Chapter 70: Garden of The Doomed Maiden part 2: Botany
Alabaster
image [https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/4/patreon-media/p/post/119078966/2e6a45e04ee24ca591edb88adc5539c6/eyJhIjoxLCJwIjoxfQ%3D%3D/1.png?token-time=1737936000&token-hash=Y7Q7FOIodDK55nRCbT-CyRkUljzcrsER00XvRoldFfI%3D]Around the Arena portions of the city sprang into existence. A rotting shack here, a cracked and broken stone path there. It was almost like a street had been plucked by some giant and haphazardly tossed down in a vague line across the Arena.
Alley wouldn’t get to replace the Land Manipulation spell until his next turn, so he braced himself for the tree woman’s turn to come. If there was one thing Alley appreciated it was a clever strategy or a challenging opponent, and while he hoped the lady Asley wouldn’t disappoint the more pragmatic side of him would prefer it if she did. Better to survive a boring Challenge than to die here in a back-and-forth contest for the ages.
To the surprise of no one Clataire’s first move was not to summon the Shadeling Alley had sent her with his Fierce Negotiations Card. She did open her turn by Manifesting a monster though, a seemingly much more useful one.
Nothing was said aloud but once more the words or projected thoughts of the tree woman boomed in his mind. “I Manifest Unearthed Botanist”
The Creature wasn’t a Unique so its introduction wasn’t overly special. There was a burst of blue light, and a zombie dressed in the ragged clothes of a field scientist and clutching a perfectly alive purple root vegetable appeared.
The Creature didn’t have the stats to stand up to Saoirse with only 1000 Power, but it did have 2 Vitality which wasn’t bad. As always though the real question was what did the monster do? If stats that you could see were all that mattered Alley’s own Crown Of The Cursed King would be a weak piece of garbage. Instead, it was one of the most powerful Decks Alley had ever seen and that was without even understanding what most of his Monsters or Relics did.
image [https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/4/patreon-media/p/post/119078966/612a6271d29546eca1fe531e1b3136c8/eyJhIjoxLCJwIjoxfQ%3D%3D/1.png?token-time=1737936000&token-hash=qD7GRlsob54M1pifmfr-iQylruRLlfY5Q_6qlbqoVBo%3D]
[Unearthed Botanist
No Cost
Resonances: Undeath, Zombie, Bloom
Power:1000
Vitality:2
Once per turn, you may send the top Card from both Player’s libraries to their Crypts.]
“Have you ever tended a garden?” Asked the tree woman silently.
“Uhh kind of, my parents had a vegetable garden, and occasionally my sister would make me help with her flowers.”
“I’m glad, everyone should tend a garden at least once in their lives. I think many would find it a uniquely gratifying experience.”
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
“Al..right?” Offered Alley with a raised eyebrow.
“It can be challenging, and for the uninformed a garden’s success or failure can often seem like luck. It isn’t luck but that is beside the point. Even the most ill-knowledged amateur in the art of Blooming can and will eventually find success so long as they keep trying and keep adapting.”
Alley was starting to suspect not having anyone to talk to but zombies and wraiths for however many centuries may have left the woman a little pent up when it came to conversation.
“You are going to relate this back to some Cards you are playing right? This isn’t just a random mid-challenge conversation about plants, is it? Because I have got to tell you not everyone cares about botany as much as someone in your uhh condition.”
Alley actually found the woman and her part plant, part person, part undead form utterly fascinating, but he was trying to win a Challenge here, being annoying seemed like a far more winning strategy than gushing over how he wanted to sketch her and asking a bunch of questions about how this all happened.
She didn’t reply to his goading, but he could sense the annoyance emanating from the tree from across the arena.
“Suffice to say, the speed at which even the most basic of crops, properly tended can grow is often astounding. Obsession Beyond Death!”
She was activating a spell, the image of the Card appeared before Alley as the spell effects began.
image [https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/4/patreon-media/p/post/119078966/6959e1299f214127bda87bf9b261dcb7/eyJhIjoxLCJwIjoxfQ%3D%3D/1.png?token-time=1737936000&token-hash=PQl2mXallaXTZ7YPnEGLtBWAVNy7lTy4cGuwhjNFWQU%3D]
[Obsession Beyond Death
Resonances: Bloom, Undeath
Continuous Spell
No Cost
When Obsession Beyond Death is played select one Creature you control. The Creature gains the following effect. While Obsession Beyond Death remains in play each time a Card with the Bloom Resonance is sent to a crypt, this Creature gains 500 Power.]
Alley didn’t need to do any kind of mental arithmetic to figure out what this Card did, it was a spell. It said what it’s effect was right on the image that was displayed before him. It did however offer a fairly strong clue to the effect of the Unearthed Botanist. In the image itself was a version of the same botanist monster.
He needn’t have bothered, his opponent was more than happy to demonstrate the ability of her zombie and did so immediately after the image of a garden springing up around the now exuberant zombie faded.
“Go my compatriot, show this boy we don’t need fancy Unique Cards to overpower our foes, our strength only grows.” The ability of the monster activated and the top Card from both of their libraries was sent directly to the Crypt.
It was a good effect and synergized well with the spell card the tree woman had played but Alley couldn’t help but feel it had been a bit much of an intro from her for such mid-level ability.
“You’re kidding” Said Alley in disbelief as he saw what was ‘milled’ from the top of his Deck. Enchanted Grove; A continuous spell that buffed Bloom Creatures, not something he wanted to draw, but also one of literally three Cards in his entire ninety Card Cursed Deck that had Bloom Resonance.
From Astley’s Garden Of The Doomed Maiden, a Rotting Wish Fae was sent to the Crypt, prompting a surge of smug satisfaction to emanate from the tree.
“When Rotting Wish Fae is sent from my Library to my Crypt it allows me to Search for a Spell With both Bloom and Undeath Resonance.” Elaborated the tree woman.
“Oh,” Said Alley raising both eyebrows. “ That is probably not good for me.”
All the while the Obsession Beyond Death Spell effect activated, causing a pair of herbs to bloom out of the dirt floor beneath beside the Unearth Botanist. For its part the botanist Zombie excitedly plucked the herbs, one for each Card with Bloom Resonance sent to the Crypt. When it finished its gleeful harvest the zombie’s power had risen to 2000.