Festival of the Hunt - AOR 554

21st January 2023

## Adventurers Attending

* Aloisius
* Andar Liadon
* Creed
* Skamos
* Takeshi Castel
* Drake Young

## Mission Notes

Arriving to the guild under message from the clerks, our adventurers found Beefington in good spirits, revealing that the Guild had been comped some tickets to the Festival of the Hunt, under the assumption that the Guild could provide some additional security just in case. Taking the tickets and a lift from Hamer the Dwarf with the cart to Hollyhead our adventurers were greeted by Mr Swizzlesticks at the gate.

With sprung shoes, top hat, monocle and cane, Mr Swizzlesticks spun his staff and turned our adventurers tickets into 10 Festival of the Hunt tokens and bid everyone 'the greatest of all times' in the Festival, laying out a few sparse rules as he went.

Inside were game stalls, a selection of traders in goods and food, entertainment tents, a fighting pit and a staging area for The Hunt. Creed taking the opportunity to investigate the game stalls found some carny thieves cant warding away those of a particular persuasion against the risk of losing their coin.

After agreeing to arrange some fights for sport with JR at the fighting pit, our adventurers headed to play some games at the stalls. Beginning with dice, Aloisius attempted to sway the game in his own favour, but without the deft of hand skills to pull one over on John the stall tender, he lost his bet. Takeshi appreciating the magically rigged nature of the games, took to trying to sell the dances of his purple lizard, which only attracted the slight interest of passing children. Following Aloisius and possibly oblivious to the rigged nature of the game Skamos attempted to bet on the dice, finally achieving the desired score before the dice appeared to tumble out of his favour and lose his bet.

Moving on to the coconut shy, a number of coconuts were won, but the talking stuffed toy remained unclaimed. Some card darts were thrown, winning a deck of cards, but the talking stuffed toy again remained unclaimed.

Taking a go at the hook a duck, drake hooked a duck realising his prize was the duck that came alive after it was hooked, but too slow or unprepared, allowed his duck to escape. After trying to shoot his out of the air Aloissius's duck escaped, but with vicious intent Skamos shamed his duck to death with it falling out of the sky.

Moving over to the tug'o'war and arm wrestling stand. Takeshi toyed with Andar before easily winning this feat of arm wrestling strength. A much greater contest however was fought to and fro between Skamos and Creed on the tug'o'war with Skamos finally winning out. Champion for now.

Taking a brief respite, our adventurers stopped for some cider from Jynnus the bartender along with a small lunch. Continuing on behind the crowds headed to the entertainment tent, our adventurers were interrupted by a young lady encouraging Andar to go meet with the Mystic Mistress for a Tarot reading. With Andar, Creed and Aloissius headed to the Mystic's tent, Takeshi and Skamos set up some improvised entertainment outside with the dancing lizard and Skamos' staff spinning, to little applause.

To all it appeared to be a fairly straightforward Tarot reading, with the Mystic Mistress turning a Magician card to start, the creation and manifestation of something altogether more magical in the beginnings of Andar. Followed by drawing The Hermit, but fumbling the card upside down. A sign that maybe Andar had lost or forgotten his true direction and purpose. Finally drawing The star card of hope for the future Andar that might come to be through his adventures in the Guild. BUT, for Andar on the reveal of the last card, the shadows of the tent grew in strength and the card flickered between The Star and The Tower, signalling the possibility of disaster and sudden upheaval in Andar's adventures with an ominous warning that he must seel the right path and overcome the darkness.

Creed sought a reading of his past looking for some clarification. With the Mystic pulling an upside down Hierophant card suggesting a rebellion from tradition followed by an upside down chariot suggesting a lack of direction and a need for internal contemplation before finally turning over the wheel of fortune, encouraging a change to take place in Creed's future. A change that he must make for himself.

With our adventurers entering the entertainment tent, they found a show of lights, archery feats and a little circus acrobatics, showing some attractive majesties before the finale of an armoured Knight defeating a dragon illusion. With Mr Swizzlesticks popping by to wish everyone the best of luck and 'the greatest of all times' in the tournament fights.

Arriving at the fighting pit, the matches were set. Skamos to fight a Monk's apprentice in a fight without weapons. Aloissius, Creed and Andar to give Barristan and his young towns guards some practice. Drake and Takeshi to take on two automatons named Thunder and Lightning with the automatons maker offering a prize, should they win, but not completely wreck the machines. All parties were advised of healers present, two old ladies named Saint and Joan, that would heal and removed felled parties from the ring, while the rules remained simple, absolutely no magic was to be used in the fights as these were feats of toughness, not fancy wizard fights.

With Skamos and Yang taking the first fight, Skamos opened with biting the head off a dead duck in true heel fashion. Punches, kicks and tail whips were thrown back and forth, each taking punishment in turn, before Skamos jumped up on to the fence and with skill ejected Yang from the ring. Taking some effort to get back into fighting range and angered at the circumstances, Yang began to lash out wildly, missing at every turn, before his master scolded him to remember his training. Yang now looking hurt, focused, tightened his stance and proceeded with a jab and uppercut to end the bout. Much to Andar's benefit, who'd chosen to bet against his compatriot.

As Skamos made his way back to his feet, Andar, Aloisius and Creed entered the ring, with Barristan coralling a set of particularly green towns guard into somewhat of a defensive shield wall before combat commenced. Aloisius quick off the mark flew round the back entering into range of Barristan and began attempting to hit the wily old fox, who between armour, shield and experienced sword began parrying incoming attacks. While Andar attempted to disrupt the shield wall, before Creed came running and leaping off the shield wall fired into Barristans neck while in the air, as he landed at his side. Combat furthered with many attacks being focused at Barristan to try and cleave the intelligence and leadership from the group. Eventually Barristan fell with too many attacks to shield and parry. From there the other guards panicked and Jerry the greenest of the guards kept attempting to break ranks as his other comrades kept him in place. Eventually they also fell and in fear Jerry attempted to run, flailing his sword around wildly and somehow finding purchase on Creed who himself fell. Now cornered by Andar and Aloisius, Aloisius put the bout to bed by piercing Jerry with his sword. The Guild Champions renewed.

With the fight ended JR leapt to his pedestal to call in the Grand Finale as two hulking automatons appeared and leapt into the ring - Thunder & Lightning, revealing their electrified sword arms, as Takeshi and Drake entered the ring. Drake closing the distance with mobile speed, leapt in and out of combat, leaving a wake of crumpled metal wherever he swung his long sword. While Takeshi moved with less haste, but in a wake of increasing destruction as his great axe carved through metal like hot steel through butter. Many electrified attacks were swung, with many lacking the martial prowess and experience of a true sword hand, leaving some damage, but with the fight not turning in their favour both automatons revealed an additional set of sword arms to increase their frequency of attack. As the tide of the fight looked to be swinging back in the automatons favour slightly, Takeshi cast shield to protect himself from some of the worst of the damage, unnoticed by most, but picked up on by Betting Bill and his gambling cohort. As the fight continued, overtaken by his rage Takeshi began cleaving the automatons in two, revealing and exploding their power cores and fully destroying the automatons. The Guild, champions again.

With the combat over the crowds headed over to the Hunt staging area, as our champions approached Betting Bill to cash in their betting slips. All parties were paid out, with an argument and bargaining taking place between Betting Bill and Takeshi over the use of magic in the fight. After a mixture of persuasion and intimidation a compromise was come to. Takeshi taking this opportunity, now his rage had subsided to apologise to the bespectacled inventor of the automatons and pay him a small consolation fee to help with the rebuild of his automatons. Disgruntled, but accepting the inventor left with his consolation coin.

With one place up for grabs in the Hunt, the other places taken up by a hunter, woodsman, trapper and kobold, Drake stepped forward to represent the Guild. After the animals were released from their cages, Drake discovered his quarry to be a deer and set off at pace with the other hunters into the darkening woods to chase the deer. Familiar with rural environments Drake managed to track and traverse the woodland with great haste, after some time coming upon his quarry and loosing an arrow at the limits of his range to drop the deer. After some investigation and using his knowledge of animal habits was able to uncover the body, dead beneath a fallen tree. Hoisting the animal onto his shoulders Drake made his way back to the starting point, struggling to carry the animal, but tracking in the right direction, managed to outpace the other hunters back to the beginning and arrived at the finish line a good 100ft or so ahead of his next best competitor. Drake, farmer, fighter and now Master Hunter, at least for this year.

With the Festival over, much cider was drunk, revelry was had and as the morning lights shone through, most were told that they didn't have to go home, but they couldn't stay here. A long walk back to the guild was all that was left to be had.

## Loot

* Standard Session Xp & Gold
* All coin won or lost in gambling (apportioned out during the game)
* 1 x Lantern of tracking (roll for type) - Drake

## Rumours

* Who was the inventor of Thunder and Lightning and how disgruntled was he at the destruction of his inventions.
* Who was this Mr Swizzlesticks and how above board was this fellow?
* After the fight between Yang and Skamos, Ying (Yang's master) pulled Skamos aside and explained their need for fair combat and monk training, as some of the usual avenues in Leodis for regulated combat had come under great suspicion of match fixing. Ying encouraged Skamos to have the Guild look into the match fixing and also to continue his Monk training.