The Sovereign

Approaching the throne, we present the Queen with the letter we gained earlier in our journey. She rips it open — reads the page that, many times before, we attempted to read ourselves. Beaming with delight, the sovereign claps her hands.

“Oh! What glad tidings you bring. This is a letter from my finest assassin. My most hateful enemy, the princess of our neighbouring kingdom, is dead. But I must reward you, noble travellers; you have shown great loyalty to deliver such a missive. I know! I will offer to you my own retinue. Choose whomever you wish from among my court — they are yours!”

With a wave of her hand, the Queen beckons to the ghostly court around us. The nobles kneel in deference.

The day wears on…

Choose your retinue

The Sovereign has offered you the pick of her court! Each traveller may choose a Bargain of their choice from the deck.

  • Discard the LETTER TO THE QUEEN.

  • Shuffle and deal out a single face-down pile of ten cards from the deck and place it in the centre.

  • The Reader turns over and reveals the top card of the pile. They may take time to examine the card and its Bargain rule carefully.

    • If the Reader likes the look of the card, they may say: “I have need of this spirit’s services.” The Reader then takes that card into their area as a Bargain.

    • If the Reader doesn’t fancy the card, they may turn over the next card and repeat the process. Once a card is passed over in this way, it cannot be revisited or claimed by anyone.

  • Once the Reader has chosen a Bargain, the traveller to the Reader’s left continues working through the pile, making their choice in the same way. The right of choice continues clockwise as each traveller chooses a Bargain.

  • The process ends once all travellers have claimed one Bargain, or the pile runs out.

  • Remember: once the pile runs out, no more Bargains can be claimed. The more spirits that the first travellers reject, the less choice they leave travellers who go later.


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Making our choice of the Queen’s court, we bow to the monarch once more. Crying aloud — with delight or disapproval, we cannot tell — the monarch throws her mask from her visage. We see that, from where her face should be, a terrible darkness stares back at us.

A great and awful voice consumes us: “Off with their heads!” There is the sound of a blade, falling quickly through air. Then the Queen and her court are gone. Only a mouldered skeleton sits the glass throne.

  • Re-form the deck before continuing.