The Gauntlet: Halia's Run *Commando Coin Trial*

((Halia has had some success fighting monsters in the past and will definitely give this a try if you've got the time. Talk me through it when you're ready))

(Give her whatever intro you'd like, and then I'll have the announcer start up the Trial)

"WELCOME! WELCOME, CITIZENS OF ENFERIA..." the announced hollered, his magically-amplified voice booming loudly across the stands. "We gather today to witness a series of games: a chance for glory and wealth, to some... but to us, a chance to see our talented arena fighters display their... talents..." he paused, meeting with chuckles from the crowds. "Or to have their talents displayed..!" he continued, booming. The crowd cheered. Portcullises rose.

Halia came walking out of the shady tunnel, a sleepy look on her face. Her hair was pulled tightly back into tails, her slow smile, chipper, and her blue eyes, sparkling. Raising her hand, she waved to the audience and blew a little kiss, yawning halfway through the gestures.

"Well, she looks well-rested..!" Aloysius laughed. "Wakey-wakey, Arcane Trickster. The time has come for the commandoooo cooooooiiiiIIIINN TRIAAAAAALLL!"

With his slowly rising roar, the crowd worked themselves into a fit.

https://enferiaadventures.forumotion.com/t22-halia-arcane-trickster

Waiting for the audience to settle down a bit before continuing, the announcer made some gestures to one of the arena staff who was manning the Gauntlet control platform.

"For those of you who are unaware of how this works, here's a little recap; Our darling contestant Halia must survive against multiple waves of the most perverted creatures that this land has to offer! All she has to do is reach the end with at least a portion of her outfit intact! Easier said than done, considering the ferocity of some of these beasts!"

The man in the control booth pulled several levers, causing numerous stone walls and pillars of various size to rise up out of the arena floor.

"And since she has chosen to tackle this Trial on her own, she need only survive 4 rounds to win!" the announcer bellowed as he lifted up a small crystal ball. "Now let's see just how heavy her opposition will be!"

Tossing the crystal into the air, it released a bright flash of light before floating in place and displaying a number; 3.

"For the first round, Halia must face off against 3 opponents!" he cried with much excitement. "So Halia, how lucky do you feel right now? Are you going to take on your opponents as is? Or would you like a little boost in exchange for an article of clothing~?"

(Halia will be fighting 3 monsters in the first round. However, their value and weakness will not be revealed until after your turn. If you are feeling confident, simply roll a six-sided die once, and that will be added to her three stats for the round. In order to win, the stat that corresponds with the monsters weakness must be higher than the total value of the monsters in the round. If you are unsure of your odds, then you may sacrifice an article of clothing to roll a second time for an added bonus.)

Halia pursed her lips in thought and raised a finger to them dramatically.

"Hmm... kay," she said, decidedly, reaching down to tug off her tall boots. Several heads craned to get a better look at Halia's round, tight little bottom sticking out, almost peeking from beneath her tunic. She stood up and stepped out of the leather footwear, tossing it aside.

"Even someone as good as me could use a little edge," she reasoned out loud. "Gimme the boost!" she chirped, pointing and striking a pose.

"Let's do this, monsters!" she roared. It was more adorable than fierce, but she began to gesture fervently in mock martial arts moves. The truly cunning among the audience noted that Halia was laying out her imperceptibly thin razor wire that she occasionally used as a weapon. Maybe she'd be able to tie up, trip, or outright kill some of these monsters!

((Halia rolls a 3 and a 5 on her dice rolls))

"Hmm... I wonder if this is a tactical choice by Halia to sacrifice an article of clothing in the first round, or maybe she's too frightened by the idea of losing!" the announcer crooned. "Let's see if she made the right choice! Release the beasts!!!"

At his command, a lever was pulled and three concealed cages popped up in different locations throughout the arena. From within each cage came a low growl and the sound of jaws snapping at the bars.

"Looks like Halia will need to keep a tight guard on her panties, because these wedgie-wolves are looking rather feisty today!"

The cage doors swung open, and each released a large wolf that was nearly the size of a small horse. The remains of previous victims panties could be seen caught in between their teeth, giving credence to the nature of their name. Their eyes immediately locked onto Halia, fully intent on tearing her undergarments up her backside. A silent conversation was held between the wolves as they glanced at each other, and they bounded behind the walls for cover in order to circle around and attack.

"Remember; these creatures are easily replaced, so you may use whatever means necessary to defeat them!"

(wedgie-wolves are weak to the Strength stat and have a value of 3 each. In order for Halia to win, her Strength stat plus her rolls must have a value greater than 9.)

((sorry for the wait! work has been awful lately and keeps me quite busy when I want to be doing just this, haha...

Anyways, Halia rolled a 3 and a 5 on her rolls since she sacrificed an article, so do I just give a description here..? her original 3 stats had a 5 strength which would beat a 9...))

Halia watched the cages pop out of the ground with a little shudder each time one appeared.

"Yikes," she murmured quietly as she heard the name "wedgie-wolf". "Good thing I wore my ultra-strong panties today," she said sarcastically as she watched them. She quirked a brow. Strangely, it looked like these perverse dire wolves were communicating with each other, somehow... "Huh," she mused, inane.

"'Whatever means necessary' eh?" the chipper half-elf echoed after Aloysius. "Well, they look kinda cute so I'll try not to hur- AHH!"

Halia shrieked in terror at the speed with which the wolves burst from their cages and hid behind their doors. She hadn't expected that. Blinking, she watched and began to carefully approach the cages. Imperceptible gold threads trailed from her fingers as she waved them in the direction of the vicious-looking lupines.

"Heeeeere wolfy-wolfy-wolfies... I just wanna plaaaay..." she called out in the thinnest attempt at deception, cupping her mouth with both hands and giving a friendly whistle.

"Eep!" she yelped again as, sure enough, the wolves dashed out from behind their doors upon Halia getting within range. Halia promptly turned tail and ran, which the wolves anticipated, having done this before. One kept pace with her, in a full-on run, closing much of the distance in an instant. From in front of her, one of the wolves erupted from its spot behind the door to its cage and snapped at her.

Halia was actually expecting this, and yanked on some of the threads in her left hand. Catching the light just right, the crowd "oohed" and "aahed" at the sight of Halia's signature tool in action -- the wolf that had popped out to head her off was suddenly bound up from snout to tail in dozens of magically-strengthened cords, barely visible to the naked eye. The nimble trickster placed a hand on the nose of the wolf, not breaking stride, to vault over it.

The wolf behind her hadn't lost a step, and in fact, closed the distance. With a vicious snap, its snouth went under her skirt and its teeth clamped down on something. The redhead let out a squeal and kept flying forward, but the wolf pursuing her was now also stuck up in the gold wires that wrapped in impossible angles around the cage and some of the arena fixtures back from whence she came.

Halia landed and kept trotting, glancing around. She rubbed her bottom -- the wedgie-wolf had almost gotten a full grip on her cute little light green underwear. Instead, he'd ripped off a patch of fabric in a circle about the size of two coins side-by-side, and left a sore circle of teeth marks on the half-elf's bum. Since her skirt was still in place, the audience couldn't see it right now, until...

Halia took a bow, flashing off her pantied rear end to chuckles and applause. The circle of missing silk and the nigh-cartoonish bitemark showed, almost proudly, on the viewing sphere above.

((okay, i'll leave it there -- if Halia did in fact win this round based on earlier rolls, then perhaps we can say the third wolf goes to make its attack but also entangles itself in her magical wires? Wanted to check with you before finishing the round... If I misinterpreted how this was supposed to go, please let me know and we can fix it going forward. So far, I see the appeal and this could be quite a lot of fun..!))

(You have it correct. Halia wins the round by quite a safe margin. The choice to sacrifice an article of clothing paid off, as if the original roll was a 3 and her Strength is 5, then her total for the round would have only been 8. Part of the Gauntlet is determining whether the risk is worth it, for in the event that you sacrificed an article of clothing for an extra roll but wound up not needing it, then the character would have wasted her clothes on a round she would have won regardless.)

((nice..! So, what's next..?))

(Finish the round off however you want, and then I'll start up the next round. Halia still has to survive 3 more battles in order to win.)

Halia stood up straight, smoothing her skirt down in the back and rubbing her bum sorely, as she pouted at the angrily snarling and snapping wolves. The two in front of her chafed at their containment in the magical wires she'd spun around them.

"Well, that's that, right?" she chirped, inane, as the audience gasped at the sight of the last wolf sneaking around behind her. At the latest, most dramatic moment, the nimble half elf jumped straight up into the air to avoid the lunge coming from the wolf behind her. The last lupine dove right into another barely-visible net of threads, and Halia landed gracefully nearby. With a tightening of her fist, the cords snapped firmly against her final opponent, rendering it immobile and defeated.

"Now what? Do I have to kill the cute little pooches? I didn't sign up for that..." the spritely redhead pouted.

The announcer gave an exaggerated shrug. "So long as all the monsters are incapacitated, it doesn't really matter how you go about doing so. Though this does save us some time and money in regards to breeding more of them, so for that you have our beast-masters thanks. But I have a feeling that if you were on the losing end of the fight, your inclination towards sparing them would be considerably lessened." he remarked before snapping his fingers.

At the signal, pillars of stone raised up to box in the wolves and lowered them back down to their cages below.

"But enough of this time wasting talk, our audience is eager to see some skin!" he shouted as he threw the crystal orb into the air once more. "Our contestant has done well in clearing the first round, but how will share fare in the second?!"

With a flash of light, the orb revealed the enemy count for the second battle; 6.

"Oh, hoh! Looks like this fight might end up being quite the challenge, as she will be facing the max enemy count next!"

The crowd was whipped into a frenzy at the reveal, almost certain that Halia would be wearing considerably less after the coming fight.

"So little miss, think you have what it takes to combat 6 opponents? Or do you wish to chicken out and buy yourself another buff?"

Halia let out a little huff of exasperation and stomped a foot when she saw the viewing sphere display its number. 6?!

"That's way too many!" she fumed, pouted, and sighed. "How much clothing can we even lose in one round? Fine, fine, just send them at me..!" she declared, folding her arms. "I'm keepin the clothes this round!"

"Well, well~! Looks like someone is feeling rather confidant!" the announcer crooned in amusement. "Now let's see if our challenger can back up her words!"

Instead of cages like the last round, this time six holes opened up in the ground as tall platforms raised up to roughly ten feet high. And sitting at the top of each pillar was an insect hive that was the size of a human child. Each one was buzzing loudly with the activity of its inhabitants.

"What a pleasant surprise! It seems that our apiary is working overtime! We have 6 nests of fabric flies! But don't let their name fool you, they have a closer relation to bees instead of flies. I can't wait to see Halia's clothes gobbled up before she gets quite the stinging!"

Total enemy count: 6

Fabric Fly value: 1

Weakness: Skill

(Your roll plus base Skill must be greater than 6)

(('skill' eh? so this one adds, what, dex to the roll? Whatever it is, Halia rolled a '6' so I imagine she wins out, in this one... awaiting further instructions, though.))

(Skill, Dexterity, whichever you want to call it. But yes, she wins this round. Unless you wish to have her screw up or something, she'll win without suffering any damage to her outfit. But since she won twice in a row, I'll have an extra offer for the next round~. Proceed however you wish now.)

(Hit me with a little description of the flies attacking perhaps, so I can react to something? I have an idea of how they operate but I don’t wanna assume...)

(Think of them like bees that eat fabric. They have a stinger that is initially painful to the victim, but leaves a lingering itching sensation.)