Meat Grinder of Champions

After my very short play of Trial of Champions where I died in the arena in a cut scene, let’s try it again.

Let’s keep my old character: Skill 11 / Stamina 17 / Luck 10  They seemed like good stats, and I literally hadn’t made a single mark on the paper before dying so it seems a shame to waste it.

Week one: A preface as an oar slave, but unlike the beginning of Master of Chaos at least I’m not beaten half to death before we even arrive.

Day one: A foot race, where an ogre tried to trip me, but it still cost me a luck point for a Test Your Luck roll.

Day two: Fighting the bonecrusher beast, this time with the right weapon. We don’t do a regular combat fight, but instead a series of random rolls and Test Skill to see whether I lose luck. I won in two random throws which is better than dying but less satisfying than a real fight.

And now we’re further than I got last time.

The day done, we head back to our cells. As we’re nodding off to sleep, the guard announces “There are two of you in each cell. Make sure there’s only one by morning. ha ha ha ha ha” and my cellmate pounces at me! Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal! I have a skill 11 but he has a 10, so it’s not a quick fight. He knocks me from 17 stamina to 9 — about half-way.

The next morning is a new series of awfulness.

First off is a whirling machine with blades at neck level and ankle level, and 4 people lie die on the ground before it’s my turn to play “jump, duck, or die” Again, it’s a single skill test and my 11 saves me.

Then it’s a game of blind mace tag. That’s where everyone has a spiked mace and a blindfold, and we stumble around randomly picking whether to duck left or right, knowing that each random decision could be out last. Fortunately I pick wisely and live long enough to get into a regular fight… which leaves me at 5 stamina.

A quick break for lunch (stamina = 9 now!) and it’s one last fight. I have 11 skill and he has 10. He has 10 stamina and I have 9. And I roll badly and he rolls less badly. And though I get him down to 4 stamina, he gets me first… and my adventure ends here, in a red pool soaking into the sand.