The cloister bell tolls, and Brother Josh and Brother Kevan are still debating points of scripture across the refectory table. “While the Lord resisteth the proud,” says Brother Josh, raising an empty fork to tap the air dramatically, “it is only implicit in his word that his servants should encourage one another to humility through their actions. Were it so that they declined or failed in that task, or that a servant of the Lord toiled alone without witness, that measure is theirs alone. They would face their maker’s resistance directly, and who are we to discern the precise scales of the Lord?” The last of the evening’s candles begins to gutter. “You will observe that none of my vows have been broken here…”

Yesterday it was made very clear that Brother Josh has the colour Black among his Desideratum, yet in that time only I have stepped up to cover any of his Black Tiles, with Raven contributing a Black Tile of their own. Are any other Monks interested in reducing this colour’s prominence in the Mosaic, or could it be that a quorum of Monks have Black in their Desiderata and are entirely happy to see it increase? (I appreciate that such Monks would rather remain silent.)

If any Monks are deliberately sitting the gameplay out on this one: I’ll say now that if the dynasty ends with me as victor and this is due to an absence of Black Tiles (let’s say: if the Mosaic were considered to have 100 additional Black Tiles, I would not have won), I’ll give a bounty of 1% of that victory for each Black Tile covered by a player during the dynasty from today onwards. By which I mean, for the benefit of new players: if Monk A covers 12 Black Tiles and Monk B covers 3, I will roll a 100-sided die after victory and on a roll of 1-12, pass the victory to Monk A; on a 13-15 pass it to Monk B; on a 16+ keep the victory. Private negotiations are welcomed.