Excited for the redo of the coming game challenge, Cecil and Altaver gathered their pre-chosen teams together and the two groups followed Athena to a lounge located near the rear of the castle. It was a large, opulent room filled with couches, pillows, and low tables. One section towards the rear window had been setup for the group with refreshments.
"We will be playing this round all at once, right here in this room, so I thought it would be prudent to choose someplace comfortable." The Queen smiled and gestured at the couches. "Everyone take a seat, and I will explain to you the basics of the game."
The challengers all crowded into the section, some lounging on couches, others taking pillows. The teams ended up roughly together, each semicircle looking at the other team across a circular table filled with goblets, and a few scrolls.
Queen Athena perched herself on the edge of a couch and looked around at everyone. "The game we will be playing today is a traditional party game from the merfolk. Due to their... rather unique political system, their country is rife with espionage between the 3 Kings and other countries. This is somewhat reflected in the merfolk culture, such as in this game, Codenames, a game about spies.
"Your two teams are each rival spy guilds run by a spymaster. The spymaster knows the codenames of all of the other spies in his guild, but none of the other members do. The purpose of the game is for the spymaster to give one-word clues to his fellow spies for them to successfully guess the codenames of the other spies, without accidentally guessing the names of the opposing spies, or the deadly assassin."
Athena smiled. "The full rules are fairly simple, and they're written in the scrolls for reference. I have some business to attend to, but I'll near nearby to keep an eye on things, and one of my pages will host the game for you once you've decided to begin. We'll play 5 rounds, each with a different spymaster. Learn fast and play well, as the losing team will face elimination. May the best team win!"