“For the love of Eictor! Let me roll a two or higher!”

  *Rolls*

  “Ahh! Crap on a cracker, these dice hate me!”

  Paladin Peppermint picked up her game piece and moved it one space forward on the cardboard game board that was situated on the table in front of her.

  Paladin Spearmint, seated to her right, adjusted her glasses. “You owe me three bushels of turnips and two goats as taxes.”

  “Those are my last two goats!”

  “And now I am taking them. Those are the rules.”

  Paladin Peppermint frowned as deep a frown as her face could possibly manage. She picked up three wooden blocks that represented turnips, and two wooden blocks that represented goats, from behind her paper screen and passed them to the woman on her right.

  “Here you go. Steal my last two goats. You had better take good care of them. You already have all the others.”

  Paladin Spearmint put a hand over a huge pile of wooden goats that were sitting behind her paper screen. “Goats are the lifeblood of commerce in a game like this. You should remember that next time. Now if you are all done, it is the next player’s turn.”

  Paladin Wintermint *Rolled* the die in front of him and moved his player piece three spaces.

  “Three spaces.” Paladin Spearmint said. “Now do you want to build, buy, or play?”

  “Build” Paladin Wintermint said. “I pay three stone to add the third piece to my tower.”

  He handed over three stone pieces and then placed a third wooden cone on the stack of two cones in front of him.

  Paladin Peppermint shoved her elbows on the table. “You’re already at your third cone!? How did you do that already?”

  Paladin Wintermint shrugged. “I try to think three moves ahead. That way when my turn comes around I always know what I’m doing.”

  “I would love to do that. But someone keeps stealing all of my goats!” Paladin Peppermint angry-pouted at the woman seated next to her.

  “He built his third cone so he gets nine points. Next player.” said Paladin Spearmint without looking at anyone else.

  *Rolls*

  “Uhh… hmmm.” Paladin Applemint paused.

  Paladin Spearmint looked over her screen. “You’ve landed on a trade space. Would you like to buy, sell, or trade?”

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  Paladin Applemint chewed her finger and fidgeted in her chair. She stared at the set of cards in her hand. “Uhh… I will trade.”

  “Fantastic. I will give you three turnips for all of your timber.”

  “Uhh…”

  Paladin Peppermint leaned across the table. “Don’t do it! Turnips aren’t worth as much as wood. She doesn’t need anymore wood! She’s too far ahead.”

  “Don’t tell her how to play. She can make up her own mind about her trades.” Paladin Spearmint insisted. “But fine. I will throw in two stone on top of that. What do you say? You can use the stone to build your first tower piece. Unless someone else has a better offer?”

  The other players looked down at their paper screens and said nothing.

  “Well?”

  “Okay… I’ll trade.”

  The two players exchanged tiny wooden tokens with each other.

  Paladin Applemint smiled. “I build my first tower level.” She placed a tiny wooden cone in front of the paper screen on her side of the table.

  “Very good. Now it is my turn.” Paladin Spearmint picked up the die.

  *Rolls*

  “I roll a four.”

  “Haha! That’s my territory. Now you owe me taxes.” Paladin Peppermint rubbed her hands together.

  “Then I use my treasure token to reroll.”

  “No fair!”

  *ReRolls*

  “I get a six and move onto a dungeon space, giving me another treasure token.”

  “This is bullcrap!”

  “During my action phase I will choose to build with my newly acquired wood. I add another fence to complete my seventh pasture improvement. That scores me seven points. Then I add my Agriculture Secretary bonus, increasing my score by three. And lastly I activate a grazing combo, gaining an additional three points per goat in my duchy, bringing my final total to thirty one points.”

  Paladin Peppermint collapsed on the table. “Nooo… *Sniff*. Those were my goats. *Sniff*”

  Gilt Hommage kicked in the door to the storage room. He looked at the four others seated around a small table in the middle of the storeroom.

  “Good work today everyone. No one in this town suspects a thing.”

  Gilt tossed a bag of jingling coins onto the table. Wooden tokens were sent flying all over the place. “You all can start counting the day’s take.”

  “The game!” Paladin Peppermint shouted.

  “It’s fine. It was almost over anyway.” Paladin Spearmint opened the bag and started dropping pennies into paper sleeves.

  Paladin Wintermint sighed. “Our business selling snowcones is so profitable. It’s almost a shame to have to give it up so we can complete the heist of the century.”

  Gilt pulled out his magic sword and started polishing the blade. “It is a shame. But it is not our place to question Eictor’s wisdom. Our Gods give grace unevenly and some people are just naturally less fortunate than others. Having our perfect statue damaged by random happenstance was enshadowed weal. It provided the perfect opportunity to infiltrate the Ocean’s Bounty so that we could locate their vaults.”

  Paladin Peppermint smiled. “That’s right. And in a few days all those gemstones will be liberated from those prideful ingrates and placed in our far more deserving hands.”

  Everyone in the room nodded in agreement. Only Paladin Applemint remained stoically motionless.

  The door to the storage room clicked open and a woman wearing a green bandana walked inside.

  “There you are, Lamb. Where have you been?” Gilt Homage asked.

  The Peach Basket Bandit pulled off her hat and placed it onto a hook next to the door.

  “Nowhere boss. Just walking around. Getting a feel for the city.” Lamb answered.