Sutta who is as Vak arose in vague smoky fur-robed humaniform from the remains of his abandoned steppe mausoleum-temple, enough of him revitalized and dragged from private underworld...by being smacked on the face by a bunch of cards and paperwork. He was greatly lessened, little more than a high priest or young demigod, but it was being alive and not the fused dreams of the dead he had watched intermittently.
Translated from the divine speech of ancient days, his first words were "Fucking what, Turner of Wheels again?", picking up the contract off his head.
"ey. ey sutta." a hastily scrawled note atop the formal contract read, apparently intentionally poor to contrast with the gleaming ostentatiousness of its partnered script, "no being dead 4 u 2dei. im hirin u 2 be my bookshelf guy. handle concepts from depowrd cards i fire at u. ur bonus boss."
In much better handwriting, "You may start a new priesthood as part of my game. Don't cross me for bringing you back, while I won't swear on the laws for revenge you know I don't need to. Obey and you shall be rewarded. Thus saith the Turning of the Wheel, and the cycle of all things."
Sutta mentally swore profusely and physically just sighed, flipping over to the true contract and checking for traps. He read first with divinesight, then again physically, then between the lines, then inside the particles, then inside the spiritual logic, then double-checking the reality-structure (really fine work of art, that, Turner was insufferable but he'd won by knowing what to do in a technical sense). Inside, he found a mystically-powered laptop computer and a note-card to be awarded on signing, presumably so he could keep up with the machinations of this 'Crow' Turner had hired and this Internet thing he'd invented. The notecard read...
"Sutta, it's not a trap. I really do want you working for me instead of against me. If you were a problem I would've left you dead, and if I didn't think I could control you I wouldn't be giving you power. I know you'll check for this before you sign on. I will swear on the laws that I'm being honest on this and not abusing fine print on this notecard by the time you're reading it and deciding whether to agree."
Sutta checked the ways of the gods and knew it to be true, a subtle 'okay is he lying' that seeing even a twisted agreement in from the Turner of Wheels was rare. To be this straightforward was surely another trap, but...well. He'd already died once, and the signed meaning was not an ambush.
He swore physically, and then he swore the oath. The god who debates all things, finds peace in the dreaming dead, struck down by sword-that-cleaves, and by lies-made-true conveys speech and binds to letter...was gonna be the card disposal bin. Any time somebody died and their cards were depowered, or if cards got otherwise countered by certain Snares and whatnot, he'd have to handle all the excess alterations and power shucked off. Then, he'd package them into Echoes, magic items and whatnot that could be used to play Distortion Wars matches with a separately regenerating energy supply from that used to cast cards, letting somebody play with abilities they might normally not stack or have easy access to. So, he was gonna play equipment jockey?
Examining the laptop that spawned nearby, he got hit by a shiny new divine authority slapping itself onto his assortment of sparks, apparently some forging-treasure skill once to be awarded to a champion who didn't make it to the award back during the whole god-war debacles. Turner had done what he needed to make it exceptionally compatible what with the whole cards system, including behind it a few rares he could hand out to anybody who showed, then the super-rares and up it'd take enough effort to remake he probably wouldn't stake. Greaaaaat. Instinctively understanding the processes of login and setup courtesy of this new ability, he soon found himself in the cabal's private chatroom for remote communications.
CROW: Congratulations to Sutta for accepting the Bonus Boss Offer!
TURNER: 👍
SUTTA: Why are we here, just to suffer?
CROW: I see you've taken the liberty of examining the memetic information package I prepared. And no, we're here to entertain our god!
TURNER: 🎉
ALLIGATOR: Well, that's a name I didn't expect to see alive again. How was it, dreaming dead?
SUTTA: Better than this joint, that's for sure. Turner, I know you know what you're doing because that's your whole gimmick besides spin cycles, so let me ask: card games? Really?
TURNER: Of course.
ALLIGATOR: I was surprised too.
WOLF: I've done my part spreading the things Crow's set up, so I suppose he and Lord Turner will be doing the busy work.
WOLF: Jackal and I have sponsored tournaments, so the rollout will proceed as planned.
WOLF: Think your rares will be interesting?
SUTTA: Uh...I haven't playtested anything yet, but I've got a good stock of them.
SUTTA: I'm supposed to make items out of deactivated cards and countered stuff, so once people start cancelling morphs or dying in accidents we'll have the special item playstyle.
JACKAL: I foresaw. I believe it's similar in mechanics to certain other games, though their turn to cards was more unexpected than ours.
TURNER: 😜😜😜
CROW: Oh yeah, Jackal! You and the others who aren't on right now are gonna have publicsonas do the Asiatic Intro Tourney in Japan, right?
JACKAL: Correct.
CROW: I have the energy regen to quickcast a long-distance Grab-n-Go stratagem to Sutta's templeplex, then another to my hotel room before anybody wonders where I'm out.
CROW: Want me to grab 'em?
JACKAL: I'll make some arrangements first.
WOLF: You're THAT powerful already?
WOLF: How much of that is your own?
WOLF: And how much is Lord Turner personally blessing you?
WOLF: I thought we had returned our more physical blessings.
CROW: Nah, nah, this is new. I did a quickie in the temple room after the last meeting.
CROW: Energy Conflux, it's an Uncommon no-cost short-cooldown special shift that can be targeted on magi as well as mediums to buff their energy regen temporarily. I think you guys have some in your decks too, check under your rares.
CROW: I just wanted the juice tbh, I already have a Rare Snare for copying transforms off mediums and I could slap some other Uncommon indef energy boosters on
CROW: it was on your chair btw jackal
JACKAL: Again?
ALLIGATOR: Urgh, just got out of a meeting with the initiates. If the pandemic's off then I'll have to handle cleanup in the other sectors.
CROW: and you know how much the Turner of Wheels spins out in bed lmao
CROW: so yeah uhhh I tipped the maid-bodyguard but she was more shook than cross
TURNER: The light of the divine is prodigious.
CROW: yeah that
SUTTA: Really.
JACKAL: Fetch Sutta please, perhaps you can distract him with your masculine wiles while my associates finish doctoring documents.
Sutta pulled back from the screen and sighed. This was going to be one crazy new job.
Sparkles of cyan light and black feathers indicated a mystical interposition as one man stepped across legions and bypassed boundaries, the infamous Crow himself. Sutta sighed and gathered what few of his things had made it past, which included most of the temple's structure thankfully enough. The grasslands remained, ready to refill what was left of a holy site.
"We got a tourney to go to, sir." the cabal's disruptive star said. "Take my hand, please."