Forgotten Realms Fan Fiction ❯ The Cat and the Spider ❯ First Blood ( Chapter 4 )

THE CAT AND THE SPIDER

 

 

Disclaimer: I own nothing except Shan Mao.

 

Notes: We're finally entering the meat of the subject. Shan Mao is going to enter a bloody world where life is cheap and where the dagger that end it is worth more.

 

 

Chap 4: First Blood.

 

 

The interior of the Haedistika reminded Shan Mao of a Hard Rock concert hall, especially if you are near the crowd AND the speakers.

 

Unfortunately, that only took care of the sounds and the heat. The smell was another thing. It was a blend of sweat, blood and various waste products that seized at the throat and sent your heartbeat into the high by the mere implications of WHAT could have produced that particular mixture.

 

It was a circular arena, carved into the ground, with bleachers around it. Curiously, the arena was rather well illuminated by four giant brass braziers.

 

In the immediate vicinity of the arena were numerous cages of woods, metals and stones. Various forms could be distinguished inside, some humanoid, others not. Some were silent, others were screaming for blood or release. None were asking for mercy.

 

She immediately understood why SHE was here, but too late. Kicking and screaming, she was thrown into one of the cages by some smirking and laughing Drow whose work was to manage the “Pit Fighters”.

 

The Haedistika was the place in the `Shrieking Hive' ward where those without any other means were gambling their lives in some bloody fight to the death in the hope they caught the eye of some in power.

 

Of course, that was only for the Drow. Even outcast, half-breed or simply unlucky mercenary, a Drow was a Drow and was superior to all. Unfortunately, most of the time, the Haedistika would only procure to the Drow what it was built for: A spectacle of blood and violence to ease the angst of their dark souls at the detriment of mere cannon fodder and easy-to-replace mercenaries.

 

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Shan Mao was again on the verge of breakdown. The albino Chinese girl was huddled in a corner of her cage and was trying desperately to retain her sanity.

 

`By the Yama Kings! What did I do to deserve such Fate?!' Shan couldn't lose control like the last time. This time, her life was dependant on her self-control and…on her luck: A very high dose of luck.

 

Control depended greatly on awareness of self and of the outside, so, with great wariness, Shan turned her attention outside the cage.

 

The crowd was beginning to heat up in the waiting of the…spectacle. The `tavern wenches' were circulating with food and drink. They were goblins, green-skinned little creatures of four feet at best with sullen but clearly evil eyes and long noses and cruel teeth. The Drow were considered them like furniture with the occasional kick and… She gasped as one of the Drow carelessly cut off the head of one of the goblins without batting an eye. He seemed more annoyed by the fact he had to clean his blade from the blood than by killing the creature.

 

Already, a misshapen black-skinned humanoid creature with a lot of scars was speaking from the arena in a garbled, but still musical language and `it' was also gesturing a lot. Shan nodded at herself: The Drow language seemed to be composed of two different languages. One was verbal and almost too beautiful to be from such a dark race. The other was a silent gestured language and apparently as efficient as a verbal one.

 

She frowned and blinked. She didn't understand either, but she was almost sure that the creature was `presenting' the program of tonight and was also rousing the crowd into a screaming and enthusiast mass. No doubt that gold was flowing out their pockets as the tension was climbing more and more.

 

She blinked again and was bewildered to recognize the `creature' as a horribly disfigured and heavily scarred adult male Drow. She really didn't want to speculate about what happened to give him such an aspect.

 

She focused on the arena: There was a part that was reserved for the powerful with individual seats and even some private booths carved in the cave wall where the building was raised. The rest of the plebe was using plain bleachers. In fact, many of them were using punches, kicks and the occasional thrust of a dagger to gain a better place and a better view on the centre.

 

The centre of the arena was a twenty metres diameter circular patch of clean sand. Shan was intrigued by that. The Haedistika was hardly a clean place, so why having such a clean patch of sand?

 

Her eyes widened in sudden understanding: To better see the blood as it was spilled inside the arena. She passed her tongue on her dry lips. Her master and overseer had made her fast before they hauled her here and it was a good thing: Fighting with a full stomach would have made her sick in such an environment. She blinked at the way her thoughts were turning. Was she already resigned to her fate in the arena?

 

She turned her attention on the cages around her and raised an eyebrow: There was a distinction in them. Most of the cages on one side were full of beasts and monsters, and most of those on her side were holding humanoids. With a sick feeling intensifying, she realized what exactly the term `Pit Fight' meant: She had a vivid example before her.

 

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The first `fight' of the night opposed a human against half a dozen of goblins. With dread, Shan realized that she knew the man in the arena. He was one of the humans when she had been captured… Was it only three weeks ago? It seemed an eternity from her perspective.

 

She pressed herself to the bars and searched the eyes of her fellow slave. He was clutching a battered small sword, his only weapon, in his nervous hand. He caught the gaze of the albino girl and could only read one thing in it.

 

`Live!' Shan was praying to God and the old Chinese gods and goddesses of the past, to any deities who could hear her for the sake of the man. He seemed to have drawn strength from the only person supporting him in this madhouse as he suddenly launched himself into the enemy mass with a war cry.

 

Despite herself, Shan cheered for the fighter as he began to cut in the opposition. Taking the initiative seemed the only way to win against an enemy in superior number. She winced as he took a few cuts and blood dropped in crimson tears on the yellow sand.

 

A warning shout tore out of her throat as she perceived the movement in the rear of the man, but too late. A small, stocky dwarf-like creature with a pale blue-white skin, bulbous white eyes with no irises or pupils and coarse and white hair had suddenly jumped out of his hidden spot to stab the human fighter in the back. Shan realized that the creature had hid itself in the mass of the goblins and used a cadaver as cover to sneak into the unprotected back of the human fighter.

 

The man screamed in agony as the dark poison coating the dagger deep in his right kidney affected him. The last of the goblins rushed to finish him, knocking him down before silencing him for eternity by slicing open his throat.

 

Shan had turned away from the death-strike, trying to contain her grief and anguish. She tried to ignore the cries of the crowd screaming for more blood and the snickering of the monsters in the arena.

 

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Shan was feeling depressed and hopeless as the second fight began. Until now, she had, naively, hoped that she would have a fair chance in the upcoming fight. But, the Drow didn't believe in fairness, they only wanted blood.

 

The second `fight' was more of a slaughter and opposed a Halfling with a dagger against a giant centipede. Shan was flabbergasted because the Hobbit looked like so much Frodo from the Lord of the Rings film that she almost believed she was in a nightmare for a few moments. But the sounds, the smells and the pain from the past whip strikes on her back were invalidating this path.

 

The monstrous insect was, at least, three metres long and it was finished in an instant. It pounced on the visibly weakened Halfling and hit him with his poisonous sting. Shan then realized with growing horror that the `spectacle' was not finished. The Drow let the insect began to feast on the rapidly dying Halfling by injecting its stomach contents in its prey and sucking the `soup'.

 

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The third fight bolstered the dim flame of hope in her heart. He was a stout dwarf with a reddish beard and one war axe in each hand. And he wasn't broken: He hurled insults back at the crowd in Undercommon, damning them to the Abyss, telling what their mothers did to have them in extremely gory and shocking details and so on.

 

He was put against a large goblinoid seven feet tall with coarse hair on most of its body. Its mouth was full of long, sharp fangs and its nose was much like that of a bear. It was armed with a Morningstar, a dagger and was protected by some spiked armour on its left shoulder and a wood shield.

 

The dwarf sneered at the monster and he rushed before a signal was given, screaming the name of his god, Clanggedin Silverbeard. It was finished in a few strikes.

 

The dwarf engaged the weapon of the monster with his right axe, whirled inside the aperture between the shield arm and the locked weapon and viciously backhanded the monster with his left axe: The surprised-looking head of the goblinoid flew in the air.

 

The dwarf raised his arms and screamed for victory. A scream repeated by Shan, but drowned by the angry cat-calls of the crowd. The dwarf was taken back to his cage by the use of whips and spells.

 

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The fourth fight was the occasion to see how the Drow fought. He was a young male, at least at her eyes, but she had the intuition that taking on the appearance of the Drow at face value was a lethal error.

 

He was confronted to a Minotaur and was using two scimitars in a curiously graced dance of death. The Drow was clearly the more skilled of the two and was demonstrating the old conflict between power and skill.

 

It was also a vicious spectacle as the Drow acted liked a bullfighter by taking his time and lightly wounding his opponent at each passes. To the eyes of Shan Mao, the Drow was clearly using a learned skill along with perhaps a racial preference.

 

She looked again at the crowd and could see that many Drow were using a twin style of some sort as most of them had double weapons, like scimitars, short and long swords.

 

The Drow showed off by beheading his adversary with a crossed strike of his two scimitars. He raised his weapons in victory and the blood froze in the veins of Shan Mao as a name was repeated like praise in the singing language of the Drow: `Lolth'.

 

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The fifth fight was perplexing. A monster with grey fur and features like a bear was confronted to a young woman. The woman hold the characteristics of a Drow with her red eyes, white hair and pointy ears, but her skin was a dark dull grey instead of the standard jet-black she saw until now.

 

The crowd was also clearly divided between sneering at the young woman and rooting for her. She was, however, extremely skilled and was using an acrobatic style where she mixed throwing daggers with a slender long sword.

 

Shan Mao noticed the dull black aspect of the metal composing the blade and frowned as she could almost see a faint violet aura around it.

 

The monster managed to hit the woman once during the fight, but she used the throw to take élan on the wall of the arena and pounced back in the back of the monster, scoring deep hits before it could mount a defence.

 

The female Drow-like achieved her enemy by plunging her blade in its heart. Focusing on the names used by the crowd and the pit fighter, Shan discerned the word Lolth again, but it was associated to another: `Selvetarm'.

 

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The sixth combat was putting two different reptilian races. One was a tall humanoid that looked like a cross between a powerfully built human and a lizard. It had clawed hands, a long tail and toothy jaws. It was armed with a stone-axe and a shield made of the shell of a big turtle.

 

The other was a little shorter than a human. It had spindly but muscular arms and walked erect on its squat legs, trailing a long slender tail. Its head was lizard-like and crowned with a frill that extended from the forehead to the base of the neck. Its eyes were black and beady. It was armed with a stone tomahawk and was also holding two javelins. But the worst was the stench emanating from it.

 

Despite the distance, Shan clearly sniffed a sample of its smell and almost gagged. The other lizard-like was also clearly reviled by the stench and was snarling.

 

It was an almost equal fight. The taller of the two had clearly the strength advantage, but the stench of the other and the reach of its javelins proved to be an obstacle. In the end, both revert to savagery and tore in each other, searching for the throat.

 

The oily and musk-like substance on the smaller one helped him out of the grappling of the stronger one and it buried its fangs in the neck of its adversary.

 

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With dread, Shan Mao had finally remarked that they were following the order of the cages for the fights as the seventh one began. If she counted right and baring any surprise, it should be her turn after this one. She gazed into the last cage on the other side, but could only make the outline of a sitting humanoid and two dull yellow eyes piercing the darkness.

 

The pit fight in the arena was opposing a hulking brute of nine feet tall to a bald dwarf with dark grey skin.

 

The brute had a thick hide covered in dark warty bumps. It wore smelly skins and its hair was long, unkempt and greasy. It was waving a big club and snarling at its diminutive opponent.

 

The dwarf betrayed no emotion. The grim face was accented by his lean and hard physique compared to the red-bearded dwarf of the third fight. His eyes were black and cold and he boasted a short, wiry beard of iron-grey hair. He was clad in studded leather armour and was armed with a war-hammer.

 

The dwarf then sneered at his opponent and simply disappeared into thin air. Shan gasped at the feat and immediately suspected magic at work. She focused her senses on the arena and smiled after a few instants.

 

Marks of boots were visible on the clear sand and were progressing in the back of the monster. This one was rather cunning as it was waving his club around it in the hope to catch his invisible opponent.

 

As the dwarf stroke on the kneecap of the brute, he lost his invisibility. He jumped back to dodge the return strike of the monster and once again seemed to focus on something. Shan's eyes widened when the dwarf doubled his mass, height and reach along with his equipment.

 

Crippled by the knee strike, the brute couldn't mount any semblance of defence and his skull was promptly cracked open under the hammer blows.

 

She then gulped as her turn had finally arrived.

 

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Shan Mao was pushed in the pit by the Drow who poked at her with spears. In front of her, her adversary was seemingly lowered on the sand.

 

He was a tall humanoid that looked like a primitive human with grey-green skin and coarse hair. He had a stooped posture, low forehead and a pig-like face with prominent lower canines that resembled a boar's tusks. He wore a leather kilt, two metallic bracers and leather sandals and was unarmed like her. His malignant yellow eyes bore into the young girl.

 

Shan Mao blinked. In fact, her opponent looked like one of the Uru-Kai from the Lord of the Rings film.

 

He grinned at her and spoke in Undercommon with a harsh accent. “Well, look what masters have gifted Orruk for sweet food!” He cracked the joints of his hands.

 

That quickly settled down Shan more than anything else could have. She could feel the utter arrogance of the creature, his joyful anticipation of her future pain at his hands and…her death.

 

She didn't know from where was coming this surge of cool and complete concentration, but she welcomed it and dove deeply in it.

 

Already, she could feel her heartbeat slowing down as she took regular and deep breath. Each breath in was pouring Chi in the centre of her being and each breath out was evacuating stress and emotional taint from her very life force.

 

The Orc showed a toothy smile. “Know that Orruk is Orc CHAMPION of the Pit!” He raised his arms and eructed a roar that seemed to send the crowd into frenzy. Some were even screaming his name.

 

He spit on the ground and faced the young girl with his large open arms in a squat posture that reminded of a wrestler. “Come!” He smirked. “Orruk even let you hit first, little girl!”

 

Shan never fought for her life before and she didn't know how this Orc could fight: Running to his invitation would be foolish and potentially lethal. She instinctively let go of her standard and more offensive Wu Shu stance and went into an almost purely defensive Tai-Chi Ch'Uan posture: Her rear leg bent slightly at the knee, her forward leg a few inches off the ground, her left forward hand loosely outstretched and her rear right hand loosely at waist.

 

The Orc frowned. He had already seen fancy posture when he faced other races, especially the puny and softer inhabitants of the surface, but only those called `Monks' would take a unarmed stance.

 

He grinned. Those few he killed before were the better he met in the Pit. Except for the stout dwarves, most humans were rather fragile and he enjoyed a long fight. The screams, the blood beating at his temples and the one dropping from his knuckles. THIS was why he was born for! Well, it looked like the puny human didn't want to attack first. Too bad for her. He attacked savagely, without warning. His fist flew in the face of the girl.

 

Shan Mao was surprised as the brute moved with a deceptive fastness for his bulk. She barely moved her face sideway in time and whirled into the attack, letting the punch sliding along her cheek as her adversary went beyond her position. Her right palm came from under in a `Push Open Hand', striking the Orc in his unprotected belly as he turned to punch her again.

 

Invisible to normal senses, Chi exploded from her palm and knocked away the Orc for a good metre. Surprise shone into the evil eyes and he grunted at the impact.

 

Orruk blinked. He felt that strike. He smiled evilly as it only confirmed that he had a good fight before him. The victory will taste so much better with a little of his own blood to spice it.

 

Shan and Orruk began to exchange a series of strikes and counter-strikes as they tested each other for a few intense minutes.

 

Shan felt she had the measure of the Orc. He had more stamina and strength, but she was faster and more skilled. She had also a trump card with her Chi techniques.

 

As the fight continued, both combatants had tuned out the screaming crowd around the arena. The first decisive hit of the battle came as Shan unleashed a `Reverse Turning Kick' straight from Bok Pai Kung Fu, also known as the White Crane Style and scoring a knock down on her opponent.

 

But Orruk was experienced and rolled out to avoid the following stomp. He chuckled as he swiped off the small leak of blood on his lips. “Good, good! Little girl is good!” He smirked. “Even if she hit like little girl!” With a roar, Orruk charged with extended arms, intending to bring down the Albino.

 

Shan anticipated his action and went for a low-postured Chi-anchored stance `The Unshakable Mountain'. The two fighters met with a resounding clash and the crowd was awed to see that the lithe and much smaller human female had completely stopped the charge of the bigger Orc without moving from her spot.

 

Shan focused anew on her Chi. It was a golden occasion to do some lasting damage. “Skill will always defeat might, Orruk!” Her red eyes aimed at the vulnerable neck.

 

Orruk smirked. He was exactly where he wanted to be. “Girl speak too much! Too late for her, now!”

 

“What the…! ARGH…!”

 

Orruk seized Shan by the throat with his two hands and lifted her from the ground. “Ah! Ah! Orruk know as `Crusher' in arena! Orruk strong in arms! Strong enough to break bull-man neck like twig! Puny girl is DOOMED!”

 

Shan struggled against the deadly stranglehold, but with no avail. She couldn't develop her full strength in this position as her reach was severely hampered despite her natural agility and flexibility. Her sword-hand strikes to the face and knee thrusts to the arms didn't even faze the resistant Orc.

 

Orruk smirked. “Girl stubborn! Die now! Easier than dying later! Can't break hold with puny strength! Orruk too STRONG!” He increased the pressure around the white neck.

 

Shan was reduced to holding the wrists of the brute in a desperate tentative to break the stranglehold. Already, darkness was dancing at the edge of her consciousness. Once she fell unconscious, death would follow quickly.

 

And still, she struggled. She wanted to live! She wanted to escape this hellhole! She wanted to see China and her family again!

 

The combination of oxygen deprivation and despair brought a memory from the past. Shan Mao remembered the old man that was her Tai-Chi Ch'Uan instructor.

 

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An He was an old man whose past was forgotten and he lived in the back of a building. His only luxury was a small court constantly shadowed by the buildings. It was the only place where Shan Mao felt secure from the sun to practice outside.

 

The old man taught many of the women of the buildings during the mandatory practice of the morning and he taught in the evening those few he liked and who liked him.

 

Shan Mao had always the impression that the venerable An He used his past experiences as basic for his instruction.

 

It was such a pearl of wisdom that echoed in her mind.

 

The old man was smoothing his beard as he talked about concrete applications of Tai-Chi Ch'Uan. “The art is about Offence in Defence and Defence in Defence. Always in the reaction to the action. Always the Yin to the Yang. Use the path of the least struggle to emerge whole. Victory is living, not crushing.”

 

An He ruffled the hair of one of his little students and continued. “One day, you will find yourself in a situation where following the path of less resistance is following death.” The serious mien of the elder stopped any snickering. “When you are in such situation you have to take the offence on the STRONGEST point of your opponent. If it is his arms, break them. If it is his legs, aim for the knees and ankles.” He looked in each of the widened eyes, imprinting his words in the young minds. “If it is his senses, strike at the nose and eyes. Wherever and whenever he is strong is where and when you have to focus your defence, your attack.”

 

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As darkness crept more and more, the words of his teacher and the words of Orruk danced within the mind of the Chinese albino.

 

`“Orruk strong in arms!”'

 

`“Wherever and whenever he is strong is where and when you have to focus your defence, your attack.”'

 

`“Orruk strong in arms!”'

 

`“…wherever…he is strong is where…you have to focus your…attack.”'

 

`“…strong in arms!”'

 

`“…is where…you have to…attack.”'

 

Something seemed to click inside of her as she closed her eyes and her hands firmly seized the wrist bracers of the Orc.

 

Orruk chuckled. “Still breath in you? Not for long!” His arms rippled as he increased again the pressure.

 

The crowd was cheering and waiting for the death-strike. Then, despite the ambient sound, a snap was heard.

 

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Orruk smiled toothily then blinked in confusion. “What…? By GRUUMSH'S EYE!?”

 

The crowd collectively gasped as they suddenly saw that it hadn't been the neck of the girl that snapped.

 

The two metallic bracers of the Orc were developing a fine web of creaks as Shan increased the pressure on them. Chi was pouring into her arms and hands from the core of her being. In her state of complete focus and light-headed feeling due to oxygen deprivation, the albino perceived another sensation within her.

 

For a brief instant, it was as if she was gazing to a bright glowing purple sphere hidden deep within her own soul. The humming sphere was circled by two sets of rings shaped like orbit of electrons. One set was a vibrant silver colour and the other was a very intense jet-black.

 

She didn't know why, but she didn't sense any threat from the sphere. Almost gingerly, she reached for it and the rings changed their orbits on their own volition to allow her access. A cold that wasn't unpleasant nor pleasant seized her whole being as she connected with the energy sphere.

 

The flabbergasted Orruk could only watch in confusion as his two bracers suddenly shattered and grunted in pain as the pressure of the two pale hands neutralized his wrists.

 

Despite the best effort of Orruk, the rag-clad lithe albino broke the lethal stranglehold around her neck. The angry red marks around her slender throat hinted as her close call with death.

 

Orruk could only stare in disbelief. “Impossible! How can such puny arms have so much strength! IMPOSSIBLE!”

 

Shan Mao opened her eyes. The normally red-pink colour was gone and replaced by a blazing purple. “AIYAH!”

 

As she screamed to better focus her inner energy, a purplish glow formed on her right leg as she attacked right between the two spread arms of the Orc.

 

There was a mighty thud sound as the kick connected with flesh, but Shan didn't stop at this. Using the sheer power of her own kick, she whirled and twisted into the air, gaining an impressive height and lightly landed on one foot and knee, eyes closed in exhaustion and her back to her adversary.

 

The disfigured Drow raised his gnarled hand, signalling the end of the fight and designing Shan Mao as the winner.

 

The crowd was confused and comments in Undercommon were flying.

 

“What!? The human girl wins?”

 

“That's impossible, look! The `Crusher' is still standing!”

 

True, Orruk was still standing from where the kick had pushed him, but it was the only thing he was doing.

 

And suddenly, a purple haze exploded from the upper body of the Orc as if the strange energy brought with Shan's kick was only now having an effect. His tusks shattered and blood burst from his eyes, nose and mouth. He fell down, like a tree under the axe of the woodman, his unblinking yellow eyes dimmed and stilled in eternity.

 

The crowd gasped in awe at the exploit. A Drow remembered the purple glow of both the kick and the result on the Orc. It was the same colour that came from the `Faerzress': The underground magical radiation that the Drow used to bolster their dark magics and `cooked' their dreaded artefacts.

 

A whisper danced around the black-skinned elves and grew. “Faerzress… Faer… Faeryl… Faeryl. Faeryl! FAERYL!”

 

The name grew until it became a roar. The newly anointed Faeryl opened her wary red-pink eyes to the wild crowd.

 

`Animals! There're animals! They're drawn by blood and pain. That the only things they want!' Her eyes turned to the rich side of the arena and she shuddered as she saw the glint of greed in the too many red eyes. `That and power. They crave for power!'

 

She turned to the corpse of her late opponent and shuddered anew. `They would have rejoiced also if it was my body bleeding here on the sand. Probably more so.' She turned away from her first kill, before losing control of her stomach and nerves.

 

And then, her shamed gaze crossed a pair of ferocious black eyes. Eyes that expressed neither contempt or damnation, but joy! Joy at the end of another enemy. Another of those who wanted pain from all surface races was dead and it was good.

 

The young Chinese albino perceived pride and approval in the eyes of the red-bearded dwarf in his steel cage. And she raised her arm in victory.

 

The crowd creamed its approval as the new Pit Fighter acknowledged her win. But the red-pink eyes never wavered from the black ones.

 

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And in many private booths, plans were made, gestures displayed and smiles bloomed.

 

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In the dimension known as the Demonweb Pits, what looked like a beautiful female Drow was laughing. Lolth raised a glass with a dark emerald liquid in mocking salute to her brand new toy that was showing big promises for her future entertainment.

 

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Notes: “An He” means “Peaceful Crane”.

 

The backstabbing creature in the first fight is a Derro.

 

The dwarf of the second fight is a Gold Dwarf and he was fighting against a Bugbear.

 

The woman of the fifth fight is a Half-Elf of Drow blood and she was fighting a Quaggoth. Selvetarm is the name of a Drow god in the service of Lolth as her champion.

 

The sixth combat put a Lizardfolk against a Troglodyte.

 

The dark grey dwarf is a Duergar with innate psionic powers and he was facing an Ogre in the seventh fight.

 

Well, Shan Mao has finally been baptized in blood with her new name as Faeryl. Faer means `Magic' in the Drow language. Faerzress is the energy lingering from the powerful forces used in the creation of the whole Underdark.

 

That reminds me that I made a slight error in the sheet of Shan Mao in the prelude. Shan Mao's first Warlock Invocation is Hideous Blow and not Leaps and Bounds. That was what she used when she kicked Orruk.