Knight :: Harab Serapel

The Court Jester, in his fine flurry of garments all wrapped up in numerous patterns and colors upon his body, with bells and lights jingling and jangling, glimmering and glistening about like fine jewelry would parade into the Cardhouse, where the 'Deck' was already in place and ready to be played with.


The Cards, which were both people and actual objects of variable degrees, would stand prepared for a new game, with the Jokers already flooding the Cardhouse the Cards would align themselves on command making many pillars and spreading themselves out in 52s for each Joker to have in their hands. Full sets and full decks, the Jokers had all the cards in their hands with their Court Jester ready to give them sound instruction.

"Is everybody ready!~?"

The Jokers would all take their 'Decks' in hand and wait for the command of the Court Jester, who would give them the sound instruction they needed to play whatever new game he hatched up and was about to play, himself, of which they were only participants of. He was doing his own thing, and the Jokers were actually just taking part of it. Whether they were with him or not, the Court Jester would be doing as he did in the Cardhouse. It was only at the decision of the Jokers to play with him that he would be accompanied.

So, with the Jokers all ready and their hands all filled with decks, the Court Jester would walk into the Cardhouse, which was made of several cards of numerous types; playing cards of every variety that forged an actual building. The shape and architecture was like that of any large house, in order to keep the structure secure, but the difference in this Cardhouse from a normal building was the fact that there were many playing cards that made up the house; ceiling to floor. Their order was randomized and also did not make any difference.


"ALRIGHT EVERYBODY!!!" the Court Jester cheered, gathering the Jokers' attention. "In order to play THIS game, everyone will need to grab hold of their Decks and present them. So, the first step is to LINE UP!!!" The Jokers, with Decks in hand, would immediately assemble before the Court Jester.

When all the Jokers were standing all in alignment the Court Jester would inspect them with a lip poked out, as if he were some sort of militant leader. He spoke with an exaggerated voice "Mmmm. Gewd. Myes. Quite." Then would suddenly stop and raise his finger into the air. "NOW! First, take out your 'Instruction Cards.' You know, those little cards that come with the Deck that nobody uses... Yes, THOSE. Those will already have prerecorded instructions for you based on what the first steps are. Already written out for you so you can begin playing."


Each of the Jokers would take out their 'Instruction' cards, which, somehow, already had rules written on them in turn for how to play whatever game the Court Jester had just cooked up seemingly on the spot. "The instructions will walk you through the process! The one of which I already know the rules of. So read carefully, because I certainly know my own rules that you are just now learning~!" the Court Jester forewarned, waggling his finger comically. The Jokers would read the first step of the unnamed game, whilst the Court Jester would dart off deeper into the Cardhouse and disappear, laughing manically and giddily.

When the Jokers read their 'Instruction' cards, they were each given a rather basic instruction that most of them groaned at seeing.



It seemed obvious that this was the first step, and part of it looked like it was just to buy the Court Jester some time to get into the Cardhouse's interior without any of them following. The Jokers spend a good while shuffling their cards until they were good and scrambled, and the Court Jester could no longer be seen nor heard, but his instructions being left behind in his stead. Each of the Jokers were careful not the shuffle the Instruction cards into the Decks, so that they could continue reading.

This next step was simple enough. The Jokers, who were all aligned and standing at the entrance to the Cardhouse, would each draw the first card at the top of their newly shuffled Decks and throw it down on the ground before them. Each one had a different card; some had a Number, some had a Face. Some has one suit, others had the other suits. What remained true was that when the cards hit the ground, the Cardhouse, itself, started to shift and arrange itself differently. The floor, which looked something like glass or LED lights, would brighten at the recognition of each card and start to create individual paths for each of the individual Jokers that had thrown down their individual cards. Each of them saw this and were in awe, because the Cardhouse was never like this until now. Now, they were each interested in what would occur afterward.

The Jokers continued reading more actively and readily after they saw the new additions to the Cardhouse, eager to see more than the Court Jester had installed seemingly under everyone's noses, as he was a master of doing.


The Jokers who had drawn any Face card; King, Queen or Jack, would immediately step forward onto their light up panels, as instructed by the Instruction card.

Once they did, the ones on the Face cards would be taken very deep into the darkness of the Cardhouse, far out of the vision of anyone that was present. Their card panels served as mobile floors for them that would carry them into the unknown, where no one could see them anymore, and the light of their card panels no longer shined.

The Cards that remained would be the Numbers and the Aces, who had not been bid to move atop their card panels.

When the first Jokers that had Face cards were taken away on their Face cards, the other Jokers became more interested in what lay beyond the darkness, all the way in the depths of the Cardhouse. They looked down at their Instruction cards to see what the next step was.


Each of the Jokers who had a Number card of any suit, 2 through 10, would step onto their cards and their panels would light up. At that moment, each of them would be spread out over the wide span of the dark field, with their cards glowing as they were carried off. None of the cards could be seen after they drifted off. Their orders were scrambled and randomized based on their suits.

The only ones that were left at the starting point were the 4 Aces of each Suit.

When only the 4 Aces were left, there were also 2 Jokers of each kind remaining: 2 Red Jokers and 2 Black Jokers; one of each Suit. Once they were the only ones left, the game would begin, and their instructions would be written for them on their Instruction cards.


This was what the Aces had to do in order to have a sufficient hand. They would throw all of their cards away onto the field and allow them to be scrambled and randomized as well, and all of them face down. After that, there would be numerous dark paths leading to each of the other Jokers that were on their respective cards of variable Number, Suit or Face way out in the distance. The Aces that were at the starting point were not yet bid to move beyond stepping on their own Ace cards, even though the discarding of all of their cards created several unknown paths linked to each Ace card below. None of them could be seen because all of them were flipped face down.

When each of the Aces were set, and all of them had no cards, and each of their decks were shuffled, spread and face down on the field, then the game could begin. The 'Setup' was complete.

INSTRUCTIONS: Either Draw Or Flip A Card From Your Starting Point. When You Pick A Card, It Is Drawn Into Your Hand To Be Used For Later, But Cannot Be Used As A Path To Walk On. When You Flip A Card, You May Use It As A Path To Walk On, But You Cannot Pick It Up Into Your Hand. When You Reach One Of The Other Jokers, You Must Engage Them In A Card Battle Using The Cards You Have Gathered. Should You Defeat Them, You Take Their Card And May Either Add It To Your Hand Or Use It As An Extension To Your Path. If You Discard A Card From Your Hand, You May Use It To Complete A Path, But You Cannot Pick The Card Back Up After You Have Discarded It. You May Choose To Avoid Battling A Joker Altogether. The One To Reach The Court Jester And Defeat Him Is The Winner. If You Lose, The Court Jester Is The Winner.


The instructions for the 'Ace Race' game that the Court Jester had created seemed fun and interesting, and not too terribly complex once the setup was complete. The 2 Red Jokers and 2 Black Jokers were pretty gung-ho about participating, especially for some good old fashioned competition against each other and their Joker friends that were scattered all over the field. With a card to the left of them, to the right of them and in front of them, of the three paths, they could choose to either Flip or Draw one of the cards, and still have another card to Flip or Draw afterward to create a path or gather a hand. The game seemed to be turn-based, where each of them had an equal chance to move before the other had another chance to make a move. Each of them decided who would go first.