The gong sounded.
Turn 2
Vigor Stones 2/2
03:00
Begin Draw?
Shae’s Chronico drone cams hovered around them, live-streaming the duel. She addressed her viewers. “Hey guys! The Flame of the Silver Tongue here with another duel! I know, I’m just as surprised as you guys are! I wasn’t expecting any more duels today since it’s way past midnight here, but I ran into an interesting situation while me and the crew were carrying out our objectives. I found this NPC who has somehow completed all his Trials! It’s an NPC Psycho Slinger! Can you believe it? You should have seen the poor guy’s face when I played Scrollkeep the Immortal!”
Scrollkeep stood next to its master, but its cowled head was pointed in Walt’s direction. He couldn’t see the minion’s eyes, but he knew it was staring him down. Tendrils of arcane energy flickered around it like Tesla coils.
Shae continued talking to her chat. “I thought he was going to shit himself!”
One of the cams tracked Walt.
“Look at him!” she said. “Isn’t he pathetic? Looks like he wants to cry home to mommy!”
Walt tried to ignore her by concentrating on his cards. He had the Phylactery, but couldn’t use it until late game. He didn’t want to risk it going to the discard pile, so he decided to hold onto the valuable card. Gnomesucker was a solid early game minion, so he kept that one as well. And the mirrors could be a play, but he didn’t want to hold onto two of them. So he discarded the Blood Mirror and drew two new cards.
Salvatore’s Phylactery
Hell Mirror
Gnomesucker
Blood Imp Mother
Blood Imp
He couldn’t Soultap into anything worthwhile yet that would be worth the sacrifice of health. If he played the Blood Imp, the Scrollkeep would just send remove it and bind it to the graveyard because it had less than ten Health Points. Besides passing, the only sensible play was using his two Vigor Stones to play the Hell Mirror. But he couldn’t do it in front of his opponent. Which left him with only one choice.
Walt ran.
“Oh, there he goes!” She laughed. “He tried to run away when I first saw him, too.”
He fled down a rocky ridge and onto a slope populated with poplar and beech trees.
Above him, he could hear Shae continuing to skim her chat, unthreatened by Walt. “No, scholio269, it doesn’t bother me when my opponents run. In the right situations I like it. I like seeing the fear in my opponent’s eyes. Does that make sense? Besides, I could use an easy duel where I can just win on auto-pilot. Especially after dueling KenPao96. I hate dueling against Silentblades.”
The last words Walt heard her say before he was out of ear shot were, “You guys want to see me win a Card Forge?”
#
Turn 2
01:01
Walt had less than thirty seconds to hide the Hell Mirror. His foot caught on some brush and he stopped to entangle himself. He discovered he was in a thicket of blackberry bushes. The copious vegetation seemed impenetrable.
He drew his card and the Hell Mirror materialized in his hand. Instead of using the targeting arrows, he lowered the surprisingly heavy mirror into the thicket. The mirror glass shimmered. For a moment, the reflection of Shae walking by a boulder while talking to her chat appeared. Then the glass flared with a crimson glow. It had just drained the Thaumaturgist of three Health Points.
Thaumaturgist
Health Points: 97
Walt shoved the Hell Mirror in deeper, lying it on the ground so the pale red glow of the ornate frame was invisible underneath the thick berry brush. He backed away and then arranged the bushes so none of the glow leaked out from below. One would have to move aside the vegetation to see the infernal object. Then he ran further down the ridge and hid behind a tree, putting his back to it and catching his breath.
Shae’s voice grew closer and she stepped onto the slope, gazing down in Walt’s direction. She was still casually talking to her audience. “The Silver Tongue really appreciates your support. Yeah, blinki3, his new album should be coming out in a few weeks. It was recorded way before the tournament and it was all planned by the record company to come out while he was competing. Have I heard it? I don’t know if I’m allowed to say.”
Her voice strained as she made a decision. “Alright, fine! It’s so good you guys! I don’t think anyone’s gonna be disappointed. That’s all I can say about it! You’ll just have to wait until it’s out – “ But then she stopped and said “Oh…”
She grew silent for a moment. Walt peaked around the tree and he could see her silhouette farther up the ridge. But he couldn’t tell what she was doing. But then he saw the card spinning through the air. It burst into ectoplasmic light above the berry thicket.
Then the giant translucent hand appeared. It was surrounded in a blue glow.
[Examine]
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
[Mage Hand]
Mage Hand. Minion. Set: Arcanist’s Keep. Rarity: Common. A spectral hand of arcane energy.
Arcane Slap: 3 Attack, Cooldown: 6 seconds
Health Points: 3
Cost: 1 Vigor Stone
What was she doing with it?
The Mage Hand lowered and then reached into the thicket, its fingers pushing aside the brush and branches. When the hand reappeared out of the thicket, it was holding the Hell Mirror.
“How cute!” Shae said. “This Voidlock was trying to be sneaky.”
The Mage Hand floated up to her and showed her the object in its grasp.
“A Hell Mirror?” Shae said. She was using her system interface to examine its card description. “You know, I thought I felt a little tinge of pain. It was such a small tick I assumed it was just indigestion.” Then she went back to reading. “’Set: Card Forge Combos.’ Hah! He created this using the Card Forge. The Card Forge that’s about to be mine. He just gave away his end game! This is part of his upcoming wombo combo!”
The Mage Hand formed into a fist and punched the Hell Mirror, cracking it. But it was still intact.
Then something in her chat must have caught her attention again. “Wait? What? This dude was featured on The Slaycast? And he beat Simmons?” She was surprised. But she kept reading the chat. “And he beat Ricky Z using these mirrors? He’s a combo player? This NPC? Unbelievable.”
Then she looked up from her Chat broadcast and looked down the mountain ridge in Walt’s direction. “Well, I got news for you, NPC! You’re not going to surprise me with your combos!”
Then the Mage Hand’s attack went off cool down. It punched the Hell Mirror again, shattering the glass. Shards of the mirror fell to the earth and the broken ornate frame started to dissolve at the molecular level. It morphed into red sand, then turned to motes of red light and flew down the mountain toward Walt.
His gauntlet absorbed the light particles as the card was taken off the board. He stared at the gauntlet, disturbed.
This was the first time out of all his duels where one of the mirrors required for his Life Leech combo was found and destroyed. He wasn’t sure if she had some class ability that allowed her to detect objects, or if he hadn’t hid the Hell Mirror as good as he thought he did.
But one thing was for sure, he didn’t think he would be able to pull off the Life Leech combo. This would make all his mirror cards pretty much obsolete.
The gong sounded.
Turn 3
Vigor Stones 3/3
03:00
Begin Draw?
He stayed where he was, his back pressed against the tree, and drew his next hand. He looked at the current cards. He pretty much knew what his next play would be, so he held onto the current hand and just drew one new card.
Salvatore’s Phylactery
Gnomesucker
Blood Imp Mother
Blood Imp
Desecrate X
Walt knew he had to start gambling. Both of the minions in hand both had less than ten Health Points. But he saw an opportunity to get a minion to stick to the board for enough time to remove Scrollkeep the Immortal from the board until Shae played it again. It would just be costly for Walt.
But he did it anyways. He Soultapped twice, gasping. His vision went blurry for a moment and his chest seized, like he was having a heart attack.
Voidlock
Armor: 10
Health Points: 79
But the pain subsided and Walt flicked two cards into the air. From one card, a homunculus made out of blood and scabs appeared out of the swirling pool of blood that had formed in the air. It pulled itself with a wet plop and screeched, wagging its long, razor fingers.
The Gnomesucker dropped out of the air where the second card had disappeared. He arrived in a cloud of sulphur and was hugging his huge syringe with both arms. It was full of a bright, eldritch green liquid. “Master, you rang!”
At the top of the ridge, Shae gasped in surprise. A card ejected out of her gauntlet, removed from her deck by the Gnomesucker's War Whoop effect. A portal opened up next to it.
[Examine]
[Wand Pilferer]
Wand Pilferer. Minion. Set: Arcanist's Keep. Rarity: Rare. One of the street urchins who lurks about the Arcane Academy, looking to pick pockets and pilfer caster weapons.
War Whoop: Steals Enemy Hero's wand if equipped.
Shiv: 8 Attack, Cooldown: 10 seconds
Health Points: 10
Cost: 5 Vigor Stones
The card flew into the portal, removed from the duel and battleboard.
"Damnit!" Shae said. She crouched and peered down the ridge, readying herself. Her cards floated above her gauntlet. “We’ve got action, folks!”
The Blood Imp dropped to all fours and charged up the ridge towards Walt’s opponent, kicking up a plume of dirt, pebbles and leaves.
Scrollkeep the Immortal stepped in front of Shae and pointed at the Blood Imp. The tendrils of arcane energy flowed down in its arm and burst out of its finger in one big spinning ball of power. Its Arcane Command attack hit the Blood Imp in a burst of arcane sparks.
The energy enclosed around Walt’s minion trapping it. But before it took it off the board, the Blood Imp shrieked and projectile vomited a stream of noxious blood.
It splattered across Shae’s chest and face, startling her. She looked at the strings of tainted black blood and pulled the web of vomit off her chest. “Ew!”
But then it started to burn like acid, searing the skin of her chest and face. It melted the skin on her fingers. She screamed in pain as the damage took hold and the poison ticked, pulsing red on her wounds.
Thaumaturgist
Health Points: 90
In a blink of arcane light, the Blood Imp had disappeared, banished to Walt’s Card Graveyard and anchored to the interdimensional zone.
Next, the Gnomesucker charged up the ridge at the Thaumaturgist. It lowered the syringe like a jousting lance and let out a war cry. “For the glory of the Dark Casters!”
But a card appeared in Shae’s hand and she spun, releasing it. A bolt of arcane energy streaked from her finger tips, heading for a collision course with the Gnomesucker.
[Examine]
[Transmogrify]
Transmogrify: Pig. Spell. Set: Arcanist’s Keep. Rarity: Rare. Strike fear into the heart of your opponent by showing them the transformative power of the arcane!
Transform a minion into a Pig.
Cost: 3 Vigor Stones
The bolt of arcane energy hit the Gnomesucker, knocking him onto his back on the slope. He dropped the syringe. It embedded into the dirt, tip first. A puddle of green noxious ooze formed on the ground.
The Gnomesucker clutched his chest as ripples of arcane magic raced across his body, encasing him. “Well, ain’t this the pits!”
There was a poof of pink arcane energy. When the light and dust cleared, the Gnomesucker had disappeared. In his place was a pink pig. Its corkscrew tail wobbled behind it. The pig snorted and started sniffing around the glade. It found a mushroom and inhaled it.
[Examine]
[Pig]
Pig. Minion. Set: Lively Livestock. Rarity: Common. Oink!
Headbutt: 1 Attack
Health Points: 1
Cost: 1 Vigor Stone
“Come on!” Walt said. “Are you fucking serious?”
The Thaumaturgist had just made him waste Health Points by transmogrifying his minion. He had used two Soultaps to play the Gnomesucker. And now it was a farm animal.
Shae laughed. “You really thought you were making a smart play, didn’t you?” Then she cut her laughter short. And her face became serious. Her voice deepened. “You’ll soon tremble before the arcane power of the Arcanist’s Keep.”
Armor to the glossary.
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Glossary
A WORD ON COMBAT:
*Author Note: Please keep in mind, this story is a rough draft. Also, I’m an author first and game designer of a fictional game second. I will work hard to keep the mechanics and stats in check, especially if they are immersion-breaking. But ultimately, the mechanics and card game rules work to serve the story first.
Armor: A form of secondary Health available through certain cards and Hero Abilities. Damage taken will always be deducted from Armor before Health Points, except in the case of certain spells, objects, minions or weapons. Barring these exceptions, a character will only lose Health Points once their Armor reaches 0.
Battleboard Arena: The three-dimensional designated zone where two Duelists duel.
Battleboard Barrier: Three-dimensional grids of blue energy to that define the limits of the Battleboard Arena. It is impossible to pass through the grids. Trying to traverse a barrier results in death. The barriers disappear once a Duel is finished.
Death Cry: Card effect that triggers when a minion dies.
Health Points: A card duelist’s health. Usually starts at 100 Points. When it’s depleted, the duelist dies.
Hellpriest: A priest of an extra-dimensional Hell ruled by the deity, Leviathan. Summon the creatures and powers of Leviathan to punish your opponent into pain and ecstasy. Hero Ability: Heal. Heal self or a minion for 10 Health Points. Cost: 1 Vigor Stone
Hero Ability (aka Psycho Ability): A power or spell a Duelist can use that’s specific to the Duelist’s class. These increase in cost the more they are used throughout a Duel.
Turn: A 3 minute duration split into two parts wherein Duelists can make their moves and play their cards.
Prio: Priority. 1:30 Duration. Duelist who has Prio means they control the segment of the Turn wherein they can play their cards. They have a minute and a half to play their cards. At the end of the duration, Prio passes to their opponent, whether they play a card or not. A Duelist with Prio has the right to pass their segment of the Turn to their opponent.
Pass: Option to pass the Turn to your opponent.
Slaynami Corporation: The mysterious corporation from another version of Earth who owns the rights to the game Slaystone and funds and organizes tournament.
Slaynami Card Gauntlet: A device of advanced and mysterious tech that holds all of the cards for a Duelist. Allows the Duelist to organize cards, build decks and play their cards. It’s linked to the Slaynami System Interface
Slaynami Chronico: A recording and streaming device made from mysterious tech, provided by the Slaynami Corporation to Psycho Slingers for official Slaynami Corp streams.
Slaynami Interface: The UI that allows an individual to interact with the Slaynami System
Slaynami System: Slaynami Corp’s system that connects to an individual and links their mind, brain and body to the designated Slaynami OS. Enhances an individual in various ways, giving them the power of the system at just a thought.
Vigor Stones: The resource used to play cards.
Voidlock: A Darkened Artist who uses the power of souls to tap into unbelievable power. Hero Ability: Soultap. Trade 10 Health Points for 1 Vigor Point. Cost: 10 Health Points.
War Whoop: Effect that’s triggered when a minion arrives on the Battleboard.
Class Compendium
Slaystone ? Class Compendium
Class is the primary factor of a Duelist’s powers and abilities. Each class represents a unique role and determines a Duelist’s Hero Ability and which card sets they are able to use.
There are ten base starting classes that may evolve into more advanced classes by using Psycho Points, Card Gauntlets and Evolver Cocoons. Information on Advanced Classes and the Ultra Slinger and Apex Slinger forms is included in the Slaynami ? Advanced Form Slinger Compendium.
The ten base classes are:
Bloodhound: Tough and resourceful hunters who can track any beast, man or monster through both the wilds and cities. Hero Ability: Tame Beast. Can tame a nearby animal and turn it into a dangerous minion. Cost: 1 Vigor Stone.
Silentblade: Sneaky and agile assassins who use subterfuge and stealth to get intimate with their opponents. Hero Ability: Stealth. Can blend in with the shadows and their surroundings to disappear from sight. Cost: 1 Vigor Stone.
Steelclad: Warriors and sell-swords who use steel and iron weaponry to control the battlefield and armor to soak up otherwise dangerous attacks. Hero Ability: Battle Frenzy. Gains 10 Armor and Enrages, doubling damage with weapons. Cost: 3 Vigor Stones.
Voidlock: A Darkened Artist who uses the potential of souls to tap into unbelievable depths of power. Hero Ability: Soultap. Trade 10 Health Points for 1 Vigor Stone. Cost: 10 Health Points.
Necromancer:As master of the undead, Necromancers have the power to summon an undead army to overwhelm and consume opponents. Hero Ability: Summon a Skeleton Minion. Cost: 1 Vigor Stone.
Thaumuturgist: Practitioners and masters of the Arcane arts. They wield powerful single-target and area of effect spells to blast down their opponents and arcane trickery to manipulate their opponent’s attacks. Hero Ability: Arcane Blast. Arcane energy blasts out of the mage, dealing 10 damage to nearby opponents. Cost: 2 Vigor Stones. 2 extra Vigor Stones per accumulative use.
Cardcleric: Wielders of the White, who use the healing powers of their benevolent Deity to administer purifications, cleanses and mending during times of conflict. Hero Ability: Battle Blaze. Healing blessing that heals self or target for 6 Health and an additional 6 Health Points the next Turn. Cost: 1 Vigor Stone.
Hellpriest: Supplicants and clergy of Leviathan who rules over the Hell dimension. Use Leviathan’s power for both pain and pleasure. Hero Ability: Heal. Heal self or minions for 10 Health Points. Cost: 1 Vigor Stone.
Greenmage: Protectors of Gaia and the verdant wilds, they wield the powers of nature to establish control of the battlefield. Friends of both the trees and the stones, expect both to aid them during times of need. Hero Ability: Friend of the Forest. Summon three Ygdar Ents and root your opponent for 1 Turn or until freed. Cost: 3 Vigor Stones.
Songslinger: The Bard swordsmen of yore. They use music, poetry and theatrics as weapons. A limerick or a well-aimed verbal barb can be just as dangerous as a blade with these raucous and dramatic performers. Hero Ability: Razor Song. A musical attack that turns musical notes into either razor blades or a personal shield. Deals 10 damage. Or Blocks 10 Damage. Cost: 3 Vigor Stones.
Card Codex - Walt's Deck for Duel 4
WALT HARMON'S DECK, DUEL 4
Walt Harmon, Voidlock, Psychoslinger
22 Cards
Soulbloom, Level Two (10 Health)
Necro Flash Heal (1 Vigor Stone)
Soul Armor (1 Vigor Stone)
Blood Imp (2 Vigor Stones)
Blood Mirror (2) (2 Vigor Stones)
Hell Mirror (2) (2 Vigor Stones)
Martyr of the Undead (3 Vigor Stones)
Blood Worm Bomber, Level Two (3 Vigor Stones)
Levitical Hellfiend (3 Vigor Stones)
Desecrate X, Level 2 (3 Vigor Stones)
Gnomesucker (4 Vigor Stones)
Blood Psalmist (4 Vigor Stones)
Boots of Nemora (4 Vigor Stones)
Wand of Green Skulls (4 Vigor Stones)
Replicate (5 Vigor Stones)
7-Fingered Ghoul (7 Vigor Stones)
Life Leech (8 Vigor Stones)
Crucible Configuration (8 Vigor Stones)
Salvatore’s Phylactery (8 Vigor Stones)
Blood Imp Mother (10 Vigor Stones)
