Scene VII: The Scorned Path (Scum on the Trail)

Wrathbone · Post by **Wrathbone** » Fri Jul 04, 2025 5:49 am

I have a bad feeling about this, but I sit down opposite the leper.

“What’s chess?”

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » Fri Jul 04, 2025 6:35 am

"You never heard o' chess, partner? Why it's a game dreamed up a long time ago in a land far, far away..."

He motions to the board with his bandaged stump of a hand. You see the white pieces are carved from the tusk of a walrus. The black pieces from bogwood.

"You play the white pieces, son...you got a king and a queen and some knights and preacher-men and little forts right there at the end...and a whole row of foot-soldiers at the front...they's called pawns...and I got the same pieces, see? Only they's black, so we don't get our pieces mixed-up-like. We taken it in turns to move our pieces...'xcept you'll have to move mine for me, seein' as I don't have the required digits for it..."

He chuckles, lifting up his bandaged stumps.

"Now, each piece can only move a certain way...and if your opponent's piece is on a space where that piece might go...it's captured and taken off the board. The purpose o' the game is to trap your opponent's king in such a position that he can't move hisself at all without bein' captured, and that's called check-mate. You wanna play, mister?"

Wrathbone · Post by **Wrathbone** » Fri Jul 04, 2025 6:57 am

"What's the stakes?"

(Is it possible to roll an Ingmar Bergman check, to make sure he's not in the vicinity?

)

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » Fri Jul 04, 2025 7:10 am

"Well...let's see now...if you win...you can keep the board and the pieces? Hell, I don't have anythin' else to offer ye! If I win...I'll tell ye the story of how I got this here board. Now how's about that?"

Wrathbone · Post by **Wrathbone** » Fri Jul 04, 2025 7:28 am

"Fair's fair."

I take a rook, move it to the centre of the board and declare: "CHESS."

Sly Boots · Post by **Sly Boots** » Fri Jul 04, 2025 7:43 am

Doc nods appreciatively. "Damn fine move, Kid. Damn fine."

Animalmother · Post by **Animalmother** » Fri Jul 04, 2025 8:25 am

"Bravo sir. That board is as good as yours!"

I am of course reminded of this...

Sly Boots · Post by **Sly Boots** » Fri Jul 04, 2025 9:16 am

I never play chess without thinking of that scene.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » Fri Jul 04, 2025 9:59 am

The man smiles.

"Well...that would be a fine move, sir. It would be a fine move indeed...if it were legal. But you see...placin' a rook like that in the middle of the board...without a strategic, synergetic chain of 'ppropriate supportin' pieces...well, it just can't happen. You think Fort Gullet just sprung up in the middle o' the Dust Barrens by itself? No sir, it was formed over time by a strategic placement o' re-sources, carefully assembled and delivered by the network o' railroads that was carefully planned and built over many years. That is how one expands an empire...and likewise in chess, sir! Now your illegally-placed fort is all alone out there in the wilderness, trapped in no-man's land. That bein' the case...well, you lost the game. So, by our prior agreement, I will presently tell you the story of how I got hold o' this here board..."

Wrathbone · Post by **Wrathbone** » Fri Jul 04, 2025 10:06 am

I flip the board.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » Fri Jul 04, 2025 11:16 am

You hear the leper laughing in amusement as the pieces of the board go flying in all directions.

Then, suddenly, as if someone has pulled open the curtains on the stage of a theatre to reveal a new scene, the Bean Bunch find themselves in a wholly different place.

Gone are the parched, rocky, cacti-studded and scrub-speckled plains of the Dust Barrens. Instead, they find themselves standing amidst a freezing-cold pine-forest. The ground is caked in snow, fresh flakes tumble noiselessly from the overcast sky and everywhere they look about them, they're enclosed by walls of thick pine trees. They appear to be standing at the edge of a large clearing, but the falling snow prevents them from seeing clear across it.

Their horses and bicycle are nowhere to be seen, and the forest is eerily silent. The freezing wind causes the trees to shake and bites against their skin, yet no sound can be heard.

Not far away from where they stand, there is a pile of stones, as if there had once been a cairn stacked here, which someone pulled down, or perhaps fell of its own accord, into this ruined heap.

Sly Boots · Post by **Sly Boots** » Fri Jul 04, 2025 11:44 am

Doc looks around the group owlishly.

"That has to be against the rules, surely? This 'chess' may just be the strangest game I ever did see..."

Animalmother · Post by **Animalmother** » Fri Jul 04, 2025 3:19 pm

Should we examine the cairn?

Wrathbone · Post by **Wrathbone** » Fri Jul 04, 2025 6:16 pm

"Weeeeeeeeeeell shit."

I think the cairn is the first point of investigation.

The Gamers Arms

The Gamers Arms

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