07.24.21
"The Phandalin Games. Fail Harder."
July 24th, 2021
When we last joined our adventurers, they had cleared the lost village of Thundertree and returned home to Phandalin. InBillie's drunken musings have lead to a questionable festival designed to celebrate peace and bring the Orc and Phandalin communities closer together. Waking up in the Tresendar Manor, and more than a little hung over, the party awakes to the sounds of construction.
Deitric explains thats the drunken musings of Billie were their inspiration for a peace celebration and festival. Deitric explains that they have been building the booths, stalls, stages, and equipment they needed for the festival.
They explain that they have been working with Linene since the early hours of the morning on coordinating the event. Deitric explains that she needs to talk to Billie their cheiftan. The party heads into town and sees the orcs and villagers of Phandalin working to gether, bartering, and interacting peacefully.
Billie and Demna head off to speak with Sister Garaile at the Shrine of Luck and Keras heads over to the unusually quiet shop of Smitty the Smithy. As Keras approaches the smith's shop is apparently empty, but unloacked. Keras enters and senses a heavy and sad atmosphere. As he walks in further he sees the wares and tools. Crying is heard in the distance. Keras moves to investigate. Bak door. Go ahway we're closed. Explains there is no customers and he's closed. Keras leaves
Deman waits at the side of the sister at the shrine of luck. Waits for her prayers to finish. Demna asks for nipples when the sister ends.The sister is visibly disturned that Demna is speaking so freely about the arrangement for these items. She hints that they should go to Barthan's Provisions.
Keras meets up with them along the street. Explains the smitty situations. They head to barthan's together. Deman is greated warmly. Barthan hands Billie a large pack of meat for the wolves and a small package secretly is sneaked to Demna. "My nipples are safe." Witty banter between Keras and Barthan.
Barthan whistles and throws a package at Keras. A present for you even though you don't like me. As Keras leaves, the odor of the package hits his nose. Atlatian food dish perfectly prepared. Baby Kracken, slightly alive when you eat them. Billie is disturbed.
Demna finds nipples and and sauces in her package. Billie is speading the news of the upcoming games and festivals.
Enter lion shield coster. New clerk thick glass name is Delialah. She hands everyone glasses that fill with refreshment that are automatically the best for them. Demna gets a dark glass of fermented blood like liquid. Billie get a transparent blue liquid thst he recognizes as Piratalite, filled with electrolites.
Idetifies delilah as her daughter. Asks how she did. Gives history. Suspect she might be amazonian in history. Looks like Velma. Stacked. Hitting on Demna.
Billie explains that Detric is his second in command and that can do business on behalf of the tribe. She writes a note permitting his admitance and an audience with her as needed. She writes this note in both Orcish and Common.
Break the news to Linene, she seems very disappointed about the lack of notice and the event inevitability. Keras passes over a copy of the plans. she passes over the magical pass that upon examination to find Linene and admit people in. Interesting use of applied magic.
Delialah asks her how many hours of sleep she needs. Amazonians very atheltic and physical. Sounds like she's gonna exhaust her. They leave. 3 days to prepare.
Their dedication toward preparing for the destival grants the party some special abilities.
Keras learns proficency with battleaxes from working with the magial axe Hew and working with the orcish master woodworkers.
Billie's combat practice and finesse gains him proficiency with improvised weaponry.
Demna gains the ability to shape her sorcery points in a manner similar to bardic inspiration, incorporating some keras like flourishes into her casting.
The skeleton of an ampithetre is forming along the towns new fair grounds. Dietric and Linene have been working together wonderfully. the entire town is excited and working on suprises for the festival. The halfling family is working on something under a tarp as well.
Morning of the event, Deitric slowly wakes each member of the party with breakfast and "hot bean juice." Demna takes a moment to explore her gift of seasoned pig nipples and finds a variety of flavors and two special almost crystaline magical ones.
The part takes the next hour to prepare. Keras takes the opportunity to put on a psarkly outfit that highlights his "assets" and sharpens his axe. Demna prepares to cast her spells. Billie runs around trying to boost morale.
As they head out, they see patches of flowers, new coats of paints on the shops, new signs, an ampitheatre, and incredible revitalization.
Linene is on stage, and introduces the event and the idea and calls Billie to the stage to applaud him for bringing the orc and Phandalin communities together. Next Deitric is called to the stage. Deitric enthusiasticlly shares that his people are there to help everyone according to their need. After several rounds of applause. the games start.
The first event is archery. Billie decides to participate. There are hay bales with targets on them. Dripp is at the judges table sampling lots of Edermath orchards finest liquid refreshments. Darren edermath walks around offering samples of apple juice, apple brandy, mulled apple cider, apple ale, and one with a mystery label. The mystery liquid is Elderberry Mead, which both Keras and Demna sample. Cheering on Billie. In round one, Billie and two orcs are out. Round two one human is out. Final round one human hunter and one orc. They take out clay disks which they throw in the air. the human is so impressed with the Orc's marksmanship, not even trying. The orc wins and the crowd goes wild (both orc and human). Demna casts some minor illusions and Keras joins with Thalmaturgy to play a triumphant plast of brass music.
The party explores the stalls set up by the orcs and villagers. Barthan is selling pig cracklings, a creative new snack he is developing based on the experience that he's gained making seasoned pig nipples for Demna. They seem quite popular. The party explores the variety of food options, with each member finding something delicious to eat.
They make their way over to the speed cutting event. Keras gives Billie a pep talk and grants him bardic inspiration. Keras walks up to one set of competitors, using Unsettling words to shake their resolve. Woodworkers wife is the coordinator for the event. Instructs folks to pick their tree. Uses his newly aquired skills to pick a great tree. Billie and Keras absolutely demolish the trees base with incredible speed. Taking it down in record time. At the end of round 1, the team of Keras and Billie are in the lead. In round two they start removing branches. The duo make a quick work of the branches, keeping the lead. But the competion is catching up. The final round is removing the bark from the tree. Keras and Billie complete in record time, winning the round. Demna casts some minor illusions of fireworks in the sky and the woodworker's wife adds oud booms to the display.
The party goes back to the food and drink stalls. Finding they've switched gears to deserts, with Darren Edermath launching an apple pie stand. Demna and Keras share a pie. Demna locates a boot black whom she has shine her toe claws and stain them purple. The party plays some carnival games like ring toss and opines that he wishes their was a dunk tank. Detric seems excited by the concept and goes on to work on contructing a contraption. Demna wins 38GP, Billie wins 58 GP, and Keras wins 16GP.
The next event is axe throwing. Before the event starts, Billie talks to the orcs suspeting they've been holding back. They explain they dont want to win all of the events. Billie tells them to give their all, and Keras suggests that if they are worried and they should mix with the villagers and team up. In the axe tossing the full party participates. The axe throwing competiton is a two person event with one person acting as a backup (who only engages in the circumstances of a tie). In the first round axes go flying. Keras, Billie, an Elf, and an Orc are the only folks to get through the first round. Billie throwing his axe so hard he splits his target, winning him a bye the second round. In the next round Keras is out. In the third and final round, Billie is the only one to hit the target, exploding it with his forceful axe throwing skills. The second place goes to a tie, activating the backups for the elf and orc. Those backups of course being Delialah and Demna respectively... the sexual tention is palpable. Eventually Demna's team fails with her taking the bronze.
It the interlude, Keras decides to play the ring toss again. Doing exceptionally well and earning 70GP. Keras taunts Billie to do better. He of course does. Getting the hardest to bottle the solid gold one in the middle. Winning the grand prize of 500GP.
Linene announces the final game of the day, the magical duals. Sister garaile oversees the event. Sister garaile has a tatoo on her hand that she uses to cast a ward on each user. The tournement works by rules of first blood. With the first dualist to break the shield and draw first blood winning the match. There are 6 contestants including Demna and Keras. In the first round, Keras faces an orc caster and Demna faces a half e;d caster. Keras wins his first dual, easily dispatching his opponent after 2 rounds. Demna on the other hand is so adept at casting that she dispatches her opponent in a single casting of doubled Chromatic Orb. In the second round Keras goes up against Delililah. Clearly knowing she has the power advantage against Keras. Keras attempts to counter her spells with a wall of water ringing her. She is unfased, destroying his shield with a very powerful casting of electric orbs. Keras's ward fails but he is left standing, loosing with dignity. Deliahlah shares her appreciation of Keras's cretivity.
The final showdown is between Delialah and Demna. The fight is vicious, with their wards coming down in the first attacks. The second attacks both get twinned. Demna targets both her spell and her ward. Delialah targets only the spells. Demna's craftiness suceedes with her winning the match. Delialah is mad but also clearly "excited" by this. She promises Demna that she'll "pay for that tonight."
The town gathers as sunset approaches for more drinks and snacks. Folks exchange stories about the day and the orcs and villagers grow even closer. The party collects the drunken Dripp and the exhausted Lillian who had been volunteering with the floral decorations all day with her druid powers.
The party retires to the manor. With Delilah grabbing Demna and sneaking off into the woods. After seven agressive hours Demna emerges with a wide grin and a few bruises. Returning home and sleeping til noon. The rest of the party waking with the sun, ready to enjoy a day of art, music, comedy, and dancing.