I'll be honest, at this point for the titles I'm just making shit up that sounds like it could be a good chess (or another tactical board game) expression. I mean, I'm sure these are perfectly valid, just don't assume any special meaning in them. Anyhow, as I write this, I'm nearly caught up, knock on wood.
And, again, one more reminder that I'm in an anthology that's come out called Samhain Secrets: World Premiere from new publisher Blackwarren Books. For more info/purchase links:
We pick up with Hǎifēng accompanying Ledaal Kes, a bodyguard or two, and some hangers-on as they go out to get some food and drink and just party a bit. As the group heads for the restaurant that Hǎifēng recommended, the Lunar spots a couple of people following them. One appears to be one of the monks, likely providing extra security since the local temple has no desire to get it in the neck if something happens to a high-ranking official in the Imperial Treasury while in their sphere of influence. The other individual appears to be one of the mysterious mercenaries their surveillance spotted before, a man with short hair and a pale complexion that suggests a Northerner. Hǎifēng gets the distinct impression that the guy is expecting something to happen but it isn't clear what.
While they're making small talk over dinner and drinks, Hǎifēng asks Kes what it is that brought him out here. The Dynast says it's partially curiosity about someone holding a huge tournament at all, partially some curiosity about this 'Game of Scribes' Gateway variant, and also some interest in the magical Gateway board. He has reason to believe it's the same one that used to belong to a Dragon-Blood named V'neef Gamon, and he'd made a few attempts to acquire it from her over the years but could never get her to part with it.
Hǎifēng, having a lot of experience with Realm pretty-boys through their 'day job' back in An-Teng, tries to get a read on Kes to figure out if there's anything deeper and finds it difficult, like trying to grab at smoke, but discovers... there isn't anything deeper. Kes seems to be utterly sincere, that there's no larger scheme or anything at work, no plans to get up to anything shady. But the Dragon-Blood is giving himself an air of mystery to deflect. That gives Hǎifēng pause, and they put a hand on Kes' chest, almost disappointed.
Kes puts a hand on Hǎifēng's and asks what brought them out here... but with subtle inflection in his tone and expression that clearly spells out "I know you're up to something." He does quickly emphasize that he's enjoying the conversation and wants it to continue, but he's just curious. So in other words, "I'm not regarding you as a threat unless I have to, but I'm certainly going to ask."
Hǎifēng says, truthfully: "We were on a long voyage and it's nice to be back on dry land for a while before heading further north, and thought it'd be fun to crash the tournament. Your being here is just a bonus," followed by a coquettish 'Tee-hee.'[0]
Game recognizes game and Kes takes that at face value, but Hǎifēng take that as 'nothing more to see here, get out while I can' and finds an opportunity to exfiltrate. To his credit, Kes lets Hǎifēng say their goodbyes and slip away discretely without causing a stir.
As Hǎifēng heads back towards Xương's place, Shango -- who's been watching this whole thing as best he can from a distance -- spots the mercenary splitting off to follow Hǎifēng, without the latter's knowledge. Shango has some trouble tracking him himself, but eventually gets eyes on him and dives at him. He uses Wasp Sting Blur to enhance the attack, and manages to disable him pretty handily.
All Hǎifēng hears is a 'whoosh,' a yell, and then a 'thud.' They turn around to find the merc on the ground, failing about while Shango in bird form claws and swipes at him. Hǎifēng, disappointed in themself for not seeing the guy, comes over and Shango backs off. The monkey Lunar puts a foot on the guy's chest and asks if they're going to need to have a talk. The man asks "About what?" in heavily-accented Seatongue. Hǎifēng asks why the guy's following them, acknowledging that he clearly has some skill since they'd have missed him if not for their bird. The guy, carefully choosing his words because of an obvious language barrier, says that he was curious as to why Kes took an interest. Hǎifēng, looking insulted, says "Darling, please," and gestures to themselves. The guy just eyerolls in the universal signal of 'you know what I meant,' and then we get into this exchange:
"Why do you care what Kes thinks?" Hǎifēng asks. "He's just here to play a little game."
"Watching the Dragon, just in case. Keeping an eye on things."
"One more question. Who do you work for? And really, why do they care? So I lied, that's two questions."
The man considers this for a moment, not only picking his words but deciding what he can get away with saying given that he's already going to be in trouble for being caught. "I'm with the Silver Shell, a group hired to deal with the logistics of the tournament."[1]
"Are you going to continue to follow me?"
"Well, not now. What's your interest in Kes?"
"He's rich, he's powerful, and he doesn't look bad either. I thought it would be an easy pay tonight. Turns out I was wrong."
"So we're clear. Can I go?"
"Yes, go," Hǎifēng says, pushing the man away with their foot.
He gets to his feet and takes off while Hǎifēng and Shango return to Xương's to find he's just been napping away the evening, and they take the hint and also turn in for the night.
The next day, Hǎifēng recounts the conversation with Kes from the night before, expressing disappointment that there isn't some larger deal with Kes' presence. That he really is just on vacation. Also, they point out that the magic board is definitely the one they took from Gamon. Xương needs a reminder as to who that is, so it comes up that he kaiju'd her house. Hǎifēng also points out that the secretive mercenaries are from the Silver Shell.
Xương, more 'local' to the region than Shango is, is familiar with them. The Silver Shell are a Cinder Isles-based group, somewhere between a large company and a small merchant's guild. They're led by someone believed to be a former Dynast (albeit a mortal), and possibly made up of ex-Guild members. In his occasional work as a freelance negotiator, he's had run-ins with them before, and perhaps if his obvious Lintha heritage would draw so much attention they'd probably have tried to recruit him (and maybe they floated an offer at one point, I don't think we got into that). But they're a known group, and they don't engage in any piracy as far as anyone knows, so they're on the less-shady end of any sort of mercantile operation. So it seems a little odd they're being so secretive, but it's possible they're being paid to be discreet.
Hǎifēng still judges the whole evening as a waste of time, but Shango says that at least they shouldn't have to worry about Kes being a problem. Xương says they should still be involved in the tournament, and Shango points out he's still going to participate. The group's still not sure what to do about the tournament itself, other than wait for it to begin, since it's hard to stay motivated given that the prize is something they've already stolen once. But Hǎifēng says that Shango should still get down there and play (and today is the qualifiers for the event), and the group remembers that there are still all manner of weirdos and monsters participating.
So Shango gets cleaned up and puts on something a little more formal over his chain shirt. The trio heads down to the theater district where the qualifiers are going on -- there's not much organization to them, given the number of participants, it's pretty much go in, find an available opponent, and report the results to the organizers. Everyone gets four qualifier matches, and they'll narrow it down from there.
As Shango finds an opponent to play and Hǎifēng sets up to keep an eye on things and grudgingly cheer him on, Xương is approached by The Flourish (as a reminder, a crane-aspected Lunar who works for the Devil Princes), who asks if he has a minute. The Flourish tells him that someone attacked his ship last night, and as Xương's more local to Lathe than he is he wants to ask if Xương knows anything. He says that someone attacked his ship, hurt Tepora (the swanfolk woman who normally represents the Devil Princes in Lathe), and managed to take the decoy they made of that artifact Gateway board.
Xương makes the very meta observation that he's surprised the decoy seems to have actually worked. The Flourish agrees, because normally someone discovers such a decoy is a fake and then dramatically breaks it. But the Flourish is checking in with Xương to see if anything he would consider weird has come up. Xương just points out that 'weird' is relative in Lathe.
Meanwhile we cut to Shango's first opponent, a woman from further east named Mekhalaa. For context, without completely getting into it here, Gateway is a chess-like board game played across multiple on top of each other like 3D chess and animal-themed pieces. There aren't any actually-printed rules, IC or OOC, for playing Gateway, but I'm making do.[2]
Shango sets up for an early strategy of setting up his air units and using ground units to lure her into pincer attacks inflicted from the air. And that serves pretty well against what can only be described as a rather textbook opening from her. During the middle game, she makes complicated moves intended to make her look more clever than she really is, and despite surprising her with a shark unit after holding her attention on his sky units with a strategy called 'Shark Takes the Land,' she adjusts well to hold her own pretty well. Late game, Shango uses one of his last pieces, a monkey piece, in an obscure technique called 'Monkey Dances for Money,'[3] and despite her best efforts, Mekhalaa's unable to keep up. Or, as Shango puts it, "monkey dances for money and comes up rich."
And we left off there, on his first win of the qualifier, with plans to start the next session on a montage.
[0]-- For the record, Bryan (Shango's player) added the 'tee-hee' as a joke, and Zac (Hǎifēng's player) clarified that while Hǎifēng will say that, Zac will not.
[1]-- For the record, this is an organization I invented for the game. Shango, from his involvement in his family's shipping business, knows them as a group of merchants, mercenaries, and business consultants that operate out of the Cinder Isles.
[2]-- In case anyone is wondering, for full Gateway matches I'm adapting a fan-made system found online, with a couple of minor tweaks. I might do a full write-up of the rules I'm using at some point, we'll see. The big takeaway that's relevant to this post is that the game's represented in three distinct stages -- early (arranging starting positions and early strategies), middle (attacking and adapting to the opponent's attacks, including potentially psyching them out or otherwise manipulating them into making a mistake), and endgame (sealing the deal and winning). Each stage has a roll that feeds into the later stages.
[3]-- For the record, Bryan is making these names up himself.
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