Card Apocalypse 1, Chapter 30

Chapter Thirty: The Fun and the Not-So-Fun

            Noah walked to the stairs. A warm breeze, pregnant with the scent of unwashed humans, animals, and a faint hint of sewage washed up them as Noah stared down.

            â€œYou gonna get moving?” Lika asked from behind him. “Whatever’s down there isn’t as bad as the blasted weather up here. I’m so cold my tits could cut steel.”

            Noah flushed, although it would be hard to tell against his own cold-stung cheeks. “Never say anything like that again.”

            â€œI make no promises.”

            Noah abandoned the conversation by starting down the stairs. Lika’s soft and off-beat steps, and RED’s metallic ones, followed him down as he went.

            Noah stepped out into a large cave with numerous tunnels leading off it. The cave itself was large, with numerous stalactites and stalagmites off of it. The air was warm stank of body odor and sewage, which was clearly the result of the huge number of people about. Everywhere Noah glanced, he saw market stalls, small buildings, pit fires, or even patches of mushrooms being tended to. A huge number of the creatures around him were little, four-to-four-foot-six half-rat, half-human creatures, but a ton of others, including vampires, a few werewolves, some orcs, a small dragon, and numerous humans were about as well. Most hurried about with purpose, scurrying to and fro, except that many of the humans sat about dejectedly, or slept in hollows and corners of the cave.

            Everything but the humans and orcs displayed a card if stared at for any length of time.

            A man, newly thin with slightly hanging skin and scabs across his body, maybe in his late twenties, approached Noah. “Spare some food?”

            Noah shook his head no. He had almost nothing left himself.

            The man simply faded back.

            â€œHow are we supposed to find anything, or anyone, in this madhouse of pestilence ridden fleshloafs?” RED asked, his head tracking nearby creatures like a turret, staring for a second and then rapidly shifting to the next one.

            Noah started forward and almost slipped as he stepped into a shallow puddle on the rock, ringed with Lichen. He recovered with a flail of his arms.

            â€œI have no idea,” he said to RED. “Ask people where Kishara is, I guess?”

            â€œWell, murder is my strong suit,” RED said, faux-meditatively. “I’m not sure you have a strong suit, but let’s pretend its talking. That way you have you do it.”

            â€œThanks, love you too,” Noah responded as sardonically as he could manage, with an extra eye-roll thrown in.

            But he tried to put RED’s advice to work as well. He stared around him, looking for a likely suspect—one that might know someone.

One large stall was being operated by a vampire in a suit with katana across his back and a suitcase at his side. His card read ‘Allen Tuttenberg, Vampire Clan Ronin.’ After a cursory check to make sure Allen wouldn’t be insanely dangerous, Noah ignored the rest of the creature’s card.

            He approached the stall.

            â€œMay I help you, sir?” Allen asked, standing up from where he was sitting on a rock and pressing long, spindly fingers together. He stared at Noah over the top of them, his red eyes intent.

            â€œI’m looking for Kishara,” Noah said, straight to the point. “Do you know where I can find her?”

Allen smiled, an expression that flashed fang but showed no real joy—and fear flashed in his eyes in turn. “Perhaps if you wish my aid, you’ll purchase something.”

            â€œI have little to offer in return,” Noah began.

            â€œThey almost certainly trade for cards here,” RED said. “You have the cards of that idiot fleshloaf—but I repeat myself—deckbearer that tried to kill you. Perhaps something there will catch this being’s interest, and we can be done with all this.”

            Allen smiled more genuinely. “We do indeed take cards, good sir.” He held his fingers up with half an inch of space between them. “At just a teensy, tiny markup.”

            He pulled the suitcase up and put it on the wooden table. Allen clicked it unlocked but didn’t open it.

            A few of the rat people had gathered around Noah as he was talking to Allen, and he glanced at them. Their cards showed low stats across the board, but with huge stacking modifiers for having fellow ‘ratkin’ about.

            Lika shuffled a half-step closer to Noah and touched her chest, her eyes wary as she stared at the cards around her.

            â€œWell, show me what you’ve got,” Noah said to Allen, flicking his hand impatiently in the direction of the vampire’s suitcase.

            Allen stared at Noah, his eyes flashing violet before returning to their original red. “Ah, you have Mortal, Lightning, and Golem types… are you running a cyber subtype specialty?”

            â€œYou can tell my Power types?” Noah asked, his eyes widening slightly.

            â€œYes, but nothing else, don’t worry,” Allen said, allaying Noah’s fears very little. “There are many cards available in my little suitcase, and I wanted to know what’s best to offer you.”

            â€œI have some cyber cards, but I am also developing a Technomancer focus,” Noah replied, still a touch uneasy at being identified. “I’d really like some useful Lightning cards as well as well, if you have them.”

            â€œA rarer build, but I’ll see what I can find,” Allen said, opening the suitcase. His long, spindly fingers moved inside the case in a way that reminded Noah of a spider. “A few friends of mine and I are all connected throughout the network, so we have a higher than usual selection…”

            Noah stared at the briefcase, intrigued by the words. It listed itself as a ‘Realm Case,’ and could connect with the other cases in the same realm, with all owners getting the information. It had a note that it would only work for overland monsters or deckbearers if it became a card again.

            After a moment, Allen pulled out three cards and placed them on the table with the flourish of a professional tarot reader.

            Noah glanced at them.

Technomancer’s Mein

Uncommon Tier-1 Golem [Cyber, Technomancer, Mage] Persistent [Mantle]

1 Golem Power

+1 Magical Defense, +3 Health

Count as [Cyber], [Technomancer], and [Mage] subtypes

“The robe of an Initiate Technomancer.”—Regina Yarrow, Wasteland Explorer

Blitz Bolt

Rare Tier-1 Lightning Immediate

1 Lightning Power (available)

This card makes a Magical Attack at 4[Lightning](ranged) against one target. The card is Speedy—the first speedy card played in a 15 second period does not count against card plays.

“Lightning is known most of all for its speed, but this baby borderline breaks the rules.”—Derek Tang, Technomancer of the Storm

Static Storm

Uncommon Tier-1 Lightning Persistent

2 Lightning Power, 3 Any power

This card makes two Magical Attacks at 9[Lightning](ranged) every round against targets of the Deckbearer’s choice. All Mortal, Beast, and Golem cards that enter the field are stunned for a round.

“A devastating card, but quite costly”

            Noah stared for a moment. “I would want the mantle and the Bolt, but not the Storm… Too many of my own cards would be screwed up by that.”

            â€œSo, one rare and one uncommon?” Allen asked, steepling his fingers again. “What have you to trade?”

            Noah reached into his pocket and took the deck out. As he started to pass it over, RED grabbed his wrist.

            â€œWait, Noah,” RED said. “You should have gotten a card from my ability—check that first.”

            Noah pulled his hand back, then fanned the cards out. When he didn’t see any cyber or scavenged cards, he carefully went through them. Nothing.

            â€œWhy isn’t it here?” Noah asked

            â€œIt means he wasn’t a god-gifted deckbearer. So either he killed enough creatures to get a deck… or, more likely, he murdered someone else and took theirs,” RED said. “Even if he hadn’t tried to shoot you, he was likely owed a fatal shot from someone.”

            Noah nodded, a brief anger at the gods flashing again. Then he put the deck back on the table and fanned the cards out. It was mostly composed of weaker Elder and Infernal cards, but it did have a single Elder building, a common ‘Screaming Well,’ whatever that was, as well as two uncommon Mortal/Elder cards called “Knowing Thrall.”

            Allen reached out and fanned through them. “Hmm… the building card is worth something, but you want a rare… and a useful rare. I’ll take the building card, the two uncommon cards, and two of your commons for the two.”

            Noah looked at RED, who shrugged. “I don’t know prices, but it seems reasonable. Or we could kill him and just take them.”

            â€œHe’s joking!” Noah said fast, before Allen could get upset.

            The vampire’s hands drifted down to his own pocket, and he flashed fangs. “He’d better be.”

            A few of the ratkin shied away from the possible conflict, giving Noah, Lika, and RED a small bubble of space near the table.

            â€œHey, well, unexpected silver lining,” RED commented, and Allen nodded to his words.

            Glad that little mini-drama ended well, Noah thought.

            â€œAnything else?” Allen asked.

            â€œYeah, let Lika see what she can get for the remaining cards,” Noah said. “Then we’ll get going.”

            Noah stepped off to the side, letting Lika look through stuff. He glanced around the cavern, occupied by numerous overland monsters and mortals both. His mind drifted to his own Nexus Realm. For a card game, the Great Game has some very real applications. I wonder if humans—or goblins or elves or orcs—will ever be able to knock all the monsters back to card form, and what that world will look like then.

            As Noah stared around him, an ashen skinned black woman—or girl, it was close either way—approached him. She was dressed in a huge, dirty trench coat, and for all Noah could see, that was it, although she could easily have had an entire outfit on under it. She was very thin and tall, a bit gangly, with bleached hair with purple highlights in it—but the black hair at the roots had clearly been growing out for some time.

            Both her wrists were visible, and each had multiple puncture wounds on them. But her eyes were sharp and intense, not the eyes of someone that Noah would associate with ‘did a bunch of drugs to escape reality.’

            She looked familiar to Noah.

            She stared him dead in the eye, her own eyes red and tired. “Sir, I know everyone is asking for help, but I’m trying to keep a small hospice going—it provides care to the humans as well as the orcs of Ferik Redoubt that have made their way here—or been captured. Anything you could spare would be appreciated. We can’t afford to sell anymore blood to the vampires, as it would result in needing more care than the benefit it brings. We’re out of options.”

            Noah stared at her, his mind searching for a moment. Then he gasped out, “Grace? Grace Washington?”

            The girl’s eyes widened. “I’m her… But, with apologies sir, I don’t remember you.”

            â€œWe’ve never met… your grandfather sent me to get you, to bring you back to safety. Or as much safety as we have in this world.”

            Water pooled in her eyes, and a wild hope kindled. But after a moment, she shook her head. “I won’t leave without my patients.”

            â€œOh, for the love of Machos,” RED said. “This is going to become a whole thing, isn’t it?”