Blood, Plunder and D&D

  Fantastic Freddy was enjoying the company of the other musicians, as they all sat around the large open air firepit that dominated the main courtyard at Bella Bells . The Solstice Festival had drawn them from far and wide to Skull River Bay , not only to compete for the 1000 gold piece prize awarded to the winner of the Contest of Song, but also of course. to ply their trade among the festival goers, trading song for gold in a dance as old as music itself.  Most of them were lodging at Bella Bells. Bella was quite the patron of the arts and gave musicians free room and board during the Festival, at least all musicians who were competing in the Contest of Song.  The Contest was entering it's final phase. The three masked judges had already winnowed the field down to four bands, and tomorrow those four were slated to compete to determine the final winner. Freddy was the favorite of course. The other finalists were good, but none were at Freddy's level, and least not according t

  Ricmo chomped down  on his cigar and looked at his hand. He'd had better hands. He carefully laid the cards down and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. They'd been at this eight hours straight at this point, and it was the darkest part of the night. He considered for a moment and pulled out the pouch of leaves that Lil had given him. Whisperleaf had said they weren't magic exactly, but that chewing them would keep sleep at bay and keep his mind sharp. It would come at a cost though, tomorrow would be rough, and the druid had said there were risks if he used them often.  He tentatively placed some of the leaves in his mouth and chewed. They tasted bitter, but not unpleasant and indeed after a few moments he felt energy flooding back into him. His eyes brightened, he felt GOOD. "Hell yes" he thought to himself. "Let's play." The finals of Skull River Bay's Grand Tournament of Cards had begun with 25 finalists, each packing all the gold they could c