[D7, All afternoon] All the fun of the fair

All the fun of the fair (All afternoon slots, Day 7)
A tournament is a grand occasion, with bold knights and beautiful young women - or useful political allies - to champion! However, such events also draw vagrants, wanderers and cheats, keen to prey on the unwary.
Games of chance, skill and memory abound at the tournament and parade's sideline. Pedallers offer meat of dubious provenance, claiming it as game bird, and the excited crowd spends its coin freely on food, drink and gaming.
Do you have the quick wits or quick hands needed to take on Westeros's grifters at their own games and win?

Amid these charlatans and thieves, a kind hearted serving girl with long black hair fetches goods for Riverrun's noble inhabitants and glimpses a figure that until now she had only seen in her dreams. The serving girl, a noble's bastard by the name of Alys Rivers, sees much and more in her dreams. And she dreams of fire and blood that will visit Westeros before the decade is out...

Participants: any number of participants per house. This event may be undertaken while participating in any existing slots. This event takes place on Day 7, during all the afternoon slots.

Challenges: Thievery (Sleight of Hand applies) or Cunning (Memory applies) - TN 9

Consequences: - Failure costs your PC ten silver stags - you play for a little while, losing some money (10ss) but not a fortune.
- Critical failure (failure by five or more) - you get suckered in by various conmen, losing 50ss as you throw good money after bad.
- Success - Each degree of success = 10x degrees of success silver stags - you're able to beat the conmen at their own game. You earn some coin before they scuttle off in search of easier marks.
- If a PC gets three degrees of success (highest score breaks ties), then they successfully expose one of the conmen. They earn the silver stags detailed above and an additional gem worth 200ss that the trickster had hidden in his boot.
- A random PC participant in this event (whether succesful or not) will receive a propechy from Alys Rivers. What the PC does with this in character is up to them, but mechanically, it counts as a destiny point that can only be spent (not burnt or invested), that lasts until the end of our next story.

[url=Cunning (Memory)][/url]: 5d6k4 +2 BoA 15 (DP spent for a bonus die)

Nathan had been wining steadily for the last hour. The man was good, but not quite good enough. His technique was fine, but his distraction patter was deplorable. Nathan began weaving a silver stag between his fingers. "
You do realize that you speech hesitates every time you try palm a coin."
The coin in Nathan's right hand seems to disappear and reappear in the left. "
Every time you pause at an awkward point you might as well be screaming 'I'm cheating you!' I suggest you do this exercise for at least an hour every day - moving a coin though your fingers while having a conversation. Both should be seamless."


Full of protests and indignation, the man packed up his game and left. Nathan watched the man go with a soft smile.

Bold Ser Jon watched the man go as well. "
He was cheating you?"
Nathan could tell the Knight wanted to go after him.

"
He wasn't cheating."
smiled Nathan. "
He was using skills outside the game rules to give him an advantage in the game."


"
Isn't that cheating?"


"
Depends on your point of view. Have you never used dirty tactics in a battle?"


"
Of course, but that's different. My life is on the line."


"
Do you think there are those who would not kill that young man."
Nathan smiles. "
I respect skill, and he has some. With practice he could be very good. As far as cheating, there are no rules in life except the ones people with more power impose on us or the ones we impose on ourselves."


Ser Jon leaned over and whispered in Nathan's ear. "
Are you being lenient with him out of kindness, or because he had such pretty blue eyes."


Nathan grinned. "
Can't it be both?"

Raff took a stroll around the fair, taking great pleasure in beating these conmen at their own game, the money he could care less about, he made far more conspiring with ser, but the thrill of the hunt was always fun.

[url=all the fun of the fair][/url]: 5d6k4 18
Meh, meh, meh. 20 pieces of silver.

[url=All the Fun of the Fair - Cunning - TN9][/url]: 4d6 14 (2 DoS)

Daveth needed to relax. He'd been spending the day jumping from one intense situation to the next. This should have been a good excuse to relax, but when he saw what was obviously a swindler, he couldn't resist getting involved, joining the game, and 'accidentally' interfering with his tricks. I hunt a master. Ineffectually, but still, your abilities are naught compared to his. If I couldn't defeat you handily, I'd stand no chance against him.

By the time he felt that he couldn't shirk his duties any further, he was up about 20 stags. Normally, taking coin from smallfolk beyond taxation sat poorly with him, but this coin justly belonged to more honest men than those he'd taken it from. Amiably ambling, he looked for a reputable poorbox to leave his winnings in.

[url=Cunning][/url]: 2d6 4

Corrine decides to try and prove that one can get ahead, and even win, without cheating. Alas, her honourable intent is not enough, and she only gets further into the hole as she stubbornly plays fair, despite the fact that no-one else does. In the end, she frustratedly surrenders 50 stags, but slips Theomore's double-headed coin into the bag among them, out of spite.

"
Where did you leave your horse and mask, you bloody highwayman?!"
Corrine hisses rhetorically, as she flounces off.

Wandering aimlessly Yoren comes upon a cardsharp. Money has never been a primary concern, but teaching people the value honest work is always in his interest. The cards starts fluttering and Yoren beats the card sharp time after time, before the swindler concede defeat and scuttle off, leaving Yoren with 20 Silver stags, and still with two aces left up his sleeve.
: 4d6k3 14

The joust is about to start in an hour, but Kevan is nervous. The semifinal! Only four participants left... He walks up and down in his tent for a good ten minutes, before he has enough. He leaves the tent to engage in some mindless card game at the market, hoping to take his mind off the task in front of him. He plays several rounds, losing each of them nearly without realising it before it's finally time to prepare for the joust...

Roll
[url=All the fun of the fair][/url]: 3d6 5 -->
-10 SS

Ben has set aside some time to do something fun with Ellie. The siblings walk arm and arm through the spectacle. Stopping by a man working cards on crate.

"
The Queen and the Princess! Odds are 2 in 3! Queen gets ya a win. Princess breaks even."
He shuffles three cards on top of the crate. Agilely flipping them over he reveals a green queen, a black queen, and a sinister jester.

Ellie claps happily. "
I would like to try this one, Ben, please?"


Ben smiles slyly, knowing she loved to out smart others at their own game and her girlish plea was her own con. "
Certainly, sweetling, but please do not spend all our coin."


Watching closely the two follow his moves. He may shake them on one card but never both. Over time they accrue a large sum of the grifters money.

With an annoyed look he folds up his little station. "
That's it you two 'ave wiped this poor simple bastard out. You'd think ya noble arses would 'ave enough."


Ellie smiles wickedly at the conman. "
Everyone knows the Princess gets the win, and the Queen can't break even."



Ben
[url=Cunning(memory)][/url]: 3d6 15 2DoS x 10 = 20ss

Ellie
[url=Cunning(memory)][/url]: 4d6 16 2DoS x 10 = 20ss

Traveling though the fair before making his purchases he needs to help feed the poor the Joly Septon sees a group of smallfolk gathered around a small urchin calling out "
Test your memory! see if you can not find the Wierwood nut under the cup, Don't let your eye off the cup and the old gods will smile on you with fortune and your pockets will jingle and be heavier for it! Step right up and find your luck!"


Behind him a man sits in front of a small barrel with three cups in front and a wierwood nut in-between his fingers, setting it down he begins to swirl the cups together seemingly impossibly fast. A thin man with mousy brown hair and a dirty face is standing in front of the man, eyes darting back and forth with the choices placed in front of him, knowing that he was staking a months long of work in a game of chance. Streching forth his hand the man takes a guess.

"
Ho Ho, looks like your wrong again boy!"
says the man after reveling the cup with nothing under it. The demenior of the smallfolk shrinks as he looks at the empty cup. "
I will tell you what, You can double your money if you guess which cup the Nut is under."
Smiles the sitting man with teeth stained blood red from the sourleaf sitting in his cheek.

"
no no"
Says the man has he begins to cry. "
No more!"
Tears streaming down his face as he turns from the crowd and bursts through, sobs wracking his body.

"
I will take your wager!"
announces the Septon, Counting out ten silver stags the septon lays them on the barrel. Walking up to the table the process repeats itself, with the Septon also incorrectly choosing the first cup as well.

"
So holy man, it looks like the old gods have more power then your seven."
Says roudoplh, red smile leering at the Prodigious Septon. "
What say you? Double of nuffin?"


"
Yes,"
Says the Septon, "
But this time I choose which cup the nut is NOT UNDER"
And with a swift movement the Septon picks up the second cup, reveling that it also does not have the weirwood nut under that cup. "
Oops looks like I win"
, says the Septon with a grin, seeing the red smile wiped off Roudoplh's face. As Roudolph counted out the silver stags he looks at he Septon angrily The Septon pretended not to notice the scowl of Roudolph. "
The unfortunate thank you for your donation's good man."
With a smile the septon hands two slivers to the boy whom was calling out for the game, "
Here, take one of these and bring it to the man who just lost, Make sure you give it to his wife so she can ensure there will be food on their table, Keep the other for yourself"
The Septon takes off to the market to buy some supplies for his mission of mercy, Glad that the seven had blessed him with money to be of better assistance to those who have little to nothing

[url=cunning (Memory)][/url]: 3d6 16
))C 2 DOS= 20 SS, spent on supplies for service to the slums thread

[OOC: deadline for this is Friday night UK time. Win/lose money, and potentially gain an interesting prophecy and a quasi destiny point. Or maybe Alys Rivers is just deluded?]

Tullison guards were used to Dunstan spending time with the lowborn and the suspicious by now. Since there was nothing they could do, they only followed Dunstan around as he made bets and lost money to various conmen.
Oblivious to the blatant cheating they were pulling on him, the young Lord simply walked around, observed puppet shows and played card games badly.

[url=Cunning (Memory)][/url]: 2d6 7

[url=Hand of Fate for bonus quasi DP - random based on order posting, 1= first poster][/url]: 1d9 4 - a spare quasi destiny point (to spend, not invest or burn!) is Corrine's, lasting until the end of the next story, together with a strange prophecy.

As Corrine flounces off - having wasted what is nothing more than petty change to her - she passes a serving girl she recognises from the Castle, unmistakeable due to her long, rich jet black hair.

The young girl cocks her head and looks at Corrine with a strange expression and a stranger, almost panicked expression.

"
Your heart belongs to another, yet two hearts beat within you in its place - treasure them.
Something close to you has been tarnished - hands must work hard to restore it, lest a tarnished pebble bring down the mountain."


The girl snaps out of her reverie and dashes back towards the castle, clutching a basket. Attempts to pursue seem likely to be thwarted by the din of the fair and a passing mob of drunken Bracken guardsmen watching a troupe of jugglers...

Reader wrote:[url=Hand of Fate for bonus quasi DP - random based on order posting, 1= first poster][/url]: 1d9 4 - a spare quasi destiny point (to spend, not invest or burn!) is Corrine's, lasting until the end of the next story, together with a strange prophecy.

As Corrine flounces off - having wasted what is nothing more than petty change to her - she passes a serving girl she recognises from the Castle, unmistakeable due to her long, rich jet black hair.

The young girl cocks her head and looks at Corrine with a strange expression and a stranger, almost panicked expression.

"
Your heart belongs to another, yet two hearts beat within you in its place - treasure them.
Something close to you has been tarnished - hands must work hard to restore it, lest a tarnished pebble bring down the mountain."


The girl snaps out of her reverie and dashes back towards the castle, clutching a basket. Attempts to pursue seem likely to be thwarted by the din of the fair and a passing mob of drunken Bracken guardsmen watching a troupe of jugglers...

[ooc: Holy shit that is awesome! My cogs are turning!]

Corrine, surprised to have even been spoken to, can only stare in confusion as the girl speaks her strange words. She watches her scurry off, her mouth slightly agape.

What was that all about?

She wanders off in the opposite direction, pondering the words, her annoyance at the stallholder dissipated by the riddles.