Noah nodded to her words. It made sense—she was clearly an ally, and she had Golem and Mortal as building options.
But, there was one problem. “How do I do that?”
“Maybe ask RED?” Lika asked in turn.
It suddenly occurred to Noah that he hadn’t heard his sarcastic companion since he’d been back. He checked his notifications.
Yup, slain guarding me again.
Noah pulled his deck, swiped, and then reached for RED. But his hand stopped and he stared at his card.
Recovery and Enforcement Droid Seven
Unique Rare equivalent, Tier-7 equivalent Golem Companion (Cyber, Scavenged)
0 Power
Health: 25(35)
Attack: 5(8)
Defense: 5(8)
Magical Attack: 5(8) [Fire]
Magical Defense: 3(6)
Special: Recover the Secrets: Whenever the deckbearer’s deck gains the death blow on a deckbearer that received their deck from the gods on drop night, while RED is out, the deckbearer gains a card of uncommon or rare quality that is cyber, scavenged, magitek, or of Mechos. If an overland monster drops a card, that card has a fifty percent chance to become a card of those types of the same rarity as the dropped card would have been.
Special: Cyber Urbanite: This card gets +1 to all non-Health stats for every Mortal, Golem, or Lightning building, and +10 Health and +2 to all other stats for every Mortal, Golem, or Lightning Realm, in the deckbearer’s deck.
Special: Geared: May use any equipment cards that a deckbearer could use, subject to all normal restrictions.
Special: Master Geared: May have a side deck that has up to five equipment cards. When summoned, he may immediately be equipped with one if the additional power can be paid. Any equipment he has stays out for his duration, ignoring normal time-in-play restrictions and card-in-play restrictions both.
Special: Recyclable: When this creature dies it becomes a Scrap Token.
Noah completed his movement and touched the card. RED appeared… or at least, Noah was almost positive it was RED. But instead of a droid that looked like it was assembled—poorly—from scrap, RED had a sleek deadliness to him. There were far less exposed wires or components, and most of him was painted black.
“Wow,” Noah said. “So… those upgrades, huh?”
RED’s voice was a hint less sarcastic than before when he answered. “Indeed, fleshloaf. You’ve done so well I’m almost tempted to retire that nickname voluntarily. I’m nearly twice as strong as I was, across the board. Even the Flechette gun is better. It shocks me to say this, but you did well with that last plan. Shortstack is a friend, and you’ve gotten yourself a ton of disposable labor. Quell surprise.”
“Well, the less you say about my newfound excellence—” Noah began.
“Mediocrity,” RED inserted.
“—The better. Instead, how do I add Lika as an appointed?”
Apparently, in his new upgraded form, RED’s eyes could roll, as his glowing red orbs partially rotated in their sockets. “Just will it. Like everything.”
Noah turned to glance at his short, green, club-footed companion and willed that she be able to place buildings in his Realm. A short notification appeared across his face, telling him that she had been appointed.
Noah stared up at the metal façade of his new building card. “I want to go place some cards in the museum, to increase my power, before I head toward Hope.”
RED let out an electronic scoff. “You should explore the dungeon first, before you go rescue your gravid woman. She’s most likely either dead, or in a place where she could wait an extra twelve hours. But you desperately need a more powerful deck.”
RED has a point, Noah thought. It’s been six days… and I do need to make my deck stronger. A lot stronger, based on how that last fight went. But first things first.
Noah slowly and painfully walked up the steps and touched the outside of the Museum of the Fall’s iris door. It pulled open, admitting him to a huge interior space with numerous plinths.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
A couple goblins cheered as the door opened, causing Noah to stare at them with what he knew was a bemused expression.
“They have no idea what’s going on,” Lika said with a laugh as she hobbled up after him. “Just excited.”
Noah turned back and entered the Museum. When he passed the threshold of the metal wall, he received a notification.
Museum score: 0
Compatible cards detected. Add the Scavenged Battle Bot to the Museum?
Compatible cards detected. Add the Scrap Bomb to the Museum?
Noah hesitated briefly, but then mentally confirmed both. A small grenade, surrounded by random metal junk, appeared on one plinth. A second plinth disappeared, and a full-scale model of the Scavenged Battle Bot appeared.
The overlay notification changed.
Museum Score 3: +1 Golem Power (+2 with Nexus Modification.)
“That’s a solid amount of additional power,” RED commented. “You should level as well, see what you can do.”
Noah pulled up his status sheet.
Noah Jerome Smith Status:
Level 9 Mortal [3 pips pending]
Deckbearer Perks:
Deckbearer Perk 1: Ride or Die: +2 Companion card slots and all companion cards don’t count against cards-in-play. However, once a companion is in the deckbearer’s deck, it may never be removed or replaced (it may still be evolved or upgraded).
Deckbearer Perk 2: Makeshift Mastery: +1 Golem power. Any cards with the words ‘scavenger,’ ‘scrapper,’ ‘makeshift,’ or ‘jury-rigged’ (or near derivations such as ‘scavenged’) gain +1 to all stats and generate 1 extra of any Material they generate.
Acquired Deckbearer Perk 1: Ashtae Realm Victor: +1 Realm card
Deckbearer Flaw: Urban: May not gain Nature or Plant power from any source.
Deckbearer Stats:
Cards in Deck: 15 (1 Pip)
Cards in Hand: 3
Cards in Play: 3 (1 pip)
Length of Play: 5 minutes
Type 1 and Power: 1 Mortal
Type 2 and Power: 2 Golem +2 (Museum of the Fall)
Energy 1 and Power: 2 Lightning
Total Power: 7 (3 pips)
Specialty Cards:
Companion: 2
Building: 0 +1 (Prime Realm)
Personal Perks:
Inborn Perk 1: Tough: +5 Health
Acquired Perk 1: Amateur MMA Fighter [Training]: +3 to Attack and Defense. The attack bonus does not stack with ranged or melee weapons. Only the largest bonus among all training perks applies in any situation.
Acquired Perk 2: Infantry Basic Training [Training]. +1 Attack and Defense. Only the largest training bonus among all perks applies in any situation.
Acquired Perk 3: Junkyard Mechanic: You count as a ‘scavenger’ for any card that modifies such.
Personal Stats:
Health: 4/25 (-2 to all non-health stats injury penalty)
Attack: 8
Magical Attack [None]: 0
Defense: 8
Magical Defense: 5
“That’s a lot of power,” Noah mused. “Should I move my deck away from Scrap Tokens? I can use the Goliath Scrap Bot with just my current power load.”
“It’s a decent amount of power,” RED responded. “You can move your deck elsewhere if you need, although I think that you’ll find token cards have a lot of uses—like healing and improving your other Golem cards. But your Goliath Scrap Bot is ridiculously weak. You need an improved deck in general.”
Noah nodded to his companion’s points. “So, what should I take for my level? I want some more specialty cards, but I don’t have anything I can use. Beyond that I’m not sure… more power?”
RED hesitated. “I’m also not sure. I guess I would increase your hand size. You went from ten to fifteen cards. Going from three to four pulls will make it so that you can pull your entire deck in about the same time as before.”
“Yeah, for a lot of builds, you should increase deck and hand size at about the same rate,” Lika concurred. “A few exceptions, like if you have a lot of cards to search your deck, for example. But in most cases, I agree with the homicidal golem.”
Noah nodded along with his allies again—they made sense.
He selected the option, then closed his chart. “I’m going to save the rest of the leveling pips then.”
"You do you,” RED muttered. “But you should check out the last card you got. It’ll be rare and specialized to you.”
Noah immediately perked up. “That’s right!”
He went through his deck for a moment before finding what he was looking for—his new card.
Derek Tang, Technomancer of the Storm
Unique Rare-equivalent Tier-1 equivalent Mortal/Golem (Mage, Magitek, Scavenger, Cyber, Technomancer) Creature
1 Mortal, 2 Golem Power
Health: 15
Attack: 2
Defense: 5
Magical Attack: 8[Lightning](ranged)
Magical Defense: 5
Special: Cyber Leader [1]: +1 to all non-health stats of all your Cyber subtype cards
Special: Lightning Coven [Technomancer]: Increase the Attack or Magical Attack of any direct damage Lightning card you play by the number of your Technomancers on the field.
“The merger of magic and the old tech will produce the most powerful things imaginable.”
“Huh,” Noah said, a non-word while he stared at the card. His mind was abuzz with possibilities—the card presented an entirely different route he could go with his deck, and he could add this card now without feeling he was weakening his deck, since it could hybridize with his golems.
“That… is a very strong card,” RED said, staring at it.
“Jealous?” Noah asked, lightly punching his golem companion on the shoulder.
“Hardly. You can’t remove Companion cards, lucky me,” RED said deadpan, but then did tiny jazz hands with his metallic fists. “You’re more stuck with me than a washed-up starlet with a valid pre-nup is to her producer husband.”
Noah briefly glanced at his Companion card. He was again struck by the knowledge he shouldn’t have—although he supposed even English counted in that category.
In the pause, RED asked, “What about the other cards you got? From the prince you killed?”
Noah smacked himself lightly in the cheek twice. “Right.”
He checked the cards. There were Mortal cards and Death cards, but nothing else. And no helpful—to him—Mortal ones. But he did see some stuff that might help Emily out, once she woke.
“I’ll probably give these to Emily, let her pick, then use the remainder to promote someone else to help. But there’s nothing here I could use.”
“Shame you let me die before you got the killing blow on that deckbearer,” RED said. “My recovery ability would have been hugely useful.”
Noah nodded. “Yeah, sorry. I’ll do better in the future.”
Then he yawned, an action that caused his wounds to ache. “Right, well… I need to think about this. But for now, I’m going to take a nap, try and heal a bit, and then perhaps you and I, and maybe Trevor and Emily, will do a partial run through the new dungeon. See what else we can get for my deck that would be interesting.”
"Assuming you don't die," RED commented.