Dage's Tournament: Legion Tournament

Dage’s Tournament: Legion Tournament — The arena that made Dage whole

Dage opens with the old arena’s warning to abandon hope. An opening caption recalls two heroes entering and only one leaving; Dage remarks that everyone knows who remained. He says he built that arena to find someone who could make him whole, and credits the Hero with accomplishing that and more. His recollection sets the Hero’s earlier service beside the Legion’s new test.

The recollection passes through contrasting arenas. The Hero stands opposite a dark, scales-bearing rider among blue crystals, then a red-armoured rider beneath a fiery portal, and a white archer surrounded by luminous arrows. Stars circle the red rider’s helmet. A skull-armoured rider with green-bladed scythes follows beneath a dark violet portal. The recollection ends with a lone silhouette facing an immense, horned skull-faced figure as Dage credits the Hero’s achievement.

The Hero jokes that they have held a whole soul, two and a half souls, and even Dage’s. Dage acknowledges that they proved themselves and gave him the same opportunity, but asks where that leaves his Legion. He condemns Legionnaires who have become complacent because they expect the Hero to bring every victory. The new tournament is his answer: cull the weak and reward the strongest with power, riches, and a wish he promises to grant without questions. The Hero immediately jokes that questions may still be necessary.

Dage’s Tournament: Legion Tournament — A wager among judges

The Hero welcomes the Legion to the Reap of the Millennia as a judge, not a participant. Friday the 13th and the Blood Moon make strength insufficient: bad luck can ruin even the strongest, so tact and resourcefulness matter. The Hero expects cheating and even commends advance ritual preparations. Dage, his Dark Council, and Aurelio Voltaire complete the judging panel; Voltaire says unfair fights should at least be entertaining.

Voltaire proposes a wager. Dage chooses Death, Voltaire favors the blue rider Famine, and Rand chooses War on behalf of the Council. Lachesis starts asking about a fifth rider, but Rand quietly stops her. With the others chosen, the Hero settles on Conquest and later admits there was little real choice. Dage orders preparations through sparring, poisoning, bribes, and alliances; the true arena will be revealed when the bell tolls.

Voltaire will also act as master of ceremonies. He warns that the renovated colosseum is only a staging place: the tournament’s actual venue will be much warmer. He practices before the first bell and treats the unlucky date and Blood Moon as part of the occasion.

Dage’s Tournament: Legion Tournament — Vaughn’s price

After the wager, the Hero notices Vaughn perched high on the wall, watching. He introduces himself as General Edward Vaughn, warden of the Phlegethon’s dungeons, and assumes the Hero wants help winning the bet. His offer of a tour is reciprocal: the Hero can learn about Conquest while protecting Vaughn from Legionnaires who resent him. The Hero accepts the bodyguard role as part of the day’s amusement.

Vaughn expects Death and War to dominate; weaker entrants will need help and should not pretend to play fair. He has no use for gold and prices his services in pride. He also interprets Dage’s opening speech as unusually Hero-centered: the Hero restored Dage, strengthened his Council, and gave the Legion a taste of divinity. He admits most Legionnaires do not know exactly what happened in Atlas, making this his interpretation of the Hero’s earlier influence.

Dage’s Tournament: Legion Tournament — Teeth, tendons, and a cruel childhood

Dog Nights of Summer requires eighty Wolf Fangs from the arena’s Blood-Moon-agitated wolves. Achilles Tendon follows with six Gladiator Tendons: the Legion gladiators are attacking Vaughn so furiously that they ignore the Hero. Vaughn stresses that severing the tendons disqualifies these undead competitors rather than killing them. Disciplinary Action then requires five Wolf Heads and ten Gladiator Heads; Vaughn swaps the heads between the bodies, a practice he says he also uses on Phlegethon prisoners when his wardens want new dogs.

His recollections explain how familiar such cruelty is to him. As a child, he pulled the teeth from dogs that bit him; his father redirected that pastime toward imprisoned peasants. He also remembers trapping Faeries in jars, shaking them until they stopped moving, and displaying them like pinned butterflies. His younger brothers were sickened by the decorations, and he wonders whether Henry kept them.

Dage’s Tournament: Legion Tournament — The retired generals’ pupils

Rogath asks why Calamitus has forfeited. Calamitus says fighting would tempt Slaine away from the judging duty Dage imposed after three weeks and thirty bodies of resistance. He needles Lachesis for hiding, and Rogath defends her knowledge and devotion despite listing her weaknesses. Calamitus splutters that an eel has manifested in his throat and observes that their pupils have a wild streak; the exchange does not explicitly name who caused it.

Rogath is staying with the Styx Legionnaires to protect Lachesis from contestants seeking favors. He says she will flee pressure rather than yield to it. On a previous occasion, they had to persuade Maleagant to drain his river to retrieve her. The retired generals’ decisions keep them outside the competition while protecting their successors’ duties.

Dage’s Tournament: Legion Tournament — Lachesis questions the wager

Maleagant brings up the title “Alchemist of the Soul,” the likely flood of bribes, and War’s request for help tuning his soul toward a Dark Retu—before Lachesis cuts in to ask to go home. Maleagant refuses because of their orders. The unfinished phrase remains unfinished; it does not establish that he granted War a transformation.

Lachesis dislikes how the wager assigned its favorites. Dage’s choice placed a target on Death, the Council blurted its answer without discussion, and the Hero was left with Conquest. She suspects intentional maneuvering, while Maleagant says she is reading too much into it. She also resents being exposed to so much attention when he knows she would rather avoid it. He offers to stand outside and keep the petitioners away.

Dage’s Tournament: Legion Tournament — Rand catches the curse

The Fun Police requires twelve Willbreaker’s Gyves and a conversation with Rand. Vaughn tells the Hero to present their activities as a tour, while his Willbreakers hunt for bribes. Rand has caught Famine covering the floors and walls with ritual sigils to curse rivals. His objection is not cheating itself but a senior Horseman doing it so clumsily that he is caught, which Rand says means immediate disqualification and disgrace.

Rand expects Famine to bargain his way out. He jokes about accepting bribes to end his misery, then says there is no escape from the Legion. He describes the others as nearly impossible to buy: Slaine would require defeat in combat, Lachesis must be kept from crying, and Maleagant’s children would need permission to invite him to birthday parties. Rand offers to arrange Death and War against one another so Conquest survives longer, but the Hero would rather reserve his repayment of past favors for something more important.

Dage’s Tournament: Legion Tournament — Famine bargains downward

Despair-ity requires 250 Ritualist’s Barley Seeds and a conversation with Famine. Vaughn’s interest is to exploit the Horseman’s humiliation. He says he never went hungry in his wealthy mortal household and recalls the justification that nobles deserved the available food more than others. Famine, meanwhile, admits he has been caught despite threatening what he could do to the living world.

Famine resents Death, War, and even Conquest being mistaken for gods while he is left in the stables. He used the unlucky date and Blood Moon to seek an advantage, blaming delays in the ritual on mages taking too long to sacrifice orphans. He refuses to inconvenience the Hero directly because a Troll acquaintance in the living world is their friend, and he values that connection. He admires her intellect and fears her wooden spoon; the passage leaves her unnamed.

Faced with Vaughn’s dungeons, Famine offers gold and souls, but neither interests the General. The bargaining breaks off as Famine protests that his tail has been pulled and calls for Dage. Bad Charms subsequently says Vaughn and Famine have reached an understanding without explaining its terms. The Hero removes six Ritual Sigils that threaten Conquest’s chances. Vaughn caps the errand with jokes about unlucky horseshoes and a freshly severed rabbit’s foot.

Dage’s Tournament: Legion Tournament — War wants a dangerous rival

Self-Appointed Heel requires 120 Deathwing Feathers and a conversation with War. Vaughn says the birds have a reason for gathering. War explains that they appear when a powerful Legionnaire nears defeat: Slaine attacked him after discovering he had stolen Conquest’s bow. War says Slaine tore his arms off, and he has just finished sewing them back on.

War regards an inevitable final against Death as tedious. He stole Conquest’s weapons and sent an assassin to provoke a stronger response, expecting the Hero’s involvement to motivate the Pale Rider. He treats that final as certain. Vaughn’s quest ending reports Slaine recovering the bow, then jokes that the opening cutscene consumed the week’s budget before claiming momentary possession.

Dage’s Tournament: Legion Tournament — Slaine’s restraint has limits

Simple Delights requires speaking to Slaine and retrieving Conquest’s bow. Slaine confirms that he intervened because losing the Hero’s chosen competitor would have made judging intolerable. Vaughn’s earlier suggestion that he might instead be distracted biting Legionnaires was speculation. Slaine offers to compete for anyone strong enough to beat him, but says the challengers broke like toothpicks.

Slaine links Dage’s ban on Council members competing to the impression their participation would give, stressing that a General’s role involves more than force. Slaine names charisma and knowledge, and remembers Rand being made to study economics because nobody else wanted the finances. In the encounter with Vaughn, Slaine swings while the smaller General dodges; the Hero catches Slaine’s wrist before an accidental backhand.

Vaughn observes that War could have destroyed the bow but instead preserved it at the expense of his own body. He finds this combination of violence and simple happiness amusing. The recovered weapon gives the Hero a way to reverse War’s sabotage, without yet revealing why Conquest keeps silent.

Dage’s Tournament: Legion Tournament — An attempted defeat before the first bout

Vultures of a Feather requires six Death’s Pulses and twelve of Famine’s Gold as Deathwings and Ritualists crowd Conquest. Vaughn interprets Dage’s lack of intervention as amusement at the Hero’s growing investment. At the next main step, All’s Fair, Conquest is trapped on the eastern side of the colosseum while War’s Forge attacks him disarmed. The Hero must defeat one WarForge while Vaughn attends to separate business. Vaughn’s parting joke is that tugging a Horseman’s tail makes them jump.

The following conversation finds the Hero confronting what they call an assassination attempt. They remark that War stole Conquest’s bow and nearly eliminated him before the tournament began. Conquest answers with silence. The Hero apologizes for sounding disappointed when forced to choose him, insists they still think he is impressive, and starts to withdraw from the awkward exchange.

Dage’s Tournament: Legion Tournament — Letters instead of speech

Conquest offers another way to communicate. The Hero realizes he is tracing letters and asks him to slow down. His explanation says he took a vow of silence when he inherited his steed from the previous Conquest. The Hero had assumed he had always been a centaur. Conquest instead says the ancient steeds choose their riders and that Dage tamed them, fusing them with successive Legionnaires over the centuries.

Conquest calls himself the youngest Conquest and newest Horseman. His fuller account says riders replaced predecessors who died, dismounted, or were forcibly put down, while the steeds predate the Legion. He says Dage discovered them under the Archfiend’s tutelage. Conquest describes successive riders inheriting far older steeds.

Dage’s Tournament: Legion Tournament — A silence worth a wish

When the Hero asks why only he took a vow, Conquest offers its explanation as payment for help winning. The Hero accepts and becomes invested. In the later conversation, he writes on the Hero’s palm through an unreadable mask, sometimes making mistakes or moving too fast. Only his predecessor knew the reason for his vow, he says, and she kept it from Dage until she came to rest peacefully in the River Lethe.

Conquest has a wish he believes Dage would otherwise refuse, perhaps angrily. He offers no restriction on sabotage, bribery, or forbidden rituals so long as the plan is their own, promising to carry out the Hero’s strategy. Winning would allow him to satisfy the Hero’s curiosity and become free himself. The desired wish and the reason for the vow remain unrevealed at this stage.

Dage’s Tournament: Legion Tournament — The door to boiling blood

Vaughn returns after securing a bribe and teases the Hero for accepting Conquest’s. He proposes an alliance as the true arena is revealed through a door to his territory: the Dungeons Drowned in Boiling Blood. The Hero listens. Vaughn’s later pitch identifies the Phlegethon as his home and promises to bring their favorites to the final—Conquest for the Hero, and an interrupted, unnamed choice for himself.

Rand directs the Hero back to the judging seat beside Dage and warns that the venue will traumatize Legionnaires. Famine asks whether it is too late to retreat to the dungeons, then offers almost anything to escape the awful pact he has just made. Slaine, smelling boiling blood, warns that Vaughn is a disloyal sadist; a spike pit under the judges’ seats is his suspicion, not a discovered trap. He suggests forcing Vaughn into the arena to test a rumor about destroying his head.

Dage’s Tournament: Legion Tournament — The absent fifth rider

War says Pestilence forfeited as soon as the tournament was announced, escaping another chance for him to demand a duel. He expects the fifth rider to be near Death and describes a short figure who keeps their hands covered, recognizable even when dismounted. The identity of the absent rider remains unstated.

After Conquest’s weapons are returned, War remains frustrated by his cold, methodical arrows and deliberately restrained passion. He wants to fight Conquest at full strength and hopes the Hero can make him lower his hood. That wish for a worthy opponent gives War’s earlier sabotage a motive, without making it harmless or proving the Hero will get the outcome he wants.

Dage’s Tournament: Legion Tournament — The Third Sign

The main tour consists of ten quests that can each be completed only once. The two Third Sign reward quests are separate repeatable variants afterward, with the Legend variant restricted to members. Each requires one WarForge Ember, six Deathwing Ulnas, and twelve Ritualist’s Incense; they are not extra compulsory stages of the tour.

The optional quest text describes Ritualists sacrificing Deathwings by burning them inside another WarForge as though it were a brazier. Vaughn suspects continued interference with Conquest and wonders how many forbidden rituals Famine is running at once. The account extends the preparation and bribery around the tournament; it does not supply the tournament’s result or complete the alliance’s later consequences.