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Wonton
2010-06-28, 01:13 PM
Inspired by today's Penny Arcade (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/6/28/)

Obviously, retconning Tiamat out of existence is definitely outside the scope of a Wish. But does anyone have any good stories about their experience with the Deck of Many Things? My DM has always heeded Tycho's advice, in that the artifact is more likely to ruin a campaign than to "spice it up" (http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/6/28/).

Choco
2010-06-28, 01:17 PM
Abuse divinations (a simple Augury will work fine) to find out whether drawing a card will be beneficial or harmful to you. If a helpful card is on top then draw it yourself, if it is a harmful one trick an enemy into drawing it. After you take the campaign's BBEG out by making him draw a crap card from the Deck of Many Things, watch your DM retcon the item itself out of existence :smalltongue:

Lycanthromancer
2010-06-28, 01:21 PM
Abuse divinations (a simple Augury will work fine) to find out whether drawing a card will be beneficial or harmful to you. If a helpful card is on top then draw it yourself, if it is a harmful one trick an enemy into drawing it. After you take the campaign's BBEG out by making him draw a crap card from the Deck of Many Things, watch your DM retcon the item itself out of existence :smalltongue:I like using a Heward's handy haversack to draw the cards I want from the deck.

Or drawing ALL of the cards, simultaneously, then use the 'undo misfortune' card to un-draw all the bad cards.

Darklord Xavez
2010-06-28, 01:23 PM
I said that I would draw all of the cards. Yeah.
-Xavez

Wonton
2010-06-28, 01:27 PM
Abuse divinations (a simple Augury will work fine) to find out whether drawing a card will be beneficial or harmful to you. If a helpful card is on top then draw it yourself, if it is a harmful one trick an enemy into drawing it. After you take the campaign's BBEG out by making him draw a crap card from the Deck of Many Things, watch your DM retcon the item itself out of existence :smalltongue:

Surely, mortal magic can't predict the behaviour of an artifact. Especially when random behaviour is literally the main power of the artifact.


I like using a Heward's handy haversack to draw the cards I want from the deck.

As in drawing cards from a deck inside the haversack? So, say, a summoned dread wraith (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/artifacts.htm#skull) is trapped inside?

Wait... "When the wearer reaches into it for a specific item, that item is always on top.".

Whoa. :smalleek:

valadil
2010-06-28, 01:27 PM
But does anyone have any good stories about their experience with the Deck of Many Things?

No. No good stories come from such things. I've never even met a DM who admitted to using one of these in a game.

Choco
2010-06-28, 01:30 PM
Surely, mortal magic can't predict the behaviour of an artifact. Especially when random behaviour is literally the main power of the artifact.

The mortal magic is used to get an answer from a divine being, who sure as hell can predict the behavoir of something so trivial as an artifact :smallwink:

Wonton
2010-06-28, 01:30 PM
No. No good stories come from such things. I've never even met a DM who admitted to using one of these in a game.

How about horrible, campaign-destroying stories, then? :smallbiggrin:

Darklord Xavez
2010-06-28, 01:32 PM
How about horrible, campaign-destroying stories, then? :smallbiggrin:

They're too ashamed to share those. I know from experience, but it wasn't with the Deck.
-Xavez

gallagher
2010-06-28, 01:38 PM
i like to tempt fate. i flip my lucky coin (a 1922 liberty dollar) and if it is the side i call (never make it a constant, or fate will mess with you) then i draw one. if it is good, i try not to break the campaign, because i IRL am CG. if it is bad, i play along. i am always somewhat optimized (when i am at the point where one can get a DoMT, i tend to have decent saves, a good AC, and a miss chance applied) so i can take on a wraith or death or whatever i have to fight. and if i get a mortal enemy somewhere, then i now have a new plot hook.

and if the gods decide to smite me, and trap my soul somewhere, then i get to build a new character. sometimes you have a guy who you didnt want to die off, but thems the breaks. dont roll the dice if you arent prepared to roll a 1 and all. i once had that happen to my CG paladin of freedom3/crusader 9. you know what they did with his body? put it in a glass case under the main window in the main Church of Pelor. he may not have died a heroes death, but he isnt dead. maybe i will run a game later where they need to untrap his soul 200 years in the future to fight a great evil, king arthur style

Snake-Aes
2010-06-28, 01:38 PM
Hehehe it was used in my duskie's campaign. Two of our guys drew cards and the wizard had his ring of wizardry1+2+3 trade for a +3 shield of shadows. He wasn't very happy.

balistafreak
2010-06-28, 01:43 PM
I like using a Heward's handy haversack to draw the cards I want from the deck.

I am so totally pulling this next time I see a Deck.

Lycanthromancer
2010-06-28, 01:55 PM
There needs to be a PrC or base-class that lets you use the deck as a weapon. You draw cards as attacks (Undo Misfortune, I choose YOU!), which have random effects based on your level and which card(s) you draw. None of the original effects apply when you draw, however.

Tanuki Tales
2010-06-28, 02:02 PM
There needs to be a PrC or base-class that lets you use the deck as a weapon. You draw cards as attacks (Undo Misfortune, I choose YOU!), which have random effects based on your level and which card(s) you draw. None of the original effects apply when you draw, however.

Then why not just have it turn a regular deck of cards into the focus?

Heliomance
2010-06-28, 02:12 PM
Surely, mortal magic can't predict the behaviour of an artifact. Especially when random behaviour is literally the main power of the artifact.



As in drawing cards from a deck inside the haversack? So, say, a summoned dread wraith (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/artifacts.htm#skull) is trapped inside?

Wait... "When the wearer reaches into it for a specific item, that item is always on top.".

Whoa. :smalleek:

Easy way for the DM to stop that: the whole deck counts as one item. When you try that trick, you don't draw any cards, you just take the whole deck out of the haversack.

Darklord Xavez
2010-06-28, 02:16 PM
Then why not just have it turn a regular deck of cards into the focus?

We are going to homebrew that RIGHT NOW. Let's go!
-Xavez

Telonius
2010-06-28, 02:20 PM
I did my best to warn him, but he's quite certain that The Deck of Many Things has a place in his campaign. On this point, we don't entirely disagree; the only material distinction is that he believes it will "spice things up," and I believe will be its burning, meteor-pocked ruin.

If it's a sandbox campaign, then I'm with Gabe. But if it's a planned storyline, I'm more on the side of "meteor-pocked ruin."

Kurald Galain
2010-06-28, 02:21 PM
Hey, is that episode title a shout out to XKCD?

hangedman1984
2010-06-28, 02:40 PM
Begins rocking back and forth in the corner in the fetal position suffering from deck of many things flashbacks

EvilElf
2010-06-28, 02:46 PM
In the few times I have seen use of the Deck of many things, both times the poor sap who drew the first card pulled The Void both times. We used a poker deck to represent the deck both times.

Kira_the_5th
2010-06-28, 02:48 PM
For some odd reason, my group tends to run across Decks of Many Things on what seems to be a regular basis, so I've got a few stories about them.

The Wizard's Castle: During one session, the BBEG of the session set out a DoMT to distract the party while she prepared her spells. The entire party wound up suckering each other into drawing from the deck. One of the wizards in the group drew a card, and wound up with the one that gives you a small castle. The group joked that yes, he gets a small castle. One the size of a snow globe. The DM thought this was great, and ran with it, so the wizard got a tiny castle he could fit in his pocket, which he could make full size when he wanted. Mostly due to the fact that the campaign was set in an underground dwarvan kingdom and we never saw the surface until the end of the campaign.

Death by Deck: Yet again, our group found a DoMT, and cards were drawn, both by the party, and the NPCs who found it in the first place. One of the NPCs drew from the deck, and wound up getting dragged into the lower planes by an angry demon. Thing is, only one party member noticed this, so they kept going. One of the group drew the card that gives you enough XP to level if you defeat the next encounter by yourself. So, he snuck off into the forest, found a random goblin, and bet the goblin 100 gp to draw 20 cards from the deck. It took 18 cards, but the goblin finally drew something that got him imprisoned, ending the encounter.

Hendel
2010-06-28, 02:59 PM
There needs to be a PrC or base-class that lets you use the deck as a weapon. You draw cards as attacks (Undo Misfortune, I choose YOU!), which have random effects based on your level and which card(s) you draw. None of the original effects apply when you draw, however.

There was a 1st edition class from one of the April editions of Dragon that had a Jester. The Jester was so random and chaotic that he could choose what effects would happen from randomly generated effect items like the Wand of Wonder (now the Rod of Wonder) and the Deck of Many Things.

There was also an old Dungeon adventure where the bad guy's place had a card over each door, but the effect was not revealed until you entered the door. Very nasty, but sometimes very nice.


I like using a Heward's handy haversack to draw the cards I want from the deck.

Or drawing ALL of the cards, simultaneously, then use the 'undo misfortune' card to un-draw all the bad cards.

I'm not sure that they could all be drawn simultaneously and once something like the horrid Void card is drawn, you can't draw any more.

Stone Heart
2010-06-28, 03:21 PM
Drawing all the cards would be ineffective, as theres, twenty something cards in the deck, but, IIRC, each time you draw one it is replaced in the deck with the exception of the jokers.

Wonton
2010-06-28, 03:40 PM
If it's a sandbox campaign, then I'm with Gabe. But if it's a planned storyline, I'm more on the side of "meteor-pocked ruin."

Hey, IIRC, Gabe was running a sandbox campaign. Yup. (http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/1/6/dnd-sandbox/)


Easy way for the DM to stop that: the whole deck counts as one item. When you try that trick, you don't draw any cards, you just take the whole deck out of the haversack.

I second this notion.


We are going to homebrew that RIGHT NOW. Let's go!
-Xavez

Something similar to the Prismatic table perhaps?


Roll Result
1 Target is dealt fire damage equal to 2*your class level
2 Target is dealt cold damage equal to 2*your class level
3 Target is dealt electricity damage equal to 2*your class level
4 Fort save or the target is nauseated for 1d4 rounds
5 Will save or the target is stunned for 1d4 rounds
6 Reflex save or the target is paralyzed for 1d4 rounds
7 Target is healed for 4*your class level, and all negative conditions are removed (as if affected by Heal)
8 Roll twice and combine (ignoring results of 8)

And one of their abilities would allow them to choose which roll they want, an increasing number of times per day. So you could CHOOSE to paralyze them, or CHOOSE to roll twice randomly. Or you could blow three rolls and get two exact results that you want.

And then they'd be...
http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/archive/f/ff/20090805233905!Twisted_Fate_OriginalSkin.jpg

Stephen_E
2010-06-28, 03:45 PM
I was in a campaign where there were no arcane casters and we got a decl of many things.
I was the only person willing to Draw and drew 2 cards getting a Keep and 3 Wishes.
Tices the Wish saved our butts and at the campaign climax the GM threw a Tarrasque at us.
After knocking it unconcious I used the wish to kill it.

Decades ago the GM gave us a DoMTs andwe all drew 1-3 cards (back then IIRC 3 was the most you could draw). A mixture of good and bad, but humerously the Thief who emplyed several servants drew the "betrayal card".
No one drew the 2-3 character destroyer cards so that was fine. (the character destroyer cards vary by campaign level).

In my experiance the DoMTs is noramlly a campaign killer because either
1) Someone will try and come up with some abuse to "break" the deck and the GM stops it, followed by the player getting in a snit (varies on how harshly they were stopped) or

2) One of the players hates DoMTs and deliberately tries and destroys the campaign in revenge for the GM bring such a terrible item into the game.:smallannoyed:

In short a bad workman blames his tools.

Stephen E

BlckDv
2010-06-28, 03:45 PM
I'll 'fess up. I've used the Deck twice that I am sure of (I've run a LOT of games) as DM.

1st use: AD&D 1st Edition game, "sandbox" world; used by a player in an epic confrontation with a demon lord in the Abyss. Short version is the PC convinced the Demon to essentially play "high card" with the Deck, each player takes three draws, picks best card to compare, instant death/entrapment counts as a forfeit. I've long forgotten exactly how, but the player managed to trick the demon into drawing first, and won by forfeit... then fled like mad with literally the hordes of the Abyss at his heels.

2nd use: Planescape game (AD&D 2nd Ed), but it was cosmetically masked. The players had to find the "Heart of Limbo" as part of a quest to stop a Slaad invasion of neighboring planes, and when they found it it took on the form of an Altar, on which you could place offerings... if you did so, it was treated like drawing from the Deck. The first two players got lucky, so of course everyone decided to try, it got CRAZY, folks trying to decide what offering were acceptable and which were punished. The players didn't figure out it was random until near the end of the encounter, I was laughing and laughing. Lost 3 PCs out of 8 either directly or as a result of the player feeling they could no longer be played, and had some major dynamic changes to the party structure.

Addendum: I am well known to be of the old school that makes using Wish a nail biting experience, but also largely runs with player choices rather than guiding them towards pre-set goals, I don't know if that had any material effect on the failure of these incidents to result in players using the cards to try and "ruin" my setting.

woodenbandman
2010-06-28, 05:00 PM
There needs to be a PrC or base-class that lets you use the deck as a weapon. You draw cards as attacks (Undo Misfortune, I choose YOU!), which have random effects based on your level and which card(s) you draw. None of the original effects apply when you draw, however.

A card throwing rogue who uses a deck of many things as his weapon!

Moff Chumley
2010-06-28, 05:12 PM
I played with the deck once... my players identified it immediately, and used it to destroy a kindgom by giving it to the Grand Vizier... good times.

FMArthur
2010-06-28, 05:14 PM
My previous group had a paranoid phobia of these things because over many, many sessions they never brought anything other than ruin upon themselves when they drew from it. After the first time they were wary. It's too dangerous to use, they would say (I believe this is the proper course of action, outside of cheating the randomization). Each time, their fear gradually diminished and they decided the good effects were valuable enough for the risk of drawing just one. And each time, someone would get screwed.

They stopped using it altogether after a while and, when the time came for them to use the world's only mighty anti-MacGuffin to destroy the evil MacGuffin, they hilariously thought better of it and decided that the deck was the greatest evil they could use it to destroy. :smallbiggrin:

JaronK
2010-06-28, 05:20 PM
Surely, mortal magic can't predict the behaviour of an artifact. Especially when random behaviour is literally the main power of the artifact.

It's worth noting that some mortal magic specifically mentions being able to modify the deck. Wild Touch, for example, is a feat that gives rerolls and mentions the deck by name as an example of where to use them. So yeah, you can do it. Augery is the easiest way.

JaronK

PId6
2010-06-28, 05:20 PM
Our DM gave one of these to us on a whim after he learned about it. I warned him not to, but he did it anyway. We were level 5.

Well, I decided to draw seven cards from the deck, ending up with random things, a castle, massive XP loss, 3 Wishes, and my soul imprisoned.

The other players all drew from the deck as well, one of them by coercion ("Come on! You know you want to! It's fun!"). After the dust settled, we had a few castles, a bunch of magic items, one PC turning on another one, enmity from several outsiders, a 4th level Fighter, one PC killed by a Dread Wraith, one PC imprisoned, some massively overleveled PCs (levels 10-11), some massively underleveled ones (levels 1-2), and some Wishes. Oh, and an elephant.

For the sanity of the group, the DM decided to retcon everything to back before we got the Deck, and leveled everyone to 10th to make up for it. :smallbiggrin:

mabriss lethe
2010-06-28, 05:23 PM
I *always* leave a deck of many things lying around for the PCs to find. They never seem to want to touch it for some reason...

EvilElf
2010-06-28, 05:27 PM
I *always* leave a deck of many things lying around for the PCs to find. They never seem to want to touch it for some reason...
Couldn't be because of the awful things that can happen to you if you chose to use it.

John Campbell
2010-06-28, 07:18 PM
Last time we had a deck of many things in a game, we ended up playing five-card draw with it when we got bored. The campaign didn't survive the first round of betting.

dragonfan6490
2010-06-28, 07:34 PM
Ah. The DoMT. My favorite artifact in the game. I don't see why my players don't like it. Its not like the last time they used it, the trinket rogue lost 400k+ worth of magic items. :smalltongue:

Every time I use the deck, good things seem to happen. Every time someone else uses it however...:smallbiggrin:

The Shadowmind
2010-06-28, 08:17 PM
What precautions would it take to completely negate any down sides to the Deck?

tyckspoon
2010-06-28, 08:21 PM
What precautions would it take to completely negate any down sides to the Deck?

You can use divinations to find out how many safe draws you'll get (the answer might be 'none', in which case just put it down and walk away.) I personally don't think there's a rules-legal way to bypass a bad draw otherwise, but others disagree (see: Handy Haversack technique. I don't think this counts as a 'Draw from the Deck', which is what's required for it to work as an artifact, any more than it would be a draw from the deck if you just spread them all out and took a look at them- in order to actually work its magic, you have to declare "I am drawing from the Deck of Many Things. I will draw (x) number of cards.")

The-Mage-King
2010-06-28, 08:22 PM
What precautions would it take to completely negate any down sides to the Deck?

Hm... A thought bottle could help with the xp loss bit...

PId6
2010-06-28, 08:36 PM
Hm... A thought bottle could help with the xp loss bit...
Also "give" all your items to a trusted attendant beforehand in case you'd lose them. Do the same for any items that deck may give you.

Lycanthromancer
2010-06-28, 08:43 PM
Also "give" all your items to a trusted attendant beforehand in case you'd lose them. Do the same for any items that deck may give you.Then temporarily sign his loyalty over to your familiar so he won't turn on you.

...Because class features are still class features, even if they hate you.

PId6
2010-06-28, 08:47 PM
...Because class features are still class features, even if they hate you.
Meh, they always hate me anyway. Probably has something to do with the Death Throes I cast on them every morning...

The Shadowmind
2010-06-28, 08:53 PM
Other than the Freedom spells are there ways to break the imprisonment spell from the Donjon Card?
The INT drain can be handled normally with a greater restoration on hand
thought bottle to handle the Fool Card.
The penalty from the Euryale Card isn't that bad, and can be undone with effort.
Rogue Card can be dealt with my have no npc friends you don't mind killing.
Skull Card, just be able to kill a Dread Wraith
The Void Card seems to be the hardest one to beat.

mabriss lethe
2010-06-28, 08:55 PM
I mean, theoretically, you could use it to make quite a killing, (especially in an evil/morally ambiguous game) get control of a wight and have him spawn a small army. Have each spawn take turns at the deck, if something good and resalable shows up, take it from them.

The Tygre
2010-06-29, 12:19 AM
Personally, I prefer the Harrow. More cards, more options. One third of the deck is evil, another third neutral, and the final third good. And off the top of my head, I can't think of that many neutral cards that directly do much damage to a campaign, so there's a nice 2/3 chance at survival.

Wonton
2010-06-29, 12:29 AM
Personally, I prefer the Harrow. More cards, more options. One third of the deck is evil, another third neutral, and the final third good. And off the top of my head, I can't think of that many neutral cards that directly do much damage to a campaign, so there's a nice 2/3 chance at survival.

Where's the Harrow from? I've never heard of it.

JaronK
2010-06-29, 02:58 AM
What precautions would it take to completely negate any down sides to the Deck?

A lot of castings of Augury.

First casting, ask "If I draw the top card of the deck, then stop, will that be a good idea?"

If "Weal and Woe" or "Woe" is the answer, the next question is "If I draw the second card in the deck, then stop, will that be a good idea?" If the answer was "Weal" ask "If I draw the top card of the deck, then draw the next top card, then stop, will that be a good idea?" Etc. Remember the deck shuffles between draws, but only when you actually draw, so the DM will have to be doing what you're saying (and recording the results). Keep going until you've used up all your Auguries and have a path of draws that's only "Weal." Now tell the DM you're doing exactly that, and you get the cards they recorded. Guaranteed total safety, unless the DM is ignoring the rules and decides something like "it's an artifact, so Augury can't see the future past it" or something. If they do that, remember that Artifacts always now bypass divinations. Use that to your advantage in the future.

JaronK

Hendel
2010-06-29, 03:19 AM
Where's the Harrow from? I've never heard of it.

I believe it is from Pathfinder (http://pathfinder.wikia.com/wiki/Harrow).

Zanticor
2010-06-29, 03:45 AM
Honestly it's not that bad. My players just drew two or three each and only one ended up with losing his soul. One lost his gold and an other some intelligence. They gained some magic nice things and one leveled from 17th to 18th level. Not game wracking at all! They went on a awesome side quest to get their friend back from a Void Slaad on limbo and in the end continued with their quest of beating the Aboleth with just losing a week. So in the end after drawing seven cards it was a good experience that helped the plot along and made them stronger. It seems from these boards that that might be an exception but I honestly believe that if your DM is cool about things and you don't draw more problems than you can quickly counter, it's a nice item to spice up every campaign. I might be wrong thou.:smallsmile:

Zanticor

AustontheGreat1
2010-06-29, 03:56 AM
Personally, I prefer the Harrow. More cards, more options. One third of the deck is evil, another third neutral, and the final third good. And off the top of my head, I can't think of that many neutral cards that directly do much damage to a campaign, so there's a nice 2/3 chance at survival.

I'm curious, I don't suppose you could elaborate on this. Is it a method of divining the outcome or another random effect generator? I'm not familiar with it.

Sliver
2010-06-29, 04:27 AM
About Harrow (http://pathfinder.wikia.com/wiki/Harrow_Deck_%28game_aid%29)

Thajocoth
2010-06-29, 03:04 PM
I believe they're actually playing 4e. I'm unfamiliar with the deck's previous incarnations, but in 4e, you can only draw cards from the deck once before it vanishes. Up to three cards, depending on how happy the deck is with you. (At it's happiest, it's 3 cards & you get to pick which one. At it's unhappiest, it's 3 cards, and if any of them has a Ruin line, you must select a card with a Ruin line.) Worst effect in 4e's Deck: All your magic items become residuum equal to 80% of their value. Most powerful effect in 4e's Deck: You gain a magic item (weapon) of your level.

Really, the property for having the Deck, of converting your 1s to 20s or 20s to 1s, depending on how happy the Deck is, is the most powerful part of it. Some of the cards have quests built into them. If you're on a time-related mission, I can see that being bad. The quests have enough blanks though to integrate into pretty much any situation... But really, you should never be drawing the cards. If the Deck's unhappy, Disenchant it, and if it's happy, have all your 1s for any dice count as having rolled the maximum value.

Jorda75
2010-06-29, 04:34 PM
Just for those who said "I draw all the cards" this may have been stated before but the 3.5 Deck clearly says after certain cards that you stop drawing cards after it has been pulled, so you can "undo" the effects of a Donjon and Void card have this effect, and a cruel DM could also rule that the Talons card removes the Deck from the players possession. Death via the Skull card would most like end drawing as well.

Jorda75
2010-06-29, 04:36 PM
I mean, theoretically, you could use it to make quite a killing, (especially in an evil/morally ambiguous game) get control of a wight and have him spawn a small army. Have each spawn take turns at the deck, if something good and resalable shows up, take it from them.

This idea was mentioned in the Pathfinder Chronicles book on Magic Items revisited, the basic idea being that a Lich has his mindless minions draw from the deck. The book mentions however that a DM could remove this option, claiming it is the person who places the intent to draw the deck that is effected, ie: The skeleton did not "want" to draw from the deck, you compelled him to, so you are the target for good or ill.

Morph Bark
2010-06-29, 04:42 PM
While never having used the Deck of Many Things, we used a self-made variant of it (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=157433) if you will. The result was loads of chaos, laughter and a Huge undead living construct PC with a limbless level 1 Bard follower.

Beorn080
2010-06-29, 06:20 PM
Just for those who said "I draw all the cards" this may have been stated before but the 3.5 Deck clearly says after certain cards that you stop drawing cards after it has been pulled, so you can "undo" the effects of a Donjon and Void card have this effect, and a cruel DM could also rule that the Talons card removes the Deck from the players possession. Death via the Skull card would most like end drawing as well.

If the character does not willingly draw her allotted number (or if she is somehow prevented from doing so), the cards flip out of the deck on their own.

From the SRD. Technically, if you die after declaring you draw ten cards, you still draw all the cards. I'm not sure how the wishes work though if your dead and you get them.

NeoVid
2010-06-29, 07:10 PM
There needs to be a PrC or base-class that lets you use the deck as a weapon.

The 4e Deck specifically wants to be used as an implement by Chaos Sorcerers.

Oh yeah, the Deck is now intelligent and has an agenda. It'll make you figure out ways to get major NPCs to draw cards.

moscatabaco
2010-06-29, 08:08 PM
Yes, I´ve actually used it, with an actual in game justification. And yes, it did wreck the group - not ot oblivion, but bad enough.

They were in Ravenloft (Homebrewed from 2.0 into 3.5, mixed with expedition to castle ravenloft), with the intent of killing strahd (yes they were pretty much doomed already); my plan was that if they killed him they would be back at Toril, and I strongly hinted so.

They met a vistani who believed that only those blessed with incredible luck would be able to succeed. So she offered them a deal: three rounds of drawing the deck, each one with a cost of 100gp per card (so if you wanted to draw 7, then 2, then 3, you paid 700+200+300 = 1200 gp).

After some rounds, a Neutral character became Chaotic Evil, and another one drew the sun AND the moon, leveling up insanely and using wishes immediately to pump herself - and the next session that very player managed to get infected with lycantropy(wolf of course). The cleric was already on his way to corruption, and for some reason nobody knew knew about lycantropy in-game. Things didn't end well.

Since then those particular players avoid the deck like a plague.