Day 62

The Tale of Enan and M'Do

As Enan shook the dice in his hand in preparation for his final throw of the game, he stretched his chest and shoulders, and his ribs gave an audible 'pop'. Then, staring straight into the pirates eyes, he slowly placed the dice on the table and proclaimed, "I've won." With his other hand he pushed his gold to the other side of the table where the pirate sat, as per the agreement.

The pirate eyed the money for a moment, and began to nod his head. As he was putting Enan's gold into a purse, he replied, "yes, it seems you do indeed have the most strips. But it also seems that I have the most swords!" And he guffawed as if someone had said something funny.

The other pirates in the gambling hall let out a battle cry and started to slash at the hostages, who all started throwing their coins at the pirates and begging them not to hurt them. A few of the patrons withdrew daggers and started waving them about wildly, hoping to get a lucky strike on a pirate, and within seconds the hall was a chaotic flurry of glinting blades.

As the scene erupted Enan kicked the Bards and Bandits table over onto his opponent, pinning him underneath. Wanting something to defend himself with he picked up the pirate's scimitar, and as he came back up from leaning over, he saw a pirate flying toward him. Not in a threatening way, however, rather the pirate had been kicked through the air like a ball by M'Do, who now stood in the middle of an angry group of six...five...four...three...two...one...no pirates.

M'Do's heroic display of sword mastery did not go unnoticed by the remaining rogues, and after the seconds it took their minds to catch up with what had just happened in the blink of an eye, they dropped their swords and ran.

As the gambling hall calmed down, the patrons that remained (and that was all of those who had not paid to leave earlier, since no one but the pirates were slain in the furore) offered Enan a share of their coins as a prize for saving them. And what a sum it would have amounted to! But the party of heroes had enough money to get by, and any more would be a temptation to spend on impulse, so Enan refused the gift and walked away from the hall with only M'Do, and a slightly bruised foot.