:: Random Location—Slasher's Circle ::

Slasher’s Circle

by Wm Jay Carter III, 5/23/15

Attraction: Arena

Weather: Muggy

Conditions: Small, Simple

Color: Pastel Red

Keyword: Slash

Wiping the sweat from your brow, you come upon the rubble of a fallen building. Traversing a cleared path in the debris, you see that the center has been swept to the dirt foundation, making an ideal place for several young combatants to play-fight without interruption. As one girl lunges with a “spear” fashioned from a broom handle and a damp sponge, her opponent staggers away with a dab of pastel red paint on his clothes. Thus “wounded,” he falls to the ground, acting out a gruesome demise. Only then do you realize the true purpose for the whole performance, for the adult spectators sitting atop the rubble now stand, alternately cheer or sulk, and begin exchanging money.

Brawl Brothers was once the best fighting ring in town, and the height of clandestine gambling. Until Ulric the Nexus, that is. Word on the street was that Ulric had thrown a fight, he was banned from the premises, and his nightly fight was canceled. Eager to prove to every one of the contenders just how serious he was about the game, however, Ulric showed up anyway. No one knows exactly how things went down at Brawl Brothers that night...mostly because everybody that was in the building died when it collapsed, including Ulric.

The bodies were removed and the place was cleaned up as well as it could be, but without the resources to haul away the rubble the debris just ended up getting shoved to the side. Which was just as well as far as the local ruffians were concerned. One industrious young thug going by the name of Slasher took charge of the place and soon the orphans of the town were having their own mock fights. Inviting the right people to the events, he started up Slasher’s Circle, the town’s second-best fighting ring.

Word has it the local authorities won’t arrest anyone for making bets on child’s play, which is why the Circle has stayed open as long as it has. Wiser contacts, however, paint quite a different picture of what goes on at the Circle after nightfall—a picture that explains why the population of orphans in town has been dwindling in recent weeks...