Act 2: Upheaval III - The Master Weaver and the Arena

"I'm ready if you guys are." Steve looks at Mihai to see what he'll say.

Mihai fastens the Bracers on - "Ready."

"Follow me then."

When the party leaves the room, Zenobiusz guides them down the hallway where certain doors are guarded by one or two Myrzen warriors; this must be where the Szefowie wait for the Tournament to begin. The white mage stops in front of one door in particular and tells the guards that the champions of Szef Zerva humbly request that they speak to Szef Makara. The man in scale armor asks for the party to wait while he goes inside to inform his Szef; he comes out ten seconds later.

"She will receive you," he says.

"I'll wait for you here," Zenobiusz tells the mercenaries.

Once they're inside, they realize that the chamber is identical to Nadzieja's; magical torches attached to the walls of stone illuminate this small room, and in the middle of it sits Wanda Makara. She wears a long red coat over a well crafted leather armor in pristine condition. She holds her sheathed sword into her right hand, using it to support her weight while she leans forward.

"I didn't expect we'd talk again so soon," she says.

"Duma has been cut off from the Enemy. There's no need to kill him anymore."

"Ergo the celerity of this meeting. Fortuitous, no? Should you face him, you needn't expend your full energy upon him." Konrad looks askance at Mihai for half a second. Always right to the point, fatiguingly.

Wanda Makara peers into the mercenaries' eyes. "Is that so?" she says. "And how did you manage this feat?"

At the end of her question, Konrad smirks a little.

Deception 20
Sense Motive for any untruths from Wanda.

"Orb. He has no idea. The how is not important and not what we're here to talk about. We're here to tell you because you should know, and so our effort doesn't go to waste. You can scan him yourself, if you face him in the arena."

Steve looks bored which he is. There isn't much for him to do here except make sure Wanda isn't lying too badly to them.

Deception to detect lies 20

"I see..."

When she says this, the party members suddenly feel dizziness when they look at her. And then, something unexpected happens; Wanda Makara's appearance changes into someone else, a blonde-haired man who wears a black plate armor. At the center of his chest armor is emblazoned a white sun that beams in all directions—the Imperial emblem. This depiction of this centuries old emblem presents one dissimilarity however; a black circle that surrounds the sun, cutting through the beams of light.

The man gazes at the mercenaries with cold blue eyes and asks with a rough tone, "Was there anything else?"

In the blink of an eye, the man disappears and is replaced by Szef Makara, who is waiting for a response.

Deception rolls:

Mihai tries to recall that emblem.

Knowledge History 22

Steve puts his hand to his head as the wave of dizziness passes. He Immediately wracks his brain to try to figure out what the vision might mean.

Knowledge History 24

The sudden change in her appearance, as though the true person inside appeared between them, throws Konrad back. Is this act a half-measure, or meant to intimidate? He says nothing.

The middle-aged woman raises an eyebrow at the mercenaries. "I assume we're done then."

Picking up on her attitude, Mihai frowns and adds with an edge of deadly seriousness - "Trust us or don't, just don't ruin it. Saving him didn't come cheap." - he turns and leaves.

Konrad can't respond for a second as a thought enters his head: is that going to happen to them? Thankfully, Mihai is quicker to answer per usual, but more certainly more composed, and he regains himself by drawing on his comrade's resolution.

"That was all... And, he smiles, may the best team win."

Recovered, Steve follows without a word. He's lost in thought about the vision and is more subdued than usual as they walk along.

Szef Makara stands up and says, "Good day."

The party members leave the room and find Zenobiusz waiting for them in the hallway. He nods and asks them, "Shall we go to the terraces?"

"Yeah. Thanks for putting up with us."

It takes a moment for Zenobiusz's words to register for the black mage but he finally nods in acquiescence. "I think that's best yes. Thank you." He's chewing his lower lip now which means he's really deep in thought.

The white mage leads the party down the hallway and up a set of stairs. They can hear the rumbling of the thousands of people who have gathered here to watch the Szefowie and their champions fight—possibly to the death. The sound grows louder the higher they go, and it's bound to be even more noisy once they start cheering.

When the adventurers reach the first level of the Arena—the section cordoned off by the Defenders—Zenobiusz takes a moment to figure out what hallway to take next. He continues up the stairs and then takes a large hallway that leads toward the center of the Arena. They walk down this large passage and emerge in the sunlight, right in the middle of the terraces. They're surrounded by hundreds of people who have come from all over the Archipelago; Myrzens, Lorinthians, Lofellians, Emeralders, Free folk, Enclavists, and of course, several fairies and carbuncles.

Food vendors are walking down the aisles with all sorts of food such as hots dogs, hamburgers, fries, candy, popcorn and even cold drinks. Money is quickly exchanged between customers and vendors and there's no hint that it's going to slow down any time soon. A few sections of the terraces are still empty, but people are continuously pouring into the Arena and filling these seats. It won't take long before the Tournament begins.

Groups of fairies fly above the crowd and find creative ways to have fun; some of them sing popular Myrzen songs, others play a game of tag, and a few have opted to prank the food vendors by landing on their head when they're serving a customer and immediately flying away. There's even an improvised carbuncle race in the middle of the Arena where fairies ride their proud steeds from one end of the Arena to the other while Defenders desperately run after them in a futile attempt to stop this nonsense. The crowd finds this very entertaining to watch.

Zenobiusz salutes the two Myrzen warriors who are guarding the passage he and the party have just taken before continuing towards the lowest seats of the terraces. Just when the mercenaries notice the many sound speakers set up at strategic points all over the Arena, they hear a small voice perk up from behind them.

"Mr. Oldturn? Mr. Granger and Mr. Lowick too? I wasn't informed you'd be coming here."

When they look back they see Doodad, the executive manager of Blue Sound. He's very surprised to see them.

The Arena:

Glad to be wearing his coat right now, Konrad stops and stares at the massive crowd all around him and above him. He had seen crowds no larger than a fourth of this number, and now the seats were packed. He wondered if he would be able to hear himself think down there in the sand, with the sound of cheers directed at him from all sides.

Deluges of victory cries for his team. His inner showman and his ego grin at the mental image.

That's when the familiar voice calls his name. He turns around. "Doodad? But of course, I should have expected you'd be here."

Mihai is surprised to see the CEO all the way out here, but it quickly makes sense - "We had to make a last-minute detour from our job. Long story, we'll tell you all about it later. How about you? Overseeing the investment?"