Selected Day-Trips within inner Thagwar precincts

(Yet more select locales from the Primal City of Thagwar)

Circus Demonicus (#22/31, #295/365) 

The Port Blacksand Sports Arena. The Gladiatorial Park of Ashkyos. The Arena of Death upon Blood Island. The Circus Mirabilis in the vibrant city of Bakulan, capital of far and distant Shabak. The Tourney of the Planes!

These are but all mere sideshows to the ongoing event of the millenia, the Circus Demonicus, the Colosseum Abominablis, the Arena of Ultimate Doom, within the corrupt and decadent avenues of Thagwar the Primal City!

The Circus is an enormous stone-tiered gladiatorial colosseum within the Sword Quarter of Thagwar, capable of holding between 100,000 to 200,000 Demon spectators, depending upon the available of portal-mirrors, pocket dimensions and trans-ocular spaces. It hosts some of the most incredible contests of the ages, and the current top three weekly happenings, guaranteed to sit scaly bums on seats are the following:

1. Gladiator Combat. Fighting mano-a-mano may be the simplest form of conflict within the Macrocosmos but it is still the most popular, particularly with a rotating card of fighters including some of the most ferocious monsters and demons ever seen, pitted against a spectacular array of mighty Heroes, occasional Demigods, warrior Titans and extra-planar Champions. These bouts are held two times a week, typically on Moonsday and Windsday, with 3-4 scheduled fights on the card. A typical card for any given night might read as follows:
1. FIGHT #1! Sir Versabian of the Fifth Wall Battalion versus the Iron Demon, Kerintha of the Twin Sabres
   
2. FIGHT #2! Kurgoth of the Wastes, Conqueror of Calah versus Vilefor the Purple Dragon of Deathtrap Dungeon IV!
   
3. FIGHT #3! The Lost Centurion, Raskos Half-Troll versus P'lynthe, the Grand Corruptor and Warrior of Shadows
   
4. FIGHT #4! Grang, Avatar of Osmani, God of Mercenaries versus Electron, Elemental Demiurge and Lord of Thunder Beasts!
   
2. Wheelie Races. Unlike on Titan, where Wheelie Races are contested by individual creatures on a solo basis, here in the Pit 4-8 Wheelies organize themselves into a team to carry a rusted iron hulk for as many laps around the Circus as they can endure, until only one team's vehicle is still perambulating. Complicating matters are rules stipulating the hulks double as fighting platforms for Imp, Gremlin, Troglodyte and Scuttlie clans, who conduct running battles with all the other teams as the Wheelies race around the circuit. The best team therefore has the strongest, fastest Wheelies and the most organized and tactical passenger-militias.
   
3. Orc Knees. This popular Orcish past-time is also popular in the Pit, especially since revolutionary regeneration magic allows for the recreation of losing teams, without too many penalties, after they have been eaten by the winners. The best Orc players from Titan are lured to the Pit with the promise of unlimited riches should they join with one of the premier Quarters' teams. Some Quarters, in a bid to catch up, are experimenting with non-Orcs, including Goblins, Trolls and Ogres, to find hidden pathways to success. There are at least two divisions of Thagwar Quarters teams, and on Seaday or Fireday most of them will be battling it out for supremacy at the Circus Demonicus.
   

Lord of the Circus is a Snakespawn, Ophidiophagus the Immense (strong, charming), who runs a slick professional outfit, aided immeasurably by organized teams of Accursed, who run tight security, training, and containment protocols. Hawkers wander the stands selling all manner of food and beverages, mostly intoxicants, while bookies, touts and scalpers line the concourse, attempting to entice the unwary with transactions of dubious provenance.

The Gardens of Unrelenting Decay (#23/31, #296/365)  

The Gardens, who give their name to their own Quarter, are a slough of despair, an awkward wander through decaying pathways of rotting foliage, of a bewildering array of plants and fungi drawn from across the Macrocosmos and then left to either rot or strive. Making things difficult for pedestrians, pet-walkers, commuters and wayfarers are carnivorous vegetation, roaming gangs of bandits and robbers, and factional divides between different gardener-tribes, including devotees of Myknosis and the Darkthorn, as well as covert operatives of both Thozer and the Free Fungus Front.

"As the people of Thagwar say,

DO NOT go down to the garden to play!"

The Glass Menagerie of Indescribable Horror (#24/31, #297/365)  

The Menagerie is an immense series of glass tanks housing hideous creatures from across the Macrocosmos, usually aligned to some wacky and impracticable theme or idea. After an exhibition the creatures will be returned to their native habitats. Currently the big idea is 'Marine Apex Predators', and thus three enormous aquariums separately house an Island Beast, a Sky Manta, and the Black Whale (the Black Whale is also restrained with a Psionic Lock as a result of developing psychic powers in its transition to the Demonic Pit). Accompanying mini-exhibits include various sea reptiles (Plesiosaurus, Elasmosaurus, Tylosaurus and Nothosaurus), several Kraken, and a nest of Sea Serpents, among other spectacles.

The Menagerie is maintained by Ishkarim workers, armed with stun-staves, and overseen by Janoth the Jovial (part-metal, good-humoured), a Venom Demon who, owing to work-related injuries, has replaced substantial amounts of body parts with robotic alternatives, including a poisonous tail-sting that injects a strong sedative, and three of five heads which breathe sleeping, befuddling, or fea-causing gas. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Janoth is also part of a secret cyborg collective including Bitis Beast-Mech, and the Machine Mage (below). 

The Vorpit Machine Foundry: A Machine God! (#25/31, #298/365)  

The Vorpit Machine Foundry is a successful franchise of iron-smiths, whose VMF logo is often seen across Thagwar. Staffed by competent Vorpit smiths, their iron implements, weapons and armour are a byword for reliability upon the Plane of Rust, so much so they supply the Circus Demonicus with weaponry and armour, as well as sponsor the most currently successful Orc Knees squad ('Foundry Quarter Irons') and manage their own champion Wheelie Race team ('Team VMF').

This unprecedented success is all due to their cunning hidden master-mind, none other than the Machine Mage, Vth-Lq-Srv. Once a Rust Demon, the Machine Mage has been subdivided into a series of metal and glass canisters and compartments, each containing a vital function of the creature, and connected together and interacted with, via a strange mirror-screen terminal; in short, a demonic fungal supercomputer! Strengthening the Machine Mage's powers is its ability to easily swap different in/outputs, allowing it to access a greater variety of data than the simple spore-based tech of its predecessors. 

With such power comes jealousy however, and the Machine Mage is currently keeping a low profile to avoid various diverse enemies including agents of the First Overlord, terrified of its power; rival machine factions from the Planes of Platinum and Steel, intent on clamping down on such an upstart disruptor; and various plant and fungi related causes, include Mould Monks, Clerics of Corruption and the Free Fungus Front, all happy to slay a traitor to the rise of sessile vegetational supremacy.