Card Game Roleplay!

[Marvelous Miscreant]

"Sounds better than more travel. Where is this pub"

[Celadon's Penultimate]

 "Down the street..."

[Marvelous Miscreant]

I set off quickly down the street for the pub.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

The three of us step into the pub and my two companions take their place at the bar. Seeing no third spot for me, I shapeshift into a fly and land on the nose of the guy in the seat I want. The guy next to him punches him out of the seat, in a poorly-thought-out attempt to swat the me-fly. Knocked out cold, I'm sure the guy won't mind me being in his seat.

The man who formerly sat next to him menaces me, but I quickly remind him, "YOU'RE the one who helped me get this seat. NOW! Barkeep! Ale for me and my comrades. Oh, and when that guy wakes up, give him one, too."

[Philote]

I sit down at the bar and start planning the path we will take with our driver, while studying maps of the area.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

"In order to find the Jokers, I wouldn't be shocked if we had to go through The Shuffle. That's where they come from, if I remember correctly."

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Refresh my memory, I never really studied Deckstack history.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

 "Oh, dear, time to get encyclopedic on you two already? This will be good...

Deckstack History wrote

Ages ago, before Deckstack divided into the four suits Clubs, Spades, Diamonds and Hearts, there was constant war. Every day was stormy, every night was plagued by monstrous creatures lurking in the dark. No land was civilized, and Deckstack wasn't even called Deckstack. It was called...the Shuffle. Our peoples were divided into numerous, more scattered tribes.

Our only rule was by our shamans, our sorcerers and our fiercest fighters. And we hunted the Wildcards like the savages they were. Among them were the powerful beings we see today; Gin, Pokerface, Hold 'Em and Solitaire. Only the bravest would dare face them.

Of them, the powerful wizards, the Deckstack Dealers: Blackjack, Trump, Rummy and Uno. Fearsome sorcerers and seers of past, present and future. They alone had the power to face them. And they used those powers to subdue the Four Jokers, and drive off the other monstrous beings of the land.

From then, they decided it was time to settle things in more civilized fashioned. They would divide the people into groups of people who agreed most in their views.

Blackjack would guide the warlike and the soldiers into the Blacklands, with their strongest, bravest fighter the first Brutalis as the King of Clubs

Rummy would take the hedonists, the free spirits and the creative ones into the Redlands, with the first Philian as the noble King of Hearts

Uno would take the dignified, the prestigious, and the disciplined into the other side of the Redlands, with the first Xiphidor as the King of Spades

Trump would escort the materialistic, the worldly-minded and the rich into the other side of the Blacklands, with the first Liguros as the King of Diamonds

After they established the kingdoms of those with their endorsements, the Deckstack Dealers retreated back into the Shuffle, the yet unsettled, uncivilized lands of what is now called Deckstack, only to be consulted or called upon in times of crisis.

[Philote]

If only we could develop some way to track them.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

"I suggest, follow the carnage...and if that doesn't work, we follow the rumors."

[Philote]

"We need to get one step ahead of them, figure out where they would go."

[Marvelous Miscreant]

"You do that...I'll just stick to what I do best. Fighting!"

[Celadon's Penultimate]

The Clubs perk up in the pub.

"Fight?"

"Fight!"

"FIGHT!"

"Oh, dear."

[Marvelous Miscreant]

 "And a glorious fight it will be! I will be the champion in the end!"

[Philote]

"A lot of Clubs for a Hearts Pub" I notice.

"They sure do get riled up easy, don't they?" I say to our new Hearts friend.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

 "I would expect nothing else of a Club..."

"HEY!"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Stupid Heart!"

"CLUBS SUPERIORITY!"

"LONG LIVE THE HOUSE OF BRUTALIS!"

Naturally, the Spades, Diamonds and other Hearts take offense to the Clubs nationalists. This doesn't seem about to end well.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

"Aye now this is my kind of crowd."

[Philote]

"Don't forget you're on official business here. You wouldn't want to get demoted back in your kingdom and have to go through another Club's training camp would you?"

[Celadon's Penultimate]

 "I suggest we leave", I say, ducking a chair thrown in my direction by the ensuing chaos.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

"Ah, but the crowd is just getting exciting,"