#game23

The Private Investiblogger blew his nose and absent-mindedly pushed some half-empty mugs around on his desk. It had been a long day week month year and he was ready for a break, but the pile of old, unattended games cases weren't gonna let up any time soon. He pulled the next one from the top of the file, theatrically blew the metaphorical dust off it. The Bard's Tale. The name rang familiar. It left a strange taste in his mouth, one that he couldn't just wash down with tepid tea.

This one went back a long way, he knew. It had been kicking around, quietly, forgotten but not gone.

But how on earth it had ended up with him, he wasn't sure.

He pulled out his email folder, rifled through the backlog of newsletters, junk mail, correspondences with gents and dames whose acquaintances he once had, receipts for long-lost and broken electrical appliances. Humble Bundle. He should have known. PC & Android 7. 2013. Ticket to Ride. Anodyne. His unshakeable addiction to bulk purchases. All of it. He gritted his teeth.

There was nothing for it.

The client lead him straight there, as he knew it would, and before long he was inside. The Bard's Tale. The shape of it surprised him. It reminded him of a post-64 Zelda, maybe, or a Fable, or one of the action RPGs of yore, but it was brash and clumsy and utterly without charm. The gameplay was needlessly repetitive. The writing was terrible. Someone had clearly paid a lot of money for these lines to be delivered - hell, there were some big names in voice-acting here, names he didn't fancy messing with - but there was little in the way of entertainment value. It was all very confusing. Confusingly boring. There had to be a point to it, a purpose.

A little digging around told him "The Bard's Tale" was a 2004 product by some small-time racket known as InXile entertainment. The name wasn't known to him. The Bards Tale had been marketed as a parody game, but he didn't think it seemed very funny. There was something more going on.

The blogger tried to take pictures of his progress, but found the game wasn't co-operating with the client. He tried to push it into a window so he could screenshot it, but that wasn't working either. Someone had clearly gone to a lot of trouble to keep all this under wraps. Someone had a secret they didn't want getting out.

He decided to go back through the archives to find instances of "The Bard's Tale" in the news.  Suddenly it became clear. This wasn't the first "The Bard's Tale" - they'd been around before. 1985. 1986. 1988. Three titles in quick succession. It seemed they'd been big hitters back in their day. But where were they now? Were they tangled in this mess, too?

Glancing back over at the file, he noticed something he'd missed earlier, something that had been hidden in plain sight all along. The three original games, right there, all in the same package. Linked together above the social media symbols. A connection which ran deeper than the title alone? He tried them out - yes, yes, they worked. They worked as if they were still meant to run on machines from the 80's, but there were games there. Text-heavy dungeon crawlers, all of them. Possibly the glory of their time, now difficult to interpret without the benevolence of nostalgia.

The blogger pondered his clues. Everything seemed to link back to one auspicious name, a name which came up time and time again. Brian Fargo.

Fargo had been there when The Bard's Tale made graphical and sound innovations for dungeon crawlers of the 80's. He'd been there again with InXile when The Bard's Tale was a bad parody ARPG in 2004. He'd confessed it all before. And what was he up to now?

The bloggers eyes went wide. Kickstarter. Of course. InXile were raising money for a new The Bard's Tale game. The Bard's Tale IV, they were calling it. It was clear to him that this case, thought cold, would never be closed.

"Rocket League?" suggested the dame from her desk, over his shoulder.

The blogger checked the time. He'd been amongst the The Bard’s Tale(s)for nearly two hours now. He was wasting his life.

"Sure", sighed the blogger. He was done with this one, probably for good. "Lets".

After Kalia blew her interview out of the water, Kardos was up next. He wore a sleek crimson colored suit which went well with Caesar's navy blue get up. He walked confidently from his seat to the one beside Caesar. He greeted the man with a firm handshake and sat down, his right arm across the back.

"Kardos, how wonderful it is to see you," Caesar smiled.

"Likewise," Kardos returned.

"Let's get started," Caesar said, shuffling the cards in his hands. "How are you liking things here in the Capitol?"

Kardos brought his arm down and clasped his hands together, "I really love it here. Everyone is so nice and accommodating, I've been treated like royalty, it's fantastic."

"Happy to hear that," Caesar laughed. "Now, you got a ten in training, how did you manage to pull that off? A boy of your age must be truly talented."

"Sorry, Caesar, I can't really disclose that," Kardos said with a mock pouting face. The Capitol ate it up, laughing as if they'd never seen anything funnier. "But all I can say is watch out for me, because I'm coming in strong."

The audience cheered and shouting over top them, Caesar asked, "Confident are we? Do you think you have much of a fight this year? A lot of the tributes are of higher age."

"I suppose that's true," Kardos laughed. "But it's the performance, not the prospect that counts."

"I see," Caeasar pondered. "Final question, we all know the boy you volunteered for was your brother, why did you volunteer? Why not let him have his time to shine?"

"I wanted the spotlight," He lied. "No way am I letting him win first. Plus, he's so weak it'd be pathetic to see him even try to fight out there."

"Tell us how you really feel," Caesar joked, patting the boy on the shoulder as the buzzer rang.

Kardos and Kalia stood by their chariot, a slight chill in the air. They hadn't spoken much since their train ride. Aside from the basic strategic talk, they'd hadn't talked about much else. Nothing else mattered. In a week or so, they'd be gutting each other on live television. No need for small talk when you're talking to a future corpse. Or that's how Kardos felt. Despite being only fourteen years old, he was confident in his ability to murder.

Apparently their stylist had the same thoughts as they dressed them in spiked clothing. Kardos wore a transparent black shirt that had sharp golden spikes that covered the shoulders all the way down to the hem of his sleeves. He had on black jeans and spiked boots as well. Kalia was dressed in a golden spiked bustiere, short shorts, and spiked boots. Kardos had to admit they looked pretty fierce.

Once they were all called to board the chariots, Kardos helped the girl up and the two stuck to opposite sides of the chariot. Kardos took the left while Kalie managed the right. Kardos stared straight ahead at Satin and Shimmer until the gates of the stable opened. He straightened his posture and put on his best glower as the gates opened, releasing the tributes to be devoured by the cameras and the audiences. He hoped Kastos was alright, he seemed to be shaken up about being reaped. Kardos was glad to take his place, but his Career persona gave the appearance that he volunteered as to not be outdone by his brother. How wrong those idiots were.

It's over on beforethegameofdistricts! Follow it for the rest of 19, as well as 23 and 24, which are the Games Kardos and Kastos.

It'll give you some insight on the Victor Cascada and what she's all about, as well on the backstory of Kardos and Kastos!

 SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Henrik Sedin and Andrew Alberts scored goals less than a minute apart in the second period and the Vancouver Canucks showed they still have a leg up on the San Jose Sharks, winning the first meeting between the teams since last year's Western Conference final 3-2 on Saturday night. Manny Malhotra also scored and backup goalie Cory Schneider made 43 saves to lead the Canucks to their season-best fourth straight victory. Andrew Murray and Patrick Marleau scored, and Antti Niemi made 24 saves for the Sharks, who had won four straight and six of seven. Vancouver has won four straight games for the first time since taking the last two in the five-game conference final against San Jose in May and the first two in the Stanley Cup final against Boston. The Canucks ended up losing that series to the Bruins in seven games and started this season in a bit of a funk. But with Schneider filling in admirably for banged-up Roberto Luongo, allowing three goals in the current winning streak, the Canucks are once again playing like the team that dominated the regular season a year ago.