# Vampires' drinking game?



## Ireth (Jul 28, 2012)

There's an upcoming scene in my vampire novel wherein the protagonist finds himself in what amounts to a tavern for vampires, in the midst of the vampires' hidden city. He sits at a table, onto which is chained a human woman whom the vampires will feed on. One of the other vampires suggests a drinking game to make the meal/round of drinks more enjoyable. I'm having trouble coming up with a "game" for them to play.

It's not like a real drinking game in that they won't get drunk off of the woman's blood, so "drink until everyone but you passes out" isn't a good option. Also there's only so much blood in a person, so that'll limit how long they can play until they run out and have to send for another victim. I should probably note that the protagonist will be discreetly trying to unchain the woman while the other vampires have their fun, and when his turn comes around he'll do all in his power not to actually drink (he'll just make it look like he is) before trying to turn the situation to his advantage. Any ideas?


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## SlimShady (Jul 28, 2012)

Perhaps it isn't a game per se, but the winner is the one who gets the final drop of blood?


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## Chilari (Jul 28, 2012)

How about, pass her round, stuff she says to each one determines how much they drink. Certain phrases mean they have to let her go, but it'll be something quite unlikely. So a simple "please" gets them a certain small amount of drinking time before they have to pass her on, "don't hurt me" gets a little longer, "I have kids" means they drink for longer, etc. Maybe if she twigs what's going on, the vamp who has hold of her when she says something about this gets to drink her dry.


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## Ireth (Jul 28, 2012)

SlimShady said:


> Perhaps it isn't a game per se, but the winner is the one who gets the final drop of blood?



I can see that happening, but I still want to make it a bit more interesting than just having them try to be the last to drain her.



Chilari said:


> How about, pass her round, stuff she says to each one determines how much they drink. Certain phrases mean they have to let her go, but it'll be something quite unlikely. So a simple "please" gets them a certain small amount of drinking time before they have to pass her on, "don't hurt me" gets a little longer, "I have kids" means they drink for longer, etc. Maybe if she twigs what's going on, the vamp who has hold of her when she says something about this gets to drink her dry.



That is a delightfully dark idea. I like it. XD Though she might get the hint after a while and not say anything, which would spoil the game. If that happens they'd probably just get fed up and drain her as quickly as possible, then call for another victim.


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## SlimShady (Jul 28, 2012)

Maybe they roll a die/dice and whatever the die/dice has on it equals the minutes they get to feed off the victim.  But, I do like the game about words as it could be very bleak/heartfelt.


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## Ireth (Jul 28, 2012)

SlimShady said:


> Maybe they roll a die/dice and whatever the die/dice has on it equals the minutes they get to feed off the victim.  But, I do like the game about words as it could be very bleak/heartfelt.



My only issue with that is I don't know if dice were invented in the 1360's, when the novel is set. I'll have to look it up. 

EDIT: Apparently dice are older than I thought. Cool. I'll keep thinking on this. ^^


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## SlimShady (Jul 28, 2012)

Ireth said:


> My only issue with that is I don't know if dice were invented in the 1360's, when the novel is set. I'll have to look it up.
> 
> EDIT: Apparently dice are older than I thought. Cool. I'll keep thinking on this. ^^



  I didn't even know dice were that old.  In my opinion the word game could make or break the scene.  If done right I'm sure that it would be a very powerful scene.  Perhaps try writing it several different ways and keep the one you like best.  

  I believe that you should try out the word game, however as it could be very emotional and intense for the reader.


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Jul 28, 2012)

How about a game where you get a point for every heartbeat's duration that you drink, but if she dies on your turn, you lose. The loser has to go and abduct the next victim, for the next night's game. Whoever has the most points at the end of the month gets to boss the other vampires around.


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## Ireth (Jul 28, 2012)

Benjamin Clayborne said:


> How about a game where you get a point for every heartbeat's duration that you drink, but if she dies on your turn, you lose. The loser has to go and abduct the next victim, for the next night's game. Whoever has the most points at the end of the month gets to boss the other vampires around.



That's a good idea for a long-term game, but I'm in need of something that could potentially be played multiple times in a day. The female victim mentioned above is going to die at some point in the game, and another victim will be brought out to them immediately afterward. This second victim is the catalyst for pretty much the remainder of the book.


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## Avi Love (Jul 29, 2012)

My immediate thought was similar to Benjamin's. A lot of simple children's games are based on not having something happen rather than having something happen. How about a game where you get the most points/credit for the amount of seconds you can drink from her. However if she passes out while you're drinking from her, you lose all your points (similar to a scratch in pool). If she dies, it's an auto-loss (similar to pre-shooting the 8-ball). Also a bit of a similarity to Jenga where the objective is to remove as much as possible without screwing up the existing order. In order to bring it up to an even more adult level it would be possible to add a gambling component. A round involves going around the table with each vampire drinking once. At the start of the round before anyone drinks, each vampire must place a bet on how long they think they can drink for. If they don't meet it, they lose their money to the center of the table. If they do meet or exceed it, they keep their money. At the end of the round, the vampire with the highest time gets all the money at the center of the table. So there is a status symbol in confidence for amount of time, ability to meet that time, and the amount of money one is willing to wager.


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## Ireth (Jul 29, 2012)

That's a good idea, Avi. One problem, though -- the protagonist has no money with which to wager, so he'd have to come up with something else. Also the "center of the table" might be tricky if it's literal, since the victim in question is chained in a spread-eagle position across the table. If they wanted to put their money in the middle, it'd have to be on her stomach, and depending on how much she struggles, that could topple the money and upset things.


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Jul 29, 2012)

Oh okay, I was assuming it wasn't trivial to have a bunch of victims tied up and waiting. If they have multiple victims available, then maybe if you drain the victim, you lose and are out the next round. Victims are brought in until only one vampire "survives," and he's the winner.

Discard the points idea; instead, each time you drink, you have to drink longer than the last person who drank. So it behooves you to drink as long as possible, to force the next vamp to have to go even longer.


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## Saigonnus (Jul 29, 2012)

Just an observation... I realize that in most "takes" on vampires, they prefer human blood to the rest but whose to say they wouldn't use animals for their games; especially if it means keeping a lower profile in human society (so they wouldn't have to kidnap six victims every day). Why couldn't they create a game that revolves around who can drink from the most disgusting creatures. (i.e. rats, skunks, armadillos, possums etc..)


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## Ireth (Jul 29, 2012)

@*Benjamin*: I like that idea. ^^ I could have a lot of fun with it... or rather, let my vampires have fun. XD

@*Saigonnus*: That's something I hadn't thought of, and would be fun to write out. But in this instance a human captive is vital to the plot, since the one they'll bring out after the first one dies is extremely important to the protagonist. Also, they don't need to worry about keeping a low profile in human society, since they've built their own and are thriving in it.


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## JacobMGibney (Jul 30, 2012)

How about this for an idea: Each player has a small, hollow glass sphere - one side of which has a long, thin, needle-like tube. There is a deck of cards, each card has the image of a section of the human body painted on it: the head, neck, right leg, left leg, arms and so on. Players shuffle the cards and select one each, once each player has a card it is a race between them to see who can fill there sphere with blood first ( I doubt I need to go into detail about how this is done). The player to first fill their sphere wins, they empty their own and everyone else's into their glass and drink. The winner has the first choice of card on the next round.

The game can be played until the human is dead or they become bored of the taste


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## Ireth (Jul 30, 2012)

That's brilliant, Jacob. I love it!  I just wonder how many cards there would have to be to cover the whole body. Going by just your suggestions plus the torso, that makes a maximum of nine if I divide the torso into chest, abdomen and groin. I'm envisioning eight players per table, so that works out just about perfectly with one card per player. Maybe there's a specific purpose for the leftover ninth card.


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## JacobMGibney (Jul 30, 2012)

Well I was thinking of them as including left and right and identifiers like that, the cards being red or black to match like traditional cards. If you didn't want, not every card would have to be in play and in a deck of cards with higher numbers you could include 'special cards' that are like prizes. Perhaps the coveted 'corpse card, which allows the holder to leave their own sphere on the table and drink freely as they please for that round. There could be cards like that dotted throughout the deck in small numbers so that it is considered lucky to come across them


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## Ireth (Jul 30, 2012)

Marvelous.  So each suit would contain a full set of body parts, I imagine? That might complicate gameplay a bit, if each player has a hand of X many cards to play with. I'll need to come up with more rules, and card designs... this'll be fun. ^^


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## JacobMGibney (Jul 30, 2012)

I was thinking that each player might only pick one? To reduce the chances of getting a special card and killing the human so quickly haha  I am glad you like the idea though!


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## Ireth (Jul 30, 2012)

Aah, that makes sense.  So there's no need for suits, unless maybe that's their way of determining how long a person gets to drink. One minute, two, three and four?


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## Ireth (Jul 30, 2012)

Well, after a few hours of working with ideas given here and adding some of my own, I've come up with a game for my vampires to play. And a variation for any humans who might be interested as well.

*CORPSE – Vampire Drinking Game*

*You will need:* A deck of 40 image cards in four numbered suits (1-4), plus one (1) Corpse Card; OR a set of two (2) dice numbered 0-5
*Players:* 2-8
*Objective:* Be the first to drain your captive human.

*Setup:*
Acquire a human captive (willingness optional), a table and sturdy chains; chain the captive firmly to the table in a spread-eagle position. Gagging the captive is strongly advised to prevent accidental siring.

*Card Game:*
Each player is dealt one card. Play begins with the player to the left of the captive's head and continues widdershins (counter-clockwise) around the table. Each player looks at the picture on his or her card, and bites the captive in the corresponding part of their body to drink. Duration of each drink depends on the number on the card (1-4 minutes). If the Corpse card is played, the drinker is free to drain as much blood as possible, even to the point of death. When all players have played their cards, new ones are dealt. Each round ends when the captive dies.

*Dice Game:*
Play begins as with the card game. Each player rolls the dice to know which bodypart they will bite (see fig. A, below); then one die is rolled to determine the length of the drink (0 and 5 are disregarded). A roll of two zeroes is equivalent to drawing the Corpse card.

*Fig. A*







*Variation for Humans*
Photocopy and magnify fig. A, or draw your own for reference. Fill 10 shot glasses with the desired beverage (alcoholic drinks are optional), and place one glass on each of the numbers on the diagram. Play begins as with the vampire game. When a bodypart is chosen, the player drinks the shot, then the contents of the remaining nine glasses are redistributed evenly between the ten. When the Corpse comes into play, the player drinks as many shots as he/she can. The round ends when all glasses are empty.

*Note:* All variants of the game can also be played with standard playing cards (Ace-10, plus one Joker or other face card) and two standard dice numbered 1-6. The four suits may be numbered 1-4 as players desire, and the face card or Joker equals the Corpse; each 6 on the dice will be counted as 0. Play goes on as normal.


...
*feels morbid* ._.;


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## ThinkerX (Jul 31, 2012)

Minor suggestion:

Tack in a couple of 'loser cards':

With the first, the unfortunate vampire has to drain an animal instead of the human (with the other vampires making appropriate sounds);

and with the other, the vampire looses the right to drain this particular human at all (again to sounds of derision from the other vampires).


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## Ireth (Jul 31, 2012)

ThinkerX said:


> Minor suggestion:
> 
> Tack in a couple of 'loser cards':
> 
> ...



Oooh, that could be fun! ^^ Not sure how that'd work with the dice variant though, since every possible roll equals a certain bodypart or the "corpse". I might have to choose one or the other.


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## SeverinR (Jul 31, 2012)

Can just picture it now,
That one annoyingly perfect vampire spoiling it all with:

"Didn't mommy vampire teach you not to play with your food?"

You know there is one in every crowd.


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## Ireth (Jul 31, 2012)

SeverinR said:


> Can just picture it now,
> That one annoyingly perfect vampire spoiling it all with:
> 
> "Didn't mommy vampire teach you not to play with your food?"
> ...



Heh. I can see the protagonist saying that, though I hope he doesn't come off as annoyingly perfect. I don't want a Gary Stu on my hands.


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## ThinkerX (Jul 31, 2012)

> Not sure how that'd work with the dice variant though, since every possible roll equals a certain bodypart or the "corpse". I might have to choose one or the other.



Hmm...dice I'm familiar with run 1 to 6.  A roll of two 'ones' is 'snake-eyes'.  But...with your system, rolling double zero's puts the vampire in an 'all or nothing' situation.  He'd roll a single die again - and so would one of the others.  If he beats the other vampires number, then yes, its full drain time.  Other vampires number is higher, then he gets tossed.  A tie means he gets to drain a rat or something.


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## Ireth (Jul 31, 2012)

ThinkerX said:


> Hmm...dice I'm familiar with run 1 to 6.  A roll of two 'ones' is 'snake-eyes'.  But...with your system, rolling double zero's puts the vampire in an 'all or nothing' situation.  He'd roll a single die again - and so would one of the others.  If he beats the other vampires number, then yes, its full drain time.  Other vampires number is higher, then he gets tossed.  A tie means he gets to drain a rat or something.



That could work. ^^


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## ThinkerX (Aug 1, 2012)

I had one more thought here, pertaining to the vampire leader.

You've mentioned more than once this character is a first class grade 'A' top of the line psychopath.  Still, he has to keep order some how, and it can't be completely arbitrary.  So...

a version of the game for the leader, to maintain discipline - keep dissident vampires in line.  The leader draws a card, and gets to either bite or mutilate the body region specified by the card.  The Beast Card would mean the offending vampire gets put on an 'animal only' diet for a while (maybe determined by a roll of the dice?), while the sword means the offender skated.  The corpse card means the offending vampire gets executed.  This way, your leader can say - 'It was the cards.  The cards determine what happens' thus making it sound more legitimate if you don't think about it.

This would also bring up two other points, one pertaining to the villians background, the other to the story:

1) The whole 'game' system - not just the part I outlined, but the whole concept sounds like something a professional gambler would have come up with.  So, at one point, perhaps that is what the villan was?  And perhaps, the...event...that turned him into a vampire, was, from his perspective some sort of gamble.

2) You mentioned way back when that your hero had a sort of near brush with the villan, when said villan killed a runaway flunky.  Add an element of the 'game' to that.  Let your MC hear a phrase to the effect of 'you drew the wrong card' or maybe find the corpse card at or near the scene - maybe without even realizing it at the time.  Sort of a chilling foretaste of whats to come.


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## Ireth (Aug 1, 2012)

ThinkerX said:


> I had one more thought here, pertaining to the vampire leader.
> 
> You've mentioned more than once this character is a first class grade 'A' top of the line psychopath.  Still, he has to keep order some how, and it can't be completely arbitrary.  So...
> 
> a version of the game for the leader, to maintain discipline - keep dissident vampires in line.  The leader draws a card, and gets to either bite or mutilate the body region specified by the card.  The Beast Card would mean the offending vampire gets put on an 'animal only' diet for a while (maybe determined by a roll of the dice?), while the sword means the offender skated.  The corpse card means the offending vampire gets executed.  This way, your leader can say - 'It was the cards.  The cards determine what happens' thus making it sound more legitimate if you don't think about it.



Holy crap, that's creepy. I like it. XD



ThinkerX said:


> 1) The whole 'game' system - not just the part I outlined, but the whole concept sounds like something a professional gambler would have come up with.  So, at one point, perhaps that is what the villan was?  And perhaps, the...event...that turned him into a vampire, was, from his perspective some sort of gamble.



I never pegged Conall as much of a gambler. The story of how he was turned into a vampire has been well cemented both in my head and in written canon (an RP wherein a partner and I played out the event and what followed after), and it is detailed in at least one thread on this very site. Honestly, I think the game would be something one or more of Conall's minions would have come up with to spice up their mealtimes, which Conall encouraged.



ThinkerX said:


> 2) You mentioned way back when that your hero had a sort of near brush with the villan, when said villan killed a runaway flunky.  Add an element of the 'game' to that.  Let your MC hear a phrase to the effect of 'you drew the wrong card' or maybe find the corpse card at or near the scene - maybe without even realizing it at the time.  Sort of a chilling foretaste of whats to come.



I can't seem to recall the exact scene in question, but I remember two scenes that are vaguely similar. The runaway flunky shows up at the beginning of the novel, though the scene where the villain catches and punishes him (*not* kills; this is vital) is never shown, because it happens while the protagonist (and only POV character) is miles away and in his grave, halfway through his transformation from human to vampire.

I might have to tweak the game a bit to fit this idea, or vice-versa, because the nature of the punishment as it is right now doesn't fit with the bodyparts shown on the cards. The punishment involved mutilation of the runaway's face, and you'll notice the head is absent from the body cards (mostly to avoid odd numbers of cards, or awkward dice rolls*). A later scene involves the villain catching and nearly maiming the protagonist himself; I'm guessing this might be the scene you're thinking of. I could definitely add in a mention of the Corpse card for added creepiness. ^_^

*I deliberately had the dice numbered 0-5 rather than 1-6 because I figured double zeroes (or double blank faces, if the dice have numerals instead of pips) was an appropriate metaphor for two dead eyes (kinda like "snake eyes" in actual gambling); also because there are only ten numbered parts of the body, so dice numbered 1-6 would be awkward -- you'd never be able to roll a 1 and bite the chest, for instance, and 11 and 12 would be superfluous unless assigned to either the Beast, Sword or Corpse, and even then it would only work for two of the three. Even if I were to divide the body up further to make for 12 numbered parts including the head, it'd still make the number 1 impossible to roll.


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## robertbevan (Aug 2, 2012)

ha ha... i totally thought this thread was going to be about a drinking game to play with your friends while watching a vampire movie.

drink whenever they show a closeup of a woman's bulging neck vein.

drink whenever a vampire tells a girl that they can't be together anymore because he doesn't trust himself around her.

drink whenever a vampire moans about his lost humanity.



that sort of thing. sorry, i don't have anything useful for you. good luck with it though.


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## ThinkerX (Aug 2, 2012)

> I never pegged Conall as much of a gambler. The story of how he was turned into a vampire has been well cemented both in my head and in written canon (an RP wherein a partner and I played out the event and what followed after), and it is detailed in at least one thread on this very site. Honestly, I think the game would be something one or more of Conall's minions would have come up with to spice up their mealtimes, which Conall encouraged.



So the leaders top flunky (and first recruit?) would have been a hardcore gambler.  This would work.  If not looked at very closely, it puts another layer of distance between the top vampire and his brutal 'justice'.  



> I might have to tweak the game a bit to fit this idea, or vice-versa, because the nature of the punishment as it is right now doesn't fit with the bodyparts shown on the cards. The punishment involved mutilation of the runaway's face, and you'll notice the head is absent from the body cards (mostly to avoid odd numbers of cards, or awkward dice rolls*). A later scene involves the villain catching and nearly maiming the protagonist himself; I'm guessing this might be the scene you're thinking of. I could definitely add in a mention of the Corpse card for added creepiness. ^_^



I had noticed the absence of the head from the chart.  Hmmm...maybe the leader has a 'special' set of cards, one that includes the head, just for his version of 'justice'?  They'd be kept in some sort of public strong box, except when its disicpline time.  Maybe the blank face would be a different color, to further set them apart.


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## Ireth (Aug 2, 2012)

ThinkerX said:


> So the leaders top flunky (and first recruit?) would have been a hardcore gambler.  This would work.  If not looked at very closely, it puts another layer of distance between the top vampire and his brutal 'justice'.



Not necessarily the top flunky, just anyone who got bored at some point. 

The leader's actual second-in-command, Luthais, is a good guy, Conall's brother-in-arms both in life and undeath. Luthais was Conall's first victim, purely by accident -- he was mad as all Tartaros when he woke up after being turned, but eventually came to forgive him (after beating the tar out of him first). Luthais stayed with Conall for a long time after that, even when Conall began to lose his mind after turning his second wife into a vampire; Luthais did his best to keep Conall from sliding into depravity as well as insanity, with no success. As the vampires' numbers grew and they began to build and populate the underground city, he made attempts to keep them from drinking human blood, which was thwarted by Conall's practise of feeding them on human captives. Still Luthais couldn't bring himself to abandon his friend, though he became jaded and bitter rather than the forgiving soul he once was.



ThinkerX said:


> I had noticed the absence of the head from the chart.  Hmmm...maybe the leader has a 'special' set of cards, one that includes the head, just for his version of 'justice'?  They'd be kept in some sort of public strong box, except when its disicpline time.  Maybe the blank face would be a different color, to further set them apart.



I like that idea. There could be cards with pictures of eyes, ears, nose, or tongue, with various options -- left eye/ear, right eye/ear, or both, for example. Or a broken nose versus a severed one.


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## ThinkerX (Aug 2, 2012)

Hmmmm...

So your leader has a 'strawman magistrate' - somebody with a title that sounds grand and a robe that looks good, but he's really just a vampire card sharp with a key to the box where the 'cards of judgement' are kept.  

Head vampire gets ticked off at some other vampire.  He has the 'titled vampire' call an assembly.  Vampires gather together.  Vampire with key unlocks box with great ceremony and lays out the cards.  Either he or the top vampire makes a little speech about how the offender gets to 'choose his fate' or some such.  Condemned vampire steps up and draws a card.  Head vampire inflicts punishment.  

This gives the head vampire the *appearance* of playing by rules of some sort while still letting himself indulge in his need for bloodlust.  He can point out he did what he did because that is what the card demanded - and the offending vampire is the one that plucked the card!  And, as he would be careful to point out, there are even some 'not so nasty punishments' in the deck - a card that means the equivilent of aquittal, another where the offender gets to live off animal blood for a while instead of facing mutilation, ect.  He can also claim he doesn't even have a key to the box where the cards are kept!  Collectively, it adds more structure to their society.  And if he is really interested in a specific outcome, well, the vampire who lays out the cards *will* be a card sharp.


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## Ireth (Aug 2, 2012)

*nods and grins* I like that a lot. Now I'm tempted to have the protagonist witness another vampire being condemned. 



> card sharp



I think the phrase is "card shark".


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