The death card is shown before signing the contract, it shows what the card will do after the contract is signed if no action is taken.

In the image above are 3 scenarios

1. Death card "TAXES" that will take -5 gold (after the contract is sing), and a card that has no BLUE OR RED gem is played (contract sign) and the effect of the card is taking place "-5 gold" and you get the result of the card you played

2. Death card "TAXES" that will take -5 gold (after the contract is sing), and a BLUE GEM card "Gold" in our case is played, the "Taxes" card becomes "Paid" and you don't suffer the "-5 gold" and you get the result of the card you played

3.Death card "TAXES" that will take -5 gold (after the contract is sing), and a RED GEM card "Assassin" is played, the "Taxes" card becomes "Execution" and you don't suffer the "-5 gold" and you get "+15 gold" and "+20 fame" instead and the Death card Is taken out of the Death Deck, and you get the result of the card you played


Each death card has its own BLEU GEM and RED GEM.

For example, "Taxes" will always have "gold" as a BLUE GEM card and "Assassin" are RED GEM cards

The result of the card you play doesn't affect the effect of the blue or red gem.

Usually, playing a BLUE GEM will negate any loss, making the death card 0 on all resources and the RED GEM will give you resources instead of taking, but there are exceptions when the BLUE GEM card can give resources too for some death cards.