The arena of Stormhelm, a monument to Human excellence and their devotion to Kallendra. Looking at it from the outside, part of me wondered how many had been where I was now, getting carted through a wrought iron gate, not knowing if they would ever pass it in the other direction. I noticed that there were letters worked into the arch of the gate and managed to read some of them, praising Kallendra, who was, if I remembered right, the Goddess of honourable combat, duels and protection or some dross like that.

After the cart stopped, guards, clad in reinforced leather armour, stepped forward, protecting a hooded figure in a dark robe between them. The figure climbed onto the cart with a hand from one of the guards, and I was able to make out a dainty hand and a pretty face, mostly hidden under her hood. Well, the face would have been pretty if she didn’t sneer as if looking at something vile, especially when her gaze roamed over me.

“We were sent the dregs once again.” she spat, sounding rather unhappy. “Still, they might make good beast-bait, especially that blackpelt, she looks like a tall one. Whenever an orc gets what they deserve, the crowd goes wild. At least the dwarf should be good for a few rounds.” she mused softly. Part of me wanted nothing but to get out of the cage, to demonstrate her that I wasn’t just beast-bait. Not that it would work, when focusing on her, she, too, was shrouded in a green aura, marking her as supposedly friendly and not an attackeable target. I wondered about that, I had thought that only party-members were automatically friendly, largely so that mages, sorcerers and all those who loved to lob the biggest boom that they could find into combat, without the melees going for their throat, after they had respawned that is.

“Tell your master to bring them down, for evaluation.” the wicked witch of the west told the cart-driver and the few guards that had been with it, before daintily climbing down again and walking towards the building.

“You heard the lady, you are to be evaluated.” An average, maybe slightly greasy, looking guy wearing moderately fine clothes shouted up the wagon. “Marius, open the cage for the blackpelt, then I’ll command them to get off.” he ordered another guy, this one small and slender looking. The small guy climbed up, carefully opening the cage, instantly hopping back, as if I would instantly attack him.

After the door swung open, I considered trying to instantly make a run for it, but that would quite obviously not work, not in the middle of a city, with guards all around. So, I waited, biding my time.

Greasy Guy raised a strange looking rod, engraved with sickly green glowing symbols and spoke, his voice trying to project confidence. “Slave, climb down the wagon, move to the right and wait for orders.” he intoned and the collar around the horsethief’s neck started glowing in turn and the thief stood, looking like a puppet with its strings pulled, and jerkily climbed down the wagon, waiting to the left of it, as ordered.

Greasy Guy repeated the process with the dwarf and I noticed that as the command took him, for just a second, the dwarf looked incredibly enraged but as fast as the expression came, it was hidden away again.

“Blackpelt, leave the cage, step down from the wagon and wait for further actions.” I was ordered and considered for a second to try to disobey, but as I did, there was a pinch of pain in my neck, alongside a flash of red around my vision and a red bar turned visible floating in the corner of my eye, not quite full. Not being a complete idiot when it came to games, I started moving before the collar would deal more damage to me.

Stepping down, I decided to test further and tried to take another step after I was on the ground and I noticed a combat-log scrolling in the other corner of my eye. It told me that I had failed a willpower-check to resist the command, that I took some more damage, nothing critical yet, and that I would get a bonus to my next attempt to resist a command.

Curious, some more information. Greasy Guy seemed to have missed my non-compliance and again, he waved the stupid rods around, assigning each of us to a guard that we had to follow and obey. Considering that I had little in the way of options, I followed the smirking fool that I had been assigned to, walking into the arena.

Right next to the entrance, I noticed a slightly different looking pillar, made from a mix of grey stone, maybe granite, and white marble, decorated with ornate gold and silverworks. It didn’t quite fit the surroundings, making me curious. After we passed it, two blue screens appeared in my vision, giving me more information.

Hello World - Welcome to Irminsul

Welcome you, who has been called by the World Pillar, welcome to the world of Irminsul. You have activated the first step of your Tutorial, which will teach you what you need to thrive in this world.

Tutorial - Step one: The lesser Pillars of Creation

The World Pillar, the mighty Irminsul, was it that called you into this world. But it is not the only Pillar of Creation, just the mightiest, holding up the sky. Many other, lesser, pillars are strewn around the world, and even their power is great enough to assure those near them of their safety. In addition, the Called’s Spirit will return to the Pillar they bound themselves to, if they are slain.

You are now bound to the Lesser Pillar of Creation - Stormhelm Arena

You acquired a Shard of the World Pillar

So, respawn with a safe-zone, but not for me, right now. At least most likely, I was not about to test it more, my previous tests had been unnoticed but I doubted that would stay that way if I kept pushing. For now, I was on the Tutorial Railroad.

I blinked the two windows away, only to have a third one instantly open in my face.

Tutorial - Step two - Inventory and Character-Screen

You have acquired your first item. To view your inventory, either press the B key or focus on the small bag-icon in the lower-right corner of your vision.

To view items you are already wearing on your person, press the C key or focus on the small character-icon in the lower-right corner of your vision.

Continuing to walk, I blinked the windows away and did just that. My inventory had a bunch of slots, five on five, so twenty five slots, but only one was occupied by a white rock with some gold inlays. Focusing on it told me that it was the mentioned Shard of the World Pillar and that I could use it to return to this particular pillar. I would most likely be able to change that later, but for now, I was stuck here.

Focusing on the Character-icon, another window opened, I merely glanced at it, my equipment consisted of rags and a Slave Collar. Reflexively, I tried to take it off and was rewarded with some more damage and it stayed on.

Otherwise, it told me about my stats but as there were nine attributes, instead of the usual five, maybe six, I was unable to see a lot. Just that both my weapon-damage and armour were nonexistent, making any aggressive actions a risky proposition.

I followed the guard into the arena, walking down a relatively narrow hallway, this one not made from the same light material as outside, the stones were a darker grey and they looked less smooth, which made me guess that we were in the employee’s only section of the arena, where they didn’t care so much about looking good.

But, down we went and the dwarf and the horse-thief were sent into another hallway, while I was walking down into the warren that seemed to be beneath the arena. I did my best to make a mental map, as a minimap seemed to be something that Irminsul was missing. Maybe I had to unlock it, or maybe it was deactivated to increase the tension of my eventual prison break. Because if I was certain of one thing, it was that I wouldn’t stay here long. I just had to figure out how to get around the collar, the guards and, optimally, out of town, all without catching a severe case of death. It was good that the guard was walking in front of me, confident that the collar subdued me, or the wide smile on my face might have been a give-away that I was planning something.