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... the crowd goes crazy.

There was a dwarf that MC ed the presentation with a play by play. All attention was on him at this point. He calms the audience and then exclaims- "THE FESTIVITIES ARE NOT OVER!" and the crowd erupts. He teases the audience with what comes next while bets and wagers are called all over the arena stands.

A section of the arena floor starts to rumble and tilt down into the ground to form a ramp. Just as its finishing a screech comes up from the rectangle hole as the head of former animal handler flies up and lands in the arena sand near the halfling. The next moment, a large drake (a wingless dragon of sorts) jumps up out of the hole and hisses at the warriors- the crowd goes nuts.

It is a very difficult fight. The aarakockra pegged it in the eye with an arrow while Rayhan worked it always maintaining a flanking attack. The beast had a fire breath weapon, but it did drop finally. When it was over, the halfling and the gladiator pandered to the audience, shaking everyone there from the initial shock of the obvious upset and into another eruption. It was noticed that the MC dwarf sought council at a veiled luxury box overlooking the arena before announcing the victory.

Many guards come out into the arena to shackle the victors: a Thri-Kreen psion named K-Tor, an aarakocra sky priest named Ookat, Renpoku the halfling rogue, and Rayhan the human gladiator. They left the arena floor that day as the Sons of Nibenay. They were led to the holding cells again, however, we went all the way to the end of the hall. To the luxury cell.

In here they found fruit and drink as well as cushions and women. Servants took their orders- anything they desired! Renpoku (the cannibalistic halfling) ordered the teeth and heart of the drake raw, which greatly lessened the appeal of the fruit of the cell. The aarakockra was miserable the whole time- being inside and underground.

Before long the Templar from the market place of the day before arrived at the cell with a squad of warrior women. Rayhan asked her name and she answered - Sandra. She and the 12 women lead the party all through the arena to a door. Sandra warns them the Master on the otherside of this door. "Do not cross him."

When they enter they find an old man, very reptilian in appearance, with an ogre on either side of his throne. The larger ogre tells then to kneel before him. And they do. The open air of the arena can be seen through a magical looking veil behind the 'Master' and the ogres.

This is the dragon king- Nibenay. He tells the party how the Veiled Alliance has begun to fester in the city. The party's mission starts to become clear. They are to infiltrate the Alliance and return with information about who is heading it and where they are operating out of. They are given 10 days to accomplish this. Their new status should win the Veiled Alliance's sympathies. A priest of Nibenay's casts a geis on all of them locking them to this one task. A small red scaly creature is assigned to watch them- though, he seems to be invisible most of the time. He is called Then'zall.

Nibenay had his captain of the guard killed to make it look like they escaped. The party is lead out of the arena via the sewer system and left to fend for themselves. They make for the slums where the law isn't enforced.

Taking back alleys and avoiding city guards, the party finds the slums with little problem. What they find in the slums are a great number of addicts and what seem to be almost living zombies. They find a 2nd story room among all the abandoned buildings in the district and muscle out the pitiful creatures, all of them begging for another fix or coins. In the room they find a woman suffering and her 3 year old child clinging to her. The aarakockra, being a healer of the sky, helps her a great deal and takes her under his wing (as it were). She finds trust in him and they settle in the embrace for the night. The others keep a watch over the streets and addicts.

The next morning a man, with a small group of rough warriors, came walking down the street, handing out things to the pathetic people here. As he passed, he started to gain a crowd following him like he was their massiah. It was soon realized that he was heading right for the building the party took shelter in. The party got ready for an ambush attack on the man and his group as they came up the staircase. Immediatly, the man was held by Ookatkid, the sky priest. This sent the woman and the child screaming to the corner. His soldiers were nible and quick and fanned out in the room, attacking. As one of them dropped and the spell on the man expired. He immediately yelled for his men to halt- which they did. Then conversation started. He and the aarakockra priest debated about how what he was doing was evil or good.

and that's where we left off.