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*Chapter 63 - Shopping
🕑 Added 2021-08-26 22:21:36 +0000 UTCChapter 63 - Shopping
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I… am the pinnacle of our species... and I will not stand idly by as my lessers are cut down and made slaves to other demons for protection or worse. The spree… the celestials… the undead and the fae… they have all brought the sword and ruin to our world and driven us from our homes. Vultures to a corpse… one after the other realizing our empire was in its death thralls. Our proud people… became refugees. Hunted down like animals and butchered, the purest of family lines has been uprooted and scattered into the winds of time. I fear that my own family has perished… but if that holds true, I still shall not join them. I will remain steadfast in my resolve, and claim vengeance upon those who had dared to oppose us. Death is coming, be it now… or in the millenia to come. I will not forget. I will not… forget...
- Ezdeath
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Izumi slammed the hammer down onto the red-hot axe blade on the anvil. She frowned, not liking the way the distal tip was shaped and put it back in the fire. She pumped the foot treadle to activate the bellows and raise the core temperature, heating it up and putting it back on the anvil before hitting it again and again. Heaving under the exertion of her strokes, she wiped the beads of sweat from her brow and pushed her hair back into a ponytail using a band again again to keep it out of her eyes.
Her old dwarf forgemaster, Jagla, considered her work with a keen eye. His skin was thickened by years of hard labor, and his balding head was put to shame by the enormous beard he wore. “Your craftsmanship is getting better.”
Jagla’s forge was positioned at the northern end of the Fost guild compound and far away from the living quarters so that the noise wouldn’t keep anyone up if they decided to get to work at an inopportune time. The old graying darf didn’t often like working at night, though occasionally it did happen if he had a bad dream or needed to clear his thoughts.
Izumi gave the shorter dwarf a smile of thanks and used a pair of tongs to pick up the heated blade and dash it in a bucket of cold water. Hearing the sizzle and keeping it in place for a small amount of time, she took it out and approvingly set it down to cool. “I think I’m finally getting the hang of these battle axes.”
Jagla scoffed. “The basics, anyway. You’re coming along.”
Izumi just shook her head and rolled her eyes but kept smirking. He was an old grump most of the time so the few compliments he did give out were few and short. After training with him over the past weeks - she’d learned how to make crude weapons as well as platemail, though chainmail was a lot harder than it looked and took a lot longer to make than she’d have ever guessed. Her work was never up to par with that of the forgemaster she worked under but it was definitely coming along just as he’d said.
Sitting down and taking a jug she poured herself a glass of water and gulped it down. Relishing the way the water glided down the back of her throat, she looked around at this corner of the complex and marveled at how the tropical plants found a way to survive even here between the nooks and cracks of the old stone walls. This place was built upon an ancient remnant of a lost city, just as many of the other buildings here in Teretog were, and it always gave her a sense of longing to see what it would have looked like in the past before it had fallen into ruin.
She waved Jagla down. “Do you mind if we take a break? I’m tired.”
Jagla was inspecting her work and nodded without looking back at her. The old leathery skin of his brows furrowed as he grunted and walked off, no doubt to look for the nearest vendor selling alcohol here in the compound.
She sighed, laid back against the cold stone and watched people walk by. Across from them was another old smith pounding away at a piece of unshaped metal who took turns with Jagla filling orders for the guild - they had too few smiths to meet the needs of the compound so what would have otherwise been competition acted more as a crutch to keep people off their backs. Next to the smithies, but further down and against the same wall she leaned on, was a heavily tattooed leatherworker who was quite skilled with her hands and had a knack for catching trouble when she thought people were trying to undercut her prices. Beyond that was a storage area the guild used that was guarded by at least two soldiers at any given moment. Then there was a pawn shop, or what people here called a ‘fence’, and a series of five shrines dedicated to different members of the old gods before the residential area of the compound spanned out and became a second story instead of a wide open area over their heads.
“Enjoying the scenery?”
Izumi turned her head, still exhausted, to see Jason waving as he called out while walking up to her with Eeme and Juila. The two slave girls always seemed rather relaxed around Jason and today was no different with their demeanors upbeat.
Izumi waved back happily. “Hi Jason! Hi Eeme! Hi Juila! How are the three of you doing today?!”
Eeme waved a wicker basket around in the air and pranced over to set it down next to where Izumi sat. The teenage blonde wrinkled her nose to exaggerate her freckles and laughed at Izumi’s state of being. “You look terrible Izumi. Is Jagla working you too hard?”
“I work myself too hard…” Izumi muttered as she took the food they’d brought for her.
Jason pulled up another nearby chair that was sitting by the forge and scooted in closer to Izumi. He had a basket of his own that was a little larger and opened it up to distribute food out to Juila and Eeme before getting some for himself. Bread, a variety of tropical fruits, and dried salted meat were on today’s menu for lunch.
Izumi bit into the dried slab of meat and savored it before swallowing. It was tough, but very flavorful. “Hmmm. You said one of Trey’s new minions is a cook? It will be nice to have someone making good food around here.”
Jason scowled and stopped chewing his bread momentarily. Shaking his head vigorously, he finished swallowing and humphed. “One of his SLAVES is a cook. She’s a fucking elf Izumi, not even a demon. Trey’s becoming a real bastard.”
Izumi pooched her lips and took a long look at one of the shiny red fruits in her hand. It looked like a cherry, but was bigger and fluid filled in the center. They were called clops, but were pretty rare to find unless you went to the mainland of Ornthas. Whoever had sold them must have traveled there recently.
“Thralls can only live with a master’s contract, they would have died as a sacrifice or would have been sold off to someone else if he hadn’t bought them Jason. They cannot be freed, their souls are unstable. You heard what Ashe told us earlier. Be nice to Trey, he’s saved all of our lives. Yours, mine, literally everyone here.” Izumi pointed a finger at the bigger man meaningfully. “He’s not that bad of a person. As I said, Ashe told me that if he hadn’t bought them they’d have all been sacrificed.”
Jason’s scowl did not change. “Two rights do not make up for a wrong.”
“I don’t believe that’s how the saying goes.”
“That’s how it goes in Jason-Land.”
Izumi chuckled and rolled her eyes, setting down her drink of water and letting out a small burp before blushing in embarrassment.
Juila stretched out and laid along the dirt floor with her face up to the ceiling. Her long braided hair was disheveled and the amazonian looked like she could fall asleep right there. Specs of light let in from cracks in the roof adorned her poorly covered musculature through the rags she wore, and she caught Jason staring for a brief moment before his eyes were averted.
Eeme chewed her food slowly, enjoying the fruit the most. She looked up and happily smiled back at Izumi when they locked eyes, but she didn’t say anything. The silence was nice, and the four of them felt relaxed and happy just to be present in one another’s company.
“You could both leave, you know. Izumi and I wouldn’t stop you while Trey and Ashe are away.”
Eeme and Juila both looked over to Jason who sat with a hard gaze set on the floor.
Juila gave him a sad smile. “And go where?”
Eeme nodded in agreement. “It isn’t as bad as you make it out to be Jason. You all take care of us, and we aren’t ever beaten or hurt like what used to happen before the pirates were killed. This is a big improvement from what life was like for us a couple weeks ago. All for what? To clean up around that small apartment and have some sex? Trey and Ashe aren’t bad looking.”
Juila gave Jason a wink, putting her hands up to support her chin and flipping over. “Neither are you if you ever wanted to try sometime. Trey says we belong to the group just as much as him after all, and I don’t think I’d mind.”
Jason’s face flushed and he completely avoided eye contact to the amusement of the three women.
Eeme looked down to her dirty plain skirt and brushed it off in a poor attempt to clean it. “I have no family left. You all know that the fishing village I lived in was cut down and plundered. I have no home.”
Juila bit into a ripe pear, crunching on the fruit before swallowing. “And my family is lost to the vast plains of my homeland across the sea. My husband and children were killed by the pirates upon taking me, and what little friends I had left were killed by the sick bastards that tried to take my organs on the docks.”
The amazonian shuddered involuntarily and clutched at the place she’d been run through before Trey had stepped in to kill the three men who’d pursued her. “I should already be dead. Letting Trey hump me on occasion is not so bad a fate as that.”
Juila had told them very little about her dead husband and children, but every time someone broached the subject she’d shut down. So it was glazed over as usual. Instead - Eeme and Juila laughed again to try and rinse the bitter taste from their mouths, but Jason was still in a sour state of mind about the reality of their situation.
Izumi let out another belch, this time unapologetically and leaned forward towards Jason while tossing him a pit from the fruit she’d just ate to get his attention. “How’s your alchemy coming along?”
Jason shrugged indifferently with his mind on other matters. “It goes.”
“Very descriptive.” Izumi pointed out sarcastically. “Well Jagla says I’m doing very well for an apprentice with so little time under my belt. He’s going to start moving me up into more complicated pieces soon, right now he has me doing bulky large stuff that he can easily fix if I screw up the material on the first run. I think we’re going to try gauntlets and jewelry next.”
Juila was impressed and sat up to get a better look at the equipment on sale around the forge. “It is amazing that a woman is being taught the art of smithing. In my homeland, that was reserved for men.”
It was Izumi’s turn to scowl. “Sounds sexist.”
“It was!” Julia laughed loudly and clutched her stomach at the thought of it. “I wanted to be a smith once! My uncle was a smith… he would let me watch him work when I was just a child. But before my father died he made me promise him that I would do something more suitable for a girl. I gave up on that dream before it ever started, and I regret it even now.”
Izumi knocked on one of her pieces of platemail. “Well maybe I can teach you a thing or two on how to make these once I’ve become good myself! I’m still trying to figure it all out though… Ascended Smithing is the perk I get for choosing the smith class, and its features are still new to me.”
Juila beamed up at the Japanese girl. “I’d love it and look forward to it!”
“WHATSUP BITCHES!?!?!”
All heads turned to the familiar voice, and they saw Ashe coming at a light jog waving her hands in the air enthusiastically as her fluffy blonde tail wagged back and forth. She came up to them and stopped, putting her hands on her knees and catching her breath. “Y’all are eating without me!!!”
“Didn’t know you were back.” Jason tossed her a piece of bread and the girl caught it to sit down beside Izumi’s chair.
She snarfed it down rather fast and rested her head against Izumi’s knee. “I got hungry and Trey was taking too long, so I had him drop me off here while he continues shopping.”
“For his new minions?”
Ashe nodded and stole a pear from Izumi’s lap. “Yeah. He’s buying them all equipment for the upcoming job we have planned.”
Izumi swatted Ashe on the back of her head, scowling but didn’t try to take the pear back as she knew Ashe was much faster and more agile than she ever was prior to the fox totem’s transformation. “What do you think of them? We haven’t had a chance to meet them for more than a few minutes, but you got to know them on the way back from that meet right?”
“The minions?” Ashe clarified.
Izumi nodded.
Ashe took a chunk out of the pear, brushed off her leather pants and adjusted her tail. “Well Astala is the high elf, she’s quite nice and I like her the best. Very timid, but seems genuinely kind. She’s the cook! She grew up cooking in a lord’s mansion and was a chamber maid until about two years ago when she was promoted to being a cook. She spent that time learning the trade and was traveling to her new employer’s summer house when her ship was attacked by pirates. That’s how she ended up here in the Lawless Lands.”
“Karus is the dwarf right?”
“Yup. Karus is the dwarf, he seems like a simple man hellbent on drinking himself to death. That’s all he ever talks about. Charles is the culn, he was named that way by Trey - don’t ask. I don’t know much about Charles because he only speaks in Ancient Demon. The two dark elves are assholes their names are Rofa and Tarline. Brother and sister, both of them are pompous, arrogant, and mean spirited. I’d be surprised if Trey doesn’t kill them out of irritation at this rate.”
Jason’s brows furrowed. “Seriously? That bad?”
“That bad.” Ashe confirmed. “It might have a lot to do with how Trey’s minionized them, but I doubt that’s all of it. They’re really rude to Karus and Astala too. If they could speak with Charles, I’m sure they’d be mean to him as well.”
“What about Atharost?”
Ashe gave Jason a stupid grin. “Do you think they’d have the balls to be rude to Atharost? He’d roast them alive.”
Jason and Izumi chuckled at the thought of Atharost having to put up with some foul-mouthed drow. The ifrit would definitely have none of it, and at the very least he’d give them a good beating if they tried to get mouthy with him. Likely it would be much worse unless Trey stopped it.
Ashe gave Eeme a wink, and then pulled out an old grey book to open it and begin reading. “If you are Juila are given any trouble by those drow, let us know and we’ll deal with it. I know they haven’t been around much yet because we got back just last night, but they’ll be sharing our quarters unless they’re in their nether realms… and I don’t think that’ll be very often.”
Eeme and Juila both nodded their understanding, though Eeme looked a little bit nervous at the idea of confrontation.
“Drow are always arrogant, it is in their nature. It is the staple of their kind,” Juila put her hands behind her head and adjusted herself so she was laying on her side with one hand propping up her head. “I am not surprised you don’t like them. We will be sure to let you know if they cause us any grief. More importantly… have you heard what Radian was telling the posted guards this morning?”
Ashe shook her head and leaned further into Izumi’s thigh comfortably. “Radian the Fost guild’s leader? No, I haven’t seen him since we left for the summoner’s meet. Is something the matter?”
Jason butt in. “The Chekz guild killed five Fost members in broad daylight in front of a crowd. Execution style.”
There was a long silence. The news had come as a surprise to Jason when he first heard it too, so he understood when Ashe’s jaw dropped. Things were escalating in a way that Fost hadn’t foreseen despite their efforts to try and cool the fires between the two groups. Something like this between two prominent players in Teretog could easily mean a guild war, though Fost had little hope of winning it unless they got help. Radian had been betting on Chekz keeping a low profile on the matter, but apparently that approach wasn’t working. They all knew that if Radian didn’t respond somehow, Fost would be viewed as weak. Weaklings didn’t last long here.
“It’s a good thing we’re leaving for that mission into the deadlands soon then eh?” Ashe flipped her hair about and over to one side to nervously start combing it with her fingers. Her eyes met Eeme’s. “Eeme, Juila, we were going to leave you behind… but maybe you should come along after all.”
Juila nearly did a double take. “Into ORNTHAS!? You can’t be serious Ashe… We’d die.”
Ashe pursed her lips and fumbled about with the locks of hair in her hand. “I… I’m just worried about you staying here without us. What if Chekz attack while we’re gone?”
Eeme blushed and Juila’s face set into a soft smile. The amazonian woman sat up and put her chin in her hands. “Well I’m glad to know you care about us, even despite what we are to you.”
Ashe froze, realizing how it had come across and started turning a bright red to match Eeme across from her. “I’m serious! You two could be hurt!”
“... Do you think the danger would be any less in Ornthas?” queried Juila sincerely.
Ashe looked downtrodden at the thought, but she gave no answer.
Jason raised a hand to interject his own opinion. “I think it’d be safer for them to stay, personally. I don’t think Chekz would dare attack this compound, that’s on an entirely different scale than some fighting in the streets. Teretog is full of murders and thieves, it happens all the time. Attacking a guild compound would have to be an organized coordinated assault while bypassing traps, defensive spells, and fortifications. They’d lose hundreds of people doing it.”
His words were likely true… yes... but it still didn’t bring them much comfort, and the silence hung over their group as they considered the options laid out before them.
***
The compound had some of what Trey needed, and what they could - they bought from there. However, most of the supplies they needed were to be found here... in the sunlit midday market.
Trey held up two fingers. “No higher. I told you, I’m not going to bargain on this further.”
He’d already bought a good amount of ingredients for Jason to buy plague remedy and dropped them off with Ashe. He’d also gone to one of the tailors in the Fost compound earlier that morning and picked some off-the-shelf clothing to supply each of his new minions with two pairs sets of clothes each. He’d also let them pick out shoes or boots of their choice. The cloth of the textiles was mediocre and bland, but it did the job. Prior to that they’d been in rags or just flat out naked, so the gesture was appreciated by most of them. He had about 58,000 coin left, coin being the term most people used as the base copper coin. Normally that’d be a lot for his group, a huge amount actually, but considering that he wanted to outfit each of his new additions it would likely be very costly.
The gruff tattooed man behind the counter grimaced at Trey’s offer and cranked his head to the side to get a better look at the two drow Trey was buying for. Rofa - the drow brother - stood proud and tall, not meeting the man’s gaze. Rofa’s sister Tarline was a little more interested and eyed the weapons with a twinkle in her eye, though she didn’t make it obvious.
“Fine. Two gold coins for each dagger, but I want it to be in gold and not copper or silver. I’ll be traveling soon and don’t want to weigh myself down.”
Trey was fine with that. 200 ‘coin’, AKA 200 copper coins, 20 silver coins, or 2 gold coins were all the same to him, and he had more of it in gold than anything else after Gorthomal’s early payment. “May I have four of them?”
“Certainly. Pitch in another gold coin and I’ll throw in sheaths as well as two belts.”
“Done.”
Trey passed 8 gold over to the vendor, catching a scathing glance from the vendor’s competition just one stall over amidst the shuffling of the people walking by. Trey took the daggers in turn without a second thought, sheathed them into pairs of hard scabbards attached to leather belts that the tattooed man took out from underneath the stall, and handed a pair over to Rofa. “Here you go.”
Rofa briefly looked down and took the weapons. The daggers were each as long as his forearm and well crafted, though he’d certainly seen better in his time as a rogue.
Reinforced Steel Dagger
Item Tier: (6) Uncommon
Damage: 20
On Hit Effect: None
Bonuses: None
Requirements: 8 Dexterity
Durability: 71/71
Specials: None
Rofa’s demeanor didn’t change and he latched them around his waist. Crossing his arms he stepped back, not meeting his master’s gaze even once. “How crude. I had better as a mere boy.”
Trey ignored him and did a quick glance back at Rofa’s younger sister Tarline. She was rather pretty but was the definition of a stuck up bitch, he could tell that much just by the small amount of time he’d spent with her over the last two days. “Hey Tarline, catch.”
He tossed the weapons and belt over to the drow and she caught it easily enough, immediately wrapping it around her waist and tightening it in a single fluid motion. She didn’t bother saying anything at all and held her nose up high in disdain after catching him looking her over, but quickly palmed the hilts of both daggers after adjusting them appropriately to opposite sides of her hips. He could tell that she liked them despite her lack of gratitude.
Outfitting the two drow rogues was first on his list of things to do now that he was here, so the tanner was up next. Pushing his way through the crowds and being wary of whoever he passed so he wouldn’t get shanked, which was a very real possibility considering where he was, he came to a stall stationed five rows over with all of his minions following behind him. Even Talsh’Noc’Un was out and strapped to his back, as the sword had been wanting to be out and about more. Apparently Tash’Noc’Un really didn’t like the nether realm, and had requested to lay across Trey’s back instead.
“Ahem.” Trey cleared his throat to get the attention of an old crusty looking woman with unkempt red hair. She was rather scrawny and hunched over, but her two huge musclehead sons looked capable enough to handle the average joe who’d try and steal from her. All three of them looked up from what they were talking about and stood from the barrels they sat on to come forward.
“Interested in our wares…?” asked the old woman with a look of distaste as he approached. She raised an eyebrow at his mix and matched group, taking a moment to note the pentagrams carved into the thralls’ foreheads, and kept a wary eye on Atharost in particular.
One of her sons, the elder of the two who was also a little bit shaggier than the others, leaned forward keeping his eyes locked on Trey. “Hurry it up, summoner. We don’t like your kind and the less time we spend dealin with ya the better.”
This kind of talk did not sit well with the ifrit. Atharost sneered back at the man, scoffing loudly with an aggressive posturing. “Such insolence from someone so weak.”
Trey gave Atharost a mental command to shut up and the ifrit became silent. “Yes I’m interested, I need to see if any of these pieces will fit my two rogues here. The drow.”
The woman folded her arms, looked them over again, and scowled. “Your rogues? Are they enslaved to ya summoner?”
Trey cocked his head and Napoleon leapt up to his shoulder. “You see the pentagrams. Yes, it should be obvious. They’re my thralls, what of it?”
She remained silent for a time, then sighed and turned around. There were multiple racks of leather pieces laid out in the sun and she motioned towards them. “Have them try the pieces on then and be gone with ya after you find what you want.”
Another 672 coin later and he’d outfitted each of them in studded leather greaves, tunics, and gloves. Then they went on to the next seller. This market shopping spree continued on for the next three hours as people haggled their products throughout the marketplace and tried to get the best bang for their buck.
Traveling cloaks were bought for all of them after spending another 95 coin. The drow were both bought redwood shortbows as well as two quivers apiece filled with a good supply of steel-tipped arrows, costing Trey another 510. Charles the culn and Karus the darf were both bought iron plate mail, including iron kite shields for a whopping total of 11,500 coin and promised that if they showed potential they’d be given better items later on. Charles was then bought a steel halberd priced at 900, while Karus was bought a 1 handed double-edged battle axe for 835.
It wasn’t until much later that Trey found another item that truly piqued his interest. He ended up finding it in a box of odds and ends all thrown together near the northern end of the market in a secluded corner filled with small jungle plant.
Cloak of the Unholy Orders (Light Armor)
Item Tier: (8) Very Rare
Armor: 36 physical resistance, 89 magic resistance
Bonuses: +150% increase to Divinity Point regeneration
Requirements: Dark Attribute
Durability: ???
Special: ???
Trey stood impressed, holding the black and red cloak out in front of him. It had a red eye symbol sewn on the back and a red eye sewn into the fabric of the hood when it was pulled down. This would be perfect for Rivia.
“How much for this cloak?”
“The cloak?” clarified the young purple-robed wizard who was attending this shop along with two other comrades of his. He adjusted his funny looking hat and put on a pair of glasses to inspect the item before inspecting Trey’s party members and settling on Rivia. “Ah you wish to give it to your priestess. Not a bad choice summoner, and it looks to be about the right size. I’d sell it individually for 3,000… Though considering what you’re looking for, I must ask… would you be interested in a package deal?”
The bustling market around them was growing more and more busy. Beads of sweat were accumulating on their skin, and he could tell his minions all wanted to get out of the sun.
Trey’s brows furrowed and he began scratching behind Napoleon’s ears absentmindedly as the imp sat on his shoulder. “What do you mean?”
The young wizard on the other side of the stand gave off a small yet confident smile. “Are you looking for more items that she could use? My raiding party took this robe from a group of occultists not long ago when they engaged us in the Deadlands. I was hoping to sell it all at once, because we’re tight on money and looking to buy a particular package from someone else. Honestly it’s been hard finding a buyer for these items because of their nature… most dark arts users are mana oriented instead of oriented towards divinity. How about taking a quick look? It will only take a minute to unpackage it all, I’ll give you a great deal and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.”
Trey gave him a curious glance and motioned for Rivia to come forward. The gorgeous culn priestess obediently came up to his side and clasped her hands in front of her while she awaited orders.
The wizard beamed, taking this as a sign Trey was interested. “Great! I’ll go get the supplies, they’re in a crate we haven’t unpackaged yet so just hold on for a moment.”
He skipped a few feet away to where his companions sat against an old broken wall of stone, bent over, and rummaged through their supplies until he came to a medium sized crate a few feet across in all dimensions. Bounding back over to them and almost tripping clumsily on his own stool, he placed the crate down on the stand they’d erected and pried open the box.
Placing the lid of the crate to the side, the wizard reached in and took out three vials of sky-blue liquid. He placed them next to the robe Trey’d wanted and reached in again to produce a small black book and another larger gray one. Then came a necklace interlaced with finger bonesthat also hung a small monkey’s skull at the end of it. Lastly came an ornate, glowing, green and black lantern that radiated dark energy.
Trey’s focus was immediately drawn to the lantern. It looked like it had been carved from obsidian rock and decorated with carved faces of screaming men. Its windows were made of some obscur, thick glass that made it hard to tell what exactly was glowing that weird green light, and the dark octagonal edges were laced with green lines of power. He was about to pick it up, when Rivia gasped.
The culn woman’s hand shot forward and she almost scrambled forward to clutch one of the black books. In the process she almost knocked over the stand and startled the wizard so much that he almost fell over. His two similarly robed friends were immediately on their feet, but after an assuring sign from him - they sat back down and resumed their talks as if nothing had happened.
“THIS!” Rivia shrieked with an excited humm in her voice. She whirled on Trey and slammed the small black book into his chest. “This! I must have this! Please! It will help me progress so much further towards Alkir offering me a pledge!”
Trey raised an eyebrow, curiously took the book, and then looked to the wizard. “Assuming you have them, would you mind sending me the status info on all of these items? My identification isn’t too high.”
The young wizard chuckled with a nod, happy to see he hadn’t been wrong in assuming the culn girl would take interest. “Certainly. Here it goes now.”
Cloak of the Unholy Orders (Light Armor)
Item Tier: (8) Very Rare
Armor: 36 physical resistance, 89 magic resistance
Bonuses: +150% increase to Divinity Point regeneration
Requirements: Dark Attribute
Durability: 213/214
Special: None
Minor Divinity Potion
Item Tier: (3) Crude
Bonuses: none
Requirements: none
Durability: 20/20
Special: Recover 5 DP over 60 seconds
Necklace of Dark Sanctum
Item Tier: (8) Very Rare
Bonuses: Recharge rate of divinity points increased by +2 per minute
Requirements: Dark Attribute
Durability: 79/81
Special: None
Wailing Soulcatch Lantern
Item Tier: (10) Epic
Bonuses: +20 Intelligence, +30 Faith
Requirements: 8 Faith, Dark Attribute
Durability: 540/540
Specials:
1 - Dark Grace: Spend 1 DP point and channel it through this lantern to cast this innate miracle. A barrier of dark power will encompass you and everything around you within 10 yards for 60 seconds. Moderate cooldown.
2 - Soulcatch: You may store 1 soul of mediocre power or less within this lantern indefinitely by commanding the lantern to take hold of the soul. Target soul must not have a living body.
Book of Miracles: Jehema, Wrathmaker’s Decree of Law
Item Tier: (10) Epic
Requirements: Not Described
Durability: 310/325
Special: This is Jehema’s primary sacred text. Undisclosed wisdom, miracles, and rituals may be found within these pages. Study it well and you may eventually find the knowledge you seek.
Book of Miracles: Alkir’s Third Writ
Item Tier: (10) Epic
Requirements: Not Described
Durability: 102/106
Special: This is the third of Alkir’s sacred texts. Undisclosed wisdom, miracles, and rituals may be found within these pages. Study it well and you may eventually find the knowledge you seek.
The book in Trey’s hands, the one Rivia had been so excited about, was none other than Alkir’s Third Writ. Remembering back to the time Rivia had explained the order of the divines to him in Oblivion, she had also told him about how that little black book she kept so close to her every night was actually Alkir’s First Writ. She obsessed over that book daily and had thus far only managed to glean knowledge of one ritual. Albeit it had been a very useful one that he’d gained stats from regularly after sacrificing poor bastards who got in his way. She’d told him more than once that the knowledge for these rituals and miracles was hidden and encoded within the unholy texts, and that scholars often spent years trying to figure them out with miniscule clues left by the gods themselves… but most of the orders who worshipped Alkir kept their secrets close. She’d been lucky enough to get even one of the writs, and Trey was genuinely surprised to see another of them here.
Trey held out his hand palm-up to Rivia. “Let me see Alkir’s First Writ as well as that other book of miracles you already learned from, I want to compare. It might be a forgery.”
Rivia frowned and pulled out her small black book, the one she always kept on her, to hand it over to her master. Then she gave him the other one that had taught her the Pestilence miracle. There were certainly ways for people to falsify status page information, Trey’d already been duped once about a month ago and learned that the hard way. Without his own status information to rely on or a close friend he could trust, he wasn’t sure if this was legitimate. Inspecting the third writ it came up as for the most part intact with what the wizard claimed it to be, though pieces of the status information were definitely missing and it still wasn’t a foolproof means of overcoming any illusion magic or an identifying overlap that could have been placed on it by a very skilled identifier. Nevertheless, he didn’t feel any mana coming off the book… so he went on to inspect the two other books of miracles that Rivia had just given him - and thankfully they’d already acquired these items’ status pages.
Book of Miracles: Alkir’s First Writ
Item Tier: (10) Epic
Requirements: Not Described
Durability: 105/106
Special: This is the first of Alkir’s sacred texts. Undisclosed wisdom, miracles, and rituals may be found within these pages. Study it well and you may eventually find the knowledge you seek.
Book of Miracles: Pestilence
Item Tier: (8) Very Rare
Requirements: 13 Faith, Dark Attribute, 50 hours of fasting and devout prayer to the Dark Origin
Durability: 9/12
Special: Disease afflicts your opponent, causing rot at an accelerated rate. Very painful. Reduces HP and SP equally.
He handed both books back to Rivia and placed the book he believed to be Alkir’s Third Writ on the table. Flipping it open, he could see the words were all written in the tongue of Ancient Demon. He flipped through a few more pages of religious rhetoric and babbling until he was satisfied that at the very least - if this was a fake, they’d done a damn good job with attention to detail.
Trey looked up. “How much for all of it?”
The young wizard crossed his arms and peered at Trey with a blank expression from underneath his glasses. “50,000.”
The sigh Trey let out and the flop of his head indicated his answer prematurely. He shook his head. “No. That’s too much.”
The wizard shrugged. “How much are you offering then?”
Trey felt a firm pleading hand squeeze his forearm and looked up to where Rivia was anxiously awaiting his answer. “I’ll give you 20,000.”
“20,000 can buy you some, but not all of it.” The wizard across from him shook his head. “Even I know how rare these unholy texts are. Buyers are hard to find, but I could sell it for much more if I find the right one.”
Trey grinned. “Yet you need money for your ship.”
The wizard’s demeanor did not change and his arms remained folded in adamant resolve. “This is true, but I will not sell it as a bundle for less than 40,000. Each of the texts are worth 20,000 a piece, and the lantern is likely worth the same. I’ll chip in everything else as a show of good grace if you settle at that.”
Trey silently swore to himself. He only had about 42,000 left give or take a couple hundred. He really wanted to take the deal… but they still needed to buy equipment for the upcoming journey. They still needed stored foods and camping supplies after they’d lost their last batch on their most recent trip inland. They also needed to have enough money to eat until they left for the mainland in upcoming days. Trey wasn’t exactly sure how much longer they had until they left, but Gorthomal was supposed to contact them rather soon.
Slowly his fingers left the book on the table and his frown grew. “I can’t afford that right now.”
Rivia tugged at his arm and a pitiful whimper escaped her lips. “Please Trey! I don’t ever ask for anything, but this means the world to me! Please, I'm begging you! I don’t know if this opportunity will ever come again…”
Tears began to gather in Rivia’s eyes as the priestess saw her hopes crumbling all around her.
Trey snorted, then frowned in defeat. “Alright wizard, I’ll give you 20,000 for the third writ and we’ll leave it at that.”
Rivia immediately began beaming with delight and tried but failed to hide her excitement.
Now it was the wizard’s turn to frown. “You’re no longer interested in the cloak?”
“I am, but I’m getting low on money. Sorry man.” Trey shrugged helplessly.
Disappointed, the wizard tapped his fingers along his sleeve. “How about this then… Give me 30,000 and I’ll give you the cloak, Alkir’s Third Writ, and the Lantern.”
Trey rebutted with his own offer. “Pitch in the necklace and I’ll make it 32,000.”
Both men eagerly smiled, and then shook hands to seal the agreement.
Napoleon jumped off of Trey’s shoulder with their money pouch and began quickly counting out the coins, most of them in platinum and gold, before pushing the money to the other side of the stand. The wizard let out a self-serving cry of success and pulled the pile of money into his own pouch.
Trey was handed the cloak, necklace, Alkir’s Third Writ, and the lantern. Thanking the wizard and turning around, he was almost knocked over as Rivia flung her arms around him and began to cry.
He just stood there, taken aback and completely confused as the priestess wept tears of joy into his sleeve. Ten seconds later and he was even more surprised as she let go and planted a kiss on his cheek. She’d been getting awfully touchy-feely lately.
“Thank you master.” Rivia’s brilliant smile radiated from ear to ear as she put on the Cloak of the Unholy Orders, adorned the Necklace of Dark Sanctum, latched the Wailing Soulcatch Lantern onto the belt of her robes, and finally pressed Alkir’s Third Writ against her bosom.
“Your minion Rivia has increased its opinion of you from ‘Subservient’ back to ‘Somewhat Liked.’ Your minion now gains a 15% experience increase due to it remaining in the positive category.”
