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Most champions come to the Void to kill a stranger. Chade (Chaedillion) Chadian and his wife Kairen came to work on their marriage. Doug the Pug pulled the couple out of their home life and into the Dread Fortress, and from there into a lava-filled ruin. What followed was less a fight to the death than a very public counseling session, with flaming swords, a velvet rope from Gerald, and three angry stone copies of the neighbor who bakes the scones.

The Story

Kitchen Renovations

The episode opened on chaos inside the Dread Fortress. Goblins scurried through the halls carrying two-by-fours, drywall and hammers “that goblins probably shouldn’t be allowed to have,” all headed for the fortress kitchen, “a place we’ve seen a person die once or twice.” The Arbiter followed, chains dragging behind him, and asked what was going on. The Grandmaster reminded him there had been an email memo: “Obviously, we’re doing kitchen renovations right now.” Then she noticed the goblins were knocking down a load-bearing wall, and the ceiling began to crack.

With the sink overflowing into the pool in the middle of the kitchen, the Grandmaster whistled. Doug popped out of the water soaking wet and shook himself off. She asked him to search the worlds for champions who really needed “to get the fight out of their system.” She added that if he found a good enough pairing, “perhaps you could actually replace the arbiter.” Doug spun after his tail. The moment he caught it, a small portal opened and two champions tumbled out.

“Doug summoned the champions?” the Arbiter asked. “Yes, yes. Shut up. Just shut up,” said the Grandmaster.

Grievances

The first words out of the portal were Chade’s: “Honey, when I said we should go to therapy, this is not exactly what I had in mind.” Chade was a huge, square-jawed, mustachioed half-orc in full armor with an enormous greatsword, all of it under a pink apron. He was surprised the armor still fit after years of chasing the kids. Kairen, an elf, had been promised lavender and potpourri, and found the room “a little too red for my whole psyche.”

The Grandmaster welcomed them anyway: “It’s not therapy, but it is an opportunity to work out your problems. Welcome to the Dread Fortress.” The Arbiter doubted Doug’s picks were up to a Deathmatch, so she went fishing for grievances, and they came pouring out. Kairen thought Chade was a fantastic stay-at-home husband, “definitely arm candy,” but wished he would earn a little gold, since she brought in most of it. Chade pointed out that they had seven children. He had asked her to do one thing, pick up asparagus at the mushroom market, and she forgot after a night out with friends. Kairen countered with the 3,000-gold cooking knives she had paid for so he could slice mushrooms for his tofu. Chade said she had just raided a dragon’s hoard, so he thought they could splurge.

Kairen wondered whether this was “one of those smash rooms.” Once the Grandmaster understood what that meant, she said they had one. The Arbiter perked up: “Objections rescinded. I think they’re going to kill each other.”

The Smash Room

The Arbiter clapped, and the sound tore open a portal to a ruined room full of lava. The wave of heat frizzed their hair (“My mustache!”). A brick path crumbled at its edges into lava fifteen feet below, and ten-foot statues lined the way. “Remember, lava hot, don’t touch,” the Grandmaster warned. Kairen immediately eyed a statue for the front of their hut. “Even if you break it, it’s still mine,” said the Grandmaster. “Please don’t take my stuff home.”

The champions misunderstood what kind of “smashing” was expected. Chade asked whether this was about baby number eight, then turned to The Acolytes: “Would you like to see us smash one another?” He got awkward silence and one enthusiastic yes from a guy in the back. The Grandmaster went red, wrapped her wings around herself, clarified “with weapons, not with the other stabby things,” and retreated to her throne to drink.

That left the Arbiter as host. He confided that he had tried to overthrow her, “with resurrected champions that I had brought back to life,” which explained the chains. Kairen decided he must be the manager. They talked decor. The Arbiter had placed the skulls himself. Were they ethically sourced? “They’re probably free range.”

Before the fight, the couple sorted out the children. If Chade died, Kairen would strap the kids to her chest and take them adventuring. Chade noted that one of them couldn’t walk. When Kairen suggested the neighbor could sit for them, Chade named her: “It’s Margaret, by the way. She’s wonderful… She makes great blueberry scones.” Kairen’s reply came instantly: “You’re eating some other woman’s scones?” She made him promise that if she died, the ring stayed on: “No Margaret, no blueberry scones with any other woman.” Chade folded his apron neatly and set it in a corner so it wouldn’t get bloody. It had been a gift.

Kairen struck first. As a test of their partnership, the Grandmaster asked each of them for the other’s middle name. Chade knew hers by heart: Kairen Alexis Rose Chadian. Asked for his, Kairen shrugged: “Maybe he should ask Margaret.”

Rocks, Fire and Apples

Kairen’s opening move was to dig through the rubble for a rock. She hurled it into her husband’s handsome jaw. He spat blood: “Throwing stones from your glass house over there? Come on, get over here!” She sat her happy ass down and kept sifting, finding one that looked like the pet bunny Chade had cooked. He protested that he didn’t even eat meat, and had cooked it for her.

Chade circled the gap, not foolish enough to cross the lava, and set his greatsword ablaze. Kairen thanked him for keeping her hair from frizzing. When he boasted that he still had it, she reminded him he “could last a little longer than your dash action did.” The arguments grew more personal. Chade complained about getting himself all prettied up and shaved everywhere, “only for it to be a few seconds of pleasure for you,” and admitted to buying a sex toy at a lady’s party as an anniversary present. Kairen asked if that was why 3,000 gold coins were missing from their joint account. Chade first blamed the kids’ private adventuring school, then admitted to a couple of hundred gold pieces.

Kairen tried to pick his pocket for the gift, and he caught her. She tried to slap him, but she’s a little anemic. She slipped on one of her own rocks and fell face first into his chest, felt his gym-built pecs, and bit one. Then Chade landed the first real blow. Pleading about seven children, lice and asparagus, he brought down his flaming greatsword with holy fire stacked on top, and Kairen caught fire. “Well, honey, you’re looking a little extra hot today.” As her hair singed, he shouted, “Yes! Now take me seriously!”

Doug, Chinchillas and Gerald

At the end of the round the Arbiter fumbled his roll for chaos, but Doug hopped up, threw down his squeaky toy and rolled a natural 20. Chade asked if he was a zombie dog. “It’s undead,” the Arbiter corrected. Chade said Doug looked like the family cat after one of the kids practiced necromancy on it. Doug got huffy and trotted back to the Grandmaster. “He’s more of a Margaret person,” Kairen sniffed.

The Acolytes demanded chaos. A drilling sound came from the ceiling, and a giant plastic ball holding 203 chinchillas dropped between the couple. Each had tiny knives strapped to its back, and a lead chinchilla rode in a chariot, smoking a cigarette. They were unionized. “We’re unionized here at the Dread Fortress,” the Grandmaster said. “Oh, that’s why the kitchen’s not done yet,” said Chade. The ball rolled back and forth and missed both of them, and then a whistle blew and half the chinchillas went to lunch. When Chade reminded Kairen she could dodge, the Arbiter asked how it felt to be told how to do things. She realized it was mansplaining.

Then the Arbiter snapped, and the Box of Chaos dropped beside a broken statue, spilling pink and yellow fire. Gerald waited inside to trade for any sacrifice. Kairen forbade Chade from giving up the anniversary toy (“Don’t you dare throw a dildo in there!”), and he refused to give up the apron she had given him when their first child, Kaylee, was born. So she persuaded him to give up his trousers.

Kairen, announcing “You won’t let me peg you, but if this is the closest I can get to that, here we go,” got so sweaty thinking about his ass that her rapier slipped from her hand and dangled at the edge of the path. Hopping on one foot, halfway out of his trousers, he offered to fetch it for her (“She’s my wife, of course I am”), and she ignored it to help him get his pants off. Underneath was a split thong with a large smiling goblin face on the front. Chade jogged to the box, where Gerald crept out at eye level with his junk, and did lunges in front of him. Gerald asked why his pants were off. Chade also pulled out the anniversary gift, a two-foot, purple, tentacle-like massager that sprang to life on the words “abracadabra alakazam, I need you to tickle these yams”; Gerald said it would “go well with my collection” but took the pants. He burst from the box in a column of fire: “Sorry, I have to make an entrance. It’s kind of part of my job.” Then he gave them a red velvet rope of climbing, with a word of advice: “You guys seem kind of kinky, so here.”

Somebody asked whether they’d met in Cassandra’s spin class, and Kairen exploded: “WHO THE FUCK’S CASSANDRA?!” Chade bellowed that she was his spin instructor: “YOU LIKE THIS ASS? THANK HER!” The Grandmaster called a break to cool off.

The Arbiter Exposed

After the break, a burst of hot air lifted the Arbiter’s potato-sack robe in a Marilyn Monroe moment. Kairen looked up it and couldn’t see anything. “Shouldn’t you be killing each other?” he asked, and the Grandmaster noted that Mayor Timmy, the worm mayor of “that one asteroid we landed on,” was much bigger. Later another hot breeze blew the sack fully up, and the whole audience saw “the mini sausage that you’re rocking tonight.” He responded by casting enlarge on himself. “A minute’s all I’m going to need,” he said. The Grandmaster was unimpressed: “Enlarge is not the spell you want if you need to satisfy someone, unless it’s just yourself.” A new chaos event scattered five wrinkly, one-eyed sausage worms around the arena that sucked at anyone near them like leeches. The Grandmaster explained they had replaced the usual small grandmas, because there would be too much shame.

Kairen finally put out her own fire. Chade had never mentioned she could, and she pointed out that he hadn’t read her spell for her. She stomped up and grabbed his ass and wouldn’t let go until he flexed his cheeks free. Then Chade spoke the rope’s command, “Hocus pocus. Tie this woman up so I can focus!”, and it bound her head to toe. He asked if that meant he won. It didn’t.

Tied up, Kairen wriggled and shook her firm ass until Chade took psychic damage and five points of “blue ball damage.” “The goblin face is getting a little bit bigger,” she observed. “Nose is growing. Pinocchio over there.” He turned the flat of his greatsword into a paddle and smote her ass for a blow the table dubbed “the crit clap.” He checked in on their safe word, which turned out to be mango, not pineapple. “Mango, oh no, it’s great, keep them coming.”

Three Margarets

The Arbiter had had enough. “I’m fucking sick of this,” he declared. He cancelled their chance to redecorate the kitchen and snapped his fingers. The statues broke apart and re-formed as three stone Margarets, built from Chade’s own memories, and they marched up behind the couple. Chade released his wife (“Own it, moan it, release my wife this moment”). He promised they would destroy every Margaret visage, “Not the real one though. She’s a nice fucking lady.”

Kairen stabbed the first Margaret in a rage, and it burst into radiant fire. Chade spent his healing touch rubbing her bruised ass (“Aftercare is important, people”), while Gerald cheered from outside the box and tossed over a wooden paddle. Kairen stabbed the second Margaret with the still-buzzing purple massager, which vibrated so hard the statue shattered. The last Margaret attacked with her long, swinging stone breasts and offered buttery scones. Chade explained that Margaret was 86. Kairen accused him of liking older women. He reminded her she was an elf, and that he would die thousands of years before her.

Chade swore a vow against the last statue and cut deep, but it held. Then, with the Acolytes’ favor behind her, Kairen leapt to Margaret’s head and crushed it between her thighs. She finished with a wrestling flip on a natural 20, landed nimbly, and sent the rubble into the lava.

Off to the Real Smash Room

By now his erection had ripped through the goblin on Chade’s thong, and Kairen wrapped her cloak around him: “that’s just for me.” The Grandmaster finally broke: “Enough! Arbiter! Send them to their bedroom, please!” The Arbiter clapped open a portal to the Dread Fortress’s actual Smash Room, with tables, paddles, swings, chains and, yes, lava. Kairen thanked him for fixing their marriage, and the Arbiter took psychological damage. The couple went through, and the Acolytes cheered and threw condoms while parents covered their children’s eyes.

Nobody died, so the match ended as a shared victory. The Grandmaster sent them off wishing them “merriment and maybe an eighth child,” and urged everyone to back their Kickstarter for the dragon-slaying, schooling and asparagus to come.

Dried Blood

At the table afterward, Chade’s player declared Margaret canon: the nice old neighbor who brings scones while the wife is off adventuring. The Arbiter’s player suggested this might “probably” be the first child conceived in the Dread Fortress, and a commemorative plaque was floated. He also confirmed the Arbiter is now psychologically damaged, and that his roll made it canon from then on: “Now the Arbiter’s dick is one inch long.” The Grandmaster thanked goodness for Doug, who always outrolls the Arbiter, and hinted that chinchillas might become a small theme for the season. The kitchen was promised a backsplash of human skulls (“Don’t ask us where we got them from”). The words of wisdom were to communicate, try therapy, establish a safe word, and remember that they “do not condone domestic violence.”

Notable Moments

  • Doug, fresh from a bath in the kitchen pool, summoned the champions by catching his own tail.
  • 203 unionized, knife-wielding chinchillas rolled in, missed everyone and broke for lunch.
  • Chade sacrificed his trousers to Gerald and revealed a thong with a grinning goblin face.
  • The Arbiter’s robe blew up twice, and he answered by casting enlarge on himself.
  • Kairen shattered one Margaret statue with a vibrating massager and crushed another’s head between her thighs on a natural 20.
  • The “fight to the death” ended with the Grandmaster sending the couple to their bedroom.

Memorable Quotes

  • Chade: “Honey, when I said we should go to therapy, this is not exactly what I had in mind.”
  • Kairen: “You’re eating some other woman’s scones?”
  • The Arbiter: “If you could just write that on Yelp… The last few people that we killed here really didn’t leave great reviews.”
  • Gerald: “Sorry, I have to make an entrance. It’s kind of part of my job.”
  • The Grandmaster: “Enlarge is not the spell you want if you need to satisfy someone, unless it’s just yourself.”
  • The Arbiter: “We pulled you through a portal through all time and space. That’s your question?”
  • Kairen: “Aftercare is important, people.”
  • The Grandmaster: “Enough! Arbiter! Send them to their bedroom, please!”

Who and What Appears

Characters

Chade (Chaedillion) Chadian (Joel). A very large, square-jawed, mustachioed half-orc.

  • Class and gear:
    • A paladin (inferred from searing smite, divine smite, Lay on Hands, aura, Shield of Faith and Vow of Enmity).
    • Full armor/chainmail and an enormous greatsword.
    • A pink apron, a gift from Kairen around the birth of their first child, which he wears every day.
  • Home life:
    • A stay-at-home husband caring for seven children at their hut.
    • Cooks tofu and cinnamon rolls, owns 3,000-gp knives, and does DIY.
    • Doesn’t eat meat, but cooked the family’s pet bunny for Kairen.
    • Goes to the gym “with the boys” and takes Cassandra’s spin class.
    • Friends with neighbor Margaret.
    • Used to adventure with Kairen.
  • This episode:
    • Bought a two-foot purple tentacle-like massager at a toy party as an anniversary gift.
    • Sacrificed his trousers to the Box of Chaos for a red velvet rope of climbing.
    • Wears a banana-hammock thong with a goblin face; it ripped.
    • Calls their safe word mango (after first saying pineapple).
    • Says Kairen, an elf, will outlive him by thousands of years.

Kairen / Kairen Alexis Rose Chadian (Stella). Chade’s wife; an elf rogue with a rapier, evasion, uncanny dodge, sneak attack and expertise in performance.

  • Adventurer and breadwinner: gone for weeks; recently raided a dragon’s hoard and brought home 1,000 gp.
  • Took Chade’s last name. Doesn’t know his middle name.
  • Anemic and iron-deficient; she’s supposed to eat spinach.
  • Loves lavender. Her hair was burned down to “the traditional Kairen cut.”
  • Crushed a Margaret statue’s head with her thighs.

Their family

  • Seven children:
    • One can’t walk; one has lice.
    • Some are showing magical abilities.
    • One practiced necromancy on an old family cat.
    • They attend an expensive private adventuring school.
  • Kaylee/Kaylie, the first child, was conceived on the honeymoon using a purple rope. They lost that rope the day after while tying up giants.
  • Margaret: the 86-year-old neighbor. She bakes blueberry/buttery scones, watches the kids and is “a nice fucking lady.”

The Arbiter (Mudcat).

  • Wears chains and shackles and a potato-sack linen cloth.
  • Openly says he tried to overthrow the Grandmaster with resurrected champions.
  • Is called “the manager”; says he placed the skulls in the arena.
  • Was exposed to the audience twice and cast enlarge in response.
  • Made Margaret statues from Chade’s memories (“I just looked into his brain”).
  • Cancelled the kitchen contractor.
  • Took 13 psychological damage.

Grandmaster Elusia Skypiercer (Caustic Phoenix).

  • Is renovating the Dread Fortress kitchen with goblin labor. She sent an email memo about it.
  • Had Doug summon the champions and floated Doug replacing the Arbiter.
  • Was embarrassed and prudish about the innuendo and retreated to her throne.
  • Mentioned “Mayor Timmy of that one asteroid we landed on.”

Doug the Pug. He plays in the kitchen pool and summoned the champions by chasing his tail. He rolled the nat 20 chaos roll with his squeaky toy. He is undead and dislikes being called a zombie dog; he got huffy about his looks.

Gerald (Mudcat). He sits in the Box of Chaos with shadow hands and yellow eyes. He accepted the trousers, said the massager would “go well with my collection,” and gave the rope. Later he watched from outside the box and threw them a wooden paddle.

The chinchillas.

  • 203 chinchillas in a drilling plastic ball, each with tiny knives on its back.
  • Unionized, with a cigarette-smoking lead chinchilla in a chariot.
  • Half went on lunch break mid-attack.

The goblins of the Dread Fortress: renovation laborers with a strong Goblin Union.

The Margaret statues. Three, formed from the arena statues. They explode in radiant fire when destroyed, and attack with long swinging stone breasts.

The sausage worms. Five wrinkly, fleshy one-eyed leech-worms. They replace the usual “small grandmas” chaos event.

Places

  • The Dread Fortress kitchen: under renovation, with a pool of water in the middle, a sink overflowing into it, and a load-bearing wall demolished. “A place we’ve seen a person die once or twice.”
  • The arena “smash room”: a ruined lava room with a crumbling brick path 15 ft above the lava, 10-ft statues and skulls the Arbiter placed.
  • The actual Smash Room of the Dread Fortress: tables, paddles, swings, chains and lava.
  • The couple’s world: their hut, the mushroom market, the adventuring school, the gym and spin class.
  • “That one asteroid” with a Mayor Timmy (unexplained).

Items

  • The red velvet rope of climbing (from the Box of Chaos, d100 roll 92).
    • Bind command: “Hocus pocus. Tie this woman up so I can focus!”
    • Release command: “Own it, moan it, release my wife this moment.”
  • The purple tentacle-like massager: two feet long. Activated by “abracadabra alakazam, I need you to tickle these yams.” Used as a dagger to shatter a Margaret.
  • Chade’s pink apron; Chade’s trousers (now Gerald’s); the goblin-face banana hammock.
  • Gerald’s wooden paddle.
  • The 3,000-gp cooking knives; the rocks Kairen collected.
  • The lost purple honeymoon rope.

Lore statements

  • The Arbiter is held in chains after his failed overthrow with resurrected champions (stated by him).
  • The Dread Fortress has unionized goblin labor and chinchillas.
  • The Arbiter can read a champion’s memories to shape constructs.
  • Champions are pulled “through a portal through all time and space.”
  • Elves outlive half-orcs by thousands of years (Chade’s claim).

Full Round-by-Round