“No!” Chase bolted out of her seat, running around the desk and staring down through the window.

Screaming people fled in all directions, overturning tables and sendings cards scattering like autumn leaves. She watched in horror as one running man tried to go through the player only area, rebounded so hard that he fell, and was promptly trampled by the people behind him.

And across the hall, the darkness suddenly grew as a chandelier went out.

“Where is he? I can't see him!” The Wizaard boomed behind her.

“Let me look!” Renny hurried forward, and Chase smiled to see him. He was here all along! She didn't know how he'd evaded capture, but she didn't need to. The fact that he'd been silent backup made her feel a lot more in control of this chaotic situation.

The feeling lasted until someone started banging on the office door and shouting.

“Oh this is bad,” Chase said. “There's no way they won't blame us for this! They'll think we pushed him or whatever!”

“There he is!” Renny pointed, to where Enrico's white-suited form was rising from the ruins of a card table. Miraculously, it had broken his fall almost perfectly.

But then, of course a Gambler would be lucky.

No sign of his attacker, though... but across the way another chandelier went dark, and the howl rose once more.

“We need to get down there!” The Muscle Wizaard said, and started flexing, and intoning his buffs.

“Jump! I've got you!” Renny said.

“Er...” Chase said, looking down at the floor. How high up was it, precisely? It was pretty high.

Then strong arms folded around her as she squeaked.

“Hang on tight!”

She grabbed double fistfuls of beard as the Muscle Wizaard threw himself through the window... taking her with him.

Chase screamed... then stopped, as everything slowed down. Did I activate Foresight by accident?

But no. Around her the screams still rose, the Muscle Wizaard's beard still twisted in her hands. They were just falling slower.

Above her, she saw Rennys step out of the window onto thin air and hover downward, paws crossed over his chest, borne by air.

I keep forgetting that he's really good at this, Chase thought, and was thankful for it as the world revolved, and the Wizaard flipped himself over, landing feetfirst on the ground.

“Excuse me,” he said, putting her down, pulling out his hat, then ripping his robes off with a single tug. He stood there in only a loincloth, settling his hat on his head, pounding one fist into an open palm. “It's showtime!”

Enrico's voice rang out across the floor, cutting through the din.“Cardsharp.”

“What? Ow!” The Muscle Wizaard stumbled backward, as a flash of silver light carved into his side. Blood flew, and a red '128' rose up from his head.

“No! Stop!” Chase yelled. “We're on your side! Lesser Healing, Lesser Healing!”

You have healed Muscle Wizaard for 28 points!

Your Lesser Healing skill is now level 31!

You have healed Muscle Wizaard for 29 points!

Enrico hesitated, staring at her...

So she threw one at him for good measure. Going through the glass had to hurt, right? “Lesser Healing!”

You have healed Enrico Rossi for 29 points!

He grunted, then looked around. “Who got me? Who pushed me?”

CHA+1

Chase sighed in relief, then lost that relief when Enrico's eyes found Renny's floating form, and drew back to throw. “No! The fox is with us! We don't know who pushed you!”

“It doesn't matter who pushed you, little man...”

The guttural voice rumbled from the darkness, and Chase froze. She turned, along with the other three. The bulk of the crowd was gone now, and empty and broken tables stood between them and the darkness. The player's area was still lit somehow, an oasis of marble and gold and fountains, but of the speaker there was no sign.

“It matters that you're down here with me. And unlike all those years back, this time I know what I'm doing.”

“You got a lot of nerve,” Enrico said, drawing himself up. “Attacking me here, in my place of power. Attacking ME! You're in my house, and the house always wins. I know when to Hold'em. And when to Fold'em.”

The voice laughed. “Of course you do. Let me guess, you also know when to walk away, and when to run?”

“What the caga are you talking about?” Enrico said, drawing back to Chase and the Wizaard.

“Nothing you'd understand. Come on then. Show me what you got, Enrico. Let's see if you can take out an eye this time!”

“Quench Light,” a different voice growled from deeper in the darkness...

...and the chandelier over the little group went out.

Enrico's voice hissed through the darkness. “Quick! You guys got good fortune?”

“What?” Chase called back.

“Fortune! You got enough of it to take some hits?”

Chase nodded. “Yes!”

“Well, er, not really,” The Muscle Wizaard said.

“Sort of, maybe?” Renny spoke.

“Then I'm sorry in advance. Ante Up!” The Gambler shouted.

Instantly, a familiar sensation rippled through Chase. It felt like what happened when she overused foresight too much in a short time. It was the feeling of her pool of fortune energy being tapped, and drained of a good chunk.

You have taken 50 fortune damage from Enrico's Ante Up!

Calculating winner...

Around her, she saw three white '50's float up from the darkness.... Enrico, the Wizaard, and Renny, she knew.

And to her horror, she saw eight more white 50s float up in a semicircle around them, out in the darkness. “There's eight werewolves!” She called out.

“I know!” Enrico said. “Give me a second, and I'll have enough fortune to take care of— wait, what the hell?”

Congratulations, you are the winner!

Fortune buffed by 600 for one minute!

A surge of raw power burst through Chase, filling her and crackling like raw fire. In an instant she went from feeling scared in the darkness to having the world itself at her fingertips. Crackling with potential, humming with power, she gasped and heard it echo through the hall.

“How did I lose? Agh, fight for your lives! Here they come!” Enrico called out.

“Don't worry,” Chase said, feeling things click into focus, knowing just how far, exactly, she could push her luck for the next fifty-five seconds. “I've got this. Foresight!”

Seconds stopped and started, stopped and started, as Chase took control of the battle, using her premonition to figure out the best courses of action.

“Renny! Make torches!” She commanded, after seeing how they'd fare in darkness.

“On it!”

Your Foresight skill is now level 23!

“Wizaard, go after that one slinking around behind us!”

“I cast silence! Have a Chokehold!”

Your Foresight skill is now level 24!

“Enrico, go all out! Good Fortune, Good Fortune, Good Fortune!”

You have healed Enrico Rossi 9 Fortune!

Your Good Fortune skill is now level 2!

You have healed Enrico Rossi 10 Fortune!

Your Good Fortune skill is now level 3!

You have healed Enrico Rossi 11 Fortune!

Your Good Fortune skill is now level 4!

“Thanks! Cardsharp! Rapid Fire!”

Your Foresight skill is now level 25!

For a glorious moment, everything was going well.

For a few grand seconds, the surprised werewolves hesitated. Six-to-eight foot tall furry forms wearing torn clothing, now bloodied and beaten back by unexpected resistance, hunched in the cover of the tables and considered the surprisingly competent foe.

But only for a moment.

The shortest among them, a mere six feet tall but so squat and thick with muscle that it looked more like a bear-person than a wolfman, snarled and pointed at Chase. “Geek the mage!”

“What?” Another rasped, as Chase whirled to face them.

“Kill her!” The stout werewolf commanded.

“Do it!” Another one growled.

“Bad Fortune!” Chase yelled, pointing at the one ordering her dead.

Your target resisted your curse!

Uh-oh, she thought, and ran to get behind the Wizaard.

The Wizaard, covered in blood, let the limp werewolf he'd been strangling fall, and turned to face her. “Oooh yeah! Time for my signature move! Are! You! Ready?”

“Do it!” Chase said, diving and sliding between his massive legs, fetching up in a pile of chips behind him.

The big man spread his arms wide and roared in joy! “Signature Move! YOU SHALL NOT PASS!”

The entire battle paused.

Everyone looked to him.

Then the werewolves shrugged as one, and surged out from their cover, howling as they came.

Chase just grinned, and whispered “Lesser Healing,” a dozen times or so, healing her Wizaard as best she could.

WIS+1

She watched her skill rise and rise, and threw in Foresight between her spells, making sure everyone else was all right as she healed.

Everyone was. Renny was hovering in midair, directing a man-sized column of whirling air against one of the man-wolves, keeping it busy and unable to do much against an elemental.

Enrico Rossi was darting and dodging between tables, flipping over them with a grace that belied his age, throwing silvery cards at the stout werewolf and a tall, thin one. The former runt, Chase realized. Now the packleader.

One werewolf was unconscious, lying in the remnants of a slot machine, choked out by the Muscle Wizaard.

The remaining three were trying to tag-team the Muscle Wizaard, or get around him to go after Chase, it was hard to tell. They weren't having much luck against his signature move, and the big man was managing to control the battle pretty well... at the cost of blood and skin, whenever one got too near. He'd given up on grappling and was yelling about casting fist... which didn't seem to involve a skill, but just a lot of punching.

Wait, Chase said, realizing that something was missing. I count seven werewolves. But there were eight people struck by Enrico's ante up! Where's the last one?

INT+1

She whipped her head around, looking for the last werewolf...

Wait.

Who said it was a werewolf?

“The cloaked man! Do you see him?” She called up to Renny. He had the best vantage point, and wasn't currently threatened, so it seemed safe to interrupt him.

“No!”

She gnawed her lip, looking around. He could be hiding, he could be magically concealed... the lighting was spotty anyway, Renny's torches didn't entirely cover the whole of the darkness. No, her perception wasn't good enough to find the last one.

Her instincts told her this was important. Very, very important.

And as she wracked her brain for a solution, she came up with an answer. “Renny! My pack! I need my pack!”

“On it!” The little fox zipped up, back into the hole in the ceiling. “Oh! Uh, hi there,” Renny said, as unknown people shouted.

Oh. Right. Enrico's enforcers. “Your boss needs help!” Chase shouted “Look at the wolves! Shoot the wolves!”

Renny shouted back. “Yeah they're down there! Excuse me, excuse me. Here, catch!”

Then Chase's pack dropped out of the heavens like a meteor, landing on her and exploding in a shower of gold.

“OW!” She said, tumbling down, feeling pain on her back and knowing something was broken, searching frantically...

...and realizing that she'd be fine, as her fingers touched the stiffened leather of the corset's backing. Score one for the armor, she thought, and rose, clutching the pack. She spared the Muscle Wizaard a glance and caught him beating a werewolf with another werewolf... but the third one had taken some nasty slashes out of him, and red numbers were floating up. He's bleeding. I need to be quick, here.

Then her fingers caught the edge of a disc of cloth and she shouted in triumph, and snapped open Thomasi's hat. “Here we go!” She put it on her head, and cried out “Activate Direct Attention to the cloaked skulker!”

Once more, the battle paused. Once more, everyone snapped their heads around to look at a single point.

A single figure, sitting alone in the player area.

IN the player area.

Oh gods. Another one! Chase's breath hissed from between her teeth as the figure rose, and flipped his cloak over his shoulder, exposing bandoliers full of glass and metal criss-crossing his chest.

“No!” The squat werewolf roared...

...and then it was hurling itself toward the figure.

Left alone, against Enrico, the alpha glanced between the distant figure and the white-suited Gambler.

“I'd run if I were you. I've got a good hand,” the older man said, fanning his cards. “Sweet, Suit Sorcery!” The cards burst into flames and crackling lightning.

But Chase couldn't spare it any attention, as she watched the musclebound werewolf charge the cloaked stranger. Watched him stand patiently, knowing as well as she did what would happen when four hundred pounds of charging beastman hit the immovable barrier.

Except...

Except it didn't happen.

Chase gasped as the werewolf passed right through into the player's area... and stopped cold, five feet away from the stranger.

The werewolf could get onto the player dais? That could mean only one thing.

“Run! We need to run!” Chase shouted.

“Okay.” The cloaked figure's voice was metallic, scarcely human. Male? Perhaps. Hard to tell. “This is a surprise.”

“You know what you have to do if you want my hide!” The werewolf barked at him, clawing at the air only a few feet in front of him. “Turn your switch on! Let's settle this!”

“So your transformation hides your name and status. Well that's cute.” The figure said, drawing out something from his cloak. Something that burst into flame, wicks of it tracing down toward red sticks.

“Oh no, run!” Renny yelled.

Chase was ahead of him, grabbing the Wizaard's loincloth and tugging until he followed. The werewolves on him were distracted, at least, their attention as fixated from the hat as everyone else... everyone save for Chase.

“Options,” she heard the cloaked figure say. Then, as the werewolf grabbed him and opened its mouth to bite his head off, he spoke once more. “Activate Teleport.”

He disappeared.

The bundle of burning sticks fell to the ground.

“NO!” The squat werewolf yelled, hurling itself backward...

The world turned white.

You have been afflicted with blindness!

You have been afflicted with deafness!

Chase screamed, or thought she did. She hurt, and she couldn't tell how bad it was.

Groping, searching around, she found a broad chest. Feeling up it, knowing that it had to be the Muscle Wizaard, she was relieved to find that it was still moving. But there was blood, so much blood.

“Silent Activation, Diagnose,” she mouthed.

The words appeared, giving her hope, hope that she could still do SOMETHING, even without her sight.

Your Silent Activation skill is now level 10!

Muscle Wizaard (Bastien)

Debuffs: Bleeding, Blindness, Deafness

Conditions: Curse of Obscurity, Curse of Poverty, Unconscious

Curses? What were those doing there? That was unexpected.

“Silent Activation, Lesser Healing,” she said, first for the Wizaard, then for herself. And when she checked again, he wasn't bleeding. That was good, because her head was aching, full of static and pain and it was so hard to focus. My sanity's low. I spent most of that fight healing, Chase thought and it was like thinking through cotton.

Now what?

Renny and Enrico, she thought. Did they survive?

She had to help them. And she thought she maybe had a way to do it. “Status,” she whispered, and winced. Twenty-seven sanity left. She could do it, but she'd have barely enough sanity left for a single healing spell.

But then I can't heal Renny anyway. Which means that Enrico's the only one I have to worry about. This is the only way.

“Sorry Wizaard. This is temporary,” she told him, even though she couldn't hear herself say it, and she knew he couldn't, either. “Transfer Condition.”

You are no longer deaf!

Your Transfer Condition skill is now level 5!

“Transfer Condition,” she said again, and this time she heard herself say it.

You are no longer blind!

Your Transfer Condition skill is now level 6!

Now blessed with sight once more, she stared around at the room... what was left of it.

There was a massive hole in the ceiling above, and sunlight streamed through down onto the shattered remnants of the hall. Stone and bricks and wood and dust settling in the light. The player's area had been completely obliterated, as had every table within fifty feet of it. The remaining debris had been blown outward, and Chase heard people screaming and groaning in the wreckage...

But her eyes were glued to the white-suited figure of Enrico Rossi.

He was pinned under a massive crossbeam and his white suit was now slowly turning red, as a spreading dark puddle grew under him. The man coughed and coughed again, staring at her with desperate eyes.

“Enrico!” she called out, hurrying towards him, pausing to scoop up Thomasi's hat as she went.

“Kid...” he wheezed. He'd been lucky enough to dodge the deafness, then. Lucky enough to dodge the blindness, too, by the way his eyes followed her as she drew close.

But not lucky enough to dodge the roof. And as Chase knelt down beside him, looking wildly for a way to fix this, she knew she couldn't.

“If I heal you, it'll just... the beam will still be crushing... hang on. Renny! Renny!” She stood and yelled. “Help!”

“Kid,” Rossi rasped. “Did... good. Thanks.”

“It's not over!”

“It's... listen. Gods told me... something else. Said... the Oracle would avenge me...”

“I'm an Oracle,” she said, mind stuttering, a step behind. She was low on sanity, and it was hard to think.

“Right. Here.” Enrico reached up, and silver-edged cards spilled from his hand. She grabbed them, hissing as the sharp, metal edges cut into her palm. They were metal, thin metal with paint, she saw.

“What? No! What am I supposed to... Renny! Help! Get an elemental over here!”

She heard a muffled response from farther back in the hall, and turned that way-

“Listen,” Enrico rasped. “Gambler... is... an Archer and Grifter mix. Experiment. Mix... skills. Unlock it. Kill the... stugats... with my cards. Got it?”

“I don't... no, we can...”

But Enrico Rossi didn't hear her.

He was dead.

The house had lost, in the end. The Gambler hadn't beaten the odds.

“Chase!” Renny yelled again, and she paused, and closed Enrico's eyes. It seemed the thing to do. Then, pushing the cards into her pockets, she hurried over to the fox.

As she did so, rubble shifted, and something... no, several somethings fled further into the darkness. There was a yip, as if a dog had run into something in the dark, and then there was nothing.

Nothing save for a cluster of words scrolling by so quickly that she had to stop, because she could barely see past them.

You are now a level 2 Medium!

CHA+5

LUCK+5

You are now a level 9 Oracle!

CHA+3

LUCK+3

WIS+3

You are now a level 10 Oracle!

CHA+3

LUCK+3

WIS+3

You have learned the Influence Fate skill!

Your Influence Fate skill is now level 1!

You have learned the Short Vision skill!

Your Short Vision skill is now level 1!

“There you are!” Renny said, and she gasped to see him. The stitches on his right side were burst, and stuffing spilled out, white and puffy. One arm was almost off, and he was cradling it, and it hurt to see him like this.

“What?” he asked.

“You're hurt,” she whispered.

“Oh. I'll be fine once I get stitched up. Is the Wizaard okay?”

“Yes. He's unconscious, though. And he'll be blind for a while until I can... wait, I can think again!” That was right, the levels had refilled her pools of energy. And with renewed sanity came the knowledge that they were in a bad position. “We... should probably get the heck out of here.”

“Alright. Your pack's over there. I'll call up a new elemental to carry the Wizaard. Are we done here?”

Chase looked around at the ruin. At Enrico's corpse.

I only knew him for a little bit, but I liked him. Damn it, he deserved better.

She didn't feel the urge for vengeance, or the drive to punish the werewolves for what they'd done. She didn't hate them, or have it in her heart to be driven like they were, or like Enrico had been in the end.

But she rather thought she could find it in herself to honor Enrico's dying wish, if the opportunity arose. And it WOULD arise, she knew that.

The werewolves knew them, now.

There was no doubt in her mind that they'd meet again, and the next confrontation would probably be just as ugly.

CHASE'S CHARACTER SHEET

Spoiler: Spoiler

Name: Chase Berrymore

Age: 15 Years

Jobs:

Halven level 9, Cook level 4, Archer level 5, Grifter level 6, Medium level 2, Oracle level 10, Painter level 2, Teacher level 2

Attributes / Pools / Defenses

Strength: 55 Constitution: 33 / Hit Points: 88 / Armor: 10

Intelligence: 57 Wisdom: 97 / Sanity: 154 / Mental Fortitude:45

Dexterity: 99 Agility: 58 / Stamina: 157 / Endurance: 0

Charisma: 141 Willpower: 47 / Moxie: 188 / Cool: 51

Perception: 67 Luck: 147 / Fortune: 214 / Fate: 34

Generic Skills

Archery – Level 1

Brawling – Level 8

Climb – Level 15

Dagger – Level 2

Dodge – Level 12

Fishing – Level 14

Ride – Level 10

Stealth – Level 14

Swim – Level 7

Throwing – Level 24

Halven Skills

Fate's Friend – Level N/A

Small in a Good Way – Level N/A

Cook Skills

Cooking - Level 15

Freshen - Level 10

Archer Skills

Aim – Level 6

Demoralizing Shot – Level 1

Far Shot – Level 1

Missile Mastery – Level N/A

Quickdraw – Level N/A

Rapid Fire – Level N/A

Razor Arrow – Level 1

Ricochet Shot – Level 10

Grifter Skills

Fools Gold – Level 1

Forgery – Level 1

Master of Disguise – Level 3

Pickpocket – Level 1

Silent Activation – Level 10

Silver Tongue – Level 7

Size Up – Level 3

Unflappable – Level N/A

Medium Skills

Bad Fortune – Level 1

Crystal Ball – Level 1

Good Fortune – Level 4

Séance – Level N/A

Stack Deck – Level N/A

Oracle Skills

Absorb Condition – Level N/A

Afflict Self – Level 1

Diagnose – Level N/A

Divine Pawn – Level N/A

Foresight – Level 27

Influence Fate – Level 1

Lesser Healing – Level 36

Omens and Portents – Level N/A

Short Vision – Level 1

Transfer Condition – Level 6

Painter Skills

Fast Dry – Level N/A

Painting – Level 5

Teacher Skills

Lecture – Level 4

Smarty Pants – Level N/A

Unlocked Jobs

Farmer, Herbalist

Gear

The Charlatan's Chapeau

Light Leather Armor – level 5

Enrico's Last Hand