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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mik" data-source="post: 376089" data-attributes="member: 6552">Brainstorming off Pielorinho's idea; perhaps the people who are turning up dead were used by a being or group of great power to perform a truly immense reading. The group got its reading, but now needs to 'assemble the deck' once again to move to the next phase.It is entirely possible that there were eight or nine (not a reader, so I don't know how many cards are involved in the more complex readings) unusual deaths on one night, all precipitated by the victims being unwitting representations of the major arcana. Lay them out on a map and you get a rough representation of the Great Circle or the Double Cross or *whatever* one of the more complex readings is laid out as.The original human cards were killed by fate - their 'card' turned up on that night, so to speak. Some may have died in accidents, others in murders (a collapsed tower falls on one, a judge killed by an escaped prisoner out for revenge, etc). Each one has a small welt on their body that *resembles or symbolizes* the major arcana card they represent. Now, however, the individual or group is rounding up the magical energies that were bonded to the human tarot cards' souls.  This could become more pressing to the PCs if some or all of them show welts representing a card...  Empress for a druid, Magician or Heirophant for a mage, reversed Lovers for someone who has lost a loved one or is fueled by thoughts of revenge. If possible, tying it to the PCs personality or backstory may be more visceral than relying on class; such as a character who has been 'through the fire' representing the Temperance card.[edit additions]Going a little further with this - perhaps the tarot tattoos are invisible except to the others who bear one and the reader who cast them. If the tattoos are spirits or creatures that latch on to others, the death of the bearer counts as a 'turn' of that card. Once the cards are turned, the spirit returns to the reader.I'm not familiar with Ravenloft, but this 'spirit deck' may be a way of not only getting a reading that is highly detailed and accurate, but of influencing the subsequent outcome.Perhaps by personally dealing with certain cards that you would rather have had turn up for a favorable reading, the reader can replace unfavorable ones. If the Fool turned up in a bad location, gather up the spirit, find the human bearer of the Sun card, rip the original card from them, place the Fool on them. Presto-change-o, the reading now has the substitution, and the reading is altered.[end edit]Anyone want to run with or away from this?=Mik</blockquote>

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