Cursed Draw

Chapter 12: A Puzzling Encounter Part One

Alabaster

Alley spun about, his hook practically leaping into his hand. Nothing had changed and no one was there.

“Of course there's nothing. Why would things start making sense now?” He muttered. The words had been as clear as day, as clear as his sight now was in the darkness. ‘Crown Of The Cursed King.’ It had the ring of a deck title about it. If it was the name of the cards he had found, all he would need to do was repeat the words and he would gain access to the deck. But what if he was wrong? What if it was some magical activation command? With how things had been going it could do anything. It had to be one of those or at least something like that. Alley was quite sure he hadn’t been down here long enough to go mad.

On the other hand, did it really matter? His family was dead, and his home and village were destroyed. With so little left to lose he decided it was worth trusting his gut.

“Crown Of The Cursed King,” Alabaster said aloud with all the confidence he could muster. Nothing happened. He glanced around the cathedral room once more and waited. A minute later and still nothing had happened. The newly minted orphan had expected a little more than that. This castle had activated all manner of magic just from his presence. Saying the words the place had seemingly provided him with, only to get no result was rather disheartening.

“Fine!” he called out to the building around him. “ Good. I should just climb out of here anyway.” Once more the castle did not respond. ‘Wishful thinking’ He chided himself. ‘This place has already miraculously healed my wounds. I was being ridiculous. Thinking I had randomly stumbled onto some ancient deck or sinister magic. How lucky do you think you are?’

He turned once more to enter the marble staircase room. It was gone. In its place was what looked like an empty ballroom, but with natural cave walls, and a ceiling of stalactites. The doorway was gone, the cavernous room more like an extension of the cathedral than a separate part of the structure.

Nothing lit the strange room, yet once again Alley found his sight unimpeded. The center of this strange hall was empty, noticeably so. Especially as the area near the walls was crowded with tables and chairs of countless styles, sizes, and construction materials. Some were broken, most were simply dust-covered.

The far end of the enormous hall was covered in darkness his newfound vision couldn’t penetrate. Alley wasn’t sure if the shadows he could see were simply out of range of the strange dark vision he had awakened with. Or if the darkness was simply so deep no vision, magically enhanced or otherwise could penetrate it. Considering the implications Alley hoped for the former.

Seeing no other choice he cautiously advanced into the cavernous room. The hard soles of his newly acquired but perfectly fitting leather boots echoed as they slapped against the glossy black tiling of the floor. It reminded him of the marble in the room that was supposed to be here, feeling and sounding much the same to walk on.

He was nearing the halfway point of the ballroom when a series of lines in the shape of a challenge arena lit up along the floor around him. As with any arena, the lines of energy quickly rose to form ethereal barricades separating the two halves of the arena, and blocking one’s ability to leave it,

As everything in this castle seemed to either glow teal or purple the flowing energy was not the pure blue of a normal challenge arena. It was teal.

Alley didn’t say anything, didn’t spin around, and try to escape. He simply let a long nasal exhale of frustration and waited to see what new insanity this place had in store for him.

The casual reaction was only partially contrived. He had always been taught to stay relaxed when competing or in danger. You reacted faster when you weren’t tensed up, your stamina also lasted longer. Alley had been too overwhelmed to heed the advice up until now. By this point, however, he was genuinely beginning to grow numb to all of this. It had probably been less than an hour ago that he had been fighting a challenge against the most powerful being he had ever seen, now he was trapped in a secret underground castle that seemed to change at will and had apparently fallen from the sky without suffering any damage. The boy was simply running out of surprise to feel.

It wasn’t a long wait. No sooner had the Arena completed itself than the darkness at the end room began to roil and shift before a huge portion of it coalesced into a single figure several times the height of a man.

The figure lacked features or detail, but only briefly. Alley watched as it quickly resolved into a massive demonic dog monster. Its fur was fine enough to seem invisible, its skin a glossy black over horrifically defined muscles. Strangest of all the beast had a second jaw hanging open beneath its first.

Once it had fully formed it simply stood there, blasts of hot breath visibly puffing out of each mouth as its huge chest pumped air. Taking a step back to get a better view, Alley lifted his gaze above the dog-thing’s monstrous head. As expected it was a manifested card.

Deck- Crown Of The Cursed King

Greater Shade Hound

Resonances: Shadow, Pursuit, Wolfkin

Cost: 2 Vials

Power: 2700

Vitality: 1

If Greater Shade Hound defeats an enemy Creature it inflicts 2 Vitality damage.

Twenty-seven hundred power. Reasonably strong card, though it impressed him a lot less than it would have this morning. The runes representing the monster’s resonances took him a few seconds to recognize. “Pursuit.” That one he knew well, Darius’ Prince Of The Dawn Hunt was entirely Pursuit cards. “Wolfkin, and…..Void? No, Shadow.”

He was beginning to wonder if he should inspect the strange greenish arena barrier for a way out when another creature manifested, this one on Alley’s side of the area.

It was the skeleton of a short human, dressed in rags and holding a shovel.

Nine hundred power was hardly impressive, but the two vitality was alright. As always he couldn’t see the effect of the monster, but he was hopeful that it had one. Otherwise, the card was kind of just bad. If anything the resonance runes were even less familiar, but it was still a written language Alley understood and could figure out.

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.

‘Undeath, Curse, Abomination.’ He had never even heard of a card with any of these resonances. He wasn’t really sure how one killed an undead creature in the first place, but apparently, it could be done. The proof was standing right next to him.

“Alright,” Alley called to the still roiling darkness. “ Do I get a hand too?”

From the impenetrable mass of a shadow, a skeletal arm large enough to crush the Shade hound’s skull emerged. The huge appendage made an almost casual wave in Alley’s direction, before vanishing back into the darkness.

A few seconds later five cards appeared before the dark-haired boy. This was not a true challenge, that much was clear from the manifested monsters on either side of the field. Was he being forced to take part in some sort of puzzle or test? His mother had set him challenges like this. Usually, the goal was to defeat the creature on the opposing side of the field within one turn.

If this was a puzzle it was one in which he was severely lacking information. What cards were in his library to draw? Did he even have a library to draw from? Until he started playing cards there was no way to know. But if this was a puzzle he could hardly just start playing things, his hand would be what it was for a reason.

‘Okay, So what do I know?’ It seemed fairly clear that he was supposed to find a way to defeat the Shade Hound. Beyond that, not much. There were three creatures in his hand, none with anywhere near 2700 power.

‘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’

They likely had some sort of effect each, but he would need to trigger them to know for sure what they were. That wasn’t the case for the two spell cards he held. Like all spells these cards went into explicit detail. If this was anything like the card puzzles his mother had set him when he was little he might be able to figure out the rough abilities of his monsters, and perhaps even the solution to the puzzle itself from the context the spells provided.

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

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.

He pondered the two spells carefully. One a land manipulation spell like The Land of Rivers in Alley’s lost Aegis Of The Fisher Lord deck. But this one altered the resonances of already destroyed monsters. At first glance it seemed a fairly useless card, but with the right cards. to combo it, Alley was sure ‘The City of The Doomed and Rotten’ as it was called could be extremely powerful.

The second Spell ‘Danse Macabre’ was a lot more obviously useful. It allowed him to sacrifice a creature he had in play to let a creature he had just manifested attack. Situational, but potentially extremely powerful. It did not however help him overcome the 2700 power of the massive monster standing on the other side of the arena.

“Do I get some time to think?” Alabaster asked, eyes searching the shifting shadows for some response. After about a minute of the darkness not replying and the arm not re-emerging, he concluded if there had been a time limit something negative would have happened by now.

“Just so you know, I’m taking that as a yes.”