Nascent Goddess Quest

Winning votes:
[w] Play despite Liam's protests
-[w] Non-gambling
--[w] Don't cheat

---

Jocelyn looks back at you as you head over to the non-gambling side with a disappointed look. Liam meanwhile lets out something between an annoyed and relieved sigh, something you didn't really know was possible. There aren't many people on the non-gambling side compared to the other two sections, but since these people weren't confident enough to gamble maybe you could win a little against them, maybe, you hope. You sit at a table with two other people at it, they wordlessly hand you a cup.

"Um, hi?" you greet them, they wave, but they don't say anything. Not here for small talk it seems.

One man is bald and a has a faint grey stubble, his face is covered in wrinkles. The other man is much younger, bright blond hair and a cocky grin are his defining features. You roll your dice, turn the cup upside down onto the table quickly and check your dice. You resolve not to use your magic to get an upper hand, you'll get better the old fashioned way.

Your first roll is 1, 6, 4, 3, 2.

...Even with your limited knowledge (or maybe because of it), this is a terrible roll. It tells you almost nothing about the number of dice. If you'd rolled only fours then you'd know there are at least five fours, but like this you know that...there's at least one of every number except five.

After a few rounds of bidding low numbers you eventually say, "Seven sixes."

"I doubt that," says the man to your left, the young one. You all lift your cups and check the number of sixes. Six sixes, you're out of the game for now. You glance around the room in the meantime. Over at the gambling tables there's some cheering and passing of money around one table in particular. Jocelyn seems to be enjoying herself and the Tourney table, one of the seven players is already out and the rest seem to be engaging in a round of staring at one another. You're not really sure you get wh-

A hand taps your shoulder, looks like the older man won the game. You roll once more and your eyes widen at the result. Those five fours you were joking about before just came up. With a smile on your face that was really giving away that you had some kind of advantage, you start to make high bids on the number of fours. It ends up going against you when you bid "Nine fours." Surely the other two have rolled at least four fours between their ten dice, right?

"I doubt that," the young man says as soon as you make the bid. Raising all the cups it turns out the young man had a single four while the old man had three. A perfect nine fours! The young man places his cup right side up and patiently watches you and old man.

Rolling once again doesn't go so well for you. Two 4s, a 6 and two 1s.

"Three sixes," the man bets. Not good, now you'll have to bid four ones or four fours, and you don't think he has two of either. Unless…

"I doubt that," you respond immediately. Raising the cups reveals that...he didn't have a single six? He was pretending to so you'd bet a high amount? You suppose that's also part of the game's strategy, tricking other players. Still, you won! You bounce in your seat and look over to Liam happily, he looks back with a hesitant smile. Despite losing at first, this game is actually pretty fun. Jocelyn meanwhile is still in the Tourney and three players are out now. They seem to be going a lot slower than your table.

The younger man puts his dice back into his cup and you all roll once more. Three fours, a five and a six. What's with all the fours you keep getting? Well, you shouldn't complain about easy bids. "Five fours!" you eventually call out happily, still on the high from winning before. Out of the corner of your eye you see Jocelyn smirk at you enjoying yourself. The cups rise to reveal...three fours. Neither of them rolled a single four...The high you were on drops like a sack of rocks and you slump in your seat. But you won before! You can do it again!

Jocelyn meanwhile seems to have finally lost her tourney game, and she's sitting and smiling in her seat. In another few moments the two men finish their game and you prepare to start again, only to feel Liam's hand on your shoulder.

"How about we do something else?" he suggests with a bright smile.

What do you do?
[] Keep playing, you're getting better!
[] Go to the Tourney table and play there
[] Leave, check out that thing Liam mentioned earlier
[] Leave and do something else
-[] Write-in what (ie: talk to Tobias, go explore some more, etc.)

Winning votes:
[w] Leave, check out that thing Liam mentioned earlier

---

Liam said:

"How about we do something else?"

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

"Yeah, okay," you reply as you get out of the seat. The two men frown slightly for a moment as you do before they shrug and go back to playing. Jocelyn's table, meanwhile, continues to watch the last of the players slowly bid, going up in the slightest increment each time. She practically jumps out of the seat and over to you when she sees you and Liam begin to leave. You feel an incredibly subtle twitch on your shoulder as she approaches, Liam's hand is still there. He quickly retracts it and steps forward to greet Jocelyn as she returns.

The three of you then walk out of the games room, yourself and Jocelyn filing behind Liam as he leads you to whatever he wanted to show you. While you walk you decide to ask Jocelyn about something that's been bugging you since you started playing.

"Hey Jocelyn," you start.

"Yeah?"

"What was it?"

"It?"

"The prize!"

"Prize?" she asks with a twinkle in her eyes that tells you she knows exactly what you're referring to.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," you say as you lower your eyes slightly into something resembling a glare, but not quite getting there.

"Do I?" The twinkle turns into an outright smirk at this point. Jocelyn please, you know she finds you exasperation funny, but still. You let out a sigh.

"The Tourney Prize!" you say with exasperation. She's really having too much fun at your expense for someone who tried to stab you earlier today. Maybe she just feels better after playing those games? It's still weird. Well, most of the people you know are pretty weird.

"Ohh, that. Yeah, no, they didn't tell me," she answers flatly.

You almost fall to the ground as she tells you that. Leading you on a verbal chase like that and then telling you she doesn't know anything really should have been something you were expecting. She starts to chuckle at the sight of you stumbling. "I was kidding Eshani. It was some kind of dagger, really nice looking, apparently magic."

You quickly regain your footing as Liam looks back to see why Jocelyn started laughing, you give him a smile and he turns around. A magic knife though? That could have been useful. But considering how you weren't that good at the game, you'd probably have lost first and then just had to sit there. So that was probably for the best.

"We're almost there," Liam brings you out of your own thoughts as you go round another corner. A little longer he leads you into a...mostly empty room. A few bookshelves stand by the walls, though they're mostly sparse there do seem to be a few thick books on them, one or two you identify as atlases. In one corner there's a lone table and chair with a map strewn across it.

"So, uh, what did you want to show us?" you ask.

"Look!" he says enthusiastically as he points downward. The middle of the room here is glass, the room seems to be made so you can look through and see under the ship. Trees wizz past and you see a dirt road snaking its way underneath the ship. It's actually quite interesting to watch the path seem to veer from one side to another underneath. Until the path turns left and is quickly left behind.

"Umm, we can see the ground?" Jocelyn says hesitantly. Liam looks confused.

"Y-yes, isn't it astounding to see it so far below?"

"It's cool but," she stops as Liam slumps, "No wait, it's just..." She pauses for a moment to think before straightening up and continuing, "you're really cool yourself so I was just thinking this would be cooler. Not that it isn't cool, just that my expectations were too high."

It doesn't really help much as Liam only slumps further at her expectations being above something he sees as incredible. He looks to you for some kind of confirmation. You have to admit, watching the ground shoot by is pretty cool, but, Jocelyn isn't wrong about you having expected something more. At the same time, Liam already looks kinda sad about what he was told, maybe lying might not be a bad idea?

What do you say
[] Stay silent
[] "Yeah, it's... awesome."
[] "What Jocelyn said."
[] "It's interesting. But it might not be everyone's thing."
[] "It's totally amazing! Have you been above-deck?"
[] Write-in

Winning votes:
[w] "It's totally amazing! Have you been above-deck?"

---

Having Liam look at you almost in desperation is too much, he's like a puppy right now. You force excitement into your voice.

"It's totally amazing!" you cheer, throwing your hands up, "Have you been above-deck? The view is amazing."

"There's an above-deck?" Liam asks in shock.

"Yeah!" you continue with enthusiasm, "if you like the view from here, you haven't seen anything yet!"

He brightens up immediately and makes his way to the door, stopping at the handle before turning around with a sheepish look. "Er, could you show me how to get there?" he asks sheepishly.

"You remember I forgot the way back to our rooms, didn't you?" His face falls as you say that, before Jocelyn returns to the conversation.

"You also remember I know how to get around, right?"

That was actually a little like watching a tennis match, with his face changing so quickly between happy and sad and back again that it felt like he was watching a ball fly across a court.

And so, you were led through the ship again, this time by Jocelyn instead of Liam, you're not really sure why she's sticking around, she didn't bother trying to mask her boredom at watching the ground. Regardless, you're soon feeling the wind in your face again as Liam leans over the railing to watch the ground go by. You're kinda worried about him falling with how much he's leaning to be honest. Something the captain voices as she comes close.

"Y' think we ough ta tie 'im down? E's leanin' pretty heavily, hate ta have my guards fall off."

Liam answers without taking his eyes away from the ground, "I assure you, I am quite secure. You're more at risk of falling than me."

"Tha' ah challenge?"

"Not in the slightest."

"Riiiiiight. So, why ya sso interested in flyin'?"

"You must be joking. To be so high above the land we walk and to move at such high speeds, how is it anything but incredible?" his voice is resolute as he speaks. You'd be impressed by how he was speaking, if the topic wasn't how much he likes looking at the ground while flying.

At this point, with Liam and the captain distracted, you consider sneaking away. You look over to Jocelyn. Your eyes lock. You're both in agreement despite not a word being uttered, you understand the plan perfectly. Jocelyn gives you a nod to begin backing away, but as you do you hear Liam call your name.

"Eshani agrees with my view," Liam states plainly.

"Does she now?" The captain crosses her arms with a smirk, "Then why ain't she lookin' wit ya?"

"I did not see if she was or not, but I am certain she was."

You glare the captain, trying to tell her to help you lie. "I was!" you say.

She just shrugs, "Well, guess mah eyes were actin' up."

She walks off, and now you're forced to spend the day hanging around with Liam and pretending you're having fun watching the ground. It was alright at the start, and you managed to spot an interesting landmark or two, but by the end of the day you're incredibly bored and tired. You honestly had no idea you could be this bored. Even worse, Liam kept making conversation, so you couldn't just tune everything out and think about your own things.

On top of that, the wind constantly blowing in your face is pretty uncomfortable too. And Jocelyn is just as bored, you still don't know why she bothered sticking around. You really wanted to just leave, but that would have hurt his feelings, so you endured.

As soon as Liam gives you the chance to leave without making him feel bad, you both head straight for your room and immediately collapse face first onto your beds. Heads in your respective pillows.

"Whyyyyyyyyy," you hear Jocelyn say through her pillow.

"Why did you staayyyy?" you ask.

"Because I was told to go with youuuuu," comes her muffled answer.

"I'm sorryyyyyy," you say before you roll over so you lie on your side, "Look, it's over now, so it's fine."

Jocelyn slowly sits up and crosses her legs. "Unless he wants to do that again tomorrow because it was so fun today!" she retorts. You suddenly really hope you get attacked by pirates tomorrow. You're really not sure you can survive doing that over and over for the whole trip.

It's at this moment that Mira walks into the room.

"Hey kids, gossiping about something? Ooh, give me the details!"

"We weren't gossiping," you inform her tiredly, "where were you today?"

"Oh, just here and there, I found some pretty interesting looking rooms. What about you two?"

You give a silent moment of thanks for the fact she seems to have become okay with Jocelyn now. "We were with Liam for most of th-" you begin, but get cut off.

"Please take us with you tomorrow!" Jocelyn leaps off the bed and onto her knees in front of Mira.

"Huh? Why?" Mira asks, confused by the sudden outburst.

"It was so boring!" Jocelyn practically yells. You're worried Liam would hear, then you remember he went back to get some food, so he shouldn't be nearby yet. "Anything has to be better than going through that again."

What will you do?
[] Join Jocelyn in begging
[] Tell her not to beg
-[] You can find something else to do before Liam finds you
-[] You'll hide from Liam
-[] Pray for pirates to attack