The Deck of Many Things

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I did a little testing with it. I guess it's old news for old-timers, but I'm not an old-timers and I expect a few people here aren't either.

It is found in Watcher's Keep, at the end of level 3.
First, to get it, it seems you have to kill the Cambion. Some people said you can pickpocket it, but I was unabled to. I got the "target has nothing of value" message before I could get the deck.

The Deck is made of 22 cards. You can draw from it three times, then the 4th draw always yields the "Balance" which removes the deck from you.

The 21 other cards are those you actually draw from. But contrary to what you might expect, you don't get 3 random draws from those 21 cards.
In fact, there are 3 "subdecks" you draw from.

First Draw: 6 cards

Ruin : you lose 100,000 gold.
Euryale : get a 1 point malus on all your saves.
Flames : sumons a Baalor and 4 fire elementals.
Gem : gives you some gems.
Jester : Character gets 50,000 xp
Dungeon : character imprisonned (but you get a save)

Second Draw: 8 cards

Magician : character turned into a rabit (use remove curse or just sleep it away)
Vizier : get protected by a Mantle spell for one day
Rogue : character gets charmed.
Star : get +1 in your primary stat
Void : get disintegrated (you get a save)
Key : get the Ring of Protection +3
Sun : party gets 300,000 xp
Knights : summons 4 demon knights

Third Draw: 6 cards

Moon : character gets +10 HP
Talons : character is blinded
Fool : character gets confused and wisdom is set to 3
Comet : get +5 fire resist
Skull : summons a death shade
Fates : +1 to all stats for 1 day
Throne : party gets 1,000,000 xp

Furthermore, whether it is sheer bad luck on my part, or another twisted way the Deck works, I was unable to get the "Key" or the "Star" on my second draw after drawing a "good" card on the first draw (Flames or the Jester for instance - I rate Flames as a good card coz the fight yields about 90,000 xp). But I did get the Key on my 3rd attempt after drawing (and surviving) Dungeon first.

So your 2nd and 3rd draws might be influenced by your previous draw.

A really funny thing was that I did some attempts while protected by a fire shield... and whenever I got a hostile draw, I had a message saying the deck took damage, or even fled or died (worth 14 xp). LOLFirst Draw

[This message has been edited by Arutha (edited July 26, 2002).]

[This message has been edited by Arutha (edited July 26, 2002).]

 

Hmmm - this looks suspiciously like a post I saw on another message board about a year ago.

And what card is Dungeon? What did it do to you that you, fortunately, survived?

 

@Spelladona

Nice, very nice but two things here:
1)The Deck of Many Things the Cambion has, is different from the one you get if you kill him.
and
2)You ussually draw a bad card before a good one.

 

Thanks for that.

A save against Imprisonment? Shame it only happens with the deck.

 

I wish I would've killed the Cambion so I could've gotten some of the good stuff you posted up there.

 

I know what you're thinking of - is it this?

[This message has been edited by Wildfire (edited July 27, 2002).]

 

Well, I wish I'd known about that post. Would have saved me a coupla hours of constant reloads, lol.

 

@Wildfire

Yes, that's the one. I have to admit once I saw that, it kind of took some of the fun out of the deck. Alas, I was never lucky enough to get the really good draws and more often than not, did not win any of the times against the Cambion.

Maybe next time.

 

lol @ Arutha, don't forget to use the search option

 

It's possible to lose against the cambion? I thought it was rigged so that you always won the first two times and lost the third. That's the way it happened my 30 or so times.

I know you hate cheating Abyss, but it is possible to summon the deck. Let me know if you want the console command and I'll post it. Anyway, it is more xp if you do not kill the cambion.

 

I have NEVER won against the Cambion, everytime I lost. Anyone know the deal on that?