ramshackle

A POPULAR CARD GAME IN BARON'S COVE

Ramshackle is a popular card game in Baron’s Cove, enjoyed by both young and old. The object of the game is to reach 15 with the lowest number of cards. The winner is determined not only by the numbers on the cards, but also the suits of the cards themselves, with cards in the swords suit being worth the most, followed by hearts, spades and bells having the least value. Face cards are considered the same as a 10 card, but their suit value increases from jack to baroness to baron earning the most points when adding up a winning hand. The ace, or the ram as it is called, is a wild card and can be worth any number to add up a hand to 15, but it has no suit value. Ramshackle is played with a common 52-card deck, although Baron’s Ramshackle, a tournament held once a year at the Flouted Crescent casino in Bayside, is played with an expanded 104-card deck featuring the added suits of clubs, stars, cruxes and shields; along with three more face cards: the empress, emperor and alchemist.

A winning hand of ramshackle, 3 and Jack of Hearts with a 2 of Bells, its origins lying in the tale of the Weeping Watchman. The legend tells of a night watchman on the walls of Balabrelock. Late one evening, he saw his beloved escaping the fortress with a man of Auld Lochnora, Balabrelock’s hated rivals to the south. Devastated, he rang the bells alerting his commander, and when the woman returned, the watchman refused her entry. She was arrested and soon after so was her lover, and the two were executed. Three hearts were broken, and the ghost of the Weeping Watchman is said to still haunt the old stone walls of Balabrelock to this day.

APPEARANCES

NAME PRONUNCIATION

Episode VI - 1st Appearance

{RAM-shak-uhl}

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