Cursed Draw

Each deck. Be they true decks, trials decks, or yes even cursed decks are naught but paths to walk the halls of power. The challenges to receive this power may vary from deck to deck, but without fail they fall into one of two tracks that define the growth of the player. The track of the summoner, and the track of the enhancer.

Mysteries of the Deck Book One

Chapter 13:A Puzzling Encounter Part Two

Alabaster

Alley took his sweet time considering every card available. His own glacial pace reminded him of the challenge he had fought not so long ago, but he forced himself to focus on the issue at hand. These memories were too fresh and too painful to dwell on right now. Besides the boy doubted this opponent if there even was an opponent would be frustrated by stalling.

While there were certainly things Alley could infer from the state of the field and his own hand without more knowledge about the creature cards he held and controlled there was going to be a degree of guesswork.

The creature he already controlled

Deck- Crown Of The Cursed King

Cursed Grave Digger

Resonances: Undeath, Curse, Abomination

No Cost

Power: 900

Vitality: 2

When Cursed Grave Digger enters the Crypt from in play send the top five cards of your Library to your Crypt.

Likely had some sort of effect regarding the crypt, It had to with a name like that. The Undeath resonance surely utilized lots of crypt manipulation effects. Especially when he considered the land spell he held. Why would it do what it did if not for other effects to combine it with?

Deck- Crown Of The Cursed King

City Of The Doomed And Rotten

Resonances: Undeath, Zombie

Land Manipulation Spell-Continuous

No Cost

While this Card remains in play all Creature in both players Crypts gain the Zombie and Undeath Resonances

The gravedigger which stood a little closer to Alley than he was comfortable with already had the Undeath resonance, so did almost his entire hand. That meant the puzzle must require him to have zombies in his crypt. ‘Zombies…’ There was only one card in hand that already had the zombie resonance. Was that perhaps a clue?

Deck- Crown Of The Cursed King

Danse Macabre

Resonance: Shadow, Curse

Play only during your turn.

Destroy one friendly Creature in play. If you do another Creature you control may attack as normal the first turn it has been Manifested.

It seemed fairly obvious from the Spells

in his hand that he was supposed to sacrifice Cursed Gravedigger to let one of the creatures he didn’t already control attack this turn. So really the puzzle just boiled down to which one.

‘Endless Horde 0 Power 1 vitality Undeath-Zombie-Hunger ‘Skeletal Cavalry 1900 Power 1 Vitality Undeath-Abomination-Curse’, ‘Shade Lurker 500 Power 1 Vitality Shadow-Curse-Horror’

It seemed pretty obvious to Alley that he was supposed to pick the least intuitive option. That wasn’t good enough, not for him. A smart player did his utmost to reduce the amount of luck he needed to win.

“ Can I see my crypt?” He asked after he was done pondering the creature cards. A single finger from the gigantic skeletal hand protruded from the curtain of darkness a moment later. A small round table about the height of Alley’s knees skidded across the black tiled floor from the outer edge of the room. The little piece of furniture which appeared to be made of bone passed into the arena without issue, coming to rest in front of Alley. Atop it sat three cards that had somehow remained unmoved during the table’s passage. It was three copies of the same card, that he leaned down to inspect.

Deck- Crown Of The Cursed King

Tomb Beetle

No Cost

Power: 650

Vitality: 1

Tomb Beetle is a Swarm Card. [There is no Limit to number of copies one may hold in their Library]

Not exactly the strongest of creatures, but that didn’t matter the things were in his crypt anyway. Straightening back up he grinned at the wall of darkness. ‘Alright, I think I've got it.’

“We will start with The City of the Doomed and Rotten.” He declared with a flourish.

Once the card left his hand haphazard wooden buildings that stank strongly of decay appeared around the edges of both sides of the arena. It left Alley standing in the center of a grim little street, but more importantly, the three beetle cards on the table glowed teal for a moment before displaying two new runes each. One representing Zombie, the other Undeath.

Next, it was time for the moment of truth. Once he had manifested a monster Alley would be committed, if he had guessed wrong he would fail the puzzle.

“Endless Horde.”

At the declaration the projection of the card vanished, the monster appearing on the other side of the gravedigger. The creature was certainly undead, a rotting corpse somehow brought back to life. What surprised him was that it was just one. ‘Not very endless or hordelike.’

Deck- Crown Of The Cursed King

Endless Horde

Resonance: Undeath, Zombie, Hunger

No Cost

Power: 0

Vitality 1

While Endless Horde is in play it gains 800 Power for each Creature with the Zombie Resonance in both Crypts

He needn’t have worried. A few seconds later three extra zombies manifested one after the other around the first. With each new animated body, the power listed above the swarming monsters grew by eight hundred. He’d been right, the creature’s power was tied to the number of zombies in his crypt. There were now three Zombie creatures in it, and the Endless Horde had gained power for each one.

Keeping his face neutral as he had been taught Alley nevertheless celebrated internally.

“And one last thing before I end my creation phase. I cast….. Dance Macabray? Dansie Macarbie? Uhh, this thing.” He gestured helplessly at the image of the card.

A low rumbling laugh echoed through the challenge hall, followed by that same gravely voice he had heard before.

“Danse Macabre.” The voice corrected, tone split with mirth.

‘If you say so.’ Thought Alley looking at the strangely named card.

“I cast Danse Macabre, destroying Cursed Gravedigger and granting the effect to Endless Horde.”

The gravedigger skeleton fell to pieces and burst into teal light that flowed into Alley’s ragged cloak. From there its card appeared on the table, and the effect of The City of the Doomed and Rotten applied to it, The two extra resonance runes appearing on the gravedigger card. A moment after they did another zombie was added to the growing horde, along with another 800 power. Bringing the Zombie-horde monster’s total to 3200, more than enough to defeat the Greater Shade Hound. Alley gave a little fist pump in celebration. “ I begin my war phase.” He went on, getting a little excited knowing he had solved the puzzle. Unsurprisingly the cards he had played did not replace themselves like they would in a real challenge. It didn’t matter. “Endless Horde.” Alley paused for a second so the name of its attack could enter his mind. “Overrun!”

At the command, the glowing zombies surged forward as one to attack the Greater Shade Hound. The massive beast tried to fight back, but the group of zombies swarmed it from all directions, tearing the massive dog beast to shreds like pack sharks attacking a whale.

It exploded into light which also flowed across the arena into the cloak.

“That was pretty easy. If I had been familiar with the creature cards it would have been complete child’s play.” It probably wasn’t a good idea to antagonize the owner of the gigantic hand, but Alley really had nothing left to lose. It brought out his snarky side.

That same booming laugh echoed out from the curtain of shadow.

“You are almost an adult and only at the edge of an emboldened. I had feared there was something wrong with you.”

Emboldened, rank eleven. He was on the cusp of reaching rank eleven? Well, it was about time Alley got some good news. Though it being delivered in a mocking tone by a disembodied voice wasn’t exactly ideal.

“I have been focusing on mind and reflex over just life essence,” replied Alabaster defensively.

“You mean you are poor?” replied the gravelly voice. “Well, no shame in that I suppose.”

Alley was about to defend himself further when the room around him exploded into that same teal light.

Alley found himself exactly where he had been standing, in the doorway between the entrance hall, and the cathedral room. There was no sign of the cavernous challenge hall. ‘Except there is.’ The boy thought, looking down at the dark clothes that had appeared over the top of his own.

This castle was obviously drenched in magic. The living chains, the automated braziers, his mystic healing, and even the slow decay of the corpses were all proof of that. That did not however explain what had just happened. Entering the hall, and solving the puzzle hadn’t been anything like the visions the chains had shown him either. No, Alley was sure there was a much more mundane explanation.

Something he was wearing was a dealer, and he had not actually gone anywhere. That decrepit challenge hall had been where the dealer stored its cards. When he had thought he was waking into a new room he was really having a new reality imposed over his senses. Exactly the same as if he played a card that searches his library or if he was examining his collection. Alley had never heard of a pocket reality of that size before, but the place could only store cards and linked deck items.

Taking a few steps forward he sat down at the top of the marble stairs in the purple lit room.

If his suspicions were correct it would be fairly easy to tell. All dealers, even those of a trials deck obeyed a set of certain commands that allowed the wielder to manage their collection.

First he tried raising his left arm like he would have with the silver bracelet from ‘Aegis Of The Fisher Lord.’ Nothing happened, but that didn’t mean Alley was wrong. If he was wearing a dealer it may have some other requirement to activate his hand.

‘Okay okay let's try something a little more universal.’

For the other commands he needed to know the name of the deck in question, but that was more than a little self explanatory.

“ Crown Of The Cursed King: Full Library.”

This attempt was much more successful.

Crown Of The Cursed King

Cursed Deck

Player: Alabaster 'Alley' Roe

Dealer:[Artifact] Cloak Of The Bloodless One

Rank:12th Aspirant

Resonances: Undeath, Curse, Shadow

Library: 90 Cards