The other contestants would not for the most part not even get anywhere near Fey's amount of 7 Peppers consumed, Furitha Tulmai left the table after just a nibble of her first one, while gracefully walking over to the barrel and scooping up a hefty amount of water and calmly drinking it down, though anyone still able to focus would have noticed that there was a slight twitch going under her left eye, clearly she was fighting the need to do something undignified in order to cool off faster, and barely holding on.
"Well everyone it seems Miss Furitha is tossing in the towel on this one, though even in defeat she is as graceful as always, give her a big hand. The crowd actually applauded her surprisingly fiercely as she bowed to the crowd and returned to the seat she had been sitting on prior to round 2, most likely they were aware of just how hot those peppers were.
Peter did better, though that was from an obvious lack of knowledge about the peppers as he had quickly snatched one and downed it, the spasms and gasps for air that followed, together with the obvious fire breath incapacitated him long enough to earn him 4th place as he staggered over to the barrel and dunked his head in id, creating a large cloud of steam, before he too, though this time in a much more dignified manner as he dusted his suit and fixed his tie, walked over to the earlier seats and sat back down, he too to thunderous applause.
Tilly didn't leave her seat until Fey downed her fourth Pepper, the old lady had carefully eaten three herself and had seemed pretty pleased by that, but as both Fey and Rarthus started to nibble their fourth ones she hopped off and returned to her seat without even stopping at the barrel, though Fey she would give Fey a supportive pat on the shoulder as she passed, clearly respecting the young woman more after seeing her keep pace with the fire giant.
Rarthus were burning hotter than ever, he had kept pace with Fey as she downed her fourth pepper, but the fifth had been proving problematic for him, beads of what could only be lava poured down the fire giants skin as sweat would for anyone else as he carefully started to work his way through the pepper, and with a triumphant roar finished it, then he noticed Fey down hers as well in record time, he stretched out his hand after a sixth, his vision blurred, he missed the tray but that didn't matter too much to him, everything was spinning, colors bleeding into one another he was overheating, that much was clear, even to him, but it was difficult to care, even as he leaned back and fell to the ground with a thud that shook the ground ever so slightly, he was unconscious.
The Judges were more than a little surprised as Fey downed 5 even faster than Rarthus did and as she finished her 7th the personnel started to calmly and carefully remove all the remaining peppers as they were clearly starting to have an unexpected and potentially dangerous effect of the girl seeing how many she had already eaten
"By the fire lords embers ladies and gentlemen, seven peppers, seven Yoggoth Peppers and she is still conscious, it seems Rarthus has clocked out on us as well, so give our two remaining contestants a big applause, our 2nd place contestant Rarthus and our winner... Feyline F. Feyling!" The area exploded in applause even as the officials came and carefully gave Rarthus a whiff of some strange plant and offered him a drink that seemed to get him back on his feet in no time, Fey would also find herself gently helped to her feet by the officials and offered a nice and pleasant drink with a slightly spicy after taste that would help Fey clear her mind from the effects of the pepper and given a few moments to rest along with the others.
After a few minutes there were another trolley of items rolled onto the stage
"Ladies and Gentlemen, this concludes this years contest, I do hope you all enjoyed, but what is a contest without prizes? Come now we all know our contestants didn't join just to be the best, they wanted to win the prizes we have on offer!" the MC's joke had the crowd chuckle a bit even as he moved on to the stage next to the trolley
"In 5th Place and winner of this years consolation prize is Miss Furitha Tulmai" There were once again a loud applause even as Furithia gracefully stood and walked up to the stage where she was presented with a small pouch of some kind.
"This years consolation price is 25 ounces of Magma Dust, it glows pretty are always nice and warm and can be mixed with water to create perpetual lights" Furitha gave a slight smile, clearly pretty pleased with her consolation prize.
"Next up, in fourth place is Mr. Peter Thompson!" He walked up to the stage rather stiffly, there where still some small wafts of smoke coming from his ears, though he didn't seem to notice, and seeing as no one else seemed to worry it was probably not dangerous either... probably.
"This years fourth place prize are this small Flame Crystal cluster, nothing fancy pretty light good heat and can power a small house for a thousand years without needing to be replaced" Peter looked at the crystal with a curious expression even as he left the stage and returned to his seat to watch the rest of the prize ceremony.
"Mrs. Tilly Fleetfoot, our 3rd place contestant is up next, give her a big hand everyone!" Tilly received a good amount of applause indeed as she stepped onto stage and got her prize
"Here you are, Mrs. Tilly, a brand new pair of Lava Waders, perfect for those of us that are not lava proof ut still want to collect reagents for potions and spells in volcanic areas, it even comes with a Magma Charm to give you a few seconds to get out of the lava should you somehow submerge yourself even while wearing these" Tilly seemed quite pleased indeed with her prize as she put on the charm and carried the boots back to her seat with a big grin on her face.
"Our Runner-up is Rarthus the Scorched, quite impressive being able to eat that many peppers and not burst into flame quite impressive indeed, you know the drill ladies and gentlemen!" Rarthus didn't look too happy as he stomped up to the stage, clearly grumpy about not winning as she walked up on stage, the officials produced a small covered package and gave a wry grin.
"This years 2nd prize is somewhat special, we originally had half a dozen Fire Boar steaks as the runner up prize, known as a delicacy far and wide, unfortunately when we went to retrieve the steaks, we found all the steaks gone and found our new 2nd place prize in their place" Rarthus looked even more furious than before
"Not only do I lose the contest but your giving me a shoe-horn prize? while I-" he paused as the prize was unveiled and a puppy looked up at him, though no regular puppy, but one that seemed to be made from magma, it sat there tail slowly and uncertainly wagging as it looked up at him with smoldering yellow eyes
"I... I love him" The angry expression melted off of the giants face and was replaced with a surprisingly gentle one as he knelt down and carefully lifted the puppy into his big hands, a single finger carefully going down to scratch it on the head, earning him a happy sound from the little pup and a "D'aaaaw" from the crowd in general as he stomped back to his seat, with the puppy now perched on his shoulder eagerly licking the giants neck and chin, it's tail wagging happily, clearly the giants feelings were mutual.
The MC once more started to talk this time with a bit softer of a voice
"Well that was quite a cute sight and I am happy that the two are getting along, now for our final contestant and winner, who ate an unheard of seven, count them SEVEN Yoggoth Peppers, ladies and gentlemen, give as big an applause as you can for our winner, Ms. Feyline F. Feyling!" Fey's ascent to the main stage would be followed by thunderous applause from the crowd that would drown out the applause the others had gotten even if it was all combined.
"Indeed quite impressive and a showing quite worthy of our first place prize" The MC nodded to the other judges and the carefully pulled out what looked to be a small figurine of a pair of midnight black horses with burning manes and fire flowing from their hooves that were pulling an equally fiery stagecoach with what looked to be a devil behind the reins
"This ladies and gentlemen are the first place price, the Infernal Stagecoach, the owner as well as anyone invited by the owner to sit in the stagecoach can touch and do so quite comfortably, anyone else will get burnt to cinders in moments, it can let you travel long distances in quite a short time, though care should be taken as strong winds or rain will shorten the duration and submerging the thing in water will end the effect immediately, so keep it out of snow and rain unless you want it to end prematurely, the item can be used once a day for 5 hours before needing to recharge and the horses are Fire Manes, so they never tire in their run either, an, miss Feyline, it's all yours" The MC carefully handed the figurine to Fey and as he did she would somehow know exactly how to activate it, as if by magic, and as Fey stepped off the stage she would once again be followed by massive applause, and would also receive a congratulatory nudge from her phoenix friend.
((In order to randomize who won I rolled a D10 for each contestant other than Fey, Furitha's roll came up cocked and I didn't re-roll it because that would make it tempting to fudge the rolls
))
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Shiroir's plan worked pretty well to begin with, as soon as she cranked up the strength of her wings the Hellion paused and set off after her like a fox hound after a fox as it slid fully out of the ground, revealing a more serpentine than worm like appearance, for it's main body, likewise a series of tendrils emerged from behind the dark orbs that appeared to be the creatures eyes and all of them were pointing unerringly at Shiroi, then, it moved, much faster than one would expect something it's size would be able to move it set off after Shiroi, with liquid stone frothing from it's mouth and the occasional fiery tongue spontaneously combusting on the ground around it leaving a trail of molten sand as it went.
It would take some doing for Shiroi to get enough speed and thereby distance to be able to safely enact her plan as the Hellion was on her like a starving wolf on fresh meat, the problem arose as she tried to dodge out of the way to have Firemaw crash into Uldar's shield, she managed to get out of the way, but one of the tendrils managed to get a glancing hit in on one of her wings, whether that would knock her out of the air or not remained to be seen but the hit was solid enough that it would hurt quite a bit, if nothing else than from the heat of the touch itself, as the hellion was smoldering in the heat it gave off that close.
The Impact itself resounded with a dull THUD as the hellion rammed mouth first into the barrier that Uldar had set up, the thing slowly slid down to the ground, making a noise that sounded like a really deep rumble from a smoldering volcano and a giant hounds whimper
"Firemaw, dammit boy ye alright?" Dulgar looked over at his pet with a worried expression, having momentarily forgotten about the fight
"He's fine bro, no broken teeth or anythin' though he's gunna be a wee bit angry nao, ye might give him some room" Uldar had interrupted his own casting to reassure his brother, and true enough, the rune was shining alot less brightly than before, the tremendous impact of the Hellion having knocked most of the power out of it, but Firemaw seemed fine as it slowly rose from where it had hit and shook his head, then made asound that was askin to the hissing of lava that was being agitated, only much deeper and had a menacing rumble accompanying it as it turned back towards Shiroi, whether she was in the air or not, didn't matter to it, it clearly blamed her for what had happened and if the way the air around it was starting to distort was any indication it's anger was making it start to heat up even more than it already was, the only warning that Shiroi would get for what happened next was that the hellion started to glow ever so slightly, then a beam of lava burst from it's mouth accompanied by a high keening sound like metal violently tearing through stone, luckily for Shiroi the beam had been poorly aimed and missed her by a good two feet, though given the crater with lava at the bottom that was left behind by it, it was clear they would have to deal with the Hellion fast, as it was already charging up for a 2nd attempt.
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The only thing in the room that would flat-out trigger Korrie's treasure lust would be a small statue in one of the corners, the statue itself was pretty ordinary, made out of granite by the looks of things, but with a single hand made out of solid gold, that looked like it should have been grasping the statue's forehead, however the hand was surrounded by a force field that even went so far as to separate the hand of the statue from the rest of it, for whatever reason. As Korrie shuffled closer she would find the sign slowly but surely start to warp itself to form English,
"The Hand of Sadim, a marvel of Nano-Magitech, the hand will turn any material it touches into pure gold, the use of as well as the knowledge of how to make it marvelous item was made illegal following the gold market being flooded to the point of rendering gold worthless within a year of it's creation, all copies of the hand has been destroyed, except for this last one, which was last in the ownership of an ancient human king called Midas and so survived the purging of all other existing hands, was later retrieved after his death and is now displayed here, warning the hand is still considered to be under the ownership of Midas since Midas and anyone else touching it will be turned to gold, Do. Not. Touch" As Korrie looked it over Medea would follow along as well
"Do you want to hear more of the hand and it's origins?" she asked politely even as she waited for Korrie to respond.
