Comic: Fight Night at Shanty Stabaroo

The Scene

Session 13 — Downtime in Highpoint

After dinner with the soon-to-be Queen, the party hit the docks. Guts heard about a fighting pit called the Shanty Stabaroo — a grimy establishment where bets are placed, teeth are lost, and nobody asks questions.

Reaghl and Guts entered the arena first, smashing through two fighters while Lyra robbed the crowd. Then Reeny — the future Queen of Highpoint, spectacularly drunk — climbed onto Lyra’s back to be carried up the rock face for their entrance. She whispered “I am the shadow” before dropping, face-planting, and vomiting on the arena floor. She then cast Tasha’s Hideous Laughter on Guts disguised as stand-up comedy: “I have a mountain of jokes. They are all hill-arious.” Guts hit the ground laughing. He never spilled his beer.

Meanwhile, Alora ran sound and lighting from the crowd — subtle tremors through the earth, strobe lights through the windows, doors slamming to the beat of We Will Rock You. The championship fight ended when Reaghl’s psionic reprisal ejected Cam the Champ through a window into the harbour. Alora screamed: “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand NEW!!!! Un-dis-PU-TED!!!!”

They carried Reeny home. She dropped her disguise, waved off the royal guards — “It’s cool. They’re cool.” — and told Lyra she was the coolest person she’d ever met. Then she passed out mumbling about a party kingdom.

Nobody at that table knew what she would become.

Image Prompt

Four-panel comic strip. Underground fight club setting — the Shanty Stabaroo, a filthy dockside tavern with a fighting pit dug into the floor, lanterns swinging, crowd pressed in tight, smoke and spilled ale everywhere.

PANEL 1: The fighting pit. Reaghl and Guts stand back to back in the centre, surrounded by unconscious fighters. Guts holds two beers — hasn’t spilled a drop. Reaghl’s fists crackle with faint psionic energy. The crowd roars. Above the pit, Alora stands in the crowd with her arms raised like a wrestling announcer, subtle magic tremors cracking the floor beneath her feet. Doors and shutters slam in rhythm behind her.

PANEL 2: Reeny and Lyra’s entrance. Lyra drops from the rafters onto a fighter, knocking him flat — Alora’s strobe light magic illuminating her mid-air like a spotlight. Beside the fallen fighter, Reeny has face-planted on the arena floor, crown askew, vomit visible, one arm raised in a thumbs up. Her grin is too wide. Her eyes are slightly wild — not insane, but there’s something off about how much she’s enjoying this. A girl who should be terrified but isn’t. She’s having the time of her life and it’s a little unsettling.

PANEL 3: The championship bout. Cam the Champ — tattooed, knuckle-dustered, massive — lunges at Reaghl. Blue psionic light explodes from Reaghl’s body as he repulses the attack. Alora triggers a crack of thunder from the crowd. Cam is mid-flight, ejected sideways through a window, shattered glass spraying outward toward the docks and harbour water below. Guts watches, still holding both beers. Speech bubble from Alora, screaming: “AAAAAAAAAND NEW!!!! UN-DIS-PU-TED!!!!”

PANEL 4: Aftermath. The party carries a barely conscious Reeny through the streets back toward the palace. Her crown hangs off one ear. She’s draped across Lyra’s shoulder, eyes half-closed, smiling that slightly too-wide smile. She mumbles: “Party kingdom…” Royal guards at the palace gate stare in horror at their future queen. But behind the group, cast long across the cobblestones by torchlight — Reeny’s shadow stretches wrong. Too tall. Horned. The faintest suggestion of vast wings folded behind a throne. The party walks on, laughing. They don’t look down.