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“Don’t move! It’s just gonna sting more!” Delvenie tried to hold Vale’s leg in place as she hacked at a thorny branch with her dagger. After a scuffle with what the party assumed was an awakened shrub, but was just a rustling pricker bush, the tiefling had gotten himself stuck and was patiently waiting for his friend to set him free. She was crouched down to the plant’s level, cautiously examining where the thorns had lodged into his shin and cutting off the mess of branches until she could pull them out.
Vale stumbled backwards as Delvenie pulled the last of the brambles from his leg. “Ow,” he said with a hiss as he regained his balance. Tiny red spots dotted his pant leg where the thorns had been. He turned to another party member and called, “Mina, you’re a cleric, can you heal this?”
A few feet away, Mina was sitting on a log while her raven pecked at the ground, searching for food. She untangled leaves from her hair from when she had tripped and fallen, and didn’t stop as she replied to her companion. “Not my department,” she said matter-of-factly.
“Sorry! I forgot,” Vale apologized.
Rainer had taken a roll of bandages out of his bag while the rest of the party was conversing. “Here,” he said as he tossed it to his injured friend. “Should be enough to cover it all.”
It seemed that everything that could have gone wrong on this mission had gone wrong. From getting lost on the way to their destination, to an overgrown path, to a completely pointless battle, getting to this point in the forest was not easy. Still, somehow, the group had made it mostly unharmed. Now, it was clear why the mysterious man who had sent them this way couldn’t go and do this on his own—it simply wasn’t safe to traverse by himself. Then again, it wasn’t much safer for them as a group.
Rainer held the crystal that they had retrieved for the man in his hand. It was lodged into a tree when they found it, as if it had grown into the wood, and took much more effort than he thought necessary to get out. It sparkled in the sunlight, a golden tint visible on some of its faces. He didn’t understand why the man had requested this. The party had been in his office, and saw the many rare and wondrous items he had lining his shelves. A few of those items were gems and crystals much like this one; hell, he even had a glistening orb attached to the handle of his cane. Perhaps he was a collector, Rainer thought, but then why would he send them out to find another crystal instead of just buying one?
Suspicion rose in Rainer’s mind the longer he looked at the crystal. “Can someone else hold onto this? I don’t think it’ll fit in my bag,” he lied, ready to rid himself of the item.
“I got it!” Delvenie raised her hand, an enthusiastic smile lighting up her face. She came over to her friend and took the crystal from him, examining it before putting it away. “It’s so neat,” she remarked. “Do you have any idea what it does?”
Rainer shrugged. “Beats me.” He didn’t want to know if there was an answer to that question.
—
The party returned to town, and there they met the man back at his office. He sat at his desk expectantly, resting his chin on his hands and his elbows on the table. His expression was hard to read under the hood of his cloak, but a satisfied grin was visible on his face. “You’re back in one piece,” he teased. “Have you gotten it?”
Delvenie pushed to the front of the group, crystal in hand. “Yep!” She placed it on the table and nudged it towards him. “This is what you wanted, right?”
“Precisely,” the man replied, picking the crystal up. “I’m grateful for your help. Allow me to reward you,” he stood up as he spoke, “with a token of appreciation.”
“Yay, gifts!” Delvenie bounced with excitement.
“I like gifts!” Vale chimed in. “This guy has a lot of cool stuff, I wonder what he’s gonna give us.”
Mina leaned against the wall, feeling through her pocket. “Hopefully some money. I don’t know about you, but I’m running low.”
“I…didn’t have a lot to begin with,” Vale realized.
“Then that helps both of us,” Mina replied with a soft smile (which was a rare sight).
When the man returned, he placed a deck of playing cards on the table. It was tied together with a red ribbon, and the backs of the cards were painted with an intricate design. The deck was small and neatly stacked, and could easily fit in anyone’s bag without coming undone.
Rainer stepped forward to thank the man, but Mina cut him off. “That’s it? That’s our reward?” she asked.
Confused by the tiefling’s anger, the man replied, “Of course it is. I think it’s a rather fine reward.”
“No,” Mina said, “it isn’t. How are we supposed to make use of this?”
Vale tried to offer a solution. “We play games with them, right? Maybe we can make friends by playing cards with people!” Mina held back a scream of frustration.
Rainer stepped forward, attempting to reason with the man. “Look,” he said calmly, “we’re very grateful for this gift, and although it doesn’t look like it, we will definitely put it to good use. We just have to figure out how.”
“Oh, I assure you, they’ll come in handy someday.” The man’s voice was low and smooth, almost suspiciously so. “However, you must use them carefully.” At this, Rainer backed away.
Delvenie hopped into the spot that her friend had been standing in. “So, Mr. Mystery Man,” she began, “is there any possible way we can exchange this gift for something else? You have so many wondrous items, and I bet we can make use of those, too!” She pointed out several examples from around the room, asking what each and every one of them was capable of.
The man wasn’t persuaded. “Either you accept my reward,” he sneered, “or leave.”
“Oh.” The bard’s expression quickly changed from one of fear to eagerness. “Well, we’re not gonna let you get away with that!” She took a fighting stance, and Vale and Mina followed suit.
“Bring it on!” Mina yelled, a spell at the ready.
Rainer waved his arms, motioning for the party to calm down. “No, no, we’re gonna bring it off.” He turned towards the man and snatched the deck of cards off of the table. “We’ll be on our way, thank you, and farewell.” He led the group out the door, not bothering to look back at the man’s devilish smirk.
—
After setting up camp for the night, the party was bored. Well, half of them were. Vale and Delvenie sat opposite of each other, sharing ideas of what they could do and coming up with nothing. It was too late in the day to walk anywhere, for the sun was going down quickly. They were only a short walk away from town, but at this point, most of the activities would be shut down for the day. It seemed that they were running out of options.
And then, Vale remembered that they had just received playing cards. “Do you know any games?” he asked his friend once the thought entered his head.
Delvenie nodded. “My family taught me a lot of them when I was younger! I can show you what I know!” She asked Rainer for the deck, and when he handed it over, she offered him to join their game.
“Not tonight,” he said, still a bit concerned by the man’s words from earlier. “You two have fun, though.” He then returned to his journal, documenting the events of the day.
As Delvenie shuffled the deck, Vale called over Mina. “Wanna join us?” he asked. Mina grumbled, but came and sat with them anyway.
Once each player had their hand, Delvenie began to explain the rules to the game. “What you do,” she instructed, “is put down a card that has the same suit or number as the one on the top of the pile. The first person to use all of their cards wins!” She went first, choosing a four of diamonds to start the pile. However, when she placed it down, a small spurt of fire erupted from the card. Everyone in the circle jumped at the sudden appearance.
“Does that normally happen?” Vale asked, scooting back a few more inches.
“No…?” Delvenie reexamined the card, and it had not been destroyed by the flame. At that, she decided to play on as if nothing had happened. “Anyways, Mina, you can go next.”
Mina scanned her hand before deciding on adding another diamond card to the pile. She did her best to set it down evenly, so that the first card couldn’t be seen beneath hers. For a moment, nothing happened, but just as she breathed her sigh of relief, a vine grew from the card and wrapped around her arm. Startled, she shook it until it fell off. “Absolutely not,” she declared. “We’ve dealt with enough plants today.”
Delvenie nervously played with a strand of her hair. “Guys,” she said, “I promise that I’m not doing anything and that this doesn’t happen in the game. Just…be careful which cards you pick, I guess?”
“I don’t have any matching cards,” Vale interrupted. “What do I do?”
“Oh! You take one from the top of the deck.”
“Okay…but I don’t know if I want to now.”
“It’s the rules,” Delvenie sighed as she motioned towards the deck.
Vale gulped. His hand trembled as he reached towards the deck. He was used to random bursts, being a bearer of wild magic himself, yet this made him much more anxious than any spell he had ever cast. Eyes tightly closed. He picked a card and added it to his deck. A few seconds of silence passed. “Did it work?” he asked, not expecting an answer.
The new card glowed in his hand, and from it sprung forth a swarm of bats. Vale ducked as they soared over his head and into the sky, and he dropped his cards as he ran away from the animals. Mina and Delvenie followed him, too scared by the game to continue playing. They tried to explain what had happened to Rainer, and when he looked at the scattered cards, he grimaced. “Nope, not going over there,” he said.
“Neither are we!” Mina hid behind Vale, peering out from his side. “What do we do about…that?!”
A cacophony of screeches resounded through the air as the bats returned. Frightened, Rainer declared, “We move camp somewhere else!”
—
The image of the adventurers hurriedly packing up their belongings was displayed on Phantom’s crystal ball. It was sad that they had to leave so soon, but he couldn’t help but laugh at their misfortune. He had warned them, after all, that the cards had to be used carefully. Adventurers never listened, though, and they were no different.
Now alone, Phantom had hung his cloak on the wall, free to let his demonic features show. After a moment, the image of the party vanished, and he was met with the reflection of his crimson eyes staring back at him. He stood from his seat and took a walk past his shelf full of trinkets. Placed in the center was the crystal that the party had given to him, as per his request. It still shone as brightly as it did in the sunlight, now that it was dark. It was perfect for his work.
Now, he just had to decide which of their souls would fit in there.