Aresgate

Back > Next

The party (Stavroula, Ida, Uusi and Glob) boards a ship to cross the strait from Silgate to its sister city Aresgate, intending to follow up on Habbsberry’s second request: investigating the issue of griffons attacking a hippogriff ranch.

The city is lively and vibrant in contrast to Silgate, narrow winding streets of mudbrick buildings painted with orange and turquoise in a ripple pattern. The party immediately set to sightseeing. They visit a temple in dedication to the goddess of war, Azahina, and the goddess of magic, Pep. They watch the adherents within. Stavroula witnesses two Deacons of Pep passing a spell back and forth in time with an energetic song. She is permitted to join them and is able to keep pace for a while. A human man practices throwing handaxes in a training yard. He invites the party to join and teaches them a few words in ourok, including “dare” (a positive exclamation, literally “praise”) and “su mok” (“I will improve”, said when failing a task such as missing a target).

They venture further into the city, stopping briefly at a market to shop before attempting to enter the central keep and Skydock. They are initially rebuffed by the guards, as kobolds and goblins are not normally permitted to enter. Uusi is able to convince them to be let through but Glob is required to wait outside. Inside, Stavroula, Ida and Uusi are approached by a human noblewoman who seems to recognize them immediately. She introduces herself as Duchess Catalina Gelwyse, owner of the hippogriff ranch the party have been called to assist with.

The party exit through Aresgate’s northernmost gate and quickly locate the ranch, which is immediately beyond the city’s border wall. A gnome woman named Ysbol has been waiting for them. She is an expert in griffon behavior and explains that the unusually high rate of predation on the domestic hippogriffs is the result of the local griffon's territory destabilizing. It can be ameliorated by locating and introducing a female griffon to the area. The party is provided with a list of possible avenues for procuring a female griffon and decide to investigate the possibility of buying or winning a griffon known to be held in the Azahina Arena’s menagerie.

The Arena is a place dedicated to the worship of the Goddess of War and is one of Aresgate’s defining landmarks. Combatants wear jewelry that captures their soul on death, enabling them to be easily resurrected (even if the body is destroyed entirely). Thus, they are able to fight for the glory of the goddess and for the entertainment of spectators without consequence.

The party visits the Azahina Arena the following morning, declaring their intent to possess the griffon and wish to speak with the beast’s owner. The four of them are led to the Warfather’s office, where they watch an arena fight taking place through the window while they wait. The Warfather enters the room with a flourish, flanked by three women and adorned in a skintight bodysuit that accentuates his long, lean body. An enormous feathered coat drags along the floor behind him. He has a boastful, ostentatious manner but agrees to part with the griffon if the party can win 10 matches in the arena.

They are required to register their group with a name and Uusi chooses “The Matrons of Mobius”. For a while, they remain at the Arena and converse with other teams. They speak with an all-orc team named “Rumble in the Jungle” who explain that they are jobbers, primarily hired to boost other teams and throw matches.

Fight 1 / “Tempura’s Dream”: The party defeats an unusual team consisting of two dragonborn (spellcasters), a human (martial) and a kobold (trapper). While resting and waiting for the next fight, the party overhears other combatants talking about how they thought they saw the Warfather with rabbit ears as he was exiting his dressing room. It could be a potential scandal if true - development of animal features implies the worship of Xengral. The Warfather is not permitted to associate with any deity other than Azahina.

Fight 2 / “Rumble in the Jungle”: As it’s a fixed fight, each party member dispatches an orc in a showy way. Ida pulps one of the orcs, throwing them into a throng of spinning blades. Stavroula casts a Toll the Dead so strong that it sends a ripple of dread through the audience.

Fight 3 / “Mark of the Occult”: The third fight of the day is against Mark, a human priest of Denizen like Stavroula, and his associates. It proves to be the most difficult fight with Mark and Stavroula unable to fight directly due to Denizen’s decree forbidding his followers from using his powers against one another.

The party mingles with the other teams following their three victories. All are in good spirits and some decide to go to dinner. The party is joined by Cloltakmorgis and Gill of Tempura’s Dream, Thom of Rumble in the Jungle and Mark of Mark of the Occult. They discuss the rumors about the Warfather over pupusas. The Matrons of Mobius are informed that they will likely be fighting against Suzie, the Warfather’s right-hand woman, on the second day. They retire to a nearby inn known as the Round Steed.

Fight 4 / “Mirage”: The party fights a woman who calls herself Mirage the Enchantress and her three trained goblins. Uusi clusters and torches all three goblins with a well-placed Fireball and Ida finishes off the enchantress by clapping the woman’s head between her paws.

Instead of resting between matches, Suzie invites The Matrons of Mobius to watch “griffon training”. During this intermission the Warfather and two kobold archers challenge the griffon. The griffon savages both kobolds but is stopped by the Warfather’s telekinesis before she can strike him.

Fight 5 / “The Infernal Army”: The party endures a drawn-out and somewhat difficult fight against a hobgoblin captain and three soldiers, confounded by The Infernal Army’s team tactics and coordinated damage.

They rest a while before the sixth fight and speak to Mirage, who calls her goblins her “sweet babies” and is captivated by Glob’s personality and intelligence. Mirage rarely wins but brings her goblins to the arena for enrichment, citing a need to occasionally provide them with an outlet for violence. Her goblins are named Dag (male), Smear (male) and Wipe (female). Glob can no longer relate to them.

Fight 6 / “Suzie”: The final fight of the day is against Suzie, two kenku and a knight. Partway through the fight Suzie casts an illusion to disguise herself as a third kenku. Uusi picks her out with a Fireball.

The Warfather approaches The Matrons of Mobius on the heels of their sixth win, complimenting their progress and inviting them to meet the griffon up close. He explains that he intends to fight them in the arena after their tenth win. The Matrons of Mobius express doubt that they can defeat him (and doing so would force him to relinquish his title) but the Warfather assures them that the fight is merely for spectacle and the Matrons do not have to win. Between this encounter and the last, the party notices that Suzie is frequently fussing over the Warfather’s hair.

Meanwhile, Ida surreptitiously uses Speak With Animals to communicate with the griffon. The griffon tells her that it was stolen away from the mountains in the north and that the Warfather is “blessed by the ever-changing one”.

Exhausted, the Matrons of Mobius retire to The Round Steed for the night. There, they are met by Anaquin, a Priestess of Azahina they briefly met while touring on the day they arrived in Aresgate. She petitions the Matrons to assist her in either killing or removing the Warfather, citing that the arena, a place to fight in worship of Azahina, has been turned into a den of gambling. She also strongly opposes the whipping of beasts for the entertainment of spectators. Anaquin warns them that the Warfather does not intend on honoring the contract and that he is likely planning to kill them following their tenth win.

The party returns to the arena for their third day of fighting. Suzie provides them with their schedule for the day and rationalizes the Warfather’s methods, explaining that the additional income from gambling funded the construction of measures such as an anti-magic barrier to protect spectators. When prompted to talk about herself, Suzie reveals that she came to Aresgate for the explicit purpose of competing in the arena. Although her arena performance was “middling”, the Warfather took her as his apprentice due to his interest in her illusion magic. Uusi offers to trade some spells with her and Suzie enthusiastically agrees, making arrangements to meet at the end of the day.

Fight 7 / “The Adventurers Guild”: The party faces off against a party composed of equivalent members: a barbarian, paladin, wizard and cleric. This fight proves to be the most difficult so far and depletes their resources. The cleric, Trina, heals Stavroula before their next match. Ida and Uusi snack on grubs.

Fight 8 / “The City Guard”: Taunting them, Ida spends the fight wildshaped into a pig instead of her usual bear form. Something unusual happens: when Stavroula casts Toll the Dead, a single grain of Blight dust falls into her open palm.

Fight 9 / “The Swashbucklers”: The party fights against a team of pirates on a highly modified arena made to look like a pirate ship run aground on a tropical beach, using terrain and cover to their advantage.

Uusi tracks down Suzie and finds her with the Warfather, fussing over his hair as usual. The two mages spend the evening alone together trading spells, with Suzie learning Fireball and Uusi learning Phantom Steed. Suzie compliments Uusi’s knowledge and apparent teaching ability.

On the dawn of the fourth day, the party overhears two rumors over breakfast at their inn: the Bastard Prince, heir to the throne of Oswia, has returned to Aresgate to watch the fight between the Matrons of Mobius and the Warfather. A mob of beastfolk who had previously been denied the right to dock in Aresgate sailed west, disembarked at Dozendocks and arrived at Aresgate on foot. They are demanding to be let into the city to witness “The Second Ripple”.

The party decides to split up. Uusi goes to meet the beastfolk at Aresgate’s north gate, while Stavroula and Glob return to the Temple of Azahina and Pep they visited on the first day.

Uusi arrives at a chaotic scene, a fleet of town guards blocking the way into the city against a large number of beastfolk. Most are murine in appearance, with some feline and canine individuals among them. The kobold manages to weave through the blockade and speak to one of the mouse beastfolk, who tells her that the beastfolk are here following the revelation of a clairvoyant, Quarrel, who claimed that a second ripple will occur and Xengral, the God of Beasts, will manifest in Aresgate.

Stavroula and Glob meet Torka, a priestess of Azahina, while searching for Anaquin. Torka is an infernal with a sturdy build, short hair and wide, yak-like horns. Torka intends to take up the mantle of Warmother once the party successfully dethrone the current Warfather. Stavroula tells Anaquin that she believes the Warfather is hiding rabbit ears with the aid of Suzie’s illusion magic. She plans to expose him in front of everyone by dispelling the illusion during their match against him.

Fight 10 / “Bitter Pill”: The single fight scheduled for the day is a drawn-out war of attrition against a conjurer and a summoned water elemental. The water elemental weaves through channels of water caved through the arena, absorbs damage and heals itself. Glob deals the killing blow on both.

The final fight is scheduled for the morning of the fifth day. The Matrons of Mobius arrive at the arena, having discussed the plan to expose the Warfather’s ears to the crowd. The announcer declares that the Matrons have bravely elected to forgo using their soul gems and that this is a true fight to the death. Ida bites down on her gem and finds that it’s actually an extremely convincing piece of candy, revealing that the jewelry granted to them was fake from the start and they were always at risk of dying.

The Warfather is joined by Suzie and two worgs. Stavroula immediately orders Uusi and Ida to kill Suzie as a priority, blaming the illusionist for the false jewelry and citing the need to take her out now that Uusi has taught her how to conjure Fireballs. Suzie plaintively cries “I didn’t know!” as Uusi incinerates her. The worgs are defeated quickly, leaving the Warfather alone against the party.

The Warfather uses his telekinetic abilities to levitate Glob while the rest of the party attempt to pin him. He’s nimble and evasive but Ida eventually manages to bodyslam him, closing her jaws on his helmet and tearing it off his head to reveal long white rabbit ears. The reaction from the audience is swift and negative. Just as Ida tries to crush his skull in her maw, the Warfather vanishes with a shower of golden light.

The crowd erupts in cheer as the Warfather is no more. The announcer, magically projecting his voice and those of the party, invites them to give their victory speech. Ever the showman, Uusi takes the opportunity and casts Mirror Image to multiply herself with all four copies speaking in unison:

“Untold treachery, wrought upon this land from a deceiver of Gods, mortals and beasts. Through deception he brought newfound energy to this stage of virility, this city. But, with it he brought new death from those unwilling. Deception is no way to grow, and the future shall prosper from truth. Like the leaves of a deciduous tree this city will cast him off and grow taller in the coming year. Engulfed by the flames of Mount Heliope, crushed beneath the titanic weight of a brown bear and forsaken by the necrotic energies of the God of Death, wander eternally within the realm of Mobius, you opulent deceiver!”

Anaquin thanks the party and presents them with two gifts: the key to the griffon’s cage and a circlet blessed by Azahina for Ida. Instead of remaining in the city to celebrate their win, the Matrons decide to release the griffon immediately. Ida speaks with the griffon again, requesting that she steer clear of the hippogriff ranch and seeks permission for the party to ride on her back. The griffon cannot completely guarantee that she will not hunt the hippogriffs at the ranch in future but does agree to prioritize hunting elsewhere. Since the party is small, she allows them to ride her.

The hippogriff ranch is actively under attack by griffons when the party touches down. The griffons take one hippogriff and retreat with the returning female.

Back > Next