Welcome back to Thaumaturge!

Let's get right into it. Flipping the next card, we Discover:

[Image description: The 6 of Wands. A winged figure soars into a pink-orange sunset, seeming to capture the sun itself on the end of the wand they hold. On the ground below, five other figures also hold wands, but have failed to capture the same magic. Below the card is an image of white cotton clouds and a smiling crescent moon.]

Again, the background image is from I Spy.

Wow! The Six of Wands is a card about being recognized for your achievement, and what's happening in the image sure does look like one person conjuring magic while the others fail. The prompts table for Wands includes "a trap laid by your pursuers," and I immediately think of someone growing wings to escape the circle of pursuers that have surrounded them. I would love to give Bumble a chance to impress the Library Masters by successfully wielding his stolen magic.

This is a wands card, so we're definitely invoking the tree-growing spell. Time to see if Bumble's learned anything from his studies in the forest.

Last time we Resolved, we threw only one coin because the spell was a complete mystery to Bumble, but this time I decide he's more familiar with it. "Throw 2 coins if you have some knowledge of the spell," say the instructions, so I flip both of my toonies. We could still end up with no heads, but success is much more likely now.

[Image description: The spellbook spread with both coins landed heads-side-up.]

That's a double heads – the best possible result. Princess Sword games use a resolution system not completely unlike Powered by the Apocalypse games: Landing a single head is a "mixed success," or success at a cost. A two-headed result, only possible when flipping both coins, is a "full success" or an even better outcome. In Thaumaturge, two heads means "you weave the spell excellently and sculpt its results exactly to fit your intentions."

I think I can imagine the scene now. Time to Journal.

Dear Grimoire:
    They caught up with me at the edge of the forest. I must have spent too much time at the old wall. They sent the apprentices – Savvy and Blemish, Welter and Scad, and of course Garner, who seemed excited at getting to order the others around. They surrounded me, trying to scare me with their little spells like a human tries to cow a lion with the sound of a whipcrack. Little flames, leaping pebbles.
    I realized something in the woods. All our runes, the ones I spent hours memorizing and rememorizing in Master Castform's classes: They're just fragments. Pieces of magic, like beads without a string. Lacking in grammar. I understand why your spells are so long now, Grimoire.
    When I cast this time, I knew how to shape it. As the tree grew, I watched them run. They looked so small from up there, so like children; which, I suppose, they are. I felt bad especially for Blemish, shoved to the ground by Welter and Scad as they broke for the cover of the forest. Only Garner lingered a moment, looking up at me; I couldn't make out his face, but he looked so defeated, pathetic. Then he turned and chased after the others.
    Next time I see someone from the Library, it will not be an apprentice.

Sign up to be notified when the BackerKit campaign goes live on 10/1!