The Second Golden Age of Oannon

[Jack of Tales]

Jack eyes the innkeeper as he walks away and fervently hopes harm does come to the man. What sort of innkeep has no ale, Jack wonders. He shakes his head and drags one of the stools over to the counter before taking a swig of the wine the innkeep left on the counter. He seats himself and turns toward the strangely named elf. He chooses his words carefully before speaking, not wishing to be 'interrogated' about what was going on. He had had too many rough encounters where questions where asked and he had no answers.
I have only just arrived in town behind you fellows. I happened into the inn in hopes of a game of dice, a beer and a warm bed. At least I'll be able to get one of those. Could I inquire about who this 'rat' is that you're looking for? I could keep my eye out although I do not know for how long I'll stay in a town about to erupt in bloodshed. Speaking of which, with the local lord dead what will be done about his possessions? And who will take over for him?

 

[Dekana]

Daniel, Fighter

"Nezzern huh? I think I have something you could help with. You see, me and my friends here feel that this town has been suffering under its recent rulership, and that a..." Daniel grimly smiles as he says this; "...change of leadership is necessary. Now of course, we don't want anyone to get hurt, as Oswell did today, but these lords and nobles can be so pig-headed. How would you feel about helping us promote stability in the land?"

The young man watches the gnome intently for his reaction.

 

[Arkhandus]

"I suppose that I can help, for the good of the town, but only if it doesn't involve any foolishness like confronting the guards directly" the gnome replies.

 

[Altair]

Jack eyes the innkeeper as he walks away and fervently hopes harm does come to the man. What sort of innkeep has no ale, Jack wonders. He shakes his head and drags one of the stools over to the counter before taking a swig of the wine the innkeep left on the counter. He seats himself and turns toward the strangely named elf. He chooses his words carefully before speaking, not wishing to be 'interrogated' about what was going on. He had had too many rough encounters where questions where asked and he had no answers.
I have only just arrived in town behind you fellows. I happened into the inn in hopes of a game of dice, a beer and a warm bed. At least I'll be able to get one of those. Could I inquire about who this 'rat' is that you're looking for? I could keep my eye out although I do not know for how long I'll stay in a town about to erupt in bloodshed. Speaking of which, with the local lord dead what will be done about his possessions? And who will take over for him?

Gyozo shrugs, "Whoever takes this land next I suppose. Used to be 50 years ago that you couldn't just buy a lordship, but I guess the crown is desperate for money. Probably another fool who's even wealthier and less competant than this one was. Heh, maybe I'll be a lord someday."

Drunnis listens to the conversation half-interrestedly, working his way mouthful-by-mouthful towards the bottom of his bottle. Gyozo shows little more refinement, similarily taking his swigs by large gulps.

"The man we're looking for is Lord Stonebridge. You might have heard of him, he's one of the guys who started the civil war over here. Apparantly, he didn't get the memo that he lost." He puts up his arm on the table and leans against it, and in a quieter, more reverent tone he says, "though I do sort of sympathize with him. Of all the traitor lords, he was the one who was punished the hardest. All of the others simply had half their assets seized. Him, I hear his entire family was hanged, and they would have hanged him too if he didn't escape."

"But nevermind all that," he says aloud. "So, you're here for a game of dice are you?" he asks, grinning slyly.

He takes a coin from one of his jacket pockets, it's a dull silver coin not of the local currency. He flips it once then kisses it. "Heads is good luck" he chuckles. "Unfortunately, my good luck is your bad luck. But if you insist..."

He walks over to the empty table, grabs a pair of discarded dice off of it, and brings them back to you.

"I told you! I don't know anything!" you hear the innkeeper shouting from the other room.

He casts an irritated glance over to the doorway, and then hands the dice to you. "Name your game."

 

[Jack of Tales]

Jack grins at the sly soldier keeping his hesitation to himself. Both men seem a little cold-hearted and Jack no longer hopes the innkeeper is hurt. Actually, he's starting to get worried about what they're doing to him. But. so far he has gained good information and staying on the elf's good side seems like a grand way to get more. He makes his decision and speaks, Your choice, good man. By chance, what are your friends doing back there to that poor man? Jack acts nonchalant and leans against the counter on one elbow while sipping slowly from the bottle of wine. He can but hope that he hasn't gotten himself into the middle of a nasty situation. He can't just let these men kill the poor innkeep, but he was no hero and wasn't about to attempt any sort of rescue. Besides with the town's situation so fragile who knows what sort of riots any fighting would bring about even this late at night. It was best to just gather information for now.

 

[Altair]

Gyozo nods his head towards the door, "That bastard is getting nothing more than he deserved. We saved his sister's life, and he's lying through his teeth." He notices your expression then laughs, "but don't be so tense, he's only getting his left hand worked over. We aren't monsters."

He quickly changes the subject again, "alright, here's a dumb little game Drunnis likes to play. Each person puts down a stake. Let's start it at a silver each. Take the dice, and keep rolling until you hit doubles or a seven. If you hit doubles, you pass the dice to the next person and add your stake again to the wager. If you hit 7, you win the pot, and each person puts down another stake again if they want to be in the next game. Here, I'll show you. Put down a coin."

He rolls the dice, hitting a 3 and a 4.

He grins, "Well, that's a 7. Here's the dice" he says passing them to you, and pocketting the 2 of the 3 coins on the table.

"If I had lost, I would have had to have put down another silver and then it would have been your turn."

Drunnis reaches into his pocket and grabs another silver and puts it on the table next to Gyozo's, and the elf looks at you expectantly.

[You notice that the dwarf doesn't seem to mind losing.]

[If you decide to play with them, you don't have to roleplay every round, you can just say that time passes and I'll tally up your winnnings and losings based on my top-secret win-loss formula.]

 

[Jack of Tales]

Jack grins and takes the dice. Oh, I know all about this game. But let me warn you..I have a damn good lucky streak. He rolls the dice and nudges the table a bit just as they clatter down onto it. Perhaps he can win some silver to buy a night and learn more about the town. Or at least more information about who this Lord Stonebridge is.

OOC: Can I use Sleight of hand to make cheat attempts? I know that past DM's have played this way but I do not know if it was a house rule or not..

 

[Altair]

The game stretches on, both you and Gyozo rolling almost nothing but 7's. You probe him about the lord and discover that there are rumors he's been speaking with someone, a mage not from the region, and that there have been a large number of strangers coming into the area as of late. He tells you that he knows a little magic, and used a spell of truth on a commoner, which identified the innkeeper as a rebel sympathizer and a contact for potential recruits.

As the game goes, neither of you seem to be consistantly winning anything from eachother. The only player who is losing money is the dwarf. Nonetheless, the filthy creature takes his losing streak in stride. Both you and the elf make about 3 gold off of him as the stakes slowly increase. Every time Gyozo considered raised the stakes, he took out his lucky silver coin and flipped it, each time landing on heads. Despite profitting off of Drunnis, he seems peeved that he is not winning off of you. He covers his frustration up poorly, scowling at the dice every time he makes a comment of "Great roll!". He begins to watch you suspiciously, but you masterfully cover up the subterfuge.

The whimpers of the innkeeper drift in from the other room. "Well, he's not talking" one of the other members of the group eventually walks in and says to the elf. "Gyozo, why don't you just use a little bit of your magic on him?"

"Not right now," the elf snaps back, "Keep working him over, it is certain that he is involved in all of this..."

Turning back to you, he takes out the tarnished silver piece and flips it again. Upon seeing the result, he looks you in the eye and says "I think you and I are more alike than I first thought. I'm afraid I must make a confession. This coin," he holds it up for you to see, "is magic, it was stolen from the treasure of the dragon Thariak and it has the power to predict whether its owner will have good fortune or bad fortune, and it never fails. I know you have some sort of trinket of your own, otherwise I would be winning." He watches your expression carefully, "Would you care to wager your trinket against mine on this next game?"

[If you want, you can make a roll, then if you don't like it, use sleight of hand to reroll. You can do this as many times as you like, though each time, he'd get a spot check to notice what is going on.]

 

[Jack of Tales]

Jack watches the other guard walk in and looks at him as he speaks. He suppresses a wince for the poor innkeep at Gyozo's remark. However, even if he has yet to win any money from the elf, the dwarf is proving quite an effective instrument of monetary gain. Jack wonders how many more coins the stoic thing can afford to lose...and where he keeps his coin purse. All of Gyozo's talk of magic stirs his suspicion. An elf with an odd name, some magic spells, and supposedly a magic coin from a dragon's hoard?

Jack looks Gyozo over to see if anything about his appearance seems suspicious. After that Jack wonders how best to cheat the elf out of this magic coin; anything that helps with luck is of great interest to him. He reaches into his shallow coin purse and pulls out one of the silver coins he has yet to gamble with. He quietly bends it beneath the table before placing it face up before his new best friend.
This silver coin here is of great luck, although I do not know if I would wish to part with it. I require no tricks but to merely hold it in my hand and it will grow warm if my luck is good. However, I'm sure I could have even better luck with two such coins! I'll take your gamble.

Jack reaches for the dice and rolls them onto the table [3, 4 ]

OOC: Funny thing about that roll, I rolled a sleight of hand check first and got a 25. It wasn't till after that that I realized i should probally find out what the die roll was in the first place! I suppose I don't need to use that check to alter the roll, heh.

 

[Dekana]

Daniel, Fighter

"I suppose that I can help, for the good of the town, but only if it doesn't involve any foolishness like confronting the guards directly" the gnome replies.

Daniel looks immediately pleased, and slaps Nezzern on the shoulder! "Hah! I knew you short fellows were an alright sort! So here's the deal; I was thinking we should look for Gilliam around town. He'll know how to get get rid of these idiot lords the king keeps sending. And I've heard there's a chance he's at the Lion's Head Inn right about now."

If his short friends are in agreement, Daniel will pay for his drink and head toward the inn.