RP: Of Card Sharks & Oruchs

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It's Gilday, Callem 17 11:34:22 1018. The full moon isn't up. The tide is low and ebbing. Towering white clouds drift slowly through the blue sky. It's hazy and hot, and the glare of the sun seems to drain the color from the landscape.

A03: Steel von IronBrew's


Yelrona is engaged in a game of cards with four very intense-looking gentlemen, while a fifth sits nearby watching enthusiastically.

Ga'Elian walks in and looks around for a moment. He is about to turn and go back out, when his eye catches a familiar face. He quietly walks over and says, "Hi, Rona. Haven't seen you around for a while. You been doing anything lately?"

The four around the table look irritated, at the interruption. "Hey buddy, we're having a game, here," mutters one of them, eyes glued to his cards. "How about you get --" he continues, looking up, blinking at the sight of Ga'Elian. "Um. How about you join us?"

Rona looks up casually at Ga'Elian, shrugs one shoulder, smiles. "Oh, you know. A little of this, a little of that. It's actually been pretty quiet. How about yourself?"

GAME: Yelrona rolls sleight of hand: (2)+11: 13

GAME: Ga'Elian rolls Perception: (18)+20: 38

GAME: Yelrona rolls 1d20: (15): 15

GAME: Yelrona rolls 1d20: (7): 7

GAME: Yelrona rolls 1d20: (19): 19

GAME: Yelrona rolls 1d20: (2): 2

GAME: Yelrona rolls 1d20: (10): 10

Ga'Elian notices Yelrona clumsily (for her) replacing a card in her hand with one in her sleeve. So, clearly, does one of the card players, a large sweaty bald-headed man.

The bald-headed man slams a meaty fist down on the table, disturbing several piles of coins, the largest of which is near Rona. "Yer a lousy cheater! No wonder you been winnin'! Ain't nobody supposed to beat us the way Vinny set up the cards -- uh, I mean, yer a lousy cheater!!!" The others put their cards down, getting to their feet angrily as well.

Ga'Elian arches an eyebrow, and responds to the man, "I would be no good in this sort of game, but I will vie against thee in a contest of..." then stops talking as the bald man interjects. Elian steps back to give the cardplayers some 'breathing space'.

Yelrona rises to her feet gracefully, backs a few feet away from the table. "Better at it than any of you," she objects, "but yeah, that was clumsy." She shrugs, glances over her shoulder at Elian. "I think they might vie against you in a contest of slicing-open if you don't get going. My fight." Sure enough, some daggers are starting to appear.

The last man around the table, who had been watching the game, backpedals against the wall and looks around for somewhere to hide.

GAME: Ga'Elian rolls Acrobatics: (15)+7: 22

Ga'Elian suddenly jumps up onto a tabletop next to Yelrona, drawing his rapier in mid-jump, and landing like an olympic gymnast with blade ready for a strike. He says, "I shall have no quarrel with any of you, so long as ye leave the lady be."

GAME: Ga'Elian rolls intimidate: (10)+1: 11

GAME: Yelrona rolls 1d20+7-4: (9)+7+-4: 12

GAME: Yelrona rolls intimidate: (14)+6: 20

Yelrona smirks and gives Ga'Elian an approving glance out of the corner of her eye. "Showoff." Her rapier appears in her own hand, and she moves quickly to flank the cardplayer nearest the table, whipping the non-pointy side of her blade harmlessly but still impressively quickly against his butt. "Yeah. And while you're at it, let's say you return my friend over there the money you cheated him out of... plus ten percent for his troubles... and we'll call it even. I really hate having to clean up blood."

GAME: Yelrona rolls 1d20: (8): 8

GAME: Yelrona rolls 1d20: (20): 20

GAME: Yelrona rolls 1d20: (5): 5

GAME: Yelrona rolls 1d20: (8): 8

Three of the card-players back away slowly and run away quickly, leaving both cards and coins on the table. The fourth squints his eyes and his face turns red, but he makes no move to attack, looking back and forth between the two.

Ga'Elian grins toward the spunky Llyranesi, and says to the unimpressed cardplayer, "Thou hast something to say, then?" He looks the man over, taking special note of how tough an opponent he seems likely to be.

<OOC> Yelrona says, "He seems like a perfectly ordinary human. He'd be lucky to land a blow on either of us and has no chance of winning a fight."

The last man looks around, realizing that his friends have abandoned him and he's outnumbered _and_ outbladed. Still, he stands his ground. "That's all the money I've got," he mutters, indicating the table. "My wife'll kill me if I lose it. Not giving it to _him_," he insists, indicating the man by the wall.

"Should've thought of that before you helped your friends take it from him in the first place," Yelrona replies with a shrug, and sheaths her blade. She turns her back contemptuously (and perhaps foolishly) on the man and begins scooping up coins and cards. At the sight of her back his grip on his dagger tightens.

GAME: Ga'Elian rolls Sense Motive: (10)+5: 15

<OOC> Yelrona says, "He's psyching himself up to attack her while her back is turned. It takes him a few seconds, but he will eventually attack if not interrupted."

<OOC> Yelrona says, "ALso, he is clearly not an actual fighter, even in the colloquial sense. Just stubborn."

Ga'Elian notices the man's increasing tension, and says, "Now friend, thou wilt want to consider thine actions carefully. I wot not what thou shalt face from thy wife, but thou art a great fool, rightly deserving her wrath, if thou seest not the folly of attacking my friend here, in the back. Perhaps, if thouart not a complete dolt, thou mightest be able to find some other way to solve thy problem." Elian, then slashes at the man with the (very thin) flat side of his rapier, laying it across the man's fore-arm just above the dagger. He says, "I should try very hard, if I were thee."

GAME: Ga'Elian rolls Rapier+2-4: aliased to Weapon14+2-4: (2)+12+2+-4: 12

GAME: Ga'Elian rolls 1d6+2 nonlethal: (6)+2 nonlethal: 8

GAME: Ga'Elian rolls intimidate: (14)+1: 15

"OW!!!" The man drops his dagger and pulls his hand back, stung. Meanwhile, the tavern's bouncer appears a few feet away. "Fine, fine, you win," the card-player says, adding a few choice epithets before fleeing.

"No naked steel in here," the bouncer announces, eyeing Ga'Elian and then watching the fleeing man with a sneer. "Good thing you weren't threatening anyone or I'd have to ask you to leave. What're you drinking?"

Yelrona finishes gathering up the coins and splits them into three pouches. She hands the largest one to the man cowering by the wall, who appears from his dress to be a low-end merchant of some sort. "That should be about what they fleeced you for. Consider these to be a tutorial charge... NEVER play cards in a bar with a man who has his own deck." She pockets one of the smaller pouches and tosses the other to Ga'Elian.

Ga'Elian salutes the bouncer with his rapier, then sheaths it and hops lightly down from the table, having disturbed neither furniture nor dishes the whole time. He catches the small bag and sets it down on the very table upon which he had just been standing. He looks at Yelrona and says, "Er, thanks, I guess." <Sildanyari>. In reply to the bouncer, he says, "Mead, I think. This sort of thing can get messy ere one such as thyself can fairly react."

Yelrona nods. "Not that there was much chance of that with those four. Cheating at cards is more their style. But thanks for the backup," she adds to both Ga'Elian and the bouncer. "And I cannot BELIEVE I was so clumsy! He should NEVER have seen that move..."

Ga'Elian nods with a smile. "So, Rona, you asked what I've been up to lately. Mostly, I've been hunting. Erithamiel and I took down a boar yesterday just outside of Mictlan. After that, though, I got in a fight in Sandy's closet with a feral tiger that a drunken oruch druid had summoned. Bizarre."

Yelrona blinks. "Do I even want to know what you and a drunken oruch druid were doing in Sandy's closet in the first place?"

Ga'Elian chuckles and as his mead arrives, says "It wasn't quite like that. Erithamiel and I just happened to be passing by her shop, when this oruch was taking a leak against the shopfront. I was about to just shrug it off and try to scour the visual from my brain (You just can't unsee something like that, though. *shudder*), when the brute said, or rather slurred, that there was a big tiger inside. Jokul, Krom, and I went in to deal with it, and had it out with the beast in her back closet. It grappled me and raked me with its hindclaws, but we managed to take it down. Now about the blood and damage to Sandy's inventory, I didn't stick around long enough to witness that firestorm.

Yelrona grins. "I hear oruchs can be quite... impressive."

Ga'Elian looks starkly at Yelrona, and replies simply, "Yuck."

Yelrona shrugs. "All a matter of taste, I suppose. Honestly, it's the tusks that I'd have more trouble with. How do they avoid slicing each other's throats when they kiss? Supposing they do, that is."

Ga'Elian takes a deep drink from his mug and says with obvious sarcasm, "To each their own, I suppose. So, this card shark here, do you know him?"

Yelrona shakes her head. "Not really. I happened to be here, checking out performance venues," she gestures to indicate the stage, "when I noticed they were cheating a, er, rather unsophisticated gentleman with rather too much money. So I decided to win it back for him."

Ga'Elian smiles, "Well, that's right decent of you. And it doesn't hurt to teach the others a lesson either, now does it?"

"Exactly. I mean, he seemed nice enough," Rona agrees, "but he was really kind of an idiot. Besides, he'd just have offered to buy us a drink in thanks anyway," she adds with a chuckle.

Ga'Elian nods. "Well, I should probably get back out to Erithamiel, maybe go for a swim. You wanna come along?"

Yelrona grins. "Depends," she drawls, while gathering herself up to join Ga'Elian and Erithamiel. "Is your oruch friend joining us?"

Ga'Elian laughs, "Ugh. I hope I never see him again!" He stands.