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The Season of the Trials opened with no arena and a black-tie dinner instead. Three guests came to a grand feast at The Dread Fortress: C.A. Bunga, a dapper slice of buttered toast; Richard S. Skelman, a skeleton and dungeon designer; and Iris, a recently dead bride who keeps losing body parts. Before dessert, Thea, the Arbiter’s assistant of about half an hour, was found face down in the gravy. The whodunit that followed involved a striking chinchilla union, a fake truth amulet and a “doctor” from medical school. It ended with a rocket launcher.

The Story

A Feast for a New Era

The Void was freshly returned to order. It had been only weeks since the Arbiter came back from death and the Grandmaster was freed. The Shadow King was gone, but his soul had been torn apart, and the pieces were scattered about the Void, so the danger had not passed. Still, The Acolytes rejoiced, because Elusia Skypiercer sat once again on the throne of the Dread Fortress. To honor her return and “the coming trials ahead,” the greatest feast of all was held before the evening’s Deathmatch. Goblins hung tinsel and lit the last candles on the chandelier. Outside, the volcanoes made everything sweaty and hot, although the stone floor stayed pleasantly cold for anyone walking barefoot.

The first guest down the “bloody carpet” was Cornelius Antonio Bunga, “C.A. Bunga, Cowabunga for short.” He was a hip-high slice of toasted sourdough, buttered on both sides, with blinking syrup eyes, a glorious syrup mustache, a leaf top hat glued on with syrup and an appetizer breadstick for a cane. The Grandmaster asked for a bite of him. “I think not, madam,” he replied, and explained that he was married.

Richard S. Skelman slipped in on Bunga’s buttered crumbs. He introduced himself as the “Dungeon Designer and Keeper of the Year,” from “a long line of Skelmins. The very boniest of them.” He was surprised to be invited at all, because his application to design the next deadliest dungeon had been rejected, delivered by an imp who was “most thorough in the insults.” The Grandmaster explained that his bone budget had been way overblown. “What can I say? I like big bones and I cannot lie,” he said. He had brought a bag of bones for everyone.

Last came Iris, hurrying in so she wouldn’t be late. She wore a torn, mud-stained white gown and had stitches across her face and neck. As she walked, her arm began to fall off, and she stitched it back on without stopping. The Grandmaster asked which corpse she had taken the dress from. “Well, it was mine,” Iris said.

Thea Is Born

A spotlight found the Arbiter on the reception stage, and he announced a new era. “Gone are the days of simple deathmatches where champions come to die for no reason over and over again.” From now on, champions would be built up before everyone watched them kill each other, “but in a different way than before.” To prove it, he would raise up “the lowliest of you” as his new assistant.

Stuart the Gray, a small man in khaki shorts and a blue polo, begged to be picked. He was gray, he explained, “because all the great wizards are gray.” The Arbiter turned him down gently, by his standards: “I’m trying to turn over a new leaf here. I don’t want to be a dick to you, but it’s never going to fucking happen.” He made the lowly worm into an imp instead, and Thea arrived thrilled with her new voice and bigger eyes. She stuck a finger in Bunga’s syrup and spun off in a sugar-rush tornado.

Her first rule as assistant was that she could not eat hot dogs. Thea pointed out that everyone in the Fortress ate hot dogs and asked whether eating one in reverse would count. The Arbiter asked whether she was saying she would sit on the hot dog, then gave in: “If it fits, it sits, I guess.” When Thea promised she would still chew her food, Bunga explained that the muscles down there were “called kegels, I believe.” Then the Arbiter sent her off to serve cocktails.

Cocktail Hour

Thea’s small brain could hold one order at a time. She asked Iris whether she wanted her wine “by the barrel or in a goblin” and came back dragging a goblet bigger than her own torso, filled with red and white mixed together. Skelman ordered gelatinous cube, so Thea brought him a piece of her friend Tim, a gelatinous cube who lived downstairs. As it happened, Skelman had hired Tim for a dungeon last month (“He caught three adventurers in one go”). He poured the green goo into the gaps in his ribs and declared himself full. The Arbiter asked to speak with Tim later, since he was “in need of a new personal goo guy.”

The other guests had their own trouble. Lady Elizabeth Barry Ann Poopshoe was a wealthy Loxodon with her drink taped to one foot. She flirted with Bunga until he named his wife, Lady Tortiliana, whom Elizabeth called “my rival… Trash.” Bunga answered by squeezing his butt cheeks and dropping a puddle of butter oil in front of her, but she stepped over it. A small trench coat named Jercasso tried to take a piece of Bunga home. He batted them with his breadstick, rolled between their legs and kicked them in the tushy. Iris finally drank, and one eyeball dropped into the goblet. It came out stained red, so she dropped the other one in to match. When she tipped the goblet back, wine poured out of holes in her stomach. “It’s a long story,” she said. “I was sad.”

Murder Most Foul

There was a cough, and every candle went out at once. Then came a shriek. When the Arbiter relit the room with a snap, Skelman was the first to see it: Thea lay face down in the gravy at the end of the table, near the hosts’ seats. Thea’s blood shifts color, and that night it ran green, the color of fear, through the mashed potatoes.

A frail figure in a white coat pushed forward announcing, “I’m a doctor.” They plugged a stethoscope into their own arm, then knocked their head against Thea’s. “I hear no thoughts,” they said, and quietly pocketed a thread from the scene as a snack. Skelman named them “Dr. Octor of medical school.” The Arbiter offered a hefty reward for the murderer: “surely one amongst you is the murderer, I’m not judging, we’ve all done it.” The Grandmaster promised a prize of the winner’s choosing. Thea’s corpse muttered seating corrections from the mashed potatoes, so the Arbiter smacked her head back down.

Dinner was served regardless. Skelman noticed that every place setting was laid out with ruler precision except Bunga’s knife. The Arbiter noted that the bloody napkin it had been wiped on was the more suspicious item. The blood on it was green, and the napkin had been folded neatly over the knife. Bunga argued that his syrupy limbs leave sticky residue on everything they touch. He proved it by shooting a finger-gun blast of syrup at Stuart, who hid behind his plate.

The Investigation

After a break, the meal went on, because “you can’t solve a feast on an empty stomach.” The Loxodon was cleared. With no fingers and no tape on her other foot, she couldn’t have used a knife. Skelman suspected an accomplice, but she sniffed that “no one here is worthy to be my accomplice.” Then Skelman felt something licking his magical big toe, which is the source of his voice and his thoughts. He found Jercasso under the table, their coat now swollen to double size. Bunga pinned them with a sticky arm, and the coat burst open. Out spilled stolen food and three chinchillas: Jervia, Kevin and Sora. Sora was exhausted from carrying the other two.

“Scabs! The Chinchilla Union is on strike,” the Arbiter shouted. They wanted pizza. The Grandmaster took their side, and the Arbiter settled on two pizza parties a year in exchange for no more smoke breaks. These were Boston chinchillas.

Next the Arbiter accused everyone. Skelman had a plotting mind and a grudge over his rejection. Bunga was “full of gluten. That’s it, that’s the entire accusation.” Stuart offered the Arbiter a truth amulet and put it on Skelman, whose “I didn’t murder Thea” lit up bright red. Skelman then found “made in China” stamped on the back. Under pressure, Stuart wept and produced the remote button that turned the light on. “I just want to be in the magic department.” The Arbiter knelt and whispered, “I get it, I get it, but it’s never gonna fucking happen.”

Then the doctor was caught nibbling the evidence thread. It was black, and Bunga found that it matched the hodgepodge of stitching on Iris’s arm. With all three guests equally suspect, Thea’s corpse lost patience: “Just use your weird time eyes!” The Arbiter insisted it was called temporal transmogrification, and Thea mentioned that she had trademarked “time eyes” and got paid every time he used the spell. Multicolored chaos lightning flashed in his eyes, and the whole evening ran backward in front of everyone, food coming back up out of mouths and laughter running in reverse, until it reached the murder. The hand holding the knife was Iris’s.

Dessert Is Weapons

Iris’s innocent manner dropped away. “I killed poor little Thea the same way you killed my husband.” The Arbiter, who has stabbed a lot of people, needed a reminder, so she told him about her wedding night and its feast. Then he remembered: the venue had been double-booked with a Deathmatch, and he couldn’t lose the deposit.

The Grandmaster stood. “Let’s go ahead and serve dessert.” Goblins brought out silver platters of rocket launchers, flamethrowers, chainsaws, bee swarms and marbles. Skelman sympathized with Iris, since he doesn’t remember his own murder but still feels strongly about it. “Time eyes this, bitch!” he yelled, and fired a rocket at the Arbiter. The Arbiter stopped it in midair and sent it back. Skelman ducked under the table and left Tim, molded into a skeleton shape, in his place, then remembered the rocket was homing. It found him, and he collapsed “like a cartoon xylophone of bones” until only a skull and his magic toe were left. “Sorry Iris, I did my best! Good luck everyone!”

The Arbiter apologized, more or less. He added that when he found her husband, the man had been stealing from her bank account. Iris refused to back down, and the Grandmaster loved it. Bunga suggested closure, so the Arbiter pulled the husband’s pieces through portals and stitched them together into Tony. Tony coughed up dust and confirmed the theft: “Which time?” He had married into a lot of families for the money. “I murdered the guy,” the Arbiter said. “I didn’t make him a douchebag.”

As the room chanted “Closure!” and the chinchillas pounded the table, Iris lifted the rocket launcher. “I’ve never felt more alive,” she said, and then, “Say goodbye, Tony.” She fired point-blank, and pieces of Tony blasted all over the walls, the guests, the Lady and Thea’s body. The Grandmaster raised Iris up in an ethereal glow: “This is the energy of the Deathmatch, that we may be reborn again and again and find our true selves.” Dr. Octo licked Skelman’s toe and stuck it to a femur. Then Thea crawled up front, “slightly tenderized like a steak,” forgave Iris, proposed a hole tour and perched on her shoulder.

Notable Moments

  • A worm became Thea, was murdered within half an hour, and kept heckling everyone from the gravy.
  • The trench coat Jercasso burst open to reveal three striking chinchillas, who won two pizza parties a year.
  • Stuart’s truth amulet turned out to be a “made in China” toy with a remote button.
  • The Arbiter solved the case by playing the whole night backward with his “time eyes,” which Thea claims to have trademarked.
  • Skelman’s rocket came back as a homing missile and left him as a skull and a big toe.
  • Iris got closure on her con-man husband Tony with a point-blank rocket launcher.

Memorable Quotes

  • The Arbiter: “I’m trying to turn over a new leaf here. I don’t want to be a dick to you, but it’s never going to fucking happen.”
  • Thea: “If I eat it in reverse, does that count?”
  • C.A. Bunga: “I’m a piece of fucking toast. I don’t know anything about eating.”
  • Richard S. Skelman: “Time eyes this, bitch!”
  • The Arbiter: “I murdered the guy. I didn’t make him a douchebag.”
  • Iris: “My eyeballs are falling out, my arm sometimes falls apart. Yes. But I’ve never felt more alive.”

Grandmaster Elusia Skypiercer: “There is no permanent death here, but every time we are reborn, we see new victory in ourselves and in the Void.”

Who and What Appears

Characters

Iris (speaker 00). A dead bride. She wears her own torn wedding gown, has reddish hair and stitches all over, carries a weathered bouquet, and her limbs and eyes come loose.

  • Recently dead. Wine leaks from stab holes in her stomach (“I was sad”).
  • Both eyes are now wine-stained red.
  • She stitches herself with flesh and odd strands, including black thread.
  • She and her husband were stabbed and killed by the Arbiter on their wedding night, at a feast. The venue had been double-booked for a Deathmatch.
  • She murdered Thea with a knife at the banquet to get vengeance, then blew up her resurrected husband Tony with a rocket launcher. “I’ve never felt more alive.” The Grandmaster praised her energy.
  • She says she’s there “to eventually compete.”

Richard S. Skelman (speaker 05). “Richard Skeleton Skelman,” “Dungeon Designer and Keeper of the Year,” from a long line of Skelmans.

  • A skeleton, “one quarter of a guy.” He was resurrected without his clothes. He doesn’t remember his own murder but knows he was murdered.
  • His voice and thought come from his magical bone, his big toe.
  • His dungeon application was rejected for an overblown bone budget, with an insulting imp messenger.
  • He uses Tim and the Poopshoe chutes (“leaky”) in his dungeons, and imports monsters from China. He wants to hire Bunga for a butter trap.
  • He noticed Thea’s body first.
  • Fired a rocket at the Arbiter, which was thrown back as a homing missile. He is reduced to a skull and his toe, which Dr. Octo stuck to a femur.

Cornelius Antonio “C.A.” Bunga (speaker 03). A hip-high slice of buttered sourdough toast.

  • Syrup eyes, syrup mustache and syrup-elemental limbs that leave sticky residue. A leaf top hat and a breadstick cane.

  • Married to Lady Tortiliana, Lady Elizabeth’s rival. They can’t have children.

  • His ex was Pop-Tart (“that jelly was toxic”).

  • Runs a dairy establishment. On a diet (unsalted butter).

  • Caught the chinchillas with his sticky arm. Offered a job by the Arbiter (inferred, 1:37:19–1:37:45).

  • Small brain; gold-star chart; wants a hot dog. Banned from hot dogs except “backwards.”

  • Friends with Tim. Her blood changes color with her mood (fear = green).

  • Murdered face down in gravy, yet kept talking as a “corpse.” Revived at the end and perched on Iris’s shoulder.

  • Claims to have trademarked “time eyes” and to earn money whenever the Arbiter uses the spell.

The Arbiter (Mudcat). Opens the “new era” (build champions up, then watch them kill each other).

  • Created Thea; rejects Stuart twice. Wants a new “goo guy.” Negotiates with the Chinchilla Union.
  • Uses temporal transmogrification (“time eyes”) to replay the night in reverse, with multicolored chaos lightning in his eyes.
  • Killed Iris and her husband at their wedding feast over a double-booked Deathmatch venue. He apologized, saying he’s “working on being a little bit better.”
  • Stopped a rocket in time and resurrected Tony from pieces.

Grandmaster Elusia Skypiercer (Caustic Phoenix). Back on the Dread Fortress throne; hosts the feast.

  • Wanted to bite Bunga. Invites all employees for morale.
  • Promised a negotiable prize for finding the murderer. Served weapons for dessert.
  • Sided with the chinchillas on pizza. Celebrates rebirth through the Deathmatch.

Stuart the Gray (Caustic Phoenix). The Dread Fortress IT guy, in khaki shorts and a blue polo, with over-gelled spiky hair.

  • A fan of the Arbiter. Keeps applying to the magic department (“doesn’t have a magic bone in his body”).
  • Brought a fake truth amulet (“made in China,” remote button).

Lady Elizabeth Barry Ann Poopshoe (Caustic Phoenix). A wealthy Loxodon in a red velvet cloak and jewels, with her drink taped to her foot.

  • Her family runs sewage and waste disposal across the Void (“the Poop Chute… It’s French”).
  • Rival of Lady Tortiliana. Calls everyone trash.

Jercasso (Caustic Phoenix). The trench coat. It was three chinchillas, Jervia, Kevin and Sora, of the Chinchilla Union, on strike for a pizza party. They are “Boston chinchillas” who smoke cigarettes. Sora carried the other two.

Dr. Octo / “Dr. Octor” (Caustic Phoenix). A weak old “doctor” in a white coat from “medical school.”

  • Uses a stethoscope plugged into their arm. Pronounced Thea dead.
  • Ate evidence thread. Licks toes; has sticky saliva. Probably not a real doctor.

Tim (the Wicked). A gelatinous cube living downstairs/in the kitchen.

  • Acidic goo that leaves bones alone, about 1 sp an ounce. “Needs no rest.”
  • Has caught three adventurers at once and has devoured cows. Used as Skelman’s decoy.

Tony. Iris’s husband, killed by the Arbiter. He married into “a lot of families for the money” and stole from Iris. Resurrected by the Arbiter, then rocketed to pieces by Iris.

Lady Tortiliana. Bunga’s wife, mentioned only.

Pop-Tart. Bunga’s ex, mentioned only.

Unnamed: the insulting imp who rejected Skelman; the invited journalist; goblin staff.

Places

  • The Dread Fortress: lava terrain, a hot and humid “sulking mouth” with cold stone floors.
    • The bloody carpet.
    • The reception hall, with a diamond mosaic floor and a stage.
    • The banquet hall, with long tables and a chandelier.
    • The kitchen/downstairs, where Tim lives.
    • The magic department and IT.

Items

  • Stuart’s fake truth amulet and its receiver.
  • The murder knife and the bloody napkin.
  • The black thread.
  • The weapon dessert platters (rocket launchers, etc.).
  • Skelman’s bag of bones.
  • The giant goblet.
  • Thea’s gold-star notepad.

Lore statements

  • The Shadow King is defeated, but his soul was torn asunder and the pieces scattered about the Void.
  • The Arbiter returned from death; the Grandmaster was liberated and retook the throne.
  • New era: champions are to be “built up.” Season 6 is called “season of the trials” by the Grandmaster.
  • “There is no permanent death here.”
  • The Dread Fortress has gone keto; gluten is unpopular.

Full Round-by-Round