[pnpgm] Racing Challenge

[Chris & Karen Wells]

As Cetric explains the various challenges, Ben'Dar remains unemotional and 
unmoved by it all. He studies the crowd, his gaze moving over the faces of 
the tribe, making note of those who appear to be in support of Cetric's 
antics and also those who appear not to be. He realizes that Cetric is 
trying to get under their skin, to provoke them to do something foolish to 
turn the whole tribe against them.
 Ben'Dar carefully avoids giving Cetric any satisfaction. He pretends 
indifference to the entire affair, nodding to those warriors with whom he 
joked and laughed last night, if any will meet his gaze. He seeks out the 
eyes of several of the fair maidens who he saw the previous evening and 
subtley winks at them. When Cetric speaks to him, Ben'Dar does not give any 
indication that he hears Cetric and even recognizes the man's presence.
 When he hears that he is to engage in a horse race against three other 
warriors, Ben'Dar's stoicism fades into a big smile that he cannot hide. He 
even chuckles out loud, though he will ignore Cetric entirely if he 
questions him about it. This was Ben'Dar's favorite game when he was growing 
up among the Fel'oros! He has practiced this type of challenge many, many 
times, though always in sport with his friends. (Of course that doesn't mean 
he's necessarily any good at it! I guess we'll see shortly...)
 Ben'Dar will, of course, ride Tef'wo. There is never any consideration of 
taking any other horse in his mind. He will carefully observe the other 3 
warriors against whom he is going to race, sizing up their strengths and 
weaknesses as they get on their horses and as they move around on their 
mounts in preparation of the race. He carefully watches to see what weapons 
they have, if any.
 Ben'Dar strips down all his gear that will not be needed for this race, 
trying to lighten Tef'wo's load as much as possible. He will remove the huge 
horse's leather armor and the saddlebags. He'll also remove his own dragon 
armor, donning instead the lighter leather armor. He keeps his dagger in his 
boot and his trusty spear in the leather straps at Tef'wo's side. He also 
takes his whip, coiled and strapped securely to his saddle. He leaves behind 
his bow/arrows and his pike.
 In his days of sport racing among his own tribe, he never carried weapons. 
He assumes that this will be a clean race, but he is prepared in case it's 
not...
 He will chat in a friendly manner with the three whom he is going to race, 
continuing on the friendly banter from the night before as if nothing has 
changed between them. As indeed, it hasn't. Ben'Dar feels no ill-will to any 
but Cetric. He knows all the rest were simply following the orders of their 
shaman, who was the acting leader of the tribe at the time. Ben'Dar probably 
would have done the same were he a common warrior of the tribe in their 
place.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.powersandperils.org/pipermail/pnpgm/attachments/20050916/4d44e7d6/attachment.htm>