Session 19 Recap – The Queen Walked Out

One day in Emberwood to catch their breath, then back down into the pits on a Friday night, when the Row is twice as loud and somebody important is watching. The Misfits beat the Catacomb Cobras, met the Queen's champion, and did something nobody in that room had ever seen: they made Big Linda run.

A Day in Emberwood

The party spent the day between fight nights back in Emberwood, out of the Haze, and split up to chase their own business.

Tough Luck and Six met first thing, and Tough Luck was asking again about the dwarves and his sister. Mel turned up mid-conversation, plainly having overheard, and wanted to know if they were ready for tonight: a match with the champion would make them all a fortune. He told Tough Luck that his contact, Baldric, was on the case, and there'd be more help once the ladder was done. Tough Luck wandered off, distracted by something.

Six went to the Chapel of Saint Ardenna to ask Flamekeeper Hanna about clearing his contamination. Drakzen was already there, and Six greeted him loudly with a question about getting back to the pits to win more money. Hanna heard. She also saw Six's arms, long and changed by what the Haze had done to him, and looked at him with real sadness: a poor soul. The cleansing wasn't free — 150 gold for the casting, plus 100 gold of holy water. Six supplied the holy water himself, and Hanna remarked on how pure it was; she recognized it as water consecrated in the rite Drakzen performed at the Chapel of Saint Brenna. Six then convinced her he only had 120 gold to his name, with some quick sleight of hand making sure his coin purse agreed. She took it, and performed the cleansing. Afterward she spoke quietly with Drakzen. The Flame burns hot in Six, she told him. She also sees a darkness there.

Augustine went to Ansom Lang at the Watchtower. Ansom was taken aback that the party seemed to be working with the Queen's Men, and more so that they were fighting in illegal pits. Augustine assured him it was purely for information and a contact with the Ironhelm dwarves. Ansom's interest sharpened at that: the Ironhelms make fine weapons and munitions, and he'd very much like some of their guns. He asked Augustine to find out how the Hooded Lanterns could set up a weapons trade with them, perhaps offering extra patrols or men to keep the dwarves safe. He had nothing on the Queen's champion. What happens in the pits stays out of his reports.

Doc delivered the chunk of meteoric iron the party recovered in the ruins to Tobias Crowe. That secured the party continued use of Tobias's workshop at no extra cost. This sample, Tobias explained, was for learning how the material behaves and how to work it, but more samples could likely be made into armor and weapons for the party. Doc also bought a Potion of Superior Healing from Aldor the Immense.

Rustar started the morning in meditation, going back over the fights and visualizing one thing: getting out of the way of an attack. Deep in the trance, the raven's-beak charm in his pouch squawked a single word.

"DODGE."

It's only the second sound the charm has ever made, and the first word. Rustar went on to Aldor the Immense at Caravan Court about the Bracers of Ogre Strength. Aldor still hasn't been able to find a pair.

Friday Night on the Row

The crowd was much bigger on a Friday. Somebody had set up a merch table: tunics printed with BIG LINDA, and tunics celebrating the Misfits' meteoric rise, printed with "Have you seen a little dwarf girl?" and an arrow pointing straight down at the wearer's crotch.

Before the first match, the party spotted Baldric in the crowd above the ring, escorting a strikingly beautiful, very tall human woman dressed in black and red. Nobody had to tell them who she was. She met their eyes, grinned, nodded, and sipped her wine.

The Catacomb Cobras

Smoke bombs flew into the ring at the opening bell, and the Cobras used the cover to strike first. It looked like a dirty play, but Bull ruled it within the rules. Mamba Jones was as dangerous as her reputation, and her poisoned shortswords hit Tough Luck especially hard. Her crew didn't last: Six's Chromatic Orb bounced from Cobra to Cobra until every one of them was down. With only Mamba left standing, another Cobra entered the ring, but Bull called the match the moment Mamba dropped, before the new fighter could do anything.

The Misfits took the 300 gold purse share and 400 gold from their bet on themselves. They also overheard that Mel had bet on them — and then quietly hedged with a second bet against them. He didn't deny it:

"Business is business, friend. Blackjack Mel believes in you. Blackjack Mel also believes in eating next week."

A short rest, and then the last fight on the card.

The Queen's Champion

Two combatants stood in the ring with the party while Bull made his announcements. Then the far wall of the pit swung open — not a wall at all, but a gate. Big Linda came out of it: a huge, acid-slick reptilian monstrosity, warped by delerium, nothing like anything the Misfits had fought before.

She opened with a spray of acid that caught Augustine, Drakzen, and others, and put Drakzen down on the spot. The party pulled itself together and started taking her apart with everything they had. By the third round, something in her changed. Not fear, exactly — nothing that dumb and animal really understands fear — but the oldest instinct there is. She stopped trying to kill them and started trying to leave.

Big Linda smashed through a weak brick wall at the back of the pit and was gone into the tunnels beyond.

When the party looked up, the Queen's seat was empty. Nobody had seen her go. Baldric wasn't cheering. He was calmly writing something in his ledger, and then he left too.

The collapsed wall had buried two spectators. The Misfits dug them out — two of the Queen's Men, alive because of them.

Settling Up

Back of house, Bull was furious. Rocky didn't look happy either, and was careful about how he put it: the champion wasn't beaten in battle, so it couldn't be counted as a win. But the Misfits didn't lose, either. He paid out the 500 gold purse share and 2,400 gold on their 300-gold bet at 8:1.

With their purses heavier than they've ever been, the party turned to the reason they came down here in the first place. Baldric reappeared, ready to talk about the Ironhelms.

That conversation is where the next session begins.