Tents did not work well with the marshland of Deadman’s point, worse than simply braving the cold, hard ground.
Vicious winds scoured the tower’s clearing and fragile cloth could not contend against either tooth or claw. To remedy this, those with experience and affinity with the earth element of the Magus investiture, or a close enough permutation thereof, were given the temporary deck of [Earthblood-King] which allowed for terraforming under very specific circumstances that were somehow more restrictive than those of [Gullet-of-the-Sky-Gorger]. There was only one deck that was passed around the camp, rotating hands on the basis of spiritual strain.
The expedition would not delve into the Evergaol until they settled around it with walls to protect from the area’s natural predators. Though Scaduphomet wouldn’t waylay the tower, Her offspring most certainly would. Gehennic conjunctions didn’t manifest but beasts of all kinds, monsters in their own right, called this place home long before the caravan did. Case in point: the sky-gorger, a devolved subspecies of blue-worm, had been skulking around not too long ago.
The city of Reordranhall, like all true metropolises of the Fourth Turn, had the remnant carcass of a tower long-since-plundered at their hearts. These veritable arteries of divinity warded mass Gehennic manifestations, disregarding the errant devil-cult popping up here and there, of course. A single worm in an apple spoils the bunch often enough.
Baethen got conscripted into the building efforts, taking up the [Earthblood-King] deck in his hand once a notch. Thankfully, the deck left a slot open for [Strike-While-the-Iron-is-Hot]’s deadcard [Flawed-Steelheart] so Baethen wouldn’t have to have a right awkward talk with the Capt’n. This wasn’t a ‘true’ deck as it didn’t have three sets with which to condense into a singular Hand slot. Though considered lesser than a true deck, it still provided a cornerstone meld that could make or break a player’s Hand.
The [Imp-of-Serpents] set, though not divisible by three, was stable enough that Baethen could discard it into his Archive without much anxiety. Card links gave a set or deck stability functioning much as would actual bindings. For every rule there was an exception, the Rule-of-Three no different.
The terraforming deck, [Earthblood-King], was worth a pretty chip in and of itself; formed of nine cards total though most were only one-stars, only the meld or fusion-card proving to be made of rarer stuff, metaphysically speaking.
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({Archetype}: [Prime]) Selected; {Player}’s ({Hand}: [3//3]) {Drawn} as follows:
[Bones-of-the-Earth] ★★★ ({Six-Card-Set} - {Linked} [Earthblood-King] ★★★ - {Loaned})
[Wake-the-Stones] ★★ ({Three-Card-Set} - {Linked} [Earthblood-King] ★★★ - {Loaned})
[Strike-While-the-Iron-is-Hot] ★ ({Three-Card-Set} - {Unlinked})
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Archive:
[Imp-of-Serpents] ★★ ({Four-Card-Set} - {Unlinked})
[Gullet-of-the-Sky-Gorger] ★★★ ({Single Card} - {Unlinked})
[Leaden-Stomach] ★ ({Single Card} - {Unlinked})
[Bloodfly-Husk] ★ ({Single Card} - {Unlinked})
[Empty-Slot]
[Empty-Slot]
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The sets were a fortune to a commoner like Baethen, though he didn’t even think of absconding away with them given they were property of one Captain Haviershan Bjoren. Baethen had a preference for keeping his stones still between his legs.
Which, speaking of, Baethen currently sat cross-legged with a stiff spine, stones between his legs. Though these were actual stones not testicles, though, technically—wait, where was he?
Oh yeah, Baethen breathed in and then out and spoke a Word-of-Power.
“[Rise.]”
A single pillar of unbroken stone did as he told it, uplifting from the earth under the influence of the [Earthblood-King] deck. Just as quickly as it had come, the pillar cracked and fell to the dust. This little show was the first step of the deck which focused on pulling up fonts of earth. Baethen was familiarising himself with the card-chain that had been explained to him by the captain himself.
Across his lap lay a rod of dense titan-bone known as a [Petty-Femur-of-the-Eoten], a sceptre-and-stave hybrid crafted for this very deck and bound to it by a card-smith and a cartomancer to boot. Just as a card could be anchored through rune-brands to armour so could a card be given physical form so long as there was an appropriate vessel.
The mechanics of card-smithing and deck-building were rather complex, to say the least… given that Baethen lost himself for a moment which card he should play next.
He brought up his Tower-of-Babel within his mind’s eye, the inner archive of his soul coming alive in the ideographs of Babylon-script. The strokes of each gnostic rune were ever-changing, never-still and utterly meaningless to a mortal yet conveying a deep truth of the universe all the same.
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Set Loaned: [Wake-the-Stones] ★★
Draw: [Of-a-Kind]
Drawback: [Choke-on-Thin-Air]
Arcana: [The-Magus], [Walls], [Earth]
Number: [II//XXI]
Suit: [Triumph]
Portfolio Φ: [‘Within the heart of every hillock is a bezoar, the soul of a titan long since dead so that its children may walk above the waters, undrowning’. This {Card} grants the {Player} {Complete-Dominion} over the {Arcana-of-Walls}, allowing them to {Uplift} {Fonts-of-Earth} into the {Form} of {Walls} through {Word-of-Mouth} and {Blood-of-Vein}. Should the {Player} {Deal} the {Killing-Blow} to a {Child-of-Eot}, they {Incur} a {Brand-of-Shame}, thus {Sealing} the {Player}’s {Word-of-Mouth}.]
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[Wake-the-Stones] ★★ ({Three-Card-Set} - {Linked} [Earthblood-King] ★★★ - {Loaned})
[The-Ground-Trembles-Underfoot] ★★ ({Single-Card} - {Linked} [Shudderstone] ★)
[Petty-Rumbling-Bezoar] ★ ({Single-Card} - {Linked} [Shudderstone] ★★)
[Lesser-Sceptre-of-Earth] ★ ({Single-Card} - {Linked} [Worldshatter-Scion] ★★)
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There were far too many moving parts to the [Earthblood-King] deck.
The first part of it was the three card set [Wake-the-Stones]; [Petty-Rumbling-Bezoar] transformed a locus of earth into one of earth-blood which generated said font. Then [The-Ground-Trembles-Underfoot] allowed Baethen to loosen soil to make it easier to manipulate. Lastly, [Lesser-Sceptre-of-Earth] was a Tower investiture that was a place-holder card for bolstering arcana dominion and finishing the set as its sceptre clause required, by nature, effort and movement. The [Petty-Femur-of-the-Eoten] was unmoving in Baethen’s lap, useless as a sceptre but invaluable as a magician’s focus because of the next card set.
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Set Loaned: [Bones-of-the-Earth] ★★★
Draw: [Of-a-Kind]
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Drawback: [Still-as-Stone]
Arcana: [The-World], [Earth], [The-Cubic-Stone]
Number: [III//XXI]
Suit: [Back-Pocket]
Portfolio Φ: [‘The mountains are the spines of giants, the first children of the Twenty-One Gods.’ This {Card} grants the {Player} {Utter-Dominion} over the {Arcana-of-the-World}, allowing them {Greater-Authority} over {Fonts-of-Earth} so long as said {Fonts} are {Beneath} their {Feet} and {Contiguous}. Once this {Card} is {Brought-into-Play}, the {Player} cannot {Move} from their {Locus} either by their {Will} or that of another and cannot change {Posture} abruptly; should the previous conditions not be met, the {Player}’s {Dominion} over the {Arcana-of-World} and the {Arcana-of-Earth} is {Dispelled} until the next {Hand} is {Redrawn}.]
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[Bones-of-the-Earth] ★★★ ({Six-Card-Set} - {Linked} [Earthblood-King] ★★★ {Loaned})
[Lesser-Sovereign-of-Earth] ★ ({Single-Card} - {Linked} [Worldshatter-Scion] ★★)
[Lesser-Crown-of-the-World] ★★ ({Single-Card} - {Linked} [Worldshatter-Scion] ★★)
[Inchoate-Giants-Blood] ★ ({Single-Card} - {Linked} [Lesser-Trull-Skin] ★)
[Petty-Femur-of-the-Eoten] ★ ({Single-Card} - {Linked} [Lesser-Trull-Skin] ★)
[Lesser-Self-Petrification] ★ ({Single-Card} - {Linked} [Clouded-Gemstone-Chrysalis] ★★)
[Inferior-Become-One-with-Earth] ★★ ({Single-Card} - {Linked} [Clouded-Gemstone-Chrysalis] ★★)
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Unlike the last set, this one had linked cards. Just as you could bind together cards to form a set, you could link them within a set—melds like [Parlour-Tricks] and [Forge-Maw] as prime examples thereof. These were, generally, holdovers from previous sets subsumed into the whole. Were Baethen to spontaneously merge [Imp-of-Serpents] with [Strike-While-the-Iron-is-Hot] into a single set without forming a proper deck, the two antecedent melds would disappear and be replaced with card links as with the case of [Bones-of-the-Earth] myriad melds.
The problem with card links was that they could only be played so long as their two constituent cards were also put into play. To invoke the card link [Clouded-Gemstone-Chrysalis], Baethen had to also do the same to [Inferior-Become-One-with-Earth] and [Lesser-Self-Petrification].
The card names were self-evident. They turned the player into stone to boost their dominion over earth-related arcana. The first merged the body with a compatible earth loci while the second petrified the superficial layer of one’s skin. The card link of [Clouded-Gemstone-Chrysalis] crystalised the heart into a clouded ruby, allowing it to channel earth-blood directly rather than through [Petty-Rumbling-Bezoar] as an intermediary. Though, using both was best.
[Inchoate-Giants-Blood] imbued the body directly with a font of earth-blood and was useless by itself were it not for [Petty-Rumbling-Bezoar] though they weren’t linked. That honour went to [Petty-Femur-of-the-Eoten] to produce the meld [Lesser-Trull-Skin] which protected against wind, cold, and the elements in general. Without it, the deck would suffer greatly as it required long periods of exposure that would otherwise harm the player.
Lastly, [Lesser-Sovereign-of-Earth] and [Lesser-Crown-of-the-World] were the capstones of the deck and allowed it to function without requiring movement or physical effort from the player. Their meld, [Worldshatter-Scion], was of the one-at-dice suite and could essentially strike a clause from a given card under the same set.
Now, you might be thinking: ‘wait a thrice-damned lick, [Bones-of-the-Earth] and [Wake-the-Stones] are two different sets!’ And they are but, as we’ve already established beforehand, cards can be linked. And so can sets.
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Deck Loaned: [Earthblood-King] ★★★
Draw: [Of-a-Kind]
Drawback: [Mountains-Fear-the-Seas]
Arcana: [The-World], [Earth], [The-Emperor]
Number: [III//XXI]
Suit: [Triumph]
Portfolio Φ: [‘After the titans came the lesser giants, first the eoten which feared water, then the trullkin whose bane was fire, second before last were the dwarves which from the sky ran and lastly the betrayer leviathans that within the oceans swam’. This {Deck} grants the {Player} with {Utter-Dominion} over the {Arcana-of-the-Emperor}, allowing them to {Embody} the {Essence} of the {Children-of-Eot} so long as a {Card} of the {Deck} is in {Play}. Should the {Player} come in {Touch} with {Bodies-of-Water}, they will begin to {Dissolve} like {Salt-Thrown-into-the-Sea}.]
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A deck can be formed under two conditions and two conditions only: it must either have eight cards and two sets minimum or it must have three sets and six cards minimum. The former was the only way to trump the Rule-of-Three without incurring a rivening. Neither of these conditions guaranteed the formation of a true deck.
[Earthblood-King] was a false or half-step deck formed of only two sets and thus taking up two slots within the hand. Though seemingly worse in all aspects, most players tended to manifest halfborn decks such as these given the price of cards—tokens that could be better spent on drink, tail, food, lodgings and the like for your average commoner.
Once more, Baethen spoke, this time calling upon the capstone namesake of the deck and bringing it into play. His skin became a hide of impervious stone as a crown of topographical horns grew from his skull. His eyes were the lambent red of magma and his lips were sealed together. His bones and veins meshed with the ground beneath him, becoming one with the earth and drawing from it so that he’d a mountain be.
To speak was a gargantuan effort now for the earth only spoke when it shuddered and when it rumbled. But when next Baethen spoke a Word, the very world trembled.
“[Rise.]”
And the slumbering bones of the giants felled so that this piece of land was risen from the sea, answered, long fingers grasping upwards to become walls twice as tall and twice as wide as Baethen himself.
When Baethen discarded the cards brought into play, he heaved a breathless breath, his lungs burning something fierce and his chest aching as if his heart weighed the same as a millstone. Temporary decks such as these were dangerous for they were not made by the player, not harmonised to the song of the soul and so discordant within one’s fragment of Babylon.
Only after letting go of the deck did Baethen realise: a whole day had passed for mountains kept time at the scale of aeons.
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Baethen gave the loaned deck [Earthblood-King] to the schmuck on next watch and retreated to the earth-shod abode he shared with Miro. He did not like the way that the others had begun to treat him once his relationship was found out. They bemoaned that he was getting special treatment as Miro’s lover.
They were only right in so far as it mattered past the house’s threshold. Outside, the rations and rules and work held sway.
Baethen caught Miro by the central fire-pit, journaling. Past a certain point, deck-building became an inner journey of self-discovery. It required stunds upon stunds of introspection and reflection, meditating both on the nature of one’s cards and their place in the world. The arcana were so named for they were arcane—hidden and waiting to be found.
With a pat on the shoulder, Baethen sat down next to Miro.
“Ye stink. Take a bath or I’ll throw ye out to the wilds, ye strangely-handsome woodwose.”
“Har-har. You slept with me for a whole round without either of us having access to regular baths. You’ll survive another stund for me to recover from today.”
Miro grumbled, sighed, bound his journal in its leather and then laid next to Baethen on the carpet before the fire-pit.
“How’s ye progress with your set fusion?” He asked with the nasally-voice of someone pinching their nose.
“Terrible. Feels like I’m running in circles. Maybe you were right. [Mercurial-Inksmith] really doesn’t like to play nice with the other cards.”
“Ye must be the blackest of melancholies to acknowledge the greatness of me never-ending wisdom.” The veteran adventurer had taken to Baethen’s particular blend of sardonic-melodramatic humour right quick.
Still looking up at the loft, Baethen grasped towards Miro and smacked him playfully on the belly before laying down his hand and caressing his well-muscled gut.
“Shush, you.”
A moment of quiet later and Miro said: “Know just what’ll help get yer spirits up.”
Just as Miro untied Baethen’s breeches and got them around his ankles, he winced and covered his nose.
“Sorry but I ain’t sucking ye off until ye wash. That hide o’ yers smells worse than a trull.”
“I smell exactly like a trull.”
“Earthblood?”
“Earthblood.”
Miro got up and drew Baethen a bath which meant lugging buckets from the well to the trough they had at the back of the house. Roughshod as the burgeoning settlement of Deadman’s-Point was, the water was cold as the Devil’s-Tits; the mountain on the west side of the Isle-of-Woeden that rose from the sea and had drowned many a sailor against its rocky shores.
When next Miro returned, Baethen thanked him and went to wash away the day.