“You are a brave Earther to just stroll in here,” Gu said as I stood glaring at him across his workshop that was part forge complete with archaic tools of ancient metal workers and more advanced ones, and part engineering laboratory with inventions in various states of completion. It was like a plant for manufacturing inside of the large rocky formation on the plains that was definitely much larger inside than was possible for the size of the outside of the formation.
“I was sure that you’d be expecting me,” I said, trying to hide my annoyance at the Vodun’s attitude.
“The Smiting Chamber is not that far from here, I was told you left many flames ago. But no matter, are you here to tell me that the Vodun are gathering to finally play against Lêgba’s Deck of Impending Doom? He proposed that a while ago.”
I produced the enchanted Red aligned deck from the Smiting Chamber.
“I have brought these for you to familiarize yourself with, to see if there are any add-ons from the multiverse that might strengthen your hand in the game against the Doom deck. They also want you to lead a Red army…”
“Yes, yes, I am aware of the color army scheme, I don’t need you repeating things to me like I am a child. Well sit,” Gu said and made a motion with his hand and fingers to create the table with two chairs and a Smiting Grid on top. “Show me these cards that you all foolishly believe could improve on the might of my first deck.”
“I’d hoped to play War with you first…” I said cautiously, and I saw his demeanor change completely.
“Say again?” he said with a smile creeping over his meaty, dour face that held contempt as easily as it broadcast delight.
“I’m sorry to interrupt you here, but I wanted to play War with your first deck before we played Smiting with the enchanted red deck I brought.”
Gu motioned again for me to sit and I did, then I watched him sit and smile at me.
“I have not played War against a willing opponent in so long!” he said with pure delight as he leaned over the table top. “Usually I have to make others play before I agree to a game of Smiting. People say it takes too long, but I think it’s a great way to pass the time.”
He summoned his first deck and sorted them into iron/steel, enhance and exemplar cards. He shuffled and dealt the exemplars and I did the same with the enhance cards.
“Have you played before?” he asked as he carefully arranged his totems, then his rage cards, then the iron/steel cards.
“I haven’t but I am familiar with the rules and I played Peace with Xêvioso…”
“No fooling,” he said with genuine surprise. It was like the Gu who had thrown his hammer at me had been replaced by some other Vodun entirely. “I love to spend time with others who appreciate games, especially our games.”
War is a deceptively simple game. It seems complicated with all of the card types, but a player could win without using the enhance cards. Understanding how to use them to your advantage can make winning much easier, though. We took turns flipping cards from our facedown decks, then rolling the dice indicated by the cards’ Battle Scores, highest roll shuffled the cards into their decks. There are rage cards that are beneficial to use after rolling for Battle, and totem cards that can stand in place of your exemplar if they are not strong enough, and it’s important to know the cards well enough to take proper advantage of them.
It is a good game to play while talking and getting to know someone and I was happy with Gu’s candor as we flipped, rolled and shuffled. He knew the cards so well that he didn’t even seem to look down at his enhance cards as he played them.
“When the Mother-Father put a stop to the physical battles that Xêvioso and I raged on our Discs in those early days, I was very resentful,” he said while looking past me, into his incredibly long history and the feelings those memories evoked must have been sweet judging by the happiness on his face. “There is not much for a Vodun to do, we make our days and set our priorities, and back then I wanted to prove to my siblings that I was the strongest, because I was and I was proud of it. I wasn’t a philosopher like Lêgba and Xêvi, I didn’t marvel in the creation of life like my sisters Agê and Agbe. I wasn’t a loner like Jo and Sakpata. I enjoyed physical things and I relished the looks of amazement on the faces of others who marveled at my prowess. The Fonlands gave me many mighty adversaries who sprang out of the volcanoes or up from the ground with the strength of steel and an iron resolve to dominate anything that challenged it. The Arena period of my disc is what drew the ire of the Mother-Father. Combat is how Fonlanders of my Disc interacted. I controlled them by organizing their battles into a tier system, and I would battle the top tier. It was glorious, very destructive, though. And then my power grew beyond the might of my denizens and Xevi enjoyed a good fight. He was exploring the multiversal structure then and wanted to sharpen his abilities to be sure that nothing he could possibly encounter would be able to overpower him. Our fights are very physical, we engage in a martial art that we invented together, but we also use our magic. When I think about it now, if the Mother-Father hadn’t intervened, we would have destroyed the Fonlands for sure. I definitely miss exerting that much effort, coordinating attacks in a split second while on alert for the attacks of your opponents, I settled into a mental groove and let my body react, mind dictates. It was a dance and I loved dancing. Smiting and the games we invented simulates that for me in a sense, but traveling with Xevi on the multiversal structure presented many great opportunities to have glorious battles without fear of destroying the Fonlands. But even that was a long time ago. I am content for the moment with Smiting, but talking to you now makes me itch to feel that feeling again.”
The smile on his face curled into a sinister lust as he talked about the joy of battle and I wondered if I could survive a round or two with a Vodun. The powers of the Master of Universal Arcana are immense in my home universe, second only to the abstract sentience of all magic known as the Quintessence.
“We should find an uninhabited universe with the Smiting Chamber and go there to fight,” I said, intrigued by the idea as it unspooled in my mind. “We could shape it how we want it.”
“We never found one when we used to travel,” Gu said. “But if the Smiting Chamber can find one, that would be good. Do that when you leave here and report back to me immediately. You have seized my fascination, Earther. If you can make this happen for me, you would be forever in my good graces.”
He won the game and smiled at me. I decided that I would try to make it happen when I went back to the Smiting Chamber.
PRL Serials 