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: HP = 78, PP = 34, EP = 34, Status = FineGlory, honor, and the wealth that came with them were hard things to come by in this day and age. It was a time when the sword was increasingly being phased out in favor of the gun, when the knightly orders of old were being relegated to reliquaries and historians rather than the champions that they had once been, and the chaotic age after the Empire's fall had given way to an organized conglomerate of allied Badarian nations once again looking to expand their borders and resources, albeit this time at the expense of a land across the sea. Even Crolia and Amazonia, long steeped in their honorable martial traditions and resistant to fully adopting the advances from their longtime enemies to the South and West respectively, were adopting more advanced weapons into their militias. Questing heroes and parties of adventurers were once more giving way to organized armies keeping a comfortable peace across the continent of Heloras, and it made for hard times for those with a heart for how things had once been.
That left few options, but not none. Prize fighting was still practiced in some parts of the world, and nowhere was that particular sport more popular than in Acheron. The Demon City, domain of the burning Queen who had forced her ever-violent kindred to adopt civilized mannerisms rather than a crude, maddened, backstabbing-laden facsimile of it. While much of Badaria and Anudor had dismantled their coliseums in recent years, the sport was still practiced there, and grand tourneys were held annually in the summer, promising glory and fame and a boon from the demon queen herself. It was late Spring now, and the cultivated plantlife along the sides of the old Imperial highway leading to Acheron were in full bloom and clouded by a legion of buzzing bees and fluttering butterflies. The cobblestones were well maintained and kept clean these days, further signs of the re-establishment of civilization, despite this being one of the less traveled routes to Acheron being that it came from the Southwest, a generally more sparsely populated region of Badaria where it bordered the Wastes of Anudor.
It wouldn't be as simple as striding into the arena and winning her glory, however. That would, as Leona had been made to understand by a goblin trader with a heavily laden backpack whom she had met going the opposite direction two days prior, do just fine for the normal arena battles, in which she could earn herself no small amount of glory, but to enter the Grand Tourney she would have to earn her way in before it began if she wanted to participate. That meant that Leona would have to either find herself a sponsor, gain entrance by the throne's personal invitation by service to the city or gaining the adoration of the crowd, or come up with the cash to pay her way in somehow.
Regardless, that was a problem for tomorrow. She could not yet see any signs of civilization up ahead, besides the old imperial postage outpost that she had passed a few hours ago; They had bunks, stables, stocks of firewood, and even some simple foodstuffs in storage, but people were expected to clean their own and replace what they used, either in coin dropped into the locked coffer or through work before they continued on their way. It was further telling of how well maintained the roads were that only one of them had had their coffer smashed open so far on her journey along Badaria's highways. It would be a ways yet before she reached Acheron, and Leona was making good time when, up ahead in the road, a single goblin stepped out into the road about thirty feet ahead of her and turned to face the oncoming lioness.
"Oi! Tin can! Uhhhh... Cat, I guess? Where err you goin' to? And where ya comin' from?" The goblin was clad in ill fitting chainmail that clung to her curvy frame, sporting a pot on her head with the handle snapped off and glued to the front to form a noseguard of sorts, a hammer in one hand, and a simple wooden shield in the other. Some messy blue hair was poking out in various places from beneath it, and she was grinning cheekily at Leona while keeping her weapon and shield held loosely at her sides.