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Two three-foot-tall champions, both convinced they were legends, met in the ruins of a seaside castle in the Void. One was Buli the Brave, a tiny, furious owlbear who wanted everyone to know he was not adorable. The other was Chancy, a fairy bard who claimed to have slain 10,000 dragons. What followed was a stolen lute, a butterfly, a jilted ghost bride, pillows stuffed with rocks, and a fight so long that the Grandmaster eventually had to end it by shouting “Enough!”

The Story

Cookies in the Kitchen

The night began with the Arbiter searching the Dread Fortress for the Grandmaster, who was once again missing from her throne room. A warm, sugary smell drew him down the hall, since he is “easily seduced by good smelling foods.” He found her in the kitchen, hovering over trays of chocolate chip, red velvet, confetti and Easter sugar cookies with “a little chickadee in the middle.” She wore an apron reading “Grandmaster,” not “grandma.” Every cookie was for the Acolytes and none were for the champions, who had snubbed her baking last time.

The Arbiter tried to swipe one, and she smacked his hand hard. “You aren’t one of them,” she told him. He protested, “Why do they get cookies and I don’t get cookies? I work here.” He asked whether Doug had gotten a cookie. Dogs can’t have chocolate, but Doug had been given a raw egg earlier. “Fucking Doug,” said the Arbiter, and he turned down the offer of an egg of his own. He would rather watch people fight to the death. He used a little magic to brush the flour off the Grandmaster, she put on her crown, and he sliced open a rift to announce “Buli the Brave versus Chancy!”

Fierce, Not Adorable

The Grandmaster called Buli adorable, and Buli’s feathers bristled. “Not adorable. I am fierce. I am brave. I am strong. And I am here to win.” He claimed he had once destroyed an Aboleth with his bare hands and bathed in its blood. Chancy introduced himself as someone who needed no introduction: “Everybody knows who I am. I’m Chancy.” Buli did not know who he was. Chancy described himself as a “musical wizard, magic bard, sorcerer” with a magical instrument. He listed his credentials: 10,000 dragons, “the Witch in the Hills, probably,” and petting Doug that very day.

The Arbiter asked whether Chancy could play “Stairway to Heaven.” It was “not ready yet.” Not to be outdone, Buli produced “the most destructive metal deathly musical instrument in the world”: a tiny set of bagpipes he had no idea how to play. When Buli asked if Chancy was a bird, Chancy was appalled. “No, I am a fairy. How dare you insult me with a bird.” The two had never met, which Buli explained by saying there is usually no one left alive to tell the tale. Chancy began to suspect he was a liar.

The Ruins by the Sea

A spring breeze blew through the portal, and the champions landed on a cliff above the water. The Grandmaster admitted it was a place she didn’t visit often. It held a ruined castle with broken staircases, crumbling walls about twenty feet high, and a deep, uncovered well that echoed. A lovely maiden had once lived there, and “there was supposed to be a nice little wedding here, but it never happened.” She pulled sheets down over a few portraits and told everyone they didn’t need to know about any of that.

From floating wooden stands packed with Acolytes, the Grandmaster reminded the champions that they fought for “the eyes here who will continue to echo and carry out your legacy.” Then she took her seat next to Doug. Chancy started on the cliffside and Buli inside the ruins, out of each other’s sight. Gerald, the Box of Chaos, slammed down from the sky in pink and yellow flames and settled at the bottom of a ten-foot drop below the cliff, open to either champion willing to sacrifice something.

Dodgeball and a Flaming Pepper

Chancy opened with taunts so cutting that Buli’s swings were shaken from the start. He brushed it off: “I will win even with all disadvantage.” Chancy then played a tune on his ocarina so beautiful that the hosts were entranced and the Grandmaster wanted to book him for the Christmas party. Meanwhile Buli tried to scale a wall, clawed three feet up, and slid down on his butt. The champions argued about height (three feet one inch against three feet one and a half), and Buli declared, “It is not how tall you are. It’s what you do with it.” The Acolytes ruled that height doesn’t matter. Buli tried again and made it to the top, where he hid behind a loose brick on the theory that “if I can’t see him, he can’t see me.”

The first chaos event was dodgeball. The Acolytes emptied their pockets onto the field: hot dogs, fish heads, green Jell-O, bees, a dumpster fire, Santa Claus, a sad little Squirtle and, apparently, Grimace from McDonald’s, who landed right on Buli. Somebody in the crowd even threw their own feces onto the field, “as one does at a sporting event.” A raccoon landed on Chancy’s head. “This is not how you treat a diplomat,” he complained. Chancy flew high and found Buli by the huffing and puffing. He hit him with a bolt of fire that poured out of the ocarina as a slew of musical notes.

Singed and smelly, Buli dropped to all fours and charged along the walls for a flying leap. Chancy cooed, “Oh, how cute. You think they can run?” Buli stumbled, hit the ground face first, and landed ten feet short. “The world is not ready for a Buli that can fly,” he announced. He grabbed a flaming hot pepper from the dodgeball debris and flung it straight up with a cry of “I hope you’re ready for something spicy!” It hit Chancy’s petticoat. The Arbiter then tore open his own chest to reveal a Chancy concert tee, declaring “Carved on my bones is Chancy’s name.” Buli fluffed up so hard his head spun around. “It looks like Chancy can’t handle the heat!” he told the crowd.

At high noon the sky went dark and cold. A soft voice warned that these ruins were “not abandoned. Someone may still live here.”

Gerald and the Stolen Lute

Chancy’s mockery bounced right off Buli, who had rolled a perfect 20. Buli proved to the Grandmaster that he was “all brains,” about 400 of them by his count. Chancy was crushed: “I’ve never had something not hit before.” Buli informed him that owlbears never cry because they don’t have tear ducts. Then he climbed down the cliff to Gerald and listed his other titles on the way: the Brains, the Fierce, the Strong, the Murderer, the Destroyer.

Rummaging through his things for something to sacrifice, Buli pulled out a very small lute. Chancy recognized it at once. “No, that’s mine.” Buli insisted it had been “in the rack of weapons that they said anybody could have,” and kept it as leverage. Instead he stripped off all his clothes, fur cloak included. Shadowy hands took them, and Gerald said happily, “These are just my size.” Buli added that he’d been seasoning them. The box gave him a blank scroll, and flames burned one word onto it: FLY. The Grandmaster admitted she had been “really hoping for a spell of castration.” Buli didn’t know what a spell was. He beaked the scroll and waved it around until it cast itself and lifted him barely off the ground.

At the end of the round Doug was waiting for his turn to call down chaos, clutching his green D20 squish toy. When the Grandmaster asked the Arbiter to roll lower so Doug could have a turn, he refused: “Doug can sit where the fuck he’s at.” Doug ran off in anger and embarrassment, and the Grandmaster had to go after him.

Fireball, Butterfly, Doug

When the fight resumed, Chancy hit the hovering Buli with a fireball (“Hot, hot heat!”). Then he turned him into a butterfly: “If you think you can fly, you might as well be a creature who can fly well.” Buli became a very cute butterfly in a blue petticoat that matched Chancy’s. “Remind me never to steal anything from Chancy,” said the Grandmaster. In what was surely the worst moment of his life, Buli fluttered up and landed on the nose of the most fearsome beast he could find: Doug. One butterfly kiss later, Doug leapt down from the stands and pinned Chancy’s wings to the ground, growling at whoever had hurt his butterfly friend, then hopped back up. Covered in slobber, Chancy tried to win him over by offering to introduce him to the queen’s dog. Doug actually knows many dogs in the realm and, mindful of his reputation, stayed seated in his throne.

The Bride in the Well

The cold had been growing all night. Now the whisper was clear: “Frederick, Frederick, where are you?” A ghostly maiden with long blonde hair, a small tiara and a white gown climbed out of the well. This was Christina, and her voice filled the whole space. Her eyes glowed like fire. “You, you’re not him,” she told Chancy. To the butterfly she said, “You, that’s not who you really are,” and the spell melted away, leaving a scorched Buli still flapping his arms. “You’re also not Frederick!”

Chancy proposed a truce. After a long pause, Buli agreed that he was “Fair and just.” Together they fooled the ghost. Chancy did a Frederick impression (“It’s me, honey. I’m at the well”) while Buli made splashing water noises, and Christina raced to peer down the well. Then Chancy patted Buli on the head and said “you did good.” That was too much. “I don’t want you to ever pat me on the head! The truce is over!” Just then a ghoul peeked around a corner, muttered “Thanks for the help,” and scooted past. This was Frederick. “You coward,” said the Grandmaster.

Buli flew into a rage, though he called it a “wage,” which he admitted was a hard word. He swung his great axe like a baseball bat and smacked Chancy. Then he ran to the ghost and told her the truth: “That fairy lied to you. He knows Fredwick. We saw him.” Her eyes burned orange and fixed on Chancy.

Pillows Full of Rocks

The Acolytes demanded chaos on their own, and every weapon turned into a pillow. The Grandmaster felt they’d seen enough pillow fights, and besides, “goose feathers are hard to come by.” So these pillows were stuffed with rocks. Chancy turned invisible (“Now you see me… now you don’t”) and climbed down to Gerald. He gave up a lyre, which he swore Van Halen had signed in invisible ink, and Gerald believed every word. Chancy rolled a result the Grandmaster had never seen before and bowed invisibly: “Well, I am Chancy.” Gerald tossed out a pair of Gauntlets of Ogre Power.

Buli dangled the lute over the well. “If you don’t wanna show yourself, the loot gets it.” The crowd chanted “Drown the loot!” and he dropped it in. Nobody heard a splash. Eyes closed, praying “to the great owlbear spirits to guide me true,” Buli hurled rock pillows at the empty air and hit Chancy square in the face. Chancy answered with another fireball. He insisted the lute had been a gift from the queen’s sister “after a beautiful night that we had together and that is not a lie.” He kept steering the ghost toward Frederick, who kept hiding in the bushes. Christina lunged at the voice instead, grabbed Chancy, and pulled herself straight through his body. Buli charged the spot and clawed both of them.

Chancy healed himself and hissed at Frederick: “Listen here you little shit, stop moving around because this little bitch over here needs to find you, you little fuckhead.” Christina finally spotted her runaway groom and let out a screech like a thunderclap. The Arbiter, fed up, snapped his fingers and brought the real weapons back. “I came here for blood, not pillows,” said Buli. His great axe promptly snapped at the hilt, and his battle axe missed too. He dropped to his knees: “Why can’t I hit anyone?” The Grandmaster blessed him for his effort.

Buli the Deathless

“Quit running away and fight,” the Grandmaster ordered. Chancy reappeared right in front of Buli and threw a fireball, having dropped his invisibility “so I can watch you burn.” In the distance, Christina wrapped her ghostly fingers around Frederick’s neck. The hosts gave the couple some privacy as they faded away. Buli, now hideous and crazed, leapt onto Chancy, hooked in his claws, and dragged them both into the well. “We’re all going down.” The gauntlets saved them. Chancy hauled Buli back up with Buli clinging to his boots, and the Grandmaster marvelled, “You two are the hardest things to kill.”

Chancy set Buli down, looked him in the eye, and burned off the last of his feathers. Buli fell and got right back up anyway. He was naked, weaponless, smelling of cooked chicken, his claws burnt to pulp, so he headbutted Chancy three times in a row. Chancy called up a cloud of hundreds of daggers. Buli fell again and rose again with one dagger poking his twitching eyeball. “Buli the Burned! Buli the Deathless!” Chancy flew out of reach. Buli started to rise a third time, got as far as “Buli the…”, and fell down dead at last.

“Enough!” The Grandmaster cleared the daggers and told the Arbiter to remove the stabbed owlbear. Not wanting to walk all that way, he picked Buli up by the leg and tossed him down the well, where no one would ever hear him land. The Grandmaster handed Chancy his petticoat, unrolled the sleeves, and offered him a final bow. Chancy took it with an ocarina tune and a little jig. Then the Grandmaster urged the Acolytes to “give them hell every single moment that you breathe.”

Dried Blood

Buli was still falling. Since he would never hit the bottom, he kept fighting for his life after the credits, and came back up with a sliver of life, still tumbling down the well. The table pictured him finding the shiny lute at the bottom one day, regrowing two feathers, and surviving on bugs. As tiny owlbears, they eat “humans… meat, flesh, squirrels.” Chancy offered parting words about 10,000 dragons and “something inside your heart,” then told everyone to “pretend like I said it.” The last image was a dark chasm, a small, used-to-be-fluffy thing falling, and one eye opening: “I’ll be back.” At the table, the hosts noted this had been the longest fight the show had ever run.

Notable Moments

  • Buli hid behind a single brick on the theory that “if I can’t see him, he can’t see me.”
  • The Arbiter tore open his chest to reveal a Chancy concert tee.
  • Chancy turned Buli into a butterfly, and Buli recruited Doug to pounce on him.
  • The champions teamed up to trick a ghost bride, until a head pat broke the truce.
  • Buli held Chancy’s lute hostage over the well, and the crowd voted “Drown the loot!”
  • Buli refused to die twice, headbutting with burnt stumps before the daggers finally took him.

Memorable Quotes

  • Buli: “Not adorable. I am fierce. I am brave. I am strong. And I am here to win.”
  • Chancy: “No, I am a fairy. How dare you insult me with a bird.”
  • The Arbiter: “Doug can sit where the fuck he’s at.”
  • Chancy: “If you think you can fly, you might as well be a creature who can fly well.”
  • Christina the ghost: “You, that’s not who you really are… You’re also not Frederick!”
  • Buli: “I don’t want you to ever pat me on the head! The truce is over!”

Buli: “I’m not a man at all, I’m a monstrosity.”

Buli: “Buli the Burned! Buli the Deathless!”

Who and What Appears

Characters

Buli the Brave (BunnyDreadful).

  • Species: a tiny owlbear (player, Dried Blood). The Grandmaster calls him “owlet” and “owlbear.”
  • Body: 3 ft 1 in, feathered, with claws (“not hands”). His owl head spins around when he’s furious.
  • Speech: says “wage” for rage and “Fredwick” for Frederick.
  • Gear and abilities:
    • Many axes: a great axe (snapped at the hilt) and a battle axe.
    • Tiny bagpipes.
    • A fur pelt cloak and clothes, sacrificed to Gerald.
    • A barbarian with rage, frenzy, reckless attack and Relentless Rage, plus Charger and Tavern Brawler.
  • Claims:
    • Destroyed an Aboleth with his bare hands and bathed in its blood.
    • “Owlbears make the best warriors… we don’t even have tear ducts.”
    • “400 (500) brains.”
    • Prays to “the great owlbear spirits.”
  • Epithets: the Brave, the Brains, the Fierce, the Strong, the Murderer, the Destroyer, the Great, the Burned, the Deathless.
  • In this episode:
    • Took Chancy’s small lute from “the rack of weapons that they said anybody could have” and dropped it into the well.
    • Flew by spell scroll and was polymorphed into a butterfly.
    • Rose twice from zero before dying. His body was thrown down the well by the Arbiter.
    • In Dried Blood, he is falling forever: “I’ll be back.”

Chancy (MacNcheeseP1z).

  • Who: a fairy bard (“musical wizard, magic bard, sorcerer”), about 3 ft 1½ in, with wings. Chancy’s spells look like musical notes from an ocarina.
  • Claims:
    • Fought 10,000 dragons; “the Dragon Slayer.”
    • Fought “the Witch in the Hills, probably.”
    • Pet Doug today.
    • Plays for the king; knows the queen’s dog (a lie).
    • The petticoat was a gift from the queen. The lute was a gift from the queen (or the queen’s sister, “after a beautiful night”).
    • Owns a lyre “signed by Van Halen” in invisible ink.
  • Gear:
    • Ocarina, a small lute, many instruments, a petticoat.
    • A dagger and a longsword (per the pillow event).
    • Gauntlets of Ogre Power, won from Gerald.
  • Spells: Blade Ward, Fire Bolt, Vicious Mockery, Fireball (×4), Polymorph, Mind Sliver, Greater Invisibility, Cure Wounds, Cloud of Daggers, and a Fae Touched Misty Step. Also uses Cutting Words.
  • Winner.

Grandmaster Elusia Skypiercer (Caustic Phoenix).

  • Bakes cookies for the Acolytes in an apron reading “Grandmaster.”
  • Brought Doug to the stands and left at the break to comfort him.
  • Granted Buli Bless for trying hard, and stopped the fight with “Enough!”
  • Doesn’t visit this arena often. She covered the castle’s portraits.

The Arbiter (Mudcat).

  • Tried to steal a cookie and was smacked.
  • Claims to be Chancy’s superfan (a concert tee pulled from his chest, Chancy’s name “carved on my bones”).
  • “Aged like a fine wine.”
  • Refused to roll low for Doug.
  • Ended the pillow-fight chaos early.
  • Threw Buli’s body into the well.

Doug.

  • The Grandmaster’s pug. He got a raw egg (no cookies), has a green D20 squish toy, and wants a turn rolling.
  • He sat in “his throne above.”
  • He pounced on Chancy at butterfly-Buli’s urging.
  • “Knows many dogs in the realm.”

Gerald (the Box of Chaos).

  • A purple box with pink and yellow flames, with a small shadowy figure and claw.
  • Took Buli’s clothes (“These are just my size”) and gave a FLY scroll.
  • Took Chancy’s lyre, believed the Van Halen story, and gave Gauntlets of Ogre Power.

Christina the ghost.

  • Appearance: the maiden of the ruined castle. Long blonde hair, a tiara, a white gown; ethereal. Her eyes glow yellow, then orange; she glows blue.
  • Story: she searches for Frederick, who did not show up on the day of their wedding.
  • Powers: her voice fills the whole space. She dispels polymorph (“that’s not who you really are”), uses a wind-push, a necrotic touch, passes through bodies, and screeches like a thunderclap.
  • Fate: last seen strangling Frederick as they fade into the distance.
  • Name: auto-assigned by the VTT, per Caustic Phoenix.

Frederick.

  • Christina’s groom, seen as “a ghoul” peeking around corners. He hides behind a tree and in the bushes. Caustic Phoenix: “You coward.”
  • Strangled by Christina at the end. Whether he is undead is only implied by “ghoul.”

The queen, the queen’s sister, the king, the queen’s dog. Figures in Chancy’s claims, all unnamed.

The Acolytes. Threw objects (dodgeball), picked “drown the loot,” demanded chaos, and ruled that height doesn’t matter.

Places

  • The Dread Fortress kitchen, and the throne room (the Grandmaster was absent from it).
  • The ruined seaside clifftop castle. A deep open well with no audible bottom, broken stairs, 20-ft walls, a 10-ft drop to the box, trees and bushes, covered portraits. Not abandoned: Christina lives here. It grows colder as the fight goes on.
  • The floating wooden stands above it.

Items

  • The Grandmaster’s cookies and her “Grandmaster” apron.
  • Chancy’s small lute (“loot”), dropped down the well and lost.
  • Buli’s tiny bagpipes. The flaming hot pepper from the dodgeball debris.
  • The FLY spell scroll written by flame.
  • The “Van Halen–signed” lyre, sacrificed. The Gauntlets of Ogre Power.
  • The rock-filled pillows.
  • The Chancy concert tee.

Lore statements

  • Sacrificing to Gerald is a free action. The box stays put and can be used by both champions.
  • The Grandmaster and the Arbiter can award Bless and end chaos events.
  • “Goose feathers are hard to come by” (the Grandmaster).
  • Doug knows many dogs in the realm and cares about his reputation among them.

Full Round-by-Round