Rounders, turned out, was the literal name of the game: it was a ‘round robin’ game where the dealer (who may or may not also be a pyer) passes out cards to each of the pyers, with them going st if they’re pying, until each pyer had five cards in their hand. “Now, " Kolmsen said, holding the five cards in his hand. This is where the fun begiing.” He said, tossing a somewhat familiar of dull metal. We’re just doing this for fun, sure, so we don’t go too big.” He expined, “You know anything about our ?” Peter sighed, shaking his head, “Nope. I’ve been out of the temple grounds once, before now, and only saw two types of s.” He poio the table, “That one, and… I think a silver , well it wasn’t shiny but it was a light… gray-silver?” “Really?” Bhrenna looked at Peter. “Was too busy ‘training’,” Peter rolled his eyes and gave air quotes, “And starting to teana stuff while learning about Aetyros myself.” Kolmsen whistled disbelievingly, “Never let off the grounds?”Peter shrugged, shook his head, “Nope, just the oime I went to a local bakery with the person assigned as my ‘aide’.” He poio the iron , “Is that a… dausch, I think she called it?” “Yeah, a dausch.” Bhrenna said, nodding.The uni-horned dy smiled, “It’s the we use for everyday stuff.” She pulled out a , that grey-silver look that Peter remembered seeing at Sharra’s bakery, “This is a Scale. They’re are a nickel , the size up from the dausch.” Kolmsen pushed the dausch across the table so Peter could i it.The dausch was iing to Peter; a square , with rounded ers, and a knurled edge that Peter ehe feel of. The design on one side (the side fag up after Kolmsen dropped it oable) was imprinted with a square set so its ers line up with the lines of the itself, rather than lining up the points. The reverse side held a ed bundle of sticks surrounded by a urel .It sort of reminded Peter of an old Roman because of the stick-bundle and urel .Of course, there was some text along two of the sides and while he k was ayrosan script of some kind, he could thankfully read and uand the nguage regardless. There was also a small set of numbers — either a mint-year, a numerical code for where it was minted, or a serial hough it seemed a little small for that, Peter thought).

  He set it down, pig up the nickel and noting it was a little more decorated than the dausch, as well as having a ‘non-standard’ shape instead of being a ‘pin old’ round . This one didn’t have a knurled edge — being smooth, with a bit of an ‘edge’ making the faces of the a little smaller; it was a little thicker than the iron as well. It had text following the curve of the on the one side with a left-pointing side view of someone’s face — obviously, someone famous like a ruler eter’s guess — and again, a small set of numbers. Seeing them here he thought it was, like s on his old world, the year they were minted. The reverse of the nickel scale was imprinted with a lizard of some kind, sitting on its hide-quarters and head fag to the right — it reminded him of a dragon on a heraldic shield.Peter figured it was a lizard due to the long ned tail of the pictured beast as well as the name of the , scale being a clue — to say nothing of its shape and living up to its name by having a gentle, rounded point on one end with a ftter ‘dome’ oher; if not a scale it reminded Peter of a type of shield, certainly. Again he ha back to its owner. “Thanks, I didn’t get a look at them before, and I’ve always found design iing.” Peter smiled, hoping that sounded less weird to them than it did to him. “No problem.” Kolmsen nodded, pointing to the dausch he had put into the ter of the table, “Once we get the cards dealt out like we did, the betting begins. We generally stick to one, or two, dausch as an ante. If you want in on the round, you pay up. If you don’t ante, you aren’t out of the game, just the round.” “Teically I should have put the down first.” Bhrenna did exactly that, dropping a dausch herself on top of Kolmsen’s, “Since I’m on the dealer’s left.” She poi Broseff. “So I got excited.” Kolmsen shrugged, ughing as he sat bad sipped at his drink.Giggling, the horned woman to Kolmsen’s left added her iron to the pile, followed by Broseff’s. “Si’s the first round, we’re all going easy and just matg.” Broseff offered, “Later on someone might get the idea of raising when they buy-in on the round.” He expined. “Also, let’s py face up, just to show our new friend how this works?” the horned woman suggested, “Usually the cards are pyed face-down until everyone has pyed a card, then turned over.” “Makes sense.” Bhrenna nodded in agreement.Kolmsen too, “Why not?” He shifted the cards in his hand, giving Bhrenna a side gnbsp; “So. Let’s show him our hands and we go from there.” Bhrenna said, ying her cards down oable, face up with the other three following.

  The first thier noticed was the suits for the cards were different though not unfamiliar: Swords, Cups, and s being instantly reizable to him, the others were Shields, Towers, and Bows with only the Bow being difficult for him to figure out being it was a simply arch with a straight line eg the two points — though the line was offset a little so there were sticky-outie-bits instead of looking like a capital ‘D’. The sed thier noticed was the number cards only went up to ‘6’, there were six face, or court, cards that were marked differently than how he khem: Page, Knight, General then Heir, sort, and Ruler going from lowest to highest. Lastly, there were cards marked with a rge ‘X’, and one card marked with a feathered wing, mirrored as pying cards were, and marked with one suit in one er and a different suit in the opposite side er — Sword and Shield were paired, as an example, so were Bow and Tower, and Cup and .

  “These cards—” Broseff poio the ‘X’ card in the horned woman’s hand, “— represent Xtha, Goddess of Death.” “I am… familiar… with her.” Peter smirked, making the other three blink in fusion and Broseff cough.“They’re the highest in the suit.” Broseff expined. “Ah ‘no one is above death’?” Peter mused. “Good guess.” Kolmsen chuckled, grabbing some of his own snack mix, tapping the winged card in Bhrenna’s hand, “That’s a wild card. The bck feathered wing is a symbol of the Goddess of Chaos. In Rounders Xtha’s card wins the round but is worth no points. Chaos also wins the round it's used in, but is worth ten points. The same amount as a Ruler card.” He tapped across the table to Broseff’s hand. “So. The Ruler is worth the most… but so is Chaos.” Peter chuckled, “Fitting, I’d say.” “Oh?” The ‘uni’ woman giggled, “Most people tend to avoid speaking up about Na’at because of, well,” She o Broseff, “His boss.” “Oh, I am aware.” Peter said, “Though I do admit I am… a little chaotic myself, I don’t know if I’d say I’m aligned with Chaos~” “You called down all dek of the Gods, Peytr.” Broseff nearly spat his drink, “I’d say you’re pretty chaotibsp; “Here-here!” Bhrenna ughed, raising her drink to Peter, “Though I bet the look the ol’ codger’s face riceless!” “I either firm nor deny.” Peter grinned widely, giving his ahat way, as he sipped on his bottle of mead. Kolmsen chuckled, “So getting back to the game. The face cards tihe point value from the numbers. So the Page is worth seven points, The Knight is eight and General is nine.” He nodded, “These are, also, called the ‘low court’.” “Ace through 6 is called ‘the popuce’.” The ‘uni’ ointed out. “Right. And from the ‘Low Court’ you have the ‘High Court’, the Heir, sort, and Ruler. You figure out their points, I’m guessing?” “Dek, el, and ten, respectively?” Peter offered.Kolmsen nodded, “Exactly. And, like we said before. Xtha’s card is worth zero points, and the Chaos card is the same as the Ruler.” “Right.” Peter nodded.

  “So, the round goes like this.” Bhrenna spoke up, sliding a card out; the Ace of Shields, “The pyer to the left of the dealer antes up, after everyone who is pying the round antes, it es back to the pyer to put out the first card. Usually face-down, of course.” “Right.” Peter nodded.Kholmsen slid out his Knight of Shields.The ‘uni’ dy tapped her and pushed out her Knight of Towers.Broseff slid out his Ruler of Cups.

  “So.” Peter poio the cards, “Ace is one point, the Knights are both worth eight points, and the Ruler is ten.” “Right. So, Broseff gets all these cards, and has the sum-total of the cards as points.” “Twenty-five points to me.” Broseff jotted down the amount on a small scrap of paper with their names on it, “Also, Bhrenna, that is bouvashite that you pulled three aces.” "Well, two now.” Bhrenna grinned, saucily sipping at her drink.

  “That’s how a round goes. Five rounds for a hand, because, well, five cards.” Kholmsen expined, grinning, “And lucky me, with my three 3’s.” “Oh, kiss-off.” Broseff rolled his eyes, ughing.

  The ‘uni’ dy leaowards Peter, “So, highest card wins the round, but overall you want the lowest point amount possible.” “Oohh.” Peter nodded, “So, I saw you and Kholmsen both py Knights… what happens if there’s a tie? Like what if Broseff didn’t py his Ruler?” “Oh, simple.” She perked up a smile, “We py another card, face down of course, and turn them ain. Highest wins, and you get all six cards worth of points in that case. Or more if there was aie and aie-breaker.”Peter whistled, “That could get nasty.” “Yup~! And then we draw cards equal to the ones we used to break the tie so everyone has the same amount of cards again. And then the game goes on like normal.”

  “So looks like there’s some strategy in choosing your cards…” Peter scratched his , “Especially since you py face-down and have no idea who has what…”“ Yup!” She grinned, “ht. I’m Jensa, I never introduced myself.” “Hi, Jensa.” Peter smiled, “o meet you.” “o meet you!” She grinned.

  And the game tinued, Bhrenna tossing in two dausch as ah a grin of fidence iwo remaining aces.Everyone else anted in as well, meaning there were twelve s i — well, twelve to Peter anyway.Bhrenna pyed her Chaos of Towers and Bows.Kholmsen pyed his 3 of Bows.Jensa pyed her 5 of Towers.Broseff pyed his 6 of Cups. Colleg the cards, and the dausch, Bhrenna won the hand with twenty-two points — by Aetyrosan ting, since Broseff was keeping points as the dealer.

  Round Three, with everyoed up, Bhrenna again put in two dausd everyoched, except Jensa who raised, putting in three dausch. This caused Kholmsen to groan as he and the others tossed in another to match.Bhrenna pyed another of her aces; the Ace of Swords this time.Kholmsen pyed his Page of Shields.Jensa grinned as she slid her Bow of Death forward.Broseff pyed his 5 of Shields.Jensa won the round with 11 points, pig up the Bow of Death after pulling her cards in while Broseff jotted down her points.

  “Remember this card?” She asked Peter.He nodded, “I think I do. Xtha’s card wins the round, but doesn’t give any points.” “Right!” She cpped, “So I only have the three cards to add up.”Round Four started with Bhrenna bag down to one of the iron s, but Jensa tossed in two, causing Bhrenna and Kholmsen to match her bet after Broseff matched it himself.Bhrenna frowned as she pyed her General of Shields, not liking the high-value card.Kholmsen gave her a teasing grin as he slid his 3 of Swords fiving a pyful giggle Jensa slipped her 2 of Swords towards the ter of the table.Lastly, again, Broseff pyed a high-value card; The sort of Swords, sighing as he did.Broseff won, jotting down his 21 points.

  “Last round for the hand.” Kholmsen grinned, in the lead with absolutely no points.Bhrenna rolled her eyes, Jensa giggled and finished off her drink, raising a hand to get Smitty’s attention and order another for herself.Bhrenna tossed in awo dausd pyed her Ace of Towers.Following suit, Kholmsen added two s himself and pushed his 3 of Shields forward.Jensa matched and tapped her 6 of Swords before pushing it forward.Broseff shrugged, matg, and pyed his st card: A 2 of s.Jensa pulled the cards to her as Broseff wrote down her score - 10 points.

  “Normally this is where the person, or people, with no points would pull a card to give them something of a score.” Kholmsen expined, “Because it’d be unfair if someone pyed every hand, never won a hand, but because they had zero points won the game.” “Meanwhile I’m sitting over here with forty-six points…” Broseff grumbled, stuffing a handful of snack mix into his mouth. “I ’t pin, twenty-two isn’t bad.” Bhrenna said, then o Jensa, “her is twenty-one.” “Nopers!” She giggled.Kolmsen stood up and pushed the pile of s from the ter of the table to Peter, “Even if I pull a Chaos card, I’d still have the lowest score.” He looked to the others, “So, pot is still mine, yeah?” “Sure.” Bhrenna rolled her eyes, shrugging.Jensa nodded, “Works for me. It was just one hand anyway. It was worth it to show Peter how to py.” “Yeah.” Broseff nodded.Kholmsen pushed the s towards Peter, half-standing to do so, “You said you didn’t have any to your name, right?” He asked, “Well, now you do.” “I… I mean… I ’t…” “It’s my winnings, I decided what to do with them, right?” “Sure but—”Kholmsen shook his head, “You , friend. Think nothing of it.”

  Forty s, to Peter’s ting, but verting to the Aetryosan way of ti… “Thirty-four dausch may not seem like much, but it’s det pocket ge for a couple days.” Bhrenna pointed out.

  ====================