The contract complete and signed, the goblin looks it over, then sniffs. It reaches into a jar of snails sitting behind the wooden plank it's using for a desk, pulls out a trowel, and
crunches the snail onto the contract document to seal it.
"You are ready to die... er, I mean, win great glory and riches or whatever. Take the ferry to the ship and give this to the arena master. Scripple here will lead you to her when you get there." He pulls out a kruthik hatchling, out of a bag nearby and ties the document onto its back. A moment later, he produces a small jar of what is, by the scent, ogre sweat, dips a cloth in it and drops the kruthik and the cloth in a small cage.
The ferry departs soon, carrying a laughing pack of gnolls, a small stand-offish unit of heavily-armed eladrin, a few miscellaneous orcs, ogres, goblins, and minotaurs, and several cages of various sizes with heavy canvas tarps draped over them and strange hissings, scrapings, and growlings coming from within.
Before long, the group arrives at the Kolloseaum - it looks even larger when you are moored along side it, staring up at it. A muffled scream cries out from somewhere above and the ship's deck planking shakes with the stamp and roar of the crowd.
The group is instantly lost. The ship is like a small city, but as many as ten decks tall in places. Fortunately, someone remembers the kruthik. As soon as its cage is opened, it high-tails it across the deck and it's all the group can do to keep up with it.
It leads the group under massive creaking wooden bleachers, past a fly-swarmed pile of corpses, around a swarm of goblins painting some sort of elaborate set, and eventually to a warren of passageways that lead to a massive chamber full of goblins and gladiators going in every which direction.
Hovering at the center is a blue-skinned ogre mage surrounded by floating sheets of parchment and a crystal ball hovering beside her. She's constantly shouting orders and somehow managing the chaos going around her. The group has no chance of being noticed until the kruthik leaps off a goblin's head and clomps onto her foot.
She looks at it in irritation, rips the document off of it and begins prying it open with one hand as she blasts the kruthik to a spray of green ichor with a snap of her fingers.
"Rilissa and company?" she shouts, looking up. She makes eye contact with the group and floats your way.
"You guys are about to be up. Head to Arena Four and be ready. You guys are playing the role of the heroes of the Siege of Anakabar. You can, of course, just kill all the goblins, but you lose and..." she glances at the contract
"...will be executed if they manage to take too much of the city. If you live through all three events, you can claim your reward, but you get nothing if you don't complete the entirety of your contract. If you have any last minute changes to make to your contract, this is your last chance. After the first fight you'll have maybe half-an-hour before the next event starts. If you're ready, head to the arena and take your places in the city. Oh, and don't go in the water."
The arena itself is a fairly high quality scale model of a harbor city with a river running through it and a forest nearby, the barely visible flicker of a wall of force denoting the outer edges of the arena. The translucent, shimmering names of each district float in the air above them. By the time the group gets there, there are hundreds already finding seating in the stands and dozens more constantly stream in every second as the match gets ready to get underway.
| GM: | I should have labelled "Challenging" as "Brutal". Easy, Hard, Brutal would be the appropriate difficulties. With that and the no treasure rewards for not completing your contract (I.E. backing out after the first or second fight) that I wasn't clear about, feel free to modify the fight difficulties and/or number of fights.
If you're good to go, let me know where you want to be on the attached map and roll initiative, as well as roleplaying any of your character's responses to the trip. |
|
[sblock=Appease the Crowd]All fights have the following rule:
*As a minor action, a PC may make a skill check to wow the crowd. If they succeed at the check, they gain +2 to their next d20 roll if they beat the DC, plus +2 per 5 by which they beat the DC. If they fail the check, the take a -2 penalty to their next d20 roll, -2 more per 5 by which they miss the DC.
I.E, if the DC is 15, 1-5 would be -6, 6-10 would be -4, 11-14 would be -2, 15-19 would be +2, etc.
All skill DCs will start at 15 and each individual skill's DC goes up by 2 per time the skill is used as the crowd gets more jaded. The DCs go up at the end of the round in which they are used. The DCs do not drop between arena rounds. Any skill can be used, as long as the player can provide relevant character action to back up the roll.[/sblock]
[sblock=Match 1 special rules]*Your character can be placed anywhere inside the city walls to start.
*Enemies will start adjacent to of any map edge.
*If any enemy starts their turn within a district (any of the eight labelled areas with cities) that district is "overrun" for the remainder of the match. If six of the eight districts are "overrun", the group loses and everyone dies (To the Death).
*Crossing the walls takes an extra square of movement if you are crossing between walls within the city or crossing walls to leave the city. Crossing walls to enter the city takes a DC15 Athletics (Climb) check.
*The walls grant cover against attacks made from outside the city to the inside.
*The water is boiling for extra drama. Any creature that enters or starts its turn in the water takes 5 fire damage.
*Creatures can cross the wall segments in the water leading to the Bluffhold by making a DC15 Acrobatics check. Failure means the move action ends and the creature falls into the water. Crossing the gap at L16 requires a DC 10 Athletics (Jump) check.
*City, forest, and river squares are difficult terrain. For any square, its terrain type is whatever the majority of the square contains. When in doubt, ask for clarification.
*Forest squares are light obscurement (grant concealment, 5 squares of them provide total concealment).[/sblock]
