High Sun Games

The High Sun Games was a tournament for adventurers that took place in Neverwinter in the 15 century DR. Criticized as brutal and bloody, they were ended by Lord Dagult Neverember but briefly revived by Lord Forge Fitzwilliam.

Location
The revived High Sun Games were held in the newly built Neverwinter arena, which stood at the foot of Castle Never in the Blacklake District.

Activities
Adventurers from across Faerûn entered the High Sun Games in hopes of winning both glory and a significant prize. Wealthy folk of the Sword Coast bet big on them. In the lead up to the event, merchants outside sold drinks and food (including fruits from the city's gardens), goods and souvenirs such as jewelry, water clocks, and glass lamps, while performers including acrobats, jugglers, and fire-eaters entertained the crowds. For all that it was a blood-sport, it gave the often-beleaguered people of the city something and someone to cheer for.

In Forge Fitzwilliam's revived games, there were five stages, known as "challenges", which were undertaken by up to five teams, with three competing in each stage. Magic-users could be fitted with lockable magic-suppression cuffs to block the use of any supernatural abilities. Those who survived each stage and made it to the "cage of sanctuary" would go on to the next stage. The movable pillars of the Neverwinter arena floor could be used to create a course for each stage, such as a maze, zones, and even a pyramid, and these pillars could have stationary gelatinous cubes built in. In each stage, contestants would face a variety of monsters and traps. For example, in a middle stage, they were hunted by a displacer beast through a maze that would periodically shrink as outer layers were removed, as marked by a mechanism that banged a gong. Contestants could find weapons in chests, but some of these chests were mimics. Other advertised monsters included a beholder, a rust monster, and a hook horror.

Early Games
The High Sun Games first started sometime in the 1400s DR.

However, Lord Dagult Neverember banned the High Sun Games as he considered them to be too brutal, at some point after he came to power in 1469 DR. Edgin Darvis's father took him to see the final Games, where one contestant made it to the last round, only to be half-eaten (specifically the top half) by a remorhaz.

Forge's Game
But after Forge Fitzwilliam deposed Dagult Neverember and took power as Lord of Neverwinter in the late 1490s DR, one of his main acts was to revive the High Sun Games. Forge also ordered the construction of the Neverwinter arena to host the new Games. The first Games were to be held in the late 1490s DR, allegedly as a way of bringing the city together. It also brought many visitors from outside Neverwinter, including rich, powerful, and unscrupulous people—people like Din Caldwell and Porb Piiradost, two of the wealthiest men of Baldur's Gate and Waterdeep of the day, who wanted to bet big on the Games and brought their riches with them, which Forge graciously offered to store safely in the Castle Never vault. To advertise the spectacle, Forge distributed fliers as far away as Targos in Icewind Dale; these were magically animated to display Forge's winking face. He even raised a hot-air balloon over the city with his own grinning face on it.

Finally, Forge opened the revived High Sun Games from atop a pillar at the center of the Neverwinter arena. Addressing the crowd and announcing the rules of the competition, he asked that no one leave the arena until the very end, promising a gift to each of the spectators. Competing in these games were several adventuring companies, including: In one stage, the latter three groups faced a displacer beast, mimics, and gelatinous cubes in a maze. However, the displacer beast would take out much of the second group, while Hank's team made it to the cage of sanctuary and went on to the next stage. However, Edgin's group, being there unwillingly, escaped by leaping inside a gelatinous cube in order to be carried down into the tunnels beneath the arena. In a later stage, Din Caldwell bet '20,000' on the Gray Hands.
 * A group of the Gray Hands, the elite law-enforcement and special-response task force of Waterdeep;
 * A group comprising a dwarf cleric, a dragonborn, a human barbarian, a rogue, a ranger, and a wizard;
 * A group comprising the ranger Hank, the monk Diana, the fighter Eric, the wizard Presto, and the rogue Sheila; and
 * A late-entry group comprising the bard Edgin Darvis, the barbarian Holga Kilgore, the sorcerer Simon Aumar, and the druid Doric.

In fact, the High Sun Games were all a trick, and a trap. Forge had stolen the riches of his wealthy visitors from the Castle Never vault and smuggled them out via the tunnels beneath the arena and had it all loaded aboard a ship for his getaway as he abandoned the city to his advisor Sofina, who had much of the populace gathered together in the arena for her dark purpose. Revealing herself to be a Red Wizard of Thay, Sofina invoked the horn of beckoning death in order to turn all the spectators into undead and thereby seize the city for Szass Tam, the Regent of Thay. The red smoke of the Beckoning Death filled the luxury balcony and turned all the gamblers and their servants into ravening zombies. Fortunately, Edgin and his thieves used a portal from their hither-thither staff to pour the stolen treasure from Forge's hot-air balloon and over the stands and streets, leading all the people out of the arena. This interrupted both the Beckoning Death and the High Sun Games.