out at Kovertal on the ground. While Kovertal was able to last a few rounds between well placed lightning and Retha's ferocious attacks the knight was haggard until a well placed lightning bolt ended the match.

Run for Me

As the match concludes Baeloth introduces the final contestants of the evening, "Ladies and gentlemen, our final fight, the one to determine the King of our fair city, it is between Ciaron the ever growing storm and the current King, Kanai the Knife.
As they take their places Ciaron fires off a devistating lightning based disintegrate doing more than 100 damage to the king. The king stumbles for a moment before touching a small rock floating around his head and dashing to the edge of the arena.
Baeloth asks the crowd, "Where is he going?" looking confused himself.
As the king reaches the side of the arena the yells up to Tsama, “My son, I love you, and though my soul feels joy for seeing you mature until this point, I cannot further lead you, my story ends here, do not weep for my loss, but rejoice in the time we spent together, do not feel anger for my death, praise that I lived, Anger, rage and malice only lead to further anger and death, this is not our way. When life chooses your destiny, spit in it’s face and choose your own. Choose your good day to die. Choose when you decide that you have gone far enough, do not allow destiny, nor man, nor God to take this from you. For you are born of the sacred love between two of gods children and that endows you with the right of choice. Now my son, run you fool, run until your feet bleed and your legs collapse, run until you lungs explode and your heart no longer feels sadness, run for yourself, run for your ancestors, but please run for me.”
Tsama runs, fleeing the arena, heading south.
Kanai turns around, walks back to the fight, stretches his arms in a fighting pose. Another lightning bolt flashes from Ciaron arcing toward the king. Half a second before it lands, Kanai falls back but the lightning based disintegration ensures that none would ever be able to tell which came first as the body dissolves into ash.

Report Date

02 Mar 2022