Chapter 15

Roden finally stopped in front of the shop he had in mind for their shopping adventure. The front of the shop seemed normal enough. It was the sign that stretched above the front window and door that set this shop apart.

The wooden sign read “G’Vaddle’s Potions and Other Things” in an overly embellished script carved into the surface that was bookended by two oversized potion bottles recessed into the sign each filled with shimmering liquids that swirled continuously. Roden opened the door and entered the shop with the others in tow.

Their entrance was signaled by a series of tones, reminiscent of the ostentatious doorbells from the nineteen nineties. Just when the tones reached their conclusion they began again as Riakon had paused at the door to open and close the door repeatedly triggering the tones.

Roden and Errrkkkk shared a glance and shook their heads. By the third round of the incessant ringing, a small older man appeared behind the counter,

“Welcome to G’Vaddle’s Potions and Other Things! I am G’Vaddle, how can I help you?” The small man’s voice was a surprise on its own as it would start at an unreasonably high pitch before dipping down and rising back up. As G’Vaddle took in the three men his keen nature revealed itself.

“By chance, do I have the pleasure of tending to some adventurers?” His voice dripped with excitement.

“You would be correct good sir.”

“Splendid! What is it you are looking to take on your next adventure?” He clapped his hands together and rubbed them as if he was about to dig into a scrumptious meal.

“We need healing potions, cacaw.”

Before Errrkkkk could finish his sentence, G’Vaddle had a crate of red potion flasks on the counter.

“You can always count on G’Vaddle’s for all your healing potion needs!”

It wasn’t until the men approached the counter that G’Vaddle’s gnomish features became evident to all three men. Roden of course knew G’Vaddle. He was one of his favorite non-player characters from this campaign and quite possibly in his whole world.

Riakon and G’Vaddle haggled over the price of some healing potions and reached an agreement that netted the party two greater tier healing potions and two basic tier in exchange for a discounted price that included a promise on their behalf to only patronize G’Vaddle for all their potion needs.

Just as it appeared the men were wrapping up their business Errrkkkk dug around in his bag and produced the face mask they had constructed before they had entered the cave over a month ago.

“You sell other things than potions, right ,cacaw?”

“Why yes, what do you have there?”

“It's a mask that can filter out poisons in the air.”

“Oh really! Are you sure?” his initial excitement tempered by his inscrutable business sense.

“Yeah, we used them to avoid the spores from these cacaw” Errrkkkk produced the field guide they had used to identify the mushrooms and pointed to the page.

“Hmmmmmm, interesting.” G’Vaddle thought for a long moment.

“And what do you want to do with this?”

“I want you to sell them, cacaw.”

“Me! Sell this? How many do you have?”

“We have three, but I bet they are easier and cheaper to make than the potion that does the same thing, cacaw.”

Errrkkkk had G’Vaddle there. It was true, the potions that negated airborne poisons and diseases were costly, they also negated the other types of poison, which was overkill in some situations. Riakon saw his opportunity and pounced.

“What if you take the ones we have and do your thing with them. If you sell any you give us a small cut off of each one.”

G’Vaddle was checkmated, he couldn’t pass up such a riskless business opportunity nor did he want to tarnish the start of such a profitable relationship.

“You have a deal, you are a crafty business man and I love it.” he said while shaking Riakon’s hand as Errrkkkk harrumphed, having stepped aside while Riakon negotiated.

Roden gave the birdman a consolation pat on the back. The men left the shop with a spring in their step having secured a possible steady source of income.

“That went well. We got everything we needed and it’s not even dinner time.”

“I think that means we have time to pop over to the arena, cacaw.” he rolled his shoulders and stretched out his wings as the words left his beak. A clear sense of frustration in his body language after being forgotten during the negotiations.

“That is a fantastic idea brother!”

And there it was just as Roden had assumed and remembered. His memory wasn’t perfect when it came to the small details of this campaign and being here didn’t give him any greater memory of the events. Unfortunately for him, he had not even a wisp of a memory of the fight they were going to get on this visit.

It didn’t take long for the party to reach the Arena and get themselves set up for a fight. They were fortunate and there was an opening for a monster fight at the end of what was considered the preliminary card.

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Once again they found themselves in the preparation room with some time to kill. Errrkkkk stretched and meditated as usual. Riakon pulled a sleepy Grok out of his pack and played with the little Garg and fed him some of the snacks laid out on the table for the waiting adventurers.

Their status as a team with a winning record afforded them a slightly higher quality preparation room, which only boosted the ego of the party as a whole.

Roden took the time to consider his best option for buffing the team. Technically, he could hit them with both his Blessed Traveler and his Basking Embrace before the fight even started, but that meant he’d have used a third of his magic before the fight even got going.

He thought all the way up to their walk down the tunnel to the arena floor. Just as they were being announced, but still shrouded in darkness he cast his Basking Embrace giving each man a faint flame-like aura, which he imagined looked fucking awesome coming out of the dark tunnel.

“Innnnnnnn the Red Corner, we have a tenacious group with a record of one and oh in the Coastall Adventure Arena. They are the strong, the powerful, the faithful, Sons. of. Era-rchy!!!!" The crowd cheered at the sight of their flaming auras and grew all the louder as their introduction reached its climax.

“Nice touch, cacaw.”

Roden nodded in the affirmative, his attention was fixed on the Blue Corner. He had decided that he would cast Blessed Traveler if the creature was fast and the party needed the boost to stay ahead of it.

“Innnnnnnnn the Blue Corner, we have a malevolent monster from our very own Timber Wilds. This monster ravaged travelers and even killed the first group of adventurers sent after it. I give you the horrific, the violent, the Timber Terror Manticore!!!!”

Roden’s heart nearly dropped out of his ass at the announcer's words. His palms started to sweat as he remembered that damn creature. He immediately casted Blessed Traveler while Riakon started talking

“A Timber Manticore is no joke, I read about these at Bo’s. It’s a subspecies of Manticore, they can’t fly, but instead of wings they have big fucking pincers on their backs, an extra pair of insect like legs, and their tail spikes have a poison on them that is painful as hell.”

Everything Riakon had said was just as Roden remembered. Unfortunately for his memory this party never fought one of these. He had created this monstrosity for a completely different campaign in this same world. Even though that campaign fizzled out, the things he created for it stayed.

Unlike the Ferox from their first fight, the Timber Manticore walked out of the tunnel on the opposite end of the arena. Its humanoid head was held high, nearly scraping the fifteen foot high ceiling , its thick lion’s mane hung in waves back towards its feline body. It even stopped on the mark at the opposite end of the arena. Roden had a sinking suspicion it had done this before.

“Ready!!! Set!!!! Fight!!!!”

With that the fight began, Errrkkkk zipped off into the air, his glowing staff a blur as he rose up and launched a barrage of beams at the manticore scoring multiple hits as it tried strafing to its right. Roden took the opportunity to run to the opposite side as the creature and sent an Ignition Bolt towards it from a safe distance. “Ignite!”

His spell shot across the arena, the Manticore dug its two insectoid legs in and lunged across the ground causing Roden’s spell to just miss his target and slam into the far wall. It then raised its tail and shot a barrage of its own towards the airborne Errrkkkk.

He batted one away but two still managed to pierce Errrkkkk’s wing mid-flap. His team couldn’t see, but Errrkkkk winced in pain as his aura granted by Roden disappeared.

Riakon was the last one to engage. He beared down on the Manticore in a head on charge, his hammer already glowing with his Sanctify and the shimmer of his Faith Shield projecting over his other aura. He brought his hammer down directly on the head of the beast.

The blow itself was crushing, the thunderous boom that followed made it all the more devastating as the Manticore was blasted back in a tumble landing a number of feet away sprawled out. Errrkkkk didn’t miss the chance to draw back his hands while swooping in to deliver a powerful chi blast at point blank range

“Caaaaaaaaaa, Caaaaaawwwwwww!!!!”

From Roden’s vantage, the creature was getting its ass kicked. Riakon and Errrkkkk were one hell of a team. They complimented each other near perfectly in a fight. Roden on the other hand wasn’t a perfect fit.

For example, Riakon had downed the creature which was great for those two as their game was all close range. Roden was a ranged guy, shooting spells at downed targets was not a great situation. Rather than close the distance and risk getting ripped apart. He activated his Moment of Ignition giving him his full flame cloak and then he cast a spell he hadn’t had an opportunity to cast.

He brought his hands together at chest level as if he was holding a sword handle with the sword pointing up and spoke the incantation, “To Arms!” Once spoken a sword made of golden light appeared in his hands filling the space he left during its casting.

The weapon was beautiful, it had a long straight crossguard above his hands. The blade itself was three and a half feet of undulating waves that came to a sharp point giving it a fantastical appearance, despite its design being wholly earthly in origin.

When Errrkkkk’s beam dissipated the Manticore took advantage of his closeness and lunged snapping out with one of its back mounted pincers. Errrkkkk just managed to knock the scorpion-like claw to the side narrowly avoiding being snatched out of the air.

Having missed its first target, it used its momentum to crash into Riakon. His Faith Shield rebuffed the foreclaw, but it didn’t save him from the creature's massive jaws lined with two rows of needle-like teeth.

The bite was brutal, as the thing crunched down on Riakon’s entire left side, the Manticore having shifted its head to allow it to angle itself just right for the nasty attack. Trapped in the Manticore’s maw, Riakon couldn’t get a full wind up, yet still managed to swing his hammer around in a looping motion into the monster’s leg causing it groan in pain, but it did not release him.

When Errrkkkk dropped out of the sky delivering a crushing axe kick to the Manticore’s spine, it had no choice, but to release its prey as it yelped in pain.

With that opening Roden rushed across the arena, he threw his newly conjured sword into the air taking advantage of its independent feature. Once he was within the weapon’s fifteen foot range he directed the blade to strike the distracted Manticore as he raised his hand and shouted “Burn!” flames leapt in a swirling wave from his finger tip, bathing his target in fire, while his sword drove itself into its haunches.

Roden finished his combination by invoking his Blaze ability causing his flames to stick to the beast. The seemingly coordinated assault on the Manticore had it wary and slightly dazed. It spun itself around lowering its head and forelegs to the ground in a crouch.

Its new position had its three opponents surrounding it on three sides as it backed towards the wall of the arena. It raised its tail up and using a whipping motion hurled its tail spikes in a swath across all three combatants. The spikes targeted at Roden burned up into nothing as they encountered his Moment of Ignition cloak.

Errrkkkk got the worst of it. After deflecting one spike to his face, a second spike in his blindspot struck him cleanly in the neck eliciting a groan of pain from his beak. Riakon was nearly unfazed by the three spikes that pierced his upper body, his thick dragonkin scales absorbing the majority of their kinetic energy leaving shallow wounds.

Fury burned in Errrkkkk’s eyes, Roden could just make out the faintest surge of something emanating off of him that cause the air to crackle, when Riakon interrupted his thought,

“All at once?” he said gripping his hammer in two hands.

“I’ll go high, cacaw!”

“I’ll go low.”

“That leaves the head for me.” a predatory grin spread on Riakon’s face, his draconic features making it all the more menacing.

“Go!”

At once all three men charged the wounded monster. Errrkkkk shot into the air up over the Manticore and brought his staff down in a dive bomb attack at the creature’s back from directly above. Roden directed his sword to strike at the foreleg while he ran straight for the beast’s broadside.

As futile as his plan felt he hoped it would work as he had visualized it. As cool as it would have been to use either of his swords, neither was his most damaging melee spell. His Wounding Touch held that title, thus that was the spell he chose. The spell only required him to touch the creature in some fashion.

Unfortunately, the Manticore was so damn tall he didn’t think he could punch it from the ground and he decided he would rather slap himself than slap the thing on the belly to activate the spell. That left one option in his mind.

When Roden was close enough he jumped into the air with all he had, pivoting as he jumped and extended his lead leg in a picture perfect flying side kick that connected with the beast’s ribs.

His spell exploded at the point of impact. Necromantic energy surged out of his touch and blasted a hole through its body the size of his foot. Riakon was slower than the others, but that worked to his advantage as the creature was wholly distracted by the time he was in striking range. The head of his hammer whizzed through the air as he spun. His strike crashed into the Manticore’s jaw.

On impact, his spell and extra divine energy put into his smiting blow lifted the Timber Manticore off its feet and launched it back into the wall of the arena with a crash that shook the arena. There was a moment when the creature appeared finished and the crowd went silent.

The silence was broken by a rage fueled roar of a creature about to fight to the death. The Manticore dragged itself up one paw at a time. Just as it straightened on its second foreleg, the crowd gasped as Errrkkkk came from out of the light of the sun overhead with his signature,

“Caaaaaaaaaaa, Caaaaaaawwwwwww!!!!!!”

The chi blast smothered the flagging Manticore in its golden light. The cheers were deafening before his attack had reached its conclusion. Everyone knew the monster was not getting up from that assault. Errrkkkk soaked in the adoration of the crowd once their victory was secured.

Riakon raised his hammer in celebration and embraced his brother. Roden clapped his hands and pumped his fist at their win, but couldn’t shake the suspicious feeling he had from before the fight even started. He studied the creature and saw its wounds from their fight. When he made his way around to its face something about the look of the thing laying there with closed eyes made him reach out to touch it.

As his hand neared it, one eye opened and he froze in his tracks. However, instead of lashing out the damn thing winked at him and closed its eye again, beaten, but alive to fight in the arena another day.