Baruti encounters a harried bureaucrat
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"I see. How long does the Battle Royale typically last?"

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"Approximately thirty days, I believe."

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"What resources tend to be available to contestants during that time, apart from each others' corpses and the soul grafts themselves?"

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The entity checks their notes with a ruffle of pages. "It seems the organizers generally arrange for the arena to contain resources sufficient to ensure everyone's survival until the end of the tournament."

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"How big is the arena, and how many contestants are there?"

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Ruffle ruffle. "Notes indicate that the arena is usually a pocket dimension containing an island, but I don't have anything on the size of the island. I also don't have any precise counts on numbers of contestants, but reports have ranged from 'less than a hundred' to 'a few hundred'."

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"Is it likely that any of the other contestants in the iteration we enter will also have come through here? What other routes send people there?"

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"By far the majority of contestants will have arrived through local routes—worlds within the organizers' sphere of influence such that the souls of the dead are sometimes available to them."

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"Do you have any information about the magic levels of those worlds?"

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"Reports indicate that the majority of contestants are encountering magic for the first time when they receive their soul graft, but beyond that I don't have access to details."

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"Alright..." (Can you think of any further questions?)

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(I cannot. You have done admirably in that regard. Overall, it seems that this expedition will certainly pose some risk, but the risk is acceptable to me in light of the intriguing promise of the Soul Graft. I am very curious how they will approach our situation.)

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(Agreed.) "We'll try this one next," he says firmly. 

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"Very well. Here's your form."

With a ruffle of pages, the entity extends a clipboard through a gap between stacks. It bears a form slightly different from the previous one:

SOUL GRAFT BATTLE ROYALE PATHWAY
  • Warnings: IMMEDIATE RISK OF DEATH, HOSTILE ADMINISTERING ENTITY
  • Destination hazard level HIGH
  • Available power level MEDIUM-HIGH
  • Choice complexity level LOW
[_] [_] I affirm that I have read this information packet and freely choose to proceed through this pathway.

SIGN HERE: __________________ __________________
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He checks the boxes and signs his name in his native glyphs. 

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Cold River prompts him with a mental image of how to write her name on the second line.

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He carefully and precisely scribes out the unfamiliar shapes. 

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Reality dissolves around them once more, and they drift through the disorienting void until—

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—they are, once again, in a room with a desk and a bureaucrat.

The lighting is dim, the furniture foreign. The papers on the desk are neatly stacked in ornate trays. The bureaucrat is cherry-red, with gleaming black horns and glittering black eyes, and regards them over half-moon spectacles with a smugly patronizing air. Soulsight shows him as a dark glassy shell that mostly but not entirely conceals the roiling mass of tangled wisps within; but soulsight also seems to have trouble seeing even that much, as though the soul layer is being obscured by a thick fog.

Something about this place feels wrong, corrosive, sickening, like just being in the room is somehow bad for your health. It's uncomfortable, bordering on painful; and it hits Cold River harder than it hits Baruti.

Also, there's a pervasive sound in the background, just on the edge of hearing, almost like... distant, sourceless screaming?

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WOW DO NOT LIKE

The first thing to do is to try to put up a repulsive barrier against the sickening effect around Cold River. This takes more oomph than it ought because he doesn't know anything about it but he is a Great Mage, he'll cope. 

The second thing to do is to investigate the screaming. 

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The barrier works, but on a strictly temporary basis; it's going to need renewing in ten minutes or so, if they're still here by then.

The screaming appears to be a magically generated environmental effect which is... at least not directly produced by any actual screaming entities, although it might be a recording or relay. Further investigations disappear into the same fog that obscures his soulsight.

"That clown sent us another one, I see," says the bespectacled devil with a slight roll of his eyes. "Or another... two? Intriguing." He leans a little closer. "How did you manage that...?" But he dismisses the question with a wave of his hand as soon as he utters it. "Never mind, we have business to conduct. Welcome," he smiles toothily, "to the Soul Graft Battle Royale."

The background screaming ripples in an effect not unlike a fanfare.

"I'm going to be walking you through your options, but first, the basics. This is a 28-day murderfest where you start out with a magical essence grafted onto your soul that gains power every time you kill. It takes place on a dimensionally isolated island with, generally, a few hundred participants. Before you pick your graft type, you'll get to choose which Grand Prize you're after. You may not choose 'none of the above'." He eyes them for a moment, then says, "One participant, two grafts, I think. Just to make things more interesting. Anyway, at the end of the tournament every Prize goes to the last surviving participant who chose it. If there's more than one of those, it's a wash and we keep the Prize. Questions? Never mind, I don't care."

He reaches into a desk drawer and extracts a scroll with an unnecessary flourish, then unrolls it flat on the desk. On it are eight labeled line drawings, each with a short description:

The Fountain of Youth is a glimmering orb wreathed in leaves and flowers.
When submerged in water, the Fountain begins to convert the water into Life Elixir, a potion with powerful healing and rejuvenating properties. A few drops will revive a corpse to perfect health; a sip or two will restore a mortal to the prime of their life.


The Treasure Chest is an ornate locked box.
An enormous chest filled with gold, jewels, and magical artifacts, lightly enchanted to provoke a gentle greed that encourages strangers to accept its trinkets as payment.


The Gate Key is a gem-studded armband.
A mystic key that opens pathways between worlds, allowing for easy transit. If there isn't already a path to your destination, the Key can make one.


The Codex Arcanus is a heavy tome with metal-reinforced corners.
This dusty old grimoire belonged to a circle of ancient archmages, and the first chapter is a perfect introduction to the basics of wizardry. The rest of the book holds entire lifetimes' worth of arcane secrets and lost knowledge.


The Soul Grafter is a fiendishly complicated nest of tubes and beakers.
This is a copy of the machine we use to apply Soul Grafts to our contestants. It comes with a detailed instruction manual and a small selection of basic essences.


The Island is a small stylized map, probably not meant to depict any specific island.
Winners of this Prize will receive the entire pocket dimension in which the tournament was fought, with full root access to the terrain-shaping and portal-anchoring frameworks we laid on the place.


The Bodyguard Doll is a delicate-looking... statue?... of a beautiful woman. The linework makes her edges look somehow unnervingly sharp.
Absolutely without question the most dangerous Grand Prize of all... to anyone but the victor, that is. Once bonded to you, your Doll will be perfectly loyal, nearly indestructible, and eternally yours. Her combat capabilities are unparalleled; very little besides another Doll could stand in her way.


The Mysterious Vase is a simple round pot sealed with what looks like a broad cork.
Mystery prize! There's something in here, but we're not telling you what. Just know that it's useful, powerful, or interesting on a level with the other prizes.


"Pick one," says the devil.
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"Do we have to go on just the descriptions provided or will you answer clarifying questions about the prizes?"

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He raises his eyebrows. "Try it and see, but be warned, I only have so much patience to go around and you might want to save your questions for later."

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"I only have one question--the fountain, it says it can restore a corpse--are there any limitations on what kind of corpse, age or total biomass or the like."

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Smirk. "Yes."

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