CardEra Teaser 4 - Ah, you know me already, delighted

No coffee, thank you, I shan't stay long. I never stay long. Today the matter is collecting, and there every salesman turns poet. For every card game has that one piece all covet and scarcely a soul possesses. In Cardera, my good sir, that is no dragon and no monster, but a person of flesh and blood. How one comes by him, that I shall now explain.

Each card receives its degree of rarity per season, and that, mark me well, one cannot buy, only earn. A standing built from nothing but hard-won merits decides it, from rankings, feats of war, fortune and diligence. Half of all cards are common ware, a quarter already finer, and then the air grows thin fast, until at the very top only every four-hundredth card remains. Two principles keep the trade honest: the nation counts for nothing, the president of a dwarf state weighs as much as the president of a great power. And what one may purchase in Warera for real money stays wholly outside. Standing is earned, or one has none.

And now, I beg a little reverence: the foils. Whoever certifies his account receives three gleaming prints of himself each season, to keep, to give, to set into circulation, and now and then such a treasure falls from a pack as well. Their charm lies in one iron rule: foils the House never takes back. Nothing the House has once stamped ever ceases to be. It only changes hands, hand to hand, ever onward. A gleaming president of a great nation becomes the most coveted possession in the whole game. Handle it, by all means, go on. And should it seem to you as though the foil glanced briefly back: that is only the stamping settling. Quite normal in the first weeks. I myself, by the way, am not permitted to collect. House rule. Do not ask.

The packs come in three grades, always five cards and at least one better among them, and the odds lie open on the table, no trick, no false bottom. What you hold in duplicate you bring to market at your own price, or hand back to the House. And whoever completes a whole set, say an entire government, the House rewards apart. The House prizes completeness. The House prizes completeness very much.

Everything is paid in gems, and those arise by play alone. There is no way to carry real money into this game, for any man - for any soul. So if someone shows you a rare piece, it means one thing only: he played for it.

The opening stands close at hand, and he who has collected faithfully will not regret it. The third voucher of the House:

[CARDERA-WBEW-HDKA-KLTK].

One last time I shall call, and then your soul has survived it. Then the doors stand open, and I read you the fine print. Until then, my good sir. You will find me, should you need me. One always finds me just before.

https://app.warera.io/article/6a5bdb6144d254e871f5c3dd