Nym watches for a few more moments, giving another somewhat confused look when Geekaar pronounces the event as "fun", but then turns back to Maggrath.

"Um...so...how is the food going?" she asks.

I think Nym just doesn't really "get" Geekaar - she was already not entirely sure about him, but since he doesn't seem like he's going to do anything hostile or whatever, she will just focus on something that seems more immediately interesting - like when the food is going to be ready so she can stuff her face. Because that is fun :D.

Meri glanced briefly towards Nym, then her gaze darted briefly to everyone else before looking back at Geekaar, seemingly content to wait until he called this one...


OOC: No magic or food, or magic food, or manipulating food with magic, involved = No fun for poor Nym ;) hehe

Maggrath nods distractedly. "Seems fine, the water is heating up very nicely. Don't make it too hot now, plenty of time to go yet, and the vegetables could fall apart before the meat gets here."

Maggrath then shows Nym the various spices. [Secret to Nym: Three seems to be two types of leaves, one smells sharply of mint and the other smells bitter. There are three powders, one brown and sweet, one more reddish brown and earthy, and a yellower one that would sting Nym's nose.]

The rest of the group finally seems to settle down, some less nervous than others. Geekaar seems to understand the mood of the group. "Well now, I think I shall call it there. So, can everyone reveal their vote now? WE all know our friend Farren's impulsive answer, and Meri is far too honest so I can see her guess of 'caution' from here. What does everyone else think?"

Heh, that bad Bluff roll actually lets me move the game on quickly :)

Slowly the guards open their hands, except for Dott who takes his right hand out from behind his back to show the straw stalk.

Jessa also seems to have show the right hand, as has Desmine. Sarah, Stark, Muppler, and Young Gibb appear to have chosen left.

"Ah, well that seems to be...one, two...ah yes, well that's an interesting split. I wonder who thought things through logically, who overthought things, who went on instinct or luck, and who went with the flow?" Geekaar seemed to have a tone of voice as if he knew the answer to that, while behind him Samel seemed surprised at some of the results.


There were various comments of surpise, disappointing, and confusion as the guards and Dott realised the result. Geekaar carried on. "So, five can feel the relief of not needing to compete, and four need to step up their . Oh, and four.... what I choose will have some weight now, it seems. So, we have four cautious people... waiting to beat the rush, make sure the opportunity is solid. But does one excercise more caution, when presented with an opportunity? How long does one wait? When does slow and steady became dithering and cowardice?"

Geekaar rolled his hands around and around and around, and then placed both hands behind his hand. One raised up higher, the other went lower. "And now, the second round begins. Meri, Desmine, Dott, and Jessa. Please, in your own time, choose. I promise not to change my mind."


Here we go again :D

Meri smirked slightly, although it was difficult to tell if it was a reaction to Geekaar's comment of her being 'honest' or to the idea of her showing caution.
She opened her right hand to show the slightly tarnished form of the silver stag figurine Celindara gave her.

Quickly though she closed her fingers around it again, shifting both hands behind her back where they remained, apparently moving the item tentatively from hand-to-hand as she glanced around at the others still in the game...


[Private to The Altweaver: OOC: Bleh, rolled a 1 for Insight-checking everyone still in the game.  Will use Knack for Success to bump that up to: 14 (1 + 9 + 4).  Can Inspiration stack with Knack for Success too?  Tempted to use that as well.
Then again I might save it to bump up the Bluff check instead since that's a much lower skill...]

Nym seems to be keeping a vague half of an eye on the game whilst paying more attention to Maggrath. She moves her hands away a little at the caution not to make the water too hot, and looks with curiosity at the spices the cook is showing her.

"Ooh, that brown one smells nice." she says. "All sort of sweet."

She wrinkles her feline nose at the yellow one, however, and appears to be holding back a sneeze.

"What are they?" she asks. "I mean, what are their names? These smelly things. They make the food taste better, right?"

Maggrath considered the question for a moment. "These are spices, their names are  - in common - Dragon's breath, Coldleaf, sweetwater, blacksalt, and fireseed. Though I do not know if they have quite the same names in these lands." Maggrath gives a wink to Nym. "I like the sweetwater too. You need to let the sap of a certain tree in the Freeholds dry in the sun until it is solid, and then grind it in to a fine powder. The sweetness goes very well with many things, the flavour becomes more subtle if you heat it for a while."

Maggrath adjusts her hold on the spices. "Some spices bring out the flavour of what you put them with. Some hide the worse flavours of what you are cooking. Some are an interesting contrast, like sweetwater with many meats and vegetables. Some you just add a pinch of at the very end, for they are quite strong and can overpower, but can be boiled away. And some the flavour just gets stronger the longer it cooks."

She takes the brown sweet powder and the the one that smells of mint. "Sweetwater and dragon's breath, what do you think?"


Geekaar notices the figurine, but does not give any indication of understanding its significance, if he does. He looks to the others as they start the second round. Dott seems even less certain getting in to the new round, Jessa keeps looking ot her friend and tring to loudly discuss strategy - which is met with glares - and Des is trying to stay as still as possible with her choice, looking around.
[Private to Meri:
Dott and Jessa are reasonably guileless. Jessa seems to be talking herself in to seizing once more. Dott, not sure what to do, appears to be trying ot 'snoeakily' follow suit with her. Des seems ot be more paying attention to Meri, but seems shrewd enough to have taken the opposite choice.

Basically, if Meri were to seize now (left hand), she is therefore going to be able to ensure Des wins, and Geekaar therefore loses. If she goes with caution, then of course Geekaar will be chosing who continues with his choice, and there will be a third round with a head to head!

That's not the only option though...Meri can always try and persuade people to change their guess. :) ]

OOC: Curious, is there actually a skill that handles cookery?  (Nature maybe? Knowing about herbs and spices and the ingredients you're using?  Or maybe Arcana, if it's like Kingdom of Loathing where all the cooks seem to be magic users)


Meri's gaze flickered quickly around the other players, her expression remaining almost disconcertingly neutral, along with Timur (who can't make expressions anyway!)
Her hands seemed to be indulging in some rapid sleight-of-hand movements behind her back before emerging again in front of her, the figurine concealed once more.

This time though, she had deliberately positioned the fingers of each hand to look the same, neither of them visibly appearing to be wrapped around the irregular form of the figurine with its protruding feet and antlers.

The fingers of her left hand seemed to give a very slight twitch as if cautiously adjusting their grip though...


[Private to The Altweaver: OOC: I thought the left hand was caution... I'm easily mixed up!  hehe.
Anyways, this time Meri has it in her right hand.  Trying for the third round option.
Playing it sneaky with the poker face and more careful concealment (as well as the crafty "fake tell" to make people think it's in her left hand!) ;)
Rolled 25 (15 + 10) for Thievery.  Wonder if Geekaar is breathing an extra sigh of relief at getting her out of his wagon with its sneaky hidey-hole now...]
This message was last edited by the player at 17:30, Wed 07 Feb 2018.

Hmm, I don't believe there is any specific skill for cooking, but I imagine Nature seems the most obvious. That does cover stuff that other editions would cover with the Survival skill, at least, and preparing (or at least, foraging) food is included in that. Arcana is more of a knowledge skill, for seeing what you know about various magical things, while cooking is an active thing that you do. The only other skills I could see making a case for are Heal (if you were trying to make something medicinal, though the Heal skill is more First Aid than anything else) and Thievery (if you were trying to slip something into someone's food or drink without it disrupting the taste or something...though I suppose that's a bit less cooking and a bit more...well, poisoning or whatever ;)).
Alternatively you could maybe just make a straight Int or Dex check or something (Int if you're checking ot see if you know/remember the receipe, Dex for cutting the ingredients properly and stuff like that).

Nym seems fascinated by Maggrath's explanation of spices.

"Wow, I never knew there was so much detail about all this stuff." she says. "I mean, I don't really know much about making food, and when someone else does I just change the flavour if I don't like it. But I mean, I do it myself - I don't use any of these things. But maybe if I ever find any I can hang onto them until I find someone who likes cooking food, and then give them to them so they can make lots of yummy things!"

There were open skills in 3rd edition (crafting and profession) that you would customise and take points in. So craft (food) and profession (cook) would be possible. In 4th edition they removed all of that for ease. So basically if you want to be a blacksmith or a cook - go ahead :) Mechanically buying and creating items costs the same in gp, so how you get there is just narrative and fun.

Obviously identifying ingredients, etc can easily be mapped to Nature, Dungeoneering, Heal, etc as needed for whatever the strange items are.


Maggrath looked to the ingredients then Nym. "Some mages seem to have spell ingredients that they could change the flavour of. And others that were just flavourful themselves. You should look out for things like those."

Without any advise on the matter, Maggrath seemed happy to put the two items she indicated - in small moderation - in to the water.

"You never can tell what will make a good flavouring. That is what cooking and experimenting is all about. People have taken all the plants they can, and played with all the barely edible things they come across, and see which have flavours, and which can help flavours. Maybe you could ask your dryad friend, the one people seem to have said so much about."

So yeah, Nym can always get together with Meri to see if her ability to temporarily change flavours of things could be put in to some solid powder permenantly - so when she finds a flavour she likes, she can make a powder or potion of it to give to other people later on - like Crass or Maggrath - so they can experience it later on.


[Private to Meri: Theivery only gets you the ability to hide your physical movements against Perception. If you also want to be sneaky with your actions to fake anything, you need to Bluff against Insight. However, in this case people might not be as insightful... so I'll leave you to decide if you're happy with how you actions are about to end up :) ]

Meanwhile, Meri's adjustment of her hand did not go unnoticed - at least by Desmine. She quickly looked to the other two - Dott and Jessa - and seemed to note they had not noticed nor changed their actions yet. Clearly seeing her chance, Desmine turned to Geekaar. "We're decided!" she said, quickly. "We should vote now!"


Geekaar seemed amused for some reason, but looked to Meri as if looking for some form of assent.


So yeah, is Meri happy to let the vote go then?

Meri glanced towards Desmine as she spoke up, then back at Geekaar, giving a slight nod.
Her gaze seemed to be fixed on Geekaar, and she didn't appear to have paid attention to the reactions of the others.


OOC: Ready :)


[Private to The Altweaver: Meri usually sees more than she lets on though, that's her style, hehe]

"Ooh, maybe..." says Nym. "But it might be a while...I mean, I don't know when we'll be back around here again. Hopefully one day. I'm sure Celindara will be happy to see us again."

She stares at the cooking pot for a while, watching the contents swirl around.

"It's fun eating things." she says. "And if someone spent a long time making it and then it tastes really nice, I suppose they'll be happy to be told that. I mean, if they spent a long time and worked really hard and it made people happy, that would make them happy to know that, right? But I don't think I would be very interested in cooking things myself. I don't think it's interesting enough. I'll just let other people do that part, and then eat it. Because the eating part is fun!"

She grins at Maggrath, a probably quite strangely-toothy expression on her still-feline face.

"Compliments are both welcome and important," says a distracted Maggrath as she tentatively tastes the water. "I mean no offense, but users of magic sometimes have such easy ways to do things - like flavour food - that they do not reckon on the skills of others." Maggrath then pulls out a small round vegetable - perhaps a baby potato - and offers it to Nym, apparently not put out by the odd grin. "A small thank you for remembering the cook's efforts."


Meanwhile, Geekaar looks around to the four remaining contestants in the game in turn. Dott seems nervous and unsure still, while Jessa actually stops speaking. Desmine has stopped speaking too, but spares looks to Meri the rest as well as Geekaar, perhaps not trusting her instincts. The other guards are keeping very quiet, clearly facinated by what is going to occur, and not knowing who may have what. Farren seems to have settled backin his seat, though has an odd smile on his face.

"Well, far be it for me to to delay things," says Geekaar, and the with a grandiose gesture reveals the gem in his left hand. "I am not sure if this will matter, of course." His twinkling eyes shows that, before the votes are even revealed, he perhaps knows this is not the case.


Jessa reveals her own left hand dejectedly, because Dott reveals his own hand eagerly. Jessa seems to have a good enough grasp on the game to realise that, with two of the same showing, that are the same as Geekaar's, she won't be winning.

Dott, sadly, isn't as quick on the uptake - and indeed seems to have also not understood the rules of the game well enough. "So, we've won this round?" he asks shyly but with hope.

Geekaar almost looks sad, though perhaps not fully or in reality. "No, my dear Dott, I am afraid you have lost." Dott looks confused, frustrated, embarrassed, and unhappy in equal measure, and Geekaar actually bends down to put a hand on the young man's shoulder, and focuses on speaking him through both the rules and the farrier's disappointment.

With Geekaar distracted, Jessa turns to her friends and starts speaking abouther confusion. "But, I thought I had a good strategy!" she said. Sarah tried to point out that Jessa had been speaking out loud her strategy, but Jessa seems confused and said that she thought that was what you were supposed to do, to be tactical. Sarah has a hard time ecplaining all this.

Desmine has already eagerly shown her own right hand, but with Geekaar distracted her focus is directly on Meri's hand. "What do you have?" she hisses, seemingly shaking with worry. "Did I win?" She then seems to be even more worried that Meri's bluff was a bluff. "Can...can you let me win? I need this!" She almost pleads to the artificer.

Heh, so do you just reveal, or will you be nice and actually try to sneakily change your vote to the left hand? :)

Meri's gaze flickered towards Desmine as she spoke up, although her expression didn't seem to change.
Looking back towards Geekaar, she shifted her position slightly on the cushion, apparently overbalancing accidentally and placing both hands together on the ground to steady herself.

Then she smirked slightly and raised her left hand, opening it to reveal the figurine...


[Private to The Altweaver: OOC: Yep, tried to make a sneaky switch after all.
Rolled Thievery 23 (13 + 10) to try and conceal that little sleight of hand from everyone.  Hoping lucky 13 is enough.  Though I get the impression Geekaar already knew full well where it was, so not sure how he'll react.

Can consider this Meri's good deed for the week.  Can spend the rest of it being horrible to everyone now! ;)]

"Ooh, more food? Thanks!" says Nym happily as she takes the small, potato-looking object. "Anyway, I think people should think about things that other people do. You know, like if you spend ages cooking some nice food and no-one thanks you for it, as if the food just appeared straight away and then they ate it, then that's almost like...I don't know...like acting as if you don't realy exist or something. But everyone's important...even though some people seem to think that's not the case, and people like cooks or cleaning-people aren't important. But then who would go around and make every yummy food and clear up all their mess? Some people are just silly."

She then slightly distracts herself with looking at her newly-acquired vegetable.

Nature check to try and ID the potato-thingy, see what it is and if I can just start nomming it...ohh ffs, welp, botched that one :P.

[Private to Nym:
Yeah, Nym will be entirely unable to deduce what the potato shaped item that looks like a potato is. Her travel will be unable to determine what else other than potatos have a potao-like shape and size and appearance :D So yeah, it's just a potato, but I like the idea that a low roll is her trying to work out what type of food a differently flavoured potato is, if she rules out it being a potato :)]

"Some people are that," agrees Maggrath, nodding and smiling.


Desmine looks relieved the overjoyed when Meri reveals the statuette in her left hand. Jessa loudly whispers to those behind her, "See, she had it in her left hand too. She tried the same thing. It wasn't stupid to go that way..."

"I'm sorry Meri," says a booming voice, "but I saw that..." Geekaar says this despite seemingly still finihsing with Dott. He pads the man on the shoulder again, and seems to have given him a pouch of something that looks more like seeds. Geekaar points back towards the horses, and uncertainly Dott heads off in that direction with a confused look back ot the camp.

Geekaar then strides over towards Meri and Desmie, his brows knotted in what is obviously mock anger. "I am sorry, but cheating is against the rules in this game. There is only one thing for it... I must eject you from the game!" He has a broad grin on his face, and then turns to Desmine, presenting the gem to the older guard.

Desmine seems confused at the comment and looks to Meri thougtfully, and then nervously takes the offered gem. She seems to still be slightly put off by Geekaar given his previous comments, but is clearly elated to have won since there seems to be no further tricks. Geekaar waits until Desmine has taken it, then pulls back with a flourish and a laugh. "And that is that, the game is won! My dear Desmine, I do hope that this little nest egg helps you in your future life, and may hatch sooner rather than later. I can assure you that the rest of the money you will earn will be equally as easy - I doubt bandits will bother with a wagon that seems even the little bit defended, and Sarah's bear does not seem to have appeared yet!"

[Secret to Meri: When Geekaar turns to look towards Sarah's side, Des shoots Meri a look and mouths a 'thank you', her eyes apparently misting.

See, not just a greedy person happy to trick Meri, she's actually moved :)]

Sarah bristles slightly, but then her eyes widen in fear when Geekaar carries on. "Anyway, I understand that you know this area. Perhaps you and your brother Stark could be so good as to go in to the woods and look for the others. I daresay we all could do with eating sooner rather than later."

Sarah looks as if she is going to refuse, but then she seems to think far better of it. While Geekaar's face is turned from the rest of the group, it seems clear that perhaps a look had flickered that that easily reminded those guards who their paymaster was. Stark looks angry, but both her and Sarah stand up and move off to look for the others.

Geekaar turns around to everyone else, but then addresses Nym. "So Nym, I am hurrying food as soon as I can, but we will still have a wait. And I have a smaller audience now, for my tales. No good, no good! So, you do not like games where I I pit you all against each other, and twist and turn intellect against itself. How about a simply puzzle? The prize can be shared by all, so our departed friends will not miss out, and I sadresay you all will need to work together on it. Does that sound good?"

Geekaar pulls out another pouch, and takes a small sprinkle aof it, looking ot it with a smile. He the leans forwards to let Maggrath sniff it. This she does uncertainly, then her eyes widen. "Sallass's Spice?" she asks.

Geekaar grins. "Indeed, indeed. Quite a rare little spice, fit for kings and emperors and gods, I have no doubt. But if you can answer my little riddle, then I daresay I can spare the smallest of pinches for the pot tonight."

He looks around to everyone, but seems to finish with Nym again. "What do you say?"

Nym, who appears to have decided to start magically cooking the potato in her hand, looks around at Geekaar's approach.

"Ooh, what kind of game?" she asks, curiously.

So yeah, even though Nym doesn't know for sure that it's a potato, has no reason to think that Maggrath would give her a bad thing and has probably decided something like "Well, it seems like a potato but I'm not sure because I can't remember the last time I saw a raw one, or something, so I'll eat it but I'm pretty sure you're supposed to cook these thing first so let's try that". So she's using one hand to cook the ickle tatty-po while the other continues warming up the cauldron :).

Meri's smirk quickly returned to its previous neutral look at Geekaar's reaction.  And she showed no noticeable reaction to being ejected from the game, merely reaching lazily towards her pack and returning the figurine to its place among the pile of her items at the foot of the tree inside.
Catching Desmine's gaze for a moment, she shrugged and looked to Timur who also shrugged, but then pointed at the bells beside Meri and made a series of gestures, to which Meri just shrugged again.

She looked towards Nym's position as Geekaar mentioned his puzzle, then picked up a small stone from the ground and peered at it for a moment, before showing it to Timur who scratched his head and looked up at her, making a kind of 'so-so' gesture with one hand...


OOC: Seems like Meri is content to remain a passive observer for now, in-between playing with stones for some reason... :)

Many drifts over to Meri. "Aww, youh'll geht it next time," he reassures the artificer, patting her on the ankle. Ee-Ee seems to have been transferred across to Farren. The revenant looks between Meri and Geekaar bemused by the actions of both, and absentmindedly feeds some crumbs to Ee-Ee while Pain and Brother look on.

Maggrath either doesn't appear to notice or care that Nym is cooking the potato, and is more focused on the spice on offer. [Secret to Nym: A pleasant combined scent of warmed sweet potato with sharp hint of mint and the other spice fills the air around Nym's nostrils.]

Geekaar grins. "Ah, a simple tale hiding a simple riddle. Or a puzzle. I am unsure how exactly to say it. The game is just to listen, then think as the ones I speak of and tell me what you think they did."

He turns to look to the group as a whole. "Now, in the Freeholds oceans are grass and sometimes sands, but if you are a traveler such as me, you do get to the edge of the Freeholds, and find our stranger cousins in the Port Towns. Such small townships are prey to all sorts of unspeakably vile raiders, and so the rulers have taken to striking bargains with some of the least worst and instilling some form of order in tthem. And thus the slightly more trustworthy raiders prey upon the irredemably vile, scurulous pirates never to be trusted."

Geekaar nods, perhaps skipping over any dealings he may well have had with either. "One of the rules of law is that the Captains must be fair with their plunder. They may only keep whatever plunder is not provably from the Freeholds. They must pay dues to any port that they have used before for rest. And the Captain must share the plunder with the crew, in a mutually agreed way. Usually a vote is taken, to ensure all are happy. The Captain gets the deciding vote in a tie - by dint of being the strongest pirate if nothing else - but otherwise must draw a majority. Be in the minority, and a mutiny could ensue!"

Geekaar then settled down. "Well now, once there were five pirates - I mean reformed men - I knew of, who happened to find a trove of gems while roaming the caves of one of the cliffs. Each gem the equal of the next, a hundred in total. And they seemed to have no owner. No fees, only four crew to divide them with, what luck for the Captain! However, the Captain had to be careful. After all, the law was only questionably on his side. If his crew rejected his offer, if he was not in the majority, it could go badly for him. Death a certainty in these deperate times as all hoped to keep the secret! Yet the lure of the treasure was great. Know only that every one of these men held only their own lives greater than treasure. Their greed was almost absolute."

Geekaar considered the matter, summarising the predicament. "So the Captain had a hundred gems to offer to his four men. He would have gladly kept them all if he could have gotten away with it, but he would only make a deal that would ensure his death was not assured. Ah, but what deal could he strike, the greedy Captain? Each of his men were equal in intellect and guile as he. The men had a pecking order of strength, but each was close to the other in that regard. No man would dare do anything if they could not at least have equal numbers and rely upon their own strength to sway the matter later."

Geekaar looked to each in turn. "What was that Captin to say, knowing that the next strongest of his men would happily reject his offer and lead a mutiny, to be in the Captain's boots and become the Captain, with the same decision?"


Geekaar then looked back. "And so that is the game. Tell me what offer you think the Captain made." Geekaar smiled. "Feel free to ask me any questions you wish, of course, to clarify."


So there you go. I've slightly convoluted the puzzle, and apologies to Ameena if I've stolen one that was on DM.com back in the day. This can either be ome you both solve on your own, or a skill challenge. It's actually a logic puzzle, but adding the 'real world' tale around it clouds it enough you probably need to ask Geekaar some clarifications firts if you don't know the puzzle or see what you have to work out.

Meri looked up from the small stone as Many spoke, reaching out a hand to stroke him affectionately.
"Maybe, if there is a next time" she remarked quietly.

Then she leaned closer and whispered something to him...
[Private to The Altweaver: "I changed hands at the last minute.  I felt like she needed that one more than I did.  Don't tell anyone though."]

She smiled and winked at him, then looked back at Geekaar as he recited his puzzle.
A slight frown suggested she was considering the words, her other hand still idly turning the stone over and over, although she looked towards Nym, as if to see how she would react...


OOC: I definitely don't recognise this one.  And Meri seems content to let Nym have the spotlight here if she wants it ;)


[Private to The Altweaver: Yeah, she really doesn't care if anyone knows she threw the game on purpose, or her reasoning behind it.  But she does think it might be a nice example to set to Many :)]

Hmm, doesn't ring a bell so far...

Nym listens to Geekaar's puzzle, though spares enogh concentration for the cooking she is still engaged in with both hands.

"Hmm, so...there's five people and a hundred gems to go between them?" she asks. "Couldn't they all just take twenty each so it was all fair between them? Or were they too silly with being mean to each other for that?"

Many looked to Meri then Desmine then Meri then Desmire then Meri then Desmie, then he finally seemed to get something and his eyes went wide. He stiffled a giggle, and tries to put his eyestalks over his mouth. He settled for vaguely waving his silence eyestalk infront of his mouth, even though it had no effect.

[Private to Meri: Meri continues to set a good example to Many. I don't think you have to worry about him going evil beholder or forgetting his manners in future :p]

Desmine seemed oblivious to the attention of the little beholder, and had instead finally chosen to reveal the gem to Muppler sitting beside her. Since he had seemed resigned ot not winning, he seemed happy enough that at leats someone had won against Geekaar, and nodded approvingly and said something or other to her quietly.


Geekaar nods solemnly. "Oh yes, too mean and silly with greed for something like that." He then grins and gives a broad wink. "Of course, perhaps I exagerate how the real life people were. But for the sake of this little puzzle, I am afraid so."

Geekaar then gestures around, though still addressing Nym. "However, you can work together with people against such silliness and guess how the Captain won. And there is a point to thinking like mean people. If we turn our back on them, they will continue to be mean. But if we can think like them, and understand their meanness, well... perhaps we can realise what it is they want, what they don't have, that perhaps makes them so mean and silly. And then, when we give it to them, they can get back to being more ameniable and generous to others. A lesson every merchant learns, all people can be good people if you can but figure out why they are the way they are..."

"Yeah," says Jessa, slowly coming back to speaking, "Surely if the sailors are all so greedy, then they won't want to make five shares. They would just vote the Captain down for four shares so they could get his twenty."

Geekaar nodded with mock sadness. "Indeed, if the poor Captain did not think things through, and offered to share equally, I am afraid he would just be voted down, the other four knowing they would get a greater share. Or would he..?"

Jessa, meanwhile, seems to be getting excited at the confirmation, missing Geekaar's question. "Yeah, so the Captain should only give himself one gem, and then offer the next strongest...twenty six, then the next twenty five, then then next twenty four, then the last twenty three." She tried to do some calculations in her head to see if she had done the sums correctly. "No, he could have two. He gets two. Right?"

Geekaar gave a sly smile. "Is that the last answer?"

Jessa seems to get nervous, and looks to the rest of the group. "...no?" she says, pausing before a stream of more words comes from her mouth.

Geekaar laughed. "Ah, no, greed is such a strong song. And death such a terrifying thought. Are even two gems truly enough? Yet would even that plan really see him live? The one who becomes the Captain faces death and will not act to die, and yet is compelled by greed to get as many gems as possible. If each sailor is as cunning as the other, how could the Captain possibly come up with an answer to satisfy his greed yet stay alive? When by his death, surely all the others get the chance at more treasure..."


There we go, Geekaar's sneakily actually summarised the puzzle this time around :)

Nym glances around at everyone, then back to Geekaar.

"Um. Well, if they're all so mean and horrible, wouldn't the Captain just kill everyone and keep all the gems?"

I imagine the actual answer to this problem either involves some logical thing that has nothing to do with working out numbers...or it involves working out numbers, like Jessa just tried to do. Since I don't really have much of an inkling myself I'll just let Nym take the lead on this one and give whatever answer she can come up with that doesn't involve thinking too hard ;).

Meri grinned slightly at Many's reaction and looked back towards Nym and Geekaar.
If she had any ideas as to the answer to the puzzle, she didn't seem in a hurry to reveal them...


OOC: Probably 'cos her player is totally clueless about this one!  hehe.

Geekaar laughed. "Well, it is four to one, and the Captain is only marginally stronger than his fellows. And only equally as intelligent and cunning. I'm not sure how he could kill them all, even for overwhelming greed. His companions of course, would have no such compultion. And yet, the Captain found a offer..."

Indeed, it's sort of a logic / working things through puzzle, not a maths puzzle.

Elias Muppler finally found a voice, though just to say, "I don't see what anyone could offer if there's more left if that person is gone." He seemed to be embarrassed. "I'm not saying it's right for them to kill the Captain!"

Jessa looks confused. "So the men would just kill him no matter what, so logically he shouldn't do anything but offer them all the gems...but then you hinted that the next Captain would have the same problem... and that the Captain was greedy enough to not settle for 'only two' gems. Maybe. Or maybe you were just asking questions and not giving hints, oh..."

There was a temporary silence from Jessa.

"Hah, people are complicated, and maybe the real life people were less mean and more ameniable. And yet, even if I make these scurilous sailors and mean and evil as possible, it does not mean they did not become ameniable. I have given you two avenues of self interest. And one person with the power, who apparently used it wisely."

"What about the least strongest sailor?" said Young Gibb, seemingly out of nowhere in the silence. He seemed as if he had been almost just thinking out loud, and hadn't meant to speak. He receeded in to his seat embarrassed.


Feel free to roll for hints, or just state an answer, or whatever takes your fancy. Nothing but NPC happiness at stake, and what have this bunch done for you lately :p

Nym takes a bit from the now-cooked potato in her hand.

"Hmm, weeellll..." she says, apparently straining to think of any kind of solution to the puzzle. "If the captain wants as many gems as possible, he should try to give himself a big share. But he can't do that, because all the other four will be really mean and kill him, and it wouldn't be nice for him to not share everything anyway. So he would have to give gems to some of the others...but they all want as many gems as they can get so they won't be very happy if they don't all get lots of gems. Maybe he could make someone else the captain and let them deal with it, and then when that person makes a deal and no-one else likes it, they kill him and then there's one less person but it's not the captain. Ugh, this is all really not very nce, is it?"

Nym frowns slightly.

"Maybe the captain can just give all the gems to the other four, and steal them back later, or something. Or pretend to be dead and then see if all the others start fighting over them, and then get up and take them back later."

Can I roll an Int check for a hint or something? After all, Nym's actually pretty clever (Int 13)...but we can just say she's got a bit hung up on all this metaphorical murdering that's going to happen with all the mean, greedy, nasty pirate people ;). Hmm, not sure if I add just the Mod or if it's the Mod + half-level to a stat check...ohhh ffs never mind, I botched anyway :P. That's, what, like, the third time I've botched in about the last five or six rolls or something? Bleh. Well, might as well get them out of the way now and hopefully will only roll good rolls when it's actually really important and I'm trying to disintegrate somebody, or something :D.