A backdrop of space unfurled across a white void, bringing light, gravity, and breathable air in its wake. A scene is set, but something breaks through the silence. An incessant screech comes from some unfortunate soul falling through an endless abyss of cosmic nothingness. For eternity, were they destined to fall? Certainly not. A large cube of water formed to decelerate them before they slammed back first onto a freshly generated checkered floor.
“Apologies for the sudden drop; I’ve mistimed a few critical components, leaving my world a tad underdeveloped.”
“What! Who’s there? Where am I?”
A handful of hands bloomed from a single spec of floating space debris. The stranger stepped back from the odd sight as the hands reached out to the starscape backdrop and tore a portion away. The cosmic tapestry folded itself into a flowing cloak.
“I…” The hands around the floating cloak gestured widely. “I am Handcaster — the domain master and curator of this upcoming game.”
“Are we in space!? What do you mean by upcoming game? Why are you a bunch of hands in like a trenchcoat-type deal?”
“Ten outta ten perception there, pal. You’ll need that for what I’ve got in store. As for the game, let me explain the basics to you.” All of Handcaster’s hands pointed at the hapless stranger. “The game will be played with a deck of fifty-six cards. Fifty-two of your standard playing cards, including the two Jokers and two promotional cards; however, those four cards have been swapped out with a new set of "X" cards. If you draw at least one at any point, the game is over, and you die. Your objective will be—”
“Die?!”
“Do not interrupt the rules spiel!” Many hands pointed at the player’s face, some ready to smack him. Handcaster then pantomimed a cough before returning to the prepared speech. “Your objective will be to make it through the many rooms of my realm. The layout and progression of rooms will change with each run, but you only need to complete ten. Each room has a task or challenge that will be detailed upon entry. Once completed, you will be asked to find the exit and then will be required to draw a card off the top of the deck of cards to continue to the next floor. Once the ten floors are completed, I will be waiting for you on the eleventh. Be ready for a monumental clash then and there. Now! Who are you, stranger?”
A microphone appeared in the grasp of one of the hands that approached the first contestant. “Uh… it’s uhm… I don’t remember. I don’t remember?” The stranger clutched his head.
“Remember it or not, I’m going to need something for me or the audience to refer to you,” Handcaster remarked.
“Audience?” The stranger looked around confusedly but saw no one else around them. The stranger struggled to come up with a decent-sounding moniker. “Kap…lan? Thresh…ley? Fin...bar?”
“Finbar. Final answer?”
“S-sure?” Finbar shrugged.
“Excellent! Now, to get the game started—” Handcaster clapped pairs of his hands and teleported four cards from the deck in front of Finbar. The cards expanded and turned, revealing themselves to be the aces. “—Pick an ace of any suit you’d like. They will represent your Guardian. They will explain the game's nuances, including combat and traversal, to you once within the confines of the game. The ones you don’t choose will be shuffled back into the deck, but they will lose their Guardian status for the run.”
“Uh… Spades, I guess?”
“Ah, the Ace of Spades,” Handcaster repeated. He pointed to the card, and it transformed into a young woman clad in well-maintained silver armor with burgundy accents. She touched the ground in a graceful stance that lightly shook her long blonde hair. Emblazed on her breastplate was a single black star, and a fearsome glaive rested at her side. She marched forward.
“Well met, Sir Finbar. I am Allegra, dutiful knight of Talos and destined right-hand to the future king. The Derovan Oracle prophecized your arrival, and the kingdom throne has lain empty for over three hundred years, waiting for its rightful heir. Let me escort you to your throne, oh fabled Ghost King.” She stuck her glaive into the ground and bowed to Finbar.
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“Yeah, nice to meet you too, Allegra,” he awkwardly returned the bow.
Allegra took out a knife and cut it into her palm, then rested it across her chest, letting the blood onto and down the black star. “On my honor as a Knight of Talos, I will dedicate my life to you, Ghost King Finbar.”
Health Strength Dexterity Intelligence Acuity 15/15 5 5 5 5
Inventory Ace of Spades
Two blue screens suddenly appeared, making Finbar jump back into fear. Stats? Inventory? Were those values good or bad? He wasn't sure. Allegra helped the supposed Ghost King off the ground.
"Fear not, sir. Weaker men have laid claim to the throne and captured it in the days of yore." She tried to give Finbar a reassuring smile.
“Phenomenal! Now that introductions are out of the way let the game begin!” Handcaster clapped his hands, and a massive door materialized behind him. The archway was of old stone, and the oak doors had rusted iron reinforcements. One hand hovered close to Finbar palm-side up; a deck of cards materialized and then spectacularly shuffled itself before gently landing on the hand.
Allegra raised her glaive, “My liege, let us venture forth and begin an epic that will be remembered in Talos for the next thousand years.”
Finbar kept his hands at his side, struggling to fully understand what was happening. This felt more like a strange drug-fueled hallucination; that or he’d learned to lucid dream. Either way, he wanted to wake up, but this seemed like his reality now, or at least some fucked up version of it.
“C’mon, son. We don’t have all day.”
Finbar swallowed his fear. Maybe if he played along, he’d get out faster. He reached for the deck and drew his first card. It was an “X.” Finbar’s pupils shrank as Handcaster roared with laughter. Each hand pantomimed flapping mouths, all spinning around the poor bastard.
“With a little over a seven percent chance to draw one, you did it in the first go!”
Allegra positioned herself in front of Finbar. “Don’t worry, my liege, I shall protect you. On my oath as a knight of Talos, I shall lay down my life for thee.”
Once the deck of cards disappeared from the floating hand, it snapped its fingers.
“Do your worst, puppet master. I’ve trained with Mondale and Ellesie, the leaders of the Carnelian Warlords — you are nothing before my might.”
The hand then pointed behind Allegra. Curiosity got the better of her as she turned her head slightly. Finbar had disappeared. She spun around and found only a lengthy triangular sheet of red across the checkered floor, with remnants of bones and viscera left behind. Such power. Such sorcery. The knight fell to her knees, ruining her pristine armor. She ran her fingers across the blood. How could she fail such an important task already? How could she let down her homeland and its people? She clenched her shaking fist. Allegra turned back to the assemblage of hands surrounding a cloak and readied her glaive.
A single hand caught her glaive, but she managed to slice off its pinkie finger. The glaive was knocked easily from Allegra’s grasp. A fist slammed into her armor, cracking her breastplate and knocking the wind out of her. She stumbled back.
“Listen and listen well, Guardian. An Ace alone will never beat me.” A massive hand materialized and swatted her away, sending out a shockwave that tore at the ground and even the cosmic backdrop. Allegra landed on the ground, broken portions of her armor falling around her. Handcaster snapped his fingers again, but instead of Allegra turning into a ghoulish floor painting like Finbar, she merely returned to her playing card form before completely vanishing along with the blood on the floor.
“While that was certainly a possibility I anticipated, I just wasn’t expecting it to happen so soon,” Handcaster stated. “Maybe I should fix this or at least alter the game to keep this from being a consistent problem. It may be a low probability, but the next ten people could all pull an ‘X,’ which wouldn’t be entertaining. At least, not after the fourth person.”
Handcaster wiggled his numerous digits, and a twenty-sided die with all 1’s appeared mid-air. New mechanic installed: Mementos. Upon the death of a player, an item will be generated corresponding to some facet of their being or notable action. From this point onward, every new player will start with a Guardian and a Memento.
Memento Added: Finbar's Folly Effect: Your first drawn card cannot be an X. Discard cards from the top of the deck until a non-X is revealed and draw it. Return all discarded cards to the deck and shuffle.
“Well then, I guess it's time to find a contestant number two.”