Wagons & Wyverns by Z.S. Diamanti

Author:Z.S. Diamanti [Z.S. Diamanti]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Z.S. Diamanti
Published: 2025-08-07T00:00:00+00:00

The dwarven game of Castle Brick turned out to make a lot of sense to Zarni’s logical side. The game accommodated up to four players. Each player got their own set of twenty bricks with their color on the back. Zarni got green when he took over Gram’s spot, a happy coincidence, as green was his favorite color. The other side of the brick was split into two colors—one of his own color, green, and one of the other three colors. That is, except for five bricks which contained double greens.

Zarni quickly learned the mechanics. It was a stacking game where the four players competed to get the most squares of their own color built into three different towers. But they had to be careful not to play too many of one of their opponents’ colors into the tower, lest they give the tower away. A die was rolled for each tower, determining its value, and they took turns placing their bricks on top of the towers to grow them. If someone knocked over the tower, none of that player’s colors counted for that tower at the end of the round.

The game was played in rounds until a player hit a certain number for victory. Zarnikorek scrutinized the other players while Gram coached him along through the first round. The second round, Gram started saying things like, “Wow, nice move,” and “That was clever.”

By the third round, both Zarni and Dirk were in position to cross the victory number, but Zarni had to make sure he got more points than the dwarf this round. He realized that Dirk needed the tower with the most points to win, but the two guardians were also vying for that tower.

When Gram realized Zarni’s strategy to take the second highest valued tower without much competition, the dwarf grabbed him by both shoulders and shook him with enthusiastic delight. Zarni’s bones rattled, but he couldn’t help smiling as well.

“Oh, no …” Dirk muttered as he placed another brick on a tower and realized what was happening too late.

Tobin leaned over the table, stuffing a huge bite of ham into his mouth. “Uh oh,” he said through a mouthful.

Several of the guardians around the table leaned in as well.

“Oh, no …” Dirk grumbled again, now resigned to the inevitable.

The players at the table laid their last bricks. Each tower was demolished so color squares could be counted. Gram only got halfway through counting the tower Zarni had claimed before grabbing the goblin’s hand and raising it high. “Zarni wins! Taught my brother a new trick, he did! Plays like a natural, he does! This round’s on me!”

The surrounding members of the Griffin Guard cheered.

“You don’t have any coin,” Dirk said, his tone defeated.

“Oh, right! This round’s on Dirk!”

The cheering recommenced.

For the rest of the evening, they played Castle Brick and shared merriment. Bellies were filled and hearts were warmed. Fellowship was had by all.

At one point, the guardians convinced the bard to play “Rise of the Griffin Guard” and taught Zarni the words.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.