soulping | ALECTRYON

ALECTRYON

[ You find yourself sequestered in a cave deep within Waldemar's mountain. A table and a set of chairs have been carved from the surrounding rock. Torches are set into the walls to provide light, while a faint breeze blows through cracks in the walls and ceiling to provide ventilation. There are no doors or windows to speak of.

In the center of the room are your (randomly assigned) gifts: A BASKET OF FOODSTUFFS and AN ELEGANT SWORD WITH A BEJEWELED SHEATH.

There’s an hourglass of wrought silver embedded in the wall, with ten rubies inside. Pinned beside it is an elegant tapestry featuring the scene of a busy marketplace, bordered by a pattern of weighing scales and abacuses. You are part of THE MERCHANTS.

Resting on the table are the following: a sheet of parchment, a quill, and a capped jar of ink. Written on the parchment is a list and three words in bold lettering:

PROTECT
TARGET
DEFEND

Choose a role and a course of action.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ You TARGETED the Bards, gaining 2 points from the attempt itself.

Your theft was SUCCESSFUL! You gain 10 points, as well as AN ELEGANT SWORD WITH A BEJEWELED SHEATH.

Current Gifts: A BASKET OF FOODSTUFFS, TWO ELEGANT SWORDS WITH A BEJEWELED SHEATH, A VERY LARGE JEWEL
Total Points: 44 ]

--really? Again?!

...Looks like luck's really on our side today.

It can't last forever. I think we should defend this time. Third time's the charm, right? No way we'd get away free again.

Not much of a gambler, huh?

I'd think the benefit of the risk is worth it, since you're assuming we both fail to steal and that we're targeted.

I just think we can't be so lucky as to not get stolen from again this time. We won't earn more than one point from defending, but we won't lose anything either. And people who steal from us get points, so they'd go up while we go down.

Call me pessimistic, but I think we're going to end up with a loss soon enough, so we should try to block it. We won't lose anything this way. And if people are going through the list targeting different people each time like we are, we're bound to be picked by someone.

We don't lose from our 44, but we lose out on potential points - points other teams might get.

If we target another team and steal successfully without any incident - again - we get 17 points. If we target and fail but aren't stolen from, we get 2 points. If we successfully steal and are targeted, we get 12 points. If we fail and are targeted, we lose 3 points.

If we defend, we won't lose any points, but we max out at a 1 point gain. And we have no way of knowing if we'll be targeted this round or the next, or the one after that, so we could be giving up a chance to get points and miss blocking our attackers.

Yeah, but you're forgetting what might happen if more than one team targets us. If two or more target us, we'll definitely lose more than 3 points.

...if you want to go one more, that's fine, but I do think we should defend next time if we're not going to do it this time.

I'm also not factoring in if we're lucky enough to have anyone choose to protect us, although I doubt anyone would choose that option. Two teams targeting us is still relatively low in probability.

I think trying to get as many points as possible is our best bet. If we succeed again, we can defend and hope that nobody else matches our numbers.