Congratulations on Finding the Tooth!

It'll all start with big Tom Thompson. Lots of stuff does, and none of it's good.

Tom Thompson runs a card room on the edge of town. Nevermind which town, if you have to ask this isn't a story you need to hear. If you haven't heard about it before, you have now. Go to the edge of town and just shout "Marco" into the air. You'll find it eventually.

Once you find it you'll be let inside by a one eyed Chinaman what answers to the name Hidei. Hidei won't talk much, but he'll walk you through old Tom Thompson's antechamber safe as a house and bring you to the man hisself. Then he'll walk you into a room with the biggest, meanest man you ever did see, beard down to his belly and eyes like the devil lit two acorns aflame. Hidei'll leave without a backwards glance - he'll know you're past his saving if you're there. God himself couldn't help you there - you'll be in your own hands from then on.

Once the door closes behind Hidei Tom'll lean across the table and look you in the eye.

"What now?" he'll say.

"We'll play," you'll nod back, drawing a deck of cards out of your suit and handing it to him. Tom Thompson will fiddle with the deck for a moment, cards dancing from finger to finger. She'll shuffle them once, twice, three times, then hand the deck back for you to cut. Then he'll deal - two cards, one face up, one face down.

You'll get the biggest of grins on your face and tap the table twice and Tom, he'll nod and flip you a card face up - a queen to match the king showing on your hand.

Tom won't bother flipping the last card, he'll know his hand well enough that you ain't got no ace under there. But he will bother to take the time to raise his hand and, without ever seeming to leave his seat or even lean forward, slug you so hard you'll tumble backwards out of your chair and onto the floor.

You won't lose consciousness, per sec. But the world will go all white and when you finally know what's what around you again you'll have to regain your bearings for a second. You'll tongue the inside of your mouth, assess the damage and, sure enough, one brand new gap will be standing in the middle of your mouth.

You'll stand up and dust yourself off, doing your best to ignore the blood stain running down your nice white shirt. Then you'll set to finding what's yours.

You'll search the whole room - under table and under couch - while big Tom Thompson just sits and watches. After five minutes of doing that you'll find your tooth, or at least a tooth, sitting just behind the door. Who knows how it got there - this sort of thing just happens with Tom Thompson around.

You'll walk right back up to that big old son of a bitch and slam the tooth down on the table.

"Ante up," you'll tell him with a wink. And sure enough he'll crack a smile.

"Guess you're man enough to play after all, boy," he'll mumble, drawing a diamond out of his sock and slamming it down on the table. "Let's see if you're man enough to beat Tom Thompson."

Congratulations on Finding the Tooth!