Infernal Bargains — C.S.E. Cooney

What do a post-human starship captain, an actress of the macabre, a post-singularity revolutionary, and an exiled shapeshifter have in common? They are stories and poems that would never have been written without the “ Deck of Destiny” : the grim yet playful centerpiece of the Negocios Infernales roleplaying game. But the Deck has a second vocation -- to inspire artists, via its ghoulish wisdom and bloody sense of humor, to create.The designers of Negocios Infernales, award-winning writers C. S. E. Cooney and Carlos Hernandez, have created new works based upon the Deck of Destiny, with all its fanged philosophies and macabre musings on display. Every story and poem of Infernal Bargains began by pulling one or more cards from the Deck and resulted in the satirical, sordid, somber, spirited, and very, very sanguine works you will find herein. Taken together, they compose the haunted menagerie that populates these two writers' deepest unconscious fears and desires -- and, perhaps, your own.