Red versus blue: a muscle-bound stage magician who thought he’d been booked for a show in Neverwinter, against a proud fire genasi who hated being called his assistant. Mageic and Amren Scorsia tore the Grandmaster’s abandoned abbey apart with illusions, fire and ice. Along the way they picked up a cursed porcelain doll, a thrown grandmother and an exploding cathedral. The fight ended in lava, and with a secret bargain made in the ruins.
The Story
Knives in the Fortress
The night began, as these nights do, with a plunge through the skull-mouthed entrance of The Dread Fortress, swallowed whole and down into its belly. Inside, the Arbiter stood pinned against a wall with a small red apple balanced on his head. The Grandmaster faced him with a belt full of daggers. He protested that “it’s a nine when you’re usually at a ten,” so she threw one in anger. Then she tripped over her own dress, fell flat on her face, and sliced her hand open on the blade.
The Grandmaster insisted this was all fine:
“I’m fine. Nothing bad happened at all… There’s not blood. I’m just sweating a lot.”
She bound the wound with a strip torn from her dress, and the Arbiter quietly healed it. “No one was looking,” he offered. “You will tell no one of this,” she replied. The Arbiter then promised the Acolytes “the heat of the flame, the wetness of the water… a steamy, steamy show,” snapped his fingers, and Goblins brought in the night’s champions.
The Magician and the Flame
Mageic arrived confused. “Are we not in Neverwinter? I was supposed to do a show in Neverwinter.” He recovered quickly enough to announce himself as “the marvelous, the mystical, the magnificent, the moody… magical Mageic, the magician,” a showman with big muscles and a trick for every occasion. Amren entered in a blaze: “It is I, Amren Scorsia. From the elemental plane of fire.” She was polite to the Grandmaster and seething at everyone else.
The seething started almost immediately. Mageic cast Amren as “the pretty sidekick,” there to distract while he wowed. He then grumbled that his manager, Jerry, had promised him an exclusive contract. Amren sneered, “Not some… show tunes kind of performer,” and Mageic insisted he doesn’t sing. The Grandmaster shut the whole thing down: “In this arena, there is only one who is in charge and who dictates what happens, and it is me… Managers have no role here.” Amren, she added, was an honored guest.
The Abandoned Abbey
The sky fell to meet the ground, and the champions landed in an ornate, deserted courtyard. It had a large fountain, fine stonework, and marble steps rising to a cathedral. “My abandoned abbey,” the Grandmaster explained. “It was once filled with laughter and parishioners, but somehow when I moved in, they didn’t want to stay anymore.” They were welcome to destroy it, she said, since the Arbiter would be the one cleaning up. Spectators wore the champions’ names on their shirts and waved posters of their faces. The winner, the Grandmaster promised, would be kept as one of her reigning champions and join “the pantheon of winners.”
Then night fell too early, a lullaby drifted through the air, and a small porcelain doll appeared on the edge of the fountain, feet dangling, unblinking. “Will you play with me? … Who wants to be my friend?”
A Friend Named Dolly
Mageic opened with patter worthy of any stage: “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages and the creepy doll…” He offered Amren a professional handshake. She refused it (“I will not touch your hand, you filth”), so he gave her a slow clap that boomed like thunder. Then, for reasons only Mageic understands, he shook the doll’s hand instead.
The doll’s eyes went solid black. She gripped him like death, muttered in a strange language, and burned a small rune into his palm. “We’re friends now.” From then on the doll was his assistant, copying his every move, while spectators in the stands held up their own children to see.
Amren answered by vanishing in a wisp of mist and reappearing on a rooftop. “Is this really who you are cheering for? Him, of all people? Do you want a real show?” She set off fireworks beside the magician, and the crowd loved it. Mageic turned invisible and sat on a stool holding the doll’s hand, whispering his battle plan to her. Unfortunately for him, the whisper echoed through the whole abbey, and Amren heard every word. She stomped, and the cobblestones churned up around him. The doll floated, and Mageic named her Dolly Parton. The Arbiter was openly creeped out.
His attempt to calm her down failed, so Mageic held Dolly aloft “like Simba” and sent her floating up to give Amren “a nice big old hug.” Dolly had her own ideas about hugs. “I hug with my teeth,” she announced, and sank black-tipped teeth into Amren’s ankle. Amren swung her staff like a golf club, launched the doll straight back at Mageic, and Dolly shattered. The rune on his palm burned away. “Dolly. Dolly. What’d you do to Dolly?” he cried. “I sent her away permanently,” said Amren.
Dodgeball and Grief
The Acolytes then got involved and started throwing everything they’d brought. Foam, Dolly’s severed head, a stapler, a fistful of tacos, hot dogs, a statue of Geralt of Rivia, cookies, a steel chair, beers and a six-pack of Voodoo Ranger all rained into the arena. Someone threw their own grandmother in, and she died. “She was a ticket holder. She bought her way in here,” came the justification. Amren got taco lettuce in her hair. Mageic ate a hot dog off the floor, explaining that it’s really hard to get quality food in the Dread Fortress. The Arbiter dragged the grandmother’s body away and mopped up her blood, lamenting that stonework is “a lot more difficult.” The Grandmaster had a simpler view: “Let the blood be a reminder of what’s at stake.”
Mageic wasn’t finished grieving, or exploiting his grief. He conjured an illusion of Dolly, crying and furious, perched on Amren’s shoulder and whispering the lullaby into her ear. Amren broke down (“Go away, dolly. Please.”) and fled across the scaffolding. The Grandmaster had had enough of everyone being frightened of dolls, the Arbiter included (“You don’t know what I’ve been through. You don’t know me.”). She reached out and crushed the illusion in her hand. “I had to watch Dolly die twice, Mageic,” Amren said.
Phase Two: The Cathedral
Mageic invited Amren inside the cathedral, where “it’s warm in there.” It had pews, banners, stained glass and an altar of lit candles. When Mageic asked who lit them, the answer came: “It was the Arbiter.” “I made him,” the Grandmaster added. Mageic asked her not to reveal any backstage secrets, and she gave him the icy stare of a disappointed mother. Amren matched it perfectly.
Mageic slowed Amren down with his magic, counting his own steps out loud as he moved. Amren threw a wall of fire across the cathedral door: “I won’t let you leave.” Mageic hurled a candelabra, missed, and set off a cabinet of tinctures in a chain of popping explosions. He claimed he meant to do that. Amren cackled.
Then the Grandmaster stepped in. She lifted the magic slowing Amren and granted her a burst of extra action: “She is in her moment and I will not let you hold back such beauty.” Amren poured flame across the rug, the pews and the floor.
The Arbiter’s Contingency
“I did set up a few contingency plans,” the Arbiter admitted. A small pocket of natural gas under the floor caught fire, and the cathedral exploded. The roof caved in, the windows blew out, the exit was sealed, and rubble kept falling for the rest of the fight. “You chose this home,” the Grandmaster told them, “now die in it.”
The two traded blows in the wreckage. A tremor from Amren knocked Mageic flat, and he answered with a thunderous blast of force. “Maybe you should go back to your parlor tricks,” she taunted. “You don’t talk about Dolly Parton like that,” he shot back. The Grandmaster inspired Mageic not to give up “until those curtains draw red,” and sent the Arbiter to stare at a wall for losing track of whose turn it was. Amren’s psychic attack bounced off Mageic’s mind (“Iron steel, ironclad right here”). Mageic summoned dark tendrils courtesy of “my mate Hadar,” then tipped an illusory top hat with a “m’lady” and strolled off. “If you ever m’lady me, I will punch you in the face,” said the Grandmaster. “You’d have to be a lady first,” said the Arbiter.
Fire Against Ice
Amren shattered the last of the stained glass. “So far you’ve shown me nothing to prove your worth to me as a fighter. And I will not have it any longer!” Mageic quietly drained the life from her with a withering spell, purring, “Watch as the life drains from her body with me doing nothing.” The Grandmaster was delighted, calling them both truly worthy.
The Arbiter rolled a perfect 20, the Grandmaster clapped, and a crevice split the floor. Amren dangled by her fingernails, then misted straight into the flames: “The fire is my safe spot.” She announced her big one and engulfed Mageic in searing fire. “You want to play with fire, Mageic… You will get burned.” But Mageic had heard it coming. On a perfect roll of his own, he shielded himself with debris and stood untouched among the embers.
His finale was a blast of cold, cast silently mid-conversation, and then, with a last reserve of showmanship, cast a second time. Amren should have fallen. Instead, with the crowd chanting her name, she clung to life by a thread:
“The fire will always beat the cold. I live another moment.”
She blinked to his side and burned his face, his beautiful showman face, now scarred. Mageic dropped to one knee, and talk turned briefly to surrender. Instead he withered her again, and once more she shrugged it off.
The Floor Is Lava
The crowd began to chant “Fire!” and lava seeped up through the cathedral floor. Mageic shimmied up a column “like a squirrel.” Amren, confident in her element, stood her ground. It was too much even for her. She melted into the lava with her arms raised. The Grandmaster honored “a great champion who brought heat to the fight” and beat her wings, sending a cooling gust that hardened the floor with a lava statue of Amren caught inside it.
But before Amren had fully hardened, the Arbiter knelt beside her. “It seems that this is the end for you, but it doesn’t have to be. Would you like to live?” “Yes, I would like to live,” she answered. “Then I will harness your fiery passion, your heat of rage, your violent tendencies. And I will mold you into the perfect weapon.” He remolded her body out of the lava, and the two of them vanished.
Knowing nothing of this, the Grandmaster crowned Mageic the victor. She praised him for taking Dolly Parton by the hand, for eating that old crusty hot dog, and for respecting the lava’s fiery touch. Then she reminded the Acolytes that one champion left that night “thanks to your very own hands.”
Dried Blood
After the fight, Mageic stayed in character long enough to plug his services. “You can reach out to Jerry, my manager… I’ve done Neverwinter, I’ve done Baldur’s Gate, I’ve done Waterdeep… up and down the Sword Coast.” At the table, his player let slip that the magician has a secret he’s keeping close in case Mageic ever returns. Amren’s player called her end fitting, admitting that hubris was her downfall: Amren became one with the lava of the arena, with “Terminator 2 vibes.”
Notable Moments
- The Grandmaster tripped over her own dress during knife practice, cut her hand, and swore the Arbiter to secrecy after he healed her.
- Mageic shook a cursed doll’s hand, gained a rune and an assistant, and named her Dolly Parton, until Amren golfed her into pieces.
- During the dodgeball chaos, a spectator threw their own grandmother into the arena, and Mageic ate a hot dog off the floor.
- The Arbiter’s “contingency plan,” a pocket of natural gas, blew the cathedral apart mid-fight.
- Amren survived a double blast of cold by sheer fire and the crowd’s chanting, only to melt into a lava floor.
- The Arbiter secretly remade Amren from lava “into the perfect weapon” and teleported her away.
Memorable Quotes
- The Grandmaster: “My abandoned abbey. It was once filled with laughter and parishioners, but somehow when I moved in, they didn’t want to stay anymore.”
- Mageic: “I am the marvelous, the mystical, the magnificent, the moody… magical Mageic, the magician.”
- Amren: “How dare you call me your assistant? … I will not touch your hand, you filth.”
- Mageic: “Dolly. Dolly. What’d you do to Dolly?”
- The Grandmaster: “You chose this home, now die in it.”
- The Grandmaster: “If you ever m’lady me, I will punch you in the face.”
- Amren: “The fire will always beat the cold. I live another moment.”
- The Arbiter: “It seems that this is the end for you, but it doesn’t have to be. Would you like to live?”
Who and What Appears
Mageic (ArcaneAdamTV). “The magician”; a sorcerer with Stone’s Endurance (goliath-like), muscles, low intelligence (counts his steps aloud); illusions, invisibility, thunderclap, calm emotions, phantasmal force, dissonant whispers, slow, blight, arms of Hadar, cone of cold (subtle spell). Stage patter; insists on handshakes and professional courtesy. Manager Jerry (paperwork, contracts). Has toured Neverwinter, Baldur’s Gate and Waterdeep on the Sword Coast. Shook the cursed doll’s hand and bore its rune until Dolly broke. Ate a floor hot dog. Face scarred by Amren’s burning hands. Victor. Has an undisclosed secret.
Amren Scorsia (Miss_Magitek). Fire genasi from the Elemental Plane of Fire; flaming hair that flares when angry (“like Hades”); long black staff with a red gem; lava-skin armor (mage armor); sorcerer (Strength of the Grave). Proud, hates being called an assistant, wants a worthy fight. Died in the lava, left as a lava statue; secretly remolded from lava by the Arbiter “into the perfect weapon.” (One of his secret recruits.)
Dolly Parton (the porcelain doll). Chaos-event doll: lullabies, eyes that turn solid black, floats, a death-grip handshake that leaves a rune; “I hug with my teeth” (poisonous bite). Became Mageic’s assistant; shattered by Amren’s catapult; appeared again as an illusion. The Arbiter is afraid of her.
The grandmother. A spectator thrown into the arena by someone in the crowd; died.
The Grandmaster. Clumsy with knives (cut her own hand; covered it up). Owns the abandoned abbey. Grants Amren an action surge; crushes the illusion; “Managers have no role here.” Threatens to punch anyone who m’ladies her.
The Arbiter. Target practice with an apple on his head; heals the Grandmaster; rigged the cathedral with natural gas; afraid of dolls; secretly remakes Amren from lava.
Goblins. Bring the champions to the throne room.
Places
- The abandoned abbey: the Grandmaster’s; ornate courtyard with a large fountain, alleys, rooftops and scaffolding, a cathedral (pews, stained glass, altar, a cabinet of tinctures). Destroyed: burned, exploded, cracked, flooded with lava, which hardened with Amren’s statue in it.
- The Dread Fortress: food is hard to get there.
- Neverwinter, Baldur’s Gate, Waterdeep, the Sword Coast (Mageic’s tour), the Elemental Plane of Fire (Amren’s home).
Lore statements
- “The pantheon of winners” / “reigning champions”: winners are kept as the Grandmaster’s champions.
Full Round-by-Round
Every beat of the episode, with timestamps (click to expand)
- 0:00:03 — Into the Dread Fortress. “Have you found yourself wandering through the void yet again?” The fortress calls; the heat and energy grip your soul; you dive through the skull entrance, “swallowed whole… down into its belly.”
- 0:00:40 — Knife-throwing. The Arbiter is pinned against the wall with a small red apple on his head; the Grandmaster, with a belt full of daggers, lines up a throw. He protests (“it’s a nine when you’re usually at a ten”); she throws one in anger, then trips over her own dress, falls face first, and slices her hand on the dagger. “I think it’s time we find something else for me to do… I’m fine. Nothing bad happened at all… There’s not blood. I’m just sweating a lot.” She wraps her hand in a strip of her dress; the Arbiter heals her: “No one was looking.” “You will tell no one of this.”
- 0:04:32 — The champions. The Arbiter promises “the heat of the flame, the wetness of the water… a steamy, steamy show.” “Red versus blue. It’s a classic.” Goblins bring the champions in on the Arbiter’s snap.
- 0:06:04 — Mageic: “Are we not in Neverwinter? I was supposed to do a show in Neverwinter.” “I am the marvelous, the mystical, the magnificent, the moody… magical Mageic, the magician.” Muscles; any kind of trick. Amren: “It is I, Amren Scorsia. From the elemental plane of fire.” A fiery fire genasi, polite to the Grandmaster, seething at Mageic.
- 0:08:28 — “The pretty sidekick.” Mageic calls Amren his assistant and complains his manager Jerry promised an exclusive contract. Amren: “Not some… show tunes kind of performer.” Mageic: “I don’t sing… you don’t have a manager because you got the invitation personally.” The Grandmaster: “In this arena, there is only one who is in charge… it is me… Managers have no role here… She is an honored guest in this battle.”
- 0:11:59 — The abandoned abbey. The sky falls to meet the ground and they land in an ornate, abandoned courtyard with a large fountain, stonework and marble steps to a cathedral. The Grandmaster: “My abandoned abbey. It was once filled with laughter and parishioners, but somehow when I moved in, they didn’t want to stay anymore… you are welcome to destroy it… it’s the Arbiter who has to go back and pick it up.” Spectators wear the champions’ names on shirts and wave posters of their faces. “Show me everything you’re worth, and I will keep you as one of my reigning champions… you will join the pantheon of winners here.”
- 0:16:58 — Hero points and the first chaos event: the doll. Night falls too early; a lullaby; a small porcelain doll sits on the fountain’s edge, feet dangling, unblinking: “Will you play with me? … Who wants to be my friend?”
- 0:19:43 — Mageic’s opening. “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages and the creepy doll…” He offers Amren a handshake; she refuses (“you filth”); he “slow claps” a thunderclap at her. He shakes the doll’s hand instead; its eyes go solid black, it grips him with a death grip, mutters in a strange language, and burns a small rune into his palm: “We’re friends now.” The doll becomes his assistant and copies what he does. Spectators hold up their own children.
- 0:23:53 — Amren misty-steps onto a rooftop: “Is this really who you are cheering for? … Do you want a real show?” and sets off fireworks (pyrotechnics) beside him; the crowd loves it.
- 0:27:06 — Invisibility. Mageic goes invisible and sits on a stool holding the doll’s hand, whispering his plan, which echoes through the abbey; Amren hears every word. She stomps and erupting earth churns the cobblestones. The doll floats; Mageic names it “Dolly Parton.” The Arbiter is creeped out by the doll (“Everywhere I go, she goes”).
- 0:34:28 — “Give her a nice big old hug.” Mageic’s calm emotions fails. He holds Dolly up “like Simba” and she floats up to Amren: “I hug with my teeth,” biting her ankle with black-tipped teeth. Amren golfs the doll back at Mageic with her staff (catapult) and it shatters; the rune on his hand burns away. “Dolly. What’d you do to Dolly?” “I sent her away permanently.”
- 0:42:15 — Chaos event: dodgeball. The spectators throw everything they’ve brought: foam, Dolly’s head, a stapler, a fistful of tacos, hot dogs, a statue of Geralt of Rivia, cookies, a steel chair, beers, a six-pack of Voodoo Ranger. Someone throws their own grandmother onto the arena, and she dies (“She was a ticket holder. She bought her way in here”). Amren gets taco lettuce in her hair. Mageic eats a hot dog off the floor (“It’s really hard to get quality food down here in the Dread Fortress”). The Arbiter drags the grandmother away and mops up the blood (“This is stonework. A lot more difficult”). The Grandmaster: “Let the blood be a reminder of what’s at stake.”
- 0:48:05 — Phantom Dolly. Mageic conjures an illusion of Dolly, crying and angry, on Amren’s shoulder; Amren breaks down: “Go away, dolly. Please.” He makes the illusion “hug” her and whisper the lullaby (dissonant whispers); she flees across the scaffolding. The Grandmaster is tired of everyone being afraid (the Arbiter is still spooked: “You don’t know what I’ve been through”) and crushes the illusion with her hand: “Two Dalis is too much.” Amren: “I had to watch Dolly die twice, Mageic.” Bathroom break.
- 0:59:30 — Into the cathedral. Mageic invites Amren inside (“it’s warm in there”). The cathedral: pews, draperies, banners, stained glass, an altar with lit candles (“It was the Arbiter,” “I made him”). Mageic tells the Grandmaster not to reveal backstage secrets; she gives him an icy stare like a disappointed mom; Amren matches it (nat 20 intimidation). “Phase two of the battle.”
- 1:03:38 — Slow and the wall of fire. Mageic slows Amren (he counts his steps aloud; “Jerry… does the paperwork”). Amren raises a wall of fire across the cathedral door: “I won’t let you leave.” Mageic throws a candelabra (it misses and sets off a cabinet of tinctures in popping explosions; he claims he meant it). Amren cackles. The Grandmaster lifts the slow and grants Amren an action surge (“She is in her moment and I will not let you hold back such beauty”). Burning hands sets the rug, pews and floor on fire.
- 1:18:23 — The Arbiter’s contingency. “A small pocket of natural gas” under the floor ignites and the cathedral explodes: roof caved in, windows blown out, rubble falling every round, the exit sealed. The Grandmaster: “You chose this home, now die in it.”
- 1:21:27 — Trading blows. Earth tremor knocks Mageic prone; his thunderwave; Amren: “Maybe you should go back to your parlor tricks.” “You don’t talk about Dolly Parton like that.” The Grandmaster gives Mageic inspiration: “You don’t give up until those curtains draw red.” She sends the Arbiter to stare at a wall for mixing up the turn order. Amren’s mind sliver bounces off (“Iron steel, ironclad right here”). Mageic’s arms of Hadar (“my mate Hadar”), then an illusory top hat and a “m’lady” as he walks off. The Grandmaster: “If you ever m’lady me, I will punch you in the face.” Arbiter: “You’d have to be a lady first.”
- 1:31:52 — “Show me your rage.” Amren’s shatter breaks the remaining stained glass. Mageic: “Are you sure you want me to go there?” He subtly casts blight: “Watch as the life drains from her body with me doing nothing.” The Grandmaster: “Find your heart and lay it out onto my arena. You two are truly worthy.”
- 1:36:47 — The crevice. The Arbiter’s nat 20; the Grandmaster claps and a crack splits the floor; Amren hangs by her fingernails, misty-steps into the fire (“The fire is my safe spot”), announces “my big one” and casts immolation. Mageic, having heard it coming, rolls a nat 20 and shields himself with debris, untouched among the embers.
- 1:42:35 — Cone of cold. “I’ve got a finale… I can do it at any time, like even when I’m talking to you.” Subtle cone of cold; Amren rolls a nat 20; Mageic uses his hero point to cast it again. Amren survives at 1 HP by Strength of the Grave with the crowd chanting her name: “The fire will always beat the cold. I live another moment.”
- 1:46:52 — Burning face. Amren dimension-doors to him and burns his face with fourth-level burning hands (“your beautiful showman face… now scarred”). Mageic takes a knee (“Do you surrender?” “Honestly, I don’t think it will work between us”) and blights her again; another nat 20 save. “I was supposed to lose this fight.”
- 1:51:07 — Chaos event: the floor is lava. The crowd chants “Fire!”; lava seeps through the floor. Mageic shimmies up a column “like a squirrel.” Amren, confident in fire, stays; it’s too much, and she melts into the lava, arms raised. The Grandmaster: “A great champion who brought heat to the fight.” Her wings blow a cooling gust; the floor hardens with a lava statue of Amren in it.
- 1:55:25 — The Arbiter’s secret. Before she fully hardens, the Arbiter kneels: “It seems that this is the end for you, but it doesn’t have to be. Would you like to live?” “Yes, I would like to live.” “Then I will harness your fiery passion, your heat of rage, your violent tendencies. And I will mold you into the perfect weapon,” remolding her body out of lava and teleporting them both away.
- 1:56:37 — Mageic crowned victor. “Dolly Parton, you took hand by hand. That old crusty hot dog you ate. And even the lava, you respected its fiery touch… our victor for tonight.” “Dear acolytes, loyal to the Dread Fortress… one leaves tonight thanks to your very own hands.”
Full Dried Blood notes (click to expand)
- Out of character: Adam built Mageic as “low intelligent magician” antagonistic to everyone; cone of cold as fire’s answer. Tracy: Amren’s hubris was her downfall; she regrets not casting immolation again; a fitting end, “one with the lava of this arena” (“Terminator 2 vibes”).
- Mageic has a secret Adam is holding back in case Mageic returns.
- Tracy: maybe Mageic now has some pact from the doll’s rune (“a devil doll cult”).
- Mageic’s sign-off (in character): “You can reach out to Jerry, my manager… I’ve done Neverwinter, I’ve done Baldur’s Gate, I’ve done Waterdeep… up and down the Sword Coast.”