In the coming days, Concetta started to learn fire and alcohol magic, finding it much more useful than swordplay, and therefore returns the saber to the lord’s armory.
As for Bryzax and Yutolio, they spend the night before the tournament rearranging the great room for the exhibition of haunted park loot. And making room for additional exhibits, should attendees from outside the realm come in with their own haunted park exhibits. With the haunted park loot they obtained from running the Caladon Bog, and possibly different tables for loot from other parks.
But the following day, right after breakfast, it seems like so many in the palace wear their formal clothing for major events. For Enno, this means a black velvet set with yellow trim, and a red cloak, along with a red ceremonial sash. For Bryzax, a lilac cloak, a yellow sash and a white robe. And some other people wear other accoutrements to the opening ceremony.
Speaking of which, Enno takes up position in the lordly box, alongside Bryzax, while the entrants of this tournament are about to parade around the city’s tournament grounds. With Yutolio and some volunteers standing ready to tend to the injuries sustained by the participants in the tourney.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I hereby declare the Haunted Park Tournament open!” Enno announces in front of an enthusiastic crowd. “The grand prize of this tourney is the winner’s community winning the haunted park’s construction site!”
Bryzax then announces the participants, one by one, as they parade around the city’s tournament grounds, much to the delight of the attendees. Who attend mostly for the upcoming bouts, oblivious to any haunted park implication the competition carries.
“For those who have gear from haunted parks to exhibit, please follow me to the palace’s grand hall, where the gear from the Caladon Bog is exposed!” Enno exhorts people in the audience to follow him to the palace, which is nearby.
So many onlookers who never saw haunted park gear in their lives accompany him to the grand hall. Also, the few outsiders who even have haunted park gear display gear from places such as Lower and Upper Perseria, which both share the same set of loot, the Sun Disk and Operation Heathrow, the latter being the new trendy raid of the day.
Saronium! I hope that she keeps quiet about the maintenance schedules of haunted parks! Enno silently makes his wishes upon seeing her putting all 3 sets on her allotted table in the grand hall.
But even stuff from older parks, such as the Depths of Gorima and the Heart of Infection, seem to pique the interest of the attendees, with their owners willing to tell tales of running the haunted parks the exhibits originate from. And maybe even questing.
Even Enno and Bryzax start telling the audience about their trip to the Caladon Bog. About what qualities successful tanks or DPS should have to make it through a haunted park. Yet she can’t help but overhear Saronium talking about various tanks she ran content (in haunted park-speak) with.
“It’s a myth that you need heavy armor to tank. I even ran Upper Perseria with a bishop for a tank!” Saronium causes her listeners to gasp.
“Do you have any likes or dislikes for tanks?” Bryzax asks her.
“Honestly, I would say a vandal or acrobat. They tend to dodge hits the way, say, a defender would take. Berserkers, on the other hand, might be able to hold the attention of bosses with madness, but they often have tunnel vision so they take more hits” Saronium then turns to Enno. “You’re one of the few who queued in haunted parks that don’t blame the healer when things go wrong”
“To be fair, my lady, I only ran what you deemed appropriate for someone new to haunted parks! You run haunted parks for a living, and I only accepted to run the Caladon Bog with you so that I would get experience that would be of use for me to get my park built!”
“I can guarantee you that I have seen far worse than you two as first-timers in haunted parks!” Saronium refers to Bryzax and Enno.
“One does not become a herald without first having proven their prowess in battle” Bryzax retorts, referring to travel being one of the most dangerous parts of his job, along with his role in battlefield reconnaissance.
These otherworldly people they call players are quick to blame us, especially given the dangers they have us face, Saronium muses about her life as a rental healer, who saw almost every extant haunted park in the world in that capacity, but only showcased the newest.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
But, of course, since not everyone is interested in listening to a rental healer, the other two attendees with experience of haunted parks draw their share of visitors. Like the bard who tanked the Heart of Infection, whose singing draws in more lyrical-minded visitors like, and the set from it behind him. Especially this green-and-black ornate longbow.
Or the swashbuckler who just wants to show his two talwars along with his suit, which the hosts recognize from the saber dancer they ran the Caladon Bog with. Ooh! So the saber dancer we ran the park with wore the loot from the Depths of Gorima! One of them dyed their loot… Bryzax reflects on the uncanny resemblance.
This exhibition seems to open up the people of Kaeshana to a whole new world of adventure that could await them outside the realm, but also provoke the envy of other elements, especially those who, for some reason, are unable to go on adventures.
During lunch break, Concetta finally emerges from the palace’s kitchen, along with serfs, with several baskets filled with bread, cheese, as well as other drinks, such as her best magic-borne facsimile of Kaeshana ice wine in a barrel.
“Milord, would you please taste this magical wine?” Concetta begs her lord. “Please?”
Enno turns to his herald. “Get a prisoner to taste this magical wine, now!”
“Yes, milord!” The herald responds, before he fetches a cup of this magical wine for the prisoner to sample.
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Some lords have a court official perform this function; Enno uses convicted criminals for that. I wonder which one is safer, Bryzax then feels like his lord suspects Concetta of being in a position to make him ill. Or worse, poison him outright with alcohol magic. But Concetta never openly criticized the haunted park itself, only that a tax on funeral goods and services might burden the poor more.
Bryzax then approaches the prisoner, who clearly was the most parched of the gang, cup in hand. However, the other prisoners are also thirsty, too.
“Here’s your chance to drink magical wine!” Bryzax hands over the cup to the prisoner, who gulps it, hoping that Enno doesn’t poison him, much less on purpose. “Just don’t drink the whole cup on your own! Leave some of this magical wine for the others in the cell!”
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At the same time, Concetta feels a little uneasy about why Enno suddenly wanted a prisoner to taste the magical wine whereas he didn’t ask for such previously, even with magical drinks being served since she started learning fire and alcohol magic.
“Why did you have a prisoner taste the magical wine, milord?” Concetta asks him, her expression being a little perplexing.
“Today is my only chance left to win the population over to the whole project of building the haunted park! By letting champions of communities all across the land duke it out for it, I don’t want to lose face over that any more than I already did! And someone ill-intentioned could very well take advantage of it to poison me in public!”
“I’ve been practicing fire and alcohol magic for the past fortnight! And this is how you treat me?” the cook asks him.
“You might not be aware of this, because you have been devoted to cooking meals for the palace’s residents, and now magic, but the haunted park has divided the population!”
Enno takes a bite of bread and cheese, while other attendees do the same, drinking the magical wine Concetta conjured.
Speaking of which, Bryzax is back from the jail adjacent to the palace, with news of the wine tasting.
“The magical wine is safe to drink today!” Bryzax announces to his liege lord.
“Very well, I will drink the magical wine!” Enno takes a cup of white wine which tastes like, well, ice wine. “Maybe you should go on my next trip to a haunted park! Or even test my haunted park before its opening!”
“I hope you’re aware of the difference between using alcohol magic to conjure ice wine and doing so to fight in a haunted park!” the swashbuckler warns Concetta. “Even if you could follow mechanics!”
“No, I am relatively new to alcohol magic and I never went to a haunted park in my life!” Concetta retorts. “How is using alcohol magic different in a haunted park?”
“Ideally, you should have a rotation down cold. Hopefully you can use the byproducts of practicing it for sale, but what goes on in an alcohol wizard’s rotation, on the other hand, I have no idea” the swashbuckler answers her.
“If any of you want to become a rental healer to run haunted parks, I would say that, for healers, it’s much more important to have your priorities straight than having a rotation down cold, because haunted park healing is a giant whack-a-mole game, and you need to switch targets far more often than a DPS or tank will” Saronium explains to the attendees in the grand hall. “Sure, the tank will take more hits, but don’t forget about keeping the DPS up!”
The attendees listen to every hint their guests of honor have to provide for dungeon crawling. However, they seem to stick to dungeons for now, with much less interest in raiding. That, even though two of them are, or were, doing high-end raiding at some point in their lives: Saronium and the bard.
“To add to what the life witch was saying, in a haunted park, sometimes you need to stop hitting stuff to get out of the way of the boss or one of its special abilities!” the bard warns the would-be dungeon crawlers, before singing a song on his lyre.
When the bard has finished singing, and the attendees have taken whatever they could eat, Enno tells the attendees to get ready for the tournament’s main event. Concetta, however, can’t hide her disappointment since she’s going to toil in the palace’s kitchens to prepare more food for the closing ceremony. Which will have more lavish food than at lunch.
Bryzax then takes the tournament entrants to a special room where they will be waiting for the signal to get into the pitch. And, of course, they get to see the tournament bracket before the public will.
“Ladies and gentlemen, may you fight well this day, and may the haunted park be yours!” Bryzax then carries the banners of the communities they represent to his lord’s box, from which he will be called upon to officiate the tournament.