The Pit
It might be called The Pit but you see no pit of any kind here. From what you can tell this might have once been a warehouse floor or cellar, now long abandoned and built on top on. An area of about forty by forty feet has been cordoned off by crates and assembled furniture, a small layer of sand covers the floor. Right now two men, their upper bodies naked, stevedores if the tattoos are anything to go by, are wailing on each other, their hands wrapped with cloth. One lands a solid blow on the other and a tooth flies across the room. The loser falls backward to the floor, followed by a trail of blood and saliva. The loser’s unconscious body is dragged away as the winner walks around, throwing his bloodied hands up in the air, accepting the adoration of the crowd.
Speaking of the crowd, there are more people than you expected, though it’s hard to estimate how many exactly. The fight fans are assembled around three sides of the arena and while a large part are the dockworkers, unskilled laborers and down on their luck adventurers you expected, there are also quite a few people you figure for shopkeepers, clerks, and the like. To one side is an area kept somewhat apart from the rest of the crowd by serious looking bodyguards. It’s filled with what you assume to be rich merchants and members of the nobility.
There is a lot of betting going on, servers are selling drinks which are brought in from a side room and some enterprising individual even has engaged some lads and lasses to bring in food from nearby eateries. As you walk inside you see two new combatants emerging from rooms of to the side. The crowd roars as the next fight begins. The throng of bodies, the many torches and the low ceiling, plus the inescapable, humid air all mix together to form a hot, clammy atmosphere; welcome to The Pit.
Sumac comes over: “Good to see you kid, the real fights are starting in thirty minutes or so. Over there are the fighter rooms if you want to change or work on your weapons or something. Do you have a hype man/woman/person? Any special introductions you want for the fight? I gotta go, find Dosrick, he’ll take care of you.” He walks over to a man dressed in fineries who just entered; “well met lord Idaerun, how are you on this fair eve? I hope everything is to your satisfaction.”
Trainer Dosrick explains there will be other fights and some time between rounds, he also offers to supply certain 'boosters'; “they can’t be detected”. Speaking of; a redheaded woman in a slim purple outfit checks all combatants for magic spells before each fight. She wears a necklace from which dangle 4 holy symbols.
The fights
Gnash
“He hails from the Wood of Sharp Teeth and his favorite food is human babies. He once impaled two men with one thrust and has killed numerous. Will you be next? Do you dare face off against Gnash?!”
Hunched and feral, this furred, hyena-headed humanoid stands slightly taller than the average human. It wears an ill-fitting studded leather armor and wields a spear in a two handed stance.
Teresa wild shapes into a bear, twice, but, alas, it is not enough to beat the fierce gnoll.
After the fight Sumac is seen taking an envelope from a few of the rich people.
Yonigu the Bugbear
“Here’s your first clue, she’s slain more than a few. Her fame grew with every bout she went through. This fight will be the one you’ll rue, if only you knew. Maybe it’s better you withdrew, if your life you do value. She likes stew, fondue and ragout. Don’t ever call her a shrew or she’ll paste you into goo. Who? Yonigu!”
This ugly creature resembles a twisted shadow puppet’s silhouette, a wild thing of flared black and brown fur whose pelt juts out from its body at freakish angles. The crouching shadow’s ears are large and floppy, draping shoulder-length, adding to the creature’s unnatural shape. Its eyes are too big for its head. Tremendous milk-white ovals loom on either side of the thing’s wheezy pig-like nose. Its panting mouth is filled with bristly needle-teeth spiderwebbed in disgusting strands of yellowish saliva, all vibrating to the tune of its wheezing breath. It wears ring armor that has seen better days, swings a morningstar around with a lazy grace in one hand and carries a shield in the other.
Tiny doesn't have too much trouble with the bugbear to the surprise of a large part of the crowd where a small fight breaks out.
Bruthwol & Murghol
“The management would like to point out that after numerous talks we still have not been able to convince them that they are not one entity and at this moment we do not wish to belabor the point. Here are Bruthwol & Murghol.”
From out of the doorway step two bald, long-bearded dwarfs with dull gray skin, low arching brows, and eyes that seem to absorb rather than reflect the light. They both wear simple black shifts and neither carries any weapons.
This fight is definitely more difficult, mostly due to the brother's stunning Tiny at some point but at the end the half-orc impales Bruthwol on his spear, killing him instantly, to the utter anguish of his brother. Tiny has made an enemy for life. An Ankheg in a cage rolled in to promote the next event.
A cute girl in a servant’s outfit comes up to Tiny and hands him a handkerchief almost dripping with perfume and points at her mistress in the crowd. She looks to be a merchant or noble, or the wife of one; she’s dressed in fineries, wearing opulent jewelry and looks to be in her fifties. She waves at Tiny and blows him a kiss.
Sumac approaches: “You did good kid, real good. Now listen, I need you to lose this last fight but make it look good, ok? If you wanna see the boss that's what you gotta do.”
Az-Laar
“It’s who you’ve been waiting for all night; so let’s not waste any more time. He has a habit of making heads roll so bring on your one, your only, Az-Laar!”
This creature’s python-thick apish arms and stumpy legs conspire to drag its dirty knuckles through the grimy sand. The stooped giant blinks its dim eyes and an excess of soupy drool spills over its bulbous lips. Its misshapen features resemble a man’s face rendered in watercolor, then distorted by a careless splash. It snarls as it charges, a sound the offspring of bear and man might make, showing flat black teeth well suited for grinding bones to paste. The hide armor it wears looks like it has never been removed since the first time it was donned and the greatclub it carries looks very large and heavy.
While Tiny truly wants to lose and make it look good, things don't always go as planned. Tonight is a perfect illustration of that; maybe it's the pillars of fire that shoot out of the ground under the feet of the combatants, maybe it's Tiny zigging when he should have zagged. In either case, at the end the stooped giant lies defeated on the bloody sand and his trainer comes running out.
Sumac is more than a little unhappy and sends Tiny away, saying he will contact him about how Tiny can make up for this egregious mistake.