325 - Stalemate the Reaper

Ritual: Stalemate the Reaper

Cost: 3 significant charges.

Ritual Action: Light up an unfiltered cigarette and use it to burn out the eyes on a king of hearts playing card. Start smoking the cigarette. Stick the card to your forehead (most people who know the ritual use spit but it’s only traditional, not necessary). Keep smoking the cigarette. When you’re finished with it use it to light another and keep smoking. Do this forever.

Effect: You’re immortal. Kind of. So long as you keep smoking your current cigarette nothing can kill you. You can be beaten, injured and maimed beyond all comprehension but so long as you keep puffing away you’re fine. You take no injury penalties, but actions which are impossible such as running with no legs are still off limits. If you ever stop smoking the ritual fails and you die, even if you’d otherwise be fine. The same thing happens if the card falls off your forehead.

Playing poker lets you pass it on to others. Some regional variations of the ritual use different games like Big Two. Play to a showdown with a single other player and as you show hands, stub out the cigarette on the table and slap the king of hearts face down on top of it. If you win the hand your opponent has 24 hours to place the card on their forehead and start smoking as the ritual effect moves to them. If you lose, the ritual fails and you die.

If you refuse a challenge to a game of poker while the ritual effect is active it fails and, you guessed it, you die.