The fight to not lose

Shiffit (war-forged) - played by Clint
Zyva (gold-dragon-pixie) - played by Ron
Glauca (old man wizard) - played by Maija
Hesperose (human mariner) - played by Scott
Aramil (elven wizard) - played by Eric
Kita (kenku) - played by Committee

After the Elven council made their decision Shiffit approaches Team One.  They consist of two human females, one seems a follower of divinity and the other rather shifty, literally, with a weasel about her neck.  There are three elven maidens, one with a quaterstaff, one with flowing robes and one cloaked along with a longbow.  Finally, there is a female half-orc, big, strong with a huge scythe in her hands.

Shiffit awkwardly approaches the human cleric and offers a handshake.  The cleric seems wary and asks where Shiffit comes from.  At this point, Glaucus begins to check the female team out and makes a few derogatory comments.  He flirts with the wood elf which seems to upset the half-orc.  "She's mine!" she yells into his face.  The cleric tells her team to leave.  Shiffit seems dejected in his offer to be friends.  He wanted to agree on some niceties and sportsmanship.  Team One doesn't trust Team Shiffit and they think Team Shiffit are trying to get them to pull their punches.  Team One wants to win the tournament the way they want to, with full effort. 

Team Shiffit spends the rest of the night learning the rules, talking about caviar, throwing Glaucus into the water, talking about what spells everyone can cast and the like.  Glaucus describes his unseen servant and Hesperose takes offense.  "I'm right here!" and then leaves the room.  Glaucus also calls Shiffit a metal head, Zyva tries to intercede but Shiffit point out that his head is in fact metal. 

Heralds come and go to the Celeste, bringing reminders and answering questions.  The team is allowed to practice in the Arena and to get a feel for the landscape.  They learn the odds around town have Team One as favorites, 5-1.  They also learn about the history of Team One.

Eventually the final day arrives.  The team is instructed to line up at one of the entrances and when the music stops, the King of Madea will make a speech and the Queen will then drop her neckerchief symbolizing the beginning of the final round of the tournament.  The music stops, the King begins his speech and Zyva begins casting spells, as does Shiffit.  Some of the crowd notice this and begin booing.

The garment hits the ground and the crowd cheers!  Zyva has turned invisible and creates a clone image of herself.  She moves the illusion forward and then mimics a mirror image spell so there are now six Zyvas flying to the center of the Arena.  Hesperose begins his slow advancement.  Kita begins to sing.  Shiffit settles into a pool of water.  Aramil sends forth a dire wolf to take down the shifty human.  Glaucus directs the team from behind.

Two arrows plunge into wolf but it continues to advance.  The shifty human takes refuge behind the half-orc.  The rest of Team One disappear behind the dense foliage in the Arena.  The wolf runs past the half-orc, who misses with a slice from her scythe, and bites the shifty human and successfully trips her to the ground.  The half-orc composes herself and swings again, splitting the wolf in two.  Zyva's illusion expands into the horde of Zyvas summoning another wolf.  Glaucus summons a real wolf and sends it forward, also after the shifty human.  Two more arrows plunge into the second wolf.  Before it can reach its target the half-orc again splits this wolf into two.  (Natural 20's on both beasts)

Aramil sees the half-orc and expertly places an arrow in her neck.  This really seems to upset the half-orc.  She probably thinks all humans look the same and so this wizard is Glaucus, who she already hates.  She begins a bee-line to Aramil, ignoring Zyva's horde.  Hesperose attempts to block her path, taking arrows from the enemy archer and magic missiles from the shifty human.  Enough that he contemplates retiring early.  Aramil supports Hesperose with some magic missiles of his own and damages the half-orc.  This act reinforces Hesperose's resolve and he continues on.  He gets two passing blows as the half-orc trudges toward Aramil and she begins to bleed profusely.  Shiffit then castes a spell that begins to heat the half-orc armor.  Taking all things in, the half-orc realizes her dire situation among the enemy with no allies to cure her mounting wounds, and holds up a hand in submission.  She begins to walk off the battle field but not before Glaucus can get a couple zingers in.  Kita picks up on the insult and begins to sing, "Half-orcs are easy, Half-orcs are easy.  If you ever need some pleasy pleasy, remember, Half-orcs are easy."

Mumbles can be heard throughout the Arena.  Many are surprised the barbarian is out of the fight already.  One can hear the odds makers call out the new odds, Team One, 4-1.

(To be continued)

The second challenge, Can you succeed in a game without dice?

Shiffit (war-forged) - played by Clint
Zyva (gold-dragon-pixie) - played by Ron
Glauca (old man wizard) - played by Maija
Hesperose (human mariner) - played by Scott
Aramil (elven wizard) - played by Eric
Kita (kenku) - played by Shawn

The team goes back to the Celeste.  Hesperose goes fishing.  Glaucus joins him.  Zyva, Aramil and Shiffit go back to town the next day to learn about the second round of the invitational.  They get some advice and blow it off.  :)

Not much happens until the tournament.  Shiffit fails a climb check (another natural 1), which is the highlight of the training period.

The team arrives at an empty stadium and they enter.  They are instructed to go to a tent at the center of the arena and await their turn to be judged.  They see a team exit the tent bickering at one another with criticisms.

When they go in the tent they find a circle of elves including the King.  They are then asked to choose two members to perform the first task.  Kita and Zyva bravely volunteer.  They are seated back to back and Zyva is told to describe three shapes to Kita who then attempts to draw the figures.  One turns out pretty well.  (This challenge was to test team communication.)

The team is then asked to describe the vision of a successful group.  Somehow the vision statement revolves around taking orders from Glaucus.  (This challenge was to test team unity in achieving goals.)

The next phase of the challenge involves a hypothetical situation where the team must choose who would live or die in a drastic situation and then decide the importance of the survivors.  The team mostly chose the survivors using moral judgements of good "people" and even allowed a wealthy merchant to live after negotiations and compromise within the group.  (This challenge was to test the heart of the team and their values.)

The team is the put in a zone of truth and draws cards.  Each card requires the team to describe moments in a character's past.  The team has yet to really learn about one another so the answers were mostly guess work.  (This challenge was to test team intimacy.)

Finally, each team member was asked to act out their favorite animal.  Shiffit played a keen role in identifying animals, except for animals that he has recently summoned.  Nonetheless, the team flew through this challenge like an African swallow through European swallow airspace.  Or something else that was fast and unimpeded.  (This was to test how well the team members are willing to go out of their way to succeed in a group effort.  "Would you die for one another... even if it's dying from embarrassment?")  The team was then asked to leave.

The council of elves then exited the tent and announced to all the teams which team won each round of team challenges.  Team One and Team Shiffit each won two of the challenges in the council's eyes and they will advance to the final round which involves combat.

Rules: Players on each team can choose when to retire from the battle.  Combatants may not attack a player who has retired.  Elven clerics will heal the retired combatants but they will not resurrect players from the dead unless cheating is involved.  All combatants must stay inside the arena.  If a team loses all team members to death or retirement, that team loses the battle.  The team that doesn't lose, wins!

Team One consists of  a human cleric, a wood elf ranger, a high elf wizard and a half-orc barbarian, an elven druid and a shape shifting sorcerer.