Qingdao Arena

The **Qingdao Arena** is a secret underground fighting ring disguised as a high-end restaurant located in the Laoshan District, near Qingdao, hence the name. To the public and the sleepers, it is simply the "Scarlet Lights", a fancy Western-style restaurant, to those in the know, it is a place run by the Snake Tong and Luna Conti, people not to mess with.

## History

The Qingdao arena and its accompanying restaurant were established in 2018 as part of an overall attempt to expand Snake owned businesses and territory in China. Luna Conti, former member of General Affairs, was given a position as manager for one of these businesses due to her skill in finance and business. Since then both the legal and illegal business have done well and been a good source of income for the Snakes.

## Organizational Structure

Being a mere cog in the machine of the Shia-shi the business is fairly simple with Luna as the local boss. Luna and her employees report to Fenghuang’s corporate division captain, Aurea.

The arena follows all of the basic Snake rules along with some of its own. Betting is allowed and encouraged with the profits they make off of it going to general maintenance, Luna and her subordinates, and the snakes as a whole. Due to the difficulty of smuggling them in, the Qingdao arena does not offer as many non-human matches as other locations. The arena does offer a variety of other match types including: Fist only, sword duels, no magic, everything goes, group battles, complete free-for-alls, etc. Most matches are scheduled ahead of time to make sure there’s always something going on but sometimes they will have challenge nights where anyone in the crowd is allowed to challenge a resident fighter or someone else in the crowd.

The cover business is a Western-themed restaurant with both authentic and fusion Western recipes. The overall classiness of the establishment is somewhere between casual and fine dining with the menu including anything from burgers to fine wines. Spectators in the arena are of course also welcome to make orders but in order to keep cover the kitchen will prioritize Scarlet Lights orders first if there’s any conflict in waiting time. Luna has established multiple supply lines both legitimate and illegitimate to mask that the restaurant is going through about twice as many ingredients as it should be. Non-civilian waiter staff meant to act as secret security wear a slightly stripped down version of the standard snake suit without the jacket, fitting with the nice but not too formal dress code the employees all follow.

The Qingdao Arena also sometimes acts as a recruitment ground when a fighter shows the necessary traits to be considered for employment as a Snake.

## How to Gain Entry

Once one is aware of Qingdao Arena the process to enter is similar to their fellow Chinese Snake business, Penglai Avenue. One must contact Luna or one of her subordinates, go through a thorough security check, and pay an entrance fee. After this they will be given a code that changes daily and told to present it to the host, which activates a geis that prevents anyone from revealing relevant information to sleepers, along with stating they have a reservation for one of the private dining rooms. Each of these private dining rooms has a secret magical door that can only be opened by the staff which will finally bring you to the arena itself, as such the restaurant always makes sure to keep at least two open.

There is also another entrance in the kitchen although this one is meant for the staff rather than spectators or fighters. Putting it in the kitchen allows Luna and her workers to enter the arena while a regular customer would just assume they are doing something in the kitchen.

Aside from these Luna also keeps secret exits in case a quick and subtle exit becomes necessary.

## Relationship with Other Organizations:

### **Snake Tong**

Qingdao Arena is a Snake owned business and as such has very good relations with the rest of the Snakes.

### The Eight Courts of Crimson

The Crimson Courts are aware of the Qingdao Arena, but since it has little to no effect to their organization, it is ignored by the upper echelons of the Courts, while the lower ranking members, such as eager youngbloods with a chip on their shoulder, would test their luck in the arena or challenge a rival to a duel and use the underground arena as a place to fight in.