[Romance] You roll a 5 (required 9). Failure.

You tell Cerulean Drift that you have some matters to attend to in the morrow's morning, and that you likely won't be ready before noon.

Cerulean Drift: "Sounds good to me. Either way, we're not going anywhere without you."

You nod, and with that settled, you decide to ask about the card game she is playing.

Cerulean Drift: "This is Warbands of Boreas, a game we picked up in Griffonstone. You can play it by yourself against a dragon deck, or with other players against each other."

Craving for a good time after a long day, you ask the pegasus if she would let you join her at her table for a round or two. You then playfully add that in return for teaching you how to play, you would invite her to join you in bed later for another round or two.

Cerulean Drift: "I can teach you how to play for free, if it's all the same to you."

Somehow, you get the subtle impression that your offer was dismissed before it even came up, but at least you tried. Still interested in learning a new game, you ask your companions if they are feeling up for it.

Moonflower: "Ooh, let's play!"

Honourshine: "... Hopefully you won't embarrass yourself any further than that. It's hard to watch, you know?"

You grin, but don't make any promises.

Cerulean Drift: "Pull yourselves a seat. Now, I don't know the whole context behind this game, but from what I could piece together, we play as griffon leaders of rival warbands..."

As Cerulean Drift begins to explain the rules, you are shown three types of cardboard tokens: a yellow circle for gold, a pink heart for morale, and a red triangle for power. She explains that gold coins are used to acquire cards, that a player must always have at least one point of morale, and that power enables card actions that lower other players' morale.

Then, cards are introduced. Each card has a gold cost at the top, an armour class at the bottom, and some have an additional value on the side depending on the card's effect.

Honourshine: "Hm. And I suppose the three colours of the cards represent the three virtues of Griffonstone: red for strength, yellow for wealth, and blue for reason."

Cerulean Drift: "Hey, that makes a lot of sense! I always called them attack, treasure and support cards, but I think you might be onto something here..."

The pegasus continues by showing a few examples from each colour of cards. Red cards primarily feature power-enhancing effects and high armour class values. Yellow cards typically involve means to make extra gold if certain conditions are met. Blue cards have various effects, the likes of drawing additional cards, peeking ahead in the deck, stealing cards from other players, or restoring lost morale.

Finally, you begin to play as she explains the game loop. From what you understand, everyone starts with three morale and six gold tokens. Then, on a player's turn, he or she chooses between receiving gold coins or drawing cards from the central deck, up to three in total.

The player may choose to buy any number of the drawn cards — given enough gold —, and any remaining cards are auctioned off to the other players. Cards that are not purchased by anyone are discarded, and placed back at the bottom of the central deck.

Purchased cards become part of a player's warband, each representing an item, such as a weapon, a shield, a helmet, a tent, a campfire, and so on; or a warrior, such as a sellspear, a flag-bearer, a centurion, a diplomat, a treasurer, and more. The player may choose to play any cards currently in the warband once, some of which spend power tokens to attack all other players at once.

When attacked by another player, if the attacker's power is greater than the defender's card with the highest armour class, then that card is discarded. If multiple cards are tied for defeat, then the attacker chooses which card is discarded. If there are no cards left to protect the player, then he or she loses one morale, and if a player has no morale left, then he or she is out for the round, and the central deck is shuffled.

A round ends when either only one player remains, or one player amasses enough gold (and luck) to purchase the rare and expensive Idol of Boreas card.

And so, with most of those rules memorized, you spend the better part of the hour slowly learning the usefulness and synergies of each card. You build your warband and fight valiantly against storms of attacks between stretches of calm yet tense rebuilding. Soldiers are captured or bribed, armouries are sabotaged or ransacked, and with every action, the tide of battle turns one way or the other.

Then, in one final turn following raid after raid, everypony's struggling forces are mercilessly wiped out of the table by a landslide of chained actions from Honourshine, and she claims her first victory.

Cerulean Drift: "Huh! Are you sure you haven't played this before?"

Honourshine: "Hm. But thanks for teaching us."

Moonflower: "Heehee! This game's got a lotta rules, but it's super fun!"

The clock on the wall indicates one o'clock.