Jason’s face was comically stern as he dealt five cards to each player at the table. It was lucky the table was large because six high schoolers, plates of snacks, and a mountain of soda cans were taking up most of its large top.

“Old-school rules, five card draw, jokers are wild.” Jason said as he finished doling out the cards and picked up his own hand. Ruger frowned as he looked at his own cards. It was his house the gang had all flocked to for New Year’s. His parents were loaded and his house was huge. The massive finished basement made a great hang out for new-years parties and impromptu poker games. A tv in the middle of the room was on, showing times square and a count-down still three hours out.

“I thought we were playing Hold-em? Ruger asked Jason.

“Nope, dealer picks, and Hold-em is for tourists.” Jason shot back. Ruger rolled his eyes and Christy laughed. She was Rusger’s younger sister and a Freshmen. She was cute with her caramel skin and curly hair. Winston thought Jason might have a bit of crush but he’d have to be a brave man to hit on Ruger’s sister. Aside from her the whole gang was there. Ruger, Brad, Jason, Winston, and Trish.

Brad tossed in two chips, a dime worth, and looked at everyone with his normal stoic expression. Winston looked at his own cards, a pair of queens, and called. Trish, Cristy, and Ruger folded leaving Jason to raise. Winston looked at his own cards and threw them into the middle.

“Oh common, no call for the rich boy?” Jason lightly mocked.

“I’m not rich, I just have a decent job and you don’t keep money by giving it away.” Winston said sourly as he reached across the table to grab a handful of chex-mix and pile it on his plate. “Besides I’ve only actually pulled money out of the game one time and it wasn’t even that much.”

Brad called Jason’s raise and they both traded out their cards for new ones. “Really though, how much gold do you have?” Jason pressed as he called Brad’s raise. They flipped cards and Jason’s flush died to Brad’s full house.“God damn it.” He muttered.

“I unnuo, like 95,000 or something?” Winsoton said as Brad swept up all the cards and started to shuffle. Everyone at the table turned to glare at him. “Oh, come on it’s not that much money and I just had half my orchard burnt down” Winston shot back.

Trish elbowed him in the ribs even as Brad dealt the cards. “Seven Card Stud, no wilds.” Brad announced to the table. “Did they break my ward?” he asked, even as his hands kept moving.

“Yep.” Winston said. “Probably saved my life though, even got me a level.” Winston added. Brad didn’t look impressed and it showed with the trash cards he dealt Winston. Winston grimaced and folded when his turn came around.

“What are you going to do about it?” Jason asked as he tossed his cards away.

“Not sure yet. You know anyway to annoy one of the games better guilds without seriously pissing them off.” Winston asked. “I need to let them know they can’t do whatever they want, but I can’t afford a war either. If I have to run away afterwards the whole exercise will be useless.”

“Gotta be money or time, only thing they’ll really care about.” Ruger said as he called the blinds.

“Carbomb.” Brad said as he threw in his own chips. Everyone at the table turned to look at him. He looked back impassively and shrugged. “Just saying, a wire from the brake-light to the gas tank and no more guild problems.” Brad said as he lifted the giant energy drink at his elbow and downed a few swallows.

“How many of those have you had?” Jason asked a bit warily.

“Four.” Brad said as Trish and Christy called.

“If your heart explodes I’m not giving you CPR.” Winston said. “I’m not sure murder is a proper response to being annoyed and losing a few oranges I wasn’t selling anyway. I’m looking for a more measured response.”

Jason laughed. “That doesn’t sound like you. Besides a measured response means lots of talking. It means compromises, gives them time for your anger to cool, time for you to get used to things. The man always wants a measured response. That way they can talk you in circles while they ignore you. This country wasn’t build on measured responses. The British ignored us until we started hanging their tax collectors and shooting their soldiers.”

“So you want me to kill a few complete strangers because it’s convenient, too?” Winston asked dryly.

“No, that’s crazy. Brad’s just a borderline sociopath that’s had way too much caffeine.” Jason said, waving his and nearly flashing his cards to Winston. “I’m just saying it’s the grand gestures that drive the point home.”

“So what. You want me to find a level 80 wizard to cast Call Meteor on their guildhall?” Winston asked. Trish choked on her mountain dew and folded her hand as she tried to wipe the spill off her sweatshirt.

“Call Meteor is overrated. It looks impressive but most wizards don’t have the right specializations to give it enough umph to get through a guilds wards. I’d go with a earth-specced Sorcerer or a Geomancer. They could just tear the ground out from under the place or open up a lava vent or something. Much harder to ward against something indirect like that.” Jason said, Winston looked to Brad who folded his hand and nodded.

“See even the ward master agrees. Still it might be easier to find a witch or warlock and just give whoever's responsible a nasty curse rather than trying to blow up their guildhall.” Jason said reasonably.

“You do realize your talking about blowing up my guildhall when I’m sitting right here?” Trish said sourly as Ruger dealt the next hand.

“Hold-em, but I left the jokers in.” Ruger said as he dealt.

“We realize but if your going to rat me out there’s not much I can do to stop you and hiding it just seems rude.” Winston said as he looked down at his cards. It was a joker and a jack and he raised when action got to him.

“Haven’t you ever heard of plausible deniability?” Christy spoke up from the other side of Trish. “If she doesn’t know about it, she can’t tell her guild the truth about not knowing.”

Winston shrugged. “Well, I wasn’t planning on blowing up her guildhall. That’s the sorta of action that starts a war. I was thinking of raiding a supply convoy or killing some guild herb pickers or something. I do like the curse idea though. Still, a good curse probably runs a good five or ten thousand and I’d need some hair or blood to do it right. That doesn’t seem to likely to come into my hands.”

“Well, I’m glad your not planning on causing tens of thousands of dollars of property damage because someone killed six of your trees.” Trish said. She still sounded sour but a bit mollified.

“It’s not about the trees.” Winston tried to explain. “In fact, I’m thinking of killing a few more myself. I planted too many fruit trees and I can’t find buyers for all of it. Coffee will keep longer and is worth more. Still, the point is your guild had my property destroyed first. Part of that was to send a message about helping their enemies. I was fine with that. That the swords bought and paid for. I knew it going in. However, your guild went one step further. They used my death as a platform to extort money from me. That’s not ok, and it’s the kind of behavior that will escallate unless I send a message that I wont put up with it.” The flop came down Jack, eight, eight, and Winston smiled as he checked his hand again. It was only Jason and Christy left in the hand and Winston checked as he tried to bait out some more money.

That seemed to tick Trish off again. “And if I tell them to knock it off? I am a council member.”

“Bad idea.” Winston said. “Your council is a triumvirate and they already out voted you once. If you come in on my side it’ll just bring more down on me and you’ll lose authority. That might end in me really getting chased out or you losing your spot on the council.” Jason raised and Winston called. causing Ruger’s sister to fold.

“I’d like to see them try. Vera is too busy fighting and Alex is too busy scheming to get anything accomplished. I’m the only one anyone in the guild respects. If they kick me out half the guild would go with me.” Trish said fiercely.

“That would make things even more annoying for me. Then I really would have to leave.” Winston laughed. He raised the pot another quarter as the turn card was dely. “I need to at least finish my quest first.”

“Isn’t there anything I can do?” Tirsh asked. “I’d rather not have my guild and boyfriend in some sort of cold war.” She sounded a little plaintive.

“Oh, I can think of a few things to convince me.” Winston said with an exaggerated leer that earned him another elbow. “Seriously though, if you're that worried about it I can back off. It will cost you though and if they push it the gloves are coming off.” Winston already had a plan brewing. If he paid a small clan to raid their guild hall and break their ward it would cost them a fortune to get it fixed.

Winston’s ward had been expensive enough, but one large enough to cover the guild hall would cost a fortune. Then the guild would have to burn up a bunch of its summons to defend aginst the attack. Since they hadn’t completed the teleportation array back on the floating continent it would take them weeks to get their people back to the expansion zone where they really wanted them. It would be an expensive kick in the balls and shouldn’t cost Winston more than 25 or 30 grand. It was an asshole move, but Winston was in the mood to be an asshole. Trish asking him to back down would also give him an excuse to escalate if they push things.

It wouldn’t work on a larger guild. A larger guild would have enough players to explore the expansion zone, have multiple raid teams, and still leave some people home to defend. The Hound’s weren’t that big of a guild though. They were up and coming, but they lacked the raw numbers of someone like the Swords or Crimsuns.

“You’re scheming something.You’ve got that look in your eye.” Trish said as Winston re-raised Jason’s raise after the river came down. Jason called with a scowl then flipped over his eight-dues, showing three of a kind. Winston flipped over his cards and Jason said a word best not repeated.

Winston raked in his chips and the cards as he started to deal. “Hey, you told me I couldn’t do it. I won’t do it. I’m sure your guild is all happiness and light and they’ll just take my bribes and wont mess with me anymore.” Winston said in a voice that said he didn’t believe it for a second.

“You’re a smart-ass.” Trish muttered.

“Better a smart-ass than a dumbass I always say.”

“I don’t think you’ve ever said that.” Jason muttered.

*****************************************************************************************************

Winston tossed the twenty-pound bag of coffee beans into Troll’s wagon with nearly no effort. It had been a long time since his first few days working the farm back in Grimstone keep and his strength and endurance were now nearly five times what they had been.

“Didn’t miss out too much last week did you?” Winston asked Troll as he went back into his hut to grab a barrel or oranges. His orange production had taken a hit but he still had plenty to ship out. The rain had just let up and the sun was boiling the left overs out of the soggy ground.

“Nope, did some shipping for some of the noobs over at the Hound’s camp and your buddy Orinoco had me ship out a solid ton of Mahogany. Stuff was worth a damn fortune and I made a killing.” Troll said smugly. Winston’s mouth opened.

“That ass. He complained for two hours last night about all the money I was making farming.” Winston said with a scowl. Jason had given him crap all through the poker game, especially after Ruger cleaned them all out at the end. “How much did he make?”

“Around 15,000 by the time it was all said and done. He put up a high-price buy order and someone bought it all almost instantly. Mahogany is one of the most popular non-magical woods for woodworkers and apparently it grows everywhere in the jungle.” Troll explained. Winston just shook his head as he lifted the barrel up over the edge of the wagon with a grunt and sat it in the wagon bed.

“That all for this week?” Troll asked as one of his trolls loaded the last barrel Winston had waiting for them.

“Yep, although we need to stop at the Hound’s base and drop off a bag of this coffee. Casey, the Hound’s chef, ordered some from me after Christmas.” Winston told him as he whistled for Bog and climbed into the back of the wagon. The bird rushed over to him and hopped in beside him.

Troll hitched his trolls back up to the pulling harness then flicked his reigns sending the cart into motion and back towards the long road that ran through the zone. The first leg of the trip was a short one, only a few miles down the road to the walled camp that the Hound’s raised their noobies in.

It was surrounded in earth-works covered in thorny vines. The gate was a massive thing, that seemed to be a couple jungle trees that had been grown into the proper shape. Winston wondered how they’d done it. They must have a powerful druid or plant-mage in the guild somewhere. Two low-level players in standard leather armor were guarding the gate and they looked at the Wagon askance as Troll pulled up and stopped the wagon.

“Hey guys, is there a Jelly here?” Winston asked, as he opened his messages and checked the name he was supposed to drop of the coffee. They blinked and one snorted.

“I wouldn’t call her that if I was you.” One said, he was a standard human as far as Winston could tell. It was a pretty popular race even though it’s racial abilities weren’t that good. The other was some weird thing was face tentacles, maybe a half-illithid or something. Winston didn’t know the game had way too many races.

“Noted, I just I have something I need to give her. Casey told me to drop it off here.” Winston said, as he picked up the bag of coffee and stuck it into his pack. Winston turned back to Troll. “Did you get that gold for me?” Winston asked him.

Trolled nodded his head towards a sealed crate. Winston bent down and used both arms to pick up the crate of gold. One of the guards lead him into one of the wooden builds and into a small office where an elf sat at a desk as she waved into empty air, obviously doing something with her interface.

“Hey Angelica, this guy says he’s got something to drop off for Casey.” Said the guard as he turned around and headed back to the gate.

“Oh and what’s my grumpy brother want me to bring him.” Asked the elf. She was young, younger than Winston and cute if you were into baby-faced blondes. Winston reached into his pack and pulled out the coffee.

“Coffee and I’d appreciate it if you took this to the main guild as well.” Winston said as he sat down the crate and started working on the lid. “And before you ask it's a bribe for your guild-leader.” Winston said, as he took off the top and stepped back. The girl looked into the box and her eyebrows went up as she saw the piled gold. Winston took a screenshot of the gold and her looking at it, just to make sure it didn’t go missing somewhere between here and the guildhall. He didn’t trust anyone in the hounds besides Trish, and maybe Casey, and Jercrusher. He wouldn’t be surprised if someone would be tempted to steal it and he wasn’t going to spend two-thousand gold on a bribe just for it to get stolen.

Winston didn’t stick around and headed back out to Trolls wagon before hopping in. It was finally time for him to visit another village and he was hoping he’d be able to wrap the whole thing up quickly. He needed to get back to his farm.