17.1 ARENAS - THROUGHOUT THE LANDS

I. Arenas
          II. Arena Commands
         III. Arena and Options Purchases

I. Arenas
---------
The Matsuhama Arena, so called in homage to Matsuhama, the God of Battle, is a
place where the mortals of Achaea may fight without the normal losses
associated with combat. While battling in the Arena, no experience will be lost
from death, and salves or elixirs will not be used up. Further, plants that you
eat will not disappear, but stay in your inventory, although taking plants out
of your rift will decrease the number of plants in it.

In more recent times each city has managed to purchase its own arena.

Delos    :   The Matsuhama Arena     Ashtan  :   The Theatrum Mortalis   
Hashan   :   The Stadia Coronae      Mhaldor :   The Colosseum Diabolus  
Eleusis  :   Collosea en duir        Cyrene  :   Ainghaeal's Nest
Targossas:   The Gauntlet

Private, individual use of the arena is often called sparring (see HELP
SPARRING). To use the arena for spars, journey to one of the arena's staging
grounds. Once there, you may

   CHALLENGE <adventurer> [TO THE DEATH]
                          [TO PRACTICE]
                          [AS PARTY]

The adventurer you challenge must also be in that room. Have the gold ready for
any fees that the city charges for the privilege of using its arena. (See also
HELP SPARRING).

The usual challenge will result in an arena fight much like a free for all with
only two contestants.


To The Death
------------
The challenge TO THE DEATH will result in actual death, actual gain or loss of
experience, consumption of herbs/salves/elixirs/smokes/tattoos, and be very
much like you were at North of New Thera, except with nobody else there.
Contracts may be fulfilled by TO THE DEATH arena combat.

Practice Duels
--------------
The challenge TO PRACTICE will show a lot more detail about what's happening to 
you and your opponent, allowing you to get more familiar with how your class 
works. Here's some of the features:

 * Afflictions gain/cures are shown for you and your opponent.
 * Health and mana levels are shown on each attack.
 * DIAGNOSE on yourself and your opponent are balanceless.
 * DIAGNOSE will show you the common cures for your afflictions.
 * Class skills will be automatically transcendent even if you are not.


Party Challenges
----------------
The challenge AS PARTY will allow parties of adventurers to challenge
each other to team duels in the arena. Each adventurer who is killed in
the arena is removed completely from the arena. The party that first
defeats all members of the opposing party are declared the victors.

At this time, the max number of adventurers per team in a party duel is
4. You can have a 1v2, duel, or 2v2, or 3v3, or 4v4, or 2v3, or 3v4, or
2v4. In a 1v2 duel, someone from the 2-member party will be able issue
the challenge to the solitary combatant, but not the other way around.


Other Events
------------
The arena is also used for a number of group events, such as Freezetag,
Bait-the-Frog, and Free-for-all. During any of these events, ES, or EVENTSTATUS
will give you some information about the event. Additionally, if you go to the
spectator stands in the Arena, you may DIAGNOSE (or just DIAG) any adventurer
currently participating in order to see what afflictions he or she has. (See
HELP FREEZETAG, HELP FROGBAITING, HELP FREEFORALL, HELP RAMPAGE, HELP
BALANCEOFPOWER, and HELP JOUSTING)

Adventurers level 9 and under are never able to participate in any arena group
events. Starting at level 10 (or higher, if set for the individual event)
adventurers may participate in any arena group event.

Arena death does not cost experience, though it may affect combat ranking.

Once entered, you may leave one of these events via LEAVE <event> provided
the event has not begun.

You will leave the arena with the same levels of endurance and willpower as you
entered it. The same is true of many such things, like Karma or Devotion.

The arena is a device to spar outside of normal reality thus anything that
happens within the arena should not be carried to the rest of Sapience.


II. Arena Commands
------------------
CHALLENGE <who>            : Challenge someone to a duel
CHALLENGE ... TO THE DEATH : Challenge someone to a duel to the death!
CHALLENGE ... TO PRACTICE  : Includes significant detail throughout the duel.
CHALLENGE ... AS PARTY     : Challenge another party as a group
ES/EVENTSTATUS <arena>     : Get some information on whatever event (if any)
                             is currently taking place in the Arena,
                             including a list of participants.
Arenawatch                 : From the spectator's stands of any arena, you may 
                             ARENAWATCH <person> anyone in the arena who has 
                             added you as an ally. Doing so will redirect 
                             almost everything that person sees to you, 
                             along with an echo of all of his or her commands, 
                             leaving you unable to use most commands and 
                             stopping most other output directed toward you. 
                             ARENAWATCH UNWATCH will allow you to function 
                             normally once more, as will taking damage or 
                             being moved by another.

(See also: HELP COMBAT_RANKINGS)


III. Arena and Options Purchases
--------------------------------
Cities, and only cities, may purchase, own, and operate arenas. Contact your
city patron for more details.

Bait the Frog Game      - 2.00 million gold
Free-for-all Game       - 4.00 million gold
Freezetag Game          - 2.00 million gold
Rampage Game            - 5.00 million gold
CvA Game                - 7.50 million gold
KotH Game               - 7.50 million gold
TotF Game               - 7.50 million gold
Party Duel              - 3.50 million gold
Arena Jousting          - TBA
Totem Control Option(*) - 0.75 million gold

(*) The TotemControl option changes the arena so that totems are not
    automatically unimplanted between arena games. It also allows the
    removal of implanted totems at any time via an arena command. The
    removal is accomplished by destroying the implanted totems. If
    you wish to leave implanted totems between arena games, be sure
    to have these totems sketched with runes while _outside_ the
    arena. Runes sketched while inside the arena are still cleared
    at the end of arena events.

IV. Delos Arena Commission
--------------------------
We're pleased to announce a feature of the Matsuhama Arena in Delos:
The ability to commission an arena event on behalf of yourself or an
organisation you belong to!

Simply head to the arena staging grounds with 15000 gold in hand, and
use the following syntax:
   ARENA COMMISSION [FOR <org>] [REWARD <amount> <GOLD|CREDITS>]

A winner's purse may be specified in gold or unbound credits (this only
applies to events that have a singular winner)!

After you've commissioned the arena, you have access to tweak the
various ARENA commands (as outlined in HELP CULTURE), and then INIT an
event of your choice! Keep in mind that the commissioning will only last
for five minutes, so please make sure that your event is initialised
before the time limit expires.