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The first enemy to enter the arena:

Squamous the Marrowsucker

HP 1

STR 12

DEX 13

MND 13

Element: Flesh

No Quirk

Possessions: 1 free

Money: 6 silver

Pickaxe (d4) (rolled)

Meat cleaver (d6) (Vagabond's Weapon)

20ft Rope (Tools)

Fodder: Butcher's Apprentice

HP 6

STR 7

DEX 5

MND 10

Meat Cleaver (d6 Vagabond's Weapon)

A magical field covers a large square arena, outside, on tiered seats, are baying plebes and grotesque high wizards, pointing and laughing at the slaughter about to unfold below.

All combatants will be randomly placed somewhere in this arena, then take turns according to DEX score.

Dark grey - impassable wall.

Tan - the fine sand of the arena floor.

Dark red - mystery boxes!

Brown - doors, blocks line of sight.

Light grey - chest high walls and similar cover.

Light green - grass.

Dark green - foliage.

Another challenger:

Goode Boye

HP 3

STR 10

DEX 10

MND 12

Element: Steel

Possessions: None

In Red, the Butcher and his Apprentice appear on the map. Kill the Butcher and gain his powers!

In Green, Greensleeves appears on the map.

In Light Blue, Boye appears on the map, his displacement beacon shattering an impassable wall into a handy Chest High Wall!

The turn order is as follows;

DEX 13 Squamous

DEX 10 Goode Boye

DEX 8 Greensleeves Gregor

DEX 7 Good Boy the Magus Hound

DEX 5 Squamous' Apprentice

—

Squamous sucks the marrow from a bone secreted in his apron's pouch and flourishes it at the air, shouting "Flesh!". His MND is reduced by 1. The spell is Stable.

The marrow bone sprouts veins, nerves, fat, flesh and skin, restoring it to an edible state.

Squamous is disappointed, but rips into it, exposing the jagged end of the bone.

Boye walks over to the chest and hits it open with the lead bar.

Gregor crushes the green gecko in the large empty mug and drinks its blood to absorb the green.

Gregor moves over to the chest and opens it.

A note on item usage; it's up to you what you do with them, be creative.

Boye gives the chest a solid whack, checking for mimics. It fails to animate and is thusly opened, revealing… A crutch. Perhaps it will come in useful if the Butcher eats your leg?

After a delicious gecko smoothie Gregor sprints for a chest and flings it open, finding…. A box of multi-coloured chalk. Maybe if you survive to become a wizard you can draw runes with it?

Good Boy stays lounging on top of the shattered wall.

The Butcher's Apprentice runs toward a goodie box, but is too slow to make it.

Squamous ambles over to an opening and spots Gregor, yelling "Butcher!". He loses 1 MND, Gregor does a MND save and fails (has 11, rolled 17).

Gregor can use force of will to negate the spells effects, but it will cost 5 of his MND points (you can regenerate one per turn if concentrating, but this fails if interrupted).

Boye leaves the crutch propped up against the wall because it would be bothersome to carry such a thing. He meanders over to the next room and peers in.

Boye looks through the rocky room and out into the courtyard, he can just about see the Apprentice running for a goodie box and can hear the Butcher and Gregor fighting.

Gregor's head is full of visions of meat being processed, but manages to stop the spell by expending 4 mind points (7/11). He draws his clunky junk pistol - six shots, better make them count. Luck roll (d6) - 1. The pistol fires wide, lead bullet thudding into the sand.

The Apprentice clambers over the low all and makes it to the mystery box, finding… A chunk of amber. Maybe it will be useful to his master.

Startled by the gunshot, the Butcher squeals "Wall!" and loses 1 MND while running backwards. A low wall smeared with blood appears in the doorway.

With more time Gregor takes the chalk set, putting the green ones into the mug to grind up and eat/drink absorbing more green.

Gregor moves to hop over the wall to be in the same room as Squamous.

The Boye and his Dog walk through the ruin, spotting no traps. They won't be here unless someone makes them during the arena fight; where would the fun be in letting a machine do the gruesome disemboweling?

Gregor crushes the green chalk into dust and huffs it from the jar. With a shout of "VERDANT ETERNAL, SHINY AND GREEN!" and chalk powder around his mouth he jumps into the same room as the Butcher.

Who… Waves a finger at him and says "Barbecue!" while retreating further.

Wizards really don't like being in danger.

The spell is stable, Gregor (12 vs 7) fails to resist it. He can forcefully dispel it by using 4 MND points, but then can only tank one more spell before succumbing to some form of temporary insanity.

Gregor dispels the "barbecue" using mind and moves out to the courtyard, he shoots at the apprentice for defiling the green.

Boye and Dog take the best covered position and lay in wait.

Gregor pulls his gat from his cargo shorts and tactical rolls to the low wall, popping up and letting a shot off at the odious apprentice, only fifteen feet away. (Luck roll: 6) (damage roll: 3+3) (0hp)

The bullet spangs noisly over the back of the apprentice's head, who turns around slowly with an accusing look on his face and walks forward, blood, scalp and bits of skull dripping behind him. He sluggishly swings his cleaver at Gregor (DEX save 8/18, fail) and scrapes some skin and fat off with 4hp damage. Any more and Gregor will be really feeling it, right in the STR stat.

Squamous peeks around the corner of the building and becomes enraged at the sight, casting "Beefy!" at the apprentice and losing a MND point. (luck roll: 4).

Before your very eyes, the apprentice's musculature grows slightly, as if six months of high-test meat diet and iron pumping is compressed into six seconds. He gains 3 STR.

Gregor noticing that the tide has turned against him and that the green will not be his runs away and hides behind a door; once behind the door Gregor slips on his wig to disguise himself as well as using the chalk to further his disguise, unfortunately he doesn't have enough of the brown chalk so he makes do with other chalks.

Good Boye gently tips the green gecko out onto the low wall, where it retreats to a safe distance before settling down to sun itself. Boye throws the jar, but his target is over 30 feet away and the jar isn't a very aerodynamic projectile - it smashes onto the ground near the empty goody box, which has locked itself again.

Greensleeves Gregor flees the embulkened apprentice and makes it past the doorway, where he applies a quick disguise. Unfortunately a disguise is not likely to be useful in a deathmatch, but may distract your opponents momentarily.

Boye's Dog walks back into the room behind him.

The Apprentice is fixated on Gregor, angry at his wound and lumbers forward as far as he can go. He shouts through the doorway, "I'll butcher you!!!".

Squamous walks downwards, spots Goode Boye and shouts "Mincer!", causing an obvious trap to appear on the field nearby. It doesn't look very pleasant to walk into.

Seeing that the jar landed far short of his target, Boye grabs the green gecko and makes a sharpish turn to hurry back inside. Dog stays where he is.

Gregor steps to the side waiting for the Apprentice to come into the room getting ready to tell him that Gregor ran off somewhere else. Incase his this fails to trick the Apprentice Gregor holds the pistol behind his back ready to shoot.

Note on the health system: HP is somewhat like stamina, lucky escapes, etc. Once that's gone, you take locational and stat damage. At 0 STR, you die. At least it's quick to make a new character.

Boye heads inside after attempting to recapture the gecko (15, req below 10) and Dog holds position.

Gregor attempts to bluff…

The Apprentice slams open the door and sees (MND roll 9, req below 10) his enemy in war paint. He screeches and swings his cleaver…

Gregor (DEX roll 20, req 8) attempts to bring his pistol to bear and shoot the Apprentice, but ends up shooting himself in the foot for 4 STR damage.

Then the cleaver hits for 3 STR damage with a sickening, meaty thud in Gregor's left arm.

The Butcher ambles toward Boye. He roars "Slicer!" at the opening, creating another dangerous-looking trap on the ground. (stable, -1 MND)

Gregor grinds the chalk up into a fine dust and blows it into the eyes of the Apprentice and then runs off as far as he can.