By now, I’m starting to fall in love with Jadie Rivers, and I hope you are too! \u00a0Aaron did an excellent job of crafting this wonderful new hero for Tellest, and I hope that’s he’s given plenty of opportunities to return to her in the future.<\/p>\n
But I digress. \u00a0I’m jumping the gun a little bit. \u00a0We still have her current adventure to complete. \u00a0After a failed attempt to sneak into the gnoll gladiator’s room, Jadie realized that there was only one place to properly attack her foe: the coliseum.<\/p>\n
Read on to experience the penultimate part of Jadie’s inaugural adventure!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A Most Unusual Patriot \u201cAnd now, a warrior who needs no introduction!\u201d roared the announcer.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s won his last seven matches and is considered to be one of the strongest rookies we\u2019ve had in months!\u00a0 I present to you\u2014Hwarl, of Warus!\u201d<\/p>\n Peeking out from her archway, Jadie watched as Hwarl strode onto the arena floor.\u00a0 Despite the general apprehension Atalathans felt towards gnolls, the crowd seemed to love him.\u00a0 The cheering and clapping was deafening as Hwarl twirled a long halberd in front of him and flexed.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd challenging him, a newcomer from Viscosa!\u00a0 Please, give a big welcome to\u2014Lady Thorn of Raleigh!\u201d<\/p>\n Jadie smiled.\u00a0 Lady Thorn might not be the most inventive name for someone with her powers, but she liked it.\u00a0 Maybe, she thought, she might find a need to keep this secret identity longer.\u00a0 Having a persona that fought in duels could certainly be a useful cover in particular situations…<\/p>\n The crowd\u2019s cheering ushered her out into the sunlight, and Jadie took a moment to absorb the scene around her.\u00a0 She stood on a field of sand.\u00a0 Around her were marble walls, carved in intricate detail at what had to be exorbitant expense, and above them sat thousands of cheering and clapping people.\u00a0 Tourists and locals, commoners and merchants, soldiers, mercenaries, and even some nobles were packed into the stands.\u00a0 A great crowd, she thought, for what she hoped would be a great victory.\u00a0 Jadie gripped the dagger shoved haphazardly into her belt and strode towards Hwarl.<\/p>\n She had already, she thought, set everything in place.\u00a0 She had forged the paperwork declaring herself to be \u2018Lady Thorn,\u2019 inexperienced-but-skilled warrior from Viscosa, and had filed it with the Coliseum.\u00a0 She had broken into the Coliseum offices and reordered the matches to make sure she would be dueling Hwarl.\u00a0 She had come up with her costume.\u00a0 And, of course, she had bet all the money she\u2019d stolen at the party on herself.\u00a0 If she lost the duel, it wouldn\u2019t matter, and if she won, she\u2019d get a nice windfall.\u00a0 Since it\u2019s money I\u2019m sort of earning and not stealing, I wonder if the guild will let me keep my winnings?\u00a0 <\/em>She chuckled.\u00a0 I hope so.<\/em><\/p>\n Hwarl laughed at her as she approached him.\u00a0 \u201cWhat are you wearing?\u201d he barked.\u00a0 \u201cThis isn\u2019t the theatre, girl.\u00a0 Maybe you should run along home.\u201d<\/p>\n Jadie made a show of looking over herself.\u00a0 She was dressed in bright greens and dark browns, looking more like a jester than a trained warrior, and wore a mask over most of her face so he wouldn\u2019t recognize her.\u00a0 Flowers, bright daisies and chrysanthemums, were woven into the shoulders and arms of her shirt, and vines were wrapped around her wrists.\u00a0 She knew she looked ridiculous, but she squared her shoulders and called, \u201cRun home?\u00a0 I\u2019m a trained graduate of the Dueling Academy of Viscosa.\u00a0 When I\u2019m done with you, you\u2019ll be running all the way back to Warus!\u201d<\/p>\n The crowd roared its approval, but Hwarl\u2019s smirk just grew, and when she saw it, Jadie smiled behind her mask as well.\u00a0 There were many fine venues for learning the art of combat in Viscosa; the Dueling Academy was not one of them.\u00a0 A school for the children of merchants and nobles, it taught how to \u2018duel\u2019 with style and panache.\u00a0 The students learned flashy moves to show off at balls and parties, they felt like they were becoming mighty warriors, and since nobody would ever be so foolish as to attack the heir of a feudal lord in a dark alley, they would never know how useless their sword-dancing was in a real fight.\u00a0 But Jadie knew\u2014and so did gladiators like Hwarl.\u00a0 He\u2019d never take a graduate of that school seriously, and that was just what she wanted.<\/p>\n A cannon blast started the match.\u00a0 Hwarl swung his halberd at Jadie in a few lazy arcs, forcing her back as she parried with her dagger, and his blade clanged off of hers with no real weight behind it.\u00a0 He was testing her, Jadie thought, or maybe just toying with her for the benefit of his fans.\u00a0 She let him swing a few more times, then ducked under a blow and dashed up close to him.\u00a0 When she reached him, she slashed at his arm.<\/p>\n He shifted to one side and kicked her legs out from under her before the blow connected, sending her sprawling in the sand.\u00a0 She managed to roll out of the way before he struck his halberd down where her neck had been a moment ago.\u00a0 She climbed to her feet and managed to get her blade up in time to deflect another swing, but she found herself forced back again, overpowered by his superior strength.\u00a0 Hwarl trotted after her, probing at her defenses with his halberd, a wicked gleam in his eye.<\/p>\n Jadie dodged and retreated halfway across the coliseum floor before attacking again.\u00a0 She deflected his blade, using all her strength to push it up, and then ran at him.\u00a0 This time, she didn\u2019t strike at him directly, but grabbed at his arms as if trying to grapple.\u00a0 The vines wrapped around her wrist began to writhe as she mentally prodded them, but before they could do anything, he swung his halberd around and struck her with its shaft.\u00a0 She stumbled, and by the time she recovered, he had twisted the blade straight up and was stabbing it down at her.<\/p>\n Jadie instead jumped towards Hwarl, allowing him to push her down so she fell directly in front of him and inside the range of his halberd.\u00a0 She leapt to her feet faster than he seemed to be expecting and grabbed at his hands again.\u00a0 At the same time, she called to the vines around her wrists, Grab his halberd!\u00a0 Come on, let\u2019s do it!<\/em><\/p>\n The vines twisted and writhed, seeming to relish a chance to release some of their energy.\u00a0 Hwarl shifted his halberd to one hand and curled the other into a fist to attack the enemy four inches from his face.\u00a0 Jadie made a show of grabbing at him as the vines snapped at the weapon, and suddenly his blade was flying clear across the Coliseum.<\/p>\n She grinned to herself, and then Hwarl decked her.<\/p>\n Jadie\u2019s vision flashed red for a moment, and she felt her dagger slipping out of her hands.\u00a0 She managed to stay conscious, however\u2014she had learned how to take hits as part of her training\u2014and instead grabbed at his arms.\u00a0 He pulled out of her grasp, then moved in close\u2014like she wanted\u2014and seized her around the neck with one large hand.<\/p>\n Spray him!\u00a0 <\/em>she urged her flowers, but seconds ticked by and nothing happened.\u00a0 There was an inertia in them; she had picked the flowers hours ago and they had already started to fade.\u00a0 She cursed in her mind as she gave it everything she had.\u00a0 Come on!<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cVictory number eight!\u201d Hwarl roared to the crowd as he began choking Jadie.\u00a0 Even though she strained, she couldn\u2019t break away from his grasp.\u00a0 He grinned and hefted her into the air by her neck.\u00a0 \u201cJust like I said!\u201d<\/p>\n Jadie continued pushing at the flowers.\u00a0 She could feel them sluggishly moving and starting to open, but her vision was starting to turn red again.\u00a0 She struggled, fixing wonderful images in her head\u2014of saving the nation, of returning to Westwick a hero, of the pile of gold she stood to win in the match\u2014and used them to motivate her as she forced all her magical power into the flowers on her shoulders.<\/p>\n The chrysanthemums opened all the way and sprayed Hwarl with pollen.<\/p>\n He began coughing immediately, and his grip slackened enough for Jadie to wriggle out.\u00a0 She grabbed her other knife, the one hidden in a fold of her clothes, and moved in close to the hacking gnoll.\u00a0 Before he could do anything, she stepped behind him and slit his throat.<\/p>\n Just like she was trained.<\/p>\n As Hwarl collapsed, she realized what had happened.\u00a0 She had won.\u00a0 She, a member of the Thieves Guild for about two weeks, had taken on a trained gladiator and defeated him in combat.<\/p>\n She was amazing<\/em>.<\/p>\n Jadie raised her dagger up to the crowd and joined in their cheers.\u00a0 This is the best mission ever<\/em>, she told herself.\u00a0 And once I loot his room and get proof of this conspiracy?\u00a0 It\u2019ll be even better.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By now, I’m starting to fall in love with Jadie Rivers, and I hope you are too! \u00a0Aaron did an excellent job of crafting this wonderful new hero for Tellest, and I hope that’s he’s given plenty of opportunities to return to her in the future. But I digress. \u00a0I’m jumping the gun a little […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[349,145,146],"tags":[836,273,837,853,149],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Tellest_WebHeader-x2-e1427024822542.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1UVey-zK","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2216"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2217,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216\/revisions\/2217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n-Part Three-<\/strong><\/p>\n