A lonesome night in the midwinter of year 213, the human adventurer "Ravendish Turnpikes" is having a unlikely tense but thrilling evening in a Goblin Tower west of the primordial swamps of mourning that have overtaken a local plains with corruption and threatened the livelyhoods and safety of nearby villages.
Sitting opposite of a games table, the grotesque form of the Tower lord, in tongues unpronouncible translating to "The great game player" a collossal demon mule bent into humanoid form formed out of shadows and flesh takes his time shaking the cup containing the game dice with his enormous arms. The two are partaking in a game of high stakes, of which to secure the safety and retreat of the corruption from the land the adventurer has bet their own soul. The Demon takes his time grimacing menacingly at the lonely adventurer with his curved elongated teeth, trapped in his little formality as he considers his next action. A game of chance of which the gods ascertained on his awakening millenia ago he could not lose so far has been going smoothly, as it always does.
The very final few casts of the dice are being drawn as the game comes towards its end, the rules of the game are that before each roll is made a question must be asked, difficulty of the question is decided by the previous player and maximum capacity of points you can earn are mutually decided, not answering a question is forfeit of your turn. This is no issue for the demon with their astral knowledge, but the Adventurer, well travelled around the realm collecting information has been coping and more importantly learning what he needs to do when he's done here from the demon's knowledgable boastings and threats that he would not live long enough to use the information.
Crowded faces watch from the dark corners of the room as lesser demons, bogeymen and other indisercinable forms cling to the edges where the candle light of the game's table does not reach. Down the stair well away from the Tower lord's atrium, goblins are busy clattering away in piles of weapons and armor, squabbling, a few tall goblins walk past with a elderly man in their arms.
Finally the demon lord makes his throw, the daemonic dice, a nessecary part of his set created for infernals to interact with the mortal realm fairly levitates breifly in the air, erratically ebbing in and out of existance as to mortal eyes, with infinite sides and irregular ever changing shape morphs from a square into a circle, before becoming a viscous goo before solidifying into a two faced card. Quickly snatching the card with his claws the demon's lord face solidifies as and lips clench. On the card is the image of the prophet Ihmob, the image quickly appears on other other side of the card facing towards the adventurer.
"Your torment willl have to be postponed for another turn longer, My demonic binds do not allow me to claim my turn in the presence of a prophet, we must continue"
Crushing the card in his hand back into shape with a small puff of smoke the demon retreats into his seat staring unblinkingly, the adventurer wipes his brow and draws his own set of dice, a simple elephant bone six sided dice plated with thin strands of gold, it is of excellent quality,
"Demon, your same binds mean you cannot lie about this bout, how many points are there left before i can overcome you?"
"Ten, you foolish mortal"
"I will show it is you who is the foolish one"
"I thought you would be smarter than this, your die has only six sides. Indeed it seems for you you are rolling towards your own death. Tell me then, i will give you a easy question for my own amusement for ten points, who were the race of people to cause the cataclysm of the Age of Darkness? "
Pausing and deliberating, the adventurer replies
"The dwarves of course"
""Mhmmmm, roll then adventurer, condemn yourself at your pleasure""
A bead of sweat forms on Ravendish's head, as he deliberately takes his time shaking the pot, however he throws it up into the air and draws his sword striking the dice, and cleaving it in two.
After what felt like a age, the dice fall back onto the table, the two halves of the dice clearly displaying a four and a six
"Ha!, I believe i win"
""NoOo! You cheated, you CheaTed!""
Ravendish leaps back in his seat as the demon begins to clamber over the table overcome with rage shrieking bestially in chorus with the ravenous demons surrounding him from all corners of the room, but midway pauses and starts disintergrating into ash, in a final exhume the candle light extinguishes and the chatterings and screams of the demons begin to pursue and attack the adventurer who had bested their master.
Suddenly however the old man appears appears into the room unnoticed amongst the commotion as the demons swarm Ravendish in the darkness, dressed in his grey robes holding a staff and the two tall goblins at his side push aside the heavy slade door, with a quick slap of his staff onto the ground, the room is illuminated in light. Battered and bruised Ravendish immediately recognises them, his brother Bombadil and his close elven friend Em'k as they cast away their goblin helmets to reveal their true selves, not to mention the old man, the prophet Ihmob coming to his aide. Their carefully planned ploy to buy time and cheat the demon had worked by Ravendish being fed the answers to the demon in advance, and the divine intervention of the prophet themself to create the perfect situation.
There is no time to rejoice however, as they carry the wounded adventurer through the chaos laiden halls, as feral demons are starting to attack the goblins to steal their life-force to sustain themselves and panicked trolls are starting to break free of their restraints.
Outside the goblins are wailing, driving themselves into frenzies and looting what supplies they can, meanwhile inside the demonic dice on the table stops spinning and contorting, becoming a black colorless rock as it had always originally been as the magical presence begins to dissapear from the tower with frightening immediacy. By the time his companions have managed to lift his injured body outside, the blood red clouds overhead are starting to depart...
Hey, im not trying to put Threetoe out of a job here but i thought this would be the best medium to get across my suggestion regarding the kind of scenarios you would have in playing formal magical stakes games against other NPC's, specifically demons to back up recent development logs in their sphere specialisations.*Edit - it would seem i should probably remember the protagonists name correctly, maybe its just a alias he uses?
> Charismatic demons from appropriate spheres may want to try and coerce you without violence first
- This may vary from diplomacy, overt and covertly affecting your opinion of them, making you complicit with their schemes, joviality at not recognising the threat (like a big fat murderous santa-claus for the food sphere, lavishly laid out tables) or attempting to seduce you (resulting in the fast travel passing of time, a relationship boost, and a large deficit of stamina without much more explanation)
- Other demons might try to outstrech to you implicitly coming to you if you are of a interest to them in your dreams or making you become unconcious in the real world, but be transported to a seperate plane different, or modelled closely on the real one to decieve your perception, in reality you might wake up in the goblin prison stripped of your items if you refuse a demon's offer without bringing magical artifacts to protect yourself
> Be bound to rules and behavioural manners of conduct (or freely abuse the abject limitation of thier sphere) - they may or may not be able to cheat and appropriating the right or wrong responses may instigate a instant conflict with usually the direst consequences.
> Special demonic ritual tools, unfair dice or sometimes limited. Adventurer may be encouraged to bring their own sets appropriate or specialised for the game. Demon might even be rude enough to even goad you for not bringing the correct equipment and initiate combat, give you a working/dummy set or simply escort you out of the tower with magic immediately.
Sorry if this suggestion is a little light on talking points, but i would hope that it would interest you with its context and nuances, thank you for reading.
Author
Topic: Fatal high stakes dice games (Read 635 times)