"...And from beneath the land and loam,
Arise the Jack O' Clay and Bones…"
-Trad. Children's rhyme.
The piper that must be paid when the butcher's bill is called, the Jack O' Clay and Bones is gravedigger and ferryman to the fae. Each of the Jacks is a figure of such antiquity and power that ideas such as fear and concern have little meaning to them, but even among their number the Jack O' Clay and Bones takes a strange, complacent and macabre joy in their work. The fae are, of course, all immortal such that their journey to the other side with Clay is little more to them than a day trip, not that the ferryman cares, for there will always be some who bring too little for the return trip and will be glad to pay the Bone price of fealty by which position at court is secured. All power passes, and all that passes beyond is the right of Clay and Bones, all that is needed is the time to sort and sift the soil sufficient to claim their due.
All of the cards in Moonflight are informed by the design of both archaic playing cards and tarot cards, but none more so than that of Clay and Bones who takes their influence partly from the classic tarot 'hanged man'. In addition the pattern of Clay and Bones' legs reference Celtic not pattern figures while the contrasting figures can be seen in medieval playing cards designed as lessons on the sins of gluttony and the threat of famine.
During play the Jack O' Clay is a master deck cycler and sifter, passing through deck and discards in a single turn. After the 'turn' the Jack O' Bones trashes cards at a rate beyond that of any other Jack, but does so blind much of the time, requiring cards to be recovered
from the trash stack at times. By sifting and returning both Discard and Trash stacks become an extension of Clay and Bones' will. Timing the return of trashed cards into the cycle of play to find the perfect scoring hand as both deck and discard empty becomes the true art of playing Clay and Bones. Trash and discard recklessly, nothing is ever truly thrown away, the only question is if you can dig through the trash to find the treasure before moon set comes.