The Cock and Bull

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Description

Beverages and sporting events

Description

The interior of this establishment is quite unusual. Sunk into the floor are several pits, ranging from 3’ in depth to 15’, from 6’ in diameter to one monster of 40’ (one of the deeper ones, with an additional 3’ high stone wall having downward curved hooks set in its edges). Around these are arranged benches and chairs. Cages of different sizes adorn the walls, some small, others large enough to accommodate a longhorn bull. Beer and ale are available here, at Low prices, everything from StarkerB to Casalli’s (see Random Encounter for a selection of various brews). The house doesn’t make its money from the drinks it sells.

The Cock and Bull is the center for “sporting” events on the South Bank. Fights are staged here nightly, everything from cock fights to bear baiting, terrier ratting contests to bare-knuckles fisticuffs, bull vs. lion to lion vs. man. Watt Mikekins, the owner, will occasionally procure wild animals for special contests - his neighboring businesses and the various stall keepers in the Market square shiver in their boots whenever such a delivery is made to the saloon, and much speculation has occurred about Watt’s chances of financial (and physical) survival should one of these beasts break loose. Several bookies (including Rankim Lowlea, see Random Encounter) make this their evening headquarters - fortunes (well, small ones) have been won and lost on the encounters and contests in the pits. The house gets a rake-off from each bookie doing business during the events. Occasionally, staged duels are settled in the pits of the Cock and Bull, and these draw some of the greatest attention, and wildest betting.

GMs may wish to stage contests and allow betting. Some of the more popular forms of sporting events are:

Cock Fights: (the rules for this activity are covered in Rocky’s Tavern, in the section on The Labyrinth)

A sampling of better cocks at the Cock and Bull are given below. The stats are listed as Name (asterisk indicates retired), Age (in months), HTK, DEX, CON, Experience, Fights.

Name	Age (months)	HP	DEX	CON	Experience	# Fights
Red Zinger*	36	33	26	17	70	51
Silverbeak	34	36	22	16	59	43
[[person/marco	Marco]]	19	27	21	18	47
Swifty	32	28	19	15	44	37
Slasher	25	32	22	14	47	34
Assegai	26	30	21	11	42	31
Lightning	24	24	20	13	28	21

Terrier Ratting Contests: Terriers are feisty little dogs whose main job is to catch other small animals (like rats). Dogs should be rated at the beginning of their careers for HTK (3d8 + 12, for contest purposes only), DEX (2d6 + 8), and CON (3d6). Fighting terriers are rated for the number of rats they can handle at one time, 12 to 30 or so. Start a new dog with 12. There are a few - very few! - dogs which can handle more, perhaps as many as 40, and one legendary terrier was said to be able to decimate 60, but much of this is fable. A contest is decided on the amount of time it takes the dog to dispatch the rats against which it is matched. Usually two or more dogs are matched (working one at a time), and the winner is the one who kills his rats in the least time. Occasionally the time limit itself is bet against. If two dogs of different ratings are matched, the contest would be decided by average time per rat killed.

There are no actual combat rounds used in this event. Each time a dog kills a rat, the amount of time used is marked down. Make saving rolls against DEX. Unsuccessful rolls simply cost time, while each successful roll kills one rat, the result of the roll being the number of seconds required to dispatch the little beast. If the roll is less than half the DEX rating, the dog has killed two rats rather than one. Each time the saving roll is actually missed, the remaining rats have scored bites on the dog, and 1/2 the number of rats is scored against the dog’s HTK as damage. If the roll is more than 2/3 the dog’s DEX, 1/4 the number of rats have scored bites on him - it is possible for the rats to overwhelm the dog and kill it, although this seldom happens. At the end of the contest, add the number of bites sustained (HTK taken) to the time elapsed.

A dog will heal damage at 1/4 CON per day, and 1/3 its experience (see below) is healed in addition on the first day. Whenever the dog survives a contest, It gains 1 point of experience. Each time a dog kills its opponents while taking less than half its HTK in damage, it gains 1d3 + 1 points, and its rat rating increases by

Experience may be used to increase HTK (1HTK for 4EP) or DEX (1 per 3EP). Terriers usually start their careers at about 12 months of age. They will usually live to the ripe old age of about 120 months, but start slowing down after about 72 months (saving roll against 2/3 DEX monthly to avoid loss of 1 point. Automatic loss of 1 point every 6 months).

Some of the better dogs at the Cock and Bull are given below. The stats are listed as Name (asterisk indicates retired), Rat rating, Record Time at Rating (in seconds), Age (in months), HTK, DEX, CON, Experience, Eights - the figures in parentheses are the original ratings for the dogs.

	Rating	RecordTime	Age (months)	HTK	DEX	CON	Experience	Eights
Legs O’Leary	33	376”	47	41(27)	27(19)	14	92	49
Silver	33	409”	76	55(20)	27(20)	15	126	79
Barko*	28	347”	77	43(24)	28(16)	14	112	79
Hellonrats	27	313”	51	42(30)	25(14)	12	81	48
Grey Tom	25	280”	53	45(28)	26(16)	17	98	69
Ripper	24	317”	68	37(25)	24(13)	18	81	57
Billibhoy	23	278”	63	51(32)	29(19)	13	114	98

Animal vs. Animal Combats: and, Man vs. Animal Combats: These affairs would both be handled as normal combats in whatever system the GM favors. In the case of man vs. animal, attempts are usually made to save the man (it he’s put on a good performance and the crowd didn’t lose much money on him). Animal against animal is to the death of one or both. The neighbors of any place staging combats such as these will be justifiably worried, particularly in regard to the escape of the animal(s). They are not a common form of contest.

Erinhir

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Gaming (Entertainment)

Owner: Watt Mikekins

District: The South Corridor

Grid (Key) Ref.: G05 (OY)

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Alternate Name(s):

Founding Date:

Date of Ruin:

Type: Shop, Generic

Parent Location:

The South Corridor

Connected Rooms:

Ruler/Owner: Watt Mikekins

Owner Rank:

Additional Ruler/Owner(s):

Owning Organization:

Organizations Contesting Ownership:

Included Vehicle: n/a

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World Anvil Metadata

Id: a92c80a2-8982-4475-904a-1963de9ba84f

Entity Type: Article / landmark

Category: Places: The South Corridor

Tags: fcoh,the-south-corridor-location,cat-entertainment,type-gaming,entertainment

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