The Four Suits (Los cuatro palos)
The Four Suits are a group of four Spanish gentlemen traveling eastward. They are all level 2 classed characters. (Optionally, if the party is of the third or fourth level, they equal the level of the party, or are of level four if the party level is higher than four.) They are all healthy men of low nobility and slightly higher than average means, dressed in an antiquated Spanish style. If the language of the party is not Spanish, The Four Suits always speak it also, but to varying degrees of proficiency.
The Four Suits will purport to be escorting their "Cleric" Alberto de la Cruz to the Orient on a mission of Christian proselitism. The truth is much more mundane: they are ruthless and greedy adventurers who have become altogether too conspicuous to remain in Spain.
Fancy Sword (1d8, 100sp), Dagger (1d4), 1/4th of special deck (see below) of 40 Spanish playing cards (10 cards all of the same suit: Swords (Espadas)), large wineskin
Alfonso de la Espada is the one who speaks the language of the party the least. He is a fellow of alternating somber and fanciful moods, who always enjoys drinking wine and extoling the virtues of Spanish cuisine and Spanish women. When imbibing, he likes to sing.
Fancy Short Sword (1d6, 75sp), Two Daggers - one hidden (1d4), one deck of 40 perfectly mundane Spanish cards, 1/4th of special deck (see below) of 40 Spanish playing cards (10 cards all of the same suit: Coins (Oros))
Alonso de la Moneda always speaks the language of the party very well. He is the group's "accountant" and has a prodigious memory and awareness when it comes to stealing, counting, appraising and especially gambling (treat as Int and Wis 16 for these purposes.) He cannot resist an opportunity to gamble and will insist that the party play a card game with them.
Large tree branch used as a club (1d8), Dagger (1d4), 1/4th of special deck (see below) of 40 Spanish playing cards (10 cards all of the same suit: Clubs (Bastos))
Casts according to Weird Magic System rules, except the first X+1 spells he casts in a day will always go off as intended in addition to an accompanying miscast complication, where X is his level. He never prepares spells.
Fernando de la Luna speaks the language of the party passably. He does not advertise his magic talents unless there is a Magic-User in the party, in which case his great curiosity gets the best of him and he wants to discreetly talk shop.
Short Sword (1d6) and Dagger (1d4) - both hidden, 1/4th of special deck (see below) of 40 Spanish playing cards (10 cards all of the same suit: Chalices (Copas))
Alberto de la Cruz is dressed in the manner of a traveling Jesuit priest, but this is a ruse - he is but a clever swindler and thief. His skill for Languages and disguise contributes to his facade, but a clever PC might be able to see past it. He always speaks the language of the party very well, but he does not speak Latin.
The Four Suits are always friendly at first contact, jocularly complaining about the weather and road conditions and eager to share food, wine and tales over a fire. After the social preliminaries are well underway, Alonso de la Moneda will insist on a card game using his mundane Spanish deck. The game will always feature stakes and they will always be high. If the party suggests they use the other secret deck instead, the Four Suits must comply, as the risk is too exciting to pass up - but this of course depends entirely on the party having found out about the other deck. If the party wants to play for that deck, they will also comply, provided the party is willing to offer something of obscene monetary and practical value that will seriously hurt them if they lose.
If your table likes playing cards, you can break the fourth wall at this point, break out a deck and actually play out a game. If you win, the Four Suits won. Otherwise, the game plays out like this: the game is a trick-taking game played by two against two by the name of Truc. Alonso will always be part of the Four Suits' team. The game will be played as two to three hands, resolved by a two-out-of-three opposed Intelligence roll between the average of the two playing PC's Intelligence and the Four Suits' (15). If the Four Suits lose the first hand, Alonso will try to cheat (remember all those pips in Sleight of Hand?). If the party wants to re-up, go double or nothing etcetera, the Four Suits will always agree, as long as they think the party can afford to pay.
The Special Deck
The Special Deck detects as magical and gives a party certain benefits as long as they are within 10' of at least a fourth of it (10 cards of the same suit). The special benefits affect a minimum of two and a maximum of four characters, but the special benefits only apply if all possible PCs are participating in this - if the party is comprised of four PCs, they all have to be willing to do it or it doesn't work. If the party is using the deck in this manner, the conditions below apply (this applies to the Four Suits until they no longer own the special deck):
All saves are at a -1 penalty.
All skill checks at 0-in-6 are instead 1-in-6 and all at 6-in-6 are instead 5-in-6.
Whoever is carrying the ten Swords cards receives a penalty of -2 to armor and a +2 to their Melee Attack Bonus.
Whoever is carrying the ten Coins or the ten Chalices cards gets 6 extra skill pips.
Whoever is carrying the ten Clubs cards, if a Magic-User, must thenceforth use the Weird Magic System. They may choose to forego preparing any spells in exchange for having the first X+1 spells they cast in a day go off automatically in addition to an accompanying miscast complication, where X is their level. Normal risky casting rules apply after that.
If not a Magic-User, a character may cast one random spell per day, which will always go off with an accompanying miscast complication. They may use risky casting once after that.
Clerics get no extra benefits. Moreover, if there is a Cleric in the party, the penalty to saves is -2.
The party must own the entire deck for the benefits to apply.
The party may never again refuse to gamble. They are, however, aware of this.
A deck of 40 Spanish playing cards has ten cards of each suit with the values 1-7 and 10-12.
This is awesome.
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