Chương 15: Chapter 14 - Making Friends

Dustin pulled the cards from his storage ring and dealt out a hand to the two of them.

"We'll start with the basics," he said with a smirk. Kiara's hand included a 5 with an ice symbol, two 3s, one of which had a fire symbol, and a 1. She had come to learn that these represented tiers of battle mages, equating her small army to a tier 5 ice mage, two tier 3 mages, one of which was a fire mage, and a tier 1 mage. It was an incredibly good hand. She didn't know the exact distribution of mage tiers in the deck, but a 5 was pretty rare. She smirked to herself, but tried not to let it show.

Since Dustin dealt, and it was just the two of them playing, she was first to make a general statement about the state of the game.

"I think there are at least five 1s." It was a good statement as far as she knew. 1s were very common, and if her hand hadn't been this good, the statement would probably be true.

"That's a lie," Dustin said, surprising her. She blinked a few times. She had never heard someone call out a lie on either of the first two rounds, and wasn't sure what to do. Dustin laid down his cards, and motioned for her to do the same. There were only three 1s on the table.

"That would have cost you a bronze coin penalty," Dustin said, gathering up the cards.

"Wait, really?" He nodded as he gathered up their cards and re-shuffled the deck.

"During the first two rounds, you can call someone out for lying, and whoever is wrong has to put a penalty bronze coin into the pot, on top of their iron coin they paid to buy into the hand." Everyone's hand is re-dealt, and the round starts over." He re-dealt the cards. Kiara's new hand was way worse. She had three 1s and a 3. She thought for a minute. With only two of them playing, Dustin had half of the information about the state of the hand. He could call her out for lying pretty easily based on his own hand.

With more people it would be harder to do that.

"I think there is at least one 1," she declared. Dustin laughed and nodded.

"A fair assumption. I think there are at least two 3s." How rare were 3s? Although Kiara had one, she didn't think they were common enough to assume your opponent had one, so that must mean that Dustin had two of them himself… or that he was lying. If he had two 3s, then his hand was way better than hers, so this hand was already lost. She decided to call him out, just to see what he had.

"I think you're lying." Dustin laid down his hand. He only had a single three. As she laid her hand down to reveal that she had one too, he raised a questioning eyebrow at her.

"Why did you call me out if you already had a three in your hand?"

"My hand sucked, so I was likely to lose that hand anyways, I figured it was worth a shot." He shook his head disapprovingly.

"You only lose an iron coin for losing the round, but you lose ten times as much for being caught lying. It's better to play out the hand."

"Why did you call me out last turn, then?" She asked. Dustin smiled.

"Now that's the right question. Claiming that many 1s made me think that you had a pretty good hand. I knew that we would re-deal, and your good hand would disappear. Plus, I only had two 1s myself, so I figured it was worth the risk.

"In a real game, I might not have done it, but I wanted to illustrate a point. In the first two times around the table, you can garner some information about the hands the other players might be holding based on what kinds of statements they make." Kiara scrunched her eyebrows as he talked, trying to keep up.

"With more players," he continued, "you don't have as much information, so it's more about knowing the statistics of how likely someone's claim is. If they say there are two 5s, it's probably a lie, since the entire deck only has two 5s."

"So then you'd call them out?" Kiara asked. He shrugged.

"Maybe, it depends. If I have a good hand, then calling someone else out kills my hand, so I would avoid it. Even though they would have to pay a penalty, the penalties on those first two rounds go into the pot for the hand, rather than directly to you, so there's a chance you may not even benefit from calling someone else out. That's why you usually don't see any callouts in the first two rounds."

A few of the other people in the wagon had scooted closer to listen, recognizing that Dustin had a good handle on the strategy for the game. Kiara smiled at them.

"You guys wanna join in?" You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. A few of them nodded, but one spoke up, "I don't have any coin on me, so I'll just watch."

"No coins required," Dustin replied, "we're just going over strategy. Scoot closer together, I'll deal everyone in." Everyone scooted in.

"In this game, there is some luck, and some strategy. We can't control what hand we get, but we can control what we do with it! Pay attention to what everyone else says about their hands, and then watch to see who's armies are strongest once the battles begin in round three. You can start to get a feel for which armies your own might beat.

"If everyone was operating blind, we would all break even, since you'd win enough hands to make up for the hands you lose. So the key lies in gathering information. The more you know, the more accurate your own statements can be, and the more coin you can win from calling out others on their lack of knowledge!" Pretty soon all of the adults in the wagon were playing Royal Bluff while the small children sat on their parents' laps, 'helping'.

Rather than using money, Kiara had hopped out of the wagon and gathered up a bunch of small pebbles and sticks to serve as currency. Dustin pointed to Fitz, one of the scruffy men.

"And now that Fitz has 7 cards, we all know that his army is strong. It was strong enough to win three extra cards, so now it's even stronger. Challenging his army this hand is pointless, but most of us still have enough cards to battle each other. Remember, it's not about having the strongest army, it's about winning the most coins." Dustin continued giving tips as they played, pointing out mistakes and optimizations for anyone that had an ear to listen. Since it wasn't real money, he was free with his advice.

By the time they stopped for dinner, everyone's game had improved substantially. Rather than Dustin cleaning them all out of sticks and pebbles every hour or so, he was only doubling his money each hour. Well, doubling his pebbles and sticks. Everyone in the wagon had already learned enough to know not to play for keeps with Dustin at the table. The distinguished looking man had introduced himself as Victor, and had enthusiastically gotten into the game.

The first few hands, he had done extraordinarily well, but then had quickly fallen from his lofty streak of luck down to where the rest of them were. Interestingly, once his luck ran out he seemed to enjoy the game even more, which Kiara thought was strange. The next day, they played some more while the caravan travelled, and when they stopped for the night Kiara saw two of the off-duty guards sparring with their swords.

The guards took shifts at night, and those that were off duty tended to keep to themselves, rather than mix with the caravan. Maybe it was to stay more alert, or maybe they thought it was rude to mix in with the clientele, she wasn't sure. She wanted to see if they could teach her a bit more about swordfighting, so she made her way over to where they were sparring. She watched for a few minutes until they finished a bout, then introduced herself.

"Hey there! I'm Shian." They both nodded to her, then stood there a bit awkwardly. This had her second guessing their reasons for not interacting with the caravan. Maybe they were under orders not to or something.

"So uh… what are your guys' names?" She hoped that getting them talking would smooth things along.

"Hank," one said.

"Jeff," said the other. Wow. One word answers, followed by another awkward silence. Maybe they thought she was hitting on them and was just really bad at it? She didn't want them to get the wrong idea, and decided to get straight to the point.

"Can I practice sword sparring with you guys?" They both raised their eyebrows and glanced at each other.

"Um.. sure," Hank said.

"Great!" Kiara replied, unstrapping her sword from her back, but keeping it sheathed.

"Do you know how to use that thing already?" Jeff asked. Kiara shrugged.

"More or less. Maybe not, I'm not really sure. I've only really learned some basic steps, parries, and thrusts. Stuff they teach you real early in the army."

"Oh!" Hank's eyebrows shot up again.

"I didn't know you were a soldier." He glanced south, back the way they had come from.

"Are you deser… uh… heading for greener pastures up north?" He smiled at her apologetically. Kiara laughed and waved dismissively.

"No, no, I'm not a soldier. I know a guy in the army that taught me a couple of things a few days ago." Both of the guards visibly relaxed at her response.

"Well," Jeff said, "let's see what he taught you." Kiara went through the footwork that Jed had showed her a few days earlier, accompanied by the thrusts and parries he'd had her practice. The things she'd learned had stuck with her pretty well, and she was a little surprised at how well she remembered it all. Jeff and Hank were both impressed as well.

"That's good," Hank said, watching her earnestly.

"Have you practiced implementing them against an opponent?" She smiled sheepishly.

"I tried with Jed, but he was too slow, so it wasn't really fair. You both seemed pretty quick though, I think I could learn a bit from you guys." Hank nodded.

"Jeff and I are both tier 1 mages, so we're faster than most people. Let's see what you've got." He lined up across from her, and she stepped into her sword forms. They started slow, but quickly increased speed until she was going full tilt. Hank kept up with her, and she could tell he was holding back slightly still speed-wise. He was also a much better swordfighter than she was, but he adjusted to her level. He pushed her just enough to help her learn.

Jeff stood off to the side, watching her form, offering corrections as needed.

"When you parry his lunge like that, a quick step backwards would allow you to parry with the point of your sword. Slashing attacks are fine for unarmored opponents, but since Hank is wearing armor it's better to create space and attempt a thrusting attack, instead." Kiara nodded, and the next time Hank lunged she took a quick step back and parried with a thrust, earning a hit just to the side of his chestplate.

"Good job!" Hank said, beaming. From the side, Jeff continued to coach her.

"Now after that, transition into side guard, away from his blade. Don't give him time to react. Re-establish your guard and prepare to parry again." Now that she had scored a hit, Hank stepped it up a notch. He kept the speed the same, but improved his form and his transitions, making it harder for her to find any openings. He stopped doing unguarded lunges, and instead used his feet to close the gap. Her heart raced as she tried to keep up.