Small applauses appeared within the crowd at the mention of this “fun”, and suddenly a large swarm of servants entered and started to quickly arrange tables around the edges of the room.

“Be sure to use this time to mingle with your new comrades, we have set out several games and activities to break the ice.”

With those final words, Strix sat back down and pulled out a deck of cards before playing with Jack, the cloaked man. His words caused the once still room to quickly erupt with activity, the newer guests got up and started to mill about the newly erected tables, while the ones that got here earlier didn’t move. Unlike the first arrivals, the guests that arrived after the hyenas were mostly exclusively human, except for a singular vampire.

The human guests were dressed in all manners of robes and cloaks, some had weapons and others had nothing. Most were concealing their faces by hood or mask, though there were a few that had no coverings at all. I could tell that many of them were already in established groups judging from their identical attire, and familiarity with each other. The men and women all had one thing in common, access to some sort of magic, whether it was weak or not was another matter. Judging by their control and amount of magic, moat were complete amateurs, but I could tell that there were a few that did have some decent power.

Though most of the humans were up and milling about, the creatures didn’t move. You see, most of us don’t like interacting with people, especially humans. I could see the hyenas playing their traditional game of marbles and clay figurines, I believe they call it hackjack, and the bald man playing a game of dice with itself. The gnome on the other hand was in his corner and just covered his ears while shaking his head. I looked over at the serpent and caught her curiously observing a game of cards going on at a nearby table. I myself wouldn’t mind a game of cards so I got her attention and waved her over. She tilted her head and looked at me for a second but when I retrieved my prided playing cards and waved them around I could feel a huge wave of excitement emanate from her.

She hesitatingly uncurled herself and slithered her way to the chair in front of me and curled into a spiral on top of it. I started dealing the cards and established a mental tether between us. Once we were connected I started explaining the rules and how to play, she nodded every now and then, whilst acting extremely giddy. Once I finished explaining we began our first game, but she quickly ran into a problem, she didn’t have arms. When she realized this all of her previous excitement came crashing down. Of course, I already realized her situation and would not have recommended this game if I didn’t have a solution. These cards were no normal cards, I had specially crafted them from the bones of a deceased poker-loving friend, with his prior consent of course, actually, it was in his will.

The cards have been enchanted to be easily controlled with magic, in fact, they were so magically sensitive that a normal person could move them. I quickly relaid to her that she needed to infuse magic into them. Once she heard that her excitement returned twofold and she quickly followed my instructions causing the cards in front of her to slowly rise. The amount of excitement she gave off was infectious and significantly lightened my mood. Our game properly started after a few hiccups and soon she was playing like a pro. The first game soon ended but a second one quickly took its place, I felt better than I’ve had for several years now, but my mood was, of course, spoiled by that damn owl.

We were close to finishing the second game and the serpent was in the lead slightly, of course, I could easily crush her but that would remove all the enjoyment from both parties when the owl suddenly interrupted us.

“That's an interesting trinket you have there, mind if I ask where you got it?” She asked slightly arrogantly, “I would love to have a deck of those.”

The way she simply interrupted our game and condescendingly looked down on my creation without even a simple apology pissed me off to no end. She already pissed me off significantly by sending out a weak servant to challenge me and when I destroyed it she ran like a coward, and now she barged in while we were in the middle of a game and looked down on my prided cards was not just an insult to me but the serpent as well. I could feel my neighbor's mood quickly sour as well, it could have been forgiven if she was simply ignorant of this kind of thing but the arrogant glint in her eye told me differently. It seems she wanted to assert some kind of petty superiority above us.

A plan quickly appeared in mind and I relaid it to the serpent, which she quickly approved. A cruel smile stretched over my lips as I began the plan. I quickly magically moved the last chair over and gestured her to sit, she gave a slight smirk and made a show to elegantly sit down, this owl is quickly nearing my last nerve. I gathered the cards and began shuffling but before I could deal again the witch yawned and said,

“Please, not this boring game, how about something exciting.”

The snake and I quickly exchanged glances, it was pretty obvious that she didn’t know the rules, after all, it’s not the normal game, and she didn’t care to learn them. I could still work with this, I put away the deck and retrieved a single die, also made the same way as the cards, and dropped it on the table. Once it landed it instantly broke apart and six dice appeared, two rolled in front of the snake and owl respectively. The owl just gave a small glance at the complex magic like it was some cheap parlor trick before yawning once again. Ugh, it was getting hard to control myself but the thought of her long-drawn-out death pacified me for a bit.

I reached into my cloak and retrieved the bone figure and placed it in front of me, the owl raised an eyebrow at the gesture but soon realized my message and placed down a golden coin. I readily admit that I love shiny things but a mere gold coin could never equal the value of this figure, but for the sake of my plan, I’ll let it slide. We were going to play a simple game of chance, which of course I could control the outcome, and whoever had the highest number would get the pot, but before we could start the witch already had a gripe,

“What about the snake, we can’t be the only ones with a stake.”

This is starting to annoy me, the serpent obviously doesn’t have anything on her to add to the pot and it’s tradition to let the youngest skip the pot until they win something. I doubt the owl would care for that so I retrieved one of my newly made herb concoctions and added it to the pot, but the owl still seemed unsatisfied. Apparently, she can’t see the values of things, that herbal mix can easily surpass the worth of a gold coin.

The owl sighed and “graciously” let it slide, and a game of chance started. The first win, obviously, went to the owl, I needed that figurine in her hands after all. She greedily swiped her winnings over to her and placed the same gold coin back into the pot. I placed two of my carving tools down, one for me and one for the serpent, and obviously, she did not win this round or the next two as well. After her third loss, she abruptly stood up, grabbed her two winnings, and stormed off.

I snickered as I watched her storm back to her original seat, the statue and herbal mix were worth more than three flimsy gold coins but I guess I still made a profit one way. The snake and I exchanged glances and a snicker before resuming the card game. After a few more games the snake was satisfied and I decided to have a talk with the hyenas. I waited until their game neared the end and got up to head over, but before I could make it Strix stood up and tapped his glass again.

“Sorry to interrupt the fun, but I believe it’s about time we move to the main event,” he made a flourish to the wall opposite to the bar, “Please give a warm welcome to the head of this branch of the ten human-headed hydra, Sir Buckferd!”