The Pen Invitational Poker Tourney

[YanYanGanaffi]

The Temple of Shards looked normal from the outside, it's dark stone walls reaching high into the sky. As the assembled players make their way to the front door, they began to hear what sounded like old-time saloon music. As Wyvern reached to open the door, it flew open. Suprised, they see Yan Yan Ganaffi wearing a pair of Colt Peacemakers, a black cowboy hat, and Western-looking clothing.

 

"Howdy," he said before spitting out a stream of tobacco juice,"Ya'll come on in."

 

As each Pennite stepped through the doorway, their clothes instantly transform into Western attire. The inside of the Temple looked like a saloon out of Dodge City or Tombstone. There were other tables hosting card players and people up at a the bar ordering drinks. The alter area had been converted into a stage that had a couple of dancers on it. Yan Yan lead them off to their table, a large oak table with fresh green felt. In each seat was a slip of paper stating who sat there. In front of each seat was a pile of poker chips that totaled up to $15,000. As each took there seats, Yan Yan went over the rules.

 

"Alright,here's how this are going to break down. The game will go into rounds. In the round are four turns for each play *one turn for each betting phase*. Whoever wins the round wins the money in the pot. After your cards are dealt, you can bet to match the blind *if you are after the blind bet*/call, raise the bet, fold, or 'cheat'. The cheating option is a percent chance of getting caught, but if you don't get caught cheating by the dealer or a folded player *folded players can state thathey want to watch for cheaters* If you are caught cheating, you will be kicked out of the game. For every person watching for a cheater, there is a 15% increase that you will get caught. If it's just the Dealer, there is only a 15% chance. As far as betting goes, this is a 'no limit' tourney, which means you can bet the minimum of the blind bet up to all the money in front of you. The top prize for the winner is a Staff of Weather summoning, second is a bag of blue rubies *very valueble on the black market for spell components*, and third is a deck of gold plated playing cards. If you need nay help with the betting rounds and values of ands, here is a little help from a previous thread..."

 

In Texas Hold'em, you are dealt two cards face down. These are called your 'hole cards'. Ever hear the term 'ace in the hole'? This is where it comes from. Now, like in Seven Card Stud, you have an 'antie'. But unlike Seven Card Stud, only one or two people have to antie up. In Texas Hold'em, this is called a 'blind' or blind bet. This bet is to insure that something is in the pot at all times. The person sitting to the left of the 'blind' starts the betting round. Either they can call; which means match the existing bet, raise, or fold. The betting goes around the table until it gets back to the blind, who has the option to raise if the bet hasn't been raised already. Or they can 'check' or not bet, since they are already in the betting round anyway."

 

"After the betting round is done, comes the 'flop'. The flop is the first three cards that come on the board. There are five 'board cards' in total. Agian, the betting round starts with the blind, since they were the first to start off the game with the blind. Again, they can check, bet, or fold. After this betting round is complete, the next card, the 'turn', is flopped over. Betting goes again and then the final card, the 'river' is flopped, begining the final betting round. After the betting round is over, the people remaining in the hand show what they have. Using only five cards total to build their hand from the two hole cards and the five board cards, the winner is determined by the best hand."

 

High card: the highest card on the board if no other hands have a pair or better

Pair: a pair such as two aces

Two Pair: two pairs of cards.

Three of a Kind: You have three of a certain card, such as three ings

Straight: This is when you have five cards of any suit in a numarical sequence, like 2,3,4,5,6 of different suits, or 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace.

Flush: This is when you have five cards of the same suit. For instance, you have the Ace, 10, 7, 4, and 2 of diamonds. You have an 'ace high' flush.

Full House: A full house is when you have three of one card and two of another. The strength it determined but the three cards. An example is having Three Jacks and two Aces. If someone else has a full house as well, the Jacks are the cards that would be counted.

Four of a Kind: Four of a certain card.

Straight Flush: This is when you have five cards of the same suit in numarical order.

Royal Flush: This is the 'Holy Grail' of Poker. It is when you have a 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace of the same suit."

 

This first hand is a practice hand to show you how the flow of the game goes.

 

"Now, let's shuffle up and deal!"

 

*I'll be PMing you your cards. PMme back your actions. When everyone PMs me their actions, or 24 hours are up *if you haven't PMed me after 24 hours of the post, you've automaticly folded* we will move on to the next phase. Blinds are $500 and SweetCherry is the first blind. It will go Sweetcherry, Wyvern, Patrcik, Gryph, Mynx, Parmenion, Peredhil, Regel, Deg, and Katzaniel as the blinds.

[Katzaniel]

Inbi follows the group of Pennites into the temple. She isn't quite paying attention to the others until the person in front of her, Gryphon, is suddenly wearing a holster and cowboy hat. She continues in past the doorway, though, and looks down at her own Western wear. "Yee-haw," she says in a low voice, grinning and looking around.

 

Sitting down in the chair marked with her name, Inbi waits for the others to do the same, feeling the current of excitement in the room and enjoying everyone's reactions. She is dealt her practice-round cards, peeks at them, and looks up at everyone, grinning.

 

"I don't know if this is good or bad," she mutters, just as everyone is starting to suspect she must have something really great, then leans forward and starts rereading the rules posted on the table.

[Mynx]

Turning the chair around so that she sits on it backwards, Mynx pulls a cowboy hat over her eyes and grins.

 

Getting her cards, Mynx looks at them with the blank expression only a cat can give, while her mind races through the rules to see just how screwed she really is...

[Patrick]

Patrick walks into the Temple of Shards and sits at the place designated for him without being very surprised at suddenly wearing cowboy clothing. He did look for a few seconds at the two colts in holsters in his belt, but then looked up at YanYan while he explained the rules. He seemed to not be paying much attention to the explanation, but in reality he was eager to learn the subtleties of the game. When YanYan finished he took a single look at his cards, memorised them and turned towards Sweetcherrie and Wyvern, one of whom he thought was supposed to make the first move.

[Gryphon]

As Gryphon approaches his sitting place a transformation takes place. His brown and white cowboy gear fades to black, followed shortly thereafter by it's wearer.

 

Within seconds a Gryphon shaped shadow is walking towards the card table, losing shape as it does so. Two blue pinpoints of light open in the head region of the shadowmass which then starts to re-shape it's self into a humanoid shape in time to sit at the table.

 

A chill voice echos out over the table.

"So... who starts again?"

 

Yan Yan shakes his head in almost dispare, bad enough that everyone was looking a little confused, had Umbra even bothered to read the rules at all?

 

~~~

 

OOC: Just to remind everyone that I'm playing as Umbra in this case - fortunately it's not his evil side that's come to the fore in time for the game.

[Regel]

Regel walks into the poker tournament and quietly sits down. He waves over a waitress and orders a rye and water. He is dressed entirely in black but seems to wear a tireless smile. He surveys the other players and immediately starts to look for any tells. Finally he begins to speak. "This should be fun, who's ready to bet?"

[Parmenion]

Parmenion gets quite a shock when the transformation of his clothes happens as he walks through the door. He wonders where his other clothes went to as he had bought them specially for this occasion. He muses about how he will explain to his girlfriend that her favourite piece of underwear is no longer in his custody but dismisses the thought with the positive thinking that if he wins big he can buy her some more.

 

Parmenion quickly glances around the table. Standard maximum of ten players for a Holdem tournament. The organiser at least seems to know his stuff he thinks as he picks a seat around the table that will give him good eye contact with the present females.

 

He notices them both furitively reading the rules. He waits patiently for Katz and Mynx to look up and gives each in turn their own wink and smile. He smiles quietly to himself feeling that poker games just aint poker games without a few girls playing. It adds a nice tempo to the table and tends to dilute a lot of the testoserone that ha had previously found playing on all male or male-only games.

 

Parmenion looks around the rest of the table taking stock at the other players while the first hand is being dealt. He keeps his manner warm and unobtrusive and checks his cards smiling softly and he puts them back down.

[Sweetcherrie]

Sweetcherrie looked at how professional everybody looked, and started to panic, "What did I start?" she thought, "I don't know how to do this." She looked around the circle and saw all those serious faces, and when she saw the Almost Dragon sitting next to her she got cold feet.

 

"If you will please excuse me, I need to...erm...I..erm..I forgot something." With these words she ran out, leaving the other people sitting at the table with confused looks on their faces.

 

Back at her room in the penkeep she sat down on the bed, and was close to tears. "Well, that was pretty smart of yourself, now you've dissapointed a lot of people, and on top of that you made a fool out of yourself." She loked around the room, saw her age machine, and suddenly had an idea. She stood up and walked to the machine, mumbling, "This could work...Sweet is normally not affraid of anything.." She took her decision, and turned the dialer to 12, and pressed the GO button.

 

15 minutes later......

 

Sweet roller skated into the Tempel of Shards, she wanted to be sure she had a good place at the table, and was flying in at high speed. Unfortunately she was going a little bit fast and, instead of stopping at the table, she just bumped into it and was launched into Patrick's arms.

 

"Hiya, hope I'm not too late," she said with an adoring smile. On her head was a ridiculously big cowboy head that kept drooping over her eyes, and around her waist she was wearing some fake guns. "I'm taking over for the tourney people, hope you don't mind?"

 

She sat down at Sweetcherrie's chair, and continued babbling, "I know how to play this, don't worry, it's almost like Yatzee, only you get to swop once instead of twice. Can I have a glass of that?" With this question she was pointing at the bottle of gin that was standing on the table. Umbra took the bottle, poored a glass, and shoved it towards Sweet. She took a sip and immediately splurted it all out again, all over Parmenion, "This is not lemonade, are you guys that affraid of me that you're trying to poison me straight away?" She glanced aroun the table, and her eyes only met the looks of serious faces. She swallowed, and decided that she would have to try extra hard to make these people look a bit happier by the end of this game.

Edited May 4, 2005 by Sweetcherrie

[Quincunx]

Two enchantments fought around Tzimfemme; one kept supplying her with a satin hoop-skirted dress and hair piled high with painted feathers, while the other continuously vanished whatever costume was provided. She eased the tray of drinks onto an empty table and was about to settle the problem when the strident click-click-click-click of wooden rollerskates on plank flooring distracted her. Tzimfemme hoisted the tray again, went back to the bar, and made a small substitution before gliding around the table with the costume whirlwind still in progress. "Rye and water for Regel, haven't seen you in awhile," she grinned and set down his drink, "sassafras tea, first drink for the little one is on the house," Tzimfemme placed the glass before Sweet and ignored the background chuckling, "and if any of you want anything, just ask. We serve Bruteweiser bottled or draft, mixed drinks, soft drinks," she chanted, circling the table with the half-filled tray. Mynx saw a carton of cream sitting alongside the Mudslide and unconsciously watched Tzimfemme as she sauntered back towards the bar, there to sort out the costuming problem. . . .

[YanYanGanaffi]

As the player look at their cards, there is a quiet tention in the air....sort of. Sweet, while enjoying her drink looks at Yan Yan and says "Hit me!" Everyone takes a look and her with bemused grins, Even Mynx's stone-faced expression cracked a little with a smile.

 

Tzimfemme, who was still having problems with the enchantments if the costume, leaned over to Sweet to inform her kindly that they were playing Texas Hold'em, not blackjack. Blushing a little, Sweet apologised. Before Tzimfemme was about to leve, Yan Yan stopped her," Here," he snapped his fingers and dispelled the enchantment. "By the way, could I get a rum and coke," he asked. She nodded as several of the rowdier saloon patrons gave Tzimfemme whoops and hollers. Letting out an annoyed sigh, Yan Yan out of his chair, drawing both guns from his gunbelt. The jeering stopped abruptly. "It would be a good idea if ya'll left the lovely lady alone. Believe me, rile her up too much and she'll put two in your mangy hide!"

 

One of the cowboys said," With what? She ain't got no guns!"

 

Yan Yan tossed one of his to Tzimfemme, who was balancing a tray with one hand. She caught the Peacemaker and pointed it at the group. Cocking the hammer back, she smiled coldly. "I do now," she said.

 

With the situation now well in hand, Yan Yan went back to his dealing chair. The action was on Wyvern. The Almost Dragon figgetted with his cards, flicked his tongue repeatedly, Then finally took a look at his cards. It seemed as though his entire body paused as he slid his cards face down to the dealer. Patrick took a look at his cards and repeated (with a little less drama) Wyvern's decision to fold.

 

Umbra glanced at his cards, shook his head, and slid his cards to the dealer. "Wow, that was a lousy hand," he said. Regained her control on her poker face, she reached over to a stack of $100 chips. She looked around to see who else might have be going in the hand with herPicking up $1000 in chips, she let them neatly fall, one by one, into a stack of $500, returning the extra chips to her pile. "I call," she announces as she slides the chip to the center of the table.

 

Parmenion immediately calls while watching the cat next to him for any hidden tells that may clue him in to the strength of her hand, but nothing could be gleaned from her expressionless face. "I call."

 

Guido covers his cards with one massive paw and uses a claw on the other to bend the cards up just enough to peer at their values.

 

When the bidding comes round to him, he tossed in $20 with a toothy grin and leans his bulk back in his chair.

 

"Yo! Barmaid!" he called, " An Absinthe P'eas." As she prepared the pale-green liquior, he looked around the table. "Dat dere is twenty smackers. It's been a while since I gots ta taste blood."

 

The drink arrived and was placed on the table with the spoon and sugar. With a light playful swat on her bustle he told her to run a tab for him, giving her five heavy gold coins (at which Wyvern's nose began to twitch).

 

Placing the slotted spoon over the absinthe, he placed the sugar cube on it, and slowly poured the water over the sugar. The pale green liquor swirls as the water mixed, turning a milky opalescent.

 

"Da louche! Good stuff." With that, Guildo sat back to watch the others with his large chocolate eyes...

 

"Uh, Guido?"

 

"Yeah?"

 

Yan Yan smiled," The minimum bet is $500." Being taken off guard, Guido fumbles with his chips a bit before throwing $1500 in. Realizing he's error, he knocks over his stack of chips while trying to pull out $1000. Sweet giggles as a few Pennites shake their heads while watching the chaos. After a good 3 minutes, Guido is restacking his chips, his minimum bet out in the center of the table.

 

Regel leans back in his chair after seeing his cards. With a slight grin, he splashed the pot with $500 in chips. Katz looks around to see that it is finally her turn. She picks up a stack of $100 chips, splitting the stack into two stacks of $500. "I raise."

 

Sweet, who was the blind, wrinkles her brow,"That wasn't nice, Katz. You're making me put more money in!" With a pout, Sweet slides in another $500. Mynx and Pmenion call Katz raise without question. Guido rubs his chin for a moment before saying," This is still the practice round, right?" Yan Yan nodded. "Alright, I call." Guido tosses in $500 carelessly into the pot. Regel smiled," Guido, those were $500 chips you just throw in." Guidp looked alarmed and ready to jump onto the table when Katz said between laughs at Guido's comical expression," Regel was only kidding. Those we $100 chips you threw in." Checking just to make sure, Guido sat down and sighed in relief.

 

Regel grinned widely as he tossed $500 into the pot," Sorry, I couldn't resist. and by the way, I call." With the bet called and Sweet, Mynx, Parmenion, Guido, Regel, and Katz still in the hand, they played for a pot of $6,000. All eyes were on the dealer as the flop came...2 of spades, 8 of clubs, and the Jack of clubs...

[Patrick]

Patrick sat looking at the remaining players of the round and then turned towards Tzimfemme.

 

"Bring me a scotch!"

 

Being served about twenty seconds later he nodded his thanks to her and turned back to the others at the table, watching how they all played. Apart from himself and Wyvern everyone was still in the game. Patrick had decided to use the practice round to observe how his opponent's played so as to be able to use the information to his advantage later.

[Sweetcherrie]

Sweet took another sip from her drink, and could almost feel her bladder filling up. She pushed her legs hard together and hoped that it would go away. She glanced around the table and saw that they were all looking at her, she wriggled in her chair, but the feeling of having to pee became more urgent.

 

"Erm...can someone tell me where the toilet is?" She gave up fighting against nature, "I really need to go." She smiled at Mynx that was sitting across from her.

 

"Next to the bar, down a small hall, third door on the right from females, second for males. and the first room is the wine celler" Scoof Dog answered.

 

"Thanks, I'll take these with me," and she stuck her two cards in the frontpocket of her red dungarees, took off her cowboyhat, and carelessly threw it behind her on the table. She heard a thud, followed by the sound of something that was rolling of the table. she turned around and saw that Patrick had been just fast enough to catch the glass that had been rolling of the table.

Sweet grinned at him, "Oops, sorry" and skated towards where Scoof Dog had told her where the toilet would be.

 

She rolled down the hallway, and skated inside the ladies toilet. She went into one of the cubicles and made sure to lock the door. Sitting down she put her hand in her pocket, and when it emerged she was holding a little creature inside it. The golem that Gryphon had given to Sweetcherrie was unfolding itself in her hand. "Now I would like you to make sure that nody is cheating tonight, and if they do you report it back to me. I will makes sure to drink so much that I need to go to the toilet regularly. Now go, and make sure you won't be seen." She lowered her hand and the little creature jumped of it and sped away, handily staying in the shades and out of sight.

 

"Now a diversion for him to get in place," Sweet mumbled and skated out the toilets. She slowly rolled past the door of the winecellar, and suddenly had an idea. She opened the door and looked inside. Big wooden winebarrels were standing on one end, and on the other was a large cupboard filled with bottles of different sizes. She skated inside and looked around, and saw something glowing in the corner, and decided to have a closer look. Just behind one of the big barrels there was a cherry red, glowing marble-shaped shard lying on the floor. Sweet decided to pick it up, it would go nicely with the rest of her collection of marbles, and put the glowing shard with her cards inside the front pocket of her dungarees. She rolled out of the room again to get a head start, and skated back inside with more speed then before. She skated faster and faster, held her hand in front of her, and flew straight into the cupboard with bottles. The cupboard rocked dangerously, and one after the other the bottles started falling out. Like a domino effect there were bottles rolling over the shelves, knocking over the ones that were still standing. A deafening popping noise of falling bottles followed, and the cupboard fell over with an enormous bang. Sweet chuckled, happy that he plan had succeeded, this noise must have been heard by the other players. She quickly put on her "I'm so verry sorry" face, and sat down, pretending that she had fallen over when bumping into the cupboard.

Edited May 5, 2005 by Sweetcherrie

[Mynx]

Mynx grins at her opponents from beneath her hat, once again thankful for the ability with which she can appear absolutely expressionless...if a little smug.

 

Raising a paw to a passing waitress, Mynx orders herself a White Russian, demurely drinking from it when it arrived as the feline carefully watched the rest of the players, trying to determine their hands through their eyes, while at the same time hiding hers beneath her hat...

[Wyvern]

Wyvern continues to fold his Two of Hearts card as the other gamblers cast skeptical glances towards one another. The lizard's enormous sumbrerro sways and jingles as he turns his attention towards the dance platform at the edge of the casino, his ruffled collar and stringy sleeves reminding the others of a scaly version of The Ugly (think Spaghetti Western). Wyvern's beady eyes watch a half-kitsune gal as she steps and spins her foxy tail around a metal pole, evoking a brief whistle from Scoof Dog's table. The overgrown lizard glances back down at his half-paper-airplane of a card, its edges nicked by claw markings, and lets out a short sigh of resignation.

 

"Sssssso, we playing cards ponchos?" Wyvern sneers towards the other gamblers and tilts his sumbrerro. Silly the Elder Dwarf, dressed in the garb of a street performer, approaches the table and strums a tiny battered Vihuela to accentuate the lizard's words. "Just to let you know I mean serious business, I'll start this game by raising the bet."

 

Regel and Patrick Durham stare wide-eyed as Wyvern reaches under the table, only to mumble to themselves as he tosses a small plastic bag into the ante pile. Inbi Infusco raises a brow and pokes at the colorful bag curiously.

 

"Almost Dragonic Brand Sweet Mesquit Western-Style Potatoe Chips™...?"

 

Silly attempts to strum the Vihuela to this, but breaks a few strings.

 

"Oooooo potatoe chips!" Sweet reaches out to grab the bag, only to have it pulled away from her by Wyvern.

 

"Not so fast little girl" hisses the lizard, his forked tongue slipping out from between his teeth. "These chips come 100$ a bag. Fork me over the money, and you can graze like the best of the cowgirls do."

 

Sweet crosses her arms and leans back in her chair with a thump, her nose out of joint and her sassafras tea going untouched. Wyvern offers the chips to Guido and Mynx before tossing them back into the gambling pile.

 

"Waaaitresssss!" Wyvern ignores the numerous drinks that Tzimfemme juggles, his eyes dizzying at her tornado of an outfit. "One mixed drink - better make it a Black Rattlesnake Alamo Twister, for a thirsty gambler like myself."

 

Parmenion spits out his gin upon hearing Wyvern order the strongest drink in the house, and the gamblers all turn towards the lizard as if he's crazy. Wyvern simply smiles at them a diabolical grin.

 

"Better make a move, ponchos, before I raise the bet again."

[Parmenion]

Parmenion glances over at the huge Lizard on hearing what he ordered. Not being much of a drinker, and only ever drinking water at Poker tournaments so as not to dull the senses, Parm had very little idea what is was the lizard ordered but seeing some of the interesting looks from others on the table smiled thinking it was at least going to be amusing. Taking a sip from his water he involuntarily spits it back into the glass realising that the waitress must have given him gin instead of water.

 

Parm catches the attention of the waitress as she is returning with drinks for one of the other players at the table and orders a large water with a dash of blackcurrent in his best common tongue. Having travelled much in the circles of elves and dwarves in his life as a Ranger his practice of the common tongue was less frequent with every passing year, due to his willingness to learn to speak in other languages. He was not shy in the slightest about his poorer than average common tongue. It may be viewed as an oddity in a human by some but he cared very little about what others thought of him. There simply never seemed to be a very good reason to bother.

 

Parmenion did not need to look at his cards to know what his next move was going to be. He bit his lower lip slightly and played expertly with a stack of five $100 chips in front of him expertly weaving a couple of them through his fingers and landing them back on top of his pile.

Edited May 6, 2005 by Parmenion

[YanYanGanaffi]

Sweet finally returns from what she thought was the rest room. All on the table was waiting on her. She took one more peek at her cards before sighing. "I fold. I guess the cards just don't lik-" Her sentence was cut off by a rapidly rising hum coming from the 'marble' she had discovered in the basement. Soon, the shard that Mynx now wore around hear neck began to hum as well. With a jolt, the necklace lunged forward, pulled by some unseen force, carrying the upper half of Mynx's body with it. At the same time, the glowing red marble forced it's way out of Sweet's pocket, meeting it's sybling in mid-air. The platnium charm that carried Mynx's shard shattered, releasing Mynx and letting her fall onto the table holding the back of her neck. "Agh," the feline huntress exclaimed," that burns!" Umbra held Mynx's paw away rom the wound. There was scorced fur with a red burn line on her skin.

 

"Sweet," Yan Yan asked," where did you get that?"

 

"In the wine celler," she responded. A rumbling began in the floor of the Temple, causing the partons and players to go intoa state of alarm. That's when the first of the shards that remained in the foundation of the Temple shot from under them to join it's mates. Quick as a flash, the rest began shooting up through the ground with high-pitched whines, like bottle rockets. One shot up right where Regel's chair was, shattering it. A splitner about 3 inches long sliced into Regel's calf. It happened so quick, Regel didn't know he was hit until he looked down and saw the blood soaked splinter jutting out of his leg. With a wince, he removed it.

 

All 23 ruby shards assembled themselves in the air infront of them, forming a large, double-fisted ruby. Even though fear was riding his mind high, Wyvern couldn't help but wonder how much the floating magical ruby was worth. The cracks in the ruby where the shards assembled fused together, leaving a smooth finish, as though the jewel had never been broken. The ruby pulsed with an inner light of it's own. "Well," Yan Yan said as he looked over at Mynx," Looks like your 'crystal problems' aren't over after all." Mynx gave him a slightly dirty look.

 

The jewel started pulsing int shades of red, dark red, and black. Shafts of red light strobed from it. One shaft hit Yan Yan directly in the chest and stayed. Yan Yan felt the energy of the jewel cause him to freeze. A red glow surrounded him. As the force of the jewel increased, he felt a burning pain all around his body, causing him to release a horrendous scream....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reverend J. K. Beasley was sitting at his computer typing up his Quill Quest for the Pen. He worked on the story between hands of video poker while listening to George Straight on his MP3 player. Looking at a pair of aces on the board with a six of clubs as the flop, his king-six in his hand didn't look that bad, but those two aces worried him. He grabbed his copy of Phil Hellmuth Jr.'s Play Poker Like The Pros, reading a section on video poker strategy when his computer started to make a high-pitched whine. "Not again, damn it," he exclaimed. This was the second replacement computer in a year. Both of the previous ones had been taken out by freak lightning storms. If this kept up, Hewlett-Packard would be sending him Chirstmas cards thanking him for all the business. The screen went fuzzy and then pulsed a deep red. He looked at the screen curiously. He didn't have long to look before he was drawn into the computer monitor. He tried to push against the sides of the monitor to stop from being sucked in, but to now avail. Just as he had been completely drawn in, his girlfriend Sarah walked into the room. She sighed as she saw the computer left on.

 

"I swear that man is going to make me hurt him one of these days," she huffed as she turned off the computer.

[Regel]

Regel surveys the damage. Wincing as he plucks out a three inch sliver from his calf.

He motions for the waitress and orders another drink. This time it was rye and ice. Tipping the waitress and excusing himself for the spilt drink Regel quirps to her "This is exactly why I don't excerise. The ice keeps jumping out my glass!" He motioned for another chair and sat down and tended to his calf. He stared at YanYanGanaffi and Sweet as they engaged in conversation. The pulsing ruby put an end to that. All speaking stopped as the crystal began to suntan YanYanGanaffi's chest. Then came the screaming.

Regel rose and took his glass and placed it between the ruby and YanYanGanaffi's chest. He watched as the heat of the ray begun to quickly melt the ice in his glass. Release from the ruby's grasp YanYanGanaffi slump into the giant lizard's arms and out of harms way. As Regel pulled away he commented "...that's quite enough water thank you."

 

The gameroom was a collection of startled faces and suddenly......

[Wyvern]

Wyvern grits his teeth and drops the innert form of YanYanGanaffi. His sumbrerro bells flash in various colors as streams of energy begin firing from the double-fisted ruby. The ground begins quaking beneath the feet of the participants, and Wyvern jumps onto his chair for dramatic effect. The half-kitsune platform dancer is too busy getting her foxy tail the heck out of the casino to notice.

 

"Play cards, ya varmits! Game'sss still on!" Wyvern tosses three more bags of 100$ Almost Dragonic Brand Sweet Mesquit Western-Style Potatoe Chips™ onto the table. "I'm upping the ante three more times! What've you got to say to that?!"

 

Parmenion cringes and clutches at his hand, only to trip and drop it as a violent tremor shakes the floor. Wyvern's chair topples over, and the lizard crashes next to the chips.

 

"Ahha!" cries the lizard, trying to ignore the cascading energy beams. "I see you've folded! Sssssucker."

 

A dimensional porthole opens on the dance stage, sucking the metal pole in.

 

"Where my drink?" Wyvern clings to the table with his claws as the tremors continue. "C-c-can't play Texas Hold'em Up onna dry throat!"

[Parmenion]

Parmenion grimaced slightly as he saw Regel remove the splinter from his leg.

 

"All this commotion at a poker tournament" he mused to himself.

 

He scrutinized the people at the table to see if he could find any who were taking advantage of this turmoil to perhaps better their hands. He remembered quickly that his own hand was knocked to the floor by the tremors and bent quickly to retrieve it. Luckily both cards had landed face down. He allowed himself a wry smile.

 

He had learned at a very young age to trust to his luck. His uncle had always taught him that the only way to have his luck grow was to trust it!

 

Settling back into his seat, Parmenion waited tensely to see what would happen next. He had a sinking feeling that the poker tournament wasn't going to go on much longer and that made him feel somewhat anxious.

[Patrick]

Patrick sat quietly sipping his drink while all the commotion was going on. He seemed unaffected by everything going around him, but had someone been observing him closer they could have seen that he was closely following everything happening, his eyes darting between the cards on the table and the faces of the players.

 

Noticing Sweet looking at him he smiled and turned to look at her, then winked.

 

With a simple gesture of his left hand he ordered a tequila from the waitress. Taking it from the passing tray before the waitress had a chance to give it to him he turned back to the table and looked to see who's turn it was to play.

Edited May 18, 2005 by Patrick Durham

[Sweetcherrie]

Sweet grew restless in her chair and decided that there was not enough action in this poker tourney. She decided that what it need was some stirring up, and started thinking about how she was going to do this. In the meantime she ordered a new glass of lemonade. The waitress arrived and put the glass down at the table. Sweet picked it up, and could feel it sliding through her fingers. With a loud crash it landed on the table, the drink spilled over the chips and wet the cards that were lying on the table.

 

“Oops sorry,” she jumped up to save the cards and in her hurry she mixed Wyvern’s and Patrick’s cards together. Wyvern started protesting loudly, and Patrick’s eyes grew wider.

 

“What are you doing, I had a winning hand,” Sweet didn’t know it was possible but the almost dragon’s face started to grow red, at the foresight of losing the round. “I’m so sorry,” She looked at the cards, “Which ones were yours?”

 

Wyvern looked as if he wanted to protest more, but didn’t seem able to speak any longer. Sweet started wiping the spilled drink of the table with her sleeve, and kept apologizing. She turned around to ask the waitress for a cloth, and bumped straight into YanYan who was still holding the jewel in his hand, but now dropped it….straight into Parmenenion’s drink.

 

“Ayeayaeaye” Sweet mumbled and glared around afraid of what would happen now the gem had fallen into the whiskey.