"What are we doing here, anyway?"

Rishad's voice echoed off the ancient stone walls of the citadel, his whining reverberating back on him a hundred fold. It almost seemed like the massive stone warriors lining the walls were mocking him with the sound of his own voice.

"I told you; we're looking for... for this," he companion froze over a pile of rubble in the center of the chamber. Bending down, the old man withdrew a heavy leather tome from the dust and debris. With a murmur, the book held in midair, suspended in place by invisible hands.

Aetris brushed the remaining dirt from the cover reverently. "This, my apprentice, is the Tome of the Arena." A grim smile spread over the mage's face. "In ancient times, wizards would use this book to conduct and chronicle grand tournaments; when activated, the book would send a psychic cry across the planes, challenging the bravest and strongest beings in the multiverse to compete. Power, money, glory, honor... the incentives were all different, tailored to the individual. The result, however, was always the same. A portal would appear, and challengers would come forth to enter their names. Then, the book would craft a tournament bracket, sending pairs of competitors to battle to the death in exotic pocket dimensions, though true death would be magically prohibited. When concluded, unseen forces would determine which fighter displayed his prowess the best, and would move on. In the end, one would be crowned champion."

Rishad sighed. "So, what does that have to do with us?"

Aetris grasped the cover, his knuckles white. "My boy, we are here because I am going to run this tournament once more." The old man tore the cover back, and the entire room was bathed in crimson light. At the far end of the antechamber there was a deafening roar as part of the wall fell away, revealing an ornate golden door that slowly opened of its' own accord. Beyond, a shimmering vortex began to coalesce.

A ghostly whisper emanated from the blank pages before Aetris. "Come, challengers. Come, and face my Arena."

----

Arena is pretty simple: take a character, any character. Sci-fi, fantasy, etc., and have them step through the portal. It can be a character from another game you are playing in, or someone you made up just for this. Just keep it semi-reasonable (I or someone else I'm sure will point out if something might be out of line, thought I can't think of too much right now, though it is 1am). We've had psi-stalkers, mutants, archmages, knights, anthropomorphic creatures, fae... you get the idea. Just make sure they are *your* creation; no copyright infringements, please.

Once we have a bunch of people, you get paired and dropped in your own thread to duel to the death. 10 pages or 1 week (or an *allowed* kill, see God-modding next paragraph) later, a poll is added and the people of the boards decide who RP'ed their fight better. Single elimination, last man /woman /manbearpig standing. Double elimination last time made it take too long and people lost interest.

It should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway - don't God-mod. i.e. "Aetris shot at Rishad" not "Aetris shot and killed Rishad", unless you're talking about a character you own. You come up with the cause, the other person decides the effect. That said, being impervious and dodging all attacks that come at you is probably a good way not to win the vote; the goal here is to tell a story of the battle of two individuals, so some give and take is inevitable. If it makes sense to die, then die - write it well enough and it won't matter who won the in-game fight. This is a real casual kind of thing, a sort of sandbox-RP-area; not a ton of plot, and good descriptive narratives rule the day.

For now, if you are interested, RP stepping out of the portal. If you've played Arena before (I don't know if anyone's run one since my last one a looooong time ago, sorry) and know the rules, cool. If not, feel free to ask either myself or someone else who's played (Skitz, Sal, Dom, Were, etc).

(Finally, I apoligize if this doesn't make sense. I should have been in bed 2 hours ago. If I've messed up the explanation somehow I'll try and fix it by tomorrow night.)

Enjoy!

*Eddie steps through the portal*
I'm in

OOG: That's a bit short and vague; kinda was looking for something more descriptive, especially concerning who you are playing.

Also, 1 person? I'll give this a few more days, but if there's not enough (read: any) interest by then I'll take the hint. ;-)

A humanoid shadow falls on the portal for a moment before a male form stumbles through, staggering. He is dressed simply: A brown jacket over a red shirt, denim pants, and scuffed brown boots.

"Guh."

The man slumps to his knees, retches, and then hiccoughs liquidly. He sits back on his heels and whipes his mouth with the back of his left hand; the right one is still clutching the neck of a bottle.

"Whossat? Speak up you dirty @*$&ers, or I'll tear you all a new crop of @#&holes. No-urp. Nobody *#&@!s with the Captain."

The next person to step through the portal is also humanoid... and somewhat feline. His fur and mane are immediately noticeable, as are the fact that his ears are pointed and on top of his head - less immediately noticeable are his vertically slitted eyes and the claws at the ends of his fingers. He is also bipedal, has two arms and two legs, and opposable thumbs. He's dressed fairly simply - trousers and some sort of armoured vest - and is carrying some sort of futuristic rifle in his hands. He looks around for a moment, and then steps away from the portal, his bare (and, yes, clawed) feet making no sound.

Then he slings his rifle over his shoulder, retracts his claws, and asks "Can someone tell me where I am and what I'm doing here?"

The drunk man on the floor vomits again, loudly.

A human steps through the portal. An eyepatch on one eye and a smile on his face, he looks around and sees himself a Cat-Man. He offers his hand. "Hallo, me names Doctor Captain Eddie Ward the First. Call me Eddie." He looks at the vomiting man and laughs. "You guys got a pirate!?! Strange portals have everything!" He walks over. "How are ya' lad?"

A young man dressed in what appear to be robes of some sort steps through portal while looking back over his shoulder, "Yes, but the whole point is that the illusion becomes so convincing it becomes real." He turns to face forward and takes one more step before stopping in mid-stride for a double-take. He turns around to see that whatever he expected behind him is there no more. He looks back to the strange gathering and simply says, "Oh...bother."

The cat-man gives Doctor Captain Eddie Ward the First's hand a mildly suspicious glance. "I'm Khym." he says. "Khym Mahn. Do you know what this place is?"

Eddie looks from the pirate to the robed man to the Cat Man. "I honestly dunno. I was in an airport, gettin' back from Baghdad, and then this portal starts causin' a fuss, so I checked it out and here I am. I guess the action starts when you get out of Iraq." He smiles and looks around to see if anyone else laughs.

R'ldel Blinked slowly, his green eyes dilating and then contracting odly before he focuses on the cat man and frowns. "What manner of elf magic is this then, demon?" His hair is tussled and short cropped for his people, falling around his ears. It has the odd strand of old man's beard in it, and his shirt seems raised in places on his torso. He has streaks of what looks like... Maybe... bark? that if you were from the era, would look like sword training scars.

"Iraq? Baghdad? Where are those planets? I am not familiar with them." says Khym. "And I am no demon. I take it you are as lost here as I am?" he adds, for the bark-man's benefit.

R'ldel frowned at the beast, since it insisted it was not a demon and looked like nothing holy he'd ever seen or heard of, then nodded slowly. A deep rumble formed in his lower chest, like the start of a strange sort of growl, but then subsided.

(OOC: Heh, I've been thinking it'd be kinda funny to try and play the Prince of the Cosmos for one of these things. Try to roll up your opponent. I have so many ideas for who I might choose, it's hard to pick.)

You can see the silhouette of someone on the other side, examining the portal. It remains open for nearly a full minute before a woman in a blue... toga-dress?, with striking, wavy red hair, steps through. At first glance... she's a little hunched over and uneasy, and from the way she carries herself she seems as if she's getting on in years, but as she steps forward into the light you can see she's actually fairy young. Mid twenties perhaps.
She seems weary, her movements listless, her eyes half open... until she stops and takes a look around...

"This isn't right... and it can't possibly be the void...." she mumbles to herself. All at once, her posture straightens. She holds a lock of hair forward and takes a good look at it, then reaches down to the purplish sash at her hip and seems surprised to find a scimitar hanging there. At this point, she seems less surprised at the pack slung around her shoulder.

She looks up and addresses the crowd in general, "What is this place?"

"Your guess is as good as ours, princess," says Ed, lying down on the ground.