2015 Feb 29 (Gammon)
“A Turn of the Cards”
A tale of #SundayAMSwords
Four rogues before a witch. A skeletal hand wrapped in the stench of death. A deck of cards: http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/sfery/images/6/64/The_Waking_Dream.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width/380?cb=20140131144527
A draw: The Raven: http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/sfery/images/9/9a/Raven.jpg
Large black birds flying out of the card. The deck seized. Birds soaring as bidden by The Eightfold God of Navigators, scattering to the compass points. The seventh daughter of the seventh daughter, guarding the cards for seven centuries. “Ruin shall follow if the cards are not recovered.”
The card: The Necromancer: http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/sfery/images/7/7e/Necromancer.jpg
Weeks later, the rogues pursuing the card in a Northern graveyard at night. Skeletal hands crawling from graves. Crosby striding forth. An evil sorcerer’s robes are ripped away. Smoke within. Fighting a necromancer, in a graveyard at midnight should be no-one’s first choice.
Arvin’s shadows and The Scythian’s moonlight seeking the missing card. A liquid darkness dissolving the pale light of an enchanted full moon. The necromancer crumbling to dust. Skeletons bowing before their new lady. Bones walking beyond the graveyard. Gammon leaping, blocked. A skeleton shattered by force.
The card. The Enchanter: http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/sfery/images/4/45/Enchanter.jpg
Weeks later, in a Southern market in the day, another sorcerer keeps a treasure concealed. Crosby hurling the Enchanter through the building. A card seized. The God of Navigators transporting Crosby to a snowfield near the mountains. Turning on his friends, seeing them as deadly yetis. Axe brandished, dodged. Gammon grabbing card from bloody grip. A starscape reflected in the crazed, possessed eyes of a companion. Battle is joined. A companion moon seized and slowly crushed. A scream. Arvin’s dagger pinning the card to the wall. A host of trinkets coming to life. Blood smeared runes banishing the magid.
The card: http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/sfery/images/1/16/Rogue_Tarokka.jpg
Weeks later, in a Western market, bustling like the first. Arvin finding the mark of The Rogue upon a pickpocket. Gammon confronting the witch “How do we end this?” “The deck must be reassembled so it can be dealt again. No matter how hard you try to get out, it always sucks you back in. All this as the bidding of Aldana, goddess of destiny and luck. They shuffled us like cards!
Crosby is no trinket of the gods! On an icy cliff, with stars in perfect alignment. An impossible ritual made manifest. The God of Navigators sealed into an iceberg, to float helpless. All who did this marked with an inexorable yearning. A yearning for another night just like this one, when the stars align so perfectly, a night that will not come for seventy-seven years, a night when a trapped god might be once more unleashed.
It was a fun game. Overplayer was Miguel Zapico . Aaron Feild as The Scythian. Rob Deobald as Crosby. Richard Ruane as Arvin the Shadow. I was Gammon.
Our virtual tabletop: https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1D-TGQTVipj71BQrMimQXRct9LAWu9Qduuf7ujQX0t_E/edit?usp=sharing
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/sfery/images/6/64/The_Waking_Dream.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width/380?cb=20140131144527
Curious how much you prepped ahead of time, Miguel Zapico. The text says Swords is prep flexible, but I find it hard to have more than an opening eidilon ready, so I'm excited to hear if you had multiple items ready to go.
ReplyDeleteI didn't prepare much for this, and in fact my preparation went of the window when Gannon threw the deck away. I had the idea of a standard tarokka reading, with flashbacks for the past events and a final showdown in the future for the last card, but then the scattering of the cards sent the game flying to another direction. After that, I just pulled cards at random and decide on the most appropriate type of phase at the spot.
ReplyDeleteReally cool framing device! My mind is churning now.
ReplyDelete