Yep, you read that right. This session did not start off how I expected it to.
We began by parsing through the four day period that the party had free until the tournament. They got up to various free time activities… until the second day, when Brakken had officially been a wendigo for one whole week. Because he had not feasted upon half-orc, orc or human flesh during that time, he had to make a Wisdom saving throw to retain control over himself. He passed his first, but the next day, when he was forced to roll again… he rolled a natural 1. Goodbye Sally the tavern matron, hello jail.
After tearing Sally’s throat out with his teeth, Brakken regained his senses and allowed himself to be arrested by the city watch. Once in jail, he received a visit from Morty. After explaining the situation, Brakken offered that he would remain in jail but still participate in the tournament, with the only reward being to receive guidance on how to remove his curse, and as soon as it was over he and the party would leave the city. With Lord Bendrosian being the head of security for the city, he was able to accommodate this, so a deal was struck.
Thus we came to the tournament.
The tournament was contested by seven teams of three, and consisted of thirteen different events of three types. The first six were individual knockout tournaments, where the members of each team competed alone, in two of the six events each. Without going into too much detail, the party did really well over these six events. Brakken blitzed his way through the joust and the wrestle, Poppy came second in the insult tournament and was the surprise victor in the log battle (where contests battered each other with sticks atop very unstable logs protruding lengthwise from the ground), and Monk emerged the victor in the competitive climb and the archery, the latter partly due to one of his opponents shooting himself in the foot… twice.
On the second day of the tournament, we began the first of the team combined events. There were four of these in total, between days two and three, and the way they worked was each member of each team competed in the event, and their combined total success (which varied depending on the event – for example, in the javelin throw, it was their longest throw) was their team’s score. Again, without too much detail, the party came third in the long jump (it was an athletics-based event, and aside from Brakken that’s not the party’s strong suit), second in the javelin throw after tying for first but losing a throw-off, second in the eating contest (because, again, it was a Constitution-based event and that’s not the party’s strongest side), but then they brought it back on the third day to come first in the drinking contest (although, with more than twice the drinks consumed than the next highest team, I think I might be at fault for that one).
Also on that third day was the riddle contest, the first of two team events (where the team members simply competed together as one team). This required answering riddles, with three attempts to get them right. The number of attempts made determined how many points the team got, and the team with the highest score won. The first time all three attempts were failed, the team was out. Again, long story short, things looked dicey for a minute with one of the riddles being answered only on their third attempt, but other than that, the party smashed it.
And finally we came to the fourth day of the tournament, and the final event, the team knockout melee tournament. Team versus team in a legitimate, bog standard combat, the winner moving through to the next round. Also, this event was worth the most points overall, so coming into it, there was still a chance that the party could be facing a draw for overall first.
One other important thing to note – our group plays with a house rule that you can attempt non-lethal damage with either bludgeoning or radiant attacks, but critical hits cannot be non-lethal. This has led to some interesting exchanges, but none less than in this tournament. You see, across the board, the tournament was supposed to be non-lethal. However, as you’ll see, things didn’t quite work out in favour of the party.
In their first combat, the party cut through their opposition with relative ease. Cut through being the operative word, as Monk just so happened to critically hit one of the opposing team members when they had just little enough health left. They were mortally wounded (but didn’t die, because I’m not a monster – their one still-conscious teammate helped them) and the party won the round, but for doing lethal damage they were docked points, shortening their overall lead.
And then, wouldn’t you know it, in their next fight the exact same thing happened. It was a tougher fight, actually, and Brakken was brought down before the end of it, but then the same thing happened, Monk critically hit and downed an opponent, and they won but were docked points. This actually dropped the party into second place.
With one fight left to end the tournament, we ended the session. Now, the party don’t necessarily need to win their last fight to take the tournament, but if they’re docked any more points they’re looking at a tie at best. Potentially second place. So, they need to do their best without doing their best, if that makes sense.
But we’ll see what happens. Tune in next week to see how the party does, and, win or lose, where their road leads them to next.