The three of you walk into the rubbled remains of the Great Hall on the fourth island. “So this is the fabled Round Table,” Sully exclaims. “Seems smaller than the legends made it out to be.”
Drake shakes his head, “This can’t be right… This is supposed to be where Arthur met with all of his knights. There were over 10 of them and this table can only sit 4, maybe 5 people at most.”
“Nate, take a look at this,” Sully pulls out a book hidden under the head of the table. Dusting off the cover, you open the book and begin to read.
Arthur, Merlin, Mordred, Morgana, and Percival decide to play a game of The Resistance: Avaloon. They have all developed their own ways of playing the game that make things rather unusual.
Arthur votes for proposals on even rounds and against proposals on odd rounds, except when the proposal contains no individuals to the left or right of him, in which case he votes against.
Merlin always votes for a proposal he makes, or a proposal that is the repeat of the proposal made the round immediately before.
Mordred always votes for any proposal that has more members whose names start with M than members whose names don't start with M, but reverses his vote whenever he is startled.
Morgana only votes for a proposal when a player to the left or right of her voted for the proposal the round before but did not vote for the proposal the round before that, or when players change seats. However, if two proposals are made in a round, she will always vote against, regardless of the votes of the players next to her or players changing seats.
Percival always votes for a proposal except when he is proposing or when either Merlin or Mordred make a proposal that leaves him out of it.
They gather around their round board game table.
“You’re in my seat,” Arthur cries to Mordred as he approaches the head of the table.
Mordred shrugs and retorts, “The early bird gets the chair. I’m staying put.”
Arthur shakes his head and takes another seat. After picking their characters and going through the beginning of game dialogue, they are ready to make their quest proposals. The player with the lowest Scrabble score for their name, they agree, should propose first. “I propose Arthur and myself,” he opens. And with that the game is off.
In the next round, Mordred decides to replace one of the players from the previous proposal with their half sibling. Percival chuckles in disapproval.
Percival decides to propose two individuals at random. Merlin sees into the future and makes the observation that the number of letters in each of the proposed players’ names is the same as the number of the round of Percival’s next proposal.
“I can’t believe that didn’t pass!” Morgana exclaims indignantly. “I abstain from proposing out of protest!” She skips her turn, and Arthur proposes two players that did not vote in favor of the proposal last round. Mordred vehemently disagrees.
“I’ll bring myself and the other member of Good that wasn’t in the last proposal,” Merlin says with a knowing smile. Even though it’s the fifth proposal, the group still holds a vote.
Mordred proposes the same group as his previous proposal. “Wait!” Merlin cries. “You forgot to add one more!” So Mordred makes another proposal including himself.
After having had both his proposals rejected, Mordred decides being at the head of the table is bad luck. He asks Morgana to switch spots with him, and she agrees. A duck lands on the table and Mordred jumps in surprise. “What’s a duck doing here?” he exclaims. The player to the left of Morgana makes his proposal, putting the two most commonly proposed players and the player to his left on the proposed team.
There’s a bit of confusion over who goes next. “We should keep our original order,” Arthur suggests, and everyone agrees. “Well, since we’re moving around, I’d like to keep an eye on Mordred,” Merlin says. He switches places with the player to the right of Mordred. The next player to propose manages to get four votes in favor, despite not putting Mordred on the team.
As Arthur is about to take his turn, Urien suddenly rushes in and asks for Morgana’s hand in marriage. Morgana considers accepting, taken aback by the sudden declaration of love. Arthur has had enough shenanigans and decides to propose the two players that have had the fewest total votes in favor of them being on a team. As he expected, that proposal fails, miserably. Morgana rejects Urien.
The final proposal consists of the proposer bringing one of the players opposite him along with himself.
“By Excalibur, I’m amazed you succeeded in all three of your quests,” Arthur’s squire Patsy says after the game ends. “I took down a record of your votes so you can study your game.” The duck flies away.