Swindlestones

Swindlestones is a dice game played throughout Kakhabad to gamble, usually for gold or food but occasionally for fun.The Analander can use it as an opportunity to get information from players. It was introduced in Sorcery! 2.

Gameplay[]

The player and their opponent have a set number of dice each which they secretly roll and look at. They take it in turns to make increasingly high bets about how many dice of a certain roll are on the table altogether until one of them calls the other out on a bluff and confirms which dice are really on the table. The one who was wrong must remove one of their dice, and the loser is the one who is eventually left with no dice at all.

The Analander converses with their opponents as they play. Higher bets are more dangerous but also allow them to ask more daring or important questions, while calling bluffs often cut off lines of conversation altogether. As a Red Eye in the Halls of Vlada will point out if you make a daring bet, "your answer betrays your knowledge but your bid betrays your lack of skill".

History[]

The game is most notorious in Kharé. The Analander may brag about having learned Swindlestones in 'Kharé itself' when they play in Mampang. It was supposedly first played by monks of Effe looking for ways to gamble for their goddess. Elthera claims to have known the game as 'mindstones'.