"It's a little harder for me to sneak in and out of a mess tent. You may not have noticed, but I'm ever-so-slightly-larger than you..." As she'd proven in the battle, she was a competent sneak herself - moving quietly on metal horseshoes was no easy feat - but her bulk meant she'd never even be close to matching the tiny insect for stealth. " But yes, I was a slave. Up until a couple of weeks ago. Most people won't willingly decide to step into an arena with a couple of adult lions armed with nothing but a length of chain. That's why most gladiators are slaves, y'see. Bad as the lions might look, your owners' whipping post is worse. And if pain won't make you obey... well, you saw the magic items they had on sale outside, right? I'd rather be beaten than have my mind taken from me. Cuts and bruises heal.

But then my owners wanted me to lose a fight to an up-and-coming gladiator of theirs. There were a handful of rather... lucrative... matches available, that the other parties wouldn't let me participate in. Too likely to lose someone valuable if I landed a decent charge. So the plan was to get one of the other gladiators into consideration by having them 'beat' me. The Master took me aside before the bout, and told me in no uncertain terms I had to take a fall in this match if I wanted to live long enough to have another. And I did.

Side note: I'm not entirely sure how much force the human knee is supposed to be able to take landing across it sideways at high speed. I'm guessing not 'the equivalent of a centaur tripping over its own chain and smacking into you at a canter', because you would not believe how broken his legs were when I managed to roll off him...

I thought I'd worked the trip into our fight very believably. But the Master only cared about the loss of earnings - and the medical bills. So as 'punishment', I was booked in for a bunch of group matches. Now, I am pretty good at fighting, but taking on 10 soldiers in one go is pushing things a little. So that's when I left the slave's life...


Aaaaanyway! Dwarves. Can't say I know much about'em either. I've fought one or two. Tough little buggers, mostly. Plus it's surprisingly hard to hit someone with a lance when their heads are below the level of your waist. But I can't claim to know anything about them as a culture..."