In The Cards

Gambling is a pastime frequently called immoral by the people who aren't very good at it. Of course, all gambling needn't concern money. In fact, there are some of us whose entire life is a game with high stakes and a crooked dealer.

Excerpt from 'Ruminations Of A Master Bard'

The first tent Zaerini and her companions entered was a small one, with no sign outside. Once they got inside they paused for a moment to allow their eyes to adjust to the faint light inside. After a few seconds they realized that this didn't seem to be an ordinary shop, but a fortune teller's tent. There was a small table covered with a purple cloth, and on the table stood a crystal ball. The smell of incense was heavy in the air, cloying and sweet. It made Rini feel like gagging, she'd never been able to stand that smell. The fortune teller herself was a stately middle-aged woman, dressed in mage robes that implied she was a genuine diviner rather than a con-artist. She stood by the table, speaking in a low and angry voice with a man, another mage by the looks of it. He seemed absolutely furious with the woman, and he was shaking his fist beneath her nose. Then he noticed the three adventurers and turned towards them, his face almost purple with rage.

"You there, stay back!!", he threatened. "If any of you come any closer, I'll kill her. I'm serious. Don't make me do it. All I have to do is say the last word of my spell and she'll die."

Rini didn't doubt that he meant it. He certainly looked crazy enough. "What's this all about?" she asked cautiously.

"She's a witch. She'll use her magics to poison the children of this town. She'll butcher the livestock and she'll seduce the young men, make them her puppets. She must be killed!" The man was almost frothing at the mouth by now.

Rini snorted with amusement. "What are you talking about? Why the prejudice against a magic user? You said it yourself that you're a mage. After all, aren't you going to kill her with your "magic word?" Get a hold of yourself, you idiot."

The mans eyes almost popped out of their sockets. "Are you mocking me? No one mocks the great Zordral. You will pay for your insolence!" The 'great Zordral' immediately triggered a mirror image, causing four identical copies of himself to spring into existence around him. The Magic Missiles cast by the bard and the Red Wizard made sure they didn't last long though. Zordral hissed with anger and cast another spell, summoning a large wolf that leapt towards the adventurers, growling and snapping. Before it could reach them a swarm of angry kobolds out of Edwin's wand started pelting it with arrows, and Rini and Imoen were using their own bows against the enemy wizard. After being hit with a couple of arrows the wolf was hurting and very angry. It turned on the human closest to it, who just happened to be Zordral. Strong jaws crushed his hand before he could cast another spell, and he screamed with pain before being covered by a pile of yipping kobolds. Each one of the creatures might not look like much, but their small teeth were very sharp. Zordral didn't get up again, and as for the wolf it made a rapid escape out of the tent.

"Thank you for rescuing me", the diviner said after the kobolds had all puffed into air once more. She still looked rather pale and shaken from her experience, but she recovered quickly. "I am Bentha, and yes you could call me a witch, for I do use magic. However, I have no intentions of killing the livestock or 'seducing' the young men. Zordral is an old enemy of mine, one who has caused me and my family great pain over the years. If you had not walked in at that moment, I would have been killed. The fool wanted me to tell his fortune. He was ignorant enough to think that he could take on Durlag's Tower on his own. I did as he asked, if only to try to avoid a fight. But when I told him that his planned venture would leave him dead if he went through with it he didn't take the news kindly. Few people can handle knowledge of their own future. I must thank you again. Is there anything that I can do to help you? I would tell your fortunes, but I can tell that at least one of you is more adept at that than I will ever be." She smiled at Zaerini and the half-elf felt her cheeks go hot.

"Some regular information would be quite enough", she said. "You mentioned Durlag's Tower. I've heard of that before. A vast dwarven fortress, supposedly filled with treasure but also crawling with monsters. Isn't that so?"

"Yes", Bentha said. "It is so. Only a tiny fragment of it has been properly explored since the death of Durlag Trollkiller, and many adventurers have died trying to learn its secrets. You should not…" Then the woman shuddered and went silent. Her eyes rolled back in her head, until only the whites were showing. When she spoke again her voice was raspy and monotonous. "The dark Tower waits for you, Child of Bhaal", it said. "The Tower of Durlag is your destiny, but take heed! It may also become your tomb, should you seek it too soon! When the path to your enemy seems the clearest, that will be the time to turn aside. Seek the Tower then, and let your Brother wait for you. You will find him when the time is right, and you will face him in the House of your Father!" She shuddered violently. "The Children…there are… others. And one is…is…no, I cannot see. But there is someone else. Somebody more dangerous." Bentha's brow was slick with sweat and she suddenly turned as white as a sheet. "NO!" she screamed. "The empty shell! The Lost One! The mask and the knives! Get him away! Get him away from MEEEEEE!" Suddenly the fortuneteller snapped out of her trance, looked about her like a woman mad with fear and then rushed out of the tent without a second look back. The adventurers simply stood there for a minute, without speaking.

"So", Zaerini finally said and tried to sound flippant to mask the urge of her teeth to chatter. "Seems other fortune tellers can see even worse things in my future than I can myself. And here I was hoping for a promise of a long and happy life, a devoted family and lots of fame and fortune."

"Don't even try to joke about it!" Imoen said. "That sounded really bad."

"As if being a Child of Bhaal wasn't bad enough." Rini shook her head. "My…brother", she said. "It actually makes sense. I should have guessed it before."

"Guessed what?" Edwin asked.

"Sarevok. He's my brother, a Child of Bhaal as I am. Like I said, I should have guessed it before, from my dreams and from what Gorion told me." She paused. "And he wants me dead, and I still need to kill him before he kills me. But I can't help but wonder…"

"What?" Imoen asked, looking concerned.

"What his dreams have been like." Then the half-elf shook her head. "It makes no difference right now", she said. "And I have no idea what any of that other stuff meant, except that Durlag's Tower should wait for later, not that I was planning to go there anyway."

"And where are you planning to go right now?" Edwin asked in a very serious voice and without a trace of his common mockery.

Zaerini managed to produce a faint smile. "Why, to the gambling tents", she said. "I need some relaxation to calm my nerves."

"Gambling tents?" Edwin asked, sounding rather disapproving. "You would waste our money on games of chance? (We should save all we can for spell scrolls. And besides, I much prefer chess.)"

Imoen playfully nudged the Red Wizard in the side, causing him to give her an annoyed look. "Don't you worry", the young thief said. "The way Rini plays, chance has nothing to do with it."

"That's right", the bard said, gifting Edwin with a predatory grin. "The way I play dice or cards they are games of skill, not luck. It's all in the head and the fingers, you know…"

Two hours later things were looking very well. Zaerini had settled upon the tent that housed the card tables. There were several of them, as well as roulette wheels, dice games and simple lotteries. Having watched the different games for some time she was certain that most if not all the games were rigged. Very few players seemed to win anything, and the ones that did win big she suspected of being associates of the dealers. Eventually she settled upon one of the dice games, a simple one where you bet your money on the highest toss. She played carefully at first, betting only small sums, and wasn't surprised when she mostly lost. But she knew what to look for and she had managed to see the manager of the table switch the dice whenever one of the players seemed close to winning big. Well, two can play that game, Rini thought. When next the dealer threw his fake dice, and was just about to rake in the winnings, she hastily nicked the dice off the table.

"Oh, these are really very pretty!" she gushed in what she liked to think of as her 'stupid, naive little girl' voice. "I think my Daddy would like a pair."

Actually, Softpaws remarked from her chosen spot in the shadows, I think he'd prefer tossing skulls around.

Not now, Softy. I need to concentrate. The half-elf tossed the dice back on the table with an innocent smile and tried to make her eyes look as wide and vacant as possible. Not the same dice, though. These were completely ordinary. "In fact", Rini said, "I'm so sure he'd love them that I'll bet everything I've got on them." She could hear Edwin start to say something behind her back and then a muffled cry as Imoen trod on his foot.

"Let's go outside for a bit", Imoen said and pulled the still sputtering wizard along with her. "You don't want to disturb Rini when she's playing."

"Sorry about the interruption", Zaerini said with another charming smile and placed all of her money on the table. She was secretly pleased to see the manager's eyes boggle with badly masked greed. "Double the sum if I win, right? I never can seem to remember these complicated things…" For a moment she wondered whether she'd laid it on too thick, but the manager was too far gone to notice.

"Certainly, certainly", he breathed. Then he tossed the dice. Then his face went a ghastly shade of gray as he saw the result. A two and a three. Not what he'd been expecting at all.

"Oh, isn't this exciting?" Rini said and fluttered her eyelashes at him, getting an inaudible stutter in return. "Now let me see…" She picked up the dice and let them dance around her palm, finally throwing them down. This time it was the fake pair, and she smiled at what she saw. A six and a five. Not the highest toss, that would look too suspicious, but one that would win most of the time. "Wow!" she exclaimed and then made herself giggle loudly. "I win!" She handed the dice back to the manager and gathered up the winnings. The man looked at her with an equal mixture of hate, confusion and despair. He might suspect that he'd been conned, but he couldn't prove it, not without risking exposing himself to the large crowd of rowdy fair goers who were congratulating the bard on her triumph. Rini gave him a mock salute and left the table. And now, she thought, perhaps a little cards…

Imoen, at this time, was also feeling very pleased with herself. She'd met a very nice merchant, one who sold amazing potions. The red sounded great, but the violet one was even better by the looks of it, and she'd bought them amazingly cheap. "Look Eddie!" she said. "Aren't these…" Then she paused and looked about her with some surprise. Edwin had been right behind her only a few minutes ago, but now there was no sight of him anywhere in the crowd, and it was starting to get dark so her chances of easily finding him weren't all that great. Oh well, Imoen thought. He probably just saw some interesting act or something and went to check it out. Speaking of which, I think I'll take a look at that shooting range… The pink-haired girl wandered off with a big smile of anticipation on her face, Edwin's whereabouts dismissed from her mind.

Edwin had actually managed to slip away several minutes earlier, and now he was making his way towards his appointed destination. He'd passed into the woods surrounding the fairground and kept to the dark shadows beneath the trees rather than passing across the fairground itself and risk one of his traveling companions spotting him. Fortunately it was highly unlikely that any of them would venture inside the tent he was heading for, and no doubt this was exactly what his mentor had intended. The Red Wizard's lips twisted into an amused smile. Brain Locusts… It was an old and private joke. His teacher had strong opinions on Black Lotus and all other artificial ways of dulling the mind, stating that there were enough imbeciles in the world already without his student willingly joining their ranks. Edwin agreed with this, his brain was his greatest advantage over all the pawns on the chessboard of life, and he could see no point in paying good money for the privilege of ruining it.

At the eastern edge of the fairground, apart from the acts and the more innocent fun there stood a lone tent. Its exterior was ordinary, with the same blue-and-white stripes as so many of the others. But once inside you entered into another world entirely, at least if you were prepared to pay for it. Soft cushions were spread all over the ground, and customers lay on them. Some of them muttered softly to themselves, lost in their dreams. Others moaned as nightmares seized them, and yet others simply slept, too oblivious to know or care where they were. The patron of this temporary haven for present and future addicts approached, and smiled ingratiatingly at Edwin, offering him a cushion.

"In a moment perhaps", the Red Wizard said. "I will choose a seat myself. And once I do, I wish to be left alone. Do you understand me?" He gave the man a dark stare that caused him to titter nervously and retreat into the shadows. Edwin looked about, trying to be casual as he scanned the faces of the customers. None of them seemed familiar in the least, but then he wasn't expecting that. And then what had seemed a carelessly tossed aside heap of murky blankets stirred and melted into the formless shape of a hunched-down beggar, his features completely hidden by the deep hood of a cloak patched so many times that it had no color whatsoever except 'dark and probably dirty'. "Commendably prompt I see", the creature murmured in low voice that Edwin instantly recognized as that of his teacher. "That is good, at least your absence didn't make you forget that I hate being kept waiting. Now. Tell me what you have been up to lately."