Originally Posted by
Shadowcaller
[Skyside - Nighttime]
Dena just stares back silently at the demons, in her experience, the less that was said to such beings, the better.
"Shy guys, eh?" The imp remarks casually. "But as I said, I had a proposition for you, whoever you are." He smiles. "We have been ordered to stop any intruders and alert the master of their presence, but you are the first exciting thing here in months. So rather than setting off all the alarms and you going stabby-stabby on us, why don't we all sit down for a quick fun game together? If you do, we'll let you past. Not even a whisper to the master." He holds out his hand as if expecting Kirk to shake it, but this might just be a gesture considering how short he is compared to Kirk. "Pact honor."
"We're playing poker with them?" The raven-demon demands.
The imp puts away his hand. "Oh no, I was thinking a game of 'Serve Me'. They want to get past us without alerting the master, right?" The imp turns to Dena and Kirk. "Well, that game will let you do just that and more, if you're clever enough."
"Serve me? Yay! That'll be fun! It was ages since we played! But we aren't playing with the scale are we? That's angel-play."
The imp is looking at them intently though, waiting for their answer.
Providing Kirk doesn't start stabbing, or outright refuses, the imp will continue.
"No scales. Serve me is much more fun without it." He first tells the pyramid-demon before turning back to the two. "The rules are simple." He opens his hand, revealing a black marker there that wasn't there before. "Everyone starts with at least one of these." He lets it tumble between his claws. "These are service markers, they got two special properties. First, you can inscribe them with a task that you want someone to do. Secondly, while holding them you may never tell a lie. In the game of Serve me, each player will start by inscribing them with a service that you want one of the other players to do." The imp suddenly closes around the marker, and when he opens his claw again, the marker seems to have been inscribe with a name in elegant golden letters, Limithius.
"That's my name, since the marker acknowledges the task I inscribed into the marker as mine. Whoever has it must perform the service I inscribed into the marker. For instance, i could want Avary to steal a car for me or something. However..." He suddenly tosses over the marker to the pyramid who gleefully catches it with her string arms. She then in turn displays it to Dena and Kirk and the marker appears unchanged, still carrying the golden letters spelling out the imps name.
Before they can put much thought into this, the pyramid tosses back the marker to the imp, who easily catches it and holds it up for them to see. Now the letters of the marker starts to reform until they spell out the name Avary. "The marker still carry the same service, and I know what service it is simply by touching it. But now the same service is to Avary, the last owner of the marker. So I'm supposed to perform it for her now, get it?"
He pauses a moment before continuing. "And that's how the markers work, which is the most complex part of the game really. The rest of the rules are simple. As I said, everyone starts off with one marker except the person who starts the game, they got two. At the start of their turn, they'll will attempt to give one of the markers to one of the other players. However, the player they attempt to give it to may ask them a question which they must answer truthfully, keeping in mind the secondary ability of the markers. If they do so without fail, the player must accept the marker. Once that is done, its the player who was given the markers turn. They will do exactly the same thing, try to give away one of their markers to another player who may ask them a question. They can't give the marker to a player who already given away a marker however. So once every player have given away a marker and the last player can't actually give away one of theirs, the round is over.
Then next round will start with the last player of the previous round starting, and so on. Typically, you play for three of these rounds and once the game is over, each player must perform the service of the marker to its owner. Kinda like a geas. If the player still has the marker they started with they pick the player which they want perform that service for." He nods as he appears to be finished explaining.
"Of course, the services don't have to get cashed in right away, whatever happens, we'll let you run along to do whatever you're up to." He glances between the other two demons. "We can pact-promise that, right guys?"
"Sure!" Avary exclaims eagerly.
"...if they're going to play, sure." The raven-demon agrees after a moment of hesitation.