Greetings, brethern,

my (perhaps to some of you already known) Dusk-Group is going to leave Dusk soon in order to pursuit some beast smugglers. Of course, I will introduce them to the BeastHouse and one there Arenas on Scintilla (in Hive Sibillus, to be precise).

I plan to place the Arena in a very low part of the hive labeled "unstable" (some persons got bribed/blackmailed for that). Why I have some ideas on what the pc are ought to do and how this can be turned into an interesting evening, I lack inspiration for the actual location of the arena.

Of course, I know what an arena build by desgin would be like. But I want to the arena to be a re-design forma hive-area.
And that is the point I would like to milk you for inspiration.

I am actually thinking about using a forma manufactorum suited nex to a hive rift/clasmen (from an hive quake). The old fabrication floor would be used as the arena, the old offices bordering to it would house the suits/seats for patrons. The storage area would be used to store the animals.


What would you use? What are you ideas? Everything is welcome as long as I can fit it either into hive Sibillus or into it´s surrounding.

Thanks!

If you own Tattered Fates, you might draw inspiration from the Red Cages in the adventure's opening chapter. Basically it's a manufactorum-like area converted to a Beast House operation, complete with holding pens, cages, pits and meat grinders. It's very evocatively detailed.

The arena would be called a Red Circus on Scintilla, I think. Maybe some huge smooth metal tanks open on one side would make for great pits to feed nasty critters into via maintenance crawlspaces or other access ducts. Kind of a makeshift arena. Or else great halls with chunks of derelict machinery that make for an interesting sporting ground - and ofcourse would allow an especially agile beast to get out and land all tooth and claw into the audience Maybe some of the machines still work and for example some conveyor belt would be activated to make the fight even more interesting.

Hi Laughing God,

thanks for the naming. I own TF and have written some additional scenes for it. While the "no borders" approach works very well for a group that was dropped into it (and helped to give the feeling of being lost) I am looking for something more clear-cutted for my mission.

After all, I want my players to first find the place (perhaps even Infiltraiting it) and then to storm the place (with about a platton of troops or some Squads of Arbites). For this, I want to define at least some kind of outline so they can deploy troops (I think my players will enjoy this).

As I came up with the "old manufactura", I planned to have some parts still working. I very much liked "Vault 13" for the environment that could be used against the enemies... or against my pc

Gregorius21778 said:

Hello!

When you asked for 'inspiration', did you mean only from FFG Materials?

If not, Dan Abnett's 'Ravenor' series had a Beast House-type operation and arena called 'The Carnivora'.

It was a massive place that was able to fit several hundred thousand people (which should work fine for a hive, also), and had a HUGE Main Stage in the center, along with 8 less huge sub-stages clustered around it. Each of the stages was on hydraulics and could be lowered, re-stocked with gladiators, beasts, assorted prison-trash, scenarios, boats on water, dancers and acrobats, etc, and then raised, giving the audience a constant stream of usually VERY violent entertainment.

Hope you can use the info! Good luck!

L-

Hi Lustcraft,

no, I take any inspiration. Unfortunately, the Carnivora you mention (know the story, do own the book ) is an example for an arena "build by design".
What I am looking for is an inspiration for a non-arena-complex that might be found in an abandoned hive section that was retro-fitted by BeastHouse to work as an illegal arena.

I could, of course, assume that the section included an arena which is now abandoned and taken over... but this somehow does not do the trick for me.
I am fine with using an old manufactorum, but the idea seems a little "run-of-the-mill". Perhaps some of you folks have some other, more original ideas what to re-use as an arena complex (with cages and housing of the ogryn beastkeepers and everything).

Set in the hive depths:

Not quite Hive-bottom: Derelict food processing/waste disposal/sewage treatment plant. Massive vats either empty or filled with decades/century/millenia old rotting *whatever*, rusted machinery, cutting blades and cutting floors, Rusted/slimy gantries, ladders, corridors lined with mold/fungus/mutated plant life/bacteria from whatever was once housed in the facility. Broken heating pipes, dripping slude/dirty/clean water, venting geo-thermal steam/sulphur/noxioius gas. Maybe throw in some mutants or insane servitors that are lying around to be reactivated/repaired, to go along with the beasties the BH have dropped in there.

Hive bottom: An actual chasm opened up from earth quakes or a naturally formed canyon. Have a good stretch of it blocked off and made impassible with a sort of funneled top to prevent climbing and or flying beasts from escaping. Hanging boxes suspended along the 'ceiling' that house either spectators, staff or combatants. Have some facility like a hidden landing/launch pad for deliveries, maybe multiple to place different beasts in different parts of the 'arena'. Add some naturally occurring wildlife, or mutants (again and always), maybe entire areas of it are flooded with toxic sludge, or there are timed releases of various things (fire, sludge, gravel, trash etc.) maybe the entire canyon gets flooded and the levels rise to a certain point. Combatants are dropped on the bottom and left to figure out that they need to start climbing fast as they can, seek refuge in countless caves/tunnels, maybe the caves are all connected with automated blast doors that seal people and things into the dark until the *sludge* levels drain into some massive gaping void that empties into the planet's bowels. Caves can then be filled with subterranean horrors, super bats, etc.

I dont know if you'v already made it but for a beast arena I think that it would be a pretty well known or centerpiece part of any "community" of underworld and daily life as an entertainment factor so, heaps of criminals from stubjacks to clanners around the place might be interesting?

I think an interesting area would be some sort of abandoned medical facility. This could have been a teaching hospital type of set up so there are large operating theatres that have viewing galleries for people to observe what is going on. This could then be one of the main arenas that is now being used for the main events. Other spectical could be shown in what used to be the hospital wards and it is now observed through the newly installed bars on the windows so the spectators can walk around the different windows to see what is happening. This would make for a much closer setting than is normally portrayed for this sort of thing but could make it more interesting for your players if they enter the wrong room!

With this setting there is the space for the beast house to have there own animal flesh craft ares to install devices to increase aggression and other such nastieness. And with any left over medical equipment you have the characters encounter they could make use of should things start to go wrong for them.

Hope this helps for a slightly different idea.

@Asgard
Thanks for the Input! I actualyl tried to keep myself away from "the Underhive" since I want to keep it in a comfortable reach for those with the wealth to view the shows.
The food plant is an interesting idea, the tanks will make good arenas, for sure. But I think I am not going to have to many "random stuff" around. The BeastHouse seem to be professional, I expect they have cleaned the area before they set up shop there.

@Hellforger
Hi there! Thanks for the input, but I actually envisoned the place to be not part of a community but rather a little "stand-alone island" somewhere. The beast I intend to show there are gathered from far away or being expensivley "engineered", so I expect tickets to go for about 100 thrones an evening. Thus, I do not expect much of the "regular scum" among the spectators. More the "cream of the crop".

@Alaric
That´s an interesting one. And a concept which was not used for an ARENA, for sure. The rather small and encloses space would actually proof to of some benefit for the pc in case they want to sneak around. Although the size would of the descripted operating areas would for sure limit creatures to be human sizend or smaller and the fights would be very close affairs.

I have two suggestions:

The Abandoned Rail Yard:

Either an abandoned industrial rail yard, or a disused section of a larger rail yard. Easy access via "special" rail cars for those with the proper contacts, with various levels of comfort depending on the status of the guests.

The arena itself is situated in an abandoned train repair yard. Inside these cavernous vaults are the ghostly wrecks of half-disassembled trains, mountains of industrial detritus and kilometers of dangling, rusted chains. The only part of the arena that is well maintained are the upper walkways, carefully sealed off from the arenas below behind iron grill work and crys-steel view plates, leaving the spectators safe to follow the action below, but still able to almost get close enough to feel the blood spray (and possibly get it on them if the fight is particularly brutal...). Though heavily corroded, much of the tech is still functional, maintained by Beast House Hereteks. It is not uncommon for an arena fight to suddenly change dramatically as the floor gives way beneath as an ancient elevator suddenly ascends, or heavy machinery with numerous moving belts and grinding gears suddenly rumbles to temporary life. The Hereteks are also notoriously fond of creating all manner of freakish booby traps and interesting types of "terrain".

Rumors abound of special Running Man-types of hunts through the rest of the rail yard for the truly wealthy elite, and some even say that victims of such hunts are randomly chosen from among the day's regular visitors, regardless of how high or low born they may be. Yet another way the Murder Yard titillates, excites, terrifies and entertains all the strata of the Hive...

The Shattered Spire:

At some point in the Hive's history, an accident occurred and one of the bright spires tore away and plunged down into the Underhive in a vast avalanche of steel and broken bodies. The jagged, shattered base of this fallen spire sits high on the side of the hive, but has never been repaired, leaving a gaping wound of jagged struts, cracked open vaults and winding tunnels nearly a kilometer across. Never repaired, this scab on the skin of the Hive has become the setting for yet another arena, sponsored and controlled by the Beast House. Under their auspices, Underhive gangs wage vicious mini-wars for payment and the slim hope that perhaps one of the noble spectators might notice them and sponsor them. At other times, pit fights between man and beast take place in the broken, half melted remains of ancient generatoria as mid-hivers watch and cheer from the edges.

The nobility attend the spectacles in their lavish sky-ships, watching from above but able to get as close as they please. Their lessers must watch from crudely constructed cages and boxes located all around the ad-hoc fighting grounds. Generally the audience is safe enough, but accidents are not unknown when the watchers are crammed as close to the action as possible. A visit to the Blasted Root is always a guarantee of blood, entertainment and a measure of risk...