Three Mantis and a Beetle

With their (surprisingly freshly cleaned and polished) clothes and armour donned, weapons ready and equipment accounted for, the three reluctant combatants enter the arena. The fair-haired, willowy Arowe and the darkly armoured Fortu on foot, while the smaller, glowering Liga Burr rides in atop his heavy hound. 

The circular combat area is approximately a hundred feet in diameter, with high stone walls all around guarded from above by multiple archers and spear-men. There are four large iron barred exits/entrances, equally spaced in the continuous, curved and smooth sandstone wall but one of the gates is far larger than the other three. Perhaps as much as twenty-feet tall!

Above the largest gate is the seating section for the richer, more powerful members of society and at its centre is a stone throne. The ostentatiously dressed, pot-bellied man, sitting there, adorned in gold and silk, radiates arrogance and power. Those in the seats surrounding him, seem lesser but similar and all of them obviously crave his attention and largesse. The multiple guards here, seem as much about protecting them from the crowd than the gladiators.

The Party's main priority though, are their three opponents, who already occupy the space about 80', directly opposite them. Three four-armed bipedal creatures, unarmoured in the normal sense, they're large, insect-like creatures with obvious, hard outer carapaces and bulging eyes. They're all standing in front of a massive armoured creature that resembles a gigantic, dun-brown Pill-bug. An armoured bug bigger than four horses combined!

Liga Burr realises that these creatures were the same kind that he'd spotted a day after leaving Zephyr's oasis. Desert creatures... Probably tough desert creatures. 

Each of the three, though obviously of the same green 'skinned' race, are markedly different in size. The tallest of them must stand at almost 7'. The next one, slightly over 6' and the smallest, barely 3'.

The smallest one, standing next to the giant, brown bug, quickly squats down, before springing onto the back of his medium sized teammate and launching itself upwards and back. The short, green, multilimbed creature then grabs onto the lowest of the many ironwork handholds bolted directly into the massive bug's armoured plates and scampers up to its flatter back. 

The remaining, ground-bound, taller two, start to flex and twist their multiple, elongated limbs in preparation for the coming bout. The medium sized one, tosses several of its green-glass throwing triangles high into the air, before deftly snatching each of them up again before they hit the sand. The tallest one though, uses all four arms to twirl its twin, double crescent bladed spears, faster and faster until they become a flashing blur of intermeshed steel.  

At the sight of this skillful display, the morning crowd starts to roar and jeer in anticipation...

"Twenty gold on the Thri-Kreen!"

Don't Drink, Don't Smoke; What do you do?

After failing to seduce the heavily scarred but strapping pit-fighter, the raven haired Tanita settles for comforting the young man instead. The rejection was a surprise and, considering his broad shoulders and six-pack abs, a little disappointing. 

Flicking back her hair, she casually admires herself in the burnished mirror of Fortu's cell. The reflection in the warm candlelight is flattering but not deceptively so.

"Still beautiful", she smiles to herself.

They sleep spooned together in the comfortable single-and-a-half bed until they're awoken in the morning with a sharing tray of warm sultana porridge, fruit juice, flatbread and bacon. It's an ideal breakfast. Not so much as to slow down his metabolism but enough to maximise his energy for what is sure to be a brutal encounter.

As Fortu is called to the 'Prep' area, Tanita wipes the last crumbs off her stoic warriors stubbled chin and smiles up at him warmly...

"See you later, Gladiator!"