Prophecies & Intrigue 7: Victor or Cheater?

The crowd is abuzz with murmurings of excitement, this hasn't happened before; who are these travelers!?! Brad, the Trostenwald Champion that Sai made quick work of, is now in the topside VIP tent with Starosta Fryda and his parents where he sulks disappointedly. But the main focus is in the center of the arena where Sai and Malachite are facing off. "FIGHT!"

They begin their fray and right away Sai notices that Malachite is way more resilient than Brad was; He's like a rock! They seem like an even match until all of a sudden, golden ethereal wings sprout from Malachite's back shocking everyone! They are both beautiful and intimidating at the same time. He tries to fly but Sai keeps him grounded. Growling under her breath and remembering the blessing she had just received and she pushes her energy outward and an ethereal copy of herself appears behind Malachite. She smiles at him as he gets hit from behind. He spins around to see but continues to focus his blows on Sai herself. She is giving her all but she feels exhaustion overcoming her and taps out before she loses consciousness. Malachite is declared the winner and they make their way back, ethereal Sai in tow, to the Herb of Import tent for Lydia the friendly halfling healer.

Hung, his mind prepped for battle and his body feeling empowered enters the arena next; opposite Malachite. He had been watching intently and familiarized himself with his opponent. "FIGHT!" They bow and get into their fighting stance, Hung flexes his arms and emits a guttural yell and with an audible collective gasp, the crowd watches as two ethereal orc arms emerge from his shoulders, allowing him to extend his reach; and start pummeling Malachite. It's a well-matched fight but this time Malachite, wings now gone, shows the same signs of exhaustion as Sai had before. Hung asks, "Do you yield?", Malachite refuses and pushes himself another round. Taking another solid hit from Hung, Malachite is dazed. Hung asks again, louder this time, "Do ... you ... yield?" Malachite knowing that he has been bested yields and relinquishes the victory to Hung. The crowd goes wild, this is the best show they've had in a long time!

With barely a scratch on him, Sai and Malachite accompany hung to get his wounds dressed and introduce him to Lydia. As they walk the crowds are now parting around them, which they hadn't done before. Everyone is patched up and an announcement comes with a chuckle, the last fight of the day and the Champion of the Bumbach's house rests on this fight. As Malkey and Hung step into the ring, there is laughter and concern regarding the little gnome against this established fighter!

"FIGHT!" It was obvious that Malkey felt like he had something to prove and he definitely wasn't going to go down without an actual fight. From across the arena Malkey nowhere near hung looks as if he's punching the air and Hung recoils as if he's been hit, the crowd is stunned. Those with sharp eyes would have seen the skeletal hand that actually made the impact. Hung rushes forward and before he was within range, he heard a familiar clockwork buzzing, clicks and clacks before feeling a sharp pain in the back of his neck, but the wound wasn't deep enough for the full injection of poison. With a knee-jerk response, Hung swings his hand behind his shoulder blades and smacks the bug, it falls to the ground. Malkey screams, "He said he was sorry! and releases a fury of energy as a bolt of lightning cascades from the clear blue sky taking Hung to his knees with blurred vision. "Now hit me!!!" The little gnome's face, bright red in wrath was serious. Hung doesn't know what to make of this. but hits him regardless. Seeing Malkey pained on the inside deeper than he knew made him realize that this is not an honorable battle. With nothing left in him to fight much more, Hung surrenders but makes sure to add, "We should do this again sometime." knowing that the fight was not on equal footing.

As Malkey is being announced as the 'winner' he doesn't care, he runs and grabs little Nutbag and hurriedly starts pulling out his tools to get to work. He looks up and sees Sai and Malachite helping Hung to the med tent and follows. As Hung enters the tent Lydia's attention shifts to him and she immediately gets to work subtly giving Malkey a disproving glare that went unnoticed, "That was quite a show, all of you are very versed in your skills!". Malkey can't see or hear anything around him, he is focused. Beads of sweat form on his brow as he feels heat rising up in him with an urgency to save Nutbag. In his protective fervor, sparks fly from his finger into the gears. The bug awakens, a little worse for wear but stable and Malkey emits a sigh of relief. "Thank you," Nutbag says as he falls asleep in his caretaker's hand.

Feeling refreshed they see the crowd now making an exit and hear there is yet another event, whew what a day! They move to the VonBrandt tavern on the outskirts of town, right on their farm! Hung notices that they have as many as 8 wells which were strange to see. They then see the Starosta and what they can only assume to be the VonBrandt's set up under a canopy by a coral. Leaning against the table set for them, a young female halfling can be seen and they recognize her as Vivian VonBrandt, the barrel-racing champion .... but what is barrel racing?

Vivian shows them the ropes, "The goal is to walk on your barrel all the way across the coral, it's really easy once you get the hang of it." They all (except Malkey whom successfully went to find fish for Hung) decide to join in the fun and try it out, and Sai is pretty much a natural out the gate quickly leaving Hung, Vivian and Malachite in her dust. Vivian wasn't about to let that happen and though to herself, 'these traveler's are no joke, guess I don't need to go easy on 'em. Feels good to have some actual competition.', as she crosses the finish line victorious. The crowd cheers as Vivian is declared VonBrandt Tavern Champion and the music starts up and everyone is ready for the feast!