F8: The Pit

This is the largest single building in the quarter, though from the outside it resembles a collection of town houses built unusually close together. It is the scene of many types of gladiatorial combat. On the nights of events, this entire section of the city (even the Blue Dragon Inn!) comes alive with citizens out for the fights. Events are generally scheduled for Godsday and Freeday, with special events at other times.

See Ch6 FFF for a full description of the Pit and its entertainments.

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F8: The Pit. Nearly the largest single building in this quarter, this is actually a collection of houses that were built closely together before being fully joined as one unit. The nearby Cartographer’ Guildhall was purchased in 585 CY and added to the structure; the mapmakers purchased and moved next door into the former home of Duke Garand, following his unfortunate mishap with some hell hounds (see F4).

The Pit is the center of entertainment in both the Foreign and River Quarters, grounded in an old dueling tradition among early Suloise settlers and reinforced by heroic Oeridian folklore. Gladiatorial fights are overseen by the Pit’s manager, a 41-year-old former privateer named Pietain Morvannis [LE hm F6; hp 38; Str 16, Dex 15; chain mail +2, trident +1], Pietain works for the owner, a shadowy figure named Andrade Mitrius (see G11 and below). Mirrius is rarely around the Pit these days, though he was once present almost daily; he says his struggling trading business takes him away from the “enjoyable work” at the Pit.

Four types of combat are conducted here. First is nonlethal combat fought with blunt weapons, shields, and nets. Second is full, sometimes lethal battle with any sort of weapon. (This is the biggest moneymaker of the four.) Third is human-versus-monster fighting, usually with large or strong humanoids but sometimes with true monsters like owlbears or trolls. (Monsters are considered conquered. when beaten senseless with blunt weapons; trolls are an exception, which are attacked until prone and forced to regenerate, at which point the fight is over.) Fourth is unarmed, nonlethal combat between wrestlers or martial artists, which is gaining new fans among students in Clerkburg as well as older adults who frown on bloodletting but like the thrill of battle nonetheless.

The Pit has its own mascot: Oswald the manticore, whose tail spikes were removed and wings clipped to prevent escape. Oswald has long been popular with many in the River Quarter, and toys in his likeness are sold at the Pit for youngsters. Oswald is reputed to be a maneater but is forced to subsist on freshly slain cattle instead. He is somewhat intelligent and appears to have grown accustomed to being treated royally by his human captors. The Foreign Quarter, on the other hand, usually prefers the second mascot, Oscar the albino owlbear.

Gambling is a constant element here, with all bookmaking rather obviously controlled by the Thieves’ Guild. Apprentice thieves are regularly used as couriers and messengers between bettors and bookmakers. Bouts are whispered to be fixed now and then (especially in nonlethal combats), but no one seems to care much. The Pit makes huge weekly sums of money, especially on Godsday and Freeday, but now often in the evenings as well. Some people have tried to cut in on the gambling action here, but this has never gone over well with the Thieves’ Guild (see the tale of Duke Garand at F4).

DM’s Notes: The Pit also serves as the meeting hall for the Guild of Gladiators, Wrestlers, and Professional Combatants, whose members are the only ones licensed to perform gladiatorial entertainment in the city. The guild is led by a huge, retired, 42-year-old champion wrestler, Rashif Iqbal of Tusmit [N hm F9; hp 90; Str 18/89, Con 18; two potions of longevity]. Rashif is a mediocre guildmaster but is immensely popular and a superb wrestler, even now (going under the name of the “Sun Pasha”). Rashif arranges the fixing of matches, spreads rumors to enhance the guildmembers’ careers, and even sets up fake criminal events in Greyhawk that are conveniently foiled by “heroic” guildmembers before the City Watch can arrive. If caught in a deception, the guild lies, stonewalls, and makes counteraccusations. Many students in Clerkburg love this guild, but it is deeply hated by the Guild of Mercenaries, the Greyhawk Militia, the City Watch, the priesthoods of St. Cuthbert and Mayaheine, visiting knights from every order in the Flanaess, and (interestingly) - the priesthoods of both Hextor and Heironeous. (The former says the guild blasphemes the a purity of battle and the “natural order” of survival of the fittest, and the latter says it mocks chivalry and righteous combat.)

Spontaneous street fights have broken out between the gladiators and wrestlers and their many detractors; dangerous and unpredictable feuds are boiling up. A cut of members’ dues is secretly passed to Pietatn Morvannis, who devised the idea for the guild in the first place to make more money.