Blai is not looking forward to hearing what comes out of Nenio's mouth if she has to distinguish Seelah and Irabeth out loud at some point, but it does not seem likely to be something he can control. Oh well.

In that case Nenio will take advantage of the lull in conversation to discuss obscure forms of translation magic. Over the course of the conversation it will incidentally come up that she was able to hang a single third-circle illusion spell this morning, "though in order to accommodate it on my scaffold, I was forced to reduce the number of spells of the first and second circle that I prepared. Still, this is a small cost for the cause of magical progress!"

Blai is at least halfway to fourth circle now and if things don't let up soon he will reach it in days. "What third circle spell did you choose?"

She sighs. "Displacement. It is far from the most interesting third-circle illusion spell, but my recent research has regrettably been significantly influenced by the large quantity of demons and other threats in this city."

"Well, it's useful, we may well encounter an opportunity for you to try it and see if it has hidden depths." Nenio is probably not the kind of wizard who plays chess. She probably forgot how to play chess. Maybe Woljif knows how.

Nenio apparently takes this as a request to start telling the party about obscure third-circle illusion spells that she's heard of but doesn't know how to cast. (Supposedly there are sea-people who have something like an Invisibility Sphere that only functions underwater! Unfortunately she has yet to learn any of the spells that would permit her to breathe underwater.)

Irabeth sends a runner partway through lunch to ask them to stick around until after the meeting with Voyager Ramien, in case it affects their itinerary for the afternoon.

Easily done, sure. ...gives them enough downtime that he'll make a chess set.

Blink blink. "Fascinating! I did not realize you were capable of wizardry."

Perhaps contrary to Blai's expectations, it's the Count who sits down across from him. "Would you care for a match?"

"Absolutely," he tells Daeran, "black or white? - I only have Prestidigitation, and only this application, I can't do laundry with it. Also the spellbook page I used to have disappeared with my other missing possessions so I might need to beg a spellbook peek if ever I drop it."

Nenio makes a face. "I cannot imagine having partial command of Prestidigitation and intentionally choosing not to attain complete mastery of it. Although I suppose that laundry is hardly its most interesting application."

"How about you begin with white, and we can switch after the first match?"

Blai nods and turns the board accordingly. "I'm generally elsewhere occupied," he tells Nenio, advancing a pawn. "When I do have extended downtime sometimes I practice with it a little, but I haven't gotten far, I haven't really the cunning to be a proper wizard."

"Perhaps if you continue adventuring you will eventually be able to afford a headband to enhance your Cunning."

"Not everyone wants to be a wizard, Nenio."

Daeran advances one of his own pawns in return.

Daeran has played before, and is mostly competent to avoid glaring blunders. He isn't skilled enough to think more than a couple moves ahead, and mostly compensates for this by trying to read Blai rather than the board.

Blai is Chelish, and also really likes chess at a pretty consistent level regardless of the gamestate, so that doesn't work very well! He wins and takes a couple of his pieces away as a handicap when he turns the board for a new game.

Daeran opens with the same opening Camellia first used, though without her unique sense of strategy. Insofar as Blai tends to reuse strategies across multiple matches, he's somewhat better at catching them.

Woljif points at Blai's knight. "He's baiting you with the horse, don't fall for it."

Pleasant smile. "Mister Jefto, if you'd be interested in a team game once this one has concluded, I'm sure the Select would be happy to oblige, but I wouldn't want to spring it on him in the middle of a match."

(He will totally refrain from sacrificing a piece to that particular bait, though.)

"My favorite variant requires four players."

Blai loves chess very much but has not had a lot of practice against a variety of skilled opponents and can at the right handicap level be defeated.

"Perhaps one of our companions would be interested in joining us?"

She laughs and knocks the side of her head. "I don't know if I'm smart enough for these games."

...Lann is pretty sure Seelah is a normal amount of smart? Maybe surfacers are weird about this sort of thing?