The Ninth Trial

[advisories]

Who: everyone
When: Day 18, starting just after dawn
Where: The Hermit's Tent, and all around

[This morning as the sun begins to pour through the train's windows, there's the tremor that signals a Trial.]

Come hither, Heroes. Prove thy worth. Or something like that!

[It's the same older man's voice from the sixth trial, and outside is the same fortune teller's stall. Today the front flap is lifted to show a normal interior -- there's a wooden table, carved with geometric patterns and painted in bright colours, lit by teal-coloured carved candles.

At the table sits a man of indeterminate age, somewhere between 30 and 60. He's wearing what appear to be monk's robes, teal with patterned trimming. In front of him is a crystal ball and a stack of bingo cards, along with a stand-up sign bearing the rules of this Trial.

Across the top in large font, it says:

Icebreaker Bingo

Good luck and have fun!]

Comments

[bad_crowmance]

I'm ambidextrous, either will be fine.

[ He holds out his right hand. ]

[desirestruth]

[She takes it, and considers this, before rolling his sleeve up a bit past his elbow.] This is most useful in close combat, but, if you put pressure on this point here--

[She pushes on a point just below his elbow, cutting off blood flow. His hand will start getting that tingly feeling from falling asleep nearly immediately.]

That will numb your opponent's arm and make it much easier to escape. Alternatively, at the base of the thumb, or here at the wrist, will cause a great deal of pain and get most anyone to let you go.

[She does point those out but doesn't use them, since she promised it wouldn't hurt. She'll also release his arm now, too.]

...Though come to think of it, I feel like the points that stimulate bloodflow to certain regions would have been more suited to you, but I won't be demonstrating those on your body.

[bad_crowmance]

[ He waves the numb hand around for a bit before dropping it to his side. ]

That's pretty cool.

[ And then his mouth slides into a grin. ]

I wanna hear more about those other ones sometime!

[desirestruth]

Find me someone I'm willing to demonstrate that on.

[Which means convince Luci to let her do this to him in front of you, Crow.]

[bad_crowmance]

You have yourself a deal.

[desirestruth]

On your own head be it.

[bad_crowmance]

I'll accept that. And now I'm gonna teach you a skill, too.

[desirestruth]

Oh, this is alarming.

[It's not. But she's kind of wondering what he's going to teach her...]

[bad_crowmance]

Nothing about me could ever possibly be alarming.

[desirestruth]

I have no choice but to take your word for it right now.

[bad_crowmance]

Do you know how to count cards?

[desirestruth]

Count cards?

[She tilts her head to the side. She clearly hasn't heard of this particular method of cheating.]

[bad_crowmance]

It's a card game strategy used primarily in the blackjack family of casino games to determine whether the next hand is likely to give a probable advantage to the player or to the dealer. Basically, the idea's to attempt to decrease the inherent casino house edge by keeping a running tally of all high and low valued cards seen by the player.

[desirestruth]

Ohh...

[She's considering this.] This would be useful in hold 'em and rummy, too, wouldn't it?

[bad_crowmance]

It sure would!

[desirestruth]

In the interests of full disclosure, I'd usually just mark the cards with a scent I can pick up.

[Since, you know, we're being honest about cheating methods here.]

[bad_crowmance]

That's a pretty good strategy for you. I think doesn't hurt to have a backup though.

[desirestruth]

Certainly. If this place can remove powers, then even once I buy back my senses, I could lose them again.

[A beat.]

Oh, we need a deck of cards, don't we?

[bad_crowmance]

It'd probably be easier with a deck but I can at least go over the theory now.

[desirestruth]

I should really buy a deck anyway...but, yes. Let's go over the theory, then.

[bad_crowmance]

Alright. Basically, you can break it down into four steps—

Step 1. Assign a value to every card
Step 2. Keep a “Running Count” based off of the values of the card dealt
Step 3. Use this information to calculate the count per deck or “true count”
Step 4. Change your bets as the true count rises.

[desirestruth]

[Well, naeva is good at math so she probably caught that. I, the player, am completely lost.]

...Oh, it's a logistics puzzle!

[bad_crowmance]

[ It's okay, math is my nemesis but Crow's totally got this. ]

Exactly!

[desirestruth]

That's easier than I expected...though, if you process slowly, you're more likely to get caught, huh?

[bad_crowmance]

Yeah, you've gotta be able to keep track of everything in your head and do it on the fly-- and you've gotta be real subtle about it so you don't get caught.