Sherwood: A Game of Cup and Coin

Lady Briarleaf and Oberon's 3 Penny Tavern

"Well...there's a Three Penny Tavern that belongs to Oberon, King of the Gypsies..." the courtly Lady began, and that's when everyone knew that shenanigans were in store...


...Princess Lolly pinned her Lady dubious glance.


"Well, I wouldn't want to be one to spread rumours." Briarleaf shifted her weight from one foot to the other.  "But there might have been one evening where there were some pirates and maybe some pear cider."


Furybash paused poking around in the bushes looking for pixies to guess. "Mumbletypeg!"


"Cup and coin...but close."  Briarleaf brandished the mug in her hand with a sly grin as the other fey eyeballed her. "What?!  It was a fair game!  I just told the captain of El Tiburon the rules fair and square."

PDX Yar, Pirates of El Tiburon!
Courtesy: Laume Zekas

They wheedled and pried and blackmailed that autumn-clad Lady until she spilled the green-beanstalk-beans: 1 coin, 3 mugs and a wager.  The Pirates put a coin under their mugs, Lady Briarleaf switched them around and around and they guess which one had the coin.


It all seems like a simple tale; a right guess gets the coin.  A wrong guess drinks some ale.   For the water in the seven seas Captain Redgoat McHaggis probably did guess the right tankard a fair number of times, but even on the right guesses his coin wasn't there.


Well, Lady Briarleaf caught on quick as the Captain caught another ale and she challenged him one last round to all or nothing, including his mug - to which he agreed in a slurry fury.


The crew gathered round to bear witness to the game. Captain Redgoat placed his gold piece under a mug and Briarleaf warmed up her hands and slowly began.  Deftly she moved the cups left, right, in circles and widdershins and then stopped.


Being sure he had the right cup he was about to guess when the Quartermaster "Dingo" spoke up, who was not so sure the Captain had it right.  And then the Gunner.  Then the Boatswain. And even the Cabin Boy.  Everyone had a different idea as to where the coin was and before long a row and ruckus erupted in Oberon's Three Penny Tavern.

Mug: Courtesy of Don Lewis

Bar stools flew across the room, ale and barleybeer was dumped over heads and sloshed on the floor.  An occasional black powder shot went through the roof.   With all the confusion and no one looking on, Briarleaf figured this was the most pragmatic time to clear the table of her winnings and vacate the tavern.


"Arrrrrr! She's made off with the gold!"  The Captain shouted, pointing his sword.  "Get that foxy fairy and we'll make 'er walk the plank!!"


Briarleaf swished her tail and dove into a hedge, disappearing from sight.  Behind her, she could hear the Pirates shouting and foraging around, swearing at the top of their lungs they would kidnap every Faerie in Sherwood Forest if they didn't get their gold back.  The Lady fae paid them hardly any attention though because she was busy trying to figure out the exact same thing!


"Now...what in the heck is going on with this mug - who took the gold??"  Briarleaf whispered to herself behind the hedge, as she turned the wooden cup upside down,  shook it, tapped on it with her fingers, knocked on the bottom and anything else she could think to do.

Rayzoo the Genie

Frustrated, plopped down by a nearby stream and swished out the cup with her foxtail so that she might have a drink of water.  With an audible pop! and the jingle of coins, there was suddenly a very pretty, if unearthly woman standing right there in front of her.


"Rayzoo."  she said, brushing off her clothes and tucking back a strand of light-brown hair.


"Bless you." replied Briarleaf.


The exotic woman rolled her eyes.  "Rayzoo.  The Genie.  It's my name, not a sneeze."


"Sorry about that."


"My name?"


"No, the not-sneeze."

"Right..." she dusted off her baggy garments as she spoke. "Well, you are a breath of fresh air - you don't smell like scally or wag!"  said the Genie as she conjured a needle and thread from thin air and started sewing gently tinkling gold coins onto her sash.


"Heeeeey!" pointed Briarleaf as realization dawned on her face.  "YOU are the one who took the gold."


"I just picked up the lost and found off the table when it appeared under my mug - I figured that traveling with you would be better than being sea-sick all the time." Rayzoo just shrugged.  "So...how about those three wishes?"
Briarleaf was in stitches of laughter!  It was too rich - Rayzoo the Genie had engineered the whole game and was now making clothes out of pirate gold.  Once she calmed down she asked, "So...I suppose that wishing for wishes is out of the question?"


Rayzoo nodded.


"Well then, I'll have to think about it.  In the meantime - we had better warn the Princess of Captain Redgoat's wrath." Off the two ladies set out through the forest headed back toward the Hollow where the fae lived.


Meanwhile, Redgoat and his crew were sniping up poor, hapless pixies one by one as they scoured the woods in search of his mug, AND their gold...

...To Be Continued!...

Sherwood, The Beginning: Missing Pixies!

Eloyn opens the Gate

"Edro..." Eloyn hushed intently, finishing the incantation.


Twigs and branches gathered and pulled from the surrounding forest underbrush.  Rising from where he had drawn glyphs in the dirt, Eloyn rubbed them out with the toe of his soft-leather boot.


The tall, Elven man was a champion archer of the Faerie Court and today, a ranger.  As the fallen limbs magically assembled themselves, a free-standing doorway presented itself in the middle of the wood.


"This is where we leave the Silver Path, Ladies." 


A gruff voice objected, "AND germs - do I look like I'm in a dress to you?" It belonged to a fierce-looking Redcap by the name of Furybash the Mad.  He then refocused his attention on making sure the kitten traveling on his shoulder was comfortable.


Eloyn rolled his eyes (just as well that Furybash didn't notice), as he glanced at the entourage of fae behind him.  For their part, they were just as curiously glancing over and around his shoulders, trying to glimpse what lie on the other side of the door.


"You're sure this is where the Sherwood Fantasy Faire is?"  Princess Lolly asked, unwrapping a piece of candied ginger and popping it in her mouth.


"My tracking skills have yet to fail me, Highness." bowed the Archer. "There have been many scuffles in this area of late."

Breezle the Pookah, scouting from above.

Princess Lolly eyed Lady Briarleaf - her friend and (usually quite mischievous) lady-in-waiting.  The chestnut-haired Lady twirled a lock and did her best to shrug innocently.


The maid was spared any sort of commentary when the trees above the group rustled and there was a low, nearly in-audible pop.  Up in the branches, Breezle, a green-and-purple striped Pooka appeared.  Her furry ears hung off her shoulder as she dangled from the tree.

"Trees and barks speak the same, scuffling is a-game and the pixies and fae are...away..."


The Princess quirked her the corner of her mouth with some perplexity.  Next to her, a cup in Lady Briarleaf's hands shook and rattled of its own accord.  The autumn-robed Lady turned the vessel upside-down and shook it thrice.  Out popped a Genie, who proceeded to dust herself off and look around!


"Without reiterating the shenanigans that led us to this predicament," Eloyn glanced askance at the unlikely pair of magic-bearing creatures.  Even he was dubious as to how Lady Briarleaf had managed to come into the possession of a Genie. "I suggest we get to finding out who has captured our fellow Fae."


The group agreed universally and, one-by-one, set foot through the bracken doorway and onto the grounds of the Sherwood Fantasy Faire.  Behind them, the wooden portal crumpled to the forest floor again, leaving no trace of Faerie passage...

...to be continued....

Princess Lolly & Her Fierce Racing Snail
Courtesy of Herb Leonhard Arts