Swamped

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Suits are Leaves, Blades, Stones, Wings.

On a side note, face cards are Scholar, Knight, and Monarch. I think only Scholar's come up so far.

Eh, why not judge. I hope you won't be asked to strongarm anyone's decision, haha

The game's called Anarchy, but disappointingly it has a very strict ruleset and scoring system

"I guess I can give judging a try," you say. "What's the game called?"

"Three Leaves. The way it works is, you take all the leaf cards out of the deck and put them in a pile in the middle. Then each player gets a hand of three cards to start off with, and each turn they can pick one of three things to do."

"I take it three's an important number in this game."

"You're getting the picture. So first option is drawing a card. But you can't have more than three cards at once, so you have to drop another card. Second option is asking the other player for a card of a particular value - that is, you could ask if they have a six. If they have it, they have to give it to you; but you have to choose one of your cards and give it to them to keep the hands at three."

"What happens if they don't have it?"

"You lose your next turn," Lisa explains. "Third option is playing three of a kind if all cards in your hand match, then you get three new cards."

"So you can only really go for one set of three at a time."

"Well, that's where the leaves come in. If you've got a pair, you can take a leaf and make a triple with it. But, each player can only do that three times. The goal is to be the first player with seven sets of three."

"What happens with the fourth card if you use a leaf card?"

"It's just dead weight. And if the whole deck is emptied out, the game ends in a draw. This is a tournament, though, so we ignore that rule and just turn over the discard pile and shuffle it. Otherwise we'd just be replaying the whole game, which would slow things down."

"Is that all, then?"

"Well. One more rule. If you have a three, you can show that when your opponent asks for a card. Then you keep the card and hand over the three instead of the card they wanted. You can even do that if you don't have the card they asked for, as a bluff, but they don't lose their turn if you do that. Honestly, this rule doesn't see a lot of use, but I have seen it make a difference in a close game. I think that's about it."

Just as Lisa finishes her explanation, Grey comes back with two more knights.

"We're at twelve now," he grumbles. Then he notices you. "Or is it thirteen?"

"Marshall's taking over for Nora as judge. So we still need four for a full bracket."

"The new recruit is judging?" Grey seems a little annoyed, but then again, you can't recall ever seeing him when he didn't. "Whatever, it's hard enough finding volunteers. Why don't you make yourself useful and see if you can find any other players?"

He has a point, you suppose. You head around the room. It'll probably be easier to convince people you recognize, but there's no reason you can't try to ask someone else. So, who do you think might enjoy the tournament?

Mark would be a good one to try...but he might not like card games in general, not just Swamprats specifically

Stacy will play, but probably go right back to sleep after losing

Is Mary Baker still around? Where did she go?

You soon find Stacy. She readily agrees to sign up, although you're not sure she quite understands the rules. Or that she's playing a game at all.

You also stumble across Mark Conchway, but he says he doesn't care for card games at all.

You then think about looking for Mary Baker, but it occurs to you that you saw her schedule earlier and she's still on duty right now. So you've managed to find one more entrant in total.

You can't find anyone else you recognize, so it's probably time to ask some knights you haven't met before. You can probably find some other players.

But what sort of knights might these last three be?

There's Jared Stilts, who is quite tall, and his brother, Roger Stilts, who is even taller. They come from a family of very tall people.

The last player is Darlene Kitey, who is known for having been captured the most of any current Bogknight, with 13 total captures, which is significantly more than whoever second place is. It's clear that she gets herself captured on purpose just to create the record, not that anyone can prove it, but she makes up for it with the fact that she consistently escapes all by herself.

The first people you ask are the two tallest knights you see. It turns out they're brothers. Apparently the rest of their family is also quite tall, but you don't really have time to get into details. What matters is that you've got two more players, so it's just a matter of finding one.

Fortunately, you don't have to look far, as someone soon bumps into you. She introduces herself as Darlene Kitey, who holds the distinction of being captured by the Marshguards thirteen times, more than anyone else on the base. She also says she's escaped every time. So she's up for a challenge.

You're not sure if she's serious about that whole story, but you can worry about that later. You've got sixteen players, at last.

"Darlene's the last," Lisa groans. "Of course she is. Well, at least we can draw up the bracket now. Unfortunately, we won't have time to do a full round before dinner, so we'll just have the first four matches."

Grey doesn't say anything, and just puts some slips of paper in an old dented helmet, then shakes them around a bit. Then he holds it in front of you.

"Pick names two at a time, that's who's playing," he says.

You draw names out until the brackets are filled. Lisa takes the first four pairs.

"Stacy and Darlene playing each other," she mutters. "Now that's going to be a game." She starts calling out names for the first four matches, which will be played at once.

"Wait, there's three of us," you say. "Can we really keep track of four separate games between us?"

"Grey and I are used to this, plus it's not usually a fast-paced game. Don't worry, even if you have trouble, you just have to step in when we disagree, shouldn't need to pay too much attention for that. Just, you know, make sure nobody's slipping cards up their sleeves or anything."

You sit and watch. The games actually move at a rather calm pace; you don't have much trouble keeping up. Especially with Stacy and Darlene's game, as neither of them really seems to be taking it all that seriously.

But after a while, you think you notice something odd with one of the matches. What's wrong, and who's involved?

Jared Stilts, who is not playing, is helping his brother Roger by peeking at his opponent's hand. (the opponent is Riley)

Someone is subtly marking the cards that wind up in their hand as they go. It might not be noticeably affecting anything in the game YET, but, well. We've got a long term planner here, apparently.

You've noticed that Jared Stilts is standing behind his brother's opponent. Specifically, in a spot where he might be able to catch a glimpse of Riley's hand, and where Roger might be able to see him.

But, if the Stilts brothers are cheating, then Jared would have to be signalling the cards somehow, and you're not catching that. You tell Lisa and Gray about it, maybe they'll see something about what he's doing that you can't.

After about a minute, Lisa shakes her head.

"Can't see anything."

Grey doesn't respond. He seems to still be watching.

"We can't punish either of them unless there's actual proof," Lisa says. "But there's no harm in asking Jared to move."

She gets up and asks Jared if he could stand somewhere else. He steps away, and the game continues on, with Riley winning. Shortly after, Stacy wins her match with Darlene, and promptly celebrates by falling asleep.

That leaves two other matches before dinner. Who's in them, and how are they coming along?

There's one that's just crushing their opponent, but the other seems pretty like a pretty close game.

There's one that's just crushing their opponent, but the other seems pretty like a pretty close game.

A girl named Rushy is beating Penelope pretty soundly.

Meanwhile, Chad and Ron are evenly matched.

You don't really know any of the other entrants playing right now. Rushy and Penelope look to be near the end of their match, with Rushy having six sets of three and Penelope having only one. Penelope might hold out for a while, but it's not looking great for her.

The other game, between two knights named Chad and Ron, isn't so close to wrapping up. They're at three sets each, so it's still anyone's game. You hope the match doesn't take too long.

About five minutes later, Rushy gives a triumphant shout as she gets her seventh set. Chad and Ron still aren't making much progress, though; they've each gotten another set but the deck's nearly run out. At least there's only one game to focus on now, so it'll be easier to catch any oddities.

Two minutes later, the discard pile gets shuffled and turned over. The next few turns proceed rather normally, with Chad taking a leaf card to make a set, but then Ron draws a card and looks annoyed.

"Hang on," he says suddenly. "I just drew a leaf. Judges!"

Lisa steps over and looks at the card. She nods, and shows it to both you and Grey - it's a Four of Leaves, and you know there's one in play because Ron used it earlier.

"So, I think we've got two basic options here," Lisa says. "We can take the card out and play from here, or we can declare the match invalid and start over. Unless I missed something."

"I vote for a replay," Grey grumbles. "And I'm guessing you want to finish the game out."

"Yep. So what do you say, Marshall? How should we handle this?"

Finish the game out! But inspect that deck when it is over.

Keep the score counted at 3-3 (so the match finishes sooner, when someone reaches 4 triples), but otherwise reshuffle and play it like a new game. Inspect the deck, keep an eye on people's hands, etc.

You ponder doing a faster rematch with a lower score requirement, but Chad just broke the tie. On the other hand, that was after the reshuffle, so it would essentially be a rematch from that point in the game. You make the suggestion anyways, to see what the other two think.

"Nah," Grey says. "It's not fair to Chad, and we don't know if he's responsible for the extra leaf. At least starting from scratch is a blow to both players."

"Unless Ron's got a good hand," Lisa muses. "But no, I'm not inclined to just spring that on the players now. I'm still for playing things out from here."

Well, since that idea didn't pan out, you decide you'd rather tell them to finish from here, and you place your vote for that.

"Right, then," Grey sighs. "You two! Play it out from here. But we'll be wanting to take a look at your cards afterwards."

The game finishes, with Ron winning. The final score is 7-6.

"Right. It's about dinnertime, but we've still got a little mystery to sort out. Anyone with a deck, hand it over." Lisa says. "We've got to figure out where that extra leaf came from. Oh, and needless to say, we'll want Chad and Ron sticking around until we can clear up just what happened."

Most of the knights start making their way out. A few hand over their decks first, and then it's just the three judges and the players in the contested game.

Lisa and Grey are poring through decks and counting cards. They've left questioning the players to you.

"So, I guess we may as well start with the obvious question," you say. "Did either of you put that leaf in the deck as part of some attempt to cheat?"

"No, and I can't imagine Ron would either," Chad speaks up. "He's always played fair."

"Wasn't me, and I'd be shocked if it was Chad," Ron says. "I'd imagine someone else's card got on the table and we didn't notice until the reshuffle."

You feel a bit relieved by their trust for each other; at least this probably won't turn into a big argument. But you're not sure what to ask next.

Wait, this isn't a leaf, it's a note from your father

Turns out one of the other decks is missing a leaf, and it happens to be the suspect deck's extra leaf!!!

It's nice how everything works out, except inspecting ALL of the decks has revealed that Rushy definitely cheated

Make sure they don't have any long sleeves rolled down--not that you're accusing anyone of anything, but it's a simple enough precaution, right?

"Just to be thorough, let's see what you're both carrying in your pouches. And roll up your sleeves."

They comply, a little annoyed, but they don't have anything up their sleeves and nothing unusual in their pouches. You ask Lisa and Grey to take a quick look at the pouches just in case there's some weird cheating technique you can do with a rock and a ruler, but you doubt that's going to lead anywhere.

Lisa looks the pouches over and shakes her head, just as Grey holds up a deck.

"Found it. This one's missing a four, it's the one Rushy and Penelope were using."

"Wait, didn't Rushy use a leaf to get three fours?" you ask. "That was the first move that game."

Everyone looks a little baffled.

"Why would you bring an extra leaf card to cheat?" Ron asks. "The leaf pile is public. You'd never be able to get away with it."

"We'll look into it after dinner," Grey grumbles. "Does anyone object to letting these two go? Their little issue seems to have been resolved."

"Seems like it to me," Lisa agrees. You nod, and the pair take their pouches and run off.

"Well, I suppose that's it for now." Grey stands up. "I'll return these decks to their owners, except the ones we're using for the actual games. You two see if you can track down Rushy and Penelope. Hopefully we can have this mess resolved before the next four matches start, I'm not looking forward to delaying Round 2 over it."

"Make sure you get dinner for yourself in there sometime," Lisa says. "For someone who likes to play games so much, you're good at overworking yourself." She turns to you. "Come on, Marshall. Our suspects are probably in the mess hall anyhow. Might as well get some food while we're there, right?"

"Makes sense to me."

You head off to the mess hall together, and soon enough find Rushy bragging to some of her friends. Lisa taps her on the shoulder and politely asks to talk after dinner.

But Penelope's nowhere to be found. Nobody's seen her come to dinner.

"Guess we'd better grab our swamp mush and then find her," Lisa sighs. "Don't suppose you've got any idea where to look?"

Auditorium?

IN THE SOUP

HER ROOM