Casing the Competition, Optimistic Odds and Crushing the Crucible

## Crucible Crew

* The first order of business was to track down an old contact of Kunai's to gain insight into the crucible competition
* After a brief exchange with Kunai, Welda provided some juicy details...
* The gold contest featured:
	+ Brother Luscious - a monk who hates Lord Falston
	+ Millicent - a tiefling fighter-mage, wields a trident, willing to join any team that compensates her financially
	+ Ilyrio Keg - Giff, won’t join any alliances, typically drops to the side and fires his gun from afar
	+ Lord Falston - a powerful but somewhat cowardly war wizard, uses high damage spells to blitz enemies
* The platinum context featured:
	+ Bonecruncher - physically slow but extremely powerful, no magic
	+ Ser Arent - cleric of the raven queen, wields a warhammer and not overly strong, willing to form alliances

## Never Tell Us The Odds...seriously, we'll spend at least 50 minutes debating

* Welda provided an array of betting odds on the crucible events
* Much debate was had about who to bet on and settled on Belgaer and Bayul

## Pre-game Dalliances

* In the gold room, Tamsin bartered a price of 200 gold for Millicent to join their side
* The monk, Luscious, and Leo bonded over their respective gods and agreed to focus on the mage Falston first of all

* In the platinum room, a 6th figure in the form of a grey-skinned, hooded elf sat in a corner - they locked eyes with lysandre and never uttered a word in response not questions
* With exceptional persuasive skills, Lysandre got the cleric Ser Arent to join the group’s side in taking down Bonecruncher
* As the events began, Kunai noticed two guys sat in noble boxes - one of whom was the collector and the other seen speaking to Empress after the execution

## Gold Tier Battle Royale

* Tamsin confused the Giff gunner who consequently whiffed his shots at Leo, Belgaer laid down some eldritch blasts while hovering, and Elyan and the mage turned invisible
* The monk began to attack the tiefling Millicent, stunning her into submission, while the Giff put a bullet through leo’s armour, an the firbolg dropped spiritual guardians as he charged through the hail of bullets
* Tamsin attempted to magical suggest that the Giff leave the arena but he stubbornly resisted, though she managed to redirect his irritated retaliatory shots at the monk
* Belgaer continued laying blast after blast into the now-flagging Giff that charged after Tamsin, though the crafty wizard escaped expeditiously past his slow but powerful blows
* Leo tracked down the invisible mage and smote him with a spiritual hammer blow, just as he reappeared and laid a barrier of flame over Belgaer and Tamsin
* The monk put the bloodied tiefling out of the fight before charging over at his nemesis the mage as Leo began to grapple him
* The Giff and Tamsin continued their fight, her shield saving her from some but not all of his bullets, and her fireball lit him in a monumental blaze that also revealed the cheeky Elyan
* Seeing the invisibility game was up, Elyan transformed into an enormous T-rex, biting down savagely on the Giff who did not rise back to his feet
* In Leo’s grasp, the mage managed to get another wall of fire onto Tamsin and take her out of the fight before being thrown into the spiked pit in the centre of the arena by the now-vengeful Firbolg
* While scribbulus rescued those down and took note of Belgaer’s healthiness, the genasi continued the assault on the mage with a series of punishing eldritch blasts
* In one final attempt to win, the mage drew a short sword and in a flurry of mist and arcane slashing struck Leo, the monk and Belgaer in one go
* In a sassy flick of his wrist, Belgaer downed the mage once and for all in infernal agony
* Leo and Elyan put on a mighty show for the crowd, with the Trex ultimately victorious in the battle but not the war — it was eventually but put to the floor by the endless barrage of eldritch energy from the ultimate champion, Belgaer!

## Platinum Tier Battle Royale

* The 6 contenders took their stations
* Kunai was first off the mark, putting a testing bolt into the edgy drow and taking cover, as the relatively slow but hulking Bonecruncher charged at Bayul with two javelins immediately sinking into him
* After briefly brooding on their troubled past, the darkness became shrouded in — you guessed it — darkness, and began to implacably advance on Lysandre, as he focused down the Bonecruncher with a brutal psychic lance that left her briefly drooling
* Bayul raged in retaliation and met the goliath’s faltering charge, striking out with vicious lunges from his spear
* Kunai sent bolt after bolt into the hulking goliath as Bayul fought blow for blow with her, while she repeatedly shrugged off spells from the cleric
* The darkness pursued Lysandre, resisting his attempt to lance them down, blindsiding him with a knife that arced murderously from the gloom
* Battle TBC...