Meera purchases three churros, one for her, one for Sherri, and one for Musharib.

Misha smiles. Bane has been good to me today. Another chance to earn glory and honor in your Name, Lord. I will make you proud.

Musharib returns with two large bowls of mixed fried insects, and three large steins of ale. He sets a bowl between Meera and Sherri and hordes one for himself, handing the ladies each a drink and thanking Meera for the churro before shoveling two handfuls of insects into his mouth, crunching on them happily. 

The start of race is exciting, there are a myriad of folk of from different species and places, and most a lot of folk seem to be cheering on a tall lanky tabaxi, who waves at the audience while he stretches. Also competing are a dwarf, a tortle, two humans, an elf and an aarakocra. The contestants all line up at the starting areas and the Master of Ceremonies, an enormous toad dressed in fancy robes embroidered with shimmering precious metals sits floating on a round disc above the center of the ring, his voice booming. 

"Welcome one and all to the coliseum's First Annual celebration of the Festival of Oota, the Tortle God of the Sun!" He nods to the reserved box which is filled to the brim with cheering tortles. He continues with a lengthy expository speech, accompanied by fireworks and more flowers which float down to the arena below.

Eventually he says, "I trust everyone has had the opportunity to place their bets? Well, if not, you have another few moments as our racers prepare!"

"It's fortunate that Misha left us with some money. I don't think that I would have been able to bet on the fights if she hadn't." Meera will bet 23 gold that the gladiators defeat the mystery monsters and 8 gold on Misha being the one to kill it.

Dornos holds his head high in the midday sun, having recently wetted himself down. He's obviously used to the heat and humidity here, but it never hurts to have a quick, refreshing bath.

"Pray correct me if I am in error, but wouldn't it be impossible to hold an 'annual' event if such is also the first ever of its kind?" Dornos asks the tabaxi next to him.

[ooc : the tabaxi is actually far from Dornos since it is participating in the race, and Dornos is behind a gate that has some holes in it so that the gladiators can see onto the field, but I can see where you might have gotten confused.]

Dornos calls out to the tabaxi, who looks at him with his head tilted for a moment, then shrugs at him before continuing to stretch.

"Excellent, excellent, I'm told that the betting is now closed which can only mean one thing!" The Master of Ceremonies says before more fireworks and music begin to play. "Let the games commence! Racers, on you marks... get set..." a thunderous sound erupts as an explosion engulfs the Master of Ceremonies himself, and the runners take off. As the smoke from the explosion clears, the Master of Ceremonies can clearly still be seen, chuckling at his own spectacle.

Enchanted by the illusions and noise, folk almost don't notice that a pack of small velociraptors have been set loose and are now chasing the runners. Some of the runners pull and shove and try to trip each other. Musharib can be heard cheering for the singular dwarf in the race.

The aarakocra is the first to go down, shoved to the ground by the elf who uses the poor birdman as a launching point to speed ahead. Two of the raptors leap on the aarakocra and start tearing into his flesh, resulting in horrible screaming squawking sounds as the Master of Ceremonies narrates "Oooh, down goes the Aarakocra, hope there's enough of him left to heal up so he can fly along home! Though from the sound of it, he may wish he were dead!" More fighting and antics continue, but the tabaxi has a commanding lead. "Yawn, looks like Kohrr will win again without much competition, but wait... what's this?!" Suddenly, out of nowhere the dwarf gets a burst of speed and slide tackles the tabaxi, knocking the cat man aside so that the dwarf is able to take first place. "Grimgir has knocked Kohrr aside and has taken first place, Kohrr is struggling to catch up, they're neck and neck, swatting at each other, it's anyone's race now! Who will it be?!"

Musharib is hooting and hollering, "Get 'im ye squat bastard, bwahaha that cat-man never suspected a dwarf would beat 'im, but dwarves be the best all round! Go!"

"They're approaching the finish line! But wait, the velociraptors are catching up, will they make it across the line in time?!" Both the dwarf and the tabaxi run past Meera, Sherri, and Musharib, close enough that you can see the fear in their eyes. They're no longer attacking each other, they're just running for their lives, the dwarf awkwardly bounding, while the tabaxi's graceful legs speed him forward with the velociraptors on their heels. "Can it be? Will they both make it?!" The dwarf catches his foot on something and tumbles forward, and the tabaxi trips over the dwarf and they go tumbling across the finish line, as the velociraptors leap and gnash against a force wall. The other racers have been placed in bubbles as well, and the raptors all suddenly turn toward the center of the arena, then run in formation to their dugout along the arena's edge. "I don't believe it people, Kohrr has been defeated! The winner is G...g...g...Grimgir!!!"

"A'right meatbags. I hope you're ready for a fight. Looks like the Master of Ceremonies is out for blood this day. We've decent enough healers that if you live you'll not bleed to death, but you might come out missing pieces," she gestures at her missing leg "and if you die out there, there's no coming back far as I know. Stay together, protect each other, and I believe you'll come out victorious, and you may even gain my respect which is no small feat. Looks like their ready for you. To the center of the ring with you." As each of the gladiators pass Fleia, she smears a thick red poultice on the foreheads of any who are willing. 

Aphos shrugs and stretches in his armor, anxious to get fighting. The wings of his forearm-mounted crossbow spring open and he nocks a short bolt in place. His gauntlet's errant sparks seem to travel up his whole arm now.

(Gotcha, I thought we were all racing. Dornos would just say that to whoever he was next to then, he wouldn’t yell it out to the field from behind a gate)

"Come." She tells Aphos and Dornos, gathering both of them by the shoulders. "Eet ees soon time to fight. Bow your heads." Misha bows her head and says out loud a praying to Bane, blessing all three of us.

"Lord General," she says softly. "You have geeven us another opportunity to earn glory, honor, and favor in Your Name. I ask you, your humble servant, to watch over us thees combat, and to guide our aim true, so that when the dust has settled, I weel be able to praise Your name. Hear my call, and be weeth me."

She gives each of you a smile, a nod, and a firm pat on the shoulder. "Good luck, my friends."

Dornos smiles at Misha in appreciation. “To victory!”

There's another circle drawn in the center of the ring, one of the few places where the sand shows beneath the flowers that litter the arena. The crowd cheers as the gladiators enter, some in finery, some in drab, well worn, or borrowed garb. As the contenders approach, they see familiar markings, indicating that they should stand in this tight circle, roughly five feet apart from one another. 

The Master of Ceremonies looks down with an enormous smile from his floating disc above the battlefield, and Musharib leans close to the edge, shoving grubs into his mouth handfuls at a time making a sick crunching noises as he chews, mouth open. Flecks of carapace and insect limbs fly from his mouth and get caught in his beard. The Master of Ceremonies continues, as another volley of fireworks ceases.

"And so... our Soldiers of the Sun have traversed the shifting sands and made their way to the depths of the Temple of Endless Night where it seems no sun will shine..." As he speaks a dark leather sheet is pulled over the entirety of the Coliseum, blocking out the sun. The stretched leather is reinforced with wood and bone, and glows darkly orange under the light of the midday sun.

"As they pass through the doors, all walls and entrances give way... to the dead lands, endless flat, barren sands, a wind stiffly blowing, howling, screaming sand in their eyes, so loud that they barely hear the thrum of the earth... quaking beneath them." As he says the words, the flowers all turn to dust around the combatants, the walls of the arena disappear for them, but the spectators can still see them clearly. For the combatant's it's as the Master of Ceremonies says. Endless sands. Howling wind. The earth trembles beneath you.

Let me know roughly where you stand, whether you accepted Fleia's salve, what actions you are taking to prepare, and might as well roll initiative as well.

Meera searches her bag for something to clean Musharib with, but she stops to listen to the Master of Ceremonies. "That's a very interesting tale. I wonder what the significance of it is."

Dornos accepts the salve, and stands with his new friends. He conjures an eldritch blast of rippling energy to his hand, ready to fire it as soon as the "mighty beast" appears.

Initiative: 9 

Misha, as well, accepts the salve. She gives the girls a quick wave, and crouches in a fighting stance a few feet away from Dornos, and Aphos, and gets ready to fight whatever might appear.

Bane, my Lord, guide my aim and allow me to earn honor and favor in Your Name.

Initiative: 4

Oh nice.

Bless only lasts for a minute, so it'll probably fade by the time we begin, but it's the thought that counts lol

As Fleia applies the salve to the combatants' foreheads they feel stronger, sharper, more focused. It heightens the effect of the illusions around them and the fact that they are standing in an arena and fighting for sport suddenly seems a distant memory, or perhaps a dream. The ground rumbles beneath them as they stand with all but one facing outward, ready for a thundering beast to approach from any side. 

Dornos readies his eldritch blast and turns to face toward the center of the circle, as the ground bursts open and a large creature erupts from beneath it releasing a terrifying and thunderous roar. It soars fifteen feet into the air as the combatants scramble around it either trying to adjust their footing to fight it, or trying to scramble to their feet after being knocked down by its surprising entrance.

Four of the combatants fall as the creature comes up through the earth and are scratched and stabbed by its stone plated carapace as it lands on them with a crash that shakes the entire arena.

Combatants need to make a strength or dexterity save (your choice) of DC16 or take 12 damage and be knocked prone. On a save you are not knocked prone and only take half damage.

Anyone who accepted the salve receives 10 temporary hit points and automatically fail to save vs the effects of the illusion.

Dornos Dex Save 8

Dornos rides the wave of erupting earth, and looses his eldritch blast at the plated creature. 

Reaction Attack: 22 Damage: 2

(and add Bless to the attack roll: 2)

Dornos's eldritch blast barely registers as it cuts a craggy stone off of the creature's carapace. The beast stomps in a tight circle and lets out another thundering roar.

Bulette initiative : 19
rando initiative : 2
Aphos initiative : 3

Initiative Order
============
Aphos
Bulette
Dornos
Misha
miscellaneous combatants

Meera tries to find out if it's too late to change her bet.

Meera isn't given any of the hallucinogens, but she suddenly has a vision of a Bulette taking a bite out of a beautiful blonde woman like she's a burrito with boobs. "They might need your help, Sherri."

Sherri had been chewing on her third churro when Meera made the suggestion that she help them. “Pfft, you just wanna see my tits again don’tcha, Meera? Honestly all you gotta do is ask.” She sends a playful wink over to the professor before turning her head and  yelling straight to the bullette just before it attacks. “I’ve taken shits better looking than you! Get outta the ring!!!”

Cutting words on that lil *****! 3

As a reaction when a creature (that's not immune to being charmed) you can see within 60 ft. makes an attack roll, ability check, or damage roll, you can expend one use of Bardic Inspiration, roll the die, and subtract the number from the creature's roll. You can do so after the roll but before knowing the result.

Meera tries her best to smile despite being nervous for her friends. "There's a lot of young men at the College who would love to meet you, Sherri. And perhaps a few young women."