Welcome, welcome!  *wipes tear from eye*  I feel so happy!<br/><br/>Alright, back to business.  So we have two teams of two; time for the first match.<br/><br/>Team One Man, Four Women<br/>***Melody Saizuki, Joe Shimokita, and Tomo the Vicki***<br/><br/>VERSUS<br/><br/>Team Why Don't We Get Last Names???<br/>***Shayan, Jude, and Envy***<br/><br/>MATCH START!<br/>Victory condition: A team wins when all members of the opposing team have died, surrendered, or been incapacitated for at least one minute straight.<br/>Special Rules: The Reincarnation Attribute is not available in this battle.<br/><br/>You are standing in a massive, cylindrical chamber with a diameter of about 109.7 meters (length of a football field) and a height of roughly 500 meters.  In a ring halfway between the center of the chamber and the wall stand eight circular pillars which reach from floor to ceiling.  Halfway up, the pillars are connected by a gigantic metal disk which has a diameter of precisely 100 meters (so a sizeable gap between it and the wall).<br/><br/>The walls, pillars, and disk are all made from a strange, twisted metal that seems to bend the light around it into a shimmering purple aura.  The center of the ceiling of the chamber is giving off a bright light, as if the sun were there, which illuminates the upper half of the chamber but leaves most of the lower half in darkness (thanks to the disc).  The lowest 200 meters of the cylinder are filled with clear, pure water (so from the floor to about 50 meters below the disc).  Of course, a large portion of that water is steeped in shadows.  No telling what's down in there.  Maybe the world's largest Anglerfish!  OR maybe not...<br/><br/>Standing on the northern edge of the disk is Jude, holding what appears to be a child's ABC book.  The cover has the title in bright, friendly letters (<em>My First Grimoire</em>), as well as a picture of a friendly, fuzzy-looking purple creature with more eye stalks than it has teeth.  For this epic battle, Jude has chosen to wear a pair of faded blue jeans (recently hand-washed by an Amazoness from the future), a solid-looking pair of black sneakers, white socks, and a new-looking black T-shirt with a picture of an irate purple-haired elf saying, "I am somewhat preoccupied telling the Laws of Physics to shut up and sit down."<br/><br/>He smiled and looked at Shayan.  "So, ready for this?"<br/><br/><em>Roll for <strong>initiative</strong> in your first post.  2d6+base ACV, with the appropriate bonus if you took Lightning Reflexes or Superspeed.  I rolled 3+1=<strong>4</strong>.  Remember that your <strong>base</strong> ACV does not include bonuses from Melee or Ranged Attack Attributes, nor does it include any bonus you might get from something that has to be activated.</em><br/><br/><em>Fiddly little details that you players should know, but your character's don't: there's nothing living in the water under the disk.  The light from above is being produce by a single object with 50 points of armor and 5 HP.  Attacking it is a Normal task (difficulty 12) unless you're in melee range.  Any attack on it suffers a -3 penalty unless you can find a way to accurately aim without looking at the bright light.  Your weapons may also suffer range penalties, but you know them better than I do. :D<br/>If Jude fails, Envy enters the battlefield.  If the battle lasts for more than five minutes, the water will begin to rise at a rate of 1 meter per round.</em>