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106: Change Your Fate in 22 Cards or Less · Dungeonpedia

0:00
SPEAKER_00: You the adventurer! Yes, you design knowledge of a mental world in our game power.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: A correct one called toy and law, or absolutely easy listening for your daily commute.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: And feature eyes, or actually, yeah.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: Up on dungeon period.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: It's about to get early in here.
0:45
SPEAKER_07: Taylor Peasley.
0:46
SPEAKER_04: And I'm Travis Peasley.
0:48
SPEAKER_07: And this is where I fucked up and didn't realize that I was muted the whole time.
0:52
SPEAKER_07: What's up?
0:53
SPEAKER_07: Oops.
0:53
SPEAKER_07: I'm gonna fix this in post.
0:55
SPEAKER_07: I messed it up.
0:57
SPEAKER_02: What'd you do?
0:58
SPEAKER_07: I forgot to unmute my mic.
1:00
SPEAKER_02: Oh no.
1:01
SPEAKER_07: My Taylor Peasley did not come through.
1:03
SPEAKER_07: So I will have to re-record that.
1:04
SPEAKER_07: But that's okay.
1:07
SPEAKER_02: Don't worry, guys.
1:07
SPEAKER_02: Taylor is here.
1:08
SPEAKER_07: I am Taylor.
1:09
SPEAKER_02: Taylor is here.
1:10
SPEAKER_02: Um Taylor is indeed here.
1:12
SPEAKER_07: I asked, uh, can we talk, can we talk about the weather?
1:15
SPEAKER_07: So, you know, just making small talk, I guess.
1:19
SPEAKER_02: And the weather was uh was really crazy for like one hour a couple days ago.
1:24
SPEAKER_02: Happy one hour was so bad.
1:27
SPEAKER_02: So crazy.
1:28
SPEAKER_07: Katie was going nuts because of the weather.
1:31
SPEAKER_02: You know what though didn't didn't stop the didn't stop the 4th of July people for very long.
1:36
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, no.
1:38
SPEAKER_07: There were people at the church by our house still shooting off fireworks.
1:43
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
1:44
SPEAKER_04: It was they were shooting off fireworks across the street.
1:47
SPEAKER_07: Well, not during the storm.
1:50
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they stopped.
1:51
SPEAKER_02: It after after the bulk of it had passed here, the the soundscape became you know, there's like websites where you can set up like a custom soundscape with like rain and cafe noises, shit like that.
2:04
SPEAKER_02: It was like rainfall, like firecracker sounds, and then like a giant peal of thunder in the distance.
2:12
SPEAKER_02: And then there would be like 30 seconds to like one minute of uninterrupted rainfall noises.
2:19
SPEAKER_02: And then it's like you could hear the you could hear the like, okay, guys, I think we're good.
2:23
SPEAKER_02: And then it's just more firecracker buttons.
2:25
SPEAKER_02: You couldn't actually hear them saying it, but you could feel the you could feel the vibe of like you could feel the vibe, you could feel the vibe of okay, guys, we're good, we're good, and then they would just set off more fucking fireworks, dude.
2:36
SPEAKER_04: There was just there's so many things going on at once, it was just insane.
2:41
SPEAKER_02: While the while a tree is downed, you know, on the other side of the street, it's fine.
2:45
SPEAKER_07: I saw pictures of um a carport, like a metal carport wrapped around a telephone pole.
2:51
SPEAKER_01: Bullet, I believe it.
2:53
SPEAKER_07: Um shout out.
2:55
SPEAKER_07: Yes.
2:56
SPEAKER_07: Shout out Oklahoma General Electric or whatever it is, uh, OGE for the construction of that telephone pole.
3:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because it's yeah, but none of the third, none of the none of the none of the power poles that we're gone around my house for like a solid day.
3:12
SPEAKER_02: This is what you tune in for on this podcast is uh is is is uh conversations about the electrical grid.
3:20
SPEAKER_02: About the electrical, the the relationship between different electrical companies.
3:24
SPEAKER_07: Well, I imagine that uh the people turn tune in for many things.
3:28
SPEAKER_04: Many that's just one of them.
3:30
SPEAKER_04: Many things.
3:31
SPEAKER_04: Many things.
3:32
SPEAKER_07: Um perhaps they will gladly be tuning in for the deck of many things.
3:37
SPEAKER_04: Hey, deck of many things.
3:40
SPEAKER_04: Oh shit.
3:41
SPEAKER_07: So today we're gonna be talking about the deck of many things.
3:45
SPEAKER_04: That is uh quite the uh quite the subject matter.
3:50
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
3:52
SPEAKER_07: So if this is your first time hearing about the deck, welcome.
3:55
SPEAKER_07: I have I have some excellent uh uh news for you.
3:59
SPEAKER_07: This is gonna be a trip.
4:01
SPEAKER_02: Um you know, in fairness, I've heard of the deck of many things many times, and I'm not even gonna lie to you, I low-key don't even know what it is.
4:09
SPEAKER_02: Oh, well, good.
4:10
SPEAKER_02: I I I know the like the the concept, but I don't know how it like works.
4:17
SPEAKER_02: I don't know how it like how it connects to in universe lore because I feel like it's you know, I just think of it as like a uh you know, like a like a tarot deck of bullshit that a DM can just like pull out.
4:29
SPEAKER_02: But I don't know how it, you know, I don't know how it functions in universe.
4:33
SPEAKER_02: And at this point, I'm afraid to ask, but I think I'm going to find out anyway.
4:36
SPEAKER_07: I love how we both have our tarot decks of bullshit.
4:41
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I set it up in the I set it up in the in the I set it up in the little streamer setup.
4:46
SPEAKER_07: It's beautiful.
4:47
SPEAKER_02: I it felt appropriate.
4:50
SPEAKER_02: I don't have that.
4:53
SPEAKER_07: You missed the memo.
4:54
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
4:55
SPEAKER_02: You could yeah, you can you can you can borrow one.
4:57
SPEAKER_02: I'm sure she has got an extra one somewhere in the back.
4:59
SPEAKER_07: I have my Tazo deck.
5:01
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, the Tazo deck.
5:02
SPEAKER_04: The most important one, really.
5:04
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
5:06
SPEAKER_07: Alright, so uh take us into the sponsor us.
5:09
SPEAKER_04: Um take us into the deck of many things.
5:12
SPEAKER_07: So I'll open the deck.
5:14
SPEAKER_07: I'm sure people have heard um from the deck from many sources.
5:19
SPEAKER_07: I myself heard about the deck when I was a wee child playing Baldur's Gate 2.
5:25
SPEAKER_04: I still need to play that game.
5:27
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
5:28
SPEAKER_07: It's good, but like okay, listen, I people might come after me, but I prefer the newer one.
5:36
SPEAKER_02: Whoa, that is.
5:37
SPEAKER_07: I love Baldur's Gate 3, man.
5:39
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
5:40
SPEAKER_02: That's a that is a hot take.
5:41
SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna lie.
5:42
SPEAKER_02: I think that that's that's that's a hot take right there.
5:45
SPEAKER_07: I I played all of them, and I prefer Baldur's Baldur's Gate 3.
5:49
SPEAKER_02: That's a that is a that is a sacrilegious take for some people.
5:53
SPEAKER_02: I've never I've never played one and two, so I don't have an opinion on it.
5:57
SPEAKER_02: But that like I know that that is a sacrilegious take for a lot of people.
6:00
SPEAKER_02: We might we might lose viewers now.
6:02
SPEAKER_07: It's all right.
6:04
SPEAKER_04: My viewers are gonna drop.
6:05
SPEAKER_07: I still like Baldur's Gate 2.
6:07
SPEAKER_07: Um, so in the course of running around this little maze, I uh was goaded into playing a game with a particularly charismatic demon known as the gambling cambian.
6:21
SPEAKER_07: Yes, I know he did have demon stats.
6:25
SPEAKER_07: He was considered a demon, but his but the quest was the gambling cambian.
6:31
SPEAKER_07: I went back and checked.
6:34
SPEAKER_02: I love how I love how this is this is the zone, like this is the kind of space where like you say demon and then cambian, and like you could see both Travis and I have like a brain cell activation where we're like, huh.
6:49
SPEAKER_03: Wait a minute, wait a minute, and then you you you go on to address it.
6:54
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, so I uh was goaded into he was very charismatic, okay?
7:00
SPEAKER_07: He totally manipulated me into playing this game with him, and not because I was a child and I didn't know better.
7:07
SPEAKER_02: Uh I was gonna say, why do I feel like you were just like, okay.
7:11
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
7:12
SPEAKER_07: I immediately drew the plague card and was afflicted with a curse on my constitution.
7:19
SPEAKER_04: Good.
7:19
SPEAKER_04: Damn.
7:20
SPEAKER_07: He drew construct, and we were immediately attacked by an Adamantine golem.
7:25
SPEAKER_01: Oh good.
7:26
SPEAKER_07: Uh the demon won the round.
7:28
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
7:30
SPEAKER_07: Somehow.
7:31
SPEAKER_04: I mean, you got cursed by Constitution.
7:35
SPEAKER_04: They drew a construct.
7:37
SPEAKER_02: This sounds like um wild magic.
7:40
SPEAKER_04: I mean, what's the severity between those two that would cause one to win over the other?
7:46
SPEAKER_07: More on that very briefly later.
7:49
SPEAKER_07: Oh, okay.
7:50
SPEAKER_07: Very, very briefly.
7:51
SPEAKER_07: Um, but I remember the game being rigged and went back and looked and it was not.
7:56
SPEAKER_07: I just was a sore loser.
8:00
SPEAKER_03: You just were uh a child.
8:03
SPEAKER_07: Yes.
8:05
SPEAKER_07: Like like I said, a sore loser.
8:07
SPEAKER_02: Hey, fair.
8:08
SPEAKER_07: Um, so now you've heard about the deck, or you already have, but what is the deck?
8:14
SPEAKER_02: What is it?
8:15
SPEAKER_07: Uh the deck of many things is a legendary magical item or perhaps an artifact that has appeared throughout every single edition, multiple settings, and including specific adventures in DD.
8:26
SPEAKER_05: Huh.
8:27
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
8:28
SPEAKER_07: I've heard it described as game-breaking, game-ending, game derailing.
8:33
SPEAKER_04: Good.
8:33
SPEAKER_04: I mean, yes, all of those things could easily be true.
8:37
SPEAKER_04: It's just there.
8:38
SPEAKER_02: It's just okay.
8:39
SPEAKER_02: I'm sure if if this is explained, I'm sure you're probably literally about to explain it.
8:43
SPEAKER_02: So I will hold my questions.
8:45
SPEAKER_07: I'm of the opinion that if a DM puts it into the game, they have to sort of know what they're in for.
8:50
SPEAKER_07: It could completely derail.
8:53
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean, if you're going to throw it into your game, if you're gonna throw it into your game and just keep it as it is, then yes, you should be more than aware that what you are doing is 80% going to land on derailed campaign.
9:12
SPEAKER_02: Right.
9:12
SPEAKER_02: And I feel like it could, it probably is something that I think would take a a very like a very good DM to kind of work with that in a satisfying way.
9:25
SPEAKER_02: Because like, you know, from from some things I've heard, I feel like it could potentially end up in situations where like it it can derail it in a in a not fun way, or like in a not fun way if it's not kind of handled particularly, I guess you could say.
9:44
SPEAKER_07: The decks themselves did vary in appearance, uh, from the most worn single copper playing cards to the extravagant parlor game-esque noble tarot decks.
9:57
SPEAKER_07: However, there were tons of commonalities between every deck.
10:01
SPEAKER_07: The majority of the decks were 13 card decks, but one out of every four were 22 cards decks.
10:07
SPEAKER_01: Ah, okay.
10:08
SPEAKER_07: Each card has a unique visual corresponding with the title of the card, but those are not streamlined across decks.
10:14
SPEAKER_07: So every sage would have a visual representing the sage, but not every sage visual resembled each other's.
10:24
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
10:25
SPEAKER_04: Makes sense.
10:27
SPEAKER_07: I would say playing cards are definitely like more streamlined than the deck of many things.
10:33
SPEAKER_02: Right, yeah, like there's very modern, you know.
10:37
SPEAKER_07: Definitely like tarot decks and oracle decks have the that thing where it's like, okay, they all have something representing the card in question.
10:45
SPEAKER_02: It's not always, you know, like not every, not necessarily, uh, you know, and despite despite some picky people's um preferences, I'm pointing at myself, you know, not every like strength card, for example, portrays a woman wrestling a beast, and not every full card has a little dog in it following a person with like a like a rucksack, you know?
11:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
11:09
SPEAKER_02: Right.
11:09
SPEAKER_02: But there's some manner of of a visual medium that communicates it.
11:15
SPEAKER_02: Hopefully, hopefully well.
11:16
SPEAKER_02: Hopefully it makes sense.
11:18
SPEAKER_07: The cards uh are of course used in a variety of ways.
11:22
SPEAKER_07: They're used in divination as actual playing cards, and the most common method that a DM might throw at you is simply to draw a card or mini and withstand the effects.
11:34
SPEAKER_07: Uh the 5th edition DM's guide actually provides a pretty fun visual uh and description for how the deck is used.
11:41
SPEAKER_07: Before you draw a card, you must declare how many cards you intend to draw and then randomly.
11:46
SPEAKER_07: Any cards drawn in excess of this number have no effect.
11:49
SPEAKER_07: Otherwise, as soon as you draw a card from the deck, its magic takes effect.
11:53
SPEAKER_07: You must draw each card no more than one hour after the previous draw if you draw more than one.
11:58
SPEAKER_07: If you fail to draw the chosen number, the remaining number of cards will fly from the deck on their own and take effect all at once.
12:04
SPEAKER_02: Oh my god.
12:06
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely not.
12:07
SPEAKER_07: Once a card is drawn, it fades from existence.
12:11
SPEAKER_07: Unless the card is the fool or the jester, the card reappears in the deck, making it possible to draw the same card twice in a row.
12:18
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
12:19
SPEAKER_04: So you can draw the fool and the jester twice, but nothing else.
12:23
SPEAKER_04: No, I'm in crazy.
12:24
SPEAKER_04: Oh, I I I okay, never mind.
12:26
SPEAKER_04: I read that backwards or perceived it backwards.
12:29
SPEAKER_04: You know what I meant.
12:30
SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm JK.
12:32
SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm like quivering in anticipation for you to to get to the part where you list out what all the cards are.
12:39
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
12:40
SPEAKER_02: And now like now I'm like, I know two of them, three of them actually.
12:43
SPEAKER_02: You've mentioned three of them explicitly by name, and I'm just sitting here like yeah, I'm very excited.
12:49
SPEAKER_07: Well, we're about to get there.
12:50
SPEAKER_07: I'm actually gonna do things a little differently from you from how I usually do them when I present information.
12:55
SPEAKER_07: I'm gonna describe the current deck, and then I'm gonna sort of show how we got there.
13:01
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
13:02
SPEAKER_07: So the current deck of 13 includes the Uriel, the flames, the jester, the key, the knight, the moon, the puzzle, rogue, run, soid, and throne.
13:34
SPEAKER_07: Oh, for the deck of twenty-two, you add in balance, comet, donjon, the fates, fool, sage, and talents.
13:50
SPEAKER_04: Talons.
13:51
SPEAKER_07: Talents.
13:52
SPEAKER_02: Okay, and the the the I'm assuming the the the way you've read them off is purposeful in that some of them have the the proper like the in front of it, and some of them are.
14:02
SPEAKER_07: Well, it also varies from additional.
14:04
SPEAKER_07: It varies from okay.
14:06
SPEAKER_07: Uh you can honestly, I feel like most of the ones that are like proper nouns, you could probably just put a the in front of if you want to.
14:16
SPEAKER_02: Oh, and it's it's fine.
14:17
SPEAKER_07: It's fine, yeah.
14:18
SPEAKER_07: Uh, but I will say the fates and the void can like all have the across everything around.
14:28
SPEAKER_02: Right, which makes sense given yeah, yeah, you have that makes sense.
14:34
SPEAKER_07: I do have the void behind me.
14:35
SPEAKER_04: And he is taking a nap.
14:37
SPEAKER_07: He is also snoozing.
14:39
SPEAKER_04: I cannot ever hear the term fool without in my head hearing it from the binding of Isaac.
14:47
SPEAKER_04: The fool.
14:48
SPEAKER_07: Oh yeah.
14:48
SPEAKER_07: When uh when you pick up a a card in the binding of Isaac, the uh narrator says uh the tarot card in a very fun way.
14:57
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
14:58
SPEAKER_07: Well, I say very fun, it's it's just intense, but it's enjoyable.
15:02
SPEAKER_07: Puzzle and sage might sound different to old heads.
15:06
SPEAKER_07: So sage used to be known as the vizier card, but I think in part because of the fact that a lot of people don't know what a vizier is anymore.
15:16
SPEAKER_02: When I th when I hear the word vizier, I literally just think of Jafar from Aladdin.
15:21
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
15:22
SPEAKER_02: And a specific part where the Sultan like introduces him and says, like, this is the royal vizier, Jafar.
15:27
SPEAKER_02: He's delighted too.
15:28
SPEAKER_02: And it just cuts to him with the most like hateful expression on his face.
15:32
SPEAKER_02: Oh my god.
15:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
15:33
SPEAKER_02: That's all I think.
15:34
SPEAKER_02: I when I hear the word vizier, that's what I immediately think of as that particular scene in Aladdin.
15:39
SPEAKER_03: May not even be the most accurate representation of like a neutral, like a neutral representation of the word vizier, but that is what I think of.
15:47
SPEAKER_07: I feel like it's pretty accurate.
15:49
SPEAKER_02: Um and then he is a vizier, so you know.
15:52
SPEAKER_07: The puzzle card is a renamed version of the idiot card.
15:58
SPEAKER_02: That's really funny that this that previous versions of the deck had the jester, the fool, and the idiot.
16:04
SPEAKER_07: Okay, so there there are reasons why idiot was replaced with puzzle.
16:11
SPEAKER_02: Um because some people you look at them and they're so stupid that it is a puzzle as to how they're still functioning.
16:19
SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry.
16:20
SPEAKER_07: No, you're fine.
16:22
SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry.
16:23
SPEAKER_03: You're totally fine.
16:24
SPEAKER_03: I just think it's funny.
16:25
SPEAKER_07: It is.
16:27
SPEAKER_07: So I think that there, so there are the stated reasons and what I believe are the unstated reasons.
16:33
SPEAKER_07: The stated reason is uh for the book of many things, idiot card was renamed puzzle to inspire the puzzles, riddles, and traps found in chapter four of the book, which it it does, it does describe like it we'll get to the book of many things.
16:51
SPEAKER_07: It's a whole thing.
16:52
SPEAKER_07: But I think the unstated reasons is because idiot is yeah, it's kind of it's kind of yeah, it's fallen out of favor, and I know that it is offensive in some countries.
17:04
SPEAKER_07: So I want you to know that anytime I read idiot, it is not from my own vocabulary, per se.
17:10
SPEAKER_02: And it is as much as it is like funny, like conceptually, it is funny to like imagine your character pulling like the idiot card and being like, What?
17:20
SPEAKER_02: Like it is it is a little, I feel like it kind of is a little less like not less serious necessarily than like the tone of cards, like you know, the void or whatever.
17:30
SPEAKER_02: But it just feels kind of I don't know.
17:33
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, I will say I do appreciate it conceptually, um, that they did rename idiot just because of the fact that it did always bother me that there was fool and idiot in the same deck, even though conceptually it is kind of it is kind of funny, yeah.
17:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean it is kind of funny, which like yeah, you know, also like you know, those words in addition to the word jester, even though like a lot of them kind of include like they're you know the connotations can be similar in that it's like a person that it acts a certain type of a certain type of uh way.
18:07
SPEAKER_02: You know, the connotations are still different.
18:09
SPEAKER_02: Yes, you know, it is also like you could say it's kind of redundant to have a fool card and an idiot card.
18:15
SPEAKER_07: So this is gonna be a big bulk of information.
18:18
SPEAKER_07: I'm gonna read off the current effects for the cards.
18:22
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
18:23
SPEAKER_07: What happens when you pull a card?
18:25
SPEAKER_07: That is completely up to the DM.
18:28
SPEAKER_07: But there is a current and ever-evolving canon.
18:32
SPEAKER_07: So if you were to pull the balance card, your mind suffers unrenching or suffers a wrenching alteration, causing your alignment to change.
18:40
SPEAKER_07: If you are true neutral or unaligned, this card has no effect on you.
18:44
SPEAKER_07: So your alignment changes.
18:46
SPEAKER_07: Comment.
18:47
SPEAKER_07: If you single-handedly defeat the next hostile monster or group of monsters you encounter, you gain an you you level up.
18:54
SPEAKER_07: Otherwise, this card has no effect.
18:56
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
18:56
SPEAKER_07: Donjon.
18:57
SPEAKER_07: You this one is a favorite for some people, I'm sure.
19:01
SPEAKER_07: You disappear and become entombed in a state of suspended animation in an extra-dimensional sphere.
19:06
SPEAKER_07: Everything you are wearing or carrying stays behind in the space you occupied when you disappeared.
19:11
SPEAKER_07: You remain imprisoned until you are found and removed from the sphere.
19:15
SPEAKER_07: You cannot be located by a divination spell.
19:18
SPEAKER_07: Or you cannot be located by any divination magic, but a wish spell can reveal the location of your prison.
19:24
SPEAKER_07: You draw no more cards because you are in prison.
19:27
SPEAKER_04: Grog.
19:29
SPEAKER_07: Oh no.
19:31
SPEAKER_07: Uh, if I recall correctly, wasn't Grog's physical body present?
19:37
SPEAKER_04: Oh, yes.
19:37
SPEAKER_04: It was just as mine.
19:39
SPEAKER_02: We'll get to that.
19:40
SPEAKER_02: Well, okay, okay.
19:40
SPEAKER_02: Also, also, like, say that was the first card you drew, and you said you were gonna draw like however many.
19:48
SPEAKER_07: The other cards don't get drawn.
19:50
SPEAKER_02: They don't get drawn, which means that then the rest of the deck explodes all over your party after one hour.
19:56
SPEAKER_07: No, it it it it it just it cancels out your other cards.
20:00
SPEAKER_07: Oh, okay, okay.
20:01
SPEAKER_04: Well, there's that at least that particular effect, they are at the very least nice enough to be like, look at that.
20:05
SPEAKER_04: Okay, happy.
20:06
SPEAKER_02: That's what that's what I that's what I immediately like.
20:09
SPEAKER_02: Don't get me wrong, being like suspended in a state of you know, in a in a in a state of suspended animation, far away from you know your your party, uh whatever, that's like bad.
20:19
SPEAKER_02: But then I was also like, okay, well, your friends aren't gonna be able to find you because they're gonna be dead.
20:24
SPEAKER_07: So the important part to remember is um the car the deck definitely only the original person drawing the drawer things apply to.
20:37
SPEAKER_07: So like obviously, if enemies come by, everyone for the most part can fight.
20:44
SPEAKER_07: But when it comes to like, oh, I said I was gonna draw three more cards and then I was slain, the deck doesn't then make your party draw the cards.
20:53
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't, yeah, okay.
20:55
SPEAKER_07: Continuing on, Uriel.
20:57
SPEAKER_07: The card's Medusa-like visage curses you.
21:00
SPEAKER_07: You take a minus two penalty on saving throws while cursed in this way.
21:04
SPEAKER_07: Only a god of magic or the fates card can end this curse.
21:09
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
21:10
SPEAKER_04: Damn.
21:11
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
21:11
SPEAKER_07: The fates.
21:12
SPEAKER_07: Reality's fabric unravels and spins anew, allowing you to avoid or erase one event as if it never happened.
21:19
SPEAKER_07: Use the card's magic as soon as you draw the card or at any other time before you die.
21:25
SPEAKER_03: That's crazy.
21:26
SPEAKER_03: That's crazy.
21:29
SPEAKER_07: Flames.
21:30
SPEAKER_07: A powerful devil becomes your enemy.
21:33
SPEAKER_07: The devil seeks your ruin and plagues your life, savoring your suffering before it attempts to slay you.
21:39
SPEAKER_07: Last until you either you or the devil dies.
21:42
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
21:44
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
21:45
SPEAKER_07: Fool.
21:46
SPEAKER_07: You lose 10,000 experience points, discard this card and draw from the deck again, counting both draws as w one of your declared draws.
21:54
SPEAKER_02: Do not pass go, do not collect 200 gold pieces.
21:58
SPEAKER_07: If losing that much experience points Points would cause you to lose a level, you instead lose an amount that leaves you with just enough experience points to keep your level.
22:06
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
22:07
SPEAKER_04: So that's I mean that's one XP.
22:09
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
22:09
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
22:10
SPEAKER_02: That kind of I mean that kind of yeah.
22:12
SPEAKER_02: Like that kind of sucks, but it's also like at least it doesn't like actively level you down.
22:18
SPEAKER_07: Not this time.
22:19
SPEAKER_07: It uh things were okay.
22:21
SPEAKER_07: Things were a little bit harsher in the past.
22:23
SPEAKER_02: See, and then you and then and then you combo that with like like the the principles from like vampires energy drain, which we talked about in the last episode in a plug.
22:32
SPEAKER_02: And then if you like reach level zero, you just die.
22:34
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
22:35
SPEAKER_07: Gem.
22:36
SPEAKER_07: 25 pieces of jewelry worth 2,000 gold pieces each, or 50 gems worth 1,000 gold pieces each appear at your feet.
22:43
SPEAKER_01: Nice.
22:44
SPEAKER_07: Jester.
22:45
SPEAKER_07: You gain 10,000 experience points, or you can draw two additional cards beyond your declared draws.
22:49
SPEAKER_07: You can pick for key.
22:52
SPEAKER_07: A rare or rarer magic weapon, which you are proficient in, appears in your hands.
22:57
SPEAKER_07: The DM chooses the weapon.
23:00
SPEAKER_07: Knight.
23:00
SPEAKER_07: You gain the service of a fourth-level fighter who appears in a space but you choose within 30 feet of you.
23:05
SPEAKER_07: The fighter is the same race as you and serves you loyally until death, believing the fates have drawn him or her to you.
23:11
SPEAKER_07: You control this character.
23:13
SPEAKER_02: Okay, well, I when you were reciting all the names, I was wondering if it was like Kn Knight or Oh my bad.
23:21
SPEAKER_02: Knight.
23:21
SPEAKER_02: No, no, no, no, no.
23:22
SPEAKER_02: I was I I wanted to see if the the nature of the of the effect would reveal that to me, and it did.
23:28
SPEAKER_02: Also, that's kind of that feels kind of weird.
23:32
SPEAKER_02: Like it is it is this just a person?
23:35
SPEAKER_07: It it is in fact just a person.
23:37
SPEAKER_02: Like, but like this isn't a person, like this is like a real person.
23:41
SPEAKER_07: This is a real person.
23:42
SPEAKER_02: That's that's crazy.
23:45
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
23:45
SPEAKER_02: Is there like a is there like a a factory where they like make these people?
23:50
SPEAKER_02: They make these for the night card, you know?
23:53
SPEAKER_06: I mean not quite, but if it's a construct, it's not.
23:59
SPEAKER_06: But that's see that's unless you're a construct.
24:02
SPEAKER_04: Right.
24:02
SPEAKER_06: That's that's crazy to me because like I I mean, I don't know.
24:06
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
24:07
SPEAKER_01: Like I'm thinking about it too hard.
24:09
SPEAKER_07: You are, but believe it or not, there is an answer.
24:13
SPEAKER_01: Oh god, oh good.
24:14
SPEAKER_01: Oh good.
24:15
SPEAKER_01: Moon.
24:16
SPEAKER_07: You are granted the ability to cast the wish spell one D three times.
24:20
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
24:22
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, I like that it's so you definitely want to draw moon.
24:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I like that it's D3 because like it reminds me of like genies, you know, genies give you like three wishes.
24:30
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, yeah.
24:31
SPEAKER_07: Puzzle, permanently reduce your intelligence by one d4 plus one to a minimum score of one.
24:38
SPEAKER_05: Oh, good.
24:39
SPEAKER_07: You can then choose to draw one additional card.
24:42
SPEAKER_07: And you know, if you just lost intelligence, you're probably going to draw one additional card.
24:47
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
24:49
SPEAKER_07: Uh rogue, a non-player character of the DM's choice becomes hostile towards you.
24:54
SPEAKER_07: The identity of your new enemy isn't known until the NPC or someone else reveals it.
24:59
SPEAKER_07: Nothing less than a wish spell or divine intervention can end the NPC's hostility towards you.
25:05
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
25:07
SPEAKER_04: I pulled that card before.
25:09
SPEAKER_07: Yep.
25:10
SPEAKER_07: In the game that we all play with each other, actually.
25:13
SPEAKER_02: Hey, you know, at least it's not um I mean, I guess depending, it it could there's a but there's a chance it could potentially be worse.
25:23
SPEAKER_02: Oh, there's worse.
25:25
SPEAKER_02: Specifically, well, there's specifically a devil.
25:28
SPEAKER_02: But, you know, like at least it's at least it might just be like some guy.
25:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's very funny to imagine it's just like it's just like Joe from accounting.
25:37
SPEAKER_07: This is definitely worse for roleplay reasons, though.
25:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because then it could be like it could be like your mom or something, yeah.
25:43
SPEAKER_02: Like whereas if it's like a devil, it's kind of like, well, depending on like if you're probably playing like a good aligned character, like yeah, you might end up in a situation with a with a devil as your enemy anyway.
25:55
SPEAKER_02: But you know.
25:57
SPEAKER_02: Ruin.
25:58
SPEAKER_07: Still all forms of wealth that you carry or own other than magic items are lost to you.
26:03
SPEAKER_07: Oh, good.
26:04
SPEAKER_07: Portable property vanishes.
26:06
SPEAKER_07: Did this buildings and land you own are lost in a way that alters reality the least.
26:11
SPEAKER_07: Any documentation you should own prove that proves you should own something is lost with this.
26:18
SPEAKER_04: Interesting.
26:19
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
26:19
SPEAKER_04: So yeah, you just lose everything.
26:22
SPEAKER_02: Except your magical items.
26:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
26:25
SPEAKER_02: Because, you know, it'd be, you know.
26:27
SPEAKER_06: It'd be it'd be rude.
26:29
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it'd be it'd be hard to walk away from that encounter, maybe, if you lost your like, you know, your magical sword.
26:36
SPEAKER_07: Sage, at any time you choose, within one year of drawing this card, you can ask a question in meditation and mentally receive a truthful, helpful answer to that question.
26:46
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
26:47
SPEAKER_02: That's that's good.
26:49
SPEAKER_07: Skull.
26:51
SPEAKER_07: You summon an avatar of death, a ghostly humanoid skeleton clad in a tattered black robe and carrying a spectral scythe.
26:59
SPEAKER_07: It appears in a space of the DM's choice within 10 feet of you and attacks you, warning all others that you must win the battle alone.
27:07
SPEAKER_07: The avatar fights you until you die, or it drops to zero hit points, whereupon it disappears.
27:12
SPEAKER_07: If anyone tries to help you, the helper summons its own avatar of death.
27:17
SPEAKER_07: The creature slain, a creature slain by an avatar of death cannot be restored to life.
27:23
SPEAKER_04: Oh man.
27:24
SPEAKER_04: That's crazy.
27:25
SPEAKER_04: Just imagine that chain reaction.
27:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's just avatars of death.
27:29
SPEAKER_02: It's just avatars of death all the way down.
27:32
SPEAKER_02: Just avatars.
27:33
SPEAKER_02: That's crazy.
27:34
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
27:35
SPEAKER_07: Uh and it it says cannot be restored to life.
27:39
SPEAKER_07: I mean, I assume that the gods can do whatever they want, but that means you can't use a wish spell.
27:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
27:44
SPEAKER_02: To bring someone back.
27:45
SPEAKER_02: And and since they're and since they're so specific about like that a wish spell or whatever is the only way to negate certain effects from the other cards, I feel like if that, you know, if that were the case, they would probably outline it, you know?
27:59
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
27:59
SPEAKER_07: Star.
28:01
SPEAKER_07: Increase one of your ability scores by two.
28:03
SPEAKER_07: The score can exceed 20, but cannot exceed 24.
28:08
SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
28:09
SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's nice.
28:10
SPEAKER_02: That's a nice little bonus.
28:12
SPEAKER_02: Does it is it, is it like uh can you choose can the player choose?
28:16
SPEAKER_07: Or is it just uh at this point, yes.
28:18
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
28:19
SPEAKER_07: Uh uh in previous editions you could not.
28:22
SPEAKER_07: Son, you gain 50,000 experience points in a wondrous item, which the DM determines, appears in your hands.
28:29
SPEAKER_02: Nice.
28:30
SPEAKER_07: Talents, every magic item you wear or carry disintegrate.
28:34
SPEAKER_07: Artifacts in your possession aren't destroyed, but they do vanish.
28:38
SPEAKER_02: Okay, that's very I like I like how it says they don't they aren't destroyed, but they do vanish.
28:46
SPEAKER_03: Like, okay, thank you.
28:47
SPEAKER_03: Those are functionally the same for me anyway.
28:51
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, exactly.
28:52
SPEAKER_03: Because it's like, where are they?
28:53
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
28:54
SPEAKER_07: Throne.
28:55
SPEAKER_07: You gain proficiency in the persuasion skill, and you double your proficiency bonus on checks made with that skill.
29:01
SPEAKER_07: In addition, you gain rightful ownership of a small keep where somewhere in the world.
29:06
SPEAKER_07: However, the keep is currently in the hands of monsters, which you must clear out before you can claim the keep as yours.
29:12
SPEAKER_07: Still sounds cool, you get a side quest and a keep.
29:16
SPEAKER_07: Alright.
29:16
SPEAKER_07: I like the Okay.
29:18
SPEAKER_07: And then the void.
29:21
SPEAKER_07: This black card spells disaster.
29:23
SPEAKER_07: Your soul is drawn from your body and contained in an object in a place of the DM's choice.
29:29
SPEAKER_07: One or more powerful beings guard the place.
29:32
SPEAKER_07: While your soul is trapped in this way, your body is incapacitated.
29:35
SPEAKER_07: A wish spell can't restore your soul, but the spell reveals the location of the object that holds it.
29:40
SPEAKER_07: You draw no more cards.
29:43
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
29:44
SPEAKER_04: Yep, and then you have to go and get them.
29:46
SPEAKER_02: I like I like how some of these are sort of like some of them are kind of like soft inverses of other cards, and some of them are also kind of like uh related in some ways, like how the this last one is almost similar to like the suspended um animation one.
30:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
30:05
SPEAKER_02: Except it's your your soul being held in like a phylactery as opposed to as opposed to your whole body.
30:11
SPEAKER_02: Yes, and then you, you know, you also have like the one that destroys all of your possessions except magical items, and then one that destroys your magical item, which imagine drawing those back to back.
30:21
SPEAKER_02: That would be really funny.
30:22
SPEAKER_02: Like you're like, well, at least I still have my magic sword, and then you draw the you draw the um uh which one was it?
30:28
SPEAKER_02: You draw the talents card, and then your sword also disappears.
30:32
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
30:33
SPEAKER_07: Okay, so these are the current effects, but there have been many iterations, many, many iterations.
30:40
SPEAKER_07: I will not cover every single iteration, I will just cover the broad strokes.
30:46
SPEAKER_07: So, the deck first appeared in 1975's Greyhawk supplement for advanced dungeons and dragons.
30:53
SPEAKER_01: Yay, Greyhawk! Yay!
30:56
SPEAKER_07: It goes way back.
30:56
SPEAKER_07: It was part of a list of magical items that adventurers could find or loot throughout their adventure in Greyhawk.
31:02
SPEAKER_07: Uh the this device is a pack of 18 parchment cards, four each four each of four kinds and two jokers.
31:09
SPEAKER_07: Each of the four in each kind is different.
31:12
SPEAKER_07: One half brings beneficial things, the other half cause hurtful things.
31:16
SPEAKER_07: The person possessing such a deck may select cards from it four times or more if jokers are drawn, and whatever is revealed by the card takes place.
31:24
SPEAKER_07: After each draw, the card is returned to the pack and is shuffled again before another draw is made.
31:29
SPEAKER_07: All four draws need not be made, but the moment the possessor of the deck states that he has no intention of ever drawing further cards or after the maximum number of draws in any event, it disappears.
31:41
SPEAKER_07: Note the referee may make up his own deck using the guidelines above.
31:45
SPEAKER_07: The referee.
31:46
SPEAKER_07: The referee's gonna be.
31:46
SPEAKER_07: The referee, back when the DM is the referee.
31:49
SPEAKER_07: But I want to note from Jump, it has stated that this is meant to be fully customized by your DM.
31:58
SPEAKER_07: I will hear no people saying, but back in the day it was like this.
32:05
SPEAKER_07: No, from Jump, it wants you to customize it.
32:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think so choose.
32:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think it's more in the spirit of like you can you can take you can take this and use it just as is, or also like potentially like guidelines, not guidelines exactly, but like, you know, here's ideas for stuff that, you know, like would fit kind of the vibe of the card, you know.
32:30
SPEAKER_07: So I will read from the table I have for the original deck of many things.
32:37
SPEAKER_07: Uh you'll notice that a lot of things are very different right off the bat, but a lot are actually surprisingly you can see.
32:46
SPEAKER_02: You can see the uh the foundation.
32:51
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
32:52
SPEAKER_07: So the ace of hearts, you immediately gain 50,000 experience.
32:57
unknown: Okay.
32:59
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
33:00
SPEAKER_07: Gain uh miscellaneous magic item uh from any table of your choice.
33:05
SPEAKER_07: The Queen of Hearts, gain one to three wishes to be taken when you like.
33:10
SPEAKER_01: Nice.
33:11
SPEAKER_07: The Jack of Hearts, help from a superhero with plus three armor, shield, and sword for one hour when you call for him.
33:18
SPEAKER_03: Superhero.
33:20
SPEAKER_07: Basically, if I recall correctly, superheroes were basically just allies you could call upon.
33:25
SPEAKER_02: Um you just throw up the bat signal.
33:29
SPEAKER_07: Essentially.
33:30
SPEAKER_04: This is really good.
33:31
SPEAKER_07: I know.
33:32
SPEAKER_04: So uh I looked up the uh like titles basically for the different levels of classes in first edition.
33:42
SPEAKER_04: So a superhero, it says it's basically more like Conan the Barbarian or King Arthur rather than you know, like an actual like Superman or Batman or what have you.
33:52
SPEAKER_04: Oh, cool.
33:53
SPEAKER_04: Um they are eight men strong.
33:57
SPEAKER_04: In the original DD rules, a fourth-level fighting man becomes a hero with all the benefits in like a large battle.
34:04
SPEAKER_04: So then, likewise, like an eighth-level fighting man becomes a superhero with the ability to kill up to eight level zero men in a single round of combat.
34:15
SPEAKER_07: Jesus.
34:17
SPEAKER_02: First edition's wild, y'all.
34:19
SPEAKER_02: Is that like one hour, one?
34:20
SPEAKER_02: Is that meant to be one hour one time, you think?
34:24
SPEAKER_07: Or is it like I'm not sure.
34:27
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
34:28
SPEAKER_07: I mean, I'm I literally that one I literally wrote down exactly what the books that yeah, no, that's it's first edition.
34:35
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I wouldn't be surprised if if it's not exactly clear.
34:41
SPEAKER_02: Hey, I guess even if it is just one time though, like you just gotta you just gotta figure out like this is the one time we really need him.
34:47
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
34:48
SPEAKER_07: Um, ace of diamonds, immediately gain map to richest treasure on any dungeon level.
34:53
SPEAKER_07: Okay, King of Diamonds, gain five to thirty pieces of jewelry immediately.
34:59
SPEAKER_07: Queen of Diamonds, gain scroll of seven spells, no first level spells.
35:04
SPEAKER_05: Nice.
35:05
SPEAKER_07: Jack of Diamonds, add one point to any ability score you wish, for example, strength, intelligence, wisdom.
35:11
SPEAKER_07: I don't know why it listed them out, but it did.
35:14
SPEAKER_07: Um in case you've gotten this far and you don't know what an ability score is.
35:19
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, exactly.
35:20
SPEAKER_07: Um ace of spades, lose one experience level immediately.
35:25
SPEAKER_02: Okay, good.
35:26
SPEAKER_07: So they're yeah, like I said, it used to be harsher.
35:29
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it used to let you level down like fully.
35:32
SPEAKER_07: King of spades, lord with plus four armor, shield, and sword attacks you.
35:37
SPEAKER_01: Okay, good.
35:38
SPEAKER_07: Oh Queen of Spades, immediate death, no saving throne.
35:44
SPEAKER_02: Okay, yeah, not even not even like we summon a monster to attack you, just nope.
35:51
SPEAKER_04: It's like you just have a heart attack.
35:53
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
35:53
SPEAKER_04: Someone got the death note and wrote your name in it.
35:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
35:59
SPEAKER_07: Jack of spades.
36:01
SPEAKER_07: Monster from fifth level underworld monster table attacks by surprise.
36:04
SPEAKER_02: See, at least you can survive that.
36:06
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
36:08
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
36:08
SPEAKER_07: Ace of clubs.
36:10
SPEAKER_07: Change alignment immediately.
36:12
SPEAKER_01: Okay, good.
36:13
SPEAKER_07: King of Clubs, lose your most prized magic item immediately.
36:18
SPEAKER_07: Queen of Clubs, turn to stone, no saving throw.
36:22
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
36:23
SPEAKER_04: Dude, the queen of clubs is a bitch.
36:25
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no.
36:26
SPEAKER_03: Two of the queen effects are like real, real bad.
36:29
SPEAKER_07: You do not want to piss off the queens.
36:31
SPEAKER_07: Right.
36:31
SPEAKER_07: Jack of Clubs, lose one point from your prime requisite, which your prime requisite is your class's most important ability score.
36:39
SPEAKER_07: That's okay.
36:40
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
36:40
SPEAKER_02: Prime.
36:41
SPEAKER_02: I see.
36:42
SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm I'm laughing like it's like I I love it.
36:46
SPEAKER_02: I love it.
36:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it is very useful.
36:49
SPEAKER_02: But referee, prime requisite.
36:51
SPEAKER_02: I love it.
36:52
SPEAKER_07: Uh Joker.
36:53
SPEAKER_07: Gain 25,000 experience points immediately and select two additional cards.
36:57
SPEAKER_02: I like the use of the I like the repeated use of the word immediately, where it kind of doesn't exactly because doesn't need doesn't exactly need to be there because it's obvious that some of these would be effects that would like there's no reason that they wouldn't be immediate.
37:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
37:16
SPEAKER_02: I guess.
37:16
SPEAKER_02: I don't like I know that sounds like I'm that sounds like I'm nitpicking, and maybe I am, but it's just really funny to me.
37:23
SPEAKER_07: You can tell when things were written for first edition.
37:26
SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah, you know, like like like it would be fundamentally different to like gain five to thirty pieces of jewelry immediately versus gain five to thirty pieces of jewelry in five minutes.
37:40
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
37:40
SPEAKER_02: Like, I know it sounds like I'm being nitpicky, but I just think it's I think it's hilarious and also really charming.
37:45
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
37:46
SPEAKER_07: The original deck does not have the same iconography or symbols as other iterations, however, it does establish the fame framework for the effects of the cards.
37:54
SPEAKER_07: I mean, you can see the lineage.
37:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like some of those are just straight up the same thing.
37:58
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
37:59
SPEAKER_07: Or a first edition variant at the same time.
38:01
SPEAKER_07: Right, yeah, exactly.
38:03
SPEAKER_07: And later editions, there are actually tables to convert regular playing cards into an the iconic deck of many things' faces.
38:11
SPEAKER_07: So in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide, released in 1979, we actually do see the deck begin to take a more familiar shape.
38:20
SPEAKER_07: It's still a magical treasure to be found by adventurers, but now the deck is described with more flowery language.
38:26
SPEAKER_07: They could even be made out of engraved ivory.
38:29
SPEAKER_07: It describes glyphs, sigils, and magical characters being inscribed to the surface.
38:35
SPEAKER_07: As soon as one of these sheets is drawn forth from the pack, its magic is bestowed upon the person who drew it, for better or worse.
38:42
SPEAKER_07: The character gaining a deck of many things may announce that only one will be drawn from the pack, or he or she may opt to draw forth two, three, or even four, but the number must be announced prior to the first plaque withdrawn.
38:54
SPEAKER_07: The deck now contains 13 or 22 cards.
38:57
SPEAKER_07: 75% are 13, 25% are 22.
39:02
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
39:02
SPEAKER_04: And I just I can't imagine drawing four cards from the deck.
39:07
SPEAKER_02: Like, that's just like that's too many.
39:09
SPEAKER_02: That's too many.
39:10
SPEAKER_02: You have a gambling problem.
39:12
SPEAKER_02: Like, but also like I, you know, I do think that you know, we're a little biased, I think, because we know what they actually do.
39:22
SPEAKER_02: Even though I don't know, I think that might, I think that might I think I would I still wouldn't do even if I didn't know.
39:30
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, I'm too anxious and I played too much DD.
39:33
SPEAKER_02: Right, yeah.
39:34
SPEAKER_02: Especially if I if it you know, I I lived in a world where like magic existed and and you know, gods and devils and stuff, like there's explicit proof that those things existed.
39:46
SPEAKER_02: I would be like, this is there's too much that could happen.
39:50
SPEAKER_02: So there's too much that could happen.
39:52
SPEAKER_07: Let me quickly rattle off uh the effects.
39:55
SPEAKER_07: Now this actually puts all of the effects pretty succinctly in the table.
40:00
SPEAKER_07: Um, it also has the conversion for what the playing card equivalent would be because from jump it wants you to have a physical deck for players to to take from.
40:11
SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's fun.
40:12
SPEAKER_01: I like that.
40:12
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, obviously, there's not a deck of many things at this point because it's 1979 that you can just go and um like purchase from your local game store, but it wants you to be a participate in the the draw.
40:29
SPEAKER_02: Like it makes it more exciting.
40:31
SPEAKER_07: So balance, change alignment, or be judged.
40:35
SPEAKER_07: I don't know what the or be judged means.
40:38
SPEAKER_07: I couldn't find anything.
40:40
SPEAKER_04: Or be judged.
40:42
SPEAKER_02: Uh you just you're being you're being judged by your friends for not participating in the roleplay.
40:51
SPEAKER_02: For not participating in the role play.
40:53
SPEAKER_07: Comet to defeat the next monster, you mean gain one level.
40:58
SPEAKER_07: Donjon, you are imprisoned.
41:01
SPEAKER_02: You are imprisoned.
41:02
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't it doesn't specify the the the okay you are imprisoned.
41:08
SPEAKER_02: The the the the the the the town guard just shows up and carts you off to the dungeon.
41:13
SPEAKER_02: That's it.
41:13
SPEAKER_07: Uriel, minus three on all saving throws versus petrification.
41:18
SPEAKER_02: It's very specific this time.
41:20
SPEAKER_02: I mean that's that's inconvenient, but you know.
41:24
SPEAKER_07: Fates avoid any situation you choose once.
41:28
SPEAKER_03: You may avoid it.
41:30
SPEAKER_04: Once.
41:31
SPEAKER_04: Once.
41:32
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
41:32
SPEAKER_04: So I choose to not be imprisoned.
41:35
SPEAKER_04: Thanks.
41:35
SPEAKER_04: Right, yeah.
41:36
SPEAKER_07: Uh flames.
41:38
SPEAKER_07: Enmity between you and a devil.
41:40
SPEAKER_07: Fool.
41:41
SPEAKER_07: Lose 10,000 experience points, draw again.
41:44
SPEAKER_07: Gem.
41:45
SPEAKER_07: Gain your choice of 20 jewelry or 50 gems.
41:48
SPEAKER_07: Idiot.
41:49
SPEAKER_07: Lose one to four points of intelligence, you may draw again.
41:52
SPEAKER_07: Jester.
41:53
SPEAKER_07: Gain 10,000 experience points or two more draws from the deck.
41:58
SPEAKER_07: He.
41:59
SPEAKER_07: Gain a treasure map plus one magic item.
42:01
SPEAKER_07: Or magic weapon.
42:03
SPEAKER_05: Nice.
42:03
SPEAKER_07: Knight.
42:04
SPEAKER_07: Gain the service of a fourth level fighter.
42:07
SPEAKER_07: Moon.
42:07
SPEAKER_07: You are granted one to four wishes.
42:09
SPEAKER_07: One to four?
42:11
SPEAKER_07: You used to be more generous with the wishes too.
42:13
SPEAKER_02: You can get an extra one this time.
42:15
SPEAKER_07: Rogue.
42:16
SPEAKER_07: One of your henchmen turns against you.
42:18
SPEAKER_07: Henchman.
42:19
SPEAKER_07: Henchman, yeah.
42:20
SPEAKER_02: Henchman.
42:21
SPEAKER_02: Henchman.
42:21
SPEAKER_07: This is back during the henchman days.
42:24
SPEAKER_07: Ruin.
42:24
SPEAKER_07: Immediately lose all wealth and real property.
42:28
SPEAKER_02: As opposed to fake property.
42:30
SPEAKER_07: I believe in this case, real as in real estate property, because I guess you could be a landlord in first edition.
42:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there was there was quite a lot of there was quite a lot of that.
42:40
SPEAKER_02: I mean, don't worry though, you still get your um you still have like your your like MMO housing and like your VR hangouts, you know.
42:48
SPEAKER_02: You still have that.
42:49
SPEAKER_07: Skull, defeat death, or be forever destroyed.
42:53
SPEAKER_02: Cool.
42:54
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
42:54
SPEAKER_07: Star.
42:55
SPEAKER_07: Immediately gain two points on your major ability.
42:58
SPEAKER_07: AKA your prime requisite, aka whatever.
43:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
43:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
43:02
SPEAKER_02: We should bring back prime requisite.
43:04
SPEAKER_07: I do like the wording.
43:06
SPEAKER_07: Gain beneficial miscellaneous magic item and 50,000 experience points.
43:10
SPEAKER_03: Nice.
43:11
SPEAKER_03: Cool.
43:11
SPEAKER_07: Talents.
43:12
SPEAKER_07: All magic items you possess are torn from you.
43:15
SPEAKER_03: That's that's very dramatic for you.
43:17
SPEAKER_03: Very dramatic.
43:17
SPEAKER_03: Torn from you.
43:19
SPEAKER_07: Throne.
43:20
SPEAKER_07: Gain charisma of 18 and a small keep.
43:22
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I this one's even this one's even more powerful because it boosts your entire charisma score instead of like just your persuasion.
43:30
SPEAKER_02: Like that's pretty good.
43:31
SPEAKER_07: Vizier, know the answer to your next dilemma.
43:34
SPEAKER_07: And the void.
43:35
SPEAKER_07: Body functions, but souls dropped elsewhere.
43:38
SPEAKER_07: Just elsewhere.
43:38
SPEAKER_04: Why is it so vague?
43:41
SPEAKER_02: You know, I like It's first edition.
43:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
43:44
SPEAKER_02: And you know, I I do think it, I do think it, you know, it is very like.
43:50
SPEAKER_02: I think it works.
43:51
SPEAKER_02: Like, as much as I love the the very like some seemingly overly descriptive in some cases, like I do think it works in service of of Making it like you know, like because it's so customizable and like there's so much of an emphasis on it being customizable, like that makes sense, yeah, to me.
44:10
SPEAKER_02: Also, like just elsewhere.
44:12
SPEAKER_02: See where's he at whatever?
44:15
SPEAKER_02: Don't worry about it.
44:16
SPEAKER_02: He's somewhere, don't worry about it.
44:17
SPEAKER_07: Um, the void and Donjon are the now the put cementing them in place as once you draw these, no more draw draws.
44:26
SPEAKER_01: Right, yeah.
44:27
SPEAKER_01: Because you know, you're you're you're in just you're imprisoned, or your soul is elsewhere.
44:35
SPEAKER_04: So can't do much if your soul is, you know, trapped somewhere else.
44:39
SPEAKER_04: Right, yeah.
44:40
SPEAKER_07: September of 1983, TSR decided that they wanted to throw all of the satanic panic parents into a frenzy while saving it simultaneously making a little podcaster in 2026 very happy.
44:53
SPEAKER_02: Is that podcaster you?
44:55
SPEAKER_07: It is.
44:55
SPEAKER_02: It's probably also about to be me.
44:57
SPEAKER_07: In Dragon Magazine number 77, Michael J.
45:00
SPEAKER_07: Lowry wrote an amazing little article titled The Tarot of Many Things.
45:04
SPEAKER_07: Oh my god.
45:05
SPEAKER_03: Oh yes.
45:06
SPEAKER_07: The article treats readers to a little fun history on both the deck of many things and tarot cards.
45:11
SPEAKER_07: Um, it also guides a potential DM through the act of making a tarot deck of many things.
45:18
SPEAKER_04: Oh, hello.
45:19
SPEAKER_04: Oh god.
45:22
SPEAKER_07: It's very good.
45:23
SPEAKER_07: I actually do recommend it.
45:25
SPEAKER_02: I bet this made so many, this made so many parents lose their minds.
45:30
SPEAKER_02: I can just imagine, I can just imagine being like a teenage Dungeons and Dragons uh player in 1983 and your mom finds this.
45:38
SPEAKER_06: Oh my god.
45:39
SPEAKER_06: Oh dear.
45:42
SPEAKER_07: So the article posits that such an item would be unique in that universe and incredibly powerful.
45:48
SPEAKER_07: It describes the different ways the deck would look as well as the actual compulsion, which would require a saving throw to resist the urge to draw from it.
45:58
SPEAKER_02: Okay, well that that probably explains why people would would draw from this.
46:03
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
46:04
SPEAKER_02: You know.
46:05
SPEAKER_07: Um the cards work similarly to previous decks, effects instantaneous and for all intents and purposes irreversible.
46:12
SPEAKER_07: However, in traditional tarot fashion, the cards have different effects depending on whether they are drawn upright or reverse.
46:18
SPEAKER_07: Oh god.
46:21
SPEAKER_07: So I wanted to pick my favorite card, my favorite tarot card, which is the star for my example, but the effects were not dramatically different enough.
46:29
SPEAKER_07: So unfortunately, we'll go with another one of my favorites, the high priestess.
46:33
SPEAKER_02: Oh, well, see, that it works because that's my favorite tarot card.
46:36
SPEAKER_02: Perfect.
46:38
SPEAKER_07: Upright, she signifies serene knowledge, Sagacity.
46:43
SPEAKER_07: Sagacity.
46:44
SPEAKER_07: I always want to pronounce it Sagacity.
46:47
SPEAKER_02: That's how I was about to pronounce it.
46:49
SPEAKER_02: Sage acity.
46:50
SPEAKER_07: Sagacity, intuition, foresight, inspiration, the power of the inner mind to heal, create, enlighten, and inform.
46:58
SPEAKER_07: If drawn upright, the drawer gains one point of wisdom, two points if a cleric or druid.
47:04
SPEAKER_05: Alright.
47:05
SPEAKER_07: Reversed.
47:06
SPEAKER_07: She signifies superficiality, conceit, shallowness, a lack of depth or perception, or of understanding, an acceptance of external and superficial knowledge of trivialities.
47:21
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
47:22
SPEAKER_04: That makes sense.
47:24
SPEAKER_07: So the article goes on to list possible effects for every single tarot card, upright, reverse, and upright.
47:30
SPEAKER_07: Not just the major arcana, but all of the minor as well.
47:33
SPEAKER_07: Like he went all out.
47:36
SPEAKER_01: He went the for the big boy.
47:38
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
47:39
SPEAKER_07: As an aside, Michael Lowry also seemingly uses the article to shout out some of his favorite tarot decks and the artist.
47:46
SPEAKER_07: I just want to say, Michael Lowry, I see you and I appreciate you.
47:49
SPEAKER_03: That's really good.
47:50
SPEAKER_03: That's really good.
47:52
SPEAKER_07: So in August of 1989, Dragon Magazine 148 brought us Luck of the Draw, which was written by Robin Jenkins.
48:02
SPEAKER_07: The article is written as a short snippet of a story, as a dialogue between the wizard Basil and Jared, a mercenary he's commissioned a number of times.
48:12
SPEAKER_07: Basil wants to know all there is to know about the deck, but he's not inclined to get hands-on information if you know what I mean.
48:19
SPEAKER_07: Fair.
48:22
SPEAKER_07: So he hired Jared and his crew to obtain information on the decks.
48:26
SPEAKER_07: In the course, they found several decks, decided to pull from them, and of course, hijinks ensued.
48:32
SPEAKER_07: Of course.
48:33
SPEAKER_07: Basil is up tight.
48:34
SPEAKER_07: Jared's a bit of a sarcastic ass, kind of a prankster.
48:38
SPEAKER_07: And there's a bit of hostile interrogation, honestly, as Jared details what happened with each of their draws and what they learned of the deck's origins.
48:48
SPEAKER_07: One of Jared's party members, Van El, drew Donjon and was imprisoned on Hades, where he's a similarly imprisoned sage who told him that the deck's powers come from the plane of concordant opposition.
49:04
SPEAKER_07: I had to consult my planes notes, and that is the old name for the Outlands.
49:09
SPEAKER_04: Oh.
49:12
SPEAKER_02: You just pull this card and you're just like whisked away.
49:14
SPEAKER_02: And then there's like other people there.
49:16
SPEAKER_02: Like it's like you're in prison and they're like, hey, what are you in for?
49:19
SPEAKER_07: What are you in for?
49:21
SPEAKER_07: I knew what you I know what you drew, but how many cards did you get before that?
49:24
SPEAKER_03: Right?
49:26
SPEAKER_07: Incredible.
49:27
SPEAKER_07: The deck is powered by the absolute neutrality of the Outlands.
49:30
SPEAKER_07: If I recall correctly, it's like a negative energy sort of field in the Outlands.
49:36
SPEAKER_07: I would have to go back and like really peruse the notes.
49:41
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's it's just the, you know, it's the it's the it's the alignment vibe.
49:46
SPEAKER_02: It's the it's the it's the unaligned.
49:49
SPEAKER_02: The genesse qua of the of of the true neutral alignment.
49:53
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
49:54
SPEAKER_02: Or, you know, the the neutrality, the neutrality of it all.
49:58
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
49:59
SPEAKER_07: The plane also functions as storage for the items gained and lost through the deck, which is utilized by the gods of luck.
50:06
SPEAKER_04: Oh, so that's where they go.
50:09
SPEAKER_02: So you just someone just loses a magical item and a portal just opens in the sky and a sword just like plunks down into the pile.
50:17
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
50:18
SPEAKER_02: That's really that's really good.
50:20
SPEAKER_07: Essentially, as they discuss, they come to theorize that the decks were created by gods of luck, fortune, and gambling, and distributed by other gods and otherworldly creatures like leprechauns, pixies, imps, etc.
50:32
SPEAKER_02: Cambbians, evidently.
50:34
SPEAKER_02: Gambling cambians, gambling cambians.
50:36
SPEAKER_02: That's different.
50:36
SPEAKER_07: We'll get to that.
50:38
SPEAKER_07: Oh, what?
50:39
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
50:39
SPEAKER_07: The article also establishes some more mechanics information.
50:43
SPEAKER_07: The cards appear blank until you until use is intended.
50:48
SPEAKER_07: So you can't look at the cards without intending to draw one.
50:51
SPEAKER_07: So you can't just admire the art, which really Oh, that was that sucks.
50:54
SPEAKER_07: You can't just appreciate the art.
50:56
SPEAKER_07: It establishes an additional deck type, which is just a 13 card set with weaker rewards and punishment.
51:03
SPEAKER_07: So it's the newbie deck, basically.
51:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's your that's your starter deck when you're not sure if you when you're not sure if you want to just like risk your life.
51:13
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
51:13
SPEAKER_07: The magazine also also includes cardstock printed visuals of the deck illustrated by George Bar.
51:20
SPEAKER_07: This is the very first visual depiction of the cards.
51:23
SPEAKER_04: Oh, oh, that's really cool.
51:24
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, and because it's Dragon Magazine, they're just like in like the per perforated little cardstock that you can see that your Twitter can have to draw from a deck that you created.
51:35
SPEAKER_04: And it has this one that we actually have.
51:37
SPEAKER_07: I don't know because I know that we have several that have the original um the original cards that were created for that magazine.
51:46
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
51:47
SPEAKER_07: I don't know.
51:48
SPEAKER_07: We'll have to go through and see if we have what what Dragon Magazine number 77.
51:55
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
51:56
SPEAKER_04: That's so fun.
51:57
SPEAKER_07: Oh no, this one is uh 148.
52:00
SPEAKER_04: Oh, 148.
52:01
SPEAKER_04: Oh, okay.
52:02
SPEAKER_07: It is very fun.
52:04
SPEAKER_07: The very next month, Dungeon Magazine number 19 released a whole adventure for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons with the deck.
52:11
SPEAKER_07: This is not the first adventure featuring the cards.
52:14
SPEAKER_07: That was the Throne of Bloodstone in 1988, but this is the first one where it's more than just loot.
52:21
SPEAKER_07: House of Cards features adventures attempting to restore order in the town of Westgate.
52:26
SPEAKER_07: The God mask is causing some chaos and an attempted takeover of the town.
52:31
SPEAKER_07: They end up in a section of a tomb called the House of Cards.
52:37
SPEAKER_07: I won't detail the adventure too much, but many of the doors in the House of Cards are sealed with modified a modified card from the deck of many things.
52:47
SPEAKER_02: Oh, so you have to.
52:49
SPEAKER_07: In order to get through, they will have to pull the card from the door, effectively pulling the card from a deck of one.
52:55
SPEAKER_04: Oh my god.
52:56
SPEAKER_07: The cards each activate individually now, so pulling the Donjon or the Void won't make the other cards vanish.
53:03
SPEAKER_07: So that won't get rid of the effects of the cards on the house.
53:10
SPEAKER_07: So but then you also have to, you know, plan around.
53:13
SPEAKER_07: Okay, well, one somebody's going to disappear when they pull the Donjon.
53:19
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
53:19
SPEAKER_02: Um you just like walk up, you just walk up to a door and it has a skull on it, and you're just like No.
53:29
SPEAKER_02: I don't think I will.
53:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you're like, you just look at you just look back at the rest of the party and it's like Mask can have Westgate.
53:38
SPEAKER_02: You're like, well, someone, someone's gotta do it.
53:43
SPEAKER_02: Don't everybody raise your hands all at once, you know?
53:46
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
53:46
SPEAKER_07: The cards only behave normally once all the all 22 are back in the deck, which negates the wish spell placed on the house of cards.
53:53
SPEAKER_03: Quote unquote normally.
53:55
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
53:56
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
53:58
SPEAKER_07: 3.5 brings back the deck in its Dungeon Master's Guide, released in 2003.
54:03
SPEAKER_07: It does present a representative tarot and playing card for each of the cards.
54:09
SPEAKER_07: However, there are no changes visually and very few mechanically.
54:12
SPEAKER_07: Uriel now induces a minus one penalty on all saving throws.
54:16
SPEAKER_02: Dang, not just petrification specifically.
54:18
SPEAKER_07: Not just petrification specifically.
54:21
SPEAKER_07: Flames now result in enmity between you and an outsider, so not specifically a devil.
54:27
SPEAKER_07: He now gives you a major magic weapon.
54:30
SPEAKER_07: Rogue, now one of your friends, turns against you, since henchmen are less of a thing.
54:33
SPEAKER_02: Ooh.
54:35
SPEAKER_02: That's crazy.
54:36
SPEAKER_07: Skull, you now have to defeat a dreadwraith or be forever destroyed.
54:42
SPEAKER_02: I was too busy thinking about the potential horrible uh roleplay uh ramifications of like two members of the party being like mortal enemies.
54:51
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
54:53
SPEAKER_02: Uh because I'm assuming by friends it means like other players, right?
54:58
SPEAKER_07: It that's well maybe DMs of interpretation.
55:03
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, I guess.
55:04
SPEAKER_07: Star, you can now pick the ability score to gain plus two.
55:07
SPEAKER_02: So you know, no longer get the get the intelligence dump on your like barbarian or whatever.
55:14
SPEAKER_07: Well, it wouldn't be on your barbarian, uh, because your prime whatever uh would be Oh yeah, I guess it would it would it was always just your prime requisite.
55:24
SPEAKER_02: I do think it would be funny.
55:25
SPEAKER_07: But now you can pick if you want to have a super smart barbarian.
55:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
55:32
SPEAKER_07: Uh Sun, you now gain a beneficial beneficial medium wondrous item.
55:38
SPEAKER_07: Throne now gains a plus six bonus on diplomacy checks plus a small keep.
55:42
SPEAKER_02: Oh good.
55:42
SPEAKER_02: You can still be a small keep.
55:44
SPEAKER_02: You could still be uh you could still be a you can still own property.
55:47
SPEAKER_02: That's you know what?
55:48
SPEAKER_02: That's how that's how you have to get the housing market so bad.
55:52
SPEAKER_02: Like that's what we gotta do.
55:54
SPEAKER_02: We gotta do.
55:56
SPEAKER_07: So fourth edition.
56:00
SPEAKER_02: Okay, everybody, everybody sit down.
56:03
SPEAKER_02: We're already sitting down, but sit down.
56:05
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna walk away.
56:06
SPEAKER_07: No, don't.
56:07
SPEAKER_07: There are some look.
56:10
SPEAKER_07: Just listen.
56:11
SPEAKER_01: I'm listening.
56:14
SPEAKER_07: There are some things about this that I don't like.
56:17
SPEAKER_07: There are some things that I do like.
56:21
SPEAKER_07: It's a whole thing.
56:22
SPEAKER_07: I will say mechanically, I don't like much about it.
56:26
SPEAKER_02: But you know what?
56:27
SPEAKER_02: I do have a prediction.
56:28
SPEAKER_02: The art's probably pretty good, right?
56:30
SPEAKER_07: There wasn't a ton of art.
56:32
SPEAKER_07: What?
56:33
unknown: Okay.
56:33
SPEAKER_07: Oh, wait, I feel like wait.
56:35
SPEAKER_07: Okay, but the art for the cards is good.
56:37
SPEAKER_07: That's what I mean.
56:38
SPEAKER_07: That's what I meant.
56:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
56:39
SPEAKER_02: Oh.
56:39
SPEAKER_02: Because a lot of the a lot of the art in fourth edition is really good.
56:42
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
56:43
SPEAKER_07: Art in fourth edition is either the best you've ever seen or the most horrifying thing you never want to look at again.
56:49
SPEAKER_02: Or it's like the most the the best thing you've ever seen for like the the lamest concept, or like the lamest, you know, reimagining of a former concept.
57:00
SPEAKER_02: But the art like kills.
57:02
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
57:02
SPEAKER_07: Fourth edition had my least favorite depiction of a Holly fan.
57:05
SPEAKER_07: I'll say that.
57:07
SPEAKER_04: It it was, yeah.
57:09
SPEAKER_07: Um, okay, so fourth edition brought us a new backstory to the cards as well as some interesting changes.
57:16
SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm bracing myself.
57:18
SPEAKER_07: So, for one, the deck is now an artifact, which in fourth edition basically means that it's sentient and has its own goals.
57:25
SPEAKER_02: Okay, that's kind of fun.
57:27
SPEAKER_07: I think it is interesting.
57:30
SPEAKER_07: It is I think it's interesting for artifacts to be sentient and have their own goals.
57:36
SPEAKER_07: It's just like I don't know.
57:38
SPEAKER_07: It because of how much it's done in 4th edition, it does get to be rather annoying.
57:43
SPEAKER_02: Okay, yeah, that's fair.
57:44
SPEAKER_02: I'll keep you like I'll give you that.
57:46
SPEAKER_07: I I think that if it were done more sparingly, it could be more, it could be more fun and feel more important.
57:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
57:52
SPEAKER_07: Which I guess is kind of up to the DM to kind of monitor that, but I'm still gonna blame fourth edition.
57:59
SPEAKER_02: I mean, yeah.
58:00
SPEAKER_02: Right.
58:00
SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, I do think I do think there's a there's a there's a line where like like just because the nature of it means that you can homebrew something or that you can change the rules for something, doesn't mean that like the baseline is just like not worth commenting on, you know what I mean?
58:17
SPEAKER_02: Because like, you know, at that point it's kind of like well, you could hypothetically just make your own completely original tabletop game and homebrew everything about it, and then you know, we wouldn't be having this conversation, you know?
58:31
SPEAKER_02: Right.
58:32
SPEAKER_07: So Dungeon magazine number 177 in April of 2010 has an article creatively titled The Deck of Many Things by Rodney Thompson with illustrations by William O'Connor.
58:44
SPEAKER_07: The article suggests a potential new origin story as a gift from an ancient and powerful Arch Fay to an emperor of some forgotten empire.
58:53
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
58:54
SPEAKER_07: The emperor was the superstitious sword, and the Faye predicted that the Emperor would not be able to resist pulling from the deck.
59:00
SPEAKER_07: The deck is then credited with the destruction of that empire.
59:04
SPEAKER_07: I mentioned that the deck is sentient now.
59:07
SPEAKER_04: Uh-huh.
59:08
SPEAKER_07: So artifacts in 4th edition have goals.
59:10
SPEAKER_07: The deck's goals include sow chaos and discord through the world, be present at events of great importance, and add a chaotic element to the proceedings of those events to alter the fortunes of all involved.
59:23
SPEAKER_04: Cool.
59:24
SPEAKER_07: And topple powerful leaders, good or evil, cause far-spanning organizations to crumble.
59:32
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
59:33
SPEAKER_02: Alright.
59:35
SPEAKER_02: Alright.
59:35
SPEAKER_02: Like, I mean, you know, I I I I do think it's like conceptually, I think it's interesting that it is is sentient.
59:47
SPEAKER_02: But you know, I think I don't know.
59:49
SPEAKER_02: Maybe maybe I'm just maybe I'm just so you're you're cynical to fourth edition.
59:54
SPEAKER_02: I'm so cynical to fourth edition.
59:56
SPEAKER_07: Like, you know, uh okay, like there are parts of it that are done well.
1:00:00
SPEAKER_07: I will I will preempt that, um, which we'll get to.
1:00:05
SPEAKER_07: The deck is described as an agent of chaos wanting to be used and tempting its owner.
1:00:11
SPEAKER_07: The deck does not communicate directly but subtly shows whether or not it's pleased, pushing the owner to take risky actions.
1:00:18
SPEAKER_07: The owner might even see mul uh visions of multiple possible outcomes.
1:00:24
SPEAKER_07: And because it's fourth edition, the deck now has a stat block.
1:00:28
SPEAKER_04: Because everything has a stat block.
1:00:30
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
1:00:31
SPEAKER_07: So all pretty much all decks are 22 cards now in fourth edition.
1:00:38
SPEAKER_07: The deck will um appear when the world has grown too calm or with when someone has grown too powerful and it sows chaos.
1:00:46
SPEAKER_07: Uh the deck of many things is a plus five magic tome implement with the following properties and powers.
1:00:52
SPEAKER_02: What does that mean?
1:00:54
SPEAKER_02: Like, I know what that means, but like it's a it's a it's a plus five.
1:00:59
SPEAKER_02: Like, congratulations, you can like hit ghosts with this with this.
1:01:03
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
1:01:04
SPEAKER_07: Um it it does plus five to attack rolls and damage rolls.
1:01:10
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:01:11
SPEAKER_07: So that's that's why so this is what why people say fourth edition numbers get insane.
1:01:17
SPEAKER_07: Like, don't get me wrong, third edition can't numbers can't get insane, but that is with regular level scaling and feats.
1:01:24
SPEAKER_07: Fourth edition numbers get crazy because of the fact that you can add in artifacts that just add plus five to your I roll to I roll to attack with the deck of many things, and you just fucking yeah, no, just hold just holding on to it will enhance your attack.
1:01:42
SPEAKER_02: Of course.
1:01:42
SPEAKER_02: Okay, yeah, whatever.
1:01:43
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, it's fine.
1:01:44
SPEAKER_07: It's fine.
1:01:45
SPEAKER_07: So um when you do critical damage, you do an additional 5d12 damage.
1:01:54
SPEAKER_02: Okay, well don't at that rate, don't draw from it, just keep it in your pocket.
1:01:59
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:02:00
SPEAKER_07: Sorcerers with the chaos power class feature can use the deck of many things as an implement for sorcerer powers and sorcerer paragon path powers.
1:02:09
SPEAKER_05: Okay, yep.
1:02:10
SPEAKER_05: All right.
1:02:11
SPEAKER_07: Um property, you cannot be dominated.
1:02:16
SPEAKER_04: Okay, well, I mean, I guess at least it saves you from that.
1:02:20
SPEAKER_07: Power per encount encounter.
1:02:21
SPEAKER_07: As a free action, you can alter the fortunes of your enemies, forcing an enemy within 10 squares to re-roll one attack roll, skill check, or saving throw it made, taking the result you choose.
1:02:32
SPEAKER_04: And that's a free action.
1:02:34
SPEAKER_07: That is free action.
1:02:35
SPEAKER_02: It sounds like it's like once per encounter.
1:02:38
SPEAKER_02: Per encounter.
1:02:39
SPEAKER_02: So that's that's still pretty that's still pretty that's still quite a bit.
1:02:44
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
1:02:45
SPEAKER_07: Power once daily as a minor action, uh, which I believe is basically fourth edition's equivalent to a bonus action.
1:02:54
SPEAKER_07: You roll a d20.
1:02:56
SPEAKER_07: Once before the end of the encounter, you can replace any d20 role made by an ally or an enemy within five squares of you with that d20 roll.
1:03:04
SPEAKER_07: Oh, like a port and die.
1:03:06
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:03:07
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:03:07
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, okay.
1:03:07
SPEAKER_04: I was gonna say, I couldn't think of the word, but yeah, it acts as a port and die.
1:03:11
SPEAKER_07: Which maybe this was the um inspiration behind that.
1:03:13
SPEAKER_07: If so, very cool.
1:03:14
SPEAKER_07: I'm glad that they went the direction that they did go.
1:03:17
SPEAKER_07: Uh with fifth edition.
1:03:19
SPEAKER_07: I like port and dies.
1:03:22
SPEAKER_02: This to me is so like like it to me, like I was thinking this even before we read the stat block, but like earlier when it talks about how like the deck is sentient and like wants to be used, um, TMI, and like, you know, sort of subtly influences the holder to like draw from it and stuff.
1:03:47
SPEAKER_02: Like, I was thinking, like, I was hearing you describe that, and I was thinking, like, okay, like how?
1:03:52
SPEAKER_02: Like, what does it do?
1:03:53
SPEAKER_07: Oh, there's more too.
1:03:56
SPEAKER_02: Oh, there is more?
1:03:57
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
1:03:57
SPEAKER_07: Yes.
1:03:57
SPEAKER_02: Because I was thinking that it because don't get me, I've seen plenty of things in fourth edition where it's like there's like a paragraph about the thing and like the origins or wider lore implications, and then like a big stat block that, like, in the case of this, I feel like doesn't necessarily need to be there, you know.
1:04:18
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, I agree.
1:04:21
SPEAKER_07: And what I will say is I don't think it does a the best job of making its case for it wants to be used and et cetera, et cetera.
1:04:30
SPEAKER_07: But it actually, in this case, I will say it it does follow through on what it says.
1:04:36
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
1:04:37
SPEAKER_02: It it doesn't just say it doesn't just yeah, it doesn't just say it.
1:04:42
SPEAKER_07: It also kind of leave it up to the DM to try and figure that out.
1:04:45
SPEAKER_02: Right, yeah.
1:04:46
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
1:04:47
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
1:04:48
SPEAKER_02: So I may have I may have jumped on that a little quick.
1:04:50
SPEAKER_07: No, you're fine, because I agree with everything you said, and it was worth talking about.
1:04:55
SPEAKER_07: So there are there are more stats.
1:04:59
unknown: Oh good.
1:05:00
SPEAKER_04: Hell.
1:05:01
SPEAKER_07: There are stats for how agreeable the deck is with its owner.
1:05:05
SPEAKER_04: Oh my god.
1:05:06
SPEAKER_07: Which affect that stat block that I previously read.
1:05:10
SPEAKER_02: So you're I think that's interesting.
1:05:14
SPEAKER_02: It it is interesting.
1:05:16
SPEAKER_02: Um like it's it's it's it's interesting in that it's like in that it like kind of affects Oh yeah, no, you I think I'll even bring Travis in on this.
1:05:29
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's interesting in that it affects the stuff.
1:05:32
SPEAKER_02: But anyway.
1:05:33
SPEAKER_07: But thematically, it it's too much.
1:05:36
SPEAKER_07: Or not thematically, mechanically, it's too much.
1:05:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:05:39
SPEAKER_07: I think it's dumb that it exists, but the way they pull it off is okay.
1:05:46
SPEAKER_07: And and I I I do think I'll get you by the end of it.
1:05:49
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
1:05:50
SPEAKER_07: So your starting score is five, but it goes up or down depending on various things.
1:05:55
SPEAKER_07: If the owner gains a level, the score goes up by a a one D 10 amount.
1:06:00
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
1:06:01
SPEAKER_07: Well, the deck is in your possession.
1:06:03
SPEAKER_07: You don't have to be holding the deck, but like it's in your bag.
1:06:06
SPEAKER_07: And you level up.
1:06:07
SPEAKER_07: I think it's concordance score.
1:06:10
SPEAKER_07: Your agreeability score, whatever, will go up by a one D10 amount.
1:06:14
SPEAKER_02: You'll uh probably a DM will roll a D10 and your deck's friendship rating.
1:06:22
SPEAKER_07: Yes.
1:06:22
SPEAKER_07: If the owner is unaligned, which I recall in fourth edition, actually just means not good or evil.
1:06:29
SPEAKER_04: So basically neutral.
1:06:31
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:06:31
SPEAKER_07: It goes up by one.
1:06:34
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
1:06:35
SPEAKER_07: If the owner is a Fey origin, up by one.
1:06:38
SPEAKER_07: If the owner is reduced to zero hit points, up by one per occurrence.
1:06:44
SPEAKER_07: So not die, but if you go unconscious, as previously mentioned, at any point while you are carrying the deck, you are not basically reduced to unconsciousness.
1:06:58
SPEAKER_03: That's really funny.
1:07:00
SPEAKER_06: You will gain plus one.
1:07:02
SPEAKER_02: That's like that's like the that's the same energy as like you know how like a lot of little kids think it's really inexplicably funny when like people get like people get hurt.
1:07:13
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
1:07:14
SPEAKER_03: You know, that's like that.
1:07:15
SPEAKER_02: You know?
1:07:16
SPEAKER_02: So like if you're trying to get like a kid to stop crying or like make them laugh or whatever, you like pretend to punch yourself in the face or like trip or something.
1:07:23
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:07:23
SPEAKER_02: That's like that.
1:07:24
SPEAKER_07: If the owner kills a monster of a higher level, plus one per monster once per day.
1:07:29
SPEAKER_02: Cool.
1:07:29
SPEAKER_02: Gotta impress your your your deck of cards.
1:07:33
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:07:34
SPEAKER_02: With your monster slaying prowess.
1:07:36
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:07:36
SPEAKER_07: Uh now the deck is apparently jealous because if the owner obtains a magic item, minus 1d10.
1:07:44
SPEAKER_02: You're at the you're at the you know, you're at the you're at your local occult shop and you see like a nice looking nice looking tarot deck and you're like, oh maybe I should pick that, and you just feel the you just feel the deck of many things just like radiating hatred from your pack.
1:07:58
SPEAKER_02: It's like don't even think about it.
1:08:00
SPEAKER_07: And the deck really likes magic because if you go a day without casting an arcane spell, minus one.
1:08:06
SPEAKER_04: Oh no.
1:08:07
SPEAKER_04: Oh my god.
1:08:08
SPEAKER_04: It's it's so jealous and petty.
1:08:10
SPEAKER_07: It is very jealous and petty.
1:08:12
SPEAKER_07: Now, how now that we've gone through everything, how do you think your deck feels about you?
1:08:17
SPEAKER_02: Um well, given that I um have never managed to cast an arcane spell in my life, and I have, I don't think, ever slayed a monster of any level.
1:08:28
SPEAKER_02: Um probably not very good.
1:08:31
SPEAKER_07: How many times do you think you've been reduced to zero HP, though?
1:08:34
SPEAKER_02: Um like once, maybe the time that you the time that I almost septic shock?
1:08:44
SPEAKER_02: No, no, no, no, no.
1:08:44
SPEAKER_02: I'm talking about the time that I almost died of an allergic reaction when I was four.
1:08:48
SPEAKER_07: Oh, okay.
1:08:49
SPEAKER_07: That's fair.
1:08:50
SPEAKER_07: If your score is between 16 and 20, so Lewin, this is not for you.
1:08:55
SPEAKER_01: Um boo.
1:08:56
SPEAKER_07: Um, the deck is pleased with you.
1:08:58
SPEAKER_07: The deck gives the owner better than average odds of drawing good cards and these new stat changes.
1:09:05
SPEAKER_07: So these are all gonna be changes to the um the property and a um uh a specific type of standard action that you can do once.
1:09:16
SPEAKER_07: It says daily, but for reasons I'll get into later, is you can only do it once.
1:09:21
SPEAKER_02: Because you won't survive the day.
1:09:24
SPEAKER_07: Maybe for some of them.
1:09:25
SPEAKER_02: Maybe, yeah.
1:09:26
SPEAKER_02: You could still, even if you have better odds, you could still get unlucky.
1:09:29
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:09:30
SPEAKER_07: So property.
1:09:31
SPEAKER_07: Uh anytime you roll a result of one on any die, re-roll that die until you have the result of anything other than one.
1:09:41
unknown: Okay.
1:09:42
SPEAKER_02: Alright.
1:09:42
SPEAKER_02: That's you know, you get a guaranteed two wishes at least if you draw the uh which one is it?
1:09:47
SPEAKER_02: The moon?
1:09:48
SPEAKER_07: Oh, um, the this is while you're holding the deck and you're like fighting.
1:09:53
SPEAKER_02: Oh, right, right, right, right.
1:09:54
SPEAKER_02: That's your that's the dice they're the deck's fucking combat.
1:09:58
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:09:58
SPEAKER_07: So yeah.
1:10:00
SPEAKER_02: Okay, never mind.
1:10:00
SPEAKER_02: I'm annoyed again.
1:10:01
SPEAKER_07: But it is cool.
1:10:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like it is it is cool.
1:10:05
SPEAKER_02: It is it is cool that the it is cool that that the system ig exists.
1:10:14
SPEAKER_07: Like the it's cool that the system modifies itself.
1:10:18
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:10:19
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
1:10:20
SPEAKER_07: For the standard action that you can do once daily slash once ever.
1:10:24
SPEAKER_07: You draw three cards from the deck of many things and then choose any one card that you drew, resolving the effect of that of that card.
1:10:32
SPEAKER_07: Oh, yeah.
1:10:33
SPEAKER_07: Which is how you're able to mechanically get a the the deck to give you good cards.
1:10:41
SPEAKER_07: Right.
1:10:41
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
1:10:43
SPEAKER_07: So if your score is between 12 and 15, the deck is satisfied with you.
1:10:48
SPEAKER_07: It is pleased with your chaos and begins to tempt you into drawing by sweetening the deal.
1:10:53
SPEAKER_07: This is left up to interpretation on what that means.
1:10:58
SPEAKER_07: So anytime you roll a result of one on any die except a d20, you can re-roll that die until you have a result other than one.
1:11:06
SPEAKER_07: So it's the same as before, but d20s are off the table.
1:11:09
SPEAKER_02: So you can re-roll your damage and stuff.
1:11:11
SPEAKER_07: Yes.
1:11:12
SPEAKER_07: Now, for the standard action, draw two cards from the deck of many things and then choose any one of the two you drew.
1:11:18
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
1:11:19
SPEAKER_02: So it's two out of three.
1:11:20
SPEAKER_02: Or it's two instead of three, rather.
1:11:22
SPEAKER_07: Yes.
1:11:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:11:24
SPEAKER_07: If your score is between five and eleven, the deck feels normal about you.
1:11:28
SPEAKER_07: Just normal.
1:11:29
SPEAKER_07: It conveys that the world is a matter of luck.
1:11:31
SPEAKER_07: No changes to the powers or properties.
1:11:33
SPEAKER_07: You can draw as far as the standard action, you can draw a deck, uh, draw a card from the deck, and then resolve the effect.
1:11:40
SPEAKER_07: If your score is between one and four, the deck is unsatisfied with you.
1:11:46
SPEAKER_04: Oh boy.
1:11:47
SPEAKER_07: An owner that rejects the deck's desires and run uh experiences a run of bad luck.
1:11:52
SPEAKER_07: The luck is mostly an inconvenience, but the deck wants to express its displeasure.
1:11:56
SPEAKER_02: Mostly an inconvenience, and it can kill you.
1:12:00
SPEAKER_07: Oh, you'll see.
1:12:01
SPEAKER_02: Oh gosh.
1:12:03
SPEAKER_07: Anytime you roll the maximum result on a die except for a d20, treat the result as a one instead.
1:12:10
SPEAKER_03: Oh my god.
1:12:11
SPEAKER_03: Congratulations, you deal no damage now.
1:12:14
SPEAKER_07: Essentially.
1:12:16
SPEAKER_07: You draw two cards from the deck of many things, and then choose any one card you drew.
1:12:20
SPEAKER_07: You must draw a card with the ruined descriptor.
1:12:23
SPEAKER_07: You must choose a card with the ruined descriptor if one was drawn.
1:12:27
SPEAKER_07: We will get to what the um what which cards have the ruin descriptor?
1:12:33
SPEAKER_02: So essentially that's like the the the bad ones.
1:12:36
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:12:36
SPEAKER_07: If you manage a score of zero or lower.
1:12:40
SPEAKER_02: Lower?
1:12:41
SPEAKER_02: Oh, it can go in the negatives.
1:12:42
SPEAKER_07: It can go in the negatives.
1:12:44
SPEAKER_07: The deck is angry with you.
1:12:46
SPEAKER_07: It is now very dangerous to you.
1:12:49
SPEAKER_07: Anyone drawing from the deck is likely to find extremely bad luck while it is in your possession.
1:12:56
SPEAKER_07: Anytime you roll the maximum results on a die, treat the result as a one.
1:13:02
SPEAKER_02: You cannot roll natural 20s.
1:13:04
SPEAKER_02: Cripfail, crit fail, crit fail, crit fail.
1:13:07
SPEAKER_07: You draw three cards from the deck of many things, and then choose any one card you drew.
1:13:13
SPEAKER_07: You must choose a card with the ruined descriptor if one was drawn.
1:13:17
SPEAKER_07: I see.
1:13:20
SPEAKER_04: Okay, so it makes you draw three of them, and if one of them has ruined then you have to pick.
1:13:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:13:28
SPEAKER_07: Pulling from the deck at any time now causes the uh so for all of these, once you I it it's up to the discretion, but my read on this was that it read as at any time that you draw, but I guess this is probably a DM's decision about when the deck is ready or what have you, to sort of tally up your uh how it feels about you.
1:13:52
SPEAKER_07: Um at any time after that, uh drawing from the deck will cause it to move on, where it will vanish into thin air and move on to its next owner.
1:14:01
unknown: Oh.
1:14:01
SPEAKER_02: And depending on depending on how how um badly you think you've done, you might just kind of take it and just sleeve it somewhere, you know.
1:14:11
SPEAKER_02: If you're you know, if you haven't not drawing from this, if you haven't been doing anything too uh too chaotic or too too magical.
1:14:19
SPEAKER_02: Though honestly, the deck of many things, it would probably just like reappear.
1:14:23
SPEAKER_02: I feel like it's this this is the kind of thing where like it would do that if you tried to get rid of it, it would just like reappear, you know.
1:14:30
SPEAKER_07: Yes, so uh the cards effects have changed extensively.
1:14:36
SPEAKER_07: Some are good, some are annoying.
1:14:39
SPEAKER_04: This as a most are probably annoying.
1:14:43
SPEAKER_07: Okay, but I do think Travis, did I get you on that the changes that it made based on its how it felt about you is interesting.
1:14:51
SPEAKER_02: I don't I don't think you got him.
1:14:53
SPEAKER_02: I hate to say it.
1:14:53
SPEAKER_02: I don't think you got it.
1:14:54
SPEAKER_04: I mean, it's it's a it's kind of a cool idea for sure, but the fourth edition the fourth edition mon the fourth edition like mantra.
1:15:04
SPEAKER_04: Like I just feel like especially like with all of that, that's just way too many numbers to like keep track of constantly.
1:15:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it's just very like I don't know, it's it's it it's fine.
1:15:19
SPEAKER_04: I'll admit that I don't hate it like as much as I hate like any other fourth edition thing.
1:15:25
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but I'm not like a hundred percent for it either.
1:15:28
SPEAKER_02: It just it just feels like I don't know.
1:15:32
SPEAKER_02: It's just I don't know, it's fine.
1:15:34
SPEAKER_07: So let's go ahead and read through the changes to the deck because this will make you very angry.
1:15:40
SPEAKER_01: Oh god.
1:15:42
SPEAKER_07: Let's just start right off the bat with a one that I'm sure is going to annoy many people.
1:15:47
SPEAKER_07: Um, balance.
1:15:49
SPEAKER_07: Immediately be given one of two side quests based on your alignment.
1:15:52
SPEAKER_07: Not too bad.
1:15:53
SPEAKER_07: Okay, except for then after completing the side quest, you can choose whether or not to change alignment.
1:15:59
SPEAKER_02: What what's the fucking point?
1:16:01
SPEAKER_02: What is the point?
1:16:02
SPEAKER_02: What is this completely useless?
1:16:04
SPEAKER_02: They don't even they don't even tag on the or or be judged.
1:16:07
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, or be judged.
1:16:09
SPEAKER_07: Or be judged.
1:16:10
SPEAKER_07: So the side quest, if you are good, you have to do a very evil thing.
1:16:14
SPEAKER_07: You have to kill a good creature or person, basically.
1:16:18
SPEAKER_07: And then if you are bad, you have to basically try to seek redemption.
1:16:24
SPEAKER_04: Go donate a thousand gold to the orphans.
1:16:27
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you have to go volunteer at the soup kitchen.
1:16:29
SPEAKER_07: Well, it it actually does like spell out.
1:16:32
SPEAKER_04: It's like a full, like uh it's yeah, yeah.
1:16:35
SPEAKER_07: It's kind of like a wonderful thing.
1:16:37
SPEAKER_02: That is, yeah, that's like it would like I like side.
1:16:41
SPEAKER_02: I like I love I love side quests.
1:16:42
SPEAKER_02: That's fine.
1:16:44
SPEAKER_07: It's more that you can choose whether or not you're gonna take the alignment change.
1:16:50
SPEAKER_07: That's like it's supposed to have consequences, right?
1:16:54
SPEAKER_02: And it's just like free, you know what I mean?
1:16:56
SPEAKER_07: Like, you know, it's not like there's some like I would you could like if you could like choose to keep your alignment but take a penalty, yeah.
1:17:05
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
1:17:05
SPEAKER_02: Like if there was some kind of drawback, I would I would be fine with it.
1:17:10
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, other than I guess like a morally like my character is good, but I killed a child.
1:17:16
SPEAKER_04: But right, yeah.
1:17:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:17:18
SPEAKER_02: So again, it's one of those things it could you you could definitely do interesting, like kind of role play related stuff, but it does feel kind of lame that it's just like you know, you do a side quest, but you can just kind of choose that now your character doesn't feel different enough to be a different alignment.
1:17:35
SPEAKER_02: I don't know, right?
1:17:36
SPEAKER_02: Whatever, it's fine.
1:17:37
SPEAKER_07: So comet, you get double experience points for your next major quest completion.
1:17:42
SPEAKER_02: All the all the EXP ones are so funny to me because like, don't get me wrong, I get it, I get it.
1:17:47
SPEAKER_02: But like as a as a as a person who's only yeah, milestone milestone leveling, I'm kind of like, okay.
1:17:54
SPEAKER_02: Useless.
1:17:55
SPEAKER_02: Alright, yeah, cool.
1:17:57
SPEAKER_07: Um, Donjon, you are imprisoned in a dreamless sleep.
1:18:00
SPEAKER_07: Your body vanishes, and your party gains a major quest to find you being the hall where you are.
1:18:06
SPEAKER_05: Nice.
1:18:07
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
1:18:07
SPEAKER_07: Um, I mean, it's roughly the same.
1:18:10
SPEAKER_07: It's rough, it's roughly the same, you know.
1:18:12
SPEAKER_07: It's fun.
1:18:13
SPEAKER_07: Uh, Uriel, minus three on all saving throws.
1:18:17
SPEAKER_07: About the same.
1:18:18
SPEAKER_07: Remove affliction plus a natural 20 saving throw resolves this.
1:18:21
SPEAKER_02: I don't love that you can resolve the you could just resolve it through relatively normal means.
1:18:30
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
1:18:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:18:32
SPEAKER_04: I would assume I would assume that you couldn't necessarily just keep like maybe like once a day thing or something, but yeah, it's supposed to have consequences that you can't really get out of.
1:18:44
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:18:45
SPEAKER_07: The fates.
1:18:47
SPEAKER_07: Gain the shelter of fate legendary boon.
1:18:50
SPEAKER_07: You can alter an attack roll against you to be a natural one once.
1:18:54
SPEAKER_07: A saving throw you make it becomes a natural 20 once.
1:18:58
SPEAKER_07: Or an one athletic, acrobatic, or endurance check you make becomes a natural 20 once.
1:19:05
SPEAKER_02: You may alter it once.
1:19:09
SPEAKER_02: That's kind of lame.
1:19:10
SPEAKER_04: That is very lame, especially for a legendary boon.
1:19:13
SPEAKER_07: I mean, I think it's a I think it's a good, it's a good effect, but it feels very like kind of it feels very lame to specifically attach to the fate to like the fates card where previously you could avoid like any major consequence.
1:19:29
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:19:29
SPEAKER_02: And also like it's the fates, man.
1:19:32
SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't know.
1:19:33
SPEAKER_07: Flames.
1:19:34
SPEAKER_07: Enmity between you and a powerful being from another plane, and you gain a related side quest.
1:19:40
SPEAKER_07: I mean, that one I actually think is cool.
1:19:43
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I like that it's just like any powerful being from another plane, like it's not necessarily you know, a devil or whatever.
1:19:51
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:19:52
SPEAKER_07: Fool.
1:19:53
SPEAKER_07: Discard the fool, draw a card off the top until you draw a card described as ruinous.
1:19:58
SPEAKER_07: Keep only that card.
1:19:59
SPEAKER_02: Oh, so that's just like straight up bad.
1:20:01
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:20:02
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
1:20:04
SPEAKER_07: Uh, gem.
1:20:05
SPEAKER_07: Gain 225,000 gold pieces of gold and gems.
1:20:09
SPEAKER_02: Nice.
1:20:10
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
1:20:10
SPEAKER_02: Maybe cool.
1:20:12
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if that's maybe is that a lot of gold in fourth edition?
1:20:15
SPEAKER_07: I don't know because I try and avoid fourth edition as much as possible.
1:20:18
SPEAKER_02: Right, yeah.
1:20:19
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:20:20
SPEAKER_02: That feels like that would be a a a high, but maybe more reasonable amount of gold in fourth edition than it is in fifth edition.
1:20:27
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:20:28
SPEAKER_07: I feel like the economy got rebalanced for fifth edition.
1:20:31
SPEAKER_02: Either that or fifth edition is in a recession.
1:20:34
SPEAKER_07: Either that.
1:20:35
unknown: Yeah.
1:20:37
SPEAKER_07: So idiot.
1:20:38
SPEAKER_07: Negative two penalty to intelligence checks or intelligence-based roles.
1:20:41
SPEAKER_07: Remove affliction and a natural 20 on int-based roles clears this.
1:20:45
SPEAKER_02: You know, I know it's the same for the for the Uriel card, but it is funny that having the the affliction inherently makes it harder to clear the role.
1:20:56
unknown: Yeah.
1:20:56
SPEAKER_02: Like that is funny to me.
1:20:58
SPEAKER_02: Like, I know that obviously that's how it works.
1:20:59
SPEAKER_02: And also specifically that it's an int-based role is like really funny to me.
1:21:03
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:21:03
SPEAKER_02: Like, congratulations.
1:21:05
SPEAKER_02: You get the you get the debuff that makes you dumber, and you have to make smart roll to clear it.
1:21:11
SPEAKER_07: Yep.
1:21:12
SPEAKER_02: Fuck you.
1:21:13
SPEAKER_07: Gesture.
1:21:13
SPEAKER_07: Draw two more cards.
1:21:14
SPEAKER_07: If any, if either of them is ruinous, it replaces gesture.
1:21:17
SPEAKER_07: If both do, you choose.
1:21:18
SPEAKER_07: If neither do, you choose.
1:21:21
SPEAKER_02: So also bad.
1:21:23
SPEAKER_07: Yes.
1:21:24
SPEAKER_07: I would say that fourth edition really does like it leans towards bad.
1:21:30
SPEAKER_02: Which I think kind of makes it more worth it to try to engage with the the the deck friendship mechanic.
1:21:39
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:21:40
SPEAKER_07: Um key.
1:21:42
SPEAKER_07: Uh gain a magic item or weapon of your choice, choice, 21st level or lower.
1:21:47
SPEAKER_07: I know not what this means.
1:21:49
SPEAKER_02: Uh I mean it's the same effect as kind of, you know.
1:21:54
SPEAKER_07: The knight, uh, gain the service of a companion, the same species and gender as you for some reason.
1:21:59
SPEAKER_07: Um equal to your level minus one.
1:22:02
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
1:22:03
SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
1:22:04
SPEAKER_02: Okay, alright.
1:22:07
SPEAKER_07: Moon.
1:22:08
SPEAKER_07: You have one minute to choose any ritual, and then you instantly gain the benefits of that ritual.
1:22:12
SPEAKER_07: Well, like this reminder, this used to be the wish one.
1:22:18
SPEAKER_02: Like, okay.
1:22:19
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, okay.
1:22:21
SPEAKER_04: What okay.
1:22:23
SPEAKER_02: Okay, congratulations to the you've you've reduced the ritual.
1:22:26
SPEAKER_07: I'm assuming this is referring to ritual spells, like just well, like there are major rituals in DD.
1:22:34
SPEAKER_07: Oh, yeah, like the fucking, like the fucking vampire one.
1:22:36
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, and also like the yeah, that there are major rituals, especially in fourth edition.
1:22:42
SPEAKER_02: Okay, well, given that that's the only ritual in fourth edition that I could think of off the top of my head, I guess I have now decided to turn one of my friends into a vampire.
1:22:51
SPEAKER_07: For some reason, all I could think of was the Rite of Thorns from Baldur's Gate.
1:22:55
SPEAKER_07: So I guess I am secluding the grove.
1:22:58
SPEAKER_07: So we nailed it.
1:22:59
SPEAKER_03: Congrats.
1:23:00
SPEAKER_07: I will say thematically, I it it works, but it's the wish card.
1:23:07
SPEAKER_02: Why did you take away the wishes?
1:23:09
SPEAKER_02: It's just late, like it's it's it's fine, but it's like kind of it's lamer than what they had before.
1:23:14
SPEAKER_02: So, like, why?
1:23:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
1:23:15
SPEAKER_02: It just if it ain't broke, don't fix it, you know?
1:23:18
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
1:23:19
SPEAKER_07: Rogue.
1:23:20
SPEAKER_07: Uh, you gain the enmity of one of your companion characters, a community or religious leader secretly.
1:23:25
SPEAKER_07: You then gain a related side quest.
1:23:27
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I I do like the way that one is kind of spelled out, like, you know, because like one of your companion characters is so juicy.
1:23:36
SPEAKER_07: Ruin.
1:23:37
SPEAKER_07: All of your magic items turn into residuum worth 80% of their original value.
1:23:41
SPEAKER_07: That one I feel like they actually pulled the punch on.
1:23:44
SPEAKER_04: They did.
1:23:45
SPEAKER_04: Like, okay, yeah.
1:23:47
SPEAKER_04: You lose your magic items, but you still get a decent chunk of money you can probably just replace them.
1:23:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, okay, whatever.
1:23:56
SPEAKER_02: Skull.
1:23:56
SPEAKER_02: Also, 80% is so it's high.
1:24:00
SPEAKER_02: It's high.
1:24:01
SPEAKER_02: And even though it is like it feels oddly specific to me, like if it was 50%, I would have been like, okay.
1:24:06
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:24:07
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
1:24:08
SPEAKER_07: 50% is actually probably the cutoff for where I would have been like, okay.
1:24:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:24:13
SPEAKER_07: Skull.
1:24:13
SPEAKER_07: Four sword wraiths, a night walker, and and an emolith demon walk into a bar.
1:24:18
SPEAKER_07: No, they appear and attack you immediately.
1:24:21
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I guess if you were in a bar when you drew it, they would walk into the bar.
1:24:25
SPEAKER_02: True.
1:24:26
SPEAKER_02: Dang, that's that's a little that's a little over.
1:24:29
SPEAKER_07: But it also doesn't say that you can't be revived from this one.
1:24:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it also doesn't say that your party members can't help you.
1:24:36
SPEAKER_07: Exactly.
1:24:38
SPEAKER_02: So it's basically just another fight.
1:24:39
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:24:40
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:24:40
SPEAKER_07: Star.
1:24:41
SPEAKER_07: You gain the legendary boon, mark of the star.
1:24:44
SPEAKER_07: Daily as a free action, you can choose one ability score until the end of the encounter.
1:24:49
SPEAKER_07: Uh, I guess you can only do this during an encounter.
1:24:52
SPEAKER_07: You gain a plus one bonus to attack rolls made using that ability score, and a plus one bonus to skill checks with the skills that use that ability score.
1:25:00
SPEAKER_04: Okay, that's some shit.
1:25:01
SPEAKER_04: That's just lame.
1:25:02
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
1:25:03
SPEAKER_02: Like it's it's a good effect, but it's like not cool, you know?
1:25:08
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:25:09
SPEAKER_07: And I mean, at the very least, I what I will say, it is cool that you can change the ability what like once per day.
1:25:18
SPEAKER_07: Um, gain a wondrous item of your choice, 21st level or lower.
1:25:24
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
1:25:25
SPEAKER_07: Effectively the same.
1:25:26
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I'll say that's relatively unchanged.
1:25:28
SPEAKER_07: Uh talents.
1:25:29
SPEAKER_07: You cannot use magic item at will, encounter, or daily powers.
1:25:32
SPEAKER_07: Remove affliction, or sorry, remove affliction and giving away magic item removes this effect.
1:25:38
SPEAKER_04: Oh, oh, okay.
1:25:40
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:25:40
SPEAKER_04: Alright.
1:25:42
SPEAKER_07: Throne.
1:25:43
SPEAKER_07: If you have a layer or base, you gain 225,000 gold pieces worth of wondrous layer items.
1:25:49
SPEAKER_07: If you do not have a lair, you gain one in a side quest to clear it of monsters.
1:25:54
SPEAKER_07: Effectively unchanged.
1:25:55
SPEAKER_07: I mean, yeah.
1:25:57
SPEAKER_07: The wondrous layer items do like boost things like your um diplomacy.
1:26:04
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
1:26:04
SPEAKER_07: Things like that.
1:26:05
SPEAKER_07: I fully just imagine.
1:26:07
SPEAKER_02: I fully it was just imagine the imagining, like you just get nice new furniture.
1:26:11
SPEAKER_07: I mean, that's that's all it is.
1:26:13
SPEAKER_02: Like, no, not that not that fourth edition would ever do anything exclusively just for flavor and roleplay and not for some kind of combat or stat benefit.
1:26:25
SPEAKER_02: But I am just imagining like it's like you just get like dream makeover home editioned or whatever.
1:26:30
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:26:31
SPEAKER_07: Vizier.
1:26:32
SPEAKER_07: The Vizier legendary boon.
1:26:35
SPEAKER_07: As a free action, you instantly gain the benefit of having performed the console or oracle ritual or the voice of fate ritual with the maximum possible result.
1:26:45
SPEAKER_07: You do not expend any of the component costs for the ritual and learn the answers to your questions instantaneously.
1:26:51
SPEAKER_07: Once you have learned the answers to all of your allotted questions, you lose this legendary boon.
1:26:56
SPEAKER_07: Okay, that's fine.
1:26:58
SPEAKER_07: I mean, yeah, it it's it's effectively the same thing.
1:27:04
SPEAKER_07: It does give you a little bit more because you can ask multiple questions.
1:27:08
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, like that's that's fine.
1:27:10
SPEAKER_07: Uh yeah.
1:27:12
SPEAKER_07: The void.
1:27:13
SPEAKER_07: You fall unconscious and cannot be awakened.
1:27:15
SPEAKER_07: The party gains a side quest to retrieve your psyche.
1:27:18
SPEAKER_07: It's basically the same thing, except it's your psyche and not your soul.
1:27:22
SPEAKER_02: Right.
1:27:23
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I mean, which I'm for I'm sure fourth edition goes to great lengths to distinguish this.
1:27:28
SPEAKER_07: If they did, it wasn't here.
1:27:30
SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry.
1:27:32
SPEAKER_07: Um, the illustrations are utterly gorgeous, though.
1:27:36
SPEAKER_07: I found out a little further in my research that O'Connor, the artist, he designed for Magic the Gathering's Forgotten Realms set.
1:27:44
SPEAKER_07: Okay, how fun.
1:27:45
SPEAKER_07: He he he he went on to have some great work.
1:27:48
SPEAKER_02: That's a that's such a fourth edition thing, though.
1:27:51
SPEAKER_02: Like the the gorgeous art and everything, and then just like Yeah.
1:27:56
SPEAKER_07: Well, okay, I do think that you guys are going to actually.
1:28:00
SPEAKER_07: genuinely enjoyed this next part of fourth edition.
1:28:04
SPEAKER_02: I'm waiting with baited breath.
1:28:06
SPEAKER_07: Well you're gonna have to wait a little bit longer because we need to do the ad break.
1:28:09
SPEAKER_07: Ah okay.
1:28:14
SPEAKER_07: Hey everybody thank you so much for listening.
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1:28:33
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1:29:00
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1:29:13
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1:29:25
SPEAKER_02: Also thank you to Alexander Nakarata for our theme song Blacksmith Chill Beats to talk about DD lore too hell yeah.
1:29:34
SPEAKER_04: And I guess now let's get back to uh fourth edition.
1:29:38
SPEAKER_07: I promise I promise you're gonna like it.
1:29:41
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
1:29:41
SPEAKER_02: I trust you so I'm hesitant.
1:29:45
SPEAKER_07: In 2011 the adventure Madness at Gardmore Abbey was released.
1:29:50
SPEAKER_07: The adventure takes a lot of inspiration from House of Cards back in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.
1:29:56
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
1:29:57
SPEAKER_07: Gardmore Abbey the actual Abbey was established in the Narath King the Narrath Empire about 350 years prior to the events of the adventure it serves as a temple to Bahamut but about 150 years prior was attacked by orcs, giants and demons oh oh my so the Narrath Empire I should mention is a ruined empire hearkening back to that story about the empire.
1:30:27
SPEAKER_07: Oh about the the the yeah okay yeah now I do not believe that the adventure like confirms that it was in fact a deck of many things that ruined the empire but I will say a deck of many things did cause a lot of ruin here yeah and it's it's it's it it's like it could be you know yeah so the Knights at the Abbey were in such a good position against the orcs etc that they the the band of just just all the guys yeah they evidently per the actual source books could have helped the invasion off and exhausted them to the point of being able to finish them off seems like that would have been the smart idea.
1:31:11
SPEAKER_04: Yeah well they didn't do that.
1:31:14
SPEAKER_07: Unfortunately the captain of the Knights could not simply trust in his lord and save for Savior Bahamut well that's blasphemous.
1:31:22
SPEAKER_07: Very especially on this podcast the deck of many things had been looted from a hobgoblin warlord on one of their recent quests.
1:31:32
SPEAKER_07: Oh no turned to the deck for aid unfortunately for him he immediately drew the skull card oh my god he has worse luck than I do apparently something because I drew the plague card which is not you'll note not a card more on that later uh now a host of undead attackers joined in on the fight against the Abbey from the inside we got we got orcs we got goblins we got demons now we got undead guys all on the inside good also inside the Abbey the varieties of wards and magics made to prevent the attackers from reaching the abbey kept the magical deck from disappearing and reappearing to a new owner oh god oh no instead the magic and everything in the deck caused it to fly apart and scatter throughout the abbey okay this is this is kind of fun i'm kind of I'm kind of into it the long and short of it is guess what now that they had to battle on two fronts the Knights did not win they did not win i i i couldn't have seen that one coming for sure yes dude honestly though having the advantage so so clearly getting most of the way there and then choking because you decided to just like mess around a little bit like it's kind of relatable because you didn't trust you know because you couldn't just be patient yeah you couldn't just be patient yeah so uh what the hell man eight of the 22 cards were eventually taken from the abbey by the attackers the deck cool is dispersed throughout and even within the abbey and its power is greatly diminished but its sentience lingered within what remained in the abbey over the years the will of the deck influenced denizens to bring the cards to the abbey finally all but one is brought back and that one has found its way into the hands of the adventurers oh I I bet it's it's probably not it's probably not the skull right because they're not dead well uh it doesn't say whether or not your adventurers would effectively draw the card or not or if they just kind of pick it up pick it up and like the mysterious force of the uh deck which in that drew them to it.
1:34:03
SPEAKER_07: Yeah and it really does all allow a lot of decisions to be made by the DM it doesn't even say which card it was which I guess yeah and I guess DM can pick if it's like a boon card and or if it would even apply because like since it if they just found it like out and about it wouldn't necessarily maybe have the same properties as if it were drawn from the deck.
1:34:27
SPEAKER_07: Exactly right yeah and and that is completely up to DM discretion.
1:34:32
SPEAKER_02: I just also this whole time I've been thinking about that one I think it's like a it's like a Tumblr post I think where it's like you know I I I like go in for a tarot reading and like the person doing the reading like flips over a card and has like a picture of a of a guy in a hot air balloon and I'm like is that bad the whole time I've just been thinking of someone just like drawing a card from there and looking at it and being like is this bad and then they draw the skull and it's like I think this is bad.
1:35:01
SPEAKER_02: Yes in fact I think this is bad guys this is bad never initiative yeah basically um dude you said you said that and it activated a neuron like you said that and I literally like put my hands up like I was gonna grab my dice out of my dice chain roll what's so funny is I've never DM'd so you've literally never like actually had the rule initiative brain cell activation uh for me um so the adventurer actually looks really cool the art it does sound really fun I mean it does sound pretty cool I can't lie the cards cause different effects throughout the Abbey uh hearkening back to house of cards but cooler right but more you know yeah yeah adventurers have to risk it and interact with these cards but they're rewarded for doing so instead of simply being punished uh as was the case in House of Cards right and they are inclined to assemble the full deck for a multitude of reasons they can also decide that they want to destroy the deck okay they learned that the only way to destroy to destroy the deck of many things is to expose it simultaneously to the fiery breath of four heads of a flame kiss hydra very specific very like very specific what the hell I was gonna say it's very like one ring but like I feel like that's even more specific because at least the the it's not like the flame kiss hydra hydra made it yeah and it's also like you know you you take the one ring to a place and then you put it in the place you know whereas it's like like where are we gonna get a where are we gonna get a flame kiss hydra guys you literally have to seek out a hydra and figure out how to provoke it into breathing all four times in a single round onto the artifact or without dying yourself.
1:36:53
SPEAKER_07: Or you just look at the oh well you don't even get fucking wishes from this one do you never mind nope because I was supposed to you just you just look at the guy who drew the card with the wishes and you're like hey you just get the effects of a ritual yep yeah ritual summon hydra yeah ritual summon flame kiss hydra you know what yeah you have to be specific ritual um immunity to fire damage for the whole party yep I hope everyone drew moon right so that's it uh I look I'm all I'm saying is that if somebody converted this to fifth edition I would play it because it sounds like yeah that sounds really that does sound really fun I do wonder if someone has oh I am sure I'm sure someone has yeah because that does sound really that does sound really fun and Bahamut's there and Bahamut's there and Bahamut can't steer us round wrong true 2014's dungeon masters guide for fifth edition brings us full circle back to the latest list of effects I read at the beginning there's really not much more than that in the DM's guide other than the deck is no longer sentient isn't and is now classified as a legendary wondrous item.
1:38:01
SPEAKER_07: Okay yeah makes sense they were like we are we're revoking we're revoking sentients from this thing and that would bring us uh in terms of source book material up to 2023's The Book of Many Things which I have so much to say about this book but before that let's do the honorable mentions okay so as I mean as I said at the beginning I first learned about the book from Baldur's Gate 2 or the book I first learned about the deck from Baldur's Gate 2.
1:38:33
SPEAKER_07: I was maybe nine when I played through Baldur's Gate 2.
1:38:38
SPEAKER_07: So I was very fuzzy on a lot of stuff I did go back and look through everything and there are two versions of the deck in Baldur's Gate 2.
1:38:46
SPEAKER_07: That's why it's called Baldur's Gate 2 because yeah that that's exactly why stupid there are two versions of it there are two versions.
1:38:54
SPEAKER_07: So if you play against that demon in the maze that I mentioned the cards are completely different from the regular cards which is why I mentioned that I pulled a plague card a card that is never mentioned anywhere else.
1:39:07
SPEAKER_07: Oh so so this guy so this guy just sucks this guy just like saw saw like you know saw an opportunity to like swindle you and was like actually I have nothing negative to say about the gambling cambian he is a man of his word he always fulfills his end of the gamble and so one of the things that you can gamble for is the way out because he's been stuck there for years.
1:39:38
SPEAKER_07: And he specifically says if he wins and he gets the the way out he will return as soon as he is able to free himself basically to give you the way out back to you and give you the gym that he was holding which you need and he does those and he does that.
1:39:59
SPEAKER_07: Okay I don't think he's a demon I do think he's a devil no he is not I look this look it says Tanari on the stat block he's a demon he's a very principled demon he is a very principled demon if you play against him his deck is weird um so there are hold on nine ten eleven cards in his deck okay this being the um deck number one there is a normal amount of cards in deck number two he's he's okay he's he's somehow he's missing a few he is missing a few and also the deck the cards are different so now there is strife where you are afflicted with a slow curse for one turn all right plague a constitution curse with your constitution is set to six which is the one I got that's bad that is bad that's coughing baby now because it's a video game you can't and it specifically is described as being a curse you can't just remove the curse video game doesn't want to uh have very many permanent afflictions right yeah because it it would it would be a bit much even in older games to just like run into this situation and it's like okay well you are now permanently you are permanently afflicted with glass bones and paper skin yeah the triumph card which four human fighters are summoned and attack the drawer oh good the construct card an adamantine golem is summoned and attacks the drawer okay the adamantine golem is summoned and attacks Taylor yep except uh you as the player could never draw the adamantine card or the construct card only the demon could uh okay I mean all right so interestingly enough uh you can only draw strife or plague and then he could only draw triumph or construct so it is still somewhat rigged but not like super rigged you can still beat him so like so if if you could only draw two of those cards and he could only draw two of the cards then like there were multiple rounds oh I see I see then I could only draw guile or strength guile summons six assassins to target the party good strength afflicts me with a strength curse my strength is set to six good I only ever played one round against this guy you're fair yeah yeah well you did get curse like immediately so yeah I would probably not want to do that again yeah he could then draw defiance or empress defiance immediately suffer 10d10 fire damage no saving throw Empress you gain true sing and see invisibility for one week for one week for one week wow yeah that's um and then you could draw high priestess or emperor high priestess you are silenced by an unending silence spell until remove curse removes it shut up no sound or it literally just said shut up emperor immunity to confusion and charm for one week oh yeah that's great and then he would only be able to draw the wheel uh no known effect not explained to player uh so but he would automatically win with the wheel no matter what so the effect was he wins the effect the effect is he wins he wins like uh a sound effect and a visual would play but nothing was ever like people databind nothing happened incredible um that's really funny I say data mind it's from 2001 yeah I mean that's essentially that's essentially what that's essentially what I did it is it is funny to do to use that word to describe a very old video game though yeah if you refuse to play with a demon and simply simply take the deck off of his corpse you'll find a completely well okay a mostly regular deck of many things mostly regular yes um so most of the effects are pretty uh like they're just game for the most part they're just gamified versions of the regular effects right okay um but also I will say the fates and idiot are not in his deck they are replaced with magician and Arane oh so Arane uh your the user's ability score is a boost is boosted by plus one for 24 in-game hours that's the the name of the uh yeah the the fate mythology yeah and in dd lore they are sort of like sort of like furies I believe yeah they're they're kind of like yeah really yeah they're they're there and then the magician user turned into a rabbit no save that's turned into a rabbit with no save just it can be dispelled though so dispel magic will return.
1:45:11
SPEAKER_02: We got the the magician yep nice that's really funny that it's a rabbit um so just as a I'm not gonna read through all of them um but like just to show like it it's basically just a gamified well it's all games uh a video gamified version video game yeah yeah if you draw key you get the warden signet added to your inventory which is a specific magic item if you draw throne uh the party shares one million experience points instead of like getting like specifically a keep or what have you because it doesn't have a keep for you to gain no keep yeah so it's mostly very oh hold on the void user exposed to disintegrate save versus death at a penalty of negative eight okay cool yeah penalty of negative eight yeah okay I I I know you said you're not gonna read them all but I do have the thing you do have your notes open and I would like to draw attention to the ruin card which is lose 4,294 eight hundred and sixty seven thousand two hundred and ninety six gold a bug supposed to be a hundred thousand yes that's so funny it was a bug wow they never went through and fixed that is so someone patched this someone patched this 20 plus year old game this is inexcusable my money yikes that is quite the bug it is that's so I can't remember if you could go negative if so you're fucked okay now I really want to play Baldur's gate too it is really fun I like it's a different kind of fun i i think that we would enjoy the chaos of it i'm I'm crying so the demon which by the way his name is Acegareth it it looks like it sh it's trying to be Asgarath but right um he also gives an alternative origin for the deck he game he claims that the deck or perhaps just this deck like the the weird one that he uses or just the one that he has on him uh was created by a famous Genasi wizard he also establishes that the rules of his game version were created by a match and sigil and that the cards have a face value which is how you're able to determine a winner per round.
1:47:41
SPEAKER_07: Ah and I guess the wheel would be the ace because it always wins and it yeah okay I see because I I went back and I looked and basically because I drew Plague I got one point and he drew construct which was worth four points.
1:47:58
SPEAKER_07: I don't recall it telling me anything about like why but specific cards were worth a specific amount.
1:48:06
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
1:48:06
SPEAKER_07: Um yeah anyways turns out he's right about the um origins of perhaps at least his deck because if you draw four cards from the regular deck that you can p take off of his body on the fourth card you will always draw balance.
1:48:21
SPEAKER_07: And this and what happens if you draw balance is you get like a sort of narrated cutscene well not it it's not it's Baldur's Gate 2.
1:48:31
SPEAKER_07: It's it doesn't actually show a cutscene what it does is it describes what you're seeing.
1:48:36
SPEAKER_04: Right.
1:48:37
SPEAKER_07: Which is the card shows an old man with flaming red hair and fiery eyes staring out at you.
1:48:42
SPEAKER_07: In his hands he holds a scale a small silver bowl the small silver bowl is balanced evenly the card is clearly labeled balanced almost immediately you realize the man is the creator of the deck the image both smiles slightly and nods to you tapping the scale with his withered hands.
1:48:59
SPEAKER_07: What remains of the deck of many things begins to fade suddenly and within the space of a moment it is gone forever.
1:49:06
SPEAKER_02: That's cool that's that's really neat yeah I mean that is pretty cool.
1:49:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah I really like I really like Baldur's Gate 2's deck of many things even though it's not like the most usual right yeah and it is you know it's still pretty cool yeah that is really cool I like that all so Never Winter Nights also has a deck of many things though it's called a deck of hazards for some reason I wonder why it's called a deck of hazards I mean what I will say is you go ahead.
1:49:38
SPEAKER_02: It is an inherently much less cool name but like and also not a name that inspires wanting to draw from it.
1:49:46
SPEAKER_07: Yeah like it's like I draw from my deck of hazards and it's like I'm gonna I don't think I will I don't think I will it is kind of a misnomer though because what I will say is that Neverwinter's night never winter nights version is Split pretty evenly between good and bad cards.
1:50:04
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:50:05
SPEAKER_07: I'll go ahead and read through because they are not normal names and the effects are very different.
1:50:12
SPEAKER_07: Uh it's also got um oh I accidentally added one.
1:50:15
SPEAKER_01: No, that's the the the we ho ho.
1:50:20
SPEAKER_07: Spoilers.
1:50:20
SPEAKER_07: Alright, so 14.
1:50:22
SPEAKER_07: It has 14 cards.
1:50:23
SPEAKER_07: So it's not a usual deck.
1:50:26
SPEAKER_07: The cards.
1:50:27
SPEAKER_07: The Prince of Lies.
1:50:28
SPEAKER_07: Lose 10,000 experience points and get two extra cards.
1:50:31
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
1:50:32
SPEAKER_02: Thanks, Asmodeus.
1:50:33
SPEAKER_07: The Don John.
1:50:36
SPEAKER_07: Caster and Associates transported to a Don John area, which in Neverwinter Nights is just it.
1:50:41
SPEAKER_07: Essentially just like specific zones that you can be at train like yeah.
1:50:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's that's where they put the that's where they put the stuff.
1:50:50
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:50:51
SPEAKER_02: That's where you go.
1:50:52
SPEAKER_07: That's where you go.
1:50:53
SPEAKER_06: Where you go.
1:50:54
SPEAKER_02: It's the traitor.
1:50:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:50:56
SPEAKER_07: Uh changes the entire party to diametrically oppose alignments instantly.
1:51:01
SPEAKER_07: Neutral characters will have their alignment adjusted in a random direction.
1:51:04
SPEAKER_03: That's really funny.
1:51:05
SPEAKER_03: That's juicy.
1:51:06
SPEAKER_03: I love that.
1:51:07
SPEAKER_07: The knave.
1:51:08
SPEAKER_07: All non-plot possessions are current not currently equipped, are destroyed.
1:51:12
unknown: Oh no.
1:51:13
SPEAKER_07: Which would you gotta keep that shit?
1:51:15
SPEAKER_02: You can keep that shit on you.
1:51:18
SPEAKER_07: The plague.
1:51:19
SPEAKER_07: A permanent disease effect is applied for the duration of the module.
1:51:23
SPEAKER_07: This disease deals 1d10 plus 10 damage initially in 1d4 magical damage every 15 rounds.
1:51:31
SPEAKER_01: Damn.
1:51:32
SPEAKER_07: Every fifth time damage is applied, every 75 rounds, a random ability score is decreased by one.
1:51:40
SPEAKER_07: Jesus Christ decrease may be removed by dispelling.
1:51:45
SPEAKER_04: That is quite the plague, yeah.
1:51:46
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:51:47
SPEAKER_07: That is that's okay.
1:51:48
SPEAKER_07: That's okay.
1:51:50
SPEAKER_07: The looking glass.
1:51:51
SPEAKER_07: The caster's henchman is replaced with an evil doppelganger.
1:51:54
SPEAKER_07: If there is no henchman, another negative card will be drawn instead.
1:51:57
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
1:51:58
SPEAKER_02: Well, Among Us.
1:51:59
SPEAKER_02: Among Us sus sound effect.
1:52:04
SPEAKER_07: The worm.
1:52:05
SPEAKER_07: Yes, W-Y-R-M.
1:52:08
SPEAKER_07: Uh a hostile adult dragon is lured to the caster, and the dragon is blue or red, equal probability for non-evil characters, and gold or silver silver, equal probability for evil characters.
1:52:19
SPEAKER_07: The gold and silver dragons are of the commoner faction, even though they are hostile towards the caster, so fighting them can potentially cause game-breaking faction problems.
1:52:31
SPEAKER_02: Oh.
1:52:31
SPEAKER_02: You know, I don't know enough about the gameplay and and structure of Neverwinter Nights to comment, but the the the notion of a dragon being part of like a commoner grouping is really funny and strange to me.
1:52:46
SPEAKER_07: Kind of, I think, an accident, uh a lack of foresight.
1:52:51
SPEAKER_02: Oh, like a okay.
1:52:53
SPEAKER_02: Like a it's like a bug, but just a yeah.
1:52:57
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:52:57
SPEAKER_07: The mentor.
1:52:58
SPEAKER_07: The caster gains 10,000 experience points and gets two extra cards.
1:53:02
SPEAKER_07: Oh, cool.
1:53:02
SPEAKER_07: The horde.
1:53:03
SPEAKER_07: The caster gains 50,000 gold.
1:53:06
SPEAKER_07: The oracle, the caster is given an inexhaustible premonition effect for the duration of the module.
1:53:12
SPEAKER_07: If this effect is removed, it will be replaced the next round.
1:53:15
SPEAKER_07: So uh the avatar.
1:53:17
SPEAKER_07: It it just has a picture of Aang on it.
1:53:19
SPEAKER_07: It's weird.
1:53:20
SPEAKER_04: That's so weird.
1:53:21
SPEAKER_04: It's just Aang.
1:53:22
SPEAKER_07: Anyway, uh the caster is transformed into an avatar of their alignment or of their alignment.
1:53:29
SPEAKER_07: Furthermore, the caster is given an item that when invoked will repeat the transformation at will, unlimited uses per day.
1:53:36
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so you just gain a you just get an item that just puts you into the avatar state whenever.
1:53:42
SPEAKER_07: Effectively, it's it's requires explaining a lot more about Neverwinter's Neverwinter Night's gameplay.
1:53:49
SPEAKER_07: Why do I keep wanting to pluralize never winter?
1:53:53
SPEAKER_02: Never winter's night.
1:53:56
SPEAKER_02: Just the one.
1:53:57
SPEAKER_07: Just one.
1:53:57
SPEAKER_07: Just one.
1:53:59
SPEAKER_07: Anyway, the fountain.
1:54:01
SPEAKER_07: All of the caster's items are recharged up to 50 charges, and all stacked items are filled up to the maximum possible number, up to 99.
1:54:08
SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm thinking like 99 greater potions of healing.
1:54:12
SPEAKER_07: Oh yeah.
1:54:13
SPEAKER_02: Hell yeah.
1:54:14
SPEAKER_07: The hatchling.
1:54:16
SPEAKER_07: A wormling of alignment appropriate color, red for evil, gold for non-evil, appears and follows the caster as a summoned creature until damaged or killed.
1:54:25
SPEAKER_07: At that point, it transforms into an ancient dragon and fights on the caster's behalf until all enemies are slain, then vanishes.
1:54:32
SPEAKER_04: Oh.
1:54:33
SPEAKER_07: The wormling will be resummoned if it's ever unsummoned, although the color can change, but this resummoning at the caster's alignment had changed in the interim.
1:54:42
SPEAKER_02: Okay, no.
1:54:43
SPEAKER_02: We are never letting any harm happen to the baby because we give and then that we have a we have a mascot.
1:54:50
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, yeah.
1:54:52
SPEAKER_02: No harm can ever come to the baby.
1:54:54
SPEAKER_07: Just cast orb of invulnerability repeatedly.
1:54:58
SPEAKER_02: Just just tell them stay.
1:55:00
SPEAKER_02: Stay.
1:55:00
SPEAKER_02: And then just cast them in the globe of invulnerability.
1:55:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're good.
1:55:05
SPEAKER_02: So that way we just have a friend.
1:55:06
SPEAKER_02: Because you know what?
1:55:07
SPEAKER_02: Eventually it would grow into an ancient dragon anyway.
1:55:10
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:55:11
SPEAKER_02: You know.
1:55:13
SPEAKER_07: The the quest.
1:55:14
SPEAKER_07: The caster gains a major unique magical item.
1:55:17
SPEAKER_07: This will respect the shadows of Undrun Tide treasure system if it is used in the module.
1:55:22
SPEAKER_07: Otherwise, a random boss level treasure will be generated.
1:55:25
SPEAKER_07: Long story short, it respects the game.
1:55:31
SPEAKER_02: You know what?
1:55:32
SPEAKER_07: That's more than admittedly, I probably shouldn't have written that one that part down because it was boring, but hey.
1:55:38
SPEAKER_02: You know, and it's like it was never gonna be as cool as like having a pet baby dragon, but you know.
1:55:44
SPEAKER_04: Oh well, I mean, nothing's is as cool as having a pet baby dragon.
1:55:48
SPEAKER_04: So yeah.
1:55:48
SPEAKER_07: Very true.
1:55:49
SPEAKER_07: So also Travis found this and sent it to me while he was doing research for the mini sode.
1:55:54
SPEAKER_07: But in Slanescape, Sigil and Beyond for second edition, a Duke living in Sigil mentioned that a magical mishap with a deck of cards ended up making a lieutenant of the Dark Nine hate him.
1:56:05
SPEAKER_02: I wonder what that was.
1:56:08
SPEAKER_02: I wonder what that was.
1:56:10
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
1:56:12
SPEAKER_07: So after all of those little honorable mentions, let's get back to the Book of Many Things.
1:56:19
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
1:56:20
SPEAKER_07: I would describe the Book of Many Things as a love letter to the famous deck in the form of a source book.
1:56:27
SPEAKER_07: You can really tell that they really loved the deck and all of its lore.
1:56:32
SPEAKER_07: The book does open on what turned out to be an abridged version of my research.
1:56:38
SPEAKER_03: Nice.
1:56:39
SPEAKER_07: Uh, as in a chronological look through the deck's history, I had to figure out a couple portions of this because my summary was simply too similar to the one in the book for me to feel comfortable.
1:56:51
SPEAKER_04: Damn.
1:56:53
SPEAKER_07: So, you know, great minds and fools, yada yada yada.
1:56:56
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, all that.
1:56:57
SPEAKER_07: The Book of Many Things is not only a current origin story for the deck, but it is also a DM's guide to introducing the deck, unique ways of including the deck, dungeon, puzzles, and magic items inspired by the deck, interactions, characters, world lore, an adventure in new locations.
1:57:13
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so what I'm what I'm hearing is like uh like more stuff like the uh the uh adventure module from fourth edition, the um the abbey of whatever.
1:57:24
SPEAKER_07: Yes.
1:57:25
SPEAKER_07: I was actually torn on how much of the book I want to include simply because I don't want to spoil it for so many people.
1:57:32
SPEAKER_07: But I will include some for sure.
1:57:35
SPEAKER_07: For one, the book recommends tailing your deck to best fit your game, be it more starter-friendly.
1:57:41
SPEAKER_07: Uh, there's one recommended for Ravenloft where the far out far where the bad far outweighs the good.
1:57:48
SPEAKER_02: That yeah, okay, yeah, that's fair.
1:57:50
SPEAKER_02: That tracks.
1:57:51
SPEAKER_07: Um the book officially makes it canon that all decks are canon.
1:57:56
SPEAKER_07: Congratulations, your favorite deck and its origins are canon.
1:58:00
SPEAKER_04: Okay, yeah, that's that's cool.
1:58:02
SPEAKER_07: The book suggests using the deck to weave a narrative.
1:58:05
SPEAKER_07: The effects of the the cards in this case are more subtle.
1:58:08
SPEAKER_07: Instead of a knight immediately summoning a warrior to help.
1:58:12
SPEAKER_07: Or sorry, instead of the knight immediately summoning a warrior to help, perhaps you slowly befriend an NPC and earn their loyalty.
1:58:19
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
1:58:19
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
1:58:20
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:58:20
SPEAKER_07: It sort of it reminds me of tarot in the way where the idea is that it puts you in a circumstance where you can make things happen.
1:58:29
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, as opposed to simply, you know.
1:58:32
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, simply a knight appears and it's like, hey, you deck summoned.
1:58:36
SPEAKER_02: Or where the, you know, people think the result is that you now immediately know what's going to happen, as opposed to, you know, yeah.
1:58:45
SPEAKER_02: It puts you in a position where you're primed for thinking about things differently.
1:58:49
SPEAKER_07: Yes, exactly.
1:58:50
SPEAKER_07: Now, obviously, this is an option.
1:58:52
SPEAKER_07: So it it you can still do the immediate the card that summons a knight.
1:58:59
SPEAKER_02: But I like when they when they kind of when they kind of do it like that, like they give actual ideas on how to like expand it and like change it instead of just kind of either just just saying like, oh yeah, but you can do whatever though, or having that exist implicitly.
1:59:16
SPEAKER_02: Like, I like when they're like, here's ways you can do here's an example.
1:59:20
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:59:20
SPEAKER_07: The book also sets out in stone the DM completely sets the rules on how safe the cards are to handle.
1:59:27
SPEAKER_07: If the DM says that their deck can be used by accident, it can be used that way.
1:59:32
SPEAKER_07: Because for a good majority of all iterations, it's been like you have to state your intention, right?
1:59:39
SPEAKER_07: But if a DM is like, mmm, but I like it if for this deck you can accidentally use it if you were to touch it or to accidentally pull on it not knowing what it was.
1:59:51
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:59:53
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean, I like that idea.
1:59:55
SPEAKER_07: There are potential effects for if you want to allow for single cards to be found and usable.
2:00:00
SPEAKER_07: Uh, for instance, a lone key card could provide the ability to brandish the card and use it to cast the knock spell with no sound made by the spell.
2:00:09
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
2:00:10
SPEAKER_02: Because it's a key.
2:00:11
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
2:00:12
SPEAKER_02: Uh that took me.
2:00:14
SPEAKER_02: That took me several seconds longer than it should have.
2:00:18
SPEAKER_07: And uh the book actually gives examples for all 22 of the cards.
2:00:23
SPEAKER_02: That's fun.
2:00:23
SPEAKER_02: I love that.
2:00:24
SPEAKER_07: Um, it also gives directions for creating a deck of many more things.
2:00:29
SPEAKER_04: Many more things.
2:00:31
SPEAKER_07: Yes.
2:00:32
SPEAKER_04: Oh.
2:00:33
SPEAKER_07: So the deck of many more things is actually um an item, a deck of many things that has been created essentially by other people trying to create new cards for the deck of many things.
2:00:48
SPEAKER_02: Which I feel like is like making dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.
2:00:51
SPEAKER_02: Like you shouldn't do that.
2:00:53
SPEAKER_02: Like you shouldn't do that.
2:00:54
SPEAKER_06: Well, see.
2:00:56
SPEAKER_02: But like even if it's even if it's interesting and cool and you can, it just feels like there's maybe some examples of reasons why you shouldn't.
2:01:06
SPEAKER_04: Uh probably.
2:01:09
SPEAKER_07: But like, but you can.
2:01:12
SPEAKER_07: So basically, the DM has to sort of create the deck of many more things because the characters aren't able to create the deck on their own.
2:01:22
SPEAKER_07: However, they can add to the deck.
2:01:26
SPEAKER_07: The care characters can craft a new card for the deck if they are 17th level or higher.
2:01:31
unknown: Okay.
2:01:32
SPEAKER_07: That's the DM would set the parameters for how the characters would make said card.
2:01:38
SPEAKER_07: They might need to gather magical ink and change paper.
2:01:41
SPEAKER_07: They may need to commission an artist or learn the techniques themselves.
2:01:44
SPEAKER_07: They may need to perform a magical ritual in order to actually enchant the card.
2:01:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:01:50
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:01:51
SPEAKER_02: You know, at least I like it.
2:01:53
SPEAKER_02: This there's some barriers for some barriers for barriers for entry.
2:01:57
SPEAKER_07: Yes.
2:01:58
SPEAKER_07: Card creators can attain potential benefits like a new demi plane based on their card.
2:02:05
SPEAKER_07: Effective immortality.
2:02:06
SPEAKER_07: The ability to walk between any world where their card has manifested an exclusive membership to a secret cabal of card creators.
2:02:14
SPEAKER_04: Oh my god.
2:02:15
SPEAKER_07: I'm not making this up.
2:02:16
SPEAKER_07: It's in the book.
2:02:18
SPEAKER_02: It's really funny.
2:02:20
SPEAKER_02: We've loved that though.
2:02:21
SPEAKER_02: We've learned where potential desires for um things like immortality can lead.
2:02:26
SPEAKER_02: So, you know.
2:02:27
SPEAKER_07: Yes.
2:02:28
SPEAKER_07: It is effective, it is effective immortality.
2:02:31
SPEAKER_07: You can still be killed, but you won't die of old age.
2:02:33
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, say, but you're effectively immortal.
2:02:35
SPEAKER_04: So yeah, just don't piss anybody off.
2:02:38
SPEAKER_07: I could easily go on about what this like supplement like gives you in terms of like world building, but no, I will say, knowing full well that my DM is listening to me and watching me right now.
2:02:53
SPEAKER_07: If you are a DM, you should really look into this supplement for some ideas because it's it's really fun, it's really good.
2:03:01
SPEAKER_07: There are some like big things around constellations.
2:03:07
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, it's really cool.
2:03:09
SPEAKER_07: I don't want to spoil too much.
2:03:10
SPEAKER_07: I because I could go on.
2:03:12
SPEAKER_07: There is actually one thing that I didn't write down.
2:03:14
SPEAKER_07: You know what?
2:03:14
SPEAKER_07: I'll actually get to it after I discuss the origins.
2:03:17
SPEAKER_02: They really, they really said, like, oh, the the the witches are gonna love this.
2:03:24
SPEAKER_02: They made it for the witches.
2:03:25
SPEAKER_04: The witches are gonna love this shit.
2:03:26
SPEAKER_02: They said, we got cards, we got constellations, the witches are gonna love this shit.
2:03:31
SPEAKER_07: You should make your own cards.
2:03:33
SPEAKER_07: Oh, well, hold on.
2:03:35
SPEAKER_07: Um, so Lewin, my fellow Greek mythology nerd and lover.
2:03:40
SPEAKER_01: Oh no.
2:03:41
SPEAKER_07: Do you know who Uriel is in Greek mythology?
2:03:45
SPEAKER_02: No, I don't.
2:03:47
SPEAKER_02: And also, I didn't have I wasn't looking at the thing when you initially listed the list of cards, and I thought it was like the archangel Uriel.
2:03:57
SPEAKER_02: Oh no, like the the the archangel of of of death, I think he is.
2:04:02
SPEAKER_07: Oh, I'm pronouncing it wrong.
2:04:04
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
2:04:05
SPEAKER_07: Uh, I forgot how you pronounce things in Greek.
2:04:08
SPEAKER_07: It's been a while.
2:04:10
SPEAKER_07: Urieli.
2:04:12
SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
2:04:13
SPEAKER_07: I forgot that you pronounced things in.
2:04:15
SPEAKER_02: Now, granted, to be fair, I did like almost immediately afterwards open it up and see that it was spelled differently and spelled in a very Greek way, so I was like, oh, okay.
2:04:22
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
2:04:22
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I was you said Uriel, and I was for uh a minute I thought it was going to be a very different sort of card than it was, but no, I do not know who this mythological figure is.
2:04:33
SPEAKER_07: Uh Uriele is one of three immortal gorgons alongside Medusa.
2:04:40
SPEAKER_07: He is Medusa's sister.
2:04:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
2:04:43
SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay, okay.
2:04:44
SPEAKER_07: If I believe if I uh recall correctly, Urialee is actually the oldest sister.
2:04:51
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
2:04:52
SPEAKER_07: Now that is the real world story for Uriali.
2:04:56
SPEAKER_07: Obviously, she's been mentioned since first edition.
2:04:58
SPEAKER_07: Who the fuck is Urielee?
2:05:01
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so who the hell is Urieli?
2:05:03
SPEAKER_07: I would like to take this time to read directly from the book because it is a beautiful story.
2:05:09
SPEAKER_02: Oh good, okay.
2:05:10
SPEAKER_02: Alright.
2:05:11
SPEAKER_02: Storytime, everyone.
2:05:12
SPEAKER_02: Alright, story time, everybody settle in.
2:05:14
SPEAKER_07: Long ago, the zealous ruler of a small coastal kingdom had a daughter he named Asteria, or shining star in the language of the kingdom.
2:05:22
SPEAKER_07: For the stars shone auspiciously on her birth.
2:05:25
SPEAKER_07: But Asteria defied his expectations.
2:05:28
SPEAKER_07: While other nobles' children happily played with their bevy of toys, Asteria intently focused on cataloguing every consolation she could find.
2:05:37
SPEAKER_07: When other children greeted their parents with high heads and laughter, Asteria smiled firmly at the ground.
2:05:44
SPEAKER_07: Over time, Asteria's father grew discontented with his daughter, frustrated by his many failed attempts to mold Asteria into a person who matched the ideas in his head.
2:05:53
SPEAKER_07: The princess grew up isolated and independent, resenting the unending pressure of others placed on her to become someone other than herself.
2:06:01
SPEAKER_07: One afternoon, as Asteria swam alone as a reprieve from her peers, a rip current swallowed her.
2:06:07
SPEAKER_07: Waves battered her against the rocks, then carried her unconscious body far from the kingdom's shore to a secret grotto in which the reclusive Medusa Urieli lived alone.
2:06:17
SPEAKER_07: Despite Urieli's anxiety, she was painfully aware that even kind folk feared her petrifying gaze, she tended to Asteria's wounds.
2:06:25
SPEAKER_07: When Asterio awoke, the young woman didn't panic.
2:06:28
SPEAKER_07: Instead, the pair chatted throughout the night, talking of the stars, the sea, and everything else that they had longed to share with someone for so long.
2:06:36
SPEAKER_07: Asteria stayed until her wounds were healed.
2:06:39
SPEAKER_07: But rather than return to a father who was always disappointed in her, she decided to let her father assume she was dead.
2:06:46
SPEAKER_07: The secluded grotto became her new home.
2:06:48
SPEAKER_07: Over the years, Urielee taught Asteria how to be a steward of the land, while Asteria provided companionship, freely sharing with Uria Lee all the esoteric interests she had pursued as a child.
2:07:00
SPEAKER_07: The two were sisters in all but blood.
2:07:02
SPEAKER_07: I call bullshit.
2:07:09
SPEAKER_05: This is gay.
2:07:10
SPEAKER_07: This is gay gay, and this is homophobic, actually.
2:07:16
SPEAKER_02: That it is not.
2:07:22
SPEAKER_03: And they were they were grotto mates.
2:07:24
SPEAKER_06: They were grotto mates.
2:07:25
SPEAKER_06: Okay.
2:07:26
SPEAKER_06: My god, they were grotto mates.
2:07:28
SPEAKER_07: Anyways.
2:07:28
SPEAKER_07: For Uriel Lee did not pressure Asteria to conform to her ways or look her in the eye, and Asteria didn't view Urielee as a terrifying monster.
2:07:37
SPEAKER_07: Their existence was blissfully intertwined for years, with neither forcing the other to be anything but themselves.
2:07:43
SPEAKER_07: This peace was not to last, for Asteria's father never gave up hope that his daughter still lived.
2:07:49
SPEAKER_07: After a decade of searching, he found her new home and ordered his soldiers to retrieve her through any means necessary.
2:07:55
SPEAKER_05: I don't know.
2:07:56
SPEAKER_07: The idyllic grotto was overrun by violence, and although Uriele defended her home and her sister with fervent abandon, turning many of the intruders to stone, both women were captured and taken to the coastal kingdom.
2:08:07
SPEAKER_07: Determined to reign in his wayward daughter, the king locked Astaria away in a keep and sentenced Uriele to death.
2:08:14
SPEAKER_07: Asteria, horrified, tried everything to save her dearest friend, but her pleas were dismissed.
2:08:19
SPEAKER_07: In desperation, she broke out of the keep, but she was overwhelmed by guards.
2:08:24
SPEAKER_07: Only then, after exhausting all options, did Astaria give in to rage, screaming at the stars that were her namesake, searching for an answer.
2:08:32
SPEAKER_07: An answer came, but it was not the one Asteria hoped for.
2:08:36
SPEAKER_07: Istus, a god of fate, had heard the princess and visited her in the keep that night.
2:08:41
SPEAKER_07: Every door opened for Istus, and invisible to every guard, she led Asteria onto the cliffs, where pointing at the constellations that governed Asteria and Urielee's fate.
2:08:50
SPEAKER_07: Istus explained that nothing could be done.
2:08:53
SPEAKER_07: It was Asteria's destiny to be a dutiful daughter and princess.
2:08:57
SPEAKER_07: And it was Urielee's fate to be remembered forever as a tragic villain.
2:09:02
SPEAKER_07: Asteria wasn't sure which part of this destiny that she presented more.
2:09:06
SPEAKER_07: We don't get to choose our stories, the god explained.
2:09:10
SPEAKER_07: Don't we?
2:09:11
SPEAKER_07: Asteria replied.
2:09:13
SPEAKER_07: I chose to see Urielee differently as she did me.
2:09:16
SPEAKER_07: That was enough to change our stories once years ago.
2:09:19
SPEAKER_07: Let me change them again.
2:09:21
SPEAKER_07: Swayed by Asteria's conviction, Istus reluctantly admitted that Asteria's and Uriele's fates could be rewritten, but the consequences of such actions were impossible to predict.
2:09:31
SPEAKER_07: Both women would get new destinies, but they might be no better than the last, and they could be worse.
2:09:36
SPEAKER_07: But Asteria was adamant.
2:09:38
SPEAKER_07: So Istus reached into the sky and pulled down twenty two constellations to form a deck of oracle cards.
2:09:44
SPEAKER_07: The first deck of many things.
2:09:46
SPEAKER_07: Placing thirteen of these cards face up, one by one, Istus rewrote Asteria and Urieli's story.
2:09:52
SPEAKER_07: Armed with her new destiny, Asteria rescued Urieli, and the two have since had many grand adventures together.
2:09:59
SPEAKER_07: In time, Urieli longed once more for a quiet life.
2:10:02
SPEAKER_07: The two women found a site in the outlands that reminded them of the grotto that had once been their home, and Urieli retired there from adventuring.
2:10:10
SPEAKER_07: Asteria, however, still felt a fervent desire to defend others from the injustice of destiny.
2:10:15
SPEAKER_07: Taking up the symbol of the Medusa as an icon of protection, strength, and her dearest friend, Asteria has continued her journey alone.
2:10:23
SPEAKER_07: But Istus' act echoed through the multiverse in the original deck of many things reflected across the plains, manifesting in varied forms throughout the cosmos.
2:10:33
SPEAKER_02: Oh my god, that was beautiful.
2:10:35
SPEAKER_02: That was beautiful.
2:10:35
SPEAKER_02: Also, I'm sure I'm sure like I can't start talking about the adventure zone right now, but I'm sure I'm sure everyone saw the neuron activation when you read the name Isthus.
2:10:46
SPEAKER_02: I'm sure everyone saw the neuron activation.
2:10:50
SPEAKER_02: That's beautiful.
2:10:52
SPEAKER_02: I like that.
2:10:53
SPEAKER_02: That's really beautiful.
2:10:54
SPEAKER_02: I really like that story.
2:10:55
SPEAKER_07: It's also really gay.
2:10:57
SPEAKER_07: And I'm surprised like wizards, what the hell is that?
2:11:03
SPEAKER_02: Like, I just I don't know.
2:11:05
SPEAKER_02: I think that's a more I think that's a more interesting way to to also like I'm sorry, like the one the one nitpick, the one nitpick I have, I do think it's very it's it's a little irritating.
2:11:17
SPEAKER_02: People say Medusa instead of Gorgon.
2:11:19
SPEAKER_02: I think it's really irritating.
2:11:20
SPEAKER_02: Like Medusa is Medusa is the lady.
2:11:23
SPEAKER_07: So but it does both.
2:11:25
SPEAKER_07: So I think it is actually supposed to be like the Medusa as a symbol, as opposed to right, because it does refer to Uriali as a Gorgon.
2:11:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, which it it yeah, I I get okay.
2:11:39
SPEAKER_02: That's the it it's less about DD specifically.
2:11:42
SPEAKER_07: And yeah, you're just you're just upset it reminded you that you're upset about it.
2:11:46
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it just reminded like it's it's like you know, Medusa is the lady and Medusa is a Gorgon, you know.
2:11:53
SPEAKER_07: So the artwork, uh, this is towards the end, if you happen to have a book of many things, towards the very end.
2:12:00
SPEAKER_07: And like uh page one thirty eight ish, there is a depiction of Urieli as uh like a middle-aged to elderly gorgon.
2:12:13
SPEAKER_07: And it's it's very beautiful.
2:12:16
SPEAKER_07: I'm so she's like they did such a good job of making her like snakes look older.
2:12:22
SPEAKER_07: And oh my god, Carophitian.
2:12:24
SPEAKER_02: That's such a yeah, Carol Fidian is the name of the name of their grotto the snake castle.
2:12:30
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, the snake castle, the snassel, the snassel, if you will.
2:12:35
SPEAKER_07: That's so that's so nice, and then it shows Asteria like decked out in armor.
2:12:42
SPEAKER_02: Oh my god, that's so cool.
2:12:44
SPEAKER_07: It characterizes them a little bit more.
2:12:46
SPEAKER_07: Like Asteria is this clevered one, and Uriel is the gentle one.
2:12:52
SPEAKER_07: The man, this rocks, and they were roommates.
2:12:57
SPEAKER_04: Oh my god, they were roommates.
2:13:01
SPEAKER_02: Dude, this is so good.
2:13:02
SPEAKER_02: I you know what?
2:13:03
SPEAKER_02: I like I don't know that I can say it's it's it's like you like especially odd to me, but I feel like you don't all often like as often get a big a big origin story lore dump about something, you know, like a magical item specifically.
2:13:22
SPEAKER_02: Like a like a magical item.
2:13:23
SPEAKER_02: Like I feel like a lot of the time it is kind of left, and also it is established that like this is the first deck of many things, so like there could obviously be potential origins for other ones, especially given that you as a player could hypothetically create your own cards.
2:13:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:13:38
SPEAKER_02: Like I feel like it is often kind of like sort of more left up to interpretation, or kind of just like a footnote of like, yeah, and it was created by you know so and so or whatever, or it's like a legend has it that it was so and so.
2:13:52
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, exactly.
2:13:54
SPEAKER_02: I think that I think that more I think that more magical artifacts should get like in-depth, in in-depth, beautiful, mythologically toned stories, backstories.
2:14:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think with sapphic undertones.
2:14:08
SPEAKER_02: I think that has to be.
2:14:09
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, with sapphic requirements require it.
2:14:12
SPEAKER_07: Um like I generally try to air not to read whole blocks straight from books, but I read that and I'm like, no, I have to read this out loud.
2:14:22
SPEAKER_07: I can't summarize it.
2:14:24
SPEAKER_07: I have to read it because it's so beautiful.
2:14:26
SPEAKER_04: Um yeah, I mean, summarizing that would have been it would have just done it.
2:14:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like it's like okay, okay, yeah, and then this happened, and then you know, it's you gotta, yeah.
2:14:35
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:14:36
SPEAKER_07: One quick thing I will mention is that there is an organization uh that is formed to essentially monitor the effects of the deck of many things uh there at the multiverse.
2:14:50
SPEAKER_07: It's called the Solar Bastion.
2:14:51
SPEAKER_07: Um, it is definitely mini-sood worthy.
2:14:54
SPEAKER_07: It exists exclusively in the deck of many the book of many things, and it's very interesting.
2:15:01
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
2:15:01
SPEAKER_07: Um but if you have a a book of many things, go and read up on it.
2:15:06
SPEAKER_07: It's really it's really cool.
2:15:07
SPEAKER_07: But that is all I have.
2:15:09
SPEAKER_07: I I had such a good time doing the research for this.
2:15:13
SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm now I'm glad that I now know what the deck of many things actually is.
2:15:18
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:15:18
SPEAKER_02: I feel I feel enlightened.
2:15:20
SPEAKER_04: It's so crazy for just the fact that uh it just makes every variation of it canon.
2:15:28
SPEAKER_06: I know.
2:15:28
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
2:15:29
SPEAKER_04: Thank you everyone so much for listening.
2:15:31
SPEAKER_04: Don't forget to follow us on all of our various social media platforms.
2:15:35
SPEAKER_04: Spread the word to your friends.
2:15:37
SPEAKER_04: We really appreciate it.
2:15:38
SPEAKER_02: Uh, if you have anything that you would like to suggest as a topic for us to cover, please email us at dungeonpedia.podcast at gmail.com.
2:15:45
SPEAKER_07: And thank you all once again for listening, and we'll catch you next week here on Dungeonpedia.
2:15:55
SPEAKER_02: I I have been sent there like four times in our recording session, and it's actually not that bad.
2:16:00
SPEAKER_02: It's pretty chill.
2:16:01
SPEAKER_02: They they have um they have a little coffee bar just right in the void.