Megathread - Tournament of Skulls Sideline/Audience

((OOC: This thread is intended to be for those on or in the audience/sideline for Tournament of Skulls [P] everyone is free to post, there is no post order, or rotation))

Off the coast of Sodom, there lies a mountainous island that typically remains uninhibited. However, every five years or so a tournament is held, for reasons few people know or care about. The matches were known it be bloody, and deadly affairs leaving the event to be nicknamed the Tournament of Skulls. It just so happens that now one such tournament is being held, and boats are heading in its direction........

Tournament of Skulls Sideline/Audience

Round One: Match One

For those brave enough to venture to the island they'd find themselves awash in a sea of villainy the kinds of which would make even Sodom commoners feel uneasy. To your left and right as far as you could see were any number of cutthroat and horsethieves, each rowdier than the next. Despite this, crime seemed to be almost nonexistent due to some scary looking guards that patrolled every cranny of the tournament. Housed in the side of the mountain was the only building on the site and the location of the main event. Entering through its maze-like tunnels took tournament go-ers deeper into the mountain before arriving at the center, where it would open to reveal it has been a dormant volcano all along. With a large white ring directly in the center, those in the audience would make their way through to the bleacher stands that lined the inside of the massive volcano. At some point through natural means or not, the top of the volcano had been removed allowing the sun to shine down onto the audience and arena alike.

There was a good amount of time of preparation time needed for the tournament, weeks in fact, but today it had seemed all that had come to an end allowing the main action to get underway, and the first fights to start right away. With the sudden flash, the void in the ceiling above was replaced with an illusion spell the depicted a young Felis woman walking forward, with a strange cylindrical instrument in hand.

​

"Hellooooo!" she said her voice somehow echoing throughout the interior of the mountain by use of some spell. "My name is Toto Nyanko, the hostess with the most-est and your announcer for the tournament of skulls!" As she spoke, she walked forward in the illusion above, simultaneously appearing physically near the arena down below. It seemed the game was using liberties with the magic system to recreate a Television to broadcast the action as well as a speaker system so everyone could hear it. Standing the middle of the arena Toto continued, "I've got good news for you folks! For the first match, we've got a doozy for you! So let's waste no time at all, and, Get! It! On!" every word the Felis spoke seemed to draw a cheer from the crowd which almost overshadowed the collection of various fights lining up on either side of the arena. Throwing her hand towards one of the prominent teams she continued, "Introducing the relative newcomers! Team Garron's Hatchets!" The name seemed to fit as before her, stood five darkly dressed men each carrying varying sizes of axes. Wasting no time Toto spun to the other side of the arena pointing out the other group of fighters, most covered themselves in long dark sheets to hide their appearance and tools. Only one stood out, a man in a long white jacket, with a large tattoo under his right eye.

​

"Annnnnnd," Toto said undeterred, "The returning champions, Team Northrend's Enders!" That man with the face tattoo took a step forward in the arena eyeing Toto in indifference, before announcing. "I want to get this over with; I'll face all of them at once." Toto looked stunned at the audacious request, but the other team seemed less than shocked each hopping into the ring without so much as a second of hesitation. Collecting herself, the Felis backed up towards the edge of the ring, "In a surprising turn of events Aidin Gower has agreed to face all of the Hatchets at once! But if anyone can do it I believe in our only surviving champ! What say you Hatchets do you agree to fight this incredibly unfair bout?" The largest of the men merely nodded at the Felis, as he stared intently at Aidin. Toto spun dramatically in place before continuing, "Alright then, let's get the first match get underway! Ready! " All five men stared at the lone unarmed man tensing in place, while he, in turn, looked utterly poised. "AND GO!"

The five ax wielders slowly circled Aidin like wolves preparing to strike. "It won't work." Aidin boasted seemingly standing there waiting, "You were dead the moment you agreed to this fight." The largest of the hatchet wielders was the only one to reply, "We'll see about that Gower, charge!" In unison, each of the ax wielders surged forward thrusting and slashing their weapons in Aidin's direction. As each was about to land their blow, however, they stopped hanging in the air as their wielders tried desperately to push them home. "I told you..." Aidin said as electricity began to trickle up his feet and along with his jacket, "This wouldn't work." In a frenzy of panic the hatchet men desperately tried to retrieve their weapons, unable to pull them from their stasis. However, try as they might the axes seemed to hold in place. "Wha- What is this!" The largest called out tugging at an oversized tomahawk. "The end of this match," Aidin replied smoothly as he swiped his arm before him, the action called down a gigantic bolt of lightning that struck the stage in a blinding flash. A large billow of dust covered the stage briefly, but when it settled revealed the man with the tattoo surrounding by the charred remains of the five hatchet men. Toto, sat stunned several feet away, it was only the audience suddenly launching into a loud cheer that caused her to snap out of it. Shakily she returned to her feet, "Annnnd! Your Victor Team Northrend's Enders!"


(See player characters fight in the next round starting here: Tournament of Skulls [P] )

 

A tournament? How wonderful that everyone was getting along so fabulously that they actually would have good old fashioned battling matches with each other! It was like those bromance novels that supposedly existed. Mighty warriors bonding over their love for sweat and muscles! Although there were girls here too. So it was just like a big get together party for the brave and the bold and the strong! Nothing made a game better than the thrill of who would win or lose! Trinity sat way in the back. not just in the seats but on the colosseum walls themselves far above right on the edge. She swung her legs happily as she rocked her head and watch intrigued at the festivities below. It was both NPC and players who were here. Those that were natives and those that were not. It would be fun to see if the players had become so strong that they could beat the NPC's now. Of course hopefully it was all thanks to Trinity's advice and useful tutorials!

Trinity fist pumped several times and then cupping her mouth in both hands began to shout with excitement!

"Go, go, go! You can do it! Yeah you are the beeeeestest thing aliiiiiive! BAM! POW! BOOM! KICK IT HARDCORE!"

Trinity only wished she had that substance called Mountain Dew right now..... this was going to be a total blast! She missed the other fun stuff but not this. She was going to watch everything in person this time! Woohoo!

 

Roland had tried to sleep through the majority of Griswald's explanation, his head was pounding, and all he wanted to do was go back to sleep. Sadly, that didn't seem like an option at the moment. Eventually, the rest of the team got ready to leave, and Roland regretfully rolled over standing up and making his way to the tournament ground. Being last to arrive he missed the chaos that was the earlier fight but from what he could tell it seemed that it had somehow ended quickly. "Must have been one-sided" Roland whispered to The Admiral, his breath stinking of whiskey, as they walked up to the side of the white tiled arena. Without too much time passing, Roland's team was introduced as the pawns. A silly name, but accurate given the situation, turning Roland took in the other team, his intention was distracted by the large blonde man jumping onto the arena floor calling out Alpha.


Roland tensed at the suggestion that the man would fight the child, and his body urged him to storm the stage, but they needed to play this smart. "So," Roland said, "Uhhh, who should fight, who?" Squinting Roland tried to pick out each of the fighters from what Griswald had said earlier.


There was a man with an axe....

Hidden: Lothair Luxford

A man with a spear and a knife....

Hidden: Hadrian Spooner

An odd looking man, likely some sort of dark mage....

Hidden: Lester Sinclair

A giant!

Hidden: Ogden Gotthold

And a man wielding a turtle shell, and spear...

Hidden: Handa Koetsu

"Hmmm...." Roland hummed out loud, "What do you guys think?" For a brief moment, Roland looked up thinking he had seen a familiar blue haired girl before shaking his head and muttering, "No couldn't be."

@Alphabet Chocolate @Gwyn ap Herne @The Admiral @Aaron Marone

 

Leon crossed his arms. "Well, this is troublesome," he said before he fell asleep once again.

 

The Admiral watched the first fight with bored attention, wondering how much Team Northrend's Enders had paid for that publicity stunt. There was, to her knowledge, no way a spell like that could be done to competently deal with so many people at once unless they were either batting with all the power of a freshly spawned newbie... or were paid to take the fall. And then either did a very flashy switcharoo for the corpses, or got the raw end of the deal when Pretty Boy decided he didn't want to pay their fee for their performance. That was her working theory, at least, and it was what she informed @Roland Rutledge of when he sat down to join her.

"Tattoo face on the first team took on the entire enemy team. Supposedly he's some big champ, but I'm not impressed. Griswald's made it clear that bribes are part of the business here, so he could easily have paid to get matched up with the absolute weakest team just to show off like that. Psychology is half the battle, after all. Take the axe wielder fighting Alphabet down there; his hand is shaking while wielding the thing, any time he looks at something he knows he can't win against. His nerves are shot and his bravado is all boast, no backing. I don't think ABC down there could scare him properly, but yeah... one good threat and his resolve will probably buckle and leave him weak in the knees. Easy to finish off. The question is, will she commit cold hearted murder like that, or let the guy go?"

She yawned and glanced at the remainder of the enemy team, sizing each one up carefully while using the Investigation feature to catch any edge she could. After all, "divining" information about their enemies wasn't against the rules.
"Now if we follow Griswald's summary of their team composition, the matching is fairly obvious. The guy with the two spears and the dogs is a perfect counter for Gwyn, and her snake. Hunter versus Hunter, a match made in heaven. Meanwhile the dark mage is the ideal foe of our aspiring paladin, Aaron Marone. Good versus evil, light versus dark? Crowds will eat that shit up. The big guy, with the huge axe, is supposedly weak to anybody that can slash out his heels which means YOU my dear Roland are his perfect nemesis. And that leaves the guy with the turtle shell defense that 'swords, spears and daggers' are worthless against. He's obviously meant for me and my hammers, to beat my way past his shield which can't stand up to dual-wielded hammer blows."

A glance at the stage showed that Alphabet was now on the offensive, after taking a particularly nasty cut to her arm. It was surprising she hadn't managed to end the fight already, considering all the little critters she had helping her. All it took was rats to his eyes, then a knife to the throat. Yawning again, she scratched her scalp and looked the enemy team over once more.
"But I say fuck the expectations... Gwyn should take the caster; if he tries some kind of trick to use his range, she's the only one that can strike back from a distance. And her damage output will be vastly superior to Aaron's, so she can geek the mage the fastest. Meanwhile you're the alchemist so you should face the man with the dogs. You have time before the match starts to whip up some pheromones or sleeping salts to either turn them on their master or put them under for the fight. After that, it's a simple matter of fighting the man one on one, and you're one of the more skilled fighters I've known. Aaron should face the man with the shell shield, total defense against total defense. He can buff himself with illumancy to smash right through the shell, or slash the spear in half, rendering the man's offense or defense totally useless. And I take the big guy with the weak ankles. I'm the only one he couldn't slap out of the ring in one hit, besides Aaron. How's that sound?"

 

Stella narrowed her eyes on the fights taking place in the tournament. Her eyes, which glowed a soft green, indicated that she used investigation mode to keep track of any information she could gather from the situation. Much to her chagrin, the first “match” barely yielded any results for her efforts, though it raised important questions in her mind. Snapping the blonde from her line of thought, a nasal shout came from her left, amidst the cheers that ensued. “HA! Ssssmart man! Me thinksss thats a sstunt!” In response, Stella glanced to her gold goblin before resting her elbows on her legs, hands joined as she rested her chin on top of both. The woman repeatedly pondered the possibilities behind what just happened, but her lack of experience fighting against magic was starting to hurt her development in the long run.

“Why do you think so?” She asked her cheering goblin, to which he let out a loud cackle before answering. “Gobbu has ssseen a lot of magic in hisss life! Some wasss even aimed at him! Sssso either that man jussst played a huge sstunt, or he isss one of few that casssst the magic thing with ease!” Though that was information, it still left room for doubt. If the latter option was the case, for a moment, Stella cursed her choice of avoiding the usage of magic in any of her mastery slots. The bladeswoman always wanted to believe that if she could choose between mow down an enemy with the least complexity possible versus chanting for magic, she would obviously choose the first. For the first time, the event unfolding before her made her reconsider and ponder over said choice. At this point, Stella noticed a few of her guildmates and in particular was fighting on the arena.

Despite her connection with them through their guild, she’d remain silent and watch the events unfold. Now wasn’t the time to bother them with greetings, as they were hopefully planning their next moves in response to the ongoing and future fights to come.

 

Gwyn watched the first of the fights with a clear disinterest. There was no challenge, no honor, in taking on a fight you could win asleep. Or, as The Admiral suggested, was rigged from the beginning. How disgustingly dull and cowardly. The hunt was glory. A fight was glory. A challenge was the only goal, failing it the lesson, and overcoming it the reward. These people wanted entertainment, but she saw nothing approaching it in the show. It didn't feel real and engaging to her. There wasn't blood between teeth or dirt under their nails. There were no chipped weapons or clenched teeth. She leaned over the edge of their position before their own fights and watched with the glowing white glare of Investigation Mode, but found it all wanting. She wanted to run down there and deck the fucker. That wasn't fun. That wasn't something to be proud of. "Too much bark, bite or not," she snarled to herself before turning her side to it. The ranger kept an eye out for the progress of Alpha's fight, but she could almost scent his fear from where she stood. Nathair had raised its head up and its tongue flickered wildly. The excitement that flooded their empathetic bond showed the snake could scent what she imagined. It hungered.

The archer shook herself from it and scoffed at The Admiral, "Whatever the fight, I'm game. I'm curious to see if I could tame his dogs away from him with a kinder hand, turn them on him like Actaeon's hounds. But at the same time if you want me to play mageslayer, I'm for it. If I can't tame them I'll be outnumbered and I... admit I can't take a wealth of hits." She waved it off with a shrug. It was always foul to see a tamer turn on their own tames, to sour the bond and use them like tools and mindless weapons to be controlled. If you beat away with a sword you would blunt and chip the edges. You do it a disservice and so it owes you nothing. There was a reason people named their weapons and treated them with a kindness. Your life was defended by your weapon and its name was power proved and respect owed. Nathair deserved its name a thousand times over for suffering even one command. They understood one another and built upon their respect forged. Yes, they had fought each other, but it was a test of wills and commitment. Never abuse. Never fear. She wanted to bleed the man like a stuck pig and let his tames take their share. Perhaps she could take them back with her to Astorea. Find pens somewhere in the castle or with the Yladians. Retrain them and show them a better life.

She hungered for that just as Nathair wanted to sink its teeth into the frightful mess the Alpha was fighting to partake in a properly sized meal. However, she wasn't stupid. If it was better to fight the mage then so be it. The dogs weren't worth the life of the kidnapped woman they were here to save. Regardless of her love for animals, they weren't more important than sentient beings.

 

Roland scratched his head as he pondered Admiral's words, "A stunt? Yea... one on five would be difficult otherwise. At the least I think you're right that their sponsor rigged them up against the weakest team, or the entire match could have been a sham." With a nod Roland's eyes turned to the fight, it seemed the first match wasn't proving to be any trouble for the small child as she easily evaded the majority of the ax wielders attacks. Griswald's words worried him though, this match was never suppose to be difficult. It was the two wielding the spears that he had said would be the biggest challenge, but Admiral seemed confident that he and Aaron could defeat them in succession.

Roland sighed as he sat down on the ground, "It's not like I've had a lot of planning before now.." he said in complaint as he began to play with in game menus with a grumble. He likely should worry about the other players matchup, but something told him if he were to fight the beast tamer, he'd have to come in with some sort of plan....

 

Among the many spectators was a young girl who some may recognize as Magi Heart. The defender of love and justice! Magical girl of magical girls! Or something like that. Magi came to see how others fight. To see how hard battle really was. Sure she was in the Fort Dormont siege... but it was hard to make out much in all of the chaos. Every fight was always so fierce. There was so little 'fun' in this game she realized. Was that weird? Do people play games that have more pain and misery than happiness and peace? Wendy could understand that excitement was important. The thrill of being a hero was why she played... maybe. She enjoyed the feeling of being free to to what she wanted to a degree too. School was okay but there was none in the game. Magi was just supposed to be smart already! That was cool. Or at least she tried to make it seem that way.

The girl watched the fight as she sat with her hands in her lap. Her face was calm and quiet but her eyes were intense. She watched every movement of the ninja like girl on the stage. She was about her age, maybe a bit older... and she was so strong. She seemed to enjoy hurting the big man with the axe. Was that why? She enjoyed the fight that way? Magi liked fighting evil too... but it was different. A hero fights to save the day and to cure the evil out of villains. So...

The world really lacked true heroes didn't it?

 

Back and shoulders popped as the Admiral rolled hers, watching Alpha knock the man out of the ring and spare his life. Griswald seemed none too pleased with the thirteen year old girl's choice to let the man live, but then, he had let a thirteen year old girl into the festivities. Spotting Magi in the crowd nearby, the woman gave an annoyed huff. It seemed children were just the theme of the day here, then. Between Alphabet, Magi and the two chatty lolitas complaining about hunger pangs. If they didn't shut up and get lost, then some cur was going to come along and offer them something filling, and that would be on their heads. She wasn't about to save fools who wandered into a viper's nest willingly.

Pulling her Haut Château collectible wine out, the warrior took a long pull from its rich red liquid, holding up the miniature glass stopper that looked like Castle Dormont. She had bought it as a collectible gift after the siege, and from time to time took a nice chug from it. Which was perfectly fine; it refilled every day, so she could enjoy it at her leisure. She passed it to Gwyn so that the other woman could take a sip, grunting in annoyance as their host sent guards out to spear the loser to death on the arena's out of bounds area.
"Why not just fill it with spikes, or lava?" she hissed as she passed the decanter of wine to Roland after getting it back from Gwyn.
"Fine... if they want a bloody show, let's give them one. You two, see what you can do about taping Alphabet's mouth shut so she doesn't embarrass us to death before we have a chance to lose in the later rounds." Taking the decanter back from Roland, she put it away in the space-defying simplicity of video game inventories, and began to walk up to the ring and hop into it.

 

Roland didn't exactly reluctantly take the wine from Admiral's hands, in fact he practically ripped it from her grip out of sheer curiosity. Of course he had seen it in the gift shot but hadn't had the extra funds to spend, cocking his head back he took a generous swing of the red liquid before handing it back with a burp, "May want to look out for that spear, I think I see something on that blade."

 

Roland looked over at @Gwyn ap Herne as she asked Griswald about a piece of meat for the dogs. He shrugged, and stood up responding to her earlier request regarding his alchemical capabilities. "I think I can handle the dogs with a few potions I have prepared now, the best I can do is light anesthetic that will make them drowsy, and eventually might make them pass out. To be perfectly honest though, I intend to use it to slow down their movements so I can kill them quickly. I guess the real question is, are you really more equipped to deal with magic, than another animal user? To be honest I don't mind who I fight, my skills allow me to be versatile." Roland looked at the large snake that accompanied Gywn and back at her again as if leaving something unsaid.

 

Gwyn enjoyed the shared alcohol just as much as she had the first time The Admiral had offered her it, but restrained herself this go around. She was about to have to fight for her life. Even if she'd just pop back up in the morgue with a shitty death affliction, she didn't care to spend the money necessary at the temple again. Or bear the dishonor of losing. Or deal with the potent and undeniably awful mix of utter defeat and a hangover. The archer would give that one a hard pass.

Roland answered the pros and cons she had given back to The Admiral after hearing her opinion on the match ups. "Just putting it all on the table. I don't overly mind, but I won't deny preferring to fight the beast tamer over the mage. The man deserves a good death at the teeth of his own tames for treating them like shit." She glanced down at the snake too and smiled crookedly at the black eyes watching her, the streak of red scales behind them making them all the more obvious. "I give you express permission to kill and eat me if I ever treat you like that. Deal, my future snakeskin boots?" She grinned at the flicker of what a serpent's equivalent of annoyance surely was. Nathair could likely feel something of the joke made at its own expense through the animal empathy of her beast taming mastery.

She pulled her arms behind her, fingers weaving together and stretching, as she thought. The pops down her spine released some of the tension that kept coming and going sporadically. She wasn't used to the whole... surrounded by hundreds of people foaming at the mouth for a fight while some chick with a fantasy microphone announced the whole shebang. The huntress also didn't care for all the sneaking and spying and shit that seemed par for the course in the tournament. They were all snakes, and not the good kind. "Leave him to me then, Roland." She knew which snake she'd defang first.

 

She felt so out of place, surrounded by rugged ruffians ready to crush her with a single step. But she'd heard news of Gwyn, going to fight. So she'd come out to the tournament on her wobbling legs. Of course, she'd left Vulcan at an inn, unable to bear bringing him somewhere she wasn't sure she could protect him, much less herself.

She twisted around the crowd, ducking and dodging flying elbows as spectators cheered and stomped. The fights had started long ago, she knew. Picking up her pace, she finally broke through the crowd lingering in the cavern entrance, finding herself in an arena of sorts. She spotted @Gwyn ap Herne in the middle, curled protectively over something as her opponent went to attack. She did not recognize this opponent, did not know what evils he'd done... but if Gwyn was fighting him, surely he was some sort of evil? He had to be bad. Further frantic searching had Kyupin spotting other familiar faces: Alpha and the Admiral.

Kyupin was swept in further by people shoving around behind her. Barely finding her balance, she did her best to find a vacant seat where she could still watch. Settled in, Kyupin squeezed her eyes shut and hands together, murmuring a prayer for her friend's success. "Go, Gwyn!" she cheered, voice easily drowned out by the crowd around her. With a shudder, she opened her eyes. She had to watch. To come to terms with this kind of cruelty.

Or else she'd never survive.