Fanucci Cards
From Zorkpedia
Double Fanucci is an extraordinarily complex card game which has led many otherwise successful gamblers to bankruptcy. The game itself is so complex that not even its greatest players can fully explain the rules.
Decks in Legends of Zork conform to Revised Miznian Rules, 7th-Level Amendments. When played by these rules, the deck is composed of 174 cards divided into 15 suits and 9 face cards. The suits are Mazes, Books, Rain, Bugs, Fromps, Inkblots, Scythes, Plungers, Faces, Time, Lamps, Hives, Ears, Zurfs, and Tops. Each suit has eleven cards with a value from Naught all the way to Infinity. The face cards are Granola, Death, Light, Snail, Beauty, Time, Grue, Lobster, and Jester. (Other suits and ranks were used in the 904 annual championships at Borphee. That game used Scythes, Books, Zurfs, Fromps, and three other suits, and included such cards as the 77 of Fromps, the Q of Fromps, the Black of Zurfs, and the Hydronium Ion of Books. As it had for the previous 71 years in a row, the tournament ended without a clear winner. ["Kob on Double Fanucci", The Status Line, Summer 1986])
What makes Double Fanucci especially important for the budding adventurer is the current rumor that decks of enchanted Fanucci cards are being found across the land. It is said that some explorers have found that they can even stack four of these cards in particular combinations to generate a magical field effect which can enhance certain chosen skills or abilities. A few just throw caution to the wind and just stack cards with no particular decision on what they will affect. They call this their “Fanucci Gambit”. Some have even been giving Fanucci cards to their sidekicks.
The important factor seems to be that only certain suits will combine well with others. Some will even act to reduce the beneficial effects of others. As to the face cards, their effects are yet to be determined.
Weaker cards seem easy enough to find, so maybe your luck will hold and you can test the effects of these mysterious Fanucci cards. Maybe you'll even find a complete deck in your travels.
In case you haven't figured out yet how to work your Fanucci cards, below is a handy guide:
