As the night came to an end but before the boys had a chance to start shuffling off toward their respective bedrolls, Boyd called them all to what remained of the fire. "Alright lads, you've all got some shards. So you've got three options. Trade them, make a card, or upgrade your existing cards." Boyd stared at the boys while they contemplated their options.
"I'm going to make a card. Wish me luck!" Andrew reached into his pocket, took hold of some shards, and wandered over to his bedroll. "Smart move." Boyd remarked. "You see, there's not exactly a lot of combat cards available right now. And even if there were, don't you think one of the nobles would have first pick?" Giving the boys more food for thought, Boyd too wandered over to his bedroll and tucked in for the night.
Ozlo followed suit, making sure to count the appropriate shards into his hand and focus on merging them into a card. "Alright, let's see here. Focus... Just focus." Ozlo fought through his tiredness and did his best to ignore his weary body as his soul fought to forge a card.
Slapper: Rank common, growth/utility.
This card will increase the damage from slapping a foe with your bare hands by 10%.
Current Level: 1
Required Soul Shards to level 0/10
"Wait, really?" Ozlo stared at his card in disappointment. "Slapper... I can't use this, getting that close to a goblin and just slapping it would be stupid. And I bet it's worthless to boot." Dejected and cursing his bad luck, Ozlo drifted off to sleep, visions of slapping a goblin running through his mind.
***
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"Do I need to slap some sense into you boy? That was a real knee-SLAPPER!" Ozlo made the mistake of telling Manny what had come of his shards and had been on the receiving end of bad puns ever since. "Say, slappy. Why don't you hand me that bit of good steel there?" Resigning himself to a day, and possibly longer, of bad wordplay, Ozlo dutifully supplied the metal and went back to sitting patiently.
"Psst, don't let him get to you. Ask him what the last card HE made turned out to be sometime." Jorgen looked around conspiratorially before whispering. "Spork maker. Combine any spoon and fork and you have a spork. At least slapper has SOME use. Sporks are worthless, hell, I didn't even know what a spork was until Manny started making them."
***
"Well, I guess you can either dismantle it or sell it. Though you probably won't get a great price for it." Boyd turns his back on his young charge and goes back to his pot of stew, stirring it slowly with a small smile on his face. "Or, if you wanted to, you could always auction it. Though I don't think there's going to be any auctions around here for quite some time." Ozlo ponders a bit more on what to do with his Slapper card.
"Asking Boyd didn't really help at all, it just confirmed what I already knew. I need to sell this damn thing." Mustering up his courage and hoping to get a good deal, Ozlo approached the small square in the center of the camp that had been bustling with activity since the traders arrived.
After glancing around for a bit and doing a bit of window shopping, without the windows, Ozlo approached a weaselly looking man with beady eyes and a pale complexion. "Ahem, welcome to Guerdo's shop, how can I assist you my boy?" Ozlo silently removed his card from his pocket and placed it on the table for him to see.
"Slapper, I see... Five shards." Ozlo almost took the offer on it's face, after all, he wouldn't likely get a better deal. But one of the few things Burgin had drilled into him was the importance of haggling. "Ten." The beady eyed man stared at the boy with his teeth set hard. "Six. Take it or leave it."
Ozlo considered for a brief moment but quickly held out his hand and accepted the offered shards. "Pleasure doing business with you boy, and if you get any more cards, come to Guerdo. I'll give you a good deal." Doing his best not to run off immediately, Ozlo forced himself to look around the market a bit before heading back to the camp.