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Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 4874049" data-attributes="member: 3285">Castle Ambrose: Part 7 – Card Room“Thank you,” was all Sebastian said. Kham rose to his feet.  The effort to blast Camilla from Sebastian’s body had nearly collapsed him.  “It’s a scary place inside your head.”“You don’t know the half of it,” came the muffled reply. “Are you sure you still want to see this room?  It holds a fated deck of cards. When I turned the card, it did…not go well.”Beldin pushed open the door. “I want to see what fate will deal me.”Vlad agreed and entered behind him.Kham shrugged.  “I’m done with games of chance, especially in this place.”The walls of the room were wood paneled and a plush carpet covered the floor. A number of card tables and wooden chairs were scattered around the room. Sitting behind a table in the middle of the room was a matronly woman dressed like a gypsy. On the table in front of her were ten cards, face down. The cards were arranged in two rows of five cards each. As soon as the door opened, the woman said, “Welcome, come in, come in. The cards know all. The cards see all. Make yourselves comfortable. Who’ll be the first to choose a card? Pick a card, any card.”Beldin sat down in front of the woman.  He jutted his lower lip out while he considered which card to pick.  Then he drew one and looked at it.“The Queen of Cups,” said the woman.A queenly figure stood holding a cup her right hand, a scepter in her left. As Beldin stared at the card, a goblet appeared on the table.“This magic cup will grow warm when someone tells its holder a lie,” said the woman.“That’ll come in handy,” said Beldin.  He took the goblet.Vlad eagerly replaced Beldin at the table. It didn’t take long for him to choose…he was staring over Beldin’s shoulder when the dwarf was picking his card. Vlad drew his own card.  “The Juggler,” said the woman.A man in a wide-brimmed hat stood in front of various objects placed at random on a table. The man pointed a wand in his right hand toward the sky while pointing with his left hand toward the ground.A small ring appeared on the table.Vlad looked down at it.  “That’s it?  Just a ring?”“That is no ordinary ring. It stores spells. Use it wisely.”“Are you sure you don’t want to pick a card?” Vlad turned to Kham as he put the ring on.  “We seem to be having some good luck.”Kham refused to enter the room. “You forgot how I got Fleshripper? You’d better hope that ring doesn’t turn out to be cursed.”When Vlad turned back to address the woman, she and her cards were gone.</blockquote>

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