The Opulent One

Opening

Picking up from the hot summer day on the first day of summer sales, the group meets up again after work. The mall is packed, and it's extremely hot.

Skab mentions the mall has a break room, Kate and Moki respond in shock at this revelation. They had no idea the mall even had a general break room. Skab mentions it's pretty unknown and nobody ever really uses it but him.

On the way to the room, Moki spies a tall woman with gold hair and what seem to be two bodyguards. She takes note of this and enters the break room.

The party relaxes in the break room and Skab gives Kate and Moki a bottle of water to cool down. They spend some time in the break room and feel the familiar sense of another anomaly.

The Anomaly

The group gets ready and steps out, only to find themselves in the middle of a desert bazaar.

The group wanders around searching for the source of the anomaly. In the bazaar, the party finds a stall selling special crit sandwiches. Skab buys 3 for the group, and they all eat them.

As they walk, Kate and Moki get a strange feeling as if they're being watched.

Kate innocently asks Moki to help with her makeup as a way of looking behind them through the mirror. Kate doesn't notice, but Moki sees a cloaked figure following them. In the next moment, it's gone.

They pull into an alley to try and evade the figure, and it doesn't follow them in. Instead, a man comes in, named Frost. He seems to call Skab out saying he wants to talk, though he seemed aggressive with the whole party.

The cloaked figure returns, hostile to everyone in the alley. Frost and the party work together to fight it. Eventually it sheds its robe, revealing a warforged, which the group manage to wittle down. Kate and Moki take special care not to attack Frost during this exchange.

After the fight, Frost tells the party to not get in the way, and leaves. The group leaves the corridor and returns to investigating the area. Seeing a colosseum and a temple with a line out front where the theatre area was.

They explore the colosseum and learn about a tournament that's taking place. The winner would gain an audience with The Opulent One. They also meet a man named Gil who's from the Gilgamesh family. The party attempts to try and join in with him for the tournament, but he refuses. Gil shows the party attitude and boasts about how he'll be the one to win at the colosseum and visit the Opulent One.

The group is left to wonder who the Opulent One is, and leaves to explore the area more. They decide to explore the temple. While they don't get in, they see a massive line out front with people carrying items of value and especially shiny items. The party also sees many people getting turned away at the gates as their item is not "good enough"

Ray

As they watch, they notice a man who's fishing in a nearby body of water. He seems to pull out a jewel encrusted fish which he seems excited about, and places into a case. The group makes their way to him and asks him about it. He introduces himself as Ray, and tells us that he's going to get into the temple with the fish.

Kate manages to get the party on his good side by feigning interest, but also getting into the fact that she didn't get a chance to bond with her father. This seemed to strike a chord in Ray, and he offered to take Kate and Moki fishing after Moki exclaimed she also didn't get to go fishing. He also gave Kate a bobber of his own.

Ray tells Kate and Moki that he cannot give them his fish and wishes them luck.

The Colosseum

The party returns to the colosseum and registers to fight.

Their first opponents are another party. Just before they're set to go out, they notice that Skab seems out of it, scared. Moki questions it but doesn't get an answer. She doesn't take this well. She keeps an eye on him the entire fight. She worries and wants to try and get in a position to help him if he needs it.

They complete the round and head back to the prep area to recover. Moki was about to give the party a motivational speech, but noticed Skab was missing. Kate borrowed Sebasios' eyes to look for him, finding him chatting with the gold haired lady Moki saw earlier, only for Sebasios to almost immediately be taken out of the sky before he could fully listen into the conversation.

When Skab comes back, Kate and Moki are upset he was holding information from them and Moki threatens him that she'll find out one way or another.

The group then headed out to face a T. rex, and after a long fight with Moki being grappled in the dinosaur's maw, successfully take it down and win the second round. They return to the holding area once more.

Seeing how much Skab's secrecy was affecting Kate and Moki, he tells them about a past event at a trial for Adventures & Ventures, where if he won, he'd be considered and adventurer. Unfortunately, his party had fallen to Beholders, and he was on death's door himself. Seeing something similar had reminded him of the past events, and he was afraid something like that would happen again, but to Kate and Moki. He also told them what his conversation was about -- Mrs. Bravo was offering Skab another try at the trial he faced long ago. He refused.

Moki apologized for how she treated Skab, and she gives the team a motivational speech about Rocking and Stoning. They then head out to face their final opponents, a pair of undead beholders, which the group thankfully makes quick work of, and claim victory.

The group heads back to the temple to visit the Opulent One. They approach the gates and are judged Kate and Moki are allowed in, while Skab is denied. Gil attempts to enter and too, is denied.

Skab tells Kate and Moki to go in, and that he'd find a way to join them. They enter the main chamber a large skylight casts light on a giant crab creature, making its shell shine.

Skab and Gil break their way in as a fight ensues outside. The Opulent One is upset, and fights the party.

As they fight, Skab saves Moki's life by pushing her out of the way before the Opulent One crushed him under its claw, killing him.

Before he dies, a small fire seems to light on him, and spiritually, he's taken to the top of a mountain, where he converses with a monk. There is another, taller peak in the distance. The Monk asks him if he would like to reach the top of the other mountain. Skab responds saying that he would, but he questioned the point if he was going to do it alone. The monk smiled at him, telling him it was a good answer, and Skab was able to return to the material plane as a monk.

While Skab is away in spirit, Moki loses it and goes into a frenzy seeing Skab lay lifeless on the ground. She burns spells to break through the Opulent One's legendary resistances, and finishes off by laying a curse on it.

Kate finishes it off with a blow from her sword.

Once finished, the anomaly ends, and the mall returns to normal. Summer sales still continue but the heat is more bearable this time.