The Brawl: Place Yer Bets and Take Yer Chances

Max

The arena is at least a hundred yards square, bound on all four sides by the wooden palisade. There are no spectators in the arena, but dozens of holovids and crystal balls stud the walls, and spy cameras slide back and forth over head on nearly invisible cables.

Brawlers spread out across the arena, pacing and stamping, some blustery and glaring, some slyly sizing up the other fighters. Many cluster around the tunnel mouth, circling for position, but you note a few jogging toward the corners.

"GENTLEMEN AND AMAZONS, THE BRAWL WILL COMMENCE IN 12...11...10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1!" A gong crashes, and the arena seethes into ACTION! Fists, elbows, and knees smash chins, bellies and shins.

[Since I'm moving ahead briskly feel free to take any last preparatory actions. Here's my suggestion for handling combat: post your Melee Attack (or roll for any other ability you wish to use), damage if you hit, and Saving Throw all at once. If your attack takes your foe down I'll try to throw back to you to narrate the cool knock-out. Aside from quick questions I'll probably wait till most or all of you have taken your actions and then update all at once.]

wulfgar

Creature's rolls:
Melee Attack: 98% (Make)
Unarmed Damage: 9
Saving Throw: 45% (Fail- either without or without my armor/shield )

Rondo

Buck hovers close to Quazzer and Darryl if possible. I'm particularly keeping an eye on Darryl, since all of our lives depend on that...!

Roll: 41....made it.
Damage: 2 (1-3 bare hand)

Max

I take it you fellas are just swinging at the nearest targets then?

[Special combat note: for the purposes of the Brawl all damage is subdual. As Rondo noted, it's 1-3 for everyone but Warriors, who do 1-6. Add STR bonus to damage if any.

[At 0 hps you are staggered. Your bell's been rung but you can continue fighting if you wish. However you must make a Survival Roll each round to stay conscious. If you drop below your STR score in negative numbers you will die. ]

wulfgar

Yeah, he's swinging at the nearest entity that isn't part of the group or Darryl.

By the way, this is really neat. For some reason I was thinking there was going to be a March Madness/Karate Kid style tournament with brackets and 1 vs 1 bouts. Everybody going at it at once is a nice twist.

rondo

(cool. What Rondo wants, and how Buck acts may be two different things...I too would like to stay alive and not macho, but Buck lives for this sort of thing, so he'll probably stay in it for the long haul.)

Rondo

(Oh! I get my +2 Damage bonus, so it's "5"...thanks, Max for mentioning the melee bonus!)

..er "4"...sorry

Rondo

(Just wanted to point out, Max: I gave the rest of my scratch to Zarko if you recall for bettin' on a haul for the kid....put it down on Creature)

Dr Rotwang!

Gulping his fear, Quazarn allows the fray to begin! As thugs, brutes and murderers crowd around him, he drops himself swiftly into his preferred battle-ready position:

Covering his face with his forearms.

He takes time to kick wildly at the lower parts of whatever combatant is fool enough to approach him, rocking their shins like the proverbial hurricane.

MELEE ATTACK: 90 (Skill: 68%)
DAMAGE: Ha!
SAVING THROW: 21 (Throw: 17%)

Rondo

(How's the boy doing?)

Max

Fists, elbows and knees smash chins, bellies and shins. Yells and hoots and grunts resound in the arena as bodies collide. The Brawl has begun!

Creature strikes out at the nearest fighter, a burly human wearing only a thong and a miasma of cheap cologne. Despite his bulging muscles the human goes down with Creature's first blow! [And Wulf gets to describe his knockout.]

Buck squares off with an ape of the gibbon tribe, ducking in under the ape's swinging arms to sock him in the gut. The gibbon grimaces, but fights on, feinting kicks and trying to loop its long arms around Buck's neck.

Speaking of kicks, Quazarn's unusual fighting style draws the eye of a whip-tailed lizard man. It hisses "Sh'preeeem" and sweeps at Quazarn's thrashing legs with its tail. Lizard and conehead are equally ineffective. [Quazarn's saving throw should include his vest, unless he stowed his armor.]

Max

Coffee
Zarko scans the area for any possibility of getting a bet down. He's going to bet on Darryl to survive, if such a thing is possible. He'll put all of his money on that (plus the fiver he borrowed).

Max
"No life or death stakes, buddy. Don't usually more'n, oh two three fighters die in a Brawl. Now that young rep-tile looks like'n a pipsqueak. But he ain't what you'd call a known quan-ti-ty. I can give you sundown once at two to one, noon twice at five to one. Sundown twice...call it ten to one."

[Most bets are based on how long a fighter remains unbeaten in the two day Brawl. Sundown once=end of first day, noon twice=noon of second day, etc]

[Hey fellas, need to resolve this before combat continues....The line on Creature, also an unknown fighter, is sundown once at two to one, noon twice at three to one, sundown twice at five to one.

[I hear 5 on Creature from Buck -- how long you bet he'll last? But Zarko wants to bet it all on the kid. Again, for how long?

[Oh, and sorry if the betting is kind of vanilla. I don't know doodly squat about gambling.]

wulfgar

Do we know anything about how the format of the fight goes? Are going to be battling away continuously for over 24 hours? Or do they take breaks -- to remove the losers, have the towel boy mop up the sweat, and let the fighters suck on orange wedges -- stuff like that?

Rondo

Buck may be optimistic, and a bit nuts, but he's thinking Creature will hang it for the long haul! I got faith in the ol' guy....wondering the same specifics as above mentioned, however: do we know when they're calling rounds, or is this to the unconscious blow and then they cart you off, er what?

Max

[These are all excellent questions, aren't they?]

Coffee

Okay, if the betting doesn't include mere survival, my best chance for gain is to bet on Creature. So that's what I'll do: Creature, for two sundowns, all I've got.

I have 5 from my friend (whose name escapes me at the moment, but I'll go back and find it) and like 2 of my own. So I want to have put 7 down on Creature.

Meanwhile, back to the brawl!

Max

[Thanks Coffee! Got you down for 8 total, sundown twice for Creature! A wiser decision than betting on Darryl, as you're soon to discover...]

Lunging at a shrimpy looking cave wooky, Darryl trips over Quazarn's flailing legs and goes reeling towards the furry half-pint. Somehow Darryl manages to connect with a flailing haymaker. The wook winces, blinks, then clubs the lizard youngling with a double-fisted uppercut. Darryl staggers back woozily, still on his feet but dazed. The wooky roars and bares its teeth...