One evening a few weeks ago actually saw the denizens and defenders of Sanctuary in an unusual spot…things were calm for one evening. To make the evening even better, a few travelers entered the tavern and proposed one of the few creations from Dominus that is actually useful, games of chance. In this case, cards. The stakes were not treasury-breaking, and the attitude with all of the players was relaxed. Not even a word of complaint when the suggestion that all weapons would be set aside for the evening’s entertainment. There were two players from Sanctuary, myself and Loom. The other players were two travelers that I had not met before, one went by Slade and the other player’s name sadly escaped me at the time of this writing. The last player was a mouse Erubi that had been in town a few times before named Maisey. Maisey seemed more than eager to begin playing, even with the brief moment of disappointment in learning that there was no cheese present in the tavern when the card game began. The gambling chips were set out, rules established, and play commenced.
For the most part, Sanctuary’s players, well, did not have quite the stroke of beginner’s luck that our Erubi companion did. Round after round seemed to go in the mouse’s favor. But again, no rage or anger or threats of violence, just a relatively calm evening of playing while simultaneously being impressed, and if I didn’t know her better, a confirmation that we were being cleaned out by a professional gambler. After awhile, Maisey’s new nickname became “The mouse gets the straight.” Eventually the game boiled down to my meager single pile of chips, while Maisey’s impressive, multi-colored tower of chips almost literally had my tower in it’s shadow.
It ended as you could predict, I lost. But in a very interesting twist, Maisey gave her winnings to use with the agreement that whenever she is in town, and it is readily available, she has access to all the cheese she can consume.
I took that offer about as fast as Dominus threw me into the Great Seal.
So in conclusion, Maisey has pretty much a free cheese pass as long as she keeps visiting, the town is a decent sum of Jade ahead, and a weekend ended without intense conflict, drama, or potential death.
I can definitely get used to more evenings like that in the future.
-Aeolus