You wake once more in an unfamiliar place. This time, you're in a crumbling, empty house. The night wind cuts through the walls like ice. You try to hold yourself for warmth, only to discover your hands are slick with blood.

Your heart lurches. You sit up fast, trying to see more clearly—then you do. On the half-collapsed brick wall before you, someone has scrawled a message in blood:

"How delightful. Let's meet again next time."

Result:

• Counter (7100005): Add 1

It has to be tied to that cursed book. You wipe the blood off in a hurry and kick open the door to the bookshop. Inside, Asal is buried in a stack of ancient tomes. He looks genuinely startled at your disheveled state.

He soothes you while deep in thought: "From what I've uncovered these past days... this is a ritual called the Midnight Banquet. It's a summoning enacted through reading, led by a reader of immense spiritual power. Their thoughts form the passage through which something not of our world squeezes into ours..."

He shakes his head, then lifts his hand in apology. "It's my failing. I should never have let you be dragged into this. My remorse is like frost on winter leaves—"

You cut off his poetic metaphors and demand the important part: how do you stop the ritual?

"According to the tome... ah, in short: the Banquet concludes on the third gathering. By then, the Lord of Revels is chosen, usually the strongest entity from beyond. And it takes the summoner's body as its vessel, crossing fully into our world."

You almost laugh from anger. Two gatherings already, all because of his cursed book! Now what are you supposed to do?

"I need time to research, if you'll permit me..."

Of course you permit him. "Skip to the point!"

"All right... the point is, I'll need help. Your next Banquet should be in a few days. If you can find a capable ally, I can prepare a weapon to face the Lord of Revels. And I'll be there in person to assist you."

His promise feels off somehow, but at this point, you have little choice but to accept.

Result:

• Card (Omen)

Action:

• Enable Event: Strange rumors
• Enable Event: weapons of mortals
• Enable Event: Attending a banquet