Alturiak 29th....night...the games begin.

Mr. Awesome wrote:"Say uhhh...Darya, am I supposed to just drink like normal on this, or am I going to have to go in a relative proportion in terms of volume of experience?"

The paladin laughed aloud at Riffington's question.

"That's Lady Darya if you please," she winked, "and if we're intending to drink in volumes of experience at each of these responses, this game is going to be over pretty quickly! I'm quite assured that you have vast experience in that particular area, but Nas has lived at least...what?" The woman turned a questioning eye to the elf. "Five? Six times the amount of life you've led? We wouldn't want him to drink himself under the table quite yet!"

"Plus, if Torin had to take a drink for every hour he's spent down in a mine, than perhaps we'd have both an elf AND a dwarf passed out while the rest of us sat around wondering what just happened!"

She giggled until she cried at the idea of her two stoic companions unconscious at the table.

"Okay, I have another one! I am the youngest of four children. I have never had a younger sibling."

"You are not commanded to participate in this game," Master told him. "You may play if you wish to but may also choose not to. The choice is yours."

Too often he heard those words spoken of late. The choice is yours. Had he a notion of just exactly what that meant, perhaps the words might settle in with him better. Throughout his measly, unforgivable life, "Friend Carlos" had known only one choice . . . Ever. Obey or disobey. Choose the latter and know suffering beyond the realms of mortality without the pleasure of being allowed to die. Choose the former and suffer greatly, but in a way far more manageable.

In truth, even this choice had been stripped from him long ago. He knew only to obey to the absolute best of his ability, though too often his best hardly scraped the surface of acceptable, which Preeminence then declared disobedience, and immense suffering ensued.

The choice is yours. The phonetic syllables combined to create specific, understandable words in the common tongue, but grouped together in such a way as these Masters continued to use them made no sense. Pretty sounding gibberish. Should they command him to perform the impossible, at least then the slave stood a fighting chance.

So, gathering incomprehensible meaning from comprehensible words left him kneeling in submissiveness beside Master at the table, unmoving. Best to await an order readily obeyed, and be prepared to accept grave punishment for unwittingly disobeying an order brilliantly disguised . . .

Or so it seemed to one who knew of no other choice.

Torin watched as the slave refused to join them and just shook his head sadly. He wished Jaya hadn't said anything. This man didn't know anything about choices... Probably never made one himself. We've had to order him to eat, sit, and get dressed... The dwarf wished he could 'order' him to have free will.

Still, after Jaya's counter-order it seemed friend carlos would indeed NOT be playing. Terribly unfortunate since he was the biggest mystery of them all. Ale by its very nature should have spilled SOME of his secrets. Perhaps they could get him very drunk some other night. He could try doing some more ordering of his own... but that very thought didn't sit well with him. Maybe if two people gave different commands... he's HAVE to make a choice then...

Lady Darya's comment brought him back to the game. "Younger sibling? Yea... I got me one of them... A Brother who's busy makin' boots right now! Like any good Dourguard should be!" Drinking deep from his ale, he called over Cinder for a refill.

My sister was older so I can not drink on this one.

"I am also the youngest, of eight! I have no younger siblings and don't drink either."

Ok Riff if you do not mind I am gonna change the rules of your game for my next question. I will not pose an I never statement but rather this will be a drink for each time you have achieved this thing. However I promise torin and I will be drinking a little faster so Cinder we will need another round (looks at the Dwarf) well better make it three each.

Now please drink for every 5 years that have passed since the day of your birth.

You looked thirsty torrin plus I am curious as to the age of our companions as compared to my own.

Cheers.

Nas the proceeds to drink 24 times.

"Okay okay...thats it. I'm gonna have to be mean here. I never once EVER thought of shaving my feet to better disguise myself as a child. Sorry Jaya, you're still entirely too sober to keep playing like this. So there. Nyah."

Nas laughs at Riff's call out of Jaya.

"elves don't eve have hair on their feet so I am out on this one."

"Oh Nas...you crafty bastard...I love ya right now. Yeah, good idea. Some people are being entirely too non-drinky right now. That being said, one drink per five years..."

Riff's eyelids lightly fluttered as his eyes rolled back and he gazed upwards into his skull slightly while he did some mental calculations.

"Say, how big a drink is 0.4 of a drink? Ah, never-mind...I'll just sip at it."

With that, Riff calmly and evenly took four significant pulls of his ale, and a half a decent sip.

The paladin chuckled and took three swallows and one sip from her ale.

"This is not for hairy feet, mind you, but for my eighteen years!"

Jaya giggled she had been thinking of one with the ages too...

She took 5 full drinks and a bit more than a half a drink.

"That's for the age one Nas."

Then she took a long swig. "That's for my hairy feet!" She smiled and noticed her ale was all but gone. "Another please!" she shouted out, which for her was barely louder than normal conversation sound in the tavern.

Jace finally had the chance to participate, as he took five swigs of the brew, and one for having smooth feet.

Magyc wrote:Jace finally had the chance to participate, as he took five swigs of the brew, and one for having smooth feet.

Jaya watched the mage take his drinks. "So are you 30? or 25 and shave your feet to look more like a child?" She giggled. Perhaps the ale was having a greater effect than she thought?

"Here's another one... I've never used magic!"

"Wait...Jace. You shave your feet? Umm...okay. Weird. Moving on then!"

Riff rolled the topic put forth by the suddenly giggly halfling through his mind. Now, it was true that Getafic had attempted to teach Riff some of the finer points of druidic magic, however it typically ended in defeat, or more commonly, a horrible mis-casting that usually caused trouble for anyone nearby. Or, as was the case of one particularly unfortunate village, it resulted in what would only be known as the "monkey incident." A pox on those lazy, lazy worthless animals indeed.

However, he had to a certain extent managed to cobble together SOME level of proficiency at reading off of scrolls to get some form of tangental effect similar to, but not totally unlike what was originally intended.

This being the case, Riff decided that, yes, he HAD in fact cast a spell or two in his time. Just that one should not expect that which was cast to actually approximate the original intent.

"Okay, I'll drink on that one Jaya...kinda."

With which Riff drank a with a bit more gusto than he probably should have in retrospect, draining his mug.

"CINDERRRRRRR!!!! Me and my fuzzy footed gal pal over here need your heeeeelllllllppppp!! Please?"

Jaya was amazed. She knew the mage did magic and thought then that at least he would drink, but Riff?

"I didn't know you did magic Riff! How wonderful!" She smiled up at him from the new drink that had just been set in front of her.

"Welllllll....I do tinker with it. I never said I was actually GOOD at it, but I do know a few things about it. Such as never attempt to try a summon animal spell until you're all sure and good that you've got a grip on what you're going to summon, and if it will actually be helpful in the end."

The dwarf was busy counting out the years on his stubby fingers when the questions started flying faster. Finally shaking his hairy head in annoyance he drained the nearly full mug and slammed it on the table. "I'm Sixty." He stated simply. Then belched loudly.

"Ain't never 'shaved me feet' and I do use magic, I suppose... Though priests prefer to think of the power using them." Waving the empty mug at one of the Barmaids he called a little louder "And I'm needin' some more of this!"