Humans and Houses

The warehouse is large and mostly empty. Several spectators though have gathered and are staring at a large stack of books. A man wearing a fancy top hat is waving a cane around to people offering some expliation for the game. "So you see, if you roll well on your cooking, you can impress a perspective spouse. Though that is contingent on your preference and your race. Not to mention charisma, and..." the detils are long it would appear.

Kiroth goes to pick up one of the books and he opens it up to start to look at it. "Interesting."

Something something. Sandy heard... /rumors/. That's why she's here. More importantly, that's probably why Kisa is here because Sandy is here.

"The hell is all this about?" she demands as she arriveds at the warehouse. Worrisome rumors reached her and she had to come check.

The top hat man grins over to Sandy, "Golden Cookie productions is bringing a new game to the streets of Alexandria." Pointing to the books, "There are only fourty six books to go through. You can get started with the first book, Houses and humans, character creation part 1 of 6. Please please if you want to play there are rewards for any useful and critical feedback we can get to improve the game." A nod to Kiroth, "You here to play or watch good sir?"

Mikilos nods thoughtfully, glancing over some of the tables in one of the books. "Okay, so when making a Bills roll, is the multiplier placed before or after the Tax modifier?"

"That depends on what deductables you have, you will need to refer to book 42 for income, taxes, and stock markets. Oh and if you donate to charities that will also impact your tax modifier potentially by lowering your tax bracket." the man offers with a nod to Mikilos.

Gimring lurks among the gathered crowd to hear tell of the entertaining fellow's game, his jaw rising and falling to a steady beat as he chews on a tough piece of jerky. Some of the food sticking in his teeth as he speaks, he speaks in a bold dwarven accent. "I'll try it!" he suggests, stubby legs lumbering forward. "How do I get started?" he asks, jabbing a finger at a Houses and Humans character creation book on the table beyond.

Kiroth looks up and smiles, "Oh I'd love to give it a try and play although I don't think I'll be very good at it. I'll give it my very best."

Kisa is indeed near by Sandy, though she doesn't yell her name yet. Instead she simply calls out to the person, "HEY! But what if I'm already human? Why would I want to play a game where I'm just playing myself with this strange like... income modifier after the taxes modified by the GDP to determine poverty level? And what's an Auditor? Can't I be like an elf, or a gnome?" She crosses her arms, staring at the man in the top hat.

Mikilos nods thoughtfully, glancing at the Taxes expansion, while giving a long look at the Goverment Loopholes add-on.

The top hat man points to some ten sided dice, "The only dice you will need, oh wait no. We added all sorts. so start character generations..." he goes off into a long explination and pulls out characgter sheets that are twenty pages long, "So..."

The man glances to Kisa and grins, "We are working on adding in different races, this is only the first draft after all.

As characters sheets are filled in the warehouse begins to change, as illusions are weaved from the very game book themselves. Everybody is transformed by illusions. Sandy becomes a noble looking woman, and geared out like an adventurer. Kisyia is a princess in full glory, though she seems rather lazy or layabout. Mikilos is turned into a tradesman but also a set of thieves tools. Kiroth is turned into a begger, who happens to also be a wizard. Grimrig is a middle class man holding an abacus and wearing administrator clothing. Aya is a peasent, who also has some thieves tools.

Sandy looks down at herself. Not a whole lot has changed except her clothes are a little more 'floofy'. She is also in a dress.

"/NOT AGAIN/," she growls.

"When I find that lich..." r

See? Already talking like an adventurer.

"Hah!" the resident dwarf proclaims with a triumphant sound. "I climb the social ladder ever higher!" Gimring lifts his stubby fingers to his eyes, adjusting an imagined pair of reading glasses. "I'll be master of all measures and numbers and with my pen, even the mightiest forms will fall."

Mikilos mmmmms, checking over his equipment, and frowns mildly. "Shouldn't a tradesman have enough for the Delux lockpicks? ...oh, wait, okay, poor roll. Never mind."

Aya isn't sure what to expect, but ... this is not it. Especially when her clothing, as brief as it may be, becomes rough in weave, simple in craft, and frayed at the edges. She looks to Sandy. "We'll both remove her," she volunteers a completion to the sentence. The princess and the peasant agree on one thing, at least.

Kisaiya looks like... Kisaiya. Yep, huge changes there. Well, okay, I mean she gets a little tiara for a crown now that holds up her hair. As Sandy would inevitably look toward her, she would simply point at the character sheet which says "Princess Kisaiya" on the top. She gestures to it, pointedly. Why? Because talking would be such a drag. She sighs, and lounges out onto a nearby chair where she props up her head and languidly stretches like a cat might before finally, with great annoyance and a roll of her eyes, says "How droll."

Kiroth looks at himself and his begging bowl. He shrugs and sits down, "Alms...alms for the poor." He says as he pulls his hood down to look more blind.

Mikilos is unsure the rules, but makes his action and rolls his dice. Taking his basic survival needs from the Ruleing Class, the Merchant gains 'Shelter', and the illusion alters, placeing a nice ranch style house around Mikilos, with a nice lawn, and white picket fence. The wife and 2.3 kids will come later, hopefully.

The rules are so complicated that even teh brightest of wizards would have a hard time navigating it. The top hat man though seems to know them flawlessly. He assist Aya with her suspection, trying to gain pristige as a human.

Mikilos might not be -the- brightest wizard, but he's in the top percentile. And he is having a hard time navigating.

"I guess I'm trying to make friends," says Sandy, confused.

This is not what she expected. Rather, she expected horrors against humans, really, from who the rumors indicated might be behind this. Maybe it's a different Mandy, but then, the ilkusion magic makes that hard to believe.

She scowls, trying to talk to people and then rolls a die. It comes up a five. "What the hell does a five mean?"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN BAD TRADE?!"

Mikilos does not laugh at Sandy. Mikilos does -not- laugh at Sandy.... ....*pfffft!*

Kiroth manages to find some boxes that he will make into his castle. He starts to build up his home and he even manages to find a half-eaten burrito...bad news the burrito's guacamole went back and he ends up getting sick from it.

Gimring laughs jovially as he rolls, but when his trade deal with Sandy's illustrious noble house fails miserably, he throws his hands in the air with a scowl. "Bloody highborn..." he mutters beneath his breath. Even so, he manages to ply his influence and get a thief locked up by the guard, receiving his just reward!

Kisaiya continues to lounge about and then she reaches out... pauses, then gestures and snaps to a random person before pointing to her d10. "Roll that." She says, with a sigh and spreads out on the couch. Wait... where'd she get a couch?

"Oh blast." She says, bored, "A bad trade." She takes in a breath as if to let out a sigh, but... well that would take effort so instead she just lays her head onto the back cushions.

As the last round finishes up a familiar voice can be heard, "Oh my turn my turn!" Offers Mandy as she steps out from aruond Mikilos ranch, "Would not be fair if there were no stakes in the game right?" She smiles sweatly to Sandy, "Come give family a hug?" Then she rolls a dice and scowls as she grumblers. "Bad trade!? Really, a bad tade." She pouts as she crosses her arms and grumbles.

She quickly recovers her mood, "Oh and don't think about attacking me. I have minions on orders should this be interupted. So if you win this game, I will give you a clue into my next plot. If you lose, well you have a dinner party you need to be throwing me." Her eyes watching Sandy with a hawk, "A fancy noble dinner party."

Kiroth keeps up impersonating Aya and he continues to build his box fort that has become a magnificent box mansion. He's sitting pretty.

Kisaiya lets out a long sigh as she gestures at someone from her L-shaped sectional. She leans over one of the armrests, rolling onto it and resting with her chin as she arches her back and sighs into a stretch. "Roll that thingy again." She murmurs, and the roll is made. She doesn't care anymore, it's already dead to her. Though that peasant may have earned a stern talking to by her steward for rolling the same thing again.

Innocently, Sandy informs the game-runner that Kisa is a princess and that princessses deserve stink eye. She4's still trying to make sense of this. It's confusing as hell. "AND WHERE THE HELL IS THIS MANDY, HUH?!" She then glares at Kisa. It's all her fault.

"YOU!" SAndy points at Mandy.

"YOU!"

Mikilos fiddles with something, and a layer of strange green pieces of paper float around him a moment before disolving in some sort of bonus. (actaully they're pieces of green -cloth- but you have to look really close to notice)

Mandy peers up and smiles innocently, "Yes dearier? Did you not hear a thing I said when I joined?"

"I was busy glaring at Kisa for being Kisa," says Sandy, "YOU. I am going to ruin your dumb game!" She immediately attempts to get Suspicion cast on MNADY!

Sandy looks like she's about ready to flip the table.

The man in the top hat has like four books floating around him, "Well if you had talked to the wine merchant first, and then the baker, you might not of gotten caught. You went straight for the funeral director..."

Mikilos is trying to sog his way though the racial handbook. "....it's just the one race! Why does it need a whole handbook?! There's a full chapter on racial traits!!"

The man in the hat pulls out another book and hands it to Mikilos, "Here is the human compendium book, part 2 of 8. THese are supplimnents that give you extra options for playing humans."

Mikilos sputters quietly... in part for the book series, in part for his Interation being docked... but he reads the book. Well, starts to.

Kisaiya gives a sigh as she half-rolls onto the sectional's silk covering before sitting up and lounging back into the cushy couch. She crosses one leg over the other and lets her head roll back into the cushion with a long sigh. This was taking forever. She gives a rough wave toward the table and mutters, "Make sure the tradesman doesn't get any ideas. We need to make sure they don't think themselves minor nobility with their increased wealth."

The Peasant rolls and Kisaiya smiles... before rolling over to the other part of the couch and reclining on it instead.

Mikilos tries a few actions, pieces and bits swirling, shifting.... and comming to rest right back where they started. "....well then."

Mandy rolls for some interaction and stares at the dice, leafs through four different books, then lets out a scream at the top hat guy, "Who made this game!" The man replies camly, "You did." The kicks him in the shin and sits back down and grumbles, seems she is incarcerted and now negative victory points.

Sandy beams with pride for a moment. The dice favored her! Then she points a finger at Mandy. SHE'S WATCHING YOU. That's what she's saying without words.

Mikilos isn't sure what he's doing, but he's doing a heck of a lot of it. But whatever it is he did, he got caught doing it. Red lights flash, and his house is repossesed. Sadness.

Mandy offers a sweet smile to Sandy. Then rolls and grumbles as she gets eaten by wolves. Aya eventually dies of plague, and Gimring dies in prison. Sandy will find herself surviving, but taking shelter in a distant city for tax evasion with Mikilos. Kisaiya will eventually rise up and become queen of the humans and rule the world. Mandy stands up and stomps her foot, "I hate this game." The top hat man sighs, "Your the one who made it." Mandy glares, "Well obviously I need to work on it some more. Come, lets go get started on Advanced Houses and Humans."

Mikilos coughs softly, and starts to follow Mandy. "If I may? Your progression list on To Help Another Character Out, or THACO, seems backwards. Wouldn't a larger bonus be intuitively better? And the skill progressing charts...." He's a wizard, of -course- he's a rules lawyer...

"..."

Sandy just kicks Mikilos in the shin thereafter.

Kisaiya lays on the other half of the couch as she lets out a long sigh with a languid stretch outward. She gestures roughly at the table with her hand and mutters, "Roll... inter-whatsit." The peasant moves up to the table, rolls the dice and then steps back away. It doesn't take long till.. "What?" Kisa says.

She crawls her way back up into a sitting position before looking over at her embroidered cushions, they form a story from the tapestry they were made from.

"Ugh... Peasant, /fetch the crown/. I'll need to higher more people to run this. Such droll work." She lounges over on another of the silk tapestry cushions, half curling up on it.

Mandy nods thoughtfully, "Considered it, and we migth implement something in the third edition, but probably best to keep the standards in the second edition. Oh you can send me your thoughts though. Sandy there has my mailing address I am sure, the Path Stone up in the lands of Heth. Worry not, if you visit the wraiths have orders hands off. One of them even has a mail man uniform!"

Sandy just keeps glaring murderously at Mandy.

Glaring. /Murtderously/.

"You..." She grinds her teeth. "GET OUT OF ALEXANDRIA!" She points at her.

Mandy turns around and holds up a finger and waggles it, "Not in Alexandria. Check the city charts and diagrams, this is actually private territory of an old embessay that got dropped a century ago. City never go around to reclaming the land in the papework, so technically we are in... oh I forget the empire name. Anyways, I have not stepped in the city at all!" Winking, and then casting a teleport spell and vanishing.

"I HATE HER I HATE HER I HATE HER," Sandy is all but hopping and shaking her fist.

Mikilos blinks, and makes a mental note to check the city records... not that he has any particular quasi-legal tasks to do... yet...

"I AM GOING TO KILL HER," yells Sandy.

The illusions all fade away slowly leaving the warehouse empty. with the spectators who are clapping from the game and having enjoyed watching.