The party made their way to the dance floor where they found a dance battle just completing. The victors included a halfling, a dwarf and an eladrin lord – none other than Elstuvian “Stu” am Vaskaralithien, the Herald of the Whisper King and their brief ally.

Stu and his Dwarven partner Ya Ya Crunkdottir challenged the party to a dance-off. The teams busted moves and slung spells, wowing the crowd of ethereal mortals stolen from their dreams to witness the contest. Stu suffered a devastating pelvic injury due to the influence of Ara’s magical suggestion to “stumble,” while Crunkdottir emanated waves of fear and terror in her aggressive dance and caused Keen to suffer the effects of a slow spell. But it was Sirlius and Keen who proved victorious, delivering an impressive performance involving acrobatics, eye bites, and a neon fairy light show countering Crunkdottir’s magical darkness.

As the dance-off progressed, Whisper went to the aid of the Herald, who warned her to be on her guard at this party, and to protect Keen, saying “All is not as it seems.”

Dance competition won and prestige gained, the part next visited the Fighting Ring to engage in a random polymorph battle. Yuna, Ara and Sirlius took to the pit and were transformed into a Salamander, a Flesh Golem and a Triceratops. Their opponents? a Giant Crocodile, a Fire Elemental, and a massive Bulette.

Bets were placed, the adventurers risking their phsyical and mental statistics on victory. The contest was engaged, and seemed to be a near thing until halfway through the ringmaster called forth a Meteor Storm on the ring. The combatants were blasted apart, leaving only Yuna, still in Salamander form, facing a badly damaged Fire Elemental. In the end, Yuna’s fortunate immunity to fire damage rendered the elemental helpless, and she destroyed it with her spear.

The party was gaining recognition in truth now, their prestige growing for their victorious showing and the audacity of their wagers. As they collected their winnings and absorbed their newfound power, they received a nod of respect from none other than I Am Stretched On Your Grave, one of the Arch-Fey of the Winter Court.

Meanwhile Whisper, Keen, and Magnus had gone to the Gaming Pit to engage in a game of Competitive Party Trebuchet, a bizarre contest in which live Boggarts were flung from scale-model trebuchets at floating targets covered in spikes. They all three were challenged by a single loudmouthed, pompous winter Eladrin, who immediately cast some form of Duplicity on himself, creating three copies who all acted independently loading, firing and repairing their trebuchet.

While Whisper captained the party’s trebuchet, aiming and firing, Magnus loaded the boggarts and set the tension. The team was initially doing well, as Keen, as floater, attempted to sabotage the Eladrin’s trebuchet and skewer boggarts with his flying rapier. But their opponent leaned into Transmutation magic, shrinking the party’s targets, enlarging his own, shrinking boggarts to fire two at once, and so on.

Keen noted that the Rules As Written for Competitive Party Trebuchet were vague on the point of whether a trebuchet or target actually needed to be involved in the death of a boggart to score points, so he slew one with his rapier. Despite the poor creature’s pleading, his strike was true and it died, but the party’s score was unaffected. After four rounds, the contestants were neck-and-neck but the contest was getting more serious…

Mini-Game Design Rating: Thematically Appropriate

Move Status: Busted

Prestige Award Level: 17

RP Rating: Awesome!