Tavern Brawls S06PRE04 – Draft

When the day and time of the draft arrived, Fletch and his two helpers made their way to the community center.  As they passed through the doorway of the nondescript building, their entire vision changed.  The walls appeared to have grown upward and outward, making the room appear to be twice as large as it should have been.  On each wall, glowing frames crackling with energy surrounded life-like portraits of various men and women, each dressed with their own flare and opulence.  Many had small placards in front of them with their name.

Curious, Fletch wandered closer to the nearest frame and the figure within turned and stared at him.  “Are we ready to begin yet?”, the figure asked with a mild annoyance, then looked down at a stack of papers on his desk.  Shocked, Fletch backed away and looked at Cantrip with a question clear on his face.

“I HAVE heard of this kind of spell, but I’ve never tried it before,” she began.  “If I remember right, it just allows people in different locations to talk to each other without spending days on horseback.  But, the components are really expensive and hard to come by.  If they can afford to pay the wizards for this, these patrons are swimming in gold.”

Though a relatively small number of people were actually present in the hall, they all were concentrating on the portraits surrounding them rather than each other.  As such, the 3 newest arrivals kept bumping into each other and the other attendees with many variations of “Sorry” and “Pardon me” heard throughout the room.  Selena bumped rather forcefully into Nudeltulpe, knocking him to the ground.  As she helped him back to his feet, she held onto his hand for a second longer than necessary and beamed her best smile at him as she apologized.  He smiled awkwardly back at her, took his hand back and patted her twice gingerly on her shoulder.  Turning away, the Brawlmaster began to address the room as a whole.

“Good evening, patrons and daredevils!  Welcome to the 6th incarnation of Thandar’s official Tavern Brawl!  First, I want to thank our hosts for this evening.  DblDubz was gracious enough to set-up this conference spell and invite us here and Tuff served as his co-host with the wonderful pre-draft stories you all enjoyed.  Please give them both a round of applause.

There was a smattering of applause for the host, but most of the portraits either continued to shuffle through their papers or looked on in bored disinterest.

“Second, I want to acknowledge the accomplishments from everyone last season…”

As Nudeltulpe expounded on the highlights of the previous Brawl, Fletch discreetly examined some of the portraits.  He recognized many of the names from discussions of past Brawls with some of the veterans.  BirdLaw was here again having led the first team of Brawl champions.  So were DaKatSesMeow, Filtrophobe, and many others.  Some, such as tuff, had made such a recent impact through other events that news of them had even made its way to this somewhat remote village.  Some were here to begin building their teams and some just to see where their sponsored heroes would be making a home for the tournament.  All were here because this was the premier fighting event.  Fletch was here because he knew it was a powder keg waiting for the right person to light a fuse.

As if hearing Fletch’s thoughts, the energy around the portraits began to intensify.  Nearby heads turned as two of the portraited patrons, jigmelingpa and Jay Collins, began arguing with each other.  Most of the spirited conversation was muffled over the din of activity in the room from both local attendees and the various portraits, but the ranger heard snippets of “replacement theory”, “only sponsoring a brawler to foster competition”, and a sharp retort about questionable parentage.  Tiny tendrils of lightning began to shoot out in various directions from the two patrons’ portraits and quickly intensified.  Intent on this phenomenon, Fletch was surprised to hear Nudeltulpe announce, “And there we have it!  Teams of 5!  Daredevil patrons, gather your teams and arrive here within two weeks.  Also, please send word to me of your heroes guild registration and we will…I’m sorry, there appears to be something wrong with the portals!”

Shouts went out from the local attendees as lightning arched across the room from one portrait to another.  Most of those gathered either huddled on the floor or ran to the exit.  Fletch watched in horror as one of the energy bolts reached out and went straight through the chest of Nudeltulpe, lifting him up into the air.  The room grew brighter for one long moment while the Brawlmaster hung frozen above the floor, then plunged into darkness.