Krackle would rub his head a bit while looking up to the dragonborn. "Yeah, I am OK... Wwooah!" He would say as he is scooped up by Silver and held up to the crowd. The tiny kobold would manage to squeek out a tiny "Thank you." towards the crowd, not nearly loud enough to be heard by anyone ither than Silver. A wide smile would spread across his face and his large eyes would sparkle as he tried to hold back tears. When Krackle is put back on the ground he would look to the announcer and bounce excitedly as he is handed the coin. "Thank you! Thank You so much! Do you think this is enough to buy a nice house!" he would ask hopefully to the MC before looking to Silver as he holds the bag of coins in both hands.

"Ha ha ha," the MC replies with a laugh. "A house for 50 dragons? Perhaps a very small house, but then you are a very small creature. I do not know what kind of houses your kind lives in, but for us regular folk, a nice house would much many more coins than that. You'll have to win a lot more contests, I'm afraid."

"OH... ok." The kobold would say with an obvious look of disappointment. "I guess not.. well thanks again! Thank you all for everything." He would say to the crowd with a small wave. Krackle would then bounce his way out of the competition area and move towards Arine. "You did really well... I hope you are not mad that I won." He would say quietly, obviously worried that she might be upset with him.

When the Agility contest is over, Vesper steps into the ring for the Arcane Final Match. Her opponent in this victory round is a short, stout rock gnome with a short mass of thick, dark hair. When he sees Vesper, he looks at her with a suspecting gaze and says, "What'r' you doin cavorting with that vile little kobold? Horrid, treacherous creatures they are. No good ever came of 'em. May the good Garl Glittergold see fit to play a mean prank on him, for he and all his kind surely deserve it."

The match begins with Vesper pointing towards the side of a building and using her magic to make a large symbol in the shape of a rose appear on the side of the structure. The crowd responds with a loud roar of cheers and a hearty applause.

Then the gnome steps up and holds his hands out. A beautiful looking gem appears in his outstretched palms. It's a brilliant green emerald, shining with beams of illuminating brilliance and sparkling with a hundred points of light. It too brings a round of cheers, but one that pales in enthusiasm to what Vesper had just received during her round. 

For her second round, Vesper uses her magic to turn herself into a nice shade of pink. The audience seems to love it, and many of the break out in laughter at the sight of this beautiful pink-skinned woman. Many of the men seem to find the effect quite appealing as well, and she also hears a few whistles from a number of the drunk males in the audience. 

Seeing the audience's response, the gnome answers with a similar illusion, only he turns himself a glowing shade of green. He seems rather proud of his spell, but the crowd apparently doesn't find it very intriguing and they don't give him much of a response. 

Finally, Vesper begins her last round. Stepping forward, she uses her magic to create the scent of roses and have it blow over the entire audience. This effect doesn't seem to go over nearly as well as her other two, in fact it's the weakest response she's gotten from any of her illusions. Maybe it's because the prevailing oder of beer and sweat is too great for the smell to roses to compete. Maybe it's because all the beer and mead has dulled their sense of smell. 

The gnome gets ready to cast his last spell, although given that his first two didn't go off so well, victory seems within Vesper's grasp... so long as he doesn't do something truly amazing. Stepping forward, he says a few words and turns himself into a pretty halfling girl, one that looks a lot like Arine. He gives a nice big curtsy and waves at the crowed, and although it does bring a round of laughter, the response is even less enthusiastic than what they gave Vesper last round. Maybe everyone is just getting tired of magic...who knows. Maybe they're eager to watch the final wrestling match. 

Either way, Vesper claims victory and earns the title of Arcane Champion of this year's Shieldmeet Festival. This does bring a rather loud and earnest round of applause from the crow. The announcer congratulates her for her impressive performance today and presents her with the top prize of 50 gold coins. Seemingly unaffected by the whole event, the rock gnome simply wanders off and disappears into the crowed. 

During the first two contests, Vesper had concerned herself with having a good time and making sure that the audience is having fun too. But the gnome was different. He was rude and Vesper decided that he didn't deserve the money, so she set her mind towards beating him. Her first two illusions go off without a hitch and she even blows a kiss towards the audience when some men whistle at her. Her third trick didn't go so well, she guessed that the alcohol made things a bit fuzzy. But she still won and she stuck her tongue out at the gnome as he walks away.

She finds her friends in the audience and runs up to them excitedly. "I did it guys! I won!"

Lumen has been walking through the crowd watching the agility contest, grumbling to himself, shaking his hands. He's keeping an eye out on anyone who jeered the kobold, and especially the ones who threw rotten fruit. For each one he sees, he casts, amid the grumbles under his breath, and hand-shaking, prestidigitation to make their clothes utterly soiled and befouled, reeking much worse than the rotten fruit. He doesn't make eye contact with them and attempts to hide the fact he's casting at all. (Stealth: 14)

He also stops by the strength contest, cheering on Chrys, and goes over to the arcana contest to watch Vesper win, happy for her, if still a bit frustrated at his early loss.

(DM: Did Lumen actually see a job board earlier?)

Arine was in the process of picking shards out of her ponytail, features scrunched up as she tried to untangle an unfortunate piece, but Chrys managed to illicit a wry smile. "Eh, it's the way the cards were dealt. 'Mora don't always give ya what you want," she said, only to elbow the dwarf in the side. "Can't even look at'cha right now. Both of us getting our butts handed to us, how'd ya live with yourself?"

But she waved when Krackle approached. "Buy us a round o-drinks and we'll call it even, Scrawny. Good job on ya. Let's gather up your ah- friends? Of Vesper! There ya'are, sweet cheeks. Thought you were keeping our orcish gently-man company?"

Krackle would straighten up and smile. "OK! I'll get you lots of drinks!" He would say excitedly. As Vesper shows up, the small kobold would look to her and jump excitedly as well. "YAY! That is great news!" He would add with a smile. 

After a while, Silver hears his name on the arena. A few bad nights have taken a toll on him, but neither the less, he prepare himself for the encounter.
A few warm ups later he is face to face to his opponent.
On the mark he stand low and wait for the attack of his opponent, when this one tries to tackle him, he just takes the arm and redirect the force of the tackle on a tumble.
Without releasing his opponent arm he twist it, and pin the body to the floor with his knee , trying to hold him down for the rest of the match.

Athletics 14   17   18   6   6   21

As Silver heads into the ring, he sees that he's about to square off with the same scruffy, patchy bearded dwarf that defeated Chrys in her last round. He smells even more like beer and body odor than he did last time. As he readies for the match, he slaps his meaty hands on top of his shaved head a few times, apparently psyching himself up, and then when the signal is given, he walks slowly and deliberately towards the center of the ring, obvious in no hurry. 

The two opponents approach and bash arms for a half minute as they size themselves up. The large crowd that surrounding the ring chants, stomps and cheers, trying to spurn on the action. Neither seems willing to make the first move, but eventually, the stocky dwarf goes in for the grab. Much like he did with Chrys, he attempts to warp his thick arms around Silver's body at the waist. Silver is ready for it, though, and he doesn't let the dwarf lock arms around him. With a quick move, he grabs the dwarf's arm, steps aside and yanks the arm around, which forces the dwarf to tumble to the mat. 

With his opponent down, Silver tries to drop down on top of him, but finds that the dwarf moves more quickly than he might have expected. Rolling free, he gets his powerful legs back underneath his body and leaps back up to his feet. 

The two square off once again, slapping, bashing and antagonizing each other for another half minute. The audience keeps up their stamping, chanting and yelling as they cheer on the two combatants. Finally, Silver sees an opening and tries to tackle the dwarf. However, the dwarf simply plants his feet and assumes his "wet bag of mud" stance that stymied Chrys last time and the move ends in another stalemate. 

This pattern proceeds for quite awhile, perhaps five or six straight minutes, with each one muscling against the other as they try and exploit any possible advantage. As the match continues and the minutes wear on, it becomes apparent that both are beginning to tire from the exertion. Attacks begin to slow and defensive reactions become more subdued. By now, the audience is cheering in a single uniform chant, but it's obvious that they two are beginning to tire from the anticipation. 

When nearly ten minutes have passed, Silver summons his last bit of energy, and instead of going for the feet, he goes for the feet. It's a risky move, because if he fails to secure a good hold, he'll end up leaving himself overextended. Grabbing the dwarf's left ankle, he twists it to throw the dwarf off balance, and then drives his body forwards against his waist. The dwarf falls to the mat with a thud, and Silver drop on top of him. 

The dwarf struggles, but he is simply too tired to exert enough strength to move out from underneath the powerful dragonborn. He lays there breathing hard and making small, but futile attempts to get free. Silver retains his hold for the five long seconds and secures the win. The referee slams his hand down on the mat next to the dwarf's head, and the crowd goes wild as the nail biting anticipation comes to an abrupt end. 

However, the two combatants are too tired to move, and they both lay there in an exhausted clump for about fifteen seconds before slowly rolling themselves up off the mat. As they rise, the dwarf says to Silver, "Ye had me, Dragon. Fair 'n' square. Ye should come over for beers at the Howling Wolf later and we can have a different kind of match. We'll see who wins then, heh heh!"

-----------

Lumen

As he wanders through the crowd and watches the final match, Lumen is easily able to cast his cantrip and soil the clothes of a couple of the lewd audience members who jeered and good Krackle. A few arcane words and hand gestures is all it takes to instantly impart horrible, foul smelling stains on their clothes, which of course, draws disgust from some of the people standing near them.

The first person you foul is so drunk that he hardly even notices, and the nearby crowd members shove him away. The second man seems to notice you as you cast your spell on him, but he's also too drunk to do anything about it, and his only action is to throw up on himself, making it even worse. People quickly move away from the man, leaving him in standing alone, all covered with foul smells, stains and puke. 

Also, you're pretty sure you passed some kind of notice board on the other side of the square, but you've had a lot of ale since then. It might take some wandering... 

Lumen will wander back to the group, celebrating Silver and the other winners, and happy to listen to their revelry. (OOC: More RP and detail later - been a busy week!!)

Chrys puts two fingers into her mouth and whistles loudly as Silver wins his match.  "Alright!  Ya did it, Silver!  You an' Krackle make a killer team!"

After seeing the others gathering to either happily celebrate their wins or more quietly mull their losses, she decides to takes a glance at the low-hanging sun in the sky.  "Mmm... might be time for the rest o' us to start lookin' for a place to have a good meal an' spend the night after all that excitement.  And do we all wanna stick together for the evenin' or go our separate ways and meet up tomorrow bright 'n early?"  She scratches her chin, taking another glance at the sky.  "Aww, maybe I'm just bein' a worrywart here. What time is it, anyway?" 

"We should stick together. I've got enough money for all of us to get a place."

¨First of all, food and bed a real bed, one with a roof over us and walls,  just for one night no open skies with blood sucking bugs or rain or wolves or thiefs¨  he says as he walks to Chrys ¨And second¨ Silver looks to Krackle nods  and looks at Chrys again¨I think that i speak for the little one and i, but we would like to join your group, as i said before, we can do bigger things all together¨

"Yay Silver! You did it! Do you think the bracelet o gave you gave ya luck? I bet it did... I think mine helped me!" He would say clutching his half of the friendship bracelets. "I think we should stay together too" The tiny kobold would add with a smile once all of the Pie Pals were together. "I could make us little burrows in the dirt if you don't want to spend all your new coin on rooms" The kobold would add, trying to be helpful while continuing to show that he has no idea how much things cost.

Chrys nods, then looks over at Lumen and grins.  "Y'know, even if ya don't wanna come with us, I think yer outvoted, Lumen.  C'mon, let's all find an inn an' get comfortable!" 

While Chrys is certain that there are plenty of places offering shelter during such a big festival, she doesn't want to tax anyone's budget -- not even after the big wins a few of the party members had.  Searching to see where the general flow of the crowds are tapering off to, she tries to ascertain what type of clientele are wandering off to which type of lodgings.

OOC:  Chrys is trying to see if she can determine where the rich folk are wandering off, where the common folk are leaving, and where the poorer folk are gathering, because the party is most likely going to find an inn in said budget range in those directions.

PERCEPTION: 20 , or maybe INVESTIGATION: 8

(LOL sure hope it's perception)

She adds while she's searching, to Krackle:  "Thanks for the offer, but I got me enough sleepin' in the rough out there on the road.  A real bed and a roof over our heads will do us wonders, I think.  Plus, ya can take notes for how to make yer own burrows more homey in the future if ya have somethin' to work off of, right?"

((ooc: so how many dragons do we got out of this? 55??))

"I think that too little one, i truly believe that was your strength that kept me going" he says as he pat Krackle head "but please no more open fields for a while" 

OOC: Yes, for those of you who won all three rounds, you win 5+25+50gp, for a total of 80gp. 

"We don't need to sleep in a burrow, I've got 80 gold. That's enough for all of us to get rooms. And drinks!"

As they're looking around for a place to spend the night, Arine would like to look around for a stable. Hopefully they pass one. "Oy, hold ya skirts, just wanna find the price of a good horse before we go too far into our cups." 

((Perception? 17 ))