The Arena
Lady Yyssiriryl speaks,
“Let us go to the arena.”
The members of House Millithor travel through the streets of Mantol Derith back to the huge garish facility, Laral’s of Skullport. Matron Ki’Willis and Lady Yyssiriryl ride floating Discs at the head of a stately procession.
Once in Laral’s, Yyssiriryl leads you past a few taverns to the massive arena area.
Rows of seats surround a rocky floor in the middle. A large iron cage takes up almost the entirety of the arena floor (about forty feet long by thirty feet wide by twenty feet high). A single locked gate allows entrance into the cage. A pair of orcs with great axes are facing off against a drunken Duergar warrior in spiked full plate and a bottle in each hand.
There are four raised platforms at opposite ends of the arena. Three are curtained luxury boxes, the fourth has several goblins and an Ogre taking bets on the fight.
The audience is a varied group of creatures. Over one hundred humanoids are in attendance. Roughly half are duergar, the rest goblins, orcs, bugbears, even an Illithid. Also in the audience is Django and the other two shield dwarves who were with him the other night.
The duergar is alternating swinging the bottles as weapons and taking swigs from the bottles. The Orcs seemingly have all the advantages, but even when they strike the dwarf with their axes, his armor absorbs their blows.
Yyssiriryl leads the members of House Menzoberanzan up to one of the vacant luxury boxes. Lady Yyssiriryl, Matron Ki’Willis, Narcelia, and Carcelen get the best seats and have an excellent view of the fight in progress. Two male drow take up guard positions at the entrance to the luxury box. The male members of house Millithor get the other seats in the luxury box. Matron Ki’Willis and Krecil Treak lock gazes, Krecil’s fingers flash quickly, and he ducks out of the luxury box and goes into the stands below.
Looking around the arena, the other two luxury boxes are occupied. Several rich looking duergar are seated in the luxury box directly across from your own. In the luxury box to the right, a large half-orc with red hair and gray skin is yelling enthusiastic encouragement to the orcs and the drunken duergar in the arena. Beside him, sits a pale human. A female drow on a leash is kneeling next to Laral.
Lady Yyssiriryl whispers to Matron Ki’Willis, “Laral is the one yelling encouragement. Those Orcs are a couple of his minions, although judging by his yells, he’d probably be just as happy if the drunken dwarf wins. The human next to him is Saarduel, a mysterious spellcaster and Laral’s enforcer. The female is Jena, a battle captive from Ched Nasad … I sold her to Laral for quite a sum last year.”
The dwarf in the arena sprays alcohol in the eyes of the larger of the two orcs and slams him with a spiked elbow to the neck. The orc slumps to the ground with a gusher of blood spurting out of his neck. The duergar in the audience yell approval, as does Laral. Most of the goblinoids and orcs are silent.
Lady Yyssiriryl explains, “The rules of the arena are simple. There are no rules.”
She adds a wicked smile, “People outside the cage sometimes intervene in a fight in progress, but the gamblers tend to take a dim view of that. So unless you are ready to start a large brawl, I’d advice against interfering.”
The remaining orc aims a powerful blow with his axe at the dwarf’s neck, but the dwarf stumbles and falls out of the way of the blow, rolls over, trips the orc, they fall into a tangle. The dwarf gets up, the Orc does not.
The dwarf raises a bottle in each hand, and yells, “Krag wins!” The duergar in the audience yell and shout and money changes hands as the winners go up to the gambling table to collect their winnings. A hobgoblin unlocks the gate. A couple more hobgoblins enter the arena to drag out the bodies of the two slain orcs.
Lady Yyssiriryl continues her explanation, “The rules for starting a fight are very simple. Simply challenge an opponent. If they accept, you both enter the arena and start fighting. If you don’t want to go through the challenge process, you can simply enter the arena by yourself and challenge anyone to enter the arena.”
As she finishes her explanation, the duergar Krag yells out, “With dwarven whiskey, I can defeat any foe. I challenge anyone!” Two fresh bottles are passed through the cage bars to him.
Lady Yyssiriryl smiles and says, “I think we came at a most opportune time.”
She stands and yells out, “Trygon accepts Karg’s challenge!”
A hush falls over the arena. There is a massive sound of gears and metal and a large grate in the ground below your luxury box opens up and a huge War Troll climbs out and walks into the arena. Several of the humanoids in the crowd yell out Trygon while some of the duergar yell out Karg, but many of the duergar are dumbfounded by the huge size of the Troll.
Trygon is obviously a Troll, but he is nearly a foot taller than any of the war trolls that were owned by house Millithor. Furthermore, his skin is a dark black with red streaks. He wears a huge breastplate and has the look of intelligence in his eyes, but his only weapons are his fangs and his claws.
The bookies announce that they are paying ten to one if Karg should win, or eleven to ten if Trygon wins. A few of the duergar bet on Karg, but most of the gamblers are betting on Trygon. The odds quickly change to twenty to one on Karg, or twenty one to twenty on Trygon.
Trygon walks toward Karg in the arena.
Taking her seat, Lady Yyssiriryl remarks, “Isn’t Trygon magnificent? The most powerful warrior in Mantol Derith, without any doubt. Not even Laral will challenge him.”
Karg throws both of his bottles at Trygon, but the bottles break and bounce off his skin. The whiskey appears to sizzle and evaporate on Trygon’s skin, almost as if his skin was hot.
Trygon reaches a massive claw down, grabs the dwarf by the neck and lifts Karg up. Karg struggles, plunging his armored spikes into Trygon’s hand and arm, but is unable to free himself. Within seconds, Trygon rips Karg’s plate armor off his body as if it were paper and shreds the dwarf’s flesh and begins to eat.
The minimal wounds that Trygon took from Karg’s spikes were healed in a blink of an eye.
The gamblers begin to collect their winnings.
After slaying his opponent, Trygon yells out to the crowd, “Ultrin Sargtlin!” He repeats the phrase, Supreme Warrior in drow, several times. When nobody makes any move to challenge him, Trygon picks up his dwarven meal and heads back towards his cage.
Lady Yyssiriryl comments with a wicked smile, "Reftael used to love watching arena fights. I wonder if he still feels the same way."
