Date: 25th Dar, 798 P.L.
Location: The Unseelie Colosseum, City of Ishtaduk

The end of another fierce summer was marked by The Dar Games; a succession of free-booting gladiatorial matches to be held over a period of four days. The Games were attended by Kin-Yhakkor and General Marduk, cousins of The Sand King and rulers of the City of Yhakkoth. They were not attended by The Sand King, and his absence was notable for the great insult that it delivered to his Royal Cousins.

The Dar Games opened at nightfall, on the 25th. Some two hundred or more gladiators filed onto the sands in The Unseelie Colosseum. The visiting royalty surveyed the prospective combatants and selected two: the untested slave Drusilla and the dwarven freebooter Rikard the Bull. Against them, they selected another giant, The Captain and another dwarf, Hagga the Howler. The four gladiators accepted the match, and the others filed out of the arena.

The match would end only with a cry for “Quarter!” The cry must be given freely, but if a gladiator does not cry for quarter they may be killed. The gladiators must remain within the confines of the arena (or no more than 40 feet above it) but no rules would infringe upon the combat. Any weapons or armor, magical or mundane, would be allowed. Spell-casting and magic item use was also permitted, but no magic could be prepared beforehand. Once the match was decided, the victorious may each select an item (or coinage) from the defeated before the gladiators would all file back into the arena and the process would be repeated and repeated, all night long until the dawn.

Gladiators were responsible for their own healing between matches – those fortunate enough not to be selected for consecutive matches, that is, and they were free to quit at any time. There was great glory and rich ransoms to be won by surviving the first three days. On the final day, under the light of Dar’s full moon all of the surviving gladiators would enter the field together for a grand finale to find Summer’s Champion.

That first combat set the tone for the whole games. The two dwarves and the two giants battered away at each other in a vicious and unrelenting combat. Drusilla and Rikard emerged victorious, but badly blooded. They were each fortunate, not to be selected for a return to the sands on that first day.

There were many others who were less fortunate.

The Dar Games
by Ian Hewitt

Drusilla the Unblooded (Donna Hewitt)
Rikard the Bull (MacGreine)
The Captain (NPC)
Hagga the Howler (NPC)

Game Master (Ian Hewitt)
Played at the virtual tabletop.
Winter 2012