AD&D Session 94 - Rigged to Win
28th of Duscar, 835 PD
The party’s plan to recover House Mardoon’s missing pixie agent reached its climax in the final round of Shadycreek Run’s fight club tournament. After Whisper and Enikas had already fought their way through two matches and exposed weaknesses in the arena’s magical protections, the last bout quickly confirmed the party’s suspicions that the contest was being manipulated from the sidelines rather than left to the fighters alone.
As the match unfolded, it became apparent that a dwarven priest among the organisers was using magic to absorb or redistribute some of the punishment suffered by her allies in the ring, helping them endure far longer than they should have. Even so, the strain eventually overwhelmed her and she collapsed, while one of the warded protections around the arena was also triggered against Whisper and Enikas—apparently expending a hidden safeguard that prevented what would otherwise have been a killing blow. With the fight club’s cheating mechanisms beginning to fail under pressure, the resident mage overseeing the ring grew visibly alarmed as the underdogs continued to outperform expectations. Bibi helped blunt further interference by distracting the dwarven cleric at a crucial moment, and the momentum in the ring finally shifted decisively. After a long and punishing exchange filled with knockdowns, Whisper and Enikas brought their opponents down for the last time and won the tournament outright. The crowd, stunned that the expected outcome had been overturned, hesitated only briefly before erupting in excitement, while the officials’ growing unease made it clear that their carefully rigged finale had slipped out of their control.