Cheers go up from the assembled group as it becomes clear the fight is on, with Vala standing back to give you space. The blacktalon is quicker to the punch, literally, than Sam, landing the first strike right on his jaw. Sam gives as good as he gets though with a strong counterblow. The two of you exchange hits back and forth for almost four minutes, dodging, weaving, as he tries to lay on the hurt. Even without a particular focus on martial training, it's clear you have the upperhand in this fight. He refuses to concede though, continuing to fight hard until, eventually, the hits get too much and he collapses from a particularly potent hit to his neck. More cheers, and some groans, go up as Sam is the clear and decisive victor in this blooding. The tinkle of coin exchanging hands can be heard as the bets come to fruition. None of them move to help the unconscious fighter, apparently content to leave him sprawled out in the middle of the path until he wakes up. Some even step over him entirely, as if he weren't there. One or two pat Sam on the back in congratulations, remarking "Welcome to the gang," and "You're really one of us now," before wandering back to their previous positions.

The ogres watch Melian warily, giving a short "You come no closer!" warning but otherwise leave her alone. The location of the skull, otherwise without much worth, suggests a religious altar of some sort, though there's no other iconography to support that or indicate which deity its dedicated to. Tiamat, the chromatic queen of evil dragons, seems the most obvious but offering skulls to evil deities or demons is fairly commonplace, and so the dragon (or oversized kobold) skull doesn't do much to indicate one way or the other. Other prominent options are likely Cyric (God of Death, Mulahey's deity) and the demon prince Mammon. The skull and altar are non-magical, at least, though there does seem to be at least one magical item in the treasure trove surrounding it. There's a clear indication of magic touch from the base of the treestump altar, rather than atop it.

Spoiler: OOC
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Sam takes a total of 12 damage, while dishing out a much more respectable 16, knocking the man unconscious. Hope you don't mind that I skipped ahead roughly 38 rounds of punching back and forth before one of you got knocked unconscious.

Melian can't identify the trigger for the glyph of warding (without casting the Identify spell). If there is another spell in there, it's abjuration, but Identify would have to confirm.