Part 10: Versus: Horse

[BGM: Silence]
Cribbage?

My father taught me how to play it when I was young. It's my favorite card game.

Cribbage, huh? I'm familiar with it. Not a bad choice. There was a deck of cards in the vending machine, so we're all set if we want to play.

How're we playing?

Standard rules. Muggins are allowed. First to 140.

Sounds great. Let's get seated at this table.



The two made their way over to a nearby table. Horse took the liberty of inspecting the deck of cards Dog had.

Uh, this might be a bad time to ask, or maybe it's not the most important thing right now, but what's Cribbage?

A card game.

I gathered that, genius.

Surprisingly enough, I actually know the rules.

You do?

This might sound far-fetched, but learning the rules actually became quite critical for one of the cases I was protecting.

Seriously? That sounds interesting.

[BGM: Steadfast Gallop]


You would think. Anyways, the point is I know the basics.

Like pretty much every card game, there's a dozen variations, but here are the basics. Every round, each player draws 6 cards. Also, a separate community card is shown face-up.

They choose two cards to put in the crib, and hold four to play. Then they take turns placing those cards down, approaching 31. Face cards all count as 10s, Aces count as 1s.

If a player can't place another card down without bringing the total above 31, a new stack is formed. All the while, players can score points based on various things.

A point if you play a card the opponent just played. Bonus points if you get three or four of a kind in a row. Points if you play cards in a sequence. Points if you play a card which brings the stack's total to 15. A point if you're the last person to play a card on the stack. Bonus points if you play a card that makes it directly 31.

After the hand's played out, both players take their four-card hands back and score them. They can use the four cards and the community card to look for things like pairs, sequences, or unique ways to add up to 15. In rare cases, there can be a flush with four cards of the same suit.



If your opponent overlooks a point, you can call 'Muggins' and take that point for yourself. After that, the crib is scored using the same rules. Every round, who the crib's score counts for changes. So in the first round, the points in it could go to Horse, the next it would go to Dog.

And like they said, the first person to reach 140 points wins.

Wow. That seems pretty complicated.

Most games do when you just explain them, but it's really pretty simple when you start playing it. Basically, it comes down to two things- how do you divide the 6 cards you draw between your hand and the crib, and how do you play that 4 card hand.

Experienced players never miss a point opportunity, so Muggins almost never comes into play. It's more about focusing on how to score points, and more importantly how to deny your opponent from scoring points.

Alright, thanks for the explanation, Ox. Now I feel like I can follow the game pretty well.



While Ox was explaining this to me, Horse and Dog began to play. Horse sat in his chair stiffly, with a determined look on his face. Dog, on the other hand, leaned back in his chair and had a slight smirk on his face. Still, in these early rounds, Horse took quite a lead. In just two rounds, he was up 12 points on Dog.



Guess I didn't have to worry after all.

Yup, this looks pretty bad. But this is to be expected- I'm still getting in the groove of things. Gambling's all about feeling the flow.

Sounds like the mantra of a worthless gambling junkie. And Cribbage isn't gambling.

Just then, Tiger and Snake walked in.

Hey, what's going on here?

A game of cards, eh?

This is certainly an interesting turn of events.



We explained to them the events that happened before they got there.

Oh my.

So Dog's gone rogue, huh? Figures. Low energy guys like that always end up taking the easy way out.

He's playing for his life at the moment. I would hardly call things 'the easy way out'.

Actually, if used properly, this Major Trinket could be massively useful. If there was someone trustworthy enough, everyone could agree to lose to them and let the trustworthy pillar find out who has a special personality.

Ha. You don't really think people'd be eager to willingly trust their life to someone else, do you?

There's also no guarantee that a traitor wouldn't pretend to throw the game and instead win, killing the trustworthy pillar.



Valid concerns.

Hey, where's Rooster?

Him? He was pretty uninterested in this 'challenge' business. He said that if the Round was going to be paused, he'd use that time searching for more Trinkets.

Hey, that's not a bad idea!

I walked over to Horse and Dog.

Both of you, hold on!

What is it?

How about you guys take super long turns. Then, while the timer is paused, the rest of us can find all the Minor Trinkets!



As I proposed this idea, a familiar voice spoke from our tablets.

Not so fast. I'm watching these games, and if I even suspect that the players are intentionally slowing things down, I'll execute both of them!

What? No fair!

Don't try to abuse my items. They should fill their intended purposes.

Damn.

Nice idea though, Mouse.

Yeah, well, thanks.

At any rate, I should take advantage of this, right?

[BGM: Silence]


Now that we're on a route proper, the choices we make here will influence what endings we may or may not get- including the potential for Bad Endings! In any case, the thread voted to stay and watch the game, so that's what we're going to do.



While looking for Trinkets made sense, I felt uneasy about leaving the situation. Right now Dog was casually using a Major Trinket which could lead to his death. Something wasn't right here. I had a feeling that the whip would be central to this whole race. Ignoring it to find Minor Trinkets seemed like a short-sighted plan in the long run.

So instead, I took a few steps back and watched the game progress. Ox's explanation helped me follow the general gist of how things were going. Slowly but surely, Dog regained ground in the struggle. It wasn't any major round, but as the game played out, he started to take the lead.

A good few steps away from the action, Ox spoke to me in a hushed tone.

Fascinating.

What, the game? It's interesting enough to watch

No, not that.

[BGM: Bullfighter]


It's something I've noticed about how the game's been played. If you notice, every single round, Dog puts his cards in the crib after Horse does. I mean consistently. And this is despite the fact that usually Dog is making his plays faster than Horse.

Okay, and?

It just has me thinking why he's doing that.

You have a theory?

The longer the game's gone on, the more Dog has been winning. I didn't think it possible, but he might be slowly marking the deck.

What?



It would explain why he's waiting for Horse to decide which cards are going in the crib to make his own move.

Typically, card marking is a process that happens on the deck beforehand. Subtle tintwork or juice dust can tell cheaters exactly which cards are where, and it's practically impercievable.

But I think Dog might be doing his own, practical card marking by subtly scratching and bending the cards in specific places.

But isn't that crazy difficult to remember all those handmade tells?

Hard? Sure. But far from impossible.

Hold on a minute, that would be cheating, right? Shouldn't he be executed right now?



Remember, the rules specified that you'd be executed if you were caught cheating. He hasn't been caught.

So should we say something to Horse?

I'm not sure we can.

Huh?

The rules also forbid any non-players from interfering with the game. It's possible something like this could be considered an exception. But it's also possible that the only people who can call out cheating are the players themselves.

For now, let's just watch things play out.

Okay.



I felt uneasy letting Dog cheat like that, but I didn't really have a rebuttal to what Ox said. I guess I'd just have to let this happen.

The game continued, and Dog continued to gather more and more of a lead.

Now that's peculiar.

What's peculiar?

Dog has drawn far more 5s than Horse has.

And that matters because...

In Cribbage, 10s are by far the most common digit since all face cards count as 10s. And you can get easy points by making a 15. So 5s are often super useful cards to put in your hand or your crib.



They're taking turns shuffling the deck. I wonder if Dog's somehow forcing certain cards during his shuffles. If that's the case, he's gotta be an experienced card shark.

Jeez. No wonder Horse's losing. This is brutal.

Nothing changed in the game's final moments. After an uneventful round where neither side did much better than the other, Dog passed the 140 point line.

Heh. Looks like I got lucky.

Shit. I'm sorry Dad, I let you down.

No no, it's not that dramatic. Sometimes the cards fall in unexpected ways.

Still, that was some pretty impressive play, Dog. I have to ask, are you a card shark of some sort?



A card shark? That's definitely an overstatement. But I do play cards with Chief of Police Bowen and his friends every now and then, so maybe I picked up something from that.

S-so, what happens now? Dog can control Horse?

I should be able to, yup. In fact, I want to check out how this works right now.

As he said this, Dog walked into a nearby empty classroom and shut the door.

Tch. Who does he think he is, just strolling around and doing whatever the hell he wants.

It is indeed a cause for concern. Let us hope his intentions are noble.

Just as Monkey said that, all our tablets had an announcement.



Attention! Dog is currently attempting to tame Tiger. During this challenge, the Round's timer has been paused. Know that any participant that in any way interferes with the challenge will instantly be executed.