Onica-Session 11
A retcon'd session that would have occurred during Session 10. Session_10(Roland)
The team is invited to the Rushlight Tournament near Pitax.
4 separate events:
- An ostrich 'bronco' event.
- An archery contest.
- A boasting contest.
- A jousting tourney.
Onica played a pivotal role in the first two events. Realizing that most of the other teams were of much higher skill level/ability than ours we decided to explore the possibilities of 'altering our chances through other means.' Yes, cheating. Since the event was more celebratory than dangerous/honorable Onica's view was that any effort could be taken to win without undo shame if caught. In fact, during the tournament, a number of teams were found to be cheating and were only excused from that event.
The first event was of concern to Onica's fellow party members. Discussions of strength and agility were in the midst of being explored when Onica stood up and looked at the men around the table and said 'I can simply turn into an Ostrich.' While this was easier said than done, the heroes of Oathaven found this solution to best. Onica then went to the menagerie that was setup to commune and understand these strange creatures. Just before the event, she used her newly acquired spell Burrow to get into the Ostrich paddock. Through a certain amount of luck Onica was matched with the team's rider Kessler. Although making a good show, the oddness of the ostrich proved much to difficult for Onica to mimic while having a rider attempting to pretend to be on a 'bucking' ostrich. After 6 rounds of bucking, both Kessler lost his grip and Onica was unable to correct her gait, causing us to only take 2nd place.
The second event was a pure skill challenge that some teams tried to cheat in with altered arrows. Through our quick attention to detail, the team found these cheaters so they could be disqualified. The event used Masterwork Longbows (which Onica prefers) along with normal shafted arrows marked for each archer. 4 doves would be released at 30 yards, 4 at 80 and 4 at 100 yards. The 2nd and 3rd groupings would be released after 20 seconds from the previous released group. Using Roland's advice, upon shooting the 3rd dove of the first group Onica switched to the first 3 of the 80 yard group. Then, when the last 4 were released she shot at them. In the end, she missed 2 of the farthest group and only 1 of the medium range doves, which was still a combined total that gave us a complete victory in this event!
The boasting contest was hard. Roland was required to go up against a number of bards. While he made a fairly good showing, we did not take first or second place in this challenge. He did then try to romance the winner of the contest, who again, challenged him to a boasting contest, where, while still losing, he faired better than in the main event.
The jousting tourney was equally hard with Grikk using his arcana abilities to maintain his riding and jousting abilities. Unfortunately, the number of tilts that were required used his powers up too soon causing him to be unable to 'charge' his riding at the 2nd to last joust. He was unseated and we didn't take first or second place.
While we ended up not winning the tournament, we did show that Oathhaven had skilled people within its boundaries and I'm sure other countries took notice.