Kufuato Chess Duel
Myth, Legend, Game or Tradition: A harmless game of chess.
Group: Popularized by the Eternal Embrace mercenary group, it's a favorite for settling disputes by that cerebral gang of mercenaries. Often enough people will avoid to duel the Eternal Embrace, for fear that a Darstrion will call for a game of Kufuato Chess.
Origin: The Tunawa and Qi'ora devised this variant of traditional chess as a way of handling out of company disputes and duels, without pitting themselves into front-line fights against other groups. Although there are many capable warriors among them, this type of duel is novel enough to intrigue even the most brutish lout of a Yari into a game.
How to Participate: The game commences when a prospective duelist challenges another to a game of Kufuato chess. From there, they must wrangle a Darstrion into watching their game and passing judgement and enforcing the rules. The Darstrion is also responsible for time keeping with an Hourglass often of Qi'ora make. The Hourglass is left half full on each side, and laid on its side until the game commences.
For the most part, the chess pieces are carved from wood. Sometimes tunawa feature fully grown Ojogbon pieces. In any event, there's at least one living piece upon the board, that is usually the King, although it can also take the place of a Queen if the player is feeling particularly daring.
A normal chess game ensues, in which the players call the pieces and the moves as in any standard game. However, unlike a normal game, the eight pawns on the board can replace the king if he's ever held in checkmate, or the Queen if she is taken. In the case of checkmate, and these pawns still being on the board, the tunawa king or Kufuato will move to a selected pawn.
If at any point the King is held in checkmate, the one that is held in mate must drink poison, along with the king. They can then take the berry of antidote from the tunawa's hair. So it goes until all pawns and kings are eliminated thorugh checkmate or otherwise, and the king is removed from the board. The poison is chosen by the challenged, traditionally. The poisons will range in strength from lethal to mild, depending on the disposition of the challenged, and seriousness of the issue. Often enough the poisons are assorted in different magnitude of strengths and lethality.
Eight glasses of poison are on each side of the table, ready to be imbibed should their king fall to checkmate.
If one of the duelists should die in the process of this game, the Rites of Death are undergone immediately, and a victor is chosen.
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