3460 When You Cheat You Make An Eat Out Of C And H Or Cheat Lamp
on June 9, 2021
Characters: Abbott Heigh, Cadugan, Captain Ajira, Captain Lilianne Carruthers, Lexa Dumas, Lucas Greyfort, Sulaaf al'Shamshir
Location: Abbey of St. Aldwin the Skilled
This place will be thick with suspicious characters before too long.
Fishy…
Also, y’know… if Vera and Taurenil were friends for over a decade, surely Vera would actually know when Taurenil’s cheating?
Over twenty years, the 10+ years of the tournament and the time of the war and 10 years after that.
Assuming they stayed in contact.
Wait, where was– oh. Right.
Hm. Then yeah, things could’ve changed by now…
Unless, of course, they were both cheating…
This is turning into an "Investigating the great casino heist" kinda story.
My copy finally arrived last week!
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/286537/burgle-bros-2-casino-capers
t!
Wouldn’t it be fun if it turned into an ‘Ocean’s 11’ story ? 🙂
He’s obviously hiding something.
Hmm… I think something that can baffle the anti-magic bubble is at play. Something tells me much like in D20 settings, psionic abilities can function in areas of null magic.
Co-Writer’s Note:
There won’t be psionics in this story.
I don’t remember any instances of it in YAFGC (although many others are better qualified to say), so I simply never considered it.
I guess, if psionics do exist in this world, we should assume that the Abbey did away with it so long ago that now they forget to mention it.
t!
Not disagreeing, but a comment: in some world’s, illithid mind control and other abilities are considered psionic, iirc. Based on what you are saying, I’m assuming they are magic-based in this world. Is this correct?
Also, my brain is being selfish by keeping info to itself. What IS the name of this world??
Yikes!
Those would be questions for Rich, I’m afraid.
t!
Unless Taurenil’s been cheating Vera for all those years 😉
If the game is played with cards, a skillful ‘artist’ could easily manipulate them to deal whatever hands they wanted with nobody being the wiser.
It’s like Granddad said…
"Never play poker with someone who does card tricks"
"even if they use a gnu deck"
Ah, but would a monastic order devoted to games of chance not have studied those skills?
Could someone be skilled enough to pull it off under their watchful eyes?
An interesting thing to ponder…
t!
In case the game isn’t played with cards (or even if it is) maybe she studied under one of these artists ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XoCvn4fnXw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJN1iMOfgAc
Maybe the "cheating" wasn’t at cards.
I think I’ll fire up the grills. There’s going to be some red herring flung around this story
Are you calling Abbot Heigh a communist?
t!
"Heeeeyyyy, Abbbbooottt!"
Sorry, I just HAD to do that…
I think it was more of a Bud-ding revelation that Abbot’s not the only wise guy around here by our lovely Fang FanGirl.
But what do I know? I’m hard of herring.
Red herring?
Communism?
I know Miseri gets this one.
t!
Ab, but I’ve never read herring. I’m not a haruspex.
And how dare you claim I’m obtuse, simply because I don’t have acute face! That’s not my angle here!
Okay, okay, enough of the punish-ment.
I think he just revealed a big motivation. There are people, who would kill someone who threatens their reputation…
Also, even if a bit late, congrats Rich both for your success in life and for anniversary of YAFGC!
(I wasn’t aorund for a while, so missed the actual date and announcement.)
So you are saying old gnus = good gnus? … *gets dragged away with gnus around neck*
And still laughing at everyone else’s puns on this strip and last one 😀
The neck one is my favourite so far!
t!
I love where this is going…or might be going. The pair of magicians in charge of this are skilled in misdirection.
And the puns. Glorious. 😀
You know,with all the reliance on actual magic that these people have had, over the centuries, the simple art of prestodigitation and misdirection, wouldn’t really be all that well known there. Simple slight of hand and scams would be MUCH more effective than they’d be in a previously nonmagical world…
Thanks, MDF! Much appreciated.
t!
When do Penn and Teller show up to explain the way she cheated ?
Please tell me they gnu they were needed…
It’s the pun that keeps on truckin’!
As some B5 fans noted, Penn & Teller already (to some extent) made an appearance in this story…
t!
It’s all about watching the OTHER hand. Misdirection. The left hand Gnu what the right hand was doing, after all!
Never mind the games of chance, when is the gnu wine festival?
First month of the year.
It’s a Jan gnu wine good time.
t!
And they play hip hop ad the house music. Special for tne frst is tne band gnuwine
Ever heard about that rich merchant who came to play Gnu? He used to have a huge shop that sold pretty much everything, called simply "The Emporium". As a result he got known as "the Emporer", heh. So he came to play Gnu and started betting his wealth away. He lost pretty badly, but just always kept betting more and more in the hope of finally recouping. Eventually he had nothing more to bet than the clothes on his back.
So now in Lifecross & Hogg, the local euphemism for "naked" is "wearing the Emporer’s Gnu clothes."
Omg. Love it!
Well done!
I think you’re missing a letter, there.
Surely, he was the "EmPOORer" by that time, seeing as how he’d lost nearly everything. 😀
On the other hand, I may be embellishing too much–the joke was fine as was.
That was the worst/best one yet, flog yourself accordingly… 😉
Comedy can be a risky proposition
But you gnu the job was dangerous when you took it
buk-buk-buk-buk
I want to say a sincere thank you: When i’m bummed or stressed, the comic and the comments make me laugh, even when i feel like a gnubody. The only reason i don’t individually call out every one who makes me groan is it’d hide the humor. And the care too. 🙂
Well put!
t!
One last pun, then I’ll quit, I promise.
In the game of Gnu, a common mistake made by beginners is to engage too much in table talk, mutter to themselves, and so on. The level of noise created by such amateurs was unflatteringly compared to the buzzing of insects.
And so new, inexperienced players became known as Gnu bees.
Bravo!
Agreed! Except the stopping part
Me, three!
t!
All right, here’s another one:
In the early days, card players would play outdoors often, especially on sunny days. However, the printing inks would bleach quickly when so exposed. Cards that had been used when playing outdoors became known as "nothing cards" due to how faint they had become.
Nevertheless, there are some who persist, and so to this day, there is nothing Gnu under the sun.
You stopped again 🙁
Once more, well done!
Another crucial detail every Gnu bee must master is the timing of their plays. When your turn rolls around, you must play your card within a strict time limit…but only the judges carry actual timepieces. The players must time their moves by their own internal clocks, which for some is not an easy skill to master.
This was how Maula Bloodhand earned the ire of certain jealous players, who may or may not be among those framing her for murder. Maula, as it turns out, has an inerrant sense of timing; her plays always fall just a fraction of a second before the limit. This led some opponents to unjustly accuse her of hiding a clock on her person. The gossip around the table was rife with baseless accusations that "the Gnu Orc Times!"
(And how long did Maula’s moves take? Always precisely one Gnu Orc minute.)
My dear P!enapple, I will post again once Rich posts another comic, free of comment threads. And in the meantime, lovingly craft new lore about Gnu, such as how the card one opened a game with was often a signature move known as greeting, and led to players identify each other by their greeting cards.