The Situation
A mysterious stadium has appeared not far from where the characters are currently adventuring. However, it appears that the battles fought there do not involve life-or-death combat, but conflict of a culinary kind! The mysterious �Chairman� (as he styles himself) explains that he has built the Kitchen Stadium so that he may sample the finest cooking from around the world. He has chosen the characters to participate in a �Kitchen Battle� against another opponent, the victor to gain a valuable prize.
The �challengers� (as the PC party is referred to) must choose from three opponents: a chef native to the Chairman�s homeland but completely unknown to them; someone who is known to them, but an; or a rival.
The Chairman then reveals the theme ingredient native to the region, which all the courses prepared by the participants must contain. It is expected that the participants must produce at least three courses; the more courses the better, but the quality of each dish is also a factor. Local celebrities, who will explain what they did or didn�t like about each dish, will judge the meal as a whole. The ingredient may be something exotic, such as walktapus or newtling tail, or something ubiquitous and seemingly impossible to make a special course from.
The winner will receive an item of enormous or exotic power in a fairly narrow ability. If it falls into the hands of an enemy, obviously the players or the ones they hold dear are at great risk. If the rivals win, the players will suffer humiliation (or at least a lot of irritation). If the unknowns win, then anything could happen.
Possibilities
1). The Chairmain is from Vormain, seeking worthy allies in his war against local enemies. A cooking competition is a ritualized test performed to judge the true mettle of a hero. Only the challenger, his enemies, or his rival can win; if the unknown enemy is chosen, he will put up a superlative fight, but will be judged slightly less worthy than the challenger. Of course, he must salvage his honor by committing seppuku (ritual suicide). If the winner is the player, he and his hero band are whisked away to exotic adventures in Vormain, where they might load up on Vormaini magic items and gain exotic allies. If the players' rivals or their enemies are whisked away to Vormain, the players may have a field day taking advantage of their foes' absence, until they return with exotic Vormaini magic items and/or allies.
2). The Chairman is an Iron Mostali. He is the leader of an obscure heretical mostali sect (the details of which are left up to the Narrator), and this is the culmination of an orthodoxy trial. If the players win, they will be rewarded with the services of a crack squad of Dwarven Grenadiers, who will obey (literally) any command for a short but useful time. If their rivals or their enemies win, they receive the sevices of the Dwarven Grenadiers, woe to the players (though the possibility exists that the rivals or enemies will find that the literal-minded Grenadiers are more of a burden than a boon, and will have to appeal to the players for help). If the participant from the Chairman�s homeland wins, the Chairman and his entourage vanishes, leaving behind the Kitchen Stadium and a lot of valuable iron equipment for a short time (until various Mostali agents of apprisal take to arrive and dismantle the stadium, as determined by the Narrator).
3). The Chairman is an avatar or agent of the local cooking god or goddess, and a great famine is about to happen. The winning faction will receive a special magic set of iron cookery which can sustain their entire clan in a state of great prosperity, or their entire homeland in hunger but not starvation if they so choose. If the rivals get the iron cookery set, the PC�s clan may starve if the rivals cannot be convinced to share their abundance; if the enemies win, the players� clan will certainly starve without intervention from the players (such as stealing the cookery on a daring raid). If the alien participants win, perhaps the situation is so dire that the players must join together with their rivals or even their enemies to enable their homeland to survive.
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