After one week of waiting, the day of your first challenge had finally arrived! You were both excited and stressed... Would you become Ruby's son or end up in her stomach? This was the first step toward your destiny... Whatever it might be. That morning you had breakfast like you always do, then Ruby had some chores for you to do as always. It wasn't until sunset that the chunky dragoness called you for the test. She led you to a large room with a wooden table sitting in the middle. The piece of furniture was made to Ruby's size of course, with a small staircase on its side for you to climb to the top. The heavyset reptile took a seat on one side of the table and invited you to the other. Once you were all present at the top she brought forth a huge deck of cards as well as 10 oversized, golden chips. "So Joshie... You're first challenge will be to play a game of Swords&Crowns against me! If you're not familiar with this game its very much like poker. You start with a hand of two cards and then two more 'common' cards are drawn, you must then wager some of your tokens and whoever has the strongest combination of cards wins the jackpot, are you following me?" The fire lizard asked, flashing a devious smile.
"Yeah, I think I get it. I've seen people play poker before!" One of you casually replied. "Yeah we're not dumb!" Another added.
The dragoness giggled cutely before beginning to shuffle the deck. "Good~ So we start out with 10 tokens each and the game ends when one of us no longer has any tokens. In essence, whoever still has tokens in the end is the winner. I'll be using these golden chips as tokens and you'll be using... Well yourself~" She explained, showing you the chips.
"Wait... what?" A Josh commented, confused. "I'll be using myself?" Another asked.
Miss Firebreath nodded softly, patting the head of the confused Josh. "Yes, its quite simple really~ I'll be betting these gold tokens and you'll be betting your lives~ One Josh equals one golden chip. I'll let y'all guess what I'll do with the Joshes I win~" She teasingly expressed, hungrily licking her lips. "After all, we haven't had dinner yet now have we?" She added, winking at your group.
You all nodded, fully understanding the implications of this game. "Now sweeties let me explain a little bit more about the game. So each cards has a different strength, basically the strongest card wins in the end, however there are several card combinations that are stronger together! So I'll just give you the cards from weakest to strongest: First there's the peasant, he's basically worthless! Next there is the footman, followed by the archer and the knight. After that there is the warlock followed by the priestess and the prince and then there is the queen, the king and finally the dragon! Now for the combinations: There are pairs which are always stronger then singles, so yes two peasants can beat a dragon... Then there are triples which are always stronger than pairs. On top of all of that there are three special combinations... First there is the footman, the archer and the knight which is called a coat of arms and then there is the prince, the queen and the king which is called a bloodline. But the best of all is the warlock, the priestess and the dragon which is called an arcana!" She diligently explained, drawing two cards and placing them face down in front of your group. "So are you ready to play kiddo?" She inquired of a slightly mocking tone.
"Eh... I guess we are..." One of you replied, uncertain. There was tangible unease among yourselves, that game was definitely more complicated than you thought it would be!
"Then let's get started~!" The ravenous reptile proclaimed, drawing two cards from the deck and looking at them. Your little gang subsequently picked up the two oversized cards Ruby had placed face down in front of you and viewed them: It was an archer and a king. Ummm, the archer wasn't very good but the king sure was! "Oh by the way boys~ Please try not to be TOO terrible... I'm trying to watch my figure and downing all 10 of you in a single sitting would just be catastrophic for my waistline~" The dragon woman smugly noted.
"Alright, so the minimal initial wager is 1 token~" Miss Firebreath disclosed, tossing a chip to the center. All of you fought for a little while about which one would be wagered first... Ultimately one of the Joshes was forced to the middle of the table by the others. "Good, now let's reveal the first card..." The reptile spoke as she drew a card from the deck and placed it in the center. It was a king. That was good for you, you could make a pair of kings! "Interesting." The dragoness commented, pondering her next move. She then tossed in two additional chips. Your group conspired secretively before deciding to follow the dragon lady with two additional Joshes. "A bit adventurous? I like that~" She teased, giving you a friendly smile. Soon the second card was drawn... It was another king! What incredible luck! You could make a triple king which was one of the strongest combination in the game! Unfortunately your enthusiasm was cut short by a deep, visceral laughter from the other side of the table. Miss Firebreath seemed quite pleased with this particular arrangement. The fire dragon addressed the three of you who had been wagered to the middle of the table. "I bet you three are dying to know what I got in store for you~ Cause I'm telling ya, as it stands you cuties are as good as mine~!" She gloated evilly, winking at her preys.
"You... You're just bluffing!" One of you retorted, stricken with fear. "... Yeah... I'm sure you got nothing!" The next one added, terrified to the bones. "Guys calm down, this isn't helping!" The third tried to reason.
The predatory woman giggled softly, patting the wagered Joshes' head. "Now now, there's no need to panic my little darlings~ I'm just having a bit of playful, competitive banter with you all. Beside, I'm sure you'll find it quite comfy inside my belly~" She aggravated, emphasizing her point by giving her jiggly gut a vigorous slap. "Anyway, my turn to wager!" She declared, taking her entire stack of tokens and pushing it to the middle. "All in~" She declared of an assured, confident voice. This was huge... All of her tokens were on the table and you had one of the strongest combination in the game... You could win the game right there by going all in... But it was risky, very risky. True you had very strong cards... But there was stronger in the game. Was Ruby bluffing? Could you afford to take the risk? You colluded with the rest of your group, trying to come to a consensus on the situation. Meanwhile, miss Firebreath casually engaged the three of you in the pot: "Ummm, I wonder if your brethren are gonna risk themselves in order to give you a fighting chance? Either way, I hope they they don't take too long... I'm absolutely famished~!" She teased, a big glob of saliva dripping from her mouth. The three unfortunate Joshes were positively horrified at the prospect of being consumed whole and alive by the pudgy behemoth, not wanting to spend the rest of eternity on her hips.
-What happened next?
