Escape from the arena...

With the young girl’s question answered, the old ashik took a small swig of water to wash the dust out of his throat. His mind drifted back to the days when he never knew where his next cup of water would come from, and he was pleased that he had found this little cluster of homes beside the muddy oasis to tell his tale. And with that thought in his head he resumed his story.

Gendrik looked at Fleck and said;

I really think that I could do it. If that tall woman comes with me dressed as a Templar then I could easily get one of the trollies and we could load it up with weapons.

Fleck looked at him, and deciding that he was being serious he left the guardroom and silently stalked along the corridor until he found Kank and Scar in their hiding place. He relayed Gendrik’s plan, and the tall warrior woman agreed to the plan. Fleck and Kank unbarred the door and the slave and Templar pair slipped through and headed along the corridor beyond. They head past the infirmary, and a couple of guard posts, but as soon as the guards see that there is a Templar pushing a slave along the corridor they ignore the pair.

Gendrik enters a room on the left and Scar can see that it is filled with a large mix of scenery for the Games, some of which is being repaired, and other items are being held in storage. Gendrik grabs one of the trollies used to move the larger pieces of scenery and they make their way back to the others. When they arrive back at the slave pens Fleck opens the doors and lets them in before barring the doors once again behind them. Gendrik pushes the trolly to the armoury where Arthur and Miloch help load it with weapons, he then pushes it back down the corridor and leaves it outside of the guardroom.

By early evening it becomes obvious that the main event of the Games has begun as the noise levels reach fever pitch, and the group ready themselves to leap into action as soon as they hear the signal. Suddenly a hush seems to come over the arena and then there is an explosion that shakes the walls of the hypogeum beneath the arena. Realising that this must be the signal, and not wanting any hostile troops behind them, Arthur, Balboa, Kank, and Miloch rush towards the double doors that Gendrik has told them has at least two Half-giants and a Templar behind. While Fleck, Gendrik, and Scar grab the trolley loaded with weapons and head out towards the arena.

As they calmly move along the corridor just a slave pushing a tarpaulin covered trolly with a Templar overseer, Scar can hear the sound of screaming echoing around the arena above. Ahead, Scar can see a group of slaves being forced along roughly by two Human guards, she rushes towards them with Fleck close behind her. As she runs, Scar realises that a yellow mist is materialising and filling the corridor, but she has no time to think about it as she leaps at one of the guards. The Sword of Kemalok flashes in the dark and severs the guards right arm. Fleck darts out from behind Scar and slashes his obsidian shortsword at the other guards legs.

Scar strikes again, but the guard stumbles out of the way of the blow. The second guard, recovering his wits, swings hard at Fleck and catches him a powerful blow crippling his leg. Fleck falls to the floor and starts to crawl away from the fight towards the trolly. Gendrik steps in and hits the guard in his leg and he also collapses to the floor. Fleck grabs the edge of the tarpaulin and drags it off of the trolly revealing the weapons, he shouts at the slaves;

Rise up! Arm yourselves! And fight against the tyranny!

Scar swings with the Sword of Kemalok and catches the first guard in the head, felling him instantly, she then stabs down with her backswing and slays the second guard. She throws off her Templar’s robe and hands Fleck a gourd of weezer honey while watching the slaves arm themselves.

Stood quietly outside the double doors the group prepare themselves for the coming fight, casting spells and hefting weapons, Kank listens at the door and hears in a low rumbling voice, like rocks grinding together;

You hear that?

A second rock grinding voice replies;

What?

Kank throws open the doors and the group rush in, Kank darts left and Arthur goes right, in front of them they can see the Templar with his back to the room looking out of a narrow window up into the arena and two hulking Half-giants leaning against two massive capstans. Without waiting for a reaction Arthur slams his iron maul into one of the Half-giants midriffs, the large humanoid doubles over in pain. Kank swings hard at the other Half-giant, his earth ring enhanced strength making it a mighty blow. Bone Crusher shatters the bones of the humanoid's leg, and the powerful blow sends the massive humanoid flying backwards to crash into the wall beside the Templar. The Templar turns back into the room with his eyes wide.

A yellow mist is filling the room and the group start to feel it’s effects, their strength is sapped and their coordination falters, their opponents also appear to be affected by the strange mist. Arthur clobbers the winded Half-giant a second time in his gut with his iron maul and the large humanoid falls to the floor dead. Miloch rushes the Templar and is hit by the Templars iron battleaxe, but the blow bounces off of his armour. Miloch swings but misses as Kank joins him in his fight with the Templar, but the large Mul also swings wildly and misses. The Templar swings again at Miloch, but the dexterous ex-slave dodges the blow and his counterstrike catches the Templar in the head killing him instantly.

The Half-giant laying on the floor with a broken leg swings his massive bone club at Kank and catches him in the abdomen, Kank doubles over as Balboa steps past him and smashes his iron banded mace into the Half-giants chest killing him. Recovering, Kank bends down to search the Templar’s body and discovers a small pouch of coins. Kank grabs the coins and the iron battleaxe and looks up to see Arthur looking out through the small window. Arthur can see a large hatch in the ceiling of the room beyond that opens up into the arena, and opposite him is a second viewing window. Arthur sees someone looking back at him and quickly ducks out of sight. Kank throws Arthur the coin pouch and says;

We best go find Scar! She’s bound to have found a fight.

Scar rushes along the corridor with ten freed slaves in her wake, she runs straight at a group of four guards like a howling banshee. She crashes into them and buries the Sword of Kemalok deep into one of the guards chest. The slaves swarm all over the other guards but they are weak, and the insidious yellow mist is weakening them even more, and they are getting the worst of the fight. Scar launches herself at the next guard along but the guard parries her blow and stabs back at her catching her in the leg with his shortsword. Scar’s leg buckles under her and she goes down.

Running ahead of the others Kank and Miloch find Fleck just climbing to his feet as the weezer honey has healed his wound. Kank asks where Scar has gone and Fleck quickly leads them along the corridor in the direction that the warrior woman had headed with her slave revolt. In moments they catch sight of the fight between the slaves and the guards, and seeing Scar on the floor injured Kank bellows a challenge and leaps into the melee with an overhead slam of Bone Crusher. The Mul’s cherished weapon smashes into one of the guards arms and there is the cracking sound of breaking bones.

Scar rolls out of the fight and swallows the last of her weezer honey to heal herself. She can see that the slaves are occupying the guards but are too weak to injure them, however with the arrival of Kank and Miloch the tide has turned. Miloch cleaves one of the guards in the middle of his chest with his iron battleaxe and the man staggers backwards but does not go down as his armour deflects most of the blow. Fleck darts in and slices one of the guards across the back of his leg and the man drops to one knee. One of the guards lashes out with his shortsword and it connects with Gendrik’s head as the freed slave drops like a sack of rocks.

Kank follows up on the guard with a vicious strike with Bone Crusher and the man collapses under the barrage of blows. Miloch then slays another of the guards with his battleaxe, leaving only one guard standing. Not for long as Kank once again smashes him in the chest with Bone Crusher and the only people left standing once again are the ex-slaves.

The mists' effects continue to take their toll, and people all over the arena are dropping to the floor. Balboa quickly looks at Gendrik and calls upon the gnomes of the earth to heal him, and in moments Gendrik is on his feet and shouting for the slaves in the arena to join them. The group quickly agree that they should return back to the base of the tower and try to escape via the Under Tyr, Kank leads them off and once they make it to the crossroads he stands guard there waiting for Gendrik who is bringing up the rear while the others lead everyone to the safety of the ladders.

The yellow mist continues to affect everyone, and by the time that they have made it to the ladders down to the base of the tower a number of the ex-slaves are having to be helped, but eventually they manage to get everyone into the guardroom at the bottom of the tower. They make sure that the slaves help themselves to food and water, but everyone has been badly weakened by the mist, especially Kank, and the group decide that they will not be able to make it safely through the Under Tyr.

Just as suddenly as it appeared, the yellow mist disappears. But unfortunately, it’s effects remain. Scar and Arthur agree to return back to the arena to see if it will be safer to exit via there, and so they leave the others to rest while they climb back up the ladders. The pair make it safely to the doors to the arena floor and can see that there are still pockets of fighting around the stadium. Some of the nobles are fighting against a group of Templars, but a second and larger group of Templars appear to be making an orderly exit from the arena. Scar and Arthur agree that it is still too dangerous to bring the slaves up in their weakened state and so they return to their safehold.

An hour passes and the pair return back to the arena, everything seems to have gone quiet and so Arthur and Scar agree to see if there is anything in the infirmary to help out. When they enter they discover a Templar and a Mul slave standing protectively in front of him. The Templar says;

I am Fabius. What do you want?

Scar steps forwards and proudly states;

I am Scar White of the Wastes. The slaves are revolting!

The Templar cocks his head to one side, indicating that he has always thought that the slaves were a little unsavoury always. Scar continues;

In these troubling times you either help out or maybe your days will end here!

Fabius looks furious and shouts;

You come in here and threaten me! When I have done nothing! Go fek yourself!

With that the Templar waves his hands in a mystical pattern and utters words in an unknown language and points at Scar. The large warrior woman stands confused for a moment and stares around as if she is unaware of her surroundings. Arthur quickly ushers her out of the infirmary and back towards the tower.

By the time that they get to the bottom of the ladders Scar has regained her senses, they agree that it would be safer to get everyone out via the arena. Over the next hour they slowly help all of the slaves, and some of the weaker group members, climb the ladders to the top of the tower. They then usher them out through the passages of the hypogeum and up to the arena floor. As they are crossing the arena Arthur spots Rikus and Neeva, the victorious gladiators, surrounded by a number of people including a Templar. Arthur cautiously approaches them and hears them say;

It looks like we have succeeded. Kalak appears to have been destroyed.

Arthur interrupts them and asks who is in charge. Rikus responds;

Nobody!

Arthur retreats and the group make it out of the arena and into the streets of Tyr. It is a scene of utter chaos. There were bodies lying everywhere, and small groups of people sat around too weak to move any further from the stadium. It is here that the group part ways from the freed slaves, Balboa suggests giving them some coin and Arthur almost chokes. But he begrudgingly gives them all a single ceramic piece. Kank is incensed that is all he is willing to give is a ceramic piece and so he reaches into his own pouch and hands all twenty of them a silver piece.

The group make their way slowly back to the Golden Inix and are informed by the owner, Mila, that the yellow mist was city wide and seemed to be a spell that drained the strength of everyone within the city state, but that it ended abruptly probably when the caster of the spell died. The group tell Mira that they would like their rooms back as they are in need of rest, and she is happy to help, for two silver a night. Everyone heads up to bad, and the following morning most of them are feeling a little better. Everyone except for Scar and Kank. The big Mul is bedridden and the tall warrior woman, while better than Kank, has not seen her health improve at all.

Worried about the pair, Arthur and Balboa head to Borman’s Fine Clothing to try and contact Fleck, but they find the shop closed for business and so Balboa scrawls a note and leaves it pinned to the door. The following morning when there has been no improvement in Kank and Scar, and there has been no contact from Fleck, Balboa heads once again to the shop. This time he bangs on the door until it is opened by the young man who originally served him. Balboa insists that he needs yet another hat as a matter of urgency, the young boy looks a little confused given what is going on in the city of Tyr but he says that he will see what he can do.

Returning to the Golden Inix they find Miloch and Scar sitting at the bar talking with Mila and Jaryx. Mila tells everyone that Kalak is destroyed and a Templar by the name of Tithian has joined the slave rebellion. However, nobody appears to be running the city state of Tyr and unless things change soon there will be riots in the streets. The Mul gladiator called Rikus has become the voice of the former slaves and he, Tithian and a noble called Agis of Asticles are discussing forming a ruling council.

Later that afternoon Fleck arrives in the common room of the Golden Inix and Balboa tells him that Kank and Scar are not recovering from the effects of Kalak’s spell. Fleck doesn’t understand why but he believes that he may know someone who can help out. Twenty four hours later he reappears with a shady looking Elf, Mila looks concerned to see the Elf in the bar but waves Jaryx away when Balboa gets up and greets Fleck. The Elf introduces himself as Sirius and Balboa quickly leads him upstairs to see the bedridden Kank. The Elf looks in Kank’s mouth, checks his ears and armpits and then declares that he has some kind of lung infection.

Balboa says;

Can you help?

Sirius gives Fleck a sidelong glance and the feral Halfling nods. Sirius says;

What I am about to do might scare you, but do not be afraid.

He then starts to cast a spell. None of the group are either surprised or scared. And as soon as he has finished it is obvious that Kank is breathing easier. Sirius casts a second spell on Scar and she too finds that she can breathe better than she has in several weeks. Balboa thanks Sirius and the shady looking Elf says;

In the future you should know that the plant Gloomvine can be used to cure some diseases. Oh! That will also be six gold please!

Arthur splutters and spits but he reaches into a pouch and pulls out six gold coins to pay the Elf. Scar asks Sirius where he learnt the cure disease spell, but Sirius says that he prefers not to talk about it. Scar continues to press and says that her parents taught her preserver magic, at this Sirius’ interest is peaked and he asks her to cast a spell. Scar does so, and when it is obvious that it is definitely preserver magic he hands her a clay token and tells her of a location near to the Elven Market;

Go there and you shall find what you seek!