The Red Ring is the perfect backdrop for a gladiatorial adventure or a campaign focused not only on the arena, but also the double-dealing that goes on between the stablemasters and the Blood Council. Not all the PCs need to be gladiators in order to use this scenario. The PCs might be hired by a stablemaster to help ruin their rivals in the ring. The PCs can even start their own stable, with one of them as stablemaster, one as (or more) bloodbound, and others becoming behind-the-scenes schemers and saboteurs against other stables.
HOOKS
The most obvious and direct hook has the PCs joining a stable or starting one of their own, but you can use any of the following situations to tie PCs to the Ring.
Bookie’s Angle
The gambling surrounding the Red Ring’s fights yields mountains of gold for the Blood Council, as well as gangs such as the Golden Lions, and the Storm Lords. The PCs, or people they are closely connected to, end up owing a sizable gambling debt and need to figure out a way to make it right. Alternatively, the PCs are brought in by some faction to start their own stable to fix fights or otherwise influence the betting.
Stable War
The PCs are swept up in a war among feuding stables. They are most likely hired as free agents to sabotage matches and waylay or murder top-tier bloodbound belonging to other stables.
Slave Trade
Stormreach is a city founded by pirates, a city that exists outside the Code of Galifar. It is one of the few foreign markets for the slavers of Darguun. Most people find the concept of slavery distasteful, and few of the regular inhabitants of Stormreach own slaves. The majority of Stormreach’s inhabitants are willing to set aside their distaste for slavery when it comes to the Red Ring. Few people worry whether the gladiators are fighting of their own free will; they come to the ring to be entertained. The only high-placed person involved with the Red Ring who truly wants slavery abolished in Stormreach is Kolos (page 102), but he is outnumbered and hated by the other stablemasters because of his views.
The PCs could enter this conflict on any side. A former slave PC might want to free others. Someone the characters know might be pressed into slavery and sold to a stable. Many of the slaves purchased from Darguun are descended from Cyrans who were taken during the conquest, and a PC could discover that a gladiator is his cousin. Enemies of Kolos could hire the PCs to foil the minotaur’s maneuvers against slavery, to ruin his stable, or to slay him. (Killing Kolos is a dangerous gambit and is best done in the ring, where his death will raise no suspicions.)