The Stormcaller's Hand

Base

Playing Cards

Type

Object

Material

Hardwood

Special Property

Storm-Charged

Lore

Carved by a shipwright-turned-cartomancer during the age of the great northern tempests, each card was shaped from the heartwood of a lightning-struck oak and etched by hand over seven consecutive storm seasons. Sailors passed the deck between ports as both a gambling set and a warning system — certain card combinations, it was said, could predict whether a squall would sink you or spare you.

Effect

When the cards are shuffled or laid in a spread, they emit faint crackling arcs of static between each draw, and any card placed face-up occasionally scorches a ghost-image of its illustration into the surface beneath it.

Appearance

Each card is a slim, smooth tablet of dark hardwood, the grain running lengthwise so that the tight, dark lines of the oak create a natural texture beneath the deeply carved suit symbols and figures — the edges worn slightly soft from decades of handling but the carved details still crisp and shadowfilled. A faint charge lives in every card, and the wood carries a faint smell of ozone and old smoke, with tiny branching scorch marks tracing lichtenberg patterns across the backs like rivers seen from above.