A Friendly Wager with Nimue

Arriving on a lovely beach in Avalon, Harald and co. find themselves facing a gigantic dome of thorns. Two beautifully worked iron golems flank a rose bush. One intones "All who would seek an audience with the Lady must first pluck a rose." We start wailing on the golems, and take them down. in the process one of them cuts Akim in half. Bummer. We get our roses, and Harald teleports Akim's corpse back to the boat so that he can be Raised later. We go into the thorn dome, and meet a colorful cast of characters. There's Petrocrew, the magical scintillating dog, Issac the horse, Ogrid, a guy in full plate named Chapulew, and a Saracen giant named Rainouart. He has quite an appetite. Nimue projects a floating skull, but Harald sweettalks her into coming forth in her real form. She looks incredibly beautiful, "like Audrey Hepburn, but with bigger hooters". Harald makes his pitch for taking Ogrid out of the tournament, but Nimue is suspicious. She also seems to be rather too chummy with the Octopuses, and accepting of the destruction of humanity. Still, Harald gets her to agree to a wager. If he and his folks can beat four of her champions in a fight, then Ogrid will not only withdraw from the Qingu Tournament, he will also enter the Liao Tournament under Harald's banner, giving to Harald all of his winnings if he wins. If Harald and co lose, then Harald must fight at least one round in the Qingu, under the banner of Avalon, and do likewise in the Liao tournament. In this battle Nimue will Resurrect any slain. On hearing this, Harald asks if she'll do the same for Akim, and she assents. He goes and gets Akim back. So, the big fight. Nimue's champions: Ogrid, Chapulew, Rainouart, and .......Arthur, King of the Britons! We shit our pants as a skeletal warrior armed with Ron, spear of Arthur, and a magical breastplate shambles out. Dude is creepy as hell. Harald thought we would be fighting the scintillating dog, so he is taken a bit aback by this news. Still, the wager is too tempting, and Harald is no coward. We get three rounds to spell up, no haste, and Ogrid can't use his Rods of Cancellation. Ailyll summons giant insects and snakes, and entangles on the greensward. Harald whips up an Interposing Hand, Flys Akim, and casts Mirror Images. Akim and Trappo drink Rainbow Hues potions and sneak. Our opponents charge, with Chapulew and the giant getting Entangled. Arthur just wilts greenery, snakes fleeing before him, and Ogrid Acts Freely. Ogrid has 8!! attacks a round, so down go Akim and Trappo. Harald swings at Arthur and takes damage equal to what he inflicted. That sucks. Arthur keeps stabbing Mirror Images while Harald casts spells, slowing the giant/beetle combat and hurting Ogrid. The giant and beetles fight each other in a weird, slow-motion combat. Ogrid takes out Ailyll, leaving Harald versus everyone. Chapulew shoots arrows at Harald's Interposing Hand, Arthur keeps with the Image stabbing, and Harald takes down Ogrid via Magic Missile. He then Levitates up, with his Hand taking more arrows and his Images taking some boulders, and finishes off the giant and Chapulew. Then he throws a bunch of spells at Arthur, who laughs them off with 90%MR. Harald finally renews his Images and lands, going toe-to-toe with the undead king, taking damage every time he hits. No, wait, not every time. Only one attack per round, so Harald's end of the round attacks only hurt Arthur. He also chops off Arthur's left arm. Arthur keeps hitting those Images. Finally, Harald strikes a mighty blow, bringing both them to a negative. Arthur rolls a 20 on his Con check, and Harald makes his on the nose. Harald, victor!

Nimue needs some convincing that Harald levitating up and dropping spells from behind his Hand was kosher, but she is eventually convinced. She also says that she ate Excalibur to reabsorb the power she had put into it, a trick she learned from the Octopuses. We are doubtful. Anyways, we part friends.

Next we rest in Tyre for a cycle, with Harald doing paperwork and so on. We scry on Daneil and Natongo, and Teleport to where they're at. They haved dropped out of the Qingu, and we talk them into joining the Liao tourney. They are on their way to go kill Kodmelos, so we give them some tips. If only we knew his true name! We also promise to hook up and take on King Solomon's mines, but they say that is a month-long mission, best done when you're not in a hurry. We agree, and then head to chez Mustali in Persia.

Walid is at home, and we talk him out of the Qingu. His dad has heard that Throk is cooking up a forbidden ritual, and it will be done in about a week. Shit. This messes with our timetable, but we take it in stride and begin prepping for an assault on Throk. We go back to Spain and get those guys in on our mission, and they agree to meet us at our boat after they rest.