The streets of the town of Marbledem, in the southeast corner of the Kazamer Empire.
Once having arrived in Marbledem, and meeting with May the Frost Channeler in the Miracle Tavern, the party decides to stay in May’s house, along with Adamis and Henry and Jim. As they head home from the tavern, they witness the Witch Granola, who is known to Valdirim as his old party member Gael Branchweaver, being put to the guillotine on a podium. She narrowly escapes execution, and spots Valdirim while doing so.
One artistic interpretation of Gael Branchweaver, or Granola the Witch.
After a brief stay in the cottage of May, the party heads to the house of Kyra’s parents. The house is cleared of all furnishings and items, but after a thorough search they find several diary pages hidden in an alcove in the stairpost. The pages contain notes from her father:
Monthly revenue report of the Marbledem Swordworks, showing a steep increase in revenue in recent months.
A salary report of Tarik of the Ridge, showing an even steeper increase in recent months.
Several loose notes scribbled on a separate page. One of them is hastily written and reads “Kyra if you read this don’t worry about us but save the town.”.
After the search, the party heads back to the Miracle to have a chat with May. May divulges that Tarik still runs his old betting company in addition to the Swordworks, and that they could choose to meet him in the Arena.
The Marbledem Arena
On that very day a minor tournament is taking place in Marbledem. The tournament is called “The Wildlands Plate - man vs. animal”, and the first prize is 2,000 crystal coins + eternal freedom for the winner. 64 participants take part in the tournaments, including the monsters.
The party heads over to the Arena, and spends the morning betting on various fights with mixed results. They discover that several battles are rigged by others, as some gladiators compete with much stronger weapons than others. During the last battle of the first round, Hugo Antillez notices that one of the contestants is actually Leora Kytterak, the Keeper of New Toth who has long gone missing. The party decides to smuggle a Belovian sword to her prior to the fight, which takes place against a two-time tournament winner (Farbyrd).
Two time gladiatorial tournament winner Farbyrd.
Leora wins the fight, and the party rakes in nearly 2000 crystal coins in a huge bet. During the second round the party is invited to the VIP section, where they see Tarik, the Mayor Beator, as well as Seth, one of the advisors of the Mayor. When Leora turns up for a fight in the second round, she is lined up against an enormous Iromeg behemoth and two other Grower combatants. Moreover, she had lost possession of the Belovian sword given to her by the party.
Before the battle commences, the party plans to distract the Iromeg, to force it to attack the VIP stands. To accomplish this, Kyra hurls a fireball to great effect to the golem, while Hugo attempts (and only partially succeeds) to shield Leora from the blast impact. Meanwhile, Valdirim attempts to create a diversion, but instead gets apprehended by Kazamer soldiers who have discovered that he was responsible for arming Leora with a Belovian sword. While the monster charges to the stand in response to the fireball, Valdirim gets dragged to the lower levels of the Arena, and both Kyra and Hugo manage to convince Tarik to join them in fleeing from the Iromeg. After a chase through the Arena (with lots of collateral damage) they find a sewer lid and quickly descend into the sewers to hide from the Iromeg.
Within this murky and stenchful setting, Kyra and her cousin Tarik finally get the chance to speak…