Session 12 — The Making of a Providence Card

Area: inside the cave

Context

The party went into the cave they had stopped outside of in session 11, after the two wolves. They came for the Bone card.

Splitting Up

Inside, the party split up. Who went with whom and what each group found is unrecorded.

The Making

Somewhere in the cave the party found out how the cards are made. The text, as found:

THE MAKING OF A PROVIDENCE CARD

A card cannot be made from magic alone. Three things are required. The Vessel gives the power a shape. The Spirit is the price paid to awaken it. The Echo is what the creator willingly leaves behind. Without the Vessel, there is no form. Without the Spirit, there is no power. Without the Echo, there is no bond.

This is the first name the cards have been given: Providence cards.

A second passage covers what happens when one breaks:

A broken card may lose its bond. But what was given is not necessarily lost. If the Vessel remains, the Spirit can be restored. If the Echo can still be found, the bond may be reforged.

The Vessels

Each card has an object behind it. The list, as worked out:

Two cards are new to the record: Bone and the Knight. The Maiden's vessel was the one left with a question mark. Whether the list was found written down or pieced together by the party is unrecorded.

The Mark on Liora

Percival cast the Feeding Mark on Liora. To anyone watching, it was his spell, from his hand.

Valis's Revenge

It was not his choice. Percival had thrown Valis toward the chains — the Chain is the Nightmare's vessel, and Valis is bonded to the Nightmare. Valis was angry with him for it.

As revenge, Valis cast the Feeding Mark through Percival onto Liora. Percival did not want it. His deity gave him no choice.

Only Percival can see Valis, so nobody else saw the throw, the anger, or who was really casting.

Percival's Reasoning

Percival put the making next to what he already knew.

He has a bond with Valis. Valis has a bond with the Nightmare.

And he read the three parts onto Liora:

1. Vessel: Liora.
2. Spirit: the price paid — Liora becoming an actual card?
3. Echo: her glowing body — the Knight?

His own note on it ends: WTF....

None of it was confirmed. It is his reading, and it is what he acted on in session 13 — undoing the mark Valis had forced through him.

Open

• Where in the cave the making was written, and what else the split-up groups found.
• Whether the party got the Bone card.
• Whether the Maiden's vessel really is the amulet.
• What it means that Liora's body was glowing, and when that started.
• Whether the glowing started with the Feeding Mark.
• How Percival threw Valis toward the chains, and what the chains are doing in the cave.
• Whether the party noticed Percival was not himself when he cast it.
• Who the "creator" is in each card's making — the one who leaves the Echo behind.