11th Rithmere Games

The 11th Rithmere Games was the final Rithmere Games to be held during the Shadow Lord's reign over Deltora, before the Games were changed.

Prelude
Doom had suspected for some time that the Shadow Lord was influencing the Rithmere Games in some way, so he decided to enter as a fighter in order to investigate. He brought along Dain, who disguised himself as a worker at the Champion Inn.

Meanwhile, Lief, Barda, and Jasmine had lost all their money to Queen Bee, and decided to enter the Games in the hopes of at least winning the one hundred gold coins for finalists.

Preliminary rounds
During the Games Opening Ceremony, the competitors pledged to fight to their best. Afterwards, they were each paired up and fought until a winner was declared. After a minutes break, the winner would fight another contestant. In the end, the eight remaining finalists were Lief, Jasmine, Barda, Joanna, Orwen, Glock, Neridah and Doom.

Quarter finals
The next day, the finalists each chose a card with a number, to be matched with another competitor's to fight. The arena was divided into four rings so that each of the battles could take place simultaneously. Lief was paired with Neridah, Doom with Barda, Glock with Joanna, and Jasmine with Orwen.

When the match began, Barda and Doom locked arms with one another in a battle that pitted Barda's size and strength against Doom's iron will. Neridah used deception to play to Lief's good nature and made him lower his guard before attacking him relentlessly. Lief was eventually able to knock her down, but hesitated, which allowed Neridah to knock him out. Doom pointed out Lief's loss to Barda, causing him to momentarily break his concentration. Doom used the opening to overpower Barda and knock him out.

Meanwhile, Jasmine had been dodging around Orwen's attempts to grab her, but was unable to land any successful attacks of her own. Before Orwen could beat her, however, he noticed Glock strangling Joanna in their ring. Orwen raced over to save her and was punched unconscious by Glock, disqualifying himself and giving the match to Jasmine.

Semi-finals
Before the semi-final match, Doom, Neridah, Jasmine, and Glock were offered mugs of Queen Bee Cider by Dain. On Doom's orders, Jasmine and Neridah's mugs had been spiked so he would fight Glock. Jasmine declined the cider, however, prompting Glock to drink her mug and taunt her about facing him next. Both he and Neridah passed out and Jasmine accused Doom of wanting to fight her due to her apparent weakness. Due to half the fighters being unable to compete, Doom and Jasmine were moved straight into the final match.

Finals
Much to the crowd's booing, the match began with Jasmine and Doom taunting each other. Doom began to lunge at Jasmine, but she easily dodged his attacks. This kept up for most of the match until Jasmine, gloating and enjoying the rush of energy, realised she had been slowly pushed closer to the edge of the arena. As Doom closed in on her, Jasmine jumped up on top of the outer wall surrounding the arena. Jasmine leaped onto his shoulders, jumping off and pushing with her legs, causing Doom to crash into the wall as Jasmine landed on the sand, ready to run. But Doom lay unmoving beside her. As the crowd shouted her name, Jasmine realised she had won and was presented with a gold medal and a bag of one thousand gold coins.

Aftermath
Lief, Barda, and Jasmine were captured by Grey Guards and carted off towards the Shadowlands, as is the true reason for the Games. Glock and Neridah were later captured as well, but Doom escaped, having already suspected the Games to be corrupt. He and Dain rescued the others and offered them the chance to join the Resistance. Glock and Neridah agreed, but the companions declined and continued their quest. This allowed the Shadow Lord to eventually be overthrown and the games abolished.