You hitch your camel. Being a fairly seasoned traveler you set up camp fairly quickly even in the dying light of the desert with sand blasting your skin. Exhausted from the journey you fall fast asleep with a coarse throat, hungry, and parched.

After some hours of varying between sleep and coughing up sand in your very humid tent you wake up to a tickling sensation on your thigh. In the dim dawn light you spot several small creatures with pincers trying to climb up your legs.

You identify them as scorpions, the rats of the desert. You quickly get up and slap the closest one off your thigh.

You take a few turns that to you seemed to be a shortcut leading closer into the heart of the city. However very quickly it seems that the alleys turn only narrower. Before you turned to the last alleyway you were certain that this wasn't a good idea. The roads looked sketchy enough for a while, but this one reeks of band-

As you were finishing this sentence in your mind, a force pushes you from behind on your shoulder hurling you further into the alleyway.

You turn around and notice two rugged men blocking your way backwards into the marginally less sketchy alleyway you came from. They have swords drawn out and it certainly feels, smells, and looks like you're about to get mugged.

You keep going forward deeper within the narrow alleys but your marching comes to a sudden halt as you find yourself in a dead-end. As you're trying to get your bearings you notice that three more bandits seem to be literally crawling out of the woodwork as this really seems to be the best place to ambush some lost idiot.

Better prepare for combat.

These bandits are no match for you, adamant on cleaving your way through this bandit infested maze to the city center. Marching deeper you arrive at a small clearing and you're not so surprised that you've once again found even more bandits who seem to have been expecting you. This time with them there seems to be three bandits, also counting in a bit more formidable looking fellow - their leader perhaps?

They look as interested in conversing as the earlier batch. You have your weapon drawn, as do they.

You're brought into the underbelly of the arena. It smells heavily of blood and dust. A slavelike man routinely checks your equipment and after everything is in order brings you into a staging area with seemingly no way back as a heavy gate is closed after you.

You are next on stage.

Your gate opens to the arena and you hear the crowd go wild