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"Letting them keep their weapons would be better, and fair. They could still stand a chance against other groups that way. More likely to leave if it is just a setback but not forfeiting the tourny. Otherwise, you just strengthen their resolve to fight."
Naomi moves opposite Azahgoth, but not quite in range yet.
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Azhagoth, Ouncius and Naomi all start to advance, while Bishop draws his weapons. Quan Tai steps forward, staring down the woman in chainmail. Perhaps she caught a glimpse of his draconic nature, and starts to quiver in fear.
Lox studies the environment and deems it safe to throw his bomb. In fact, he surmises it would do some good to clear the air of some of the foul-smelling methane. The bomb flies overhead, smashing right into chest of the woman, coating her with chemicals which combust in the air! The explosion catches the other Aspis agents, although the half-elven woman manages to duck behind her comrade in front of her, avoiding some of the blast.
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Bishop smiles with great satisfaction seeing the others engage with the Aspis agents. Their organization was known for many nefarious things and slave trading was one of them. He rushed along the walkway looking for an ideal spot to throw his dagger. Settling for the position in front of Naomi. "The battle is that way Naomi" and flings a dagger at the woman shooken by Quan.
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Lox draws nearer to the Aspis snakes, while magically shielding himself. Quan Tai advances, and gets ready to attack should the enemy approaches. Azhagoth similarly advances, swinging at the half-orc but his blade glances off his armor. Ouncius charges down the narrow passage, but his katana also bounces off the half-orc's banded mail. While Naomi waits for the enemies to approach, Bishop moves closer and flings a dagger at the woman in front. However, the dagger misses, falling into the channel of sewage beside her.
The half-orc roars in anger, calling out, "Gorum, grant my allies strength!" With that, divine energy bursts from him, healing everyone of their wounds.
The woman in chainmail screams horribly as the fire sears into her skin. In desperation, she steps into the sewage, which puts out the fire instantaneously. She gags at the horrid stench but manages to hold in the contents of her stomach. She whips out a flask and downs the contents, healing all of her wounds.
The half-elven woman standing behind her screams at her in frustration. "You're supposed to hold the frontline!" She raises her hand, pointing at Quan Tai and sending a thin beam of fire towards him. It burns through his robes, singeing his chest badly. She then retreats further from Quan Tai.
The leather clad human man, seeing the predicament of his ally, dashes across the bridge towards Quan Tai, stabbing at him with one of his shortsword. Quan Tai, however, easily dodges the clumsy attack.
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Lox charges down the narrow passage, swinging down hard on the woman down in the sewage. His blade cleaves deeply into her shoulders and blood spurts out into the air. She sways on her feet, almost collapsing.
Naomi dashes across the bridges, cornering the leather-clad man. Bishop follows closely after, coming up to support Lox.
The leather-clad man jumps out of the way of Quan Tai's kick but does not recover in time as Quan Tai follows up with a mighty punch to his chest, staggering him. Quan Tai can see fear welling up in his eyes, as he starts to look for an avenue to flee.
Azhagoth and Ouncius swing their blades on the half-orc cleric. Ouncius' strikes unfortunately glance off his stubborn armor, but Azhagoth's polearm slices into his thigh where there's a gap in the armor.
The half-orc roars his defiance at Ouncius in reply to his call to surrender. He looks tempted to swing his sword at him but seeing the condition of his party, summons another wave of divine energy that burst throughout the room, healing friend and foe alike. He then takes a step back.
Recovering somewhat from the healing, the woman in the sewer glares daggers at Lox and swings at his legs with her greataxe. The weapon, however, bounces off Lox's magical shield.
She then climbs up the opposite side, looking to consolidate the forces.
The leather clad man, frightened by Quan Tai's fearsome attack, turns tail to run! He dodges and weaves under Quan Tai's threatening fists and Naomi's blade, heading back past the stunned half-elf spellcaster. He jumps down the tunnel and heads north.
The half-elven woman screams at the fleeing man. "What are you doing!!! Come back!!!" She stares fearfully at Quan Tai and launches another beam of fire at him. Her hands are shaking too hard, however, and the beam flies over his hand. She then runs across the northern bridge, behind the half-orc.
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Lox attacks the Aspis woman who is withdrawing, but stench of the raw sewers make his eyes tear and his blade goes wide as a result. Naomi moves in closing on the woman, daring her to attack. Lox in turn also closes in, making his way across the bridge, past Naomi. Just as he squeezes by, the woman, disregarding Naomi's warning, takes the opportunity to slash at him. But she glances momentarily at Quan Tai, her eyes still fearful, and that distraction causes her blade to miss.
Ignoring the gaping wound at his side, Lox swings at the woman, but she hops back and dodges out of the way.
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Bishop repositions himself. Quan Tai closes in on the woman, but she dodges his punch easily. Ouncius' katana also fails to connect, but his smaller blade drives deep into her chest, and she collapses on the floor as bubbles of blood gurgles from her mouth.
The half-orc continues to bleed out. The woman, on the other hand, seem to recover somewhat as her breathing stabilises.
The leather-clad glares at your party, but he courageously approaches Azhagoth and slashes at him with his shortswords. The first blade goes wide but the second slices Azhagoth deeply in his upper arm.
The half-elven woman again raises her finger pointing at Quan Tai as she releases another beam of fire at him, but again her aim is bad. She then drops down to the dry channel behind her, and withdraws behind her remaining ally.
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Naomi stoops down, removing the weapons from the two unconscious agents and checks on their wounds. Meanwhile, Lox lobs another bomb with deadly accuracy overhead, smashing into the half-elven woman. She screams in horrid agony as her robes catches fire. The leather-clad man is caught in the explosion, still shaken from his encounter with Quan Tai and not able to react fast enough.
Quan Tai advances along the dry sewer pipe and swings his arm, smashing into the shins of the man. The mighty blow cracks the bones in his legs and he falls unconscious from the pain.
The flames on the half-elven woman is too overwhelming and she shortly after also collapses, while the flames on her robes continue to smolder.
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Quan Tai climbs out of the pipe and onto the platform.
As he brushes himself off, his fingers catch on a burn on his robes. His eyes narrow and he reaches for a wand stashed in his backpack. "Azhagoth, would you mind patching me up?"
After straightening his robes, he eyes the cage.
"With a running start, I think I could jump high enough to grab it."
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He looks at Quan Tai. "As much as I admire the fluidity of your combat prowess I'd think Naomi or myself might have a better chance of getting up to that cage with a running start. Maybe if you give one of us a boost while we are running it will propel us up there. Come to think of it if the cage is locked I might be the best one to try your plan. I'm quite lucky when it comes to figuring out locks."
Looking at the cage hanging in the air. "Someone could probably let me stand on their shoulders could also probably work." Bishop looks at one of the half orcs as he says this.
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Bishop nods and makes sure the orcs are out of the way. Estimating he distance needed he counts back the paces, "One...two...three.." finally ending at fifteen paces. He looks around and sees one of the orcs looking at him as if Bishop was crazy.
Flashing a smile he runs towards the waiting Quan Tai and performs the jump as if the two had been practicing this from their childhood days. Bishop lifts himself in the air arching his body in perfect position to grab the suspended cage.
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Bishop races up towards Quan Tai, who gives him a boost up just at the right timing, launching Bishop towards the cage. With perfect coordination, Bishop grabs the cage. With a simple yank while in mid-air, the chain attaching it to the ceiling breaks and Bishop lands gracefully with the cage in hand, the vase barely shaken by the experience.
Although the cage is quite well-secured, you eventually manage to pry it open, and withdraw the vase. Sealed with a wax-coated cork, the vase contains six red paper envelopes, each embossed with an elaborate hand-painted print of a golden phoenix. The envelope holds a folded invitation to attend a performance of a traditional opera from Lung Wa entitled Dawn of the Jade Phoenix, to be held at a small theater in the Foreign Quarter the next morning.
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With the invitations properly stowed away, the party explores the rest of the sewer system, which turns out deserted. You climb up a similar sewer shaft as before, into another stone chamber, with a similar lift pulley system that leads 20 feet up to another trapdoor. This lift, however, is working, and you make your way back up to the warehouse subbasement beneath the arena. The arena is quiet, and you are uncertain if other groups of contestants are still in the sewers or have already left.
With high spirits after securing the invitations, the party returns to the Flying Alderman. It is already late in the night by now, and it seems most of the patrons have retired. A sleepy barmaid opens the door, and other than her, the taproom is empty. She perks up quickly though when she sees guests.
"Would you like anything? A drink? Some food? I'm sure Betsy can fix up something if you're hungry. Or just return to your room? Oh, if you want, I could get Milo to draw up a hot bath in your room! Would be nice after a long day!"
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Luckily for Quan Tai and Naomi, Azhagoth isn't paying any attention to the pair. He's far too concerned with how long it's taking for the serving girl to get him his whiskey. He does eventually turn to the pair of them, however, and grunts his approval of their work earlier that day. "You two did a good job against those Aspis pigs earlier. And you didn't even have to use any tricks."