Wyck's Wager[]
Wyck's Wager is a card game called Imperial Tarot, played against "the Rogue". The game is played with a deck based on the modified Major Arcana of the Tarot, with some extra cards - "Sun God", "Moon God", "The Prince" and "Book of Thoth".
The game is played as follows:
- Both players are dealt one card at random and three cards are dealt face-up on the table.
- The player whose turn it is chooses one of the three cards and adds it to their hand.
- The second player chooses another one of the cards and adds it to their hand.
- The remaining card is thrown away and another three cards are drawn and dealt face-up to the table.
- The second player chooses one of the new three cards and adds it to their hand.
- The player whose turn it is chooses another of the new cards and adds it to their hand.
- The remaining card is thrown away and both players score their hands.
- The player whose hand scores the highest scores that number of points. The other player scores nothing. If there is a tie, both players score nothing. Then, the turn passes to the next player.
Hands are scored by dividing the cards into categories. Any given card is a member of one or more categories. A single card category is worth a given number of points based on the category. Two cards in a category are worth a higher number of points, and three cards are worth an even higher number. When a hand is scored, the game automatically chooses the category which will give you the highest number of points.
The Book Of Thoth is a special card. It can be included in any set, provided the set is a triplet. If you fail to form a triplet in a hand containing the Book of Thoth, it is scored as a Rupture, which loses 99 points, while your opponent scores their hand as normal. The game is fair about this: the Rogue can, and will, form Ruptures by mistake on occasion. It's required for the Bewitchment triplet and will cause a Rupture when with a Duality doublet.
The game continues until one player has 666 points or more. Defeating the Rogue once solves the puzzle, but you can then continue playing the game as often as you like. Losing to the Rogue after defeating him previously does not lose the completion of the puzzle.
The categories and their values (as singlet / doublet / triplet) as follows:
Bewitchment (triplet only: 111): High Priestess, Prince, Book of Thoth
Duality (doublet only: 108): Moon God, Sun God or The Sun, The Moon or High Priestess, Magician.
Perdition (triplet only: 102): The Fool plus 2 Rhadamanthines.
Malevolent (triplet only: 99): The Fool plus 2 of the following (Empress,Emperor,Hierophant)
Imperial (39, 69, 105): The Empress, The Emperor, The Prince, The Hierophant.
Rhadamanthine (means "showing stern judgment") (36, 66, 96): Death, The Devil, Justice, Judgment.
Celestial (33, 63, 93): The Star, The Sun, The Moon, The World.
Enchanted (30, 60, 90): Strength, The Devil, The Star, Temperance.
Gifted (27, 57, 87): The Hierophant, The Hermit, The Hanged Man, The Wheel of Fortune.
Worldly (24, 54, 84): The Prince, The Lovers, The World, The Chariot.
Treacherous (21, 51, 81): The Fool, The Magician, The Sun, The Tower.
Insidious (18, 48, 78): High Priestess, The Hierophant, The Prince, The Moon.
Feminine (15, 45, 75): The Empress, The Moon, Moon God, High Priestess.
Masculine (12, 42, 72): The Emperor, Sun God, The Magician, The Sun.