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  The city of Egress was always lively and bustling with energy. A constant flow of adventurers and warriors testing their grit against the now commercialized dungeon of Ingress. The dungeon was once a symbol of great terror. Back in the first war with the Mokoi khan the dungeon suddenly appeared. Deep within its depths there was some sort of entranceway that allowed a never-ending stream of mokoi to pour through from their badlands across the sea straight into the human territory. In retaliation, the border town of Egress was built as a guard station preventing the mokoi from exiting the dungeon and flooding their continent Trammel. The town quickly grew and grew until it became one of Trammel's largest cities, second only to Proselyte. Egress went from a military outpost to a commercial hub where peddlers bought and sold mokoi furs, horns, and other rarer components. A guild was formed to organize and systemize what was once a terrifying cave of unknown monstrosities into a training grounds for new fighters to practice. Lately the infinite source of mokoi pouring from the dungeon depths has begun to thin; this information is not shared publicly yet, but the worrying theory is that whatever source has been sending the mokoi from their badlands to here: stopped. No one would have ever guessed that the source just walked away.

  The dungeon of Ingress was relatively quiet today, not many adventurers wanted to be delving into the dank dark halls of a dungeon when today the famed Poetaster was performing one of their concerts. At the center of the city, where there usually was a wide opening of bare street was now crammed full of people. People cheering and chattering, intently staring at the oversized stage at the end of the opening. People continued to flood into the city center, parties were held on the rooves of the surrounding buildings for better viewing. The crowds oozed down the city streets.

  The entire city was stunned silent when a multi-colored beam of light shot out from the stage into the sky. Out from this infinitely tall beam, many pellets shot out in every direction and began to explode in prismatic sparks of every color. The explosions would send a hearty sound that reverberated through the body shaking ones very core. The crowd recovered from their stupor and cheered on the light display, some ooed and awed, many clapped and whistled on the show. The lights filling the sky suddenly all froze in place. The sounds of explosions took a few seconds longer to stop, but once they did, so did the crowd. Within an instant all of the lights rushed towards the stage at incredible speed, some of the crowd jumped and gasped, a little fear filling their hearts at the sudden aggressive movement. The light gathered and piled at the center of the stage, more and more light smashed together piling higher and higher eventually forming the shape of a human. Then, an explosion. The explosion sounded of a volcanic eruption that was so great it caused the light at the center of the stage, like a wave, to wash over the crowd with sonic speed bellowing wind into all of their faces and frazzling their hair. Where the light once gathered on the stage was a person.

  The entire city erupted in applause at the sight of this miraculous person at the center of the stage. The person was tall and sleek, the very picture of health and fitness. The person spoke out to the crowd. the person's voice was clear in everyone's ears from the front row seats to the poor dredges hidden in the alleyways; the person's voice was as if spoken right next to the ears of each individual spectator. “everyone watch!”

  The person allowed a brief bout of silence to fill the city's air with anticipation. A practiced dramatic flare to accomadate the announcement. “watch and see I, the great Poetaster!”

  Once again, the crowd erupted into applause. Poetaster stood center stage for a while and allowed the powerful adoration flow into them, they took a moment to appreciate the stares, the feelings, the senses filling them. Everyone in this crowd were lending themselves, their time, energy, and attention, it was all being given to Poetaster.

“I am very excited to announce to everyone that I have been working day and night with the dungeon guild to bring this show to you! Throughout the course of this night you all will experience an incredible journey of courage and hope filled with real dangers and scares! I will present to you a feature length story, that I promise will grant you moments of genuine emotions and tears but also exhilarating excitement. And the whole play will all be sonically held together by new never before heard songs and poems by yours truly!”

  Poetaster paused to ensure that everyone was adequately enraptured. “So now I present to you: The Egg Votary.”

  A black mist poured over the stage shrouding it in darkness; a faint white light glowed in center stage.

“The world was once an eternal nothing,

Empty and devoid of all but an egg.

And from the egg, sprouted a glorious raptor.”

  The faint white light split in two, revealing inside: Poetaster.

“With nothing but its clothing,

The bird stood on its new leg.

It was thick as a dragon and even stronger.

The bird began to run

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It could now have some fun.

Or so it thought,

But it quickly was caught!

The bird was frightfully scared.

It knew not how it fared, compared,

To this three eyed Gurrolared!”

  Poetaster parted the black mist revealing on center stage a great terrifying mokoi. It stood on two legs as thick as trees, with muscles nearly bulging out of its leathery skin. It had three eyes that each wrapped around its thick head. The monster’s single gargantuan arm snatched Poetaster in its tight grip and lifted it up into the air. Some of the audience screamed in terror at witnessing this ferocious beast.

“But the bird was finally freed,

It was tired of being in a trap.

Freedom was its new creed,

And it would fight for it in a scrap!”

  Many light rays burst out of the Gurrolared’s hand, causing it to release Poetaster and shriek in agony and frustration. Poetaster made space between the mokoi creature and bowed to the audience. The viewers roared in applause at Poetaster’s narrow escape from death and cheered on for their victory against the horrific beast. The Gurrolared leaped at Poetaster who adeptly dodged clear of the way, letting the monster crash through the wooden stage sending splinters and dust flying into the air. Poetaster continued to taunt the mokoi into attack, seemingly uninterested in the collateral it caused to the stage and its surroundings. They had originally planned for this fight to continue for longer but when Poetaster noticed that the viewers were watching the mokoi’s attacks more than Poetaster's nimble maneuvers, they moved on to the next segment.

“With a surprisingly powerful bite,

The raptor brought an end to the fight.”

  A prismatic blade formed in Poetaster’s hands and with a smooth motion they severed the monster’s head which plodded onto the floor, rolling off the stage.

“The mokoi fell to the ground dead,

The raptor was then well fed.

Having eaten its full,

it went to bed.

It was falling into a lull,

It deserved rest but instead

The earth trembled ferociously hailing down rocks from the sky!

Oh MY!”

  The ground began to shake violently, many spectators lowered themselves trying to keep balance. Loud explosions could be heard overhead, but the source of the sound could not be found.

“A horrible rumble heralded another opponent,

A beast many times more fearsome and dangerous.

Its might and ferocity as of yet unmatched.

But the raptor could thrive through any torrent,

It had the potential to be much more heinous.

The bird was ready for anything this world dispatched.”

  The entire stage exploded as the ground beneath it was shoved aside to make way for a monstrous worm that seemed to continuously grow into the air. Forty feet long, sixty feet long, the worm kept flying up into the air. Many in the audience began scrambling and running away. Poetaster flew into the air, nonchalantly floating above the panicking crowd.

“The Raptor faced its second enemy,

But none should fear,

For the raptor could defeat it easily.

So do not run my audience,

Just lend your eye, lend your ear.”

  The crowd hearing Poetaster’s words of confidence stopped from their stampeding retreat and looked to the sky above. Poetaster began to hover and circle around the great flying worm, it twisted and gnarled the air in attempts to swallow Poetaster whole. Poetaster fired a cacophony of colored rays, filling the night sky in beautiful light, illuminating the bout for all to see. The fight between the two danced through the air above the crowd, circling to each corner of the audience. The battle eventually made its way back above the stage where in a final strike, Poetaster grabbed the worm by its salivating tongue and with a mighty swing launched it back into the tunnel it originally created. An explosion of red light burst from the tunnel where the worm had fallen. Poetaster floated down to just in front of the hole and bowed to the petrified onlookers.

“The raptor was strong and great,

It became renowned in the world of dark.

All the evils inside were filled with a powerful hate.

They all teamed together and put on the raptor a mark.

A mark to be hunted.”

  Before the crowd could properly recover from the previous spectacle a swarm of large green leathery ape like mokoi burst out of the ground all throughout the crowd. Total panic erupted, no assurance from Poetaster would calm them now.

“The raptor felt feted,

And as thanks retaliated.

Even if it wouldn’t become satiated.”

  Poetaster scanned the crowd finding the people on the verge of being eaten by the green mokoi and would swoop in to save them. Poetaster frantically jumped and shot to and from terrified citizen to terrified citizen. Barely managing to prevent the mokoi from landing a fatal swing on any of the innocent audience members. Once having defeated all of the rampaging mokoi, Poetaster made its way back to where the stage once was.

“The raptor having finally saved the world of dark from all of its evil,

Decided to leave for a better place where it would be happy.

The raptor looked up to the world of light and saw the nice people.

It knew that it had to go there no matter the difficulty.

The raptor pushed and climbed without rest,

Rising out of the dark depths in which it was born.

In the world of light, it formed a new nest.

Where the other birds adored it without scorn.”

  Poetaster bowed and waited for the rapturous applause to fill its ears but only heard silence. The loud chime of a bell echoed throughout the still city. Poetaster looked up to the audience. The whole crowd was frozen staring at the stage in disbelief of having experienced this show, each viewer was personally brought to the brink of death in what would be the most horrifying experience for many of the spectator’s lives. Even the adventurers watching the show were fearful, perhaps even more so because they understood how the mokoi used in this show were each powerful enough to raze the whole city if they weren’t so adeptly controlled by Poetaster. Poetaster didn’t really care about all of its viewers at the moment because all of its attention was drawn towards this strange thing before it.

  Before Poetaster, there was what seemed to be a small pink rhombus, or it was a rhombus, but its body would reject any stable state. It would shift and transform, shrink and grow, continuously morphing into other shapes. The pink shape finally locked into a form resembling that of a featureless human with only one limb. The arm was outstretched towards Poetaster holding a glowing parchment: It read.

You have been invited to The Tournament You are The Flare