In the realm of Slothjemia there is a tradition of knights and nobles having executive assistants that are categorized as “squires”. These are not the same type of squire that may be encountered in other lands in that most squires (as the title is understood throughout much of Partum) are themselves young candidates for knighthood. Slothjemian squires are an altogether different sort of person. Elsewhere in this blog you will find details about their profession and in a number of stories you will see how one squire in particular put their skills to good use in the furtherance of their lord’s well-being and goals. The important thing to remember is that Slothjemian squires can be overlooked by those who face adversity, and these are the times when a squire can be the most useful.

This is the truism upon which the game today is hinged. There are actually two squires at play here, both trained in the classical tradition of Slothjemian squires and well-suited to solving one of the game’s most perplexing puzzles. Truthfully, they have been there almost the entire time and could have been put to work on this dilemma long ago. That didn’t happen. It won’t happen this week either unless the players take a deep breath and decide to listen to what their loyal NPCs (non-player characters) might say. One of the most challenging aspects of being a Game Master is knowing how much to push when trying to get your players to realize that they might need to ask a specific NPC a question or two on a specific topic without just saying “Hey, try asking this person about this.” Ideally the players are paranoid just enough to catch the clues being dropped everywhere. Most of the time they aren’t. In fact, even with this pregame blog post I know only one player is going to stop and reassess their plan for today’s crisscross of a story twist. And not just because they read more of this stuff than the rest, but because they are truly more paranoid than the others in the group.

Depending on how well today’s game goes I may or may not have solidified my legacy as “Mister Dick Moves.” I am giddy with anticipation.