jdnd/sections/1-introduction.md

Introduction

Backstory

This campaign tells a new story about the Deck of Many Things. The following information is for the DM only!

In this universe, the deck is an enigmatic artifact that appears once every couple of hundred years. It shows up somewhere in the multiverse, it dispenses chaos, and then it vanishes again before anyone has a chance to make sense of it. The stories that have been written about it have been passed down for generations, and they have been distorted in the telling. Because of this distortion, many of the things you have read about the deck turn out not to be true.

Recently, a man named Green came into possession of a deck. Knowing the hazards, Green decided not to draw cards himself. Instead, he advertised for other people who want to draw cards. He allows anyone to draw cards, with the following stipulation: if they draw three wishes, they are expected to make one wish on Green’s behalf. If they draw gems, Green gets a cut.

Green’s scheme has turned out to be very profitable: Green gets an endless stream of wishes and gems, and he pawns off the risks on others. Green is using his wishes to make himself smarter, stronger, and more magically talented. So far, he doesn’t seem to have any intention of stopping.

Green is greedy, but he’s not entirely evil: he truthfully warns his applicants of the danger, and he advises them that drawing cards is too big of a risk. Most people listen to that advice: Green pays them a token sum for their time, and sends them on their way. But even though most leave without drawing, there are a lot of desperate people in the multiverse. Green has been able to find hundreds of applicants to take him up on the offer.

The news of Green’s activities has spread. Historians are worried. In the past, a Deck would show up, a few people would draw cards, and a day or two later, the Deck would disappear again. But this time, hundreds of people have drawn cards, and the Deck is not going away. It has flooded the local economy with a glut of gems. It has created a mountain of magic items. It has granted enough wishes to seriously warp the fabric of reality. How is it possible that one small magic item can wield such power? Why is the Deck not vanishing after a few uses, like it did in the past?

Tymora, the goddess of Good Luck, has been watching this all unfold with consternation. The Deck is obviously a luck-based magic item: it gives out blessings and curses at random. But Tymora did not create the Deck, and she’s sure that Beshaba, her sister goddess of Bad Luck, didn’t create the Deck either. But that’s a problem. The deck is too powerful to have been created by a mortal. But if it was created by a god, then that means that somewhere out there, there might be a god of Luck who is more powerful than Tymora. That possibility has Tymora genuinely frightened that her place in the cosmos is not secure.

Hundreds of desperate travelers are crossing the multiverse, arriving at Green’s castle hoping for a chance to turn their lives around. A handful of them will draw the card Donjon, which casts the victim into an inescapable prison. When a group of these victims find themselves imprisoned together, their quest to escape the Donjon will take them on a path that crosses the multiverse. They will try to help the people whose lives have been impacted by the deck. They may take sides with one of the powers who are fighting over the deck, they may seek to broker a peace. They will challenge Green himself. Finally, they will claim possession of the Deck, and when they do, they will learn why it exists, who created it, and what purpose it serves.

Who Will Enjoy this Campaign

In order to play this campaign successfully, you will need three things:

• You need players who are willing to accept help from NPCs. The

  players will need lots of help. There are many situations where NPCs have special skills without which the PCs have no hope of success. The PCs will absolutely, positively need to build friendly relationships with as many good-aligned NPCs as they can. If they don’t, the PCs will not have the resources they need and will get completely stuck.

• You need players who care about NPCs and their happiness. There

  are lots of NPCs in this campaign who are struggling, suffering, or in danger. You need a group of players who are motivated to protect the NPCs they care about. If your players don’t care about helping NPCs, they will just walk away from most of the quests in this campaign, uninterested.

• You need players who like asking questions. This campaign is

  jam-packed full of mysterious magical artifacts to investigate, strange beings with mysterious motives, and places with inexplicable phenomena. Letting players explore these mysteries is half the fun of this campaign. If the players aren’t interested in solving mysteries, this will all fall flat.

As for combat: there are plenty of foes to fight in this campaign. But, there are likely to be many sessions with no combat at all. If the players want to be engaged in a lot of combat, then this probably isn’t the right module for your group.

The Key Players and their Motives

This campaign revolves around the aspirations of three gods: Omta (the god of the Deck), Tymora, and Beshaba. It also revolves around the actions of two mortals: Rennick, and Green. To run the campaign well, you need to know who these NPCs are, and what their core motives are. Do not reveal any of this to your players! This campaign is in large part a mystery, and all of this must unfold gradually as the players reveal clues. But you, the DM, need to know what’s really happening.

Omta, Inventor of Randomness

Omta is an ancient deity who witnessed the creation of the multiverse. In the beginning, the universe obeyed strict rules, and was 100% predictable. In Omta’s eyes, that made it a little boring. Omta decided that what the universe needed was a little unpredictability to spice it up. So Omta invented the concept of randomness, which is deeply tied to the concept of unpredictability: a random event is an event whose outcome can’t be predicted.

However, Omta knew that the creator god was very possessive and territorial, and that the creator wouldn't want anyone messing with his creation. Omta was tiny compared to the creator, and he knew that the creator could and would crush him like a bug. But Omta felt compelled by his own ideology: he snuck into the multiverse under cover of darkness, planted the tiniest seed of randomness that he could plant, and then fled the scene of the crime. He snuck away to the farthest reaches of the cosmos and hid, hoping that nobody saw him. Long story short, he got away with it. Eventually, he relaxed in his faraway corner, and fell asleep. He has been sleeping in the far reaches of the cosmos ever since.

In his sleep, he unconsciously monitors the multiverse, making sure that randomness is not removed from the multiverse. Whenever he senses a threat, whenever somebody introduces too much predictability, Omta sends his avatar, the Deck of Many Things, to reintroduce as much randomness as possible. That is important: the Deck is not an “artifact” in the usual sense of the word. It is the avatar of a god. That is how it can wield so much power.

Protecting randomness is Omta’s one and only passion. However, because Omta is asleep, his actions are often more instinctual than logical. His response to any threat to randomness is to just add more randomness, using the Deck, but that doesn’t always solve the problem.

When Omta planted the first seed of randomness, he was a tiny, fragile god. He could have been trivially snuffed out by the immense powers that ruled in those days. But randomness spread in the universe, and now almost everything in the multiverse is governed by rolls of the dice. As his idea grew, so did his power. Omta does not know it, but he is now a greater god. Yet he still sees himself as tiny and fragile. He is scared of his own shadow, when he doesn’t need to be.

Tymora, Goddess of Good Luck

Tymora is the goddess of good luck, a kind and generous soul who wants good things to happen to people, and who uses luck magic to ensure that they do.

She is also a very young goddess, and she is not entirely confident of her place in the universe. She perceives the Deck of Many Things as a threat: she thinks that it is an immensely powerful artifact, and that therefore, it must have been created by an immensely powerful god. She is convinced that this other god, whoever he is, is angling to be the new god of luck. Otherwise, why would he be parading around the most powerful luck-based artifact in the universe, apparently showing off the immensity of his power?

She’s not wrong that the threat is real: people really are saying that whoever created the deck is a more impressive luck-god than Tymora. She really is losing respect. That’s lethal for a god.

Tymora doesn’t want to fight. She’s not an violent deity. But she can’t let some other god steal the title of god of luck, leaving Tymora as second best. A goddess has to protect her portfolio, or she dies.

Beshaba, Goddess of Bad Luck

Beshaba is the sister of Tymora. Everybody loves Tymora. Everybody wants to worship Tymora. Tymora is loved, good, and everybody is her friend. Beshaba absolutely despises Tymora. Beshaba’s only real emotions are despair, envy, bitterness, and spite. She lives for one thing, and one thing alone: to hurt Tymora.

Beshaba doesn’t even care about worshippers. Yes, she knows logically that she has to maintain some level of worship, so she does - she threatens people that if they don’t occasionally say a prayer for her, she will cause bad things to happen. Her worship is a giant protection racket. Half her priestesses are slaves, forced to serve under threat of eternal bad luck, and half are crazy. So yes, she maintains a following. But her heart isn’t really in it, because who cares about those idiot mortals anyway? The only thing that matters is hurting Tymora.

Unlike her sister, Beshaba doesn’t see the deck’s creator as a threat. Beshaba is entirely used to living in the shadow of Tymora, a goddess who is more respected than Beshaba, more loved than Beshaba. What difference does it make if she is overshadowed by some other god instead? In fact, so much the better if it’s some other god. At least the new god won’t be the smug self-satisfied little worm that Tymora is.

As for the deck - that could be useful bait. If Beshaba can draw Tymora into her realm in the Abyss, where Beshaba is at her strongest, maybe she can finally kill Tymora after all.

Rennick, Theoretical Fortunologist

Rennick is a member of Sigil’s Fraternity of Order. His day job is as a casino regulator: he visits casinos and makes sure the games work as advertised, no cheating. If the games are fair, the Fraternity of Order will sell the casino a certificate of fair play. If Rennick can’t confirm that the games are honest, or if the casino can’t afford a certificate, then the casino can still operate - it’s a free city - but no certificate. Establishing that the games are fair requires Rennick to have a deep knowledge of probability and statistics.

But regulating casinos is just his day job. His real passion, like most members of the Fraternity, is understanding the laws that govern the universe. Specifically, Rennick is interested in how randomness works. He’s been at it for forty years, and he’s had a breakthrough - he has gained the ability to predict the outcome of random events. Roll a dice, and he can tell you before the dice stops what it’s going to land on.

Omta knows about this breakthrough, and he feels that his entire concept of randomness is being destroyed: a random event is an event whose outcome can’t be predicted. If Rennick can predict random events, then they’re not unpredictable, are they? Which means they’re not really random any more.

Rennick isn’t happy either. When he was working on his method, he was in the mindset of a scientist: pursuit of knowledge for the sake of knowledge. But now that he’s figured it out, he regrets it. He feels as if he’s unintentionally invented a weapon of mass destruction, and that it’s only a matter of time until some bad actor learns his technique and uses it for evil ends. Worse yet, he imagines a future in which his technique is common knowledge, and everyone can predict random events. In such a future, everything is predictable - and that would be an incredibly boring universe.

The day he made his breakthrough, Rennick found a small box on his nightstand. It contained cards. He held onto the deck for several months, studying it. The deck never vanished, because it had not achieved its objective: to eliminate the threat to randomness. But Rennick never drew cards. Instead, he studied the deck, and he came to understand who Omta is. He also figured out that Omta is asleep, in a corner of the universe, reacting to events in his sleep.

Rennick believes that if he could just talk to Omta, then he could show Omta how to fix the problem with the universe and make random events truly, completely unpredictable.

But if he wants to talk to Omta, Rennick will have to wake Omta up. But as it turns out, waking Omta up is extremely difficult. Rennick has been trying for some time, and has not succeeded. Rennick has gotten progressively more and more aggressive about trying to agitate Omta, in the hope that if he provokes Omta enough, that will wake him up. Of course, deliberately agitating a god is a dangerous move for a mortal, but Rennick feels as if the fate of the multiverse depends on it, so he’s willing to take the risk.

Rennick’s first attempt to prod Omta out of his sleep was to deliberately misuse the deck. Rennick knows the purpose of the deck is to make the universe less predictable. Rennick hoped that if he could use the deck to create a predictable income stream, that would go against everything the deck stands for, and that would force Omta to wake up to deal with the situation.

Green, Exploiter of the Deck

Green was an entrepreneur running a casino in Sigil, who naturally has had dealings with Rennick, the casino regulator.

One day, Rennick came to Green and offered to just give him a Deck of Many Things. The only thing Rennick asked in return was that Green follow instructions: “Just have other people draw cards. Never draw cards yourself. Take a cut of the gems, and let other people deal with the good and bad things that happen.” That sounded like pure profit to Green, and it fit with his casino-owner mentality, so he accepted.

Green came up with the idea of not just taking a cut of the gems, but also when somebody received three wishes. But that put him in an interesting position - he now had a supply of wishes. So what should he wish for? At first, he wished for the obvious stuff: money, intelligence, health, long life. But he still had an unlimited supply.

He eventually figured out what he really wants: to be a dragon, a big one. He understands that one wish isn’t enough. It will take many.

Character Creation

This is a campaign for newly-created characters of Level 2, and they will probably rise to level 8 or so during the campaign. The campaign is set in the Planescape campaign setting.

The adventure begins in a medium-sized town in the Outlands called Saint Parnas, about 1 day travel spireward of tradegate. The party members do not know each other yet. All of the PCs will see a job posting:

JOB OFFER - EXTREME PAY - EXTREME RISK

One day only, 5000 gp pay minimum. Very substantial risk of death.

Only apply if you're willing to risk it all for the chance at a new life. Apply at Castle Green.

If the PC doesn’t accept the job offer, then they aren’t part of the campaign. You should show this job posting the players before they create characters. Give them these instructions:

Please design a character who absolutely will take this job offer. Your character should have a backstory reason why they’re willing to take an extreme risk. Perhaps they’re in a desperate situation, perhaps their faith assures them they’re be fine, perhaps they’re just extreme gamblers. Regardless, they must take the job offer in order to be part of the campaign.

The players should not be allowed to create flying characters: doing so would bypass some fun quests. It is okay if they learn the fly spell when they get higher level, but they shouldn’t start with that ability.

The Players Draw Cards

In this introductory chapter, the PCs haven’t met each other yet. You should pick a single PC, and roleplay this initial chapter solo while the other players watch. It won’t take long.

The DM must set up some kind of situation where the PC encounters the job posting. The situation could be as simple as “you are walking down the street and you see a sign on a lamppost,” but feel free to improvise something that makes sense for your character’s backstory. The job posting is:

JOB OFFER - EXTREME PAY - EXTREME RISK

One day only, 5000 gp pay minimum. Very substantial risk of death.

Only apply if you're willing to risk it all for the chance at a new life. Apply at Castle Green.

At the castle, the PC discovers a line of people waiting. Apparently, 5000 gp is enough to attract a lot of job applicants, even given the risk of death. The people are mostly not from in-town: they have come from all over for the opportunity. They are an eclectic mix of races.

The PC notices a bunch of hastily-erected booths, with signs that say “Pawn Shop.” The booths are manned by traders from Sigil’s Bazaar, Tradegate, and other places. The reason for the pawn shops is that sometimes, the Deck conjures a magic item. Many people emerge from Green’s castle with magic items they don’t need, they’d rather have money. Hence, an economic opportunity for a pawn shop.

The PC will get in line with the other job applicants, and eventually be led inside to Green’s “office” - a large, very sturdy stone room, with absolutely nothing in the middle, and a desk in one corner with Green seated at it. There are four bodyguards in the room, resting calmly behind blast shields around the periphery of the room. There are scorch marks on the floor and on the blast shields.

The player takes a seat facing Green at his desk. In front of Green is a decorated hardwood box which contains the Deck. On the cover of the box is a logo: a pair of dice in front of a sunburst. Green also has a scale, some small empty cloth bags, and a brush and a dustpan. If the player asks about any of that stuff, Green says, “It will all become clear.”

Green then explains the job: to activate a magic item called a Deck of Many Things. He explains that it’s a magic item that grants a random combination of blessings and curses. At this point, Green then specifically explains his terms and conditions:

If you receive three wishes, you must use one wish for my benefit, as I instruct you. You can use the other two as you wish. If you receive gems, I will take 25% by weight without sorting the gems. If you get any other boon or blessing, such as a magic item, or a castle, or a skill improvement, then it’s entirely yours, I don’t get a cut. If you get no material wealth, I’ll give you 5000 gp out of my own pocket. If you get a bad card - and you probably will get at least one - then I probably won’t be able to help you. If you die, are banished, or are incapacitated, I’ll make sure your possessions get delivered to your next-of-kin.

The PC may ask Green any questions he wants. Green will answer most questions willingly, but he keeps a few things a secret, like where he got the Deck, and he also won’t tell about what he’s using his wishes for. Most anything else, he’s open about. If they ask about the scorch marks on the floor, and the blast shields, Green explains that sometimes, the device summons a monster, and the bodyguards have occasionally had to use fire spells.

Then, Green makes a short speech about how the PC should probably not activate the device. Green has a code of ethics that dictates that he provide fair warning about the risks. He wants his profit-making scheme to continue, but he feels it’s unfair unless the people drawing cards know what they’re getting into. So he is clear about possible risks: mainly, banishment to far-away places, being attacked by monsters, or losing strength or intelligence.

You already told the players at character creation time that they must take Green up on his job offer. If they seem to hesitate now, remind them that if they walk out, then their PC is not part of the campaign.

During all of this, it is very important that you convey the fact that Green is morally grey:

• There’s no question that what he’s doing is exploitative. Many of

  the people who draw cards end up suffering. It is also true that many of the people who draw cards are doing so out of desperation. At some level, Green knows this scheme is not entirely ethical, but his greed overrides his qualms.

• He has a code of ethics that requires that he provide transparent

  disclosure about the risks. He feels that people must choose to draw cards of their own informed consent. He is strict about this.

• Green is diligent about adhering to the terms of any deals he makes.

  For example, if he promises you 5000 gp, and you aren’t physically able to collect the money (say, because you’ve been banished to a donjon), Green won’t just keep the money. Instead, he’ll have it delivered to your next-of-kin. Green will take great lengths to honor his contracts.

Given all that, Green is neither pure good nor pure evil. He is selfish, but he’s not “the Big Bad Evil Guy.” The reason you must convey this to the PCs is that later in the campaign, the PCs will have to appeal to Green’s conscience about certain things. They need to know that negotiating with him is not hopeless - Green does not want the world to burn.

If the PCs confront Green about the exploitativeness of his business venture, Green will openly confess that he has some qualms. He makes the usual libertarian argument that the people who draw cards are choosing to do so, and that Green is not forcing them, and therefore, it must make sense for them given their life situation. In the end, he says, “I know it’s a gray area, but I’ve decided to continue for now.”

When the player is ready, Green gives instructions: take the entire deck out of the box, and walk to the center of the room. Then, toss the entire deck into the air.

The “cards” are ivory tablets, which are completely blank on both sides. When the PC tosses them into the air, they form a ring hovering in the air, spinning around each other. Green tells the PC to touch three of the cards. When the PC touches a card, that card rises above the rest of the ring. After choosing three cards, the unchosen tablets zip back into the wooden box. The three chosen tablets remain hovering in the air, spinning.

The physical description of this deck is different from what you may have read in the DMG. The reason we gave the Deck a strange appearance is to effectively put the players on notice: anything you think you know about the Deck might be wrong.

The next thing that happens is that one of the cards flies forward, and presents itself to the player. An image appears on its surface, and the PC immediately knows what that image means.

At this point, the DM must pull out a small deck of eight good cards. The cards are all beneficial, and they are pre-chosen so as to not unbalance the game. The good cards are listed in the upcoming chapter, Cards of the Deck.

The DM must spread the good cards out in front of the player, face down. The player should pick three at random. The DM should show the 3 selected cards to the player, and then let the player choose the one he likes best.

The card takes effect. The Deck is patient: it waits for the player to finish dealing with the first card. If it’s gems, for example, the gems will go all over the floor. Green will offer the brush, the dustpan, and a small cloth sack to the PC. There is plenty of time to collect and weigh the gems, and give Green his cut, before the next card takes effect.

When the first card is completely done, the second card flies forward. This time, the DM will pull out a small deck of eight bad cards. The cards are all negative, but they are pre-chosen so as to not wreck the player’s character. Again, you will find the bad cards in the upcoming chapter, Cards of the Deck. The player will choose three at random. Then, the player will look at the three, and choose the one he hates the least.

If the bad card is the one that summons the avatar of death, Green asks the player to fight. But if the player starts losing, Green will have one of his bodyguards intervene. This will cause another avatar of death to appear. The bodyguard is more than up to the task of killing two avatars of death. The player gets off scott-free.

After the second card is fully done, the third flies forward. This time, the card says Donjon. The PC instinctively knows what it means: they will be cast into a prison, a dungeon from which there is no escape. Everything fades to black.

Many of the cards that the players will draw are cards that are described in the DM guide. But some of them are brand-new. This is a second clue that anything the players think they know about the Deck might be wrong.

You must now roleplay the same thing with the other players, one at a time. This time, hurry things along. Skip the exterior of the castle, and fast-forward to the part where they’re at Green’s desk. Skip the speeches. Let them ask Green anything they want, and then let them draw cards. Each PC gets one good card, then one bad card, and then Donjon.

Cards of the Deck

This section lists cards that can be drawn from this particular Deck of Many Things. The cards are divided into three groups: Good Cards, Bad Cards, and Story Cards.

The Good Cards and Bad Cards are the lesser cards. These cards have positive or negative effects, but they’re not game-breaking. Some good cards grant reasonable amounts of wealth, some give modest bonuses to character stats or ability scores, some grant new feats that are useful but not overpowered. The bad cards do a little bit of damage to character stats or abilities, they bestow minor curses, or they create enemies that are feasible to defeat. When the PCs draw cards, they will draw one good card and one bad card, semi-randomly.

The Story Cards, on the other hand, are the cards that transform people’s lives. That includes the one story card that all the PCs will draw: Donjon. It also includes a variety of other cards that NPCs will draw. Anybody who draws a story card is “deck-touched,” which means they are deeply impacted by the deck. Deck-touched individuals will suffer from deck side effects. Deck side effects will be discussed later.

The cards of the Deck are not the same as the ones listed in the DM guide. That’s because the Deck doesn’t have a fixed set of cards that it draws from: it makes up new cards periodically, and it changes the rules for existing cards periodically. You cannot assume that what has been true about the Deck in the past will always be true.

The negative effects of the bad cards cannot be canceled easily. Spells like remove curse, restoration, and the like have no effect. A wish spell will usually remove a Deck curse. A god can generally do it as well. It may be possible to remove deck curses through some elaborate quest, at the DM’s discretion.

In this manifestation, the deck always dispenses three cards. The first two are usually, but not always, lesser cards (good or bad). The third card is often a lesser card (good or bad), but it is sometimes a Story Card.

For each card, we list the following:

• Effect: Summary of what happens to you when you draw the card.

• Symbolism: The card can be used as symbolism, to communicate ideas.

• NPCs: Names of some NPCs who will draw that card.

• Detailed effect: Same as effect, but with more information.

IMPORTANT: You may tell the players the symbolism of the two cards that they drew randomly, and the donjon card, but you must not tell them anything about the cards that they didn’t draw! This is essential, because figuring out the symbolism of those cards will be an important quest later in the campaign. Obviously, don’t tell them the names of any NPCs either.

Good Cards

Owl.

Effect: Increase your Int, Wis, or Cha.

Symbolism: Smart, Wise, Charismatic, Owl, Bird, Flight.

NPCs: Asatya (the Astral Sleepwalker)

When you draw this card, Increase your Int, Wis, or Cha by 2, your choice.

Tiger.

Effect: Increase your Str, Dex, or Con.

Symbolism: Strong, Dextrous, Healthy, Tiger, Wild Animal, Hunter.

NPCs: Alyssa Varn (the Squatter)

When you draw this card, Increase your Str, Dex, or Con by 2, your choice.

Knight.

Effect: You receive magical weapon or armor.

Symbolism: Weapon, Armor, Knight, Defender, Protector, Nobility, Quest.

NPCs: Alyssa Varn (the Squatter)

When you draw this card, receive a magical weapon or armor whose value may not exceed 5000 gp. Interpret “weapon” and “armor” loosely: for example, a ring of protection could be considered a kind of armor. Choose, then seek DM approval.

Star.

Effect: You gain a wondrous magical item.

Symbolism: Wondrous Item, Star, Beacon, Guidepost.

NPCs: Sam Link (the Chosen One)

When you draw this card, gain a wondrous magical item whose value may not exceed 5000 gp. Choose, then seek DM approval.

Vizier.

Effect: You can divine hidden knowledge.

Symbolism: Questions, Answers, Divination, Knowledge, Diviner, Scholar, Researcher.

NPCs: Brunna (the Antiquarian)

When you draw this card, gain a new ability: once a month, you can meditate on a question, and gain a truthful answer from the fates. Answers will be one short sentence only. To the DM: if the question would short-circuit the campaign, use your judgement about how cryptic an answer to give.

Key.

Effect: Learn a new useful career.

Symbolism: Career, Skill, Ability, Learn, Teach, Key, Lock, Unlock.

NPCs: Pig (the Ogre King)

When you draw this card, you gain a permanent +5 to all skill rolls related to a single mundane career of your choice. By mundane career, we mean such careers as would be held by zero-level NPCs. That includes such things as carpenter, actor, doctor, gemcutter, shopkeeper, or the like. Careers that require level advancement, such as mercenary, may not be chosen. You only get the +5 when you are doing something specifically relevant to your career. For example, if you choose “carpenter”, you would get +5 to an insight roll to determine how a building was built, but not +5 to all insight rolls. If you chose “gemcutter,” you would get +5 to a persuasion roll to persuade somebody to buy some cut gems, but not +5 to all persuasion rolls.

Gem.

Effect: A shower of gems fall at your feet.

Symbolism: Gems, Money, Gold, Wealthy, Precious, Rare, Beautiful.

NPCs: Borghan (the Caged Beast), Balanestra (the Wish-Keeper)

When you draw this card, a shower of gems fall at your feet. After giving Green his cut, what remains is worth 5,000 gp.

Bad Cards

Euryale.

Effect: Fear of Monsters.

Symbolism: Fear, Paranoia, Anxiety, Panic, Irrational Fear.

NPCs: Rackle (the Punching Bag)

You tend to see terrifying monsters everywhere, and you may be paralyzed with fear when you encounter monsters. In combat, the first time you attack a creepy or alien species (using weapon, spell, or special ability), you must make a WIS saving throw DC 12. If you fail, you are paralyzed with fear and lose your attack action. The next round, you may try again (or do something else). Once you succeed at the saving throw, you are no longer afraid of that species, forever. It is up to the DM to determine what counts as sufficiently creepy or alien.

Idiot.

Effect: Reduce your Int, Wis, or Cha.

Symbolism: Stupid, Unwise, Ugly, Foolish.

NPCs: Brunna (the Antiquarian)

You lose 2 points from either Int, Wis, or Cha, your choice.

Cripple.

Effect: Reduce your Str, Dex, or Con.

Symbolism: Weak, Clumsy, Unhealthy, Cripple, Crippled.

NPCs: Sam Link (the Chosen One)

You lose 2 points from either Str, Dex, or Con, your choice.

Fool.

Effect: You lose an important feat.

Symbolism: Forget, Forgetfulness, Loss, Disappearance.

NPCs: Asatya (the Astral Sleepwalker)

You lose an important feat or skill. Lose a feat or skill that means something to you, but not one that would cripple your character.

Ruin.

Effect: When you touch a precious item, it may be destroyed.

Symbolism: Destruction, Destroyed, Destroyer.

NPCs: Rackle (the Punching Bag)

Each time you hold a item valued at 500 gp or more, roll a D20. On a 1, the item is destroyed. This includes most magic items. If you successfully attune a magic item without destroying it, it is immune from that point forward. Merely touching something doesn’t trigger the effect - you have to actually hold the object. Living things are not affected. The DM may also, at his discretion, decide that certain very special items are immune - especially quest-related MacGuffins. The DM should use this exception rarely.

Skull.

Effect: You summon an avatar of death, and must fight.

Symbolism: Death, Dead, Murderer, Psychopath.

NPCs: Balanestra (the Wish-Keeper)

You summon an avatar of death, and must fight.

Jester.

Effect: Nobody takes you seriously.

Symbolism: Joke, Joker, Laughter, Dismissive.

NPCs: Pig (the Ogre King)

Nobody takes you seriously. You get -5 to persuasion and intimidation. Note: you are not necessarily disliked.

Story Cards

Sun.

Effect: You are granted a divine spark. You have the potential to ascend to godhood.

Symbolism: Divine Ascension, Godhood, God, Goddess, Sun, Light, Bright, Daytime.

NPCs: Sam Link (the chosen one)

You are granted a divine spark. You have the potential to ascend to godhood. You may immediately gain certain divine abilities, such as healing.

Moon.

Effect: You receive three wishes.

Symbolism: Wishes, Desires, Fulfillment, Moon, Moonlight, Nighttime.

NPCs: Balanestra (the Wish-Keeper)

You receive three wishes. Your wishes are interpreted as intended, there is no malign force trying to misinterpret your wishes. Wishes have limited power - DMs discretion - but they’re more powerful than a normal Wish spell. If you wish for more than what is possible, the wish does its best to give you a portion of what you want. For example, if you wish for a trillion gold pieces, the wish will give you 50,000 gp.

Throne.

Effect: You are made king or queen of a small nation or city-state.

Symbolism: King, Leader, Leadership, Rule, Domination, Throne, Chair.

NPCs: Pig (the Ogre King)

You are made king or queen of a small nation or city-state. This card often takes time to complete - for example, you may be surprised to learn that you are the heir to a throne, and that the old king is dying.

Bricklayer.

Effect: The deck builds an impressive structure for you, which you must now live in.

Symbolism: Building, Construction, Creation, Ownership, Possession, Possessive, Home, House.

NPCs: Alyssa Varn (the Squatter), Borghan (the Caged Beast)

The deck builds an impressive structure for you, which you now consider “home.” The structure is something appropriate for you: for example, if you’re a priest, the building might be a temple with a rectory. You feel an overwhelming compulsion to live in your new structure. You aren’t a prisoner, the building is your home, but you can take trips away from home like anyone else. Once per month, you get a WIS save DC 15, and if you succeed, the compulsion to stay in your new structure diminishes and you can move out if you want to. However, you will always feel a certain fondness for the building.

The Void.

Effect: You fall into a sleep from which you cannot awaken.

Symbolism: Sleep, Coma, Unconscious, Emptiness, Silence, Darkness.

NPCs: Asatya (the Astral Sleepwalker)

You immediately fall asleep, and nothing can wake you up. You still need food and water and must be cared for by a nurse. While you sleep, you have dreams in which you can observe other people who also drew cards from the deck.

Beast.

Effect: You are transformed into a beast.

Symbolism: Beast, Wild Animal, Animalistic, Hunger, Reproduction.

NPCs: Borghan (the Caged Beast)

You are transformed into a beast. You become a hybrid of your original race, and an animal species, and you become much larger. You lose the capacity for rational thought, becoming a wild animal. You are driven by powerful animalistic urges.

Donjon.

Effect: You are cast into an apparently inescapable prison.

Symbolism: Prison, Dungeon, Cavern, Bunker.

NPCs: None, but all the PCs draw this card.

You are cast into an apparently inescapable prison. There are endless prisons throughout the multiverse, the Deck picks one for its own incomprehensible reasons.

Comet.

Effect: You gain a new ability to see the past.

Symbolism: The Past, History, Time, Ancient, Comet, Shooting Star.

NPCs: Brunna (the Antiquarian)

You gain a new ability to see the past. When you touch an object or a person, make a DC13 wisdom check to learn something of the history of that object or person. You can only do this once for a given topic. You do not choose what you learn, the DM does.

Rogue.

Effect: You are perceived as a criminal.

Symbolism: Criminal, Crime, Thief, Assassin, Accusation, Sneak, Prowl, Lurk.

NPCs: Rackle (the Punching Bag)

Everywhere you go, you are accused of crimes, often with negligible evidence. You are extremely likely to end up in jail, regardless of whether you’re actually a criminal. Organized crime syndicates will perceive you as a potential recruit. You do not gain any crime-related skills.

Deck Side Effects

Anybody who draws a story card (including the PCs) is deeply affected by the deck. Such people are called deck-touched, they will experience a variety of side effects. This section lists the three most important deck side effects.

Deck Awareness

When a deck-touched individual looks at another deck-touched individual, they immediately know what cards the other person drew, because they see them as illusionary cards hovering over the other person’s head. The effect is mutual: both people can see the other one’s cards. People who aren’t deck-touched can’t see the cards.

Deck Awareness is actually a form of telepathy. The deck-touched individuals are all linked by a common telepathic connection. They are continuously broadcasting their cards to each other.

Deck Immunity

After you have drawn cards from the deck, you are permanently unable to draw from the deck, ever again. The deck has already decided what effects it is going to apply to you. You already received your judgment. It is not going to do anything more to you, no matter what.

One weird consequence of this is that if somebody else draws a card, their card cannot affect you. For example, if I draw a card that conjures a sword, and I try to cut you with it, the sword will pass right through you without cutting you. You also cannot receive any benefit from my weapon: if you try to hold it, your hand will pass through it.

You aren’t immune to indirect effects. For example, if the deck gives me a magic item that can unlock doors, and I unlock a door, then when you try to open that door, it’s unlocked. That’s because my magic item wasn’t really affecting you, it was affecting the door.

Another example of an indirect effect: if a card grants me gems, I can’t hand you those gems. They will pass through your hands. But if and I use those gems to buy a weapon, then I can cut you with that weapon. The deck didn’t create the weapon.

If the deck conjures a weapon for me, and I sell that weapon to a pawnshop, it isn’t my weapon any more. Once ownership passes to a third party, deck immunity no longer applies. From that point forward, the weapon can cut you, and you can buy it and use it. To use this loophole, the item must go through the hands of a third party who didn’t draw cards.

Philosophers debate about whether items created by a deck are illusions, given that they sometimes appear to pass through other people’s hands. If they are illusions, they are exceptionally solid illusions most of the time.

Once you have drawn cards, the deck won’t do anything more to you. Another consequence of the rule is that you can’t be magically charmed by somebody else’s card. For example, if I drew the rogue card, this makes people think I’m a criminal. The card effectively casts an enchantment, not on me, but on all the people who approach me, warping their minds into falsely believing that I’m a criminal.

But because you drew cards from the deck, you are immune to any further effects of the deck. So if you approach me, you are not charmed into thinking I’m a criminal.

Again, the underlying principle of Deck Immunity is that you gain the benefit and the harms of your own cards. Having received those, the deck refuses to do anything else to you. You can gain no benefit or harm from somebody else’s card.

There is one exception to the deck immunity rule: three wishes. If you get three wishes, you can use those wishes to affect other people who drew cards from the deck. It is not known why three wishes override the deck immunity rule.

Deck Dreaming

After drawing cards from the deck, you will experience dreams in which you see through the eyes of other deck-touched individuals. This is actually another manifestation of the telepathic connection that exists between deck-touched people.

In the upcoming chapter, the PCs will be far away from Green and his deck for a while. During this time, Green will continue to let people draw cards from his deck. Many NPCs will draw cards. So, whenever the PCs take a long rest, you should give one PC a dream from the following list. They will be seeing through the eyes of these NPCs who drew cards.

If the PCs don’t take enough long rests to experience all of these, then consider giving two dreams per night on some nights. If the players still haven’t received all the dreams by Chapter two, continue giving them deck dreams until they’ve received all these dreams.

In Chapter two, the PCs will meet all the people on this list. If, as a DM, you’d like to know who these people are, skip ahead to chapter two, and read the section Deck-Touched NPCs. But of course, don’t give your players any spoilers!

Here are the dreams that the PCs experience:

Seeing through Borghan’s Eyes:

You are ravenously hungry, but you’re in an empty corridor, there’s nothing to eat. You run down the corridor, turn, run some more, turn again, and run some more, but there’s nothing but corridors. You see a door, already smashed - you feel like you’ve been here before. You pass through the broken door, and on the other side, there’s more corridors. You’re so hungry, and there’s no food.

Seeing through Sam Link’s Eyes:

You are walking through the streets of St Parnas. You see several buildings with broken windows and minor damage. You see a woman on the ground. You run up to her and ask, “are you hurt?” She says, “my leg.” Looking more closely at her leg, you can see that it’s bent at a weird angle, and there is severe bruising. You put a hand on her leg, and you allow energy to flow. The leg straightens, and the bruising fades. She says, “thank you, cleric.” You say, “I’m not a cleric, but you’re welcome.”

Seeing through Alyssa Varn’s Eyes:

It’s nighttime. You’re standing next to a sturdy stone building, which has a narrow vertical window, like a castle window. You try to squeeze yourself through the window, and you almost make it - you’re an unusually thin woman, and you’re really flexible, a contortionist. A male voice behind you says, “stop it, you’re being absolutely crazy.” You say, “This is my castle!” He says: “It’s not yours, you sold it!” You cram yourself into the window again, and this time, you actually succeed in getting through. The male voice says, “You’re nuts, and I’m done. Goodbye.”

Seeing through Balanestra’s Eyes:

Green, at his desk: “I can’t fight a goddess. What do we do if she attacks?”
Balanestra: “We teleport away, of course.”
Green: “Sure, but she’s a goddess. She can follow us anywhere.”
Balanestra: “She can follow us almost anywhere.”

Green: “Where could I go that she can’t follow… oh, shit. No, no no no no!”

Balanestra: “Trust me.”

Seeing through Pig’s Eyes:

You sitting in the market square. You see that you are not human, you have enormous legs and arms, and huge clawed hands. You are playing the mandolin expertly, and you are telling a sad story about how you became sick, and your bride left you. You are surrounded by a crowd, they laugh at everything you say, even though your story is sad. They keep coming up to you and dropping coins at your feet, and fruit, and meat, and they tell you what a great comedian you are. You don’t understand, but you like the fruit and meat.

Seeing through Brunna’s Eyes:

You are holding a rusty saber, which is resting across your two palms. You say, “This saber was made by a man named Jorrell. It was one of a set of three, one of which was sold to your grandfather.”

Seeing through Asatya’s Eyes:

You are wandering through an orchard. There are a few other people walking along the paths of the garden. You feel confused, your mind is foggy. You notice a weed that needs pulling. You bend over to pull it, but you don’t seem to be able to. In your confusion, you don’t know why you can’t pull the weed.

Seeing through Rackle’s Eyes:

You are lying on a wooden floor, inside a tiny round stone building. Your wrists have been slit, and you’re bleeding out. You are almost unconscious. A woman is in front of you, wearing purplish priest robes. She casts cure wounds (you recognize it using arcana, it’s very easy to identify because you’ve been cured tons of times yourself). Your wounds close up.