The Mariner's Box

[Mizushin Junzo]

Coming from the dock, short left takes one to reach Cat Street, at the end of which the light from the large front window of The Mariner's Box spills onto the road. One known as the cheapest inn and tavern in town, under the new management the place has been shaken up and refurnished. Although it still claims the title as the cheapest place in town, it no longer points to a broken-down and ramshakle locale. After a time of hard work wrought on it, the Box was made into something of a worker's place to rest and relax, and for travellers who weren't to free with their cash to be able to spend without worrying too much about the bill.

Coming within, the place opens up to a spread out tavern hall, with tables and chairs filled here and there with sailors and other people of the working class of Narim, with though the occasional merchant or clerk who tended towards more of a middle-class weren't an uncommon sight. A spot where the occasional musician could ply his trade was set off near the fireplace, opposite the bar where a brawny bartender by the name of Maximillian cleaned out a glass.

The woman who served in the old Box named Rose was still around, though after a healthy dose of crowns she'd managed to get herself fixed up nice and ran the place pretty in replacement of the quite unlikeable Jezzine, who'd simply been paid off to go into retirement. If there was something to be done here in the Box, Rose was the one to talk to, the somewhat life refreshed woman having a wealth of experience and knowledge in dealing with the crowds of the rough sort and thoroughly enjoying being the one to order about a small group of younglings instead of being ordered about herself.

[Carly Jr'ana]

Early Summer, Era XI. Not long after entering the city.

Having asked directions to one of the nearest taverns, at which she could find a few good crowns and a bit of fun, Carly had been pointed in the general vicinity of The Mariner's Box. Finding it with relative ease, she had plenty of time after all, Carly stood just down the street and looked the Inn in the face. She could taste the salt of the ocean in the air, she was close to the docks, that was a comforting thought. The normally lit window was rather dull at this time of the brightening and so Carly looked it over warily, was this really the place? It didn't look very high class.

Rolling her eyes at her own hesitation she took a few steps in the direction of the inn and stopped. Where would she draw this sigil? She didn't want to be interrupted, so the street was out, and she couldn't very well create a sigil and meditate in the middle of a tavern, Ikos was risky enough in the south east of the Empire without actively showing it off; even if she doubted anyone would know what she was doing. Perhaps she should rent a room rather than just diving off into the docks and tying herself to a kelpbed?
That could work. A nice room she could sleep in tonight, and even create her sigil in and meditate over.

Mentally remembering where she had placed the chalk stick she walked the rest of the way to the tavern door and pushed it open. Treking immediately towards the bar Carly looked up at Maximillian, rather in awe of his muscles she stared for a while before actually speaking.
"I'd like a room for the night please."

[Mizushin Junzo]

Max blinked a bit in confusion at hearing the light voice speak to him. He looked around him, seeing no one who seemed the person who might have said that, certainly no females were right in the vicinity. But Maximillian was no greenhorn to bartending and dealing with people, so after doing so, he leaned over the bar to look down. He wasn't wrong in expecting one of the shorter races, perhaps a short dwarf, cether or gnome, maybe even one of the fae-folk, but what greeted his sight was something altogether new.

Max wondered what in the world he was looking at, for the creature looking up at him looked distinctly elven. Or rather, it had elven or fae features. However the eyes and the skin, not to mention the sheer lack of height, confused him. Maybe she was a mix between a mer and one of the small folk? But that didn't make sense either, although it seemed right. It was at that moment that he recalled the presence of certain elven-folk of the sort in the Empire, sea elves they were. He wondered though if she was a child, since she was so small. But he wasn't familiar with sea elves too much, and elves always looked a lot younger then they were, right?

Deciding to err on the side of caution, he shrugged and looked at the curious looking female. "Ah, a room would be about 2 crowns. You got yourself a bed, pot, and you clean up after yourself. You want food, you pay for that separately, you hear?" Max nodded at Carly, tossing her a key after she left him the crowns.

[Carly Jr'ana]

Carly nodded at Max's words, perfectly acceptable for 2 crowns was her thought. Placing the two shiny coins on the bartop she caught the key in mid air and made her way to her room. It took a bit of finding but Carly wasn't in a particular hurry what with the brightening still being fairly early, when she found the room she slipped inside quietly and made to lock the door behind her.

Max wasn't kidding, the room was bare as bones. Eyeing the bed suspiciously Carly walked over to it and sat down slowly, half expecting it to collapse beneath her. Finding it not a death trap she placed her backpack down next to herself and decided to begin working on her sigil. Fingering her chalk Carly realised it would perhaps be suspicious to be leaving chalk marks all over the walls and floors of the room, like some sort of horror scene were the Jorel worshippers leave their human sacrafices lying about. People tended to overreact to Ikos runes. And so she would make do with another material, fetching from her bag her dresses, boots, shirts and other belongings she laid them out on the bed neatly in order of size and flexibility. Perfect.

Looking down at the floor space she had to herself Carly conjured forth the image of this sigil from her mind, the sigil she'd been meaning to cast for months now. As she thought, Carly took her shirts and dress and rolled them into lengths of cloth. Then moving to the floor she took a dress it formed it into a rectangle, using the arm lengths of the dress she formed two crooked arms. She wanted money. The first rune in this sigil was Dharv, and from it Carly would create a star patterned sigil.

Above this rune Carly carefully crept, and taking her arctic scarf formed a large square. Within this she placed her strip of leather to create a small inner square, taking strips of dried and salted meat from her travelling rations she formed a cross that covered these two squares. Carly would get her money through games of chance. The second rune, and first arm, was Ikos.

Moving back over the runes to the downside of Dharv, Carly took up four pieces of clothing and arranged them in a cross that didn't meet in the centre; each arm ended in a crook that flowed clockwise. Carly would get her money through others losses. The third rune, and second arm, was Salucha. The arm wasn't finished however.
Taking up her red sash Carly created what looked to be a fifth arm directly below the third rune, this was Bhun. Carly would get her money through others peaceful losses.

Half tempted to add an Evo for giving, Carly stood and inspected her work, she would leave the sigil as is; four runes was enough. Taking all her other belongings and repacking them in her backpack Carly sat crossed legged on her rented bed and looked down at the sigil.
She held the intent firm in her mind, for it had been gnawing at her for a long time now. She wanted to money, lots of money. She wanted it from others, through chance. Through an easy, peaceful game of dice.
Keeping her minds eye firmly fixed on the room both her eyelids swished closed and blocked out the dim daylight of the room, she could feel the sigil with her echolocation. She was happy with this work and as she began to not think, or feel, only hear the intent her voice began the murmur of her chant.
"Dibs"
Ever so silent, on the edge of hearing she chanted. And so Carly sat and focussed on the sigil, willing the intent into it. This would happen, there was no other course of fate. Telath itself would bend to her will and deliver the crowns she wanted. Sometime, if Carly actually sank into Clara, her eyes would snap open upon the runes and drink in their meaning. Her subconcious would be curbed, it's orders would be given, it was there only to serve her whims.

Later that brightening Carly awoke in very much the same position from her meditative state. Stiffling a small yawn with her equally small hand she picked up the materials from her sigil and flung them at the bed to destroy the sigil and allow her to pack them away quickly, she eyed the meat suspiciously and decided it was best not to eat it now that it had layed on the floor for so long. Besides, red meat wasn't really her thing, especially when it had been cooked.

Taking the key and unlocking her door she stepped out into the inn, making sure to lock the door behind her, and headed for the tavern section of the Mariners box.

[Mizushin Junzo]

Fortunately for Carly, no one had bothered her as she enacted her ritual. Though seeing an elf like her with her things scattered in a curious pattern over the floor might have seemed more like a little girl playing with her things rather than an arcanic ritual. Regardless the Ikos spell had been enacted, her will and intent formed and arcanically expressed in the field of Ikos. Who knew what would happen this evening?

That done, she had descended once more into the tavern. Looking for a place to play the games of chance, of which there were ever so many in this place. There were a few tables where the ring of coins seemed to be happening, such as a man who was tossing the dice, and another group who were betting on arm wrestling, or another group that was betting on someone who was throwing some knives into a target.

[Carly Jr'ana]

Relief over another job done, Carly gave herself a mental pat on the back. There was no one else to compliment her on her oh so amazing work, so she reguarly took it upon herself to encourage and exclaim over any little thing she did. Being an orphan could be terribly lonely at times. Looking upon the bustling tavern seemed to take her worries away, there were many people in this room and many games to play! Games! Carly had not played with another living being in so long she was beginning to forget how to, but the switch was swung and she was in the mood for games.

Sweeping an appraising eye across the room she hurriedly settled upon the ring of coins, she liked dice games. It was a pity there were no cards, and she still had none of her own, or perhaps a boon? She didn't really know the rules, but she enjoyed the concept even more so than that of the dice.

Crossing the room to the man with the dice Carly tried to act considerably more adult than the little voice inside that was screaming for some fun, taking a coin out of her pocket she approached the table and smiled at the people surrounding it.
"Can I get a bet in?"

[Daemn K'rryl]

-TIMESTAMP-
Same time as Carly

Looking around for a cheap tavern to spend the night had led Daemn onto the Road of the Shvakkim. This wasn't Medonia, he had to keep telling himself - he didn't dare sleep out on the streets here. Who knew what kind of city this Narim was? Hell, it had been a good month before he'd passed out in the open on the streets of his old haunt back in the seedy areas of Medonian alleyways. No, now he needed somewhere with a roof to put over his head and a bed to rest in without having to sleep with one eye open.

That was the last thing he needed right now... sheesh.

The Mariner's Box was rife with the potent smells of sea and rime, reminiscent of the salty dogs who frequented it. It was not discomforting to Daemn, who had once willingly slept next to an open deer carcass after eating too much following a successful darkening's hunt. He smiled fondly as he remembered the days back in the jungles, and only after he had left the tribe did he truly appreciate the freedom it offered. Oh well, there was no time for that now. He was gone, Jyr'n was dead, that was that.

"Seraaa hombre, needin' room fer darkening or two, yah?" he said off-handedly to Max the barkeep, flipping over a five-crown piece. The place looked like it wouldn't be any more than that, and the jagara bet that the rooms would have the same homely atmosphere of brine and rotting barnacles. Ahh, the joys of the sea... they were all other peoples' joys, of course.

A loud cheer from a corner of the bar led the katta's eyes to rove its patronage. There were the usual arm-wrestling and knife-hurling contests that he arrongantly looked down upon for obvious reasons (although said reasons were, he knew in the deepest depths of his soul, because he was neither strong nor accurate enough to participate). However, against a far wall was a group of sailors betting on dice games, and that perked his interest. Orckon had offered little in the way of gambling, unless the wager he wanted to make was his life, and Medonia had been a month or so ago. How he missed the Lemon Lemon! Hit by nostalgia and an overwhelming desire, he strolled over casually and pulled up a chair.

"Seraaa, boys - Luca's the name," he growled in a friendly fashion. In Narim his name was Luca Ferrova, according to the skillfully-done Visa those clever goblins in the Theif Guild of Orckon had forged for his work in this city. "What's the game?"

[Mizushin Junzo]

Daemn and Carly

As Carly approached the table, quite unnoticed actually due to her height more then anything else, she managed to catch the words, "That's it for me tonight guys." One of the men pushed himself away from the table, raising his hands as if to ward away the comments of his companions who chided him on bailing out of the game like that. As he rose, another member of the table stood up as well and shook his head, his words as he backed away from the game. It was a ripe opportunity for Carly to go in, and go in she did.

As it was, the katta who introduced himself as Luca had managed to step in first, introducing himself to the remaining three players, to which a moment later Carly interrupted with her own words. The three looked at each other, one of them shrugging. The man sitting in the middle, fairly forgettable in his looks actually, was a black haired one. He nodded at the pair, though his look was skeptical as he eyed Carly. "Well, you're in luck, two of our players just quit. The game's simple. We got ourselves here some dice, six six-sided dice. You roll them, and depending on what you roll, you get a cut from the pot." He looked at Carly again. "Course, you can't join up if you can't pay up the bets."

"Rules are simple, there are combinations of rolls here. The best roll is getting fours. If you get four fours, the rolls go around on more time, and if no one beats those four fours, you get the whole pot. Next is getting four ones, if you do, you get half the pot, one round goes around, no one beats you, you get the half. There are a bunch of other rolls, but the winning ones are usually those. Interested?" The man nodded at Daemn this time. "If you are, take a seat and I'll explain the rest of the rules to you."

[Carly Jr'ana]

The man was rude, he'd pay for that. There was no need to patronize her for her age, and there was certainly no reason to assume Carly didn't have money. Still, the scowl was slow in forming and was soon pushed aside by the welcoming smile of childhood

Clambering into one of the now vacated chairs Carly took her place at the table, grinning happily at the relatively forgetable fellow. Her eyes scanned the table happily as her echolocation pinged about the room drawing her a pretty picture of the patrons in the immediate vicinity. A quick glance up to Luca the katta and she was back to looking at the dice.
"Don't worry about me mister, I'll quit when I run out of play money. But if you let me watch after that I'd be ever so happy, I really like dice games."
Large opaque eyes stared across the table at the three current players, natural wetness providing a shimmer; surely they couldn't resist the puppy dog eyes!
Carly really did need the money, setting up fish farm would be an expensive thing, setting up a travel company would be equally expensive, and if she could just make enough to cover the cost of a bodyguard for a few cycles she'd happy for the meanwhile.

Learning to gamble was the idea here, the idea that these men might cheat swung slowly into her mind. Carly herself didn't know how to cheat in such a game, once she knew the rules she might give it a go.
"Rules?"

[Daemn K'rryl]

"Interested? Feth yeah," Daemn chuckled, drawing the string on his small coin pouch and sifting through it with a claw. He had about 2000 crowns stashed away in a very safe place, around 600 in coins of various denominations in his bag and a further thousand in notes in a secret pocket stitched into his boot. This was more than enough for the katta to survive on for the time being, though he certainly had not much to splurge. However, the addictive excitement of gambling was something he could turn a blind eye to, and so set aside in his mind about 200 for this darkenings games.

"Yah, I in. Sounds not so tough."

[Mizushin Junzo]

Daemn & Carly

"All right, take your seats, I'll get on explaining the rest of the rules." The man shrugged, as he settled in and started talking. "I told you about the four fours and the four ones. Now there are a few other combinations that can win you crowns from the pot. It goes like this. We start the game with a minimum bet, since there's five of us a bet of ten crowns for each person is about good enough. At the end of every round until we hit the number of rounds we decide on to stop increasing the pot, we add another sum of crowns each. A typical game stops raising the pot at either five or ten rounds."

"Now the dice combos. While the pot's lower then two hundred crowns, a four-set of twos gets you five crowns. Set of threes gets you ten, set of fives gets you fifteen, set of sixes gets you twenty. If you get pairs in succession, like two twos, two threes, and two fours, you get thirty crowns. And if you role a straight, meaning one to six on each dice, you get fifty crowns. When the sum of the pot increases for every hundred though, we up the crowns you win for each roll by the original winning value." The man paused to take a drink, nodding at his companion to continue.

The other guy shrugged and continued black-hair's explanation. "Basics of that is this, at three hundred, the set of twos are worth ten crowns. At four hundred, the set of twos are fifteen crowns, and at five hundred, the set of twos win you twenty. You follow that right? So, let's get started eh?"

[Carly Jr'ana]

Carly listened to the men intently, her eyes tracking their beer mugs as they moved from table to mouth. The rules were simple but they way they were explained was a little tricky, she got the gist of it all. Or she thought the did, the high the number of something you got the more money you got. She spent a moment wondering why they used fours, but it didn't take her long to work out the improbability of rolling a set of six. Four was the most likely number that still provided a challenge, but what happened when you rolled under that? Money must have stayed in the pot then...

And suddenly the man was starting the game, taking the standard amount of crowns she usually carried around, plus the amount she had changed from notes for this game she came out with 250 gold crowns. Hopefully she wouldn't lose it all, or need more than that, otherwise she really hoped they took notes.
Smiling at the other players, she put her hands on the table and tried to get a little closer. Her senses were quite focussed on what the Katta was doing, a hungry look seemed to enter her eyes and her smile. And for a ruthless predatory Thelyri like Carly that look was perhaps a little disturbing, especially upon a child.
"Let's play fellas!"

[Daemn K'rryl]

For his part, Daemn sat impassively watching the men as the rules were explained to him. It didn't seem like a game of any skill or cunning - if you rolled a winner then there you are. Unless someone had laws over chance, he sensed a quite tidy little game tonight. He blinked slowly at the company, a small smile playing on his face as though he was in it for a good time, but behind the bright green eyes lurked a darkness that stared into their souls and shook all the worth out of them. Behind those eyes, he thought: I'm leaving with the money one way or another...

Stretching and yawning slightly, he looked over at the funny-looking elfgirl. What was the deal with her? He had never seen a Thėlyris before, so the sight was unnerving to say the least. Should people have gills and wierd eyes like that? He wondered if she was a freak, pondering the issue for some seconds before mentally waving it away. She was really of no interest to Daemn - to young and wierd-looking to be desirable, and a completely harmless air. The men on the other hand... he woudn't mind a piece of them if they tried anything funny, it had been a while since his last good fight and he was quite looking forward to another one.

He nodded, grunted and stylishly flicked a 10-crown piece onto the middle of the table, a universal sign that meant he was in and they should hurry up already. "Let's get, how you say, show on road, yah? By the way," he said, glancing at the other players, "You knowin' my name. What 'bout you guys?"

[Vesavius Cairn]

Time stamped as the former posts of Daem and Carly

Vesavius walked into the 'Box, rehoisting the rough leather bag that still held his longcoat and remaining rolled up posters further up onto his shoulder. He had long discarded the pot of fish glue that he had carried for most the day, though he was well aware that it's faint smell still clung to him somewhat, mixing with the fresh sweat of honest work and the sea air to produce an 'interesting' odour. At this point though it was fair to say he really didnt care and the draw of an ale was stronger then the desire to get clean. He had paused to tie back his braided hair before entering the tavern now only a soft sheen of perspiration glowed on his dark skin, emphasised by his not so white cotton shirt and black leather trews. His only weapons were a well maintained service issue gladius and dagger, both hung on a heavy weapons belt.

Grateful for the shelter from the sun of the day, he paused as his eyes grew used to the dark, taking in the interior of the pub as they revealed themselves. As his gaze took in one unremarkable table after another, he had to pause as he came to the game that involved a child and katta, his brows raising in slight surprise...

"An inn at eve is no place for a child", he said quietly to himself as he walk past their table and towards the bar..

[Mizushin Junzo]

Vesavius

Unaware of what the man had said, he was simply too far to hear or see anything really, the bartender greeted Vesavius with a nod. "G'day. How may I help you?" Max looked at Vesavius curiously, though not with any undue curiosity as was not expected from the barkeep. "Need a drink, getting a room for the night or something?" He polished a glass, and set it aside as he waited patiently for a reply.

Carly/Daemn

OOC: No excuses here. Sorry though.

The three shifted to allow Carly and Daemn to sit around their table. A small iron pot, literally, was set in the center of the table. At the moment it was empty, though that would not be so for long. The man who had done most of the explanations introduced himself first as Alan, the other two followed in turn. To Alan's right was a brown haired man of decent build named Harold, or Hal, whole to Alan's left was a dark-skinned one named John. Their names were, for the most part, quite forgettable actually. Surely there couldn't be such boring people?

But regardless of that, the game was on. Thirty coins clinked as they fell into the pot, and the trio waited for Daemn and Carly to throw their own bets in as well. The dice was rolled for them, as they went to determine who went first in the order, though it would pass to the right after each person did his roll, once they figured who went first.