• Open • A Game of Shells and Nels

[Rorom]

7th Trial of Ymiden 719

The Feast of Heavens was underway in the city of Ne'haer, as well as the other eight territories adjoining it. Throughout the main city, however, there were several gatherings going on all over. Within the temples, every home, every neighborhood, and especially out in the open in the botanical gardens.

Rorom wore his best clothes to the Lochgrass Gardens, where one such celebration was underway. A white silk undershirt, leather pants and knee boots, and an overcoat of blue, layered linen. Apart from that he bore his eating seaxe, tucked into his belt, a mastercraft blade crafted from blood metal by the forges of Ivorian. It was really his only concession to jewelry, other than the scrimshaw amulet around his neck.

He walked into the midst of the revelry. All around were people enjoying the festivities, listening to the bards sing of the glorious Immortals, and even the less glorious ones.

There were games on offer. Rorom was intrigued by one of these, as he noticed the mark of Sombran on the man engaging in a game of shells and nels. The man lifted up the empty clam shells, and showed that there was indeed a nel tucked under the shell. A golden one. If the children playing this game could find the nel after a quick shuffle by the dealer, they'd be able to keep that shiny nel for their own.

Of course, it wouldn't be very fair if they didn't pony up a silver or two in exchange for a chance to win the golden nel. "Gotta spend money to make money, my dears!" Said the Sombran. Rorom's mouth twisted into a mirthless smile. He could already tell he didn't like this grifter.

So the children put down their two silvers each, and followed the shells. The clams moved with lightning speed between his hands. Rorom observed from afar. In a few trills, the dealer stopped shuffling the shells and waited for the children to make their choices.

Of course, they chose the empty shells. The kids pouted and stamped their feet in frustration, but the Sombran smiled at them with a shrug. "Sorry my young friends! Better luck next time. Bring more silver!"

Rorom shook his head, and was about to walk past this table when the other Sombran spoke to him. "Hey, there, good fisherman! Would you like a game?"

The captain stopped in his tracks, and then turned his head to regard the Sombran Grifter. "What is this? A game of shells." He said, pretending at ignorance as he walked over to the table. The Sombran smirked at him, and began uncovering the shells, of which there were three.

"Let's make it interesting..." He said, putting a copper under one shell, a silver under another, and a gold under the last. "The cost of this game is one gold. You find the golden nel under its shell, you get to keep it. You find any other, well you can keep that as well, but I take your gold... Sound good?"

Rorom nodded and shrugged. Slipping a hand into his coin pouch, he pulled out a gold, and placed it on the table. "Go ahead." He told the other Sombran.

So began the game of shells.

[Rorom]

The Sombran's hands shifted and swirled around the table in a flourish before they ever touched or grazed the surface of the shells on the table. Then, with a sudden thrust his hands touched the shells, swishing and juggling them all along the table.

Rorom thought he knew which one held the golden coin, kept his eyes on that one exclusively. The shells were handled by the Sombran with the utmost dexterity, never colliding and weaving one by the other with every motion of his hand. At times he shifted directions and juggled all in one side, then would switch it up.

The whole performance went on for at least a score of trills, before they stopped, and he looked up at Rorom. The fisherman had his eyes on the shells the whole time, so he looked up at the SOmbran to confirm that he had indeed brought the game to a close.

Without hesitation, Rorom chose the shell he thought the golden nel was behind. He'd been following all through, and thought his eyes were good from a lifetime spent fishing and tracking marine life.

When the Sombran upended the shell, there was the gold nel.

"Well done!" The hustler smiled brightly. Immediately Rorom's hackles went up. He hadn't expected such a reaction from having won the game.

"How about another? Let's make it interesting now..."

There it was, he was probably building him up to shake him down. Rorom knew this game, from his experience playing games of chance against Mirq. Nevertheless, he was feeling magnanimous today, and so slid an onyx nel over toward the Sombran, at which the man's eyes shined.

"Does onyx interest you?" Rorom asked with a grin.

"Oh indeed! You'll make a killing here today friend." The Sombran swiftly shuffled the onyx beneath the shell, before he could change his mind.

Thus came the second round. Little really changed about the man's modus operandi. In fact, he seemed to make the exact same motions and switches and changes of direction as the last time. Rorom was confident that he'd be able to find the nel.

But during the game, Rorom began to feel like he was being watched. It was a strange sensation, and reminded him of when mer spoke into one's mind. Except no thoughts, impressions, nor words occurred to Rorom for a few moments.

That was, until an image occurred to his mind, that of an eye within a cistern. Feeling this was an omen of sorts, Rorom took his eyes off the shells for a moment, and looked at the Sombran's eyes as he moved the shells about.

True to his instinct, he saw the Sombran's eyes tracking one particular shell. His eyes darted, tracing it's movement around the table. Rorom held his eyes in his gaze for a couple of bits, until he stopped moving his arms and looked up at Rorom.

He expected the shell-juggler to be surprised that he wasn't even looking at the shells. Instead, the Sombran gave him the same inscrutable smile.

"There! Have your choice, my friend!" He said with a gesture toward the shells.

There were three of them, already Rorom felt his chances dwindling as the man's eyes might've been lying all along, hence his reaction. In any event, he still chose the one that his eye had been tracing. With a deft motion, the Sombran upended the shell, revealing not an onyx nel, but a piece of parchment, rolled up and tied with a blue ribbon.

Rorom frowned immediately, feeling he'd been bamboozled. Nevertheless, he kept his calm, and shrugged. Nels came easy these days, and went just as easily. One onyx wasn't a great deal for him. He could make that much in one haul. It was the idea that he'd been held in less favor as a Sombran to Charmadarst, that this one had been able to cheat him out of his nels.

He was about to turn away from the table in disgust, when the voice of the Sombran chased after him. "Hey! Friend, you've forgotten your prize!"

Rorom turned on his heel, a question on his brow. "What prize? I was under the impression that you won this round?"

The Sombran said nothing else, but gestured toward the rolled up parchment that had been beneath the shell.

He waited until Rorom took it, and then began serving the next patsy to fall for his game.

As he walked away, down toward the feast, Rorom untied and unrolled the parchment. On reading it, he found Rakahi script written in flowing style in mer ink...

I.O.U. one business opportunity! Meet me at the Cistern behind the grate to the south of Lochgrass Gardens.

Twisting his mouth in derision, he tucked the parchment away in his pocket, and promptly forgot about it.

Yet despite his initial disinterest, something in the back of his mind brought about a sense of intrigue. Later that night, he would find himself at the grate leading into the Underground.

In the meantime, he continued to enjoy the festivities, taking part in the feasting and singing, and dancing.

[Yrmellyn Cole]

Thread Rewards

Rorom

Overview

This was an entertaining thread, well written. When two sombran meet, who’s going to make the profit? Will one of them profit on the expense of the other, or will it be a win-win? This remains to be seen, as the end was open. I don’t know if I should pity Rorom for the loss of an onyx nel or congratuatle him to the new opportunity ... or pity him for that too. I enjoyed the story and feel interested in the next step of it.

Points

10

Loot

Loot: 1 cryptic note

Wealth

-1 wp for losing an onyx nel. Applied and credited for wage thread for Ymiden.

Renown

Renown: 5 for taking part in public festivities.

Injuries

[/tab]

Knowledge

Detection: Watch what another man looks at.
Detection: Splitting your visual focus between the dealer and the game itself.
Gambling: Game: A game of nels and shells.
Gambling: Tell: See where the eyes go.
Sombran: Grifter's Eye can be used to thwart con jobs and thieves.
Sombran: Grifter's Eye Doesn't work against more powerful Sombran.

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