Swamped

seven?

You drop the seven, and Starling takes a turn.

She draws a card, then looks around for a while before glancing at Rivers. She puts down the card she just drew; it's a Seven of Stones.

"Rivers, I'm betting this matches your card's suit."

"How much of a bet?" Rivers asks.

"Oh... oh. Two cards?" She looks unsure?

"Well, you lose. Hand 'em over."

Starling passes two cards along to Rivers, and now it's your turn. You draw a Nine of Leaves.

What's your move? Suit, rank, pass, or challenge?

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I didn't say it explicitly, but Rivers drew a card before giving her challenge.

Status of the game:

Your cards: Nine of Blades, Six of Leaves, Two of Stones, Seven of Blades, Ace of Leaves, Nine of Leaves

Starling has six cards in hand. Details below, since this is the first I've noted it.

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Started with six.
Used one in the challenge. (5)
Gained three. (8)
Discarded. (7)
Drew. (8; no discard necessary until after playing)
Lost two in a bet. (6)

Rivers has seven cards in hand.

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Started with six.
Drew one (7).
Used one in the challenge (6).
Discarded one due to failing the challenge (5).
Won two from Starling's bet. (7)

Just realized if we can win this game, or play it in a way to let Starling win, we might get a little more respect from Rivers.

Rivers does not have stones.

We haven't seen any Wings yet.

Actually, knowing Starling, she likely chose a wing card if she had one - the design is more intricate on those.

Let's pass and hold onto the leaves card.

After a careful review of what you know, you opt to pass. Might as well hold on to as many leaf cards as you can.

"Pass," you say.

"Ugh, it took you that long to decide and you're just doing nothing?" Rivers grumbles, picking up her next card. "I thought the point was to avoid being bored while we wait."

"I wanted to be sure I wasn't overlooking something," you mutter. But she has a point; you could be thinking ahead more on the other players' turns to speed things up.

Rivers' card isn't a Stone. Other than that, all you know for sure is which cards have shown up in play.

Which is quite a few, actually. You know seven from your initial hand, two more from Rivers' hand, and one from Starling's. Plus the one she drew last turn. That's eleven cards you can rule out, and only a few were Stones, so the options for Rivers' cards are even fewer.

Which means...

"Suit," Rivers says, putting down a Knight of Leaves and staring at you. "See, that didn't take so long, did it?"

"How many cards?" you ask, trying not to sound worried. At least it'll take a while for them to guess your rank.

"Three," she says calmly. "So. Right or wrong?"

"You're right." Damn! That's going to hurt. That's just enough to hold onto all your Leaves, though.

But should you do that? Or is there a reason to take another option?

SpoilerShow

Your cards: Nine of Blades, Six of Leaves, Two of Stones, Seven of Blades, Ace of Leaves, Nine of Leaves

ditch everything besides the leaves. that way someone can call three leaves on you again and totally clean you out

i still don't understand this game but i think i just figured out enough to know how to lose, which is a start

Keep the nine of blades for future challenges, ditch the ace of leaves.

Where are all those dang wing cards?

You decide to drop the Ace of Leaves, since it's useless in challenges, and hold onto the Nine of Blades instead. You hand over your cards, and Rivers discards them all, along with an Ace of Wings.

Hmm, you've barely seen any Wings so far. That ace and Starling's Four are the only ones. Are the rest in their hands, or still in the deck?

It's Starling's turn now, but Stinger suddenly speaks up.

"Wait, wait," he says. "What happens if someone bets on Corvus' suit again?"

"It's not allowed," you say. "You can make a bet through process of elimination, though the game has to drag on a fair amount for that to happen, but if someone says 'Yes' after a bet, you're not allowed to make that same bet again. It'd be too easy to run someone out of cards otherwise."

"I see. Thank you."

It's Starling's turn now. She draws, then puts down a Nine of Stones.

"Challenge," she says.

Hmm. You can tie that, but then you'd have to explain ties, if Rivers doesn't top it. You hadn't thought to bring that up earlier.

Then again, your only other option is to give up a leaf card, and lose one of your nines anyhow. And then you'll have barely any cards.

What are you going to do?

make the bad move where you don't tie

Corvus go with your instincts.

I...uh...kind of find this segment a little boring, it is rude to suggest a terrifying explosion whose sole narrative purpose is to get us out of this card game?

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Usually these don't last as long as this one has, and they have more informative banter. I guess I hadn't really considered how to run a three-person game with more complex rules. Good thing Stinger didn't join in, huh?

I can always have Mudviper finish up if you want, since you're just here to pass time.

You can also make suggestions that aren't directly related to the game, that's always an option. I admit asking for specific prompts about what to do in the game may make that implication less clear than usual, though.

Eh. Nothing's riding on this game, might as well speed it up with a bad play. You drop your six and wait for Rivers to make her play...

Which is a Nine of Wings. Oh, looks like you have to explain ties after all.

"So, er, who wins?" Starling asks.

Just as you're about to answer, you hear a loud noise on the other side of the door. You give Stinger a meaningful glance.

"I look," he says. "Be ready for trouble."

"Right. Cards down, everyone." You're sure Mudviper has everything under control, but you don't want to take chances. You put your cards on the floor and stand up.

"Right, just when you're losing," Rivers mumbles.

"Doesn't really matter, but if everything's fine, we'll pick up from where we were afterwards. Then you can make fun of me for losing all you want. Right now, we've got trouble, so take your position."

Starling's already followed your lead. Rivers is a bit slower to get up, but still does.

When you're all ready, Stinger heads through the door.

Soon after that, you hear another noise. Then some more.

It definitely sounds like a fight's breaking out in there. You're not sure if Rivers and Starling are ready for it if anything goes wrong; they've got little combat experience.

Maybe you should just stay out here and wait to see what happens. Or perhaps you should go in and see what's going on.

You could also send Starling or Rivers to get help, just in case the troublemakers get out.

What are you going to do?

everybody goes in

"I don't like the sounds of what's going on in there," you say. "We'd better lend a hand, just in case."

You step inside. You see one of the delinquents unconscious on the ground, but another has grabbed Mudviper from behind. The third seems to be dueling with Stinger.

"Lecture didn't go so well, I take it," you say, as you slip your mudpike in front of Stinger's opponent. She falls off-balance a bit, but as Stinger approaches to strike, she blows in his face and he winces. It's enough of a distraction for her to strike back at him, knocking him to the ground. Then she turns towards you.

This must be Rotmouth. You've heard about her, though this is your first time meeting in person. Her breath is notoriously awful, even worse than swamp gases. It's not exactly deadly, but the sheer strength of it is a potent diversion if you're not prepared.

Of course, if you know it's coming, it's easy to protect against. Everyone's got a filter mask on their uniform, after all.

"Masks on!" you shout, quickly putting yours up. Stinger evidently didn't know her reputation, or he'd have his ready. Luckily, her cohort seems too occupied with keeping Mudviper constrained to join the fight.

That means it's essentially three-on-one right now. But Rotmouth's clearly a better-trained fighter than Rivers or Starling, even if she hasn't been in the swamp for as long. You'll likely have to do most of the work here.

That said, you shouldn't forget that you have two squadmates here. It would be a valuable confidence-booster if they knew they were being useful. Their last fight didn't go so well, after all.

So what's your plan for the fight?

flank them and secure the limbs

"We'll flank her. I'll go for the right side, where her friend is. Rivers, head for the left. Starling, hold position."

You start moving. Rotmouth glances around quickly, then makes a lunge for Rivers; but you pounce on her as soon as she makes a move.

"Muckweed!" you shout, grabbing her right arm. Rivers grabs the left, and Starling dives in and pins down her legs.

She starts struggling. Not ideal, but you can hold her down.

"Grips! Help me!"

"How? You want me to let her go? You saw what she did to Anchor, no thanks."

You're in a delicate position here. Moving at all might give Rotmouth a chance to break free. It would be good if you could knock her out, but you'll have to adjust your position to do that.

You could just wait. Mudviper's stun gloves are quite effective, so Anchor will probably be down for a good while. Stinger just got a whiff of nasty breath and a good blow, so he's likely to recover much sooner.

But you don't know just when Anchor went down. So waiting might not work out in your favor.

What's the plan?

you do what you're best at: headbutt them unconscious.

It suddenly occurs to you that you've only been thinking about the difficulty of hitting Rotmouth in the head with your weapon.

But your head, that's another matter. You only need a bit of adjustment to start striking her helmet with your own.

"The hell are you doing?" Rivers shouts. "You'll just hurt your head!"

It is a painful process, you have to admit, but Rotmouth's helmet is already dented. It'll give way before yours does. You hit her a few more times, and hear a few futile attempts to startle you with her breath, but before long, she's out.

Though you're a bit dizzy yourself. Ugh, that was more work than you hoped it would be. Well, there's just one left now...

"You might want to consider giving up," Mudviper says to her captor. "Unless you'd prefer ending up like your friends?"

Grips growls for a bit, then lets go and makes a run for it. She doesn't get far before Starling and Rivers catch her; and then a good solid blow from Mudviper's gloves makes sure she doesn't get away from them.

"How good of you to turn up, Corvus," Mudviper says. She reaches into her pouch and hands you a notebook. "I just had a meeting with Doc about the poisoning; she asked me to have a talk with these troublemakers."

"Surprised they managed to grab you," you mutter.

"They're not very experienced, but they know how to work together. Anchor deliberately gave me a good opening to strike her down; it was a feint, but I missed it. When I got close, she pulled my mask off just as I made the blow, then Rotmouth startled me with her breath, and Grips used the moment to close in."

"Pulled your mask off," you say, in disbelief. It's one thing to do that inside the fortress, but out in the swamp proper... that's the sort of dirty fighting that can make you real enemies.

"Yes, I intend to have some words with her about that when she regains consciousness. But I'm more concerned with why they thought it worth acting up. If you hadn't arrived, there's a good chance they could have knocked out Stinger and fled the room. Even if they had to drag Anchor along, they'd have been able to get out."

"But eventually, they'd be found out. So either they wanted a boost to their reputation from taking you down, or they were planning on sneaking off somewhere unsupervised."

"Right. Which is why we'll need to question them later. After Doc has a look at them, they'll be confined to quarters."

Which means you'll be talking to Doc sooner than you'd like. Fantastic.

"I think we'll want some more muscle while we're dragging everyone to Doc's," you say. "But I've also got to talk with you about Rider's animals - it's the reason I came down here in the first place..."

"Rivers, Starling. There should be another meeting eight doors down in that direction. Go tell the guard outside there's been a discipline problem, and drag whoever's in the meeting over here."

"Yes ma'am!" Starling says, rushing out. Rivers follows her, reluctantly.

"So what's this about?" Mudviper asks, glancing down at the unconscious Marshguards. You shouldn't have to worry too much about anyone getting up and being eager to fight, at least.

"Well..." You stop and think. Maybe you should tell her about Starling's cousin? She might be willing to help you arrange that meeting.

Then again, you're not really alone here. You wouldn't want someone overhearing you as they regain consciousness. Maybe you should just stick with the cover story for now; it's something you plan to ask about anyway.

Or is there something else you should tell her about while you have the chance?

explain the whole mess, but take her aside somewhere first. miscommunication kills.

"There's a few things, actually. One of them's sensitive enough that I wouldn't like talking about it in here, just in case someone wakes up."

"We can't leave them unattended. Write it down; Stinger only knows how to read his own tongue, and the other three haven't picked up the skill at all."

That's a good thought. You grab a spare sheet from the notebook and scribble on it.

Star has relative among prisoners - ex-sailor. Doesn't know. He's sorry for family matters. Think they should talk.

"I'm not in much of a position to help with this," Mudviper says, reading over it and crumpling it up. "But I'll see what my options are and get back to you. Now, you said there were other matters?"

"Crook tells me you're in charge of Rider's menagerie now."

"Officially, yes. But I don't have Rider's talent for dealing with animals. Honestly, Razor probably thinks this is a punishment for me."

"Well, I was wondering if you could give Rivers and Starling a bit more responsibility there. They seem to do well with the animals."

"Starling I can believe, but Rivers? I don't think I've ever seen that girl with a smile on her face."

"She seems to like the animals better than anything else she's had to work with. Anyways, right now they're just on cleanup duty, but I was thinking they could take over feeding duty, too."

"Done."

"What, just like that?"

"Feeding duty currently falls to me by default. I'm more than happy to assign it to someone else. Is that all? Because if it is, I'd like to discuss Doc's notes before we head over there."

"Well. There's that big Fenguin..."

"Caught last night with the prisoners, evidently. Mantis has taken responsibility for its care. If you want anything to do with it, you'll have to talk with him, or at least convince Requiem to put in a good word for you."

Neither of those options sounds good. And this is mainly an excuse to give Rivers an interrogation session; you can probably do that some other way. If you even still need to; Mudviper might come up with a better alternative for the meeting you're really concerned about.

So that leaves these notes from Doc, which you should probably have a look at. Or is there anything else you need to discuss with Mudviper first?

drop the cover story and tell mudviper that you'd like a pretense to get them an interrogation session. you're on the same team.

Mudviper probably doesn't care for Corvus losing focus from the whole "get on the council" gig. She's a busy woman who is ready for Corvus to get past his Doc complex and suck it up.

...wait did Rivers and Starling finish swamprats without you?! Those jerks!

"It seems to me you're getting sidetracked," Mudviper says suddenly. "There's going to be a rush to fill that Council seat; you need to make your case fast."

"I have responsibilities to my squad," you say. "If I can't handle leading five other Marshguards, how the hell am I supposed to make decisions for hundreds of them?"

"Fair. But don't lose sight of the big picture." She points to the notes. "You'll need to make decisions on critical matters like the poisoning, and you won't be able to avoid conversations with Doc any more. I know you're ready for it; you're just too stubborn to believe that yourself."

Ugh. There's no sense arguing with her. You're going to be seeing Doc momentarily, once Rivers and Starling return with backup.

"Fine. I'd just like to ask one favor."

"What's that?"

"When we get to Doc, send the other guards back to their meeting. Then find something for Rivers to do. Five minutes later, come back and call for Starling."

She gives you a questioning look.

"You expect that to make the conversation go more smoothly somehow?"

"No. Just the opposite. But it's got to be done."

"All right, I'll trust your judgement."

You start looking through the notes for a while, until you hear footsteps down the hall.

Now seems like a good time to pick up your cards, before everyone goes stepping on them... or before anyone with gambling debts gets upset. You put the cards away carefully, preserving the hands and piles without looking at them. Maybe you can resume the game later, if Rivers trusts you enough to believe you didn't tamper with anything, or see anything you shouldn't.

Hmm. Actually, it seems Rivers' cards are missing entirely. Not a good sign.

The girls soon come back with about eight more Marshguards. Not long after, Stinger wakes up, groggy. You support him on your shoulder while everyone else carries the troublemakers, and make your way to Doc's place.

Doc gives a quick examination. She concludes that Rotmouth's head injury is the only one severe enough to need further treatment; she chains Rotmouth to the bed in her office, and Anchor and Grips are dragged away; they'll be confined to quarters for a good while.

The rest of the guards go back to their meeting. Mudviper asks Rivers to take Stinger back to his room so he can recover properly, and you get a bag of something cold to put on your head.

You're not sure exactly what's in the bag, and you'd rather not ask. Headache or no headache, this next conversation won't be easy.

First things first. Starling's with you for the next five minutes, which means you don't want to bring up any sensitive topics. So where should you start?

Man this conversation would be way easier if Doc wasn't straight up ignoring you and just talking to Starling.

"Doc, I see here that we've got two severe cases..." you start to explain, but she promptly turns to Starling.

"Starling, you were involved in that mess, weren't you? How are you holding up? I recall you needed more than a few bandages after your last fight."

"I'm all right. I only had to keep Rotmouth's legs pinned. She kicked me a few times, but Corvus knocked her out fast enough. Might be some bruises, but nothing that really hurts."

You're not even sure what to say. How can she just ignore you like this?

"Good." Doc writes something down. "And are you keeping up with your exercises?"

"Well, I do sparring with Rivers for about half-an-hour each day, but I have trouble remembering to do the other exercises."

"Wait, hang on, what exercises are these?" you ask. "Did anyone else get assigned them?"

Doc doesn't even give you a glare.

"Thought so. At least Rivers seems to be taking my fitness advice seriously. Though you really shouldn't spar with just one partner - it's important to learn to counter a varied range of techniques. You should at least be getting in sessions with the rest of your squad."

"I wanted to do that, but we've been busier than usual this last week," you say. "Thanks to all the troops sick from the poison. Which I'd like to talk to you about."

"Er, Doc," Starling says nervously. "Why aren't you saying anything to Corvus?"

"Because the fool's injured his head. Wouldn't want him to strain himself thinking harder than usual."

"Very funny. Look, Doc, I'm really concerned about this poison. And not just because it's meant a bigger workload. I've been looking over what you told Mudviper, and..."

"You mean she delegated that to you?" Doc asks incredulously. "And here I thought someone was actually taking it seriously. Should have known better."

"Now hold on!" Starling interjects. "I know Corvus doesn't have the best reputation, but I've never seen him abandon an assignment. You should listen to what he's asking, at least."

"Hmmph. It's not his reputation that's the problem here; I've known him longer than you have. And that's why I know that I don't have time to waste with his inane questions."

Oh, that's it. You didn't read through this report just to have her brush you off. She doesn't think you're taking this seriously? Well, you'll just have to show her otherwise.

You need to say something that shows just how much attention you've been paying to this subject. Some question or observation that she's not likely to have considered.

So what are you going to say?