"It is quite the costly setup that you propose," muses the woman in red, some time later. 

"It is commensurate with the stakes. I thought it would be worth the investment."

"And your fee, of course." 

"Naturally. It remains a more attractive option than outright war, does it not? To take this much territory by main force would be long and bloody work. The price I ask is not so dear, given the alternative." 

"He's got us there."

"Then we are in agreement?" 

"We are. One champion each, your methods against mine, the playing field carved out from our domains." 

The man in robes of dusk stands between the circles, and extends one hand into each. The Monarch of Shadows produces a dagger and draws it across the man's left palm; the Monarch of Guests draws blood from his right with a fingernail. Their hands clasp, Monarch to man to Monarch, and a pact in blood is sealed.

The Monarch of Shadows fades into night, darkness pooling in the circle where he stood. 

The Monarch of Guests dissolves, seeping redly into the ground below, until all that is left is a stain. 

The man in robes of dusk withdraws his hands, still dripping blood; it would be an affront to bandage them here. He departs. 

The Monarch of Shadows rises smoothly from a pool of darkness, occupying his circle once more. His nod of acknowledgement is almost imperceptible, save for the bobbing of the pinpricks of blue light where his eyes should be. "Tidebringer." 

A shimmer in the air resolves into the ghostly figure of a severe woman in robes of blue and gold. "Shadows. Be warned. The Courtiers are compromised; the master plots with the Monarch of Guests. The game is to be rigged, and not in your favor." 

Blue glints flick to the woman. The Monarch of Shadows draws a dagger from nowhere, toying idly with the blade. "You could not get through the wards to warn me while alive...you died to bring me this news. Bold of you; thanks are owed. Is there aught you would ask of me in return?"

"Escape this bargain, if you can. My agents were able to set a loophole —" 

"A feat for which I commend them, and one which may yet prove worth the sacrifice. But there is no need to be so hasty." Blue light smolders in the shadows. "The Guests may lay the board, but I set the rules. And what's the point of playing if you don't plan to cheat?"

"Then bear my soul into the Shadowlands, Lord of Death and Ashes, and use it well. Oh, and if the worst should happen, shield my nephew from the fallout. He may be young and foolhardy, yet, but if the House splinters, I expect you'll want the help." 

"You have a deal. Come, then, and let us speak of...eviction." 

Eriksmont isn't the smallest town in Valirinum province worthy of the name. Technically, that honor goes to Helicas, farther upriver, which bears the brunt of the casualties whenever there's a border scuffle with the Long Gardens. The Cabelpas is much wider near Eriksmont, and lacks a proper ford, making it rather inconvenient to raid.

That's probably why Jennifer Wolling settled here with her precocious grandson, a safe distance from the political infighting of the Imperial heartlands.

It's the 1st of Undindar, and the day of the spring equinox, and said grandson is currently being rudely awoken by the crowing of Ser Peckingsworth the Bold from the nearby Lucius farm. It's not quite dawn, so the elderly Ser Peckingsworth has probably mistaken a traveler's torch for the sunrise again. 

Alex is still young enough to greet the day with a good amount of energy even when awakened a touch early. It still takes him a few seconds to rub the sleep out of his eyes before sitting up though.

And he's greeted by a floating blue rectangle filled with text. 

Alexandr (Alex) Lustig
Player of Games
Some say the gods play games with the world, with all Creation as their board and its creatures as their pieces. But if you are a piece in a larger game, who is to say you cannot also be a Player? 

Age 22
Decrepitude 0

Might 0
Fatigue: Fresh
Wounds: None

Personality
Inquisitive +1
Muleheaded +2
Ambitious +3

Characteristics
Intelligence +4
Perception -1
Presence +1
Communication -2
Strength +2
Stamina +1
Dexterity +1
Quickness 0

General Abilities
Animal Handling 2 (+saving livestock from their own idiocy)
Athletics 2 (+climbing)
Awareness 3 (+magic)
Bargain 1 (+buying books)
Brawl 2 (+people who insulted your grandmother)
Charm 1 (+scholars)
Chirurgy 2 (+setting bones)
Concentration 1 (+reading)
Leadership 2 (+leading by example)
Living Language (Low Miezan) 5 (+arguments)
Living Language (High Miezan) 3 (+magical texts)
Profession (scribe) 1 (+copying) 
Swim 3 (+rivers) 
Valirinum Lore 2 (+Eriksmont)

Academic Abilities
Artes Liberales 2 (+logic) 
Imperial Law 1 (+taxes)
Medicine 3 (+anatomy)
Philosophae 1 (+justifying what you wanted to do anyway)
Theology 1 (+grandma's various heresies)

Magical Abilities
Magic Theory 2 (+esoteric trivia)

Supernatural Abilities
Magic Sensitivity 1 

Petronian Arts (unopened)
Creo 4
Intellego 1
Animal 2
Corpus 3
Herbam 1

Powers and Aspects
???: [locked]

Status Effects
???: [locked]

Virtues
The Gift
You have the innate potential to become a mage. You have yet to associate with a particular school of magic, though you have picked up some Petronian theory here and there. 
Great Intelligence
You may raise any Characteristic that already has a score of at least +3 by one point, to no more than +5. You may take this Virtue twice for the same Characteristic, and for more than one Characteristic. With this Virtue, your Intelligence is raised to +4. 
Inventive Genius
Invention comes naturally to you. You receive +3 on Lab Totals when you invent new spells, craft magic items, and make potions. If you experiment, you get +6.
Magic Sensitivity
You are often able to identify a place or object as magical. However, your sensitivity makes you more susceptible to magical effects: subtract your Magic Sensitivity score from all magic resistance rolls you make. Choosing this Virtue confers the Ability Magic Sensitivity 1. 
Learn from Mistakes
Being totally green has its perks. When you botch or barely fail a task, you will sometimes gain experience in an associated Ability or Art. 

Flaws
Hedge Wizard
Because you are an outsider who is neither bound to the army nor properly apprenticed, other magi distrust you, and more importantly, grant you no respect. You start with a negative Reputation within the Petronian Orders. 
Rigid Magic
Due to your lack of proper training in the Petronian style, you cannot use vis when you cast spells. Thus, you cannot increase your spell rolls with vis, or cast Ritual magic. You can still use vis in the laboratory, if you manage to find either vis or a laboratory. Good luck with that. 

Info/Characteristics
Intelligence: You are very smart. Congratulations on this entirely unearned accomplishment. Don't let it go to your head. 
Perception: You are reasonably perceptive, but easily distracted by shiny interesting things. You will notice someone calling your name, most of the time, even if you probably won't register the first sentence they utter after doing so. 
Presence: You are more noticeable than average; people will tend to pay attention to you, whether you want them to or not. 
Communication: You are socially awkward, laughably gullible, and not particularly good at making yourself understood. You can still manage not to offend people most of the time if you're actually trying. 
Strength: You are reasonably fit, and stronger than most civilians. If you put all your effort into striking someone, it will hurt. (If you use a weapon, it'll probably only hurt them.)
Stamina: You have slightly more endurance and resilience than average, and are correspondingly better at enduring the stresses of magical casting. You are moderately resistant to disease. 
Dexterity: You are reasonably agile. You can wield a weapon without putting out your eye, and maybe even hit something with it. 
Quickness: Your reflexes and ability to think on your feet are solidly average. 

That is a lot of text.

At first all he can register is that there's a lot of text and he looks around to see if there's any sort of obvious cause but upon seeing nothing but his relatively modest room he decides to read it before doing anything else. If a proper mage has gone to the trouble of sending him such a long message with a spell he's never heard of before, not that he's heard of that many spells, he figures it's probably not a trap, he's just not that important.

The text about being a piece in the God's games is a worrying start but on the other hand he has always yearned for more than this small village maybe this isn't just a trick and it's a path to being something like that.

The summary of his attributes and skills is a little hard to understand without context but the relative levels of his skills do seem about right. It adds at least a little plausibility to this being accurate.

Him being best at using philosophy to argue for  what he wanted to do sounds like something Jen would say.

The description of his Virtues starts to make things more concrete. He's pretty pleased with being termed an inventive genius. Honestly more pleased than the more general claim about playing on the same board as the gods.

The Flaws... don't actually seem that bad, hopefully with time he'll be able to work past those.

The explanation of his characteristics is a bit of a mixed bag. It absolutely hurts to be called laughably gullible but... he has fallen for some things over the years and he tends to get focused to the point of missing the obvious so that also fits.

Now he needs to figure out if this is one more lie someone is trying to make him fall for. And his best chance to figure that out is Jen.

Jennifer Wolling, or Jen to her grandson and friends is still fairly spry in her old age but it takes her a bit to get out of bed in the morning. She's really quite surprised when Alex bursts into her room so early.

"Jen something really weird has happened. There's this giant wall of text floating in front of me and it's saying a lot. I'm not really sure what it means or if I should believe it."

Jen can see no such thing, but she remembers the wide variety of what magic can accomplish from her time closer to the capital. The same 'accomplishments' that took her daughter from her. She shakes her head slightly but firmly.

"What exactly are you seeing? You said it's a lot of text can you read it to me?"

"Of, course." And he does he pauses occasionally in case she wants to interrupt.

But she doesn't. Her face shows off her shifts between confusion, intrigue and concern as the text goes on. It's clear Alex isn't just making this up. "I think we need to take this seriously and also to learn more if we can. Does anything happen if you try to touch it?"

"I haven't tried, I wanted to ask you first just in case especially with what it said about me being gullible." He reaches out and tries to touch the blue rectangle.