Welcome back to Thaumaturge! We're just two days from the launch of the Art & System BackerKit campaign, so I think it's time to begin moving the story toward a conclusion.

Here's today's draw:

[Image description: The Star card features a tiny figure in a boat in the bottom left and a large, bright star in the upper right. Between them is a wall of blue, possibly representing a cliff or waterfall, with a red bird perched in a small tree at the top.]

Major Arcana are treated as their own suit for the purposes of the prompts in a Princess Sword game. Looking over Thaumaturge's Major Arcana prompts, "an old power proposing a bargain" feels like a great match for this card and for this climactic moment in the story. I think it's time to have Master Ramos and Bumble finally meet.

So far I've introduced one of two ways to reveal a spell in your spellbook – during a moment where your character has time to study. Let's show off the second way: Calling on an unrevealed spell in the heat of an encounter. During the Resolve action, you can choose to commit to invoking an unrevealed spell by immediately flipping it up and flipping for it. This represents the character lashing out in a desperate moment and most likely causing horrible trouble.

I flip the third card in our spellbook face-up and then flip a single coin, because the spell is necessarily a total mystery (and based on our last journal entry, I don't think Bumble is willing to sacrifice another part of himself for power).

[Image description: Our spellbook spread. The new card is the 8 of Swords, which features some sort of figure surrounded by eight swords stuck into the ground. Two snakelike yellow arrows weave through the image from left to right. Next to it is a coin, bear-side up, or "tails."]

This is the Eight of Swords, represented in the classic Patricia Coleman Smith deck as a tied and blindfolded figure surrounded by swords. This coin flip came up tails. I think I know what happens in this scene.

In my own name, Bumble, I record the events of this First Moon of the Month of the Candle:
    In the morning I espied the sigil for "a safe meeting, a peaceful parlay" hovering over a nearby mountain. Recalling the alternative my dream had provided, I set out, reaching the peak of the mountain by nightfall.
    As far as I could tell, Master Ramos had come alone. "I am impressed, Apprentice. You have grown as a magician. But you're afraid of the power you wield, and you're quite right to be."
    He had summoned a blue light to illuminate us as we spoke, and in that light my shadow stretched tall across the mountaintop.
    "It was my failure not to see your potential. Return with me to the Library, and I will elevate you to my side. Together, we can study your book and unlock its secrets, and fill our halls with knowledge to please the Sacred Librarian. You can even have your own apprentice, if you wish." With a smile he pulled out a small glass bottle, in which a small Garner sat, his head on his knees, his face too tiny to read.
    "I found another library in the woods, burned," I said, trying not to stare at the broken, tiny bully.
    "Old Librarians," said Ramos, "old ways. They feared what they could not understand. Our new way must be to embrace new ideas no matter how foreign, if they bring us knowledge and power. That is why we are here talking, not fighting."
    "You were going to burn it."
    "My mistakes pile up. That was before I realized how useful it was, and I have you to thank for that. You have shown me my errors twice over, young master. Come home with me, and together we will make that book you fear into our useful servant."
    "It's too dangerous. No."
    "And it is safer in your hands? Very well, this outcome is disappointing but not surprising. How about you? Give me the book and I will restore you to the way you were."
    I turned around to see my shadow, tall as a giant, plunge a knife now long as a harpoon towards me.
    What could I do? I opened the book and read. And the mountain cracked in half below us.

Tomorrow: The conclusion of Thaumaturge.

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