"Awesome! I'm so glad you're all interested in playing!" Mina says. 

"Don't worry, these things aren't gonna hurt ya," Javenesh, the burly owlin second-year and Bow's End bouncer, states. "If you get hit by one of the spheres, you may go a little numb, like when one of your legs falls asleep, but it'll pass quickly. No one's gonna be turning into any spiders. Right, Drazh?"

"Y-yes, indeed! Aithne, you will, as ever, have my unwavering support, dear friend!" 

"So, were you thinking more of a pecorino, or a manchego...?" Nora Ann asks, focused more on Ambre than on the task at hand.

Urzmaktok heads over to Klok. "Good luck, my friend. I'll be rooting for you! As will the rest of the Horticulture Society members that are here tonight. Ha, get it, rooting for you? I crack myself up sometimes..."

"This will be fun! As tempting as your offer sounds, though, darling," Aurora says with a wink. "It'll be hard picking someone to cheer for, won't it, Aelyn? All your friends pitted against each other! ... Ah, I'm just being dramatic, now, aren't I? Best of luck to you all!" The dhampir nestles close to Aelyn after giving out a general cheer for you all. 

Mina Lee addresses Aithne, Arvol, Ambre, and Klok. "Alright, first years. Wizard gizzard! The rules are simple. A minute timer will begin. Shoot as many of the spheres into the bucket as you can. The shooter who gets the most spheres in the bucket wins! Wins what, you may ask? Why, this lovely prize! Show them, Nora Ann!"

Nora Ann holds up a simple gray cloth bag. "A bag of mystery! What's inside? You'll have to win to find out!"

"Let's get started! Wizards, prepare your gizzards!" Mina shouts. "On your marks, get set... GO!"

Wizard Gizzard rules: lob a sphere from the wizard gizzard and have the sphere land inside the bucket on the floor. The game takes 1 minute to play, and the character who lands the most spheres in the bucket during that minute wins the game. To determine how many spheres a character lands in the bucket, have the character make a Dexterity (Arcana) check and divide the total by 3 (round down).

Klok, Ambre, Aithne, and Arvol, all of you make Dexterity (Arcana) checks. That's right - you'll be using your Dexterity instead of your Intelligence for this check! If you have proficiency with Arcana, you may add your proficiency bonus to your check.

Aelyn, you may choose to cheer on one of your friends to give them advantage on their check!

Klok thanks his friend for the words of support and gets ready to play. At the sounds of go, Klok does his best to lob a sphere into the bucket

6

Arvol grabs the wizard-gizzard device and tries to aim it the bucket.  "Here it goes!"

(Arcana-Dexterity Check: 17 + Bardic Inspiration: 5)

Arvol gets a total of 4 spheres into the bucket. "Hmm... that didn't go so well... I didn't hit anyone did I?" He glances around to see where his errant shots might have landed.

Aithne hesitantly took up position next to one of the wizard-gizzard contraptions, clenching and unclenching her hands reflexively as Mina Lee counted down. When the count hit zero, she did her best to emulate what she'd seen Nora Ann demonstrate, giving the box a tentative blow with the palm of her hand.

Dexterity (Arcana): 21 + 6 (Bardic Inspiration)

"Yes, may the kiss of Lady Luck bless you all." Aelyn says, cheering equally much for all his friends.

"Whoo!" Ambre yells before going to play

23 + BI 2

"Hey, Ambre, brilliant, knew you would know how to handle these contraptions properly, congratulations." Aelyn says, beaming.
"You did great too Arvol." He says with a wink.

With the signal to start, you all begin launching magical spheres into the buckets across from you! Unfortunately for Klok, he's having some difficulty aiming his gizzard. By the end, he does manage to figure it out, but only gets two spheres into the bucket. Arvol fares somewhat better, landing a total of four spheres in his bucket. Aithne, despite her original doubts, does rather well for herself - six spheres land in her bucket! However, no one can catch up with Ambre, whose experience with magical contraptions serves her well in using this wizard gizzard machine. She lands a whopping eight spheres in the bucket. 

"And the winner is... Ambre Rotz!" Mina shouts, and the tavern erupts with cheers and applause. "Here is your prize, Ambre - one Gray Bag of Tricks!"

Javenesh Stoutclaw, the owlin bouncer for the Bow's End and Lorehold second year, hands Ambre the bag with a pat on the shoulder. "Congrats, Ambre. Hope this serves you well!"

Arvol shakes his head at his poor performance and walks over to Ambre. "That was a great show there! Even if I hadn't been so awful with my aim, I'm not sure I could have done better than that!"  He then looks over at Aithne with a smile. "You too. You were so close with Ambre!" 

"Yes, you all did good, far better than me at least." Aelyn says nodding at Klok and Aithne too.
"So what's in the bag, show us a trick Ambre!" He says to the inventor, curious of any tricks the grey bag has in store for them.

Aithne applauded for Ambre as the winner was announced. She couldn't be surprised. Any combination of magic and machinery was where Ambre excelled and the wizard-gizzards were the perfect example of those things working in harmony with each other. "Congratulations!" She exclaimed, moving up to stand next to Arvol. She nodded in agreement with Aelyn, also interested to see how the bag worked. "Please, Ambre? Would you demonstrate? We're all curious."

Klok smiles at Ambre "Congratulations Ambre. Fine job. Fine job indeed!"

Ambre seems intent of figuring out just how the machine works exactly to notice that she won the event until the bag is pushed into her hands. "Huh, oh, cool!" She opens it up to look inside, confused for a second and pulling a small grey ball out. "Full of pom poms, interesting."

After another brief examination of the bag, she tosses the pom pom on the floor.

6

After a few moments, the pom pom swells in size, double, triple, bigger and bigger. At the same time, it's shape also shifts. A few seconds later a giant badger is there staring at everyone, looking very confused.

"That's amazing Ambre, so everytime you would feel the need for a confused badger to keep you company you just pull one of those furballs out of your new bag, what will they think of next?" Aelyn says chuckling.

"Hm..." Ambre pulls out a couple more pom poms before tossing them to the ground.

3

5

And a few moments later a rat and boar join the party. Ambre tries a fourth time but nothing happens. "Interesting!"

"Well! You suppose these are permanent? Or will they vanish at some point?"  Arvol asks out of curiosity.  He cautiously watches the badger, wondering if it might attack. "We aren't going to have a repeat of the frog race are we?"

"As long as they don't eat that black sludge we'll be fine, right Ambre, right?" Aelyn says looking at the three confused animals in front of them.

The animals immediately take in their environment. Since Ambre has not issued any commands, they immediately begin acting within their nature. The giant badger looks very nervous and begins clawing at the floor, trying to dig away from the entire scene. The rat immediately scurries over to some fallen cheese and devours it, eliciting some shrieks from the tavern patrons. The boar snorts and grunts, making aggressive gestures toward Javenesh and Drazhomir. Everyone immediately backs away from these wild animals.

"Hey, uh, Ambre? I get you're excited to try this out, but could you maybe tell them to take it easy before there's a huge to-do?" Javenesh says. "The bag used to be mine - if you tell the animals what to do, they'll obey."

"Perhaps just send them away to their natural habitat Ambre?" Aelyn suggests with a shrug. "Unless you can turn them back into furballs for later use, who knows when you would need a badger to dig a hole through the floor, or a rat to share your parmeggiano?"

He then turns to Aurora, leaning closer. "It seems our cheering duties have been completed." He says suggestively, his arms around her waist again.