"I thought as much when I saw a few of them in their death throes. But why poison half of us when we've only just begun to play?"

Bert takes a step toward the body Damian had just been looking at, but doesn't spare it more than a quick glace. He'd seen plenty of them already, and he knew what to expect out of it.

"Mayhap it was a message to those of us left alive. Have you seen any you know among the fallen?" He hesitates to ask the question, not because it's insensitive but because he doesn't want to reveal how many people he was closed to ended up among those quickly deceased.