You have found yourself drugged, in chains, and in severe training with your slave keeper (whom they call “Team Trainer”) Gregory. A large, fat half-giant with a cruel whip that seemed to knock people out for even longer, the more powerful they were. (HP / Nonlethal reference)
You’ve run courses, trials, and training routes alone for the past year. If you were successful at the exercise you were well fed. If you had failed, you were starved and beaten into the next day. In this time the only one you had ever seen was Trainer Gregory, and a few rivals who were the ones allowed to beat you.
You never learned the rivals’ names.
Today, however, you are to finally do what you were trained for. Fight in the Arena under a Pactmaster who owns you. You’ve heard that this Pactmaster is a new one, and perhaps you even know what a Pactmaster is given your heritage or intelligence.
But Pactmaster Aetherius has seen you perform three times, and each time they were most impressed by your performance. You have been selected and randomly thrown in with another team mate, and your first opponent is completely unknown to you.
Despite this, you are both next to one another and unshackled staring at a sand covered arena. No wind blows, and the stench of death is thick in the air. A man stands at the center with a wide grin on his face- from basic appearance, this blonde haired being was just a human, “WELCOME TO THE PACT! And sitting here in front of me are the MASTERS!” The man points to seven beings that stand tall, all dressed exactly alike as far as the eye could tell. They did not move or say a word, but simply stood in silence as attention of the arena was directed towards them.
“ONCE A YEAR, THESE SAVIORS OF KATAPESH BRING YOU THE SHIELD! AN EVENT THAT KEEPS US ALL FAT, HAPPY, AND RICH! TODAY TO BEAR THAT BURDEN AND WALK THROUGH THE SANDS WITH IT IN HAND ARE TWO SLAVES, UNDER OUR NEW PACTMASTER, PACTMASTER AETHERIUS!”
As the crowd roars, you come to understand the true size of the arena. It has to seat nearly ten thousand, no, one hundred thousand, or perhaps even a million. It stretches nearly halfway into the sky, and orbs float about the arena to allow the audience a much closer look at the fight that is about to occur.
“THESE SLAVES WILL FIGHT FOR THE SHIELDING OF KATAPESH, AND ALL WE LOVE, AGAINST THEIR FIRST TRIAL EVER! AND THAT TRIAL IS……”
The gate to the man’s right begins to open, and the shadow that was there rolls out in a thick smog as his grin widens further, “THE NIGHTMARE.” The man disappears in a wisp of smoke as a red eyed, black smog tinted horse bursts through the opening in the gate. The gate crashes back to the ground as soon as the horse exits, and more smog fills the arena. It gallantly races in circles around the arena as the crowd cheers it on louder and louder, “NIGHTMARE! NIGHTMARE! NIGHTMARE! NIGHTMARE!”
Fiery, black steel clad gollums smack fists to their chests in rhythm, and your own gate begins to rise up, allowing you to make way out into the arena……
