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A Simple Transaction I

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Speaking of the Armor's Rank cost and other such sacrificial spells Hunger could have created with Archmage, it's a bit funny that Inheritance has a lot of Rank to burn on such things. Ofc we can likely only get meaningful enhancements from sacrificing cardinalities, but maybe our allies can be buffed without a too great expenditure.
 
Armor is generally useless as Maiden can in fact blow up an universe quite easily. So it's just +1000 Prot, which is something I suppose. Even if it worked, well, ISH infinity is 1.99 while +100k provided by IN should be at something like 1.92~3, so you are only really getting a fraction of ISH.

The more Important Advancement here is Refinement of War which can be activated for additional burst of Prot. With everything else* this basically gives us a perfect protection against any attack, which would be extremely useful against enemies that rely on charged attack and such. What we actually want, of course, is either something like Refinement of Protection or an ability which would allow us to marry Protection to Might. And well, Progression+ does have a habit of giving us suitably impressive Advancements.

Two relevant Advancements we know of that would be relevant here are both tied to Imprisoner True - Always Forward and Iron Fist. Always Forward works very well with IN since IN allows it to proc without an issue, and it allows us to get even beefier RoW(+1.4) for even better anti-charge effect, and Iron Fist allows us to stack powerful effects, but is pretty pepega so we likely don't want to get it for any option. IN would benefit the most out of it, however, since it has the biggest number. Still, fact that these Advancements exists proves that we can get Prot based Advancements, and fact that we don't have many of those means that we kinda have a lot of low hanging fruits to pick.

Also we do have ability to fuck of to Nihfel to stall Apo for a short while, which might be useful for every option here.

*Assuming base of 1.93 for the last layer, we are talking 1.93+0.2(OaF)+0.3(Aobaru, could be higher)+2.45(IN)+0.7=5.58 ISH. 4.9ISH without RoP. If we get Always Forward we would get 6.3 perfect omni negate ability that covers our entire territory, which is just downright absurd. With Iron Hand this effect would be permanent(although reduced to 5.6 against alpha strikes), but that requires picking Iron Hand. Even then, that permanent 6.3 omni applicable wide area effects is doable at all in just a couple of updates is .. something.
 
Wolfy said:
Even if it worked, well, ISH infinity is 1.99 while +100k provided by IN should be at something like 1.92~3, so you are only really getting a fraction of ISH.
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Hm, are we actually sure about that? I mean, 1.99 is the 'pure physicality' cap, but I didn't really get the impression Protection was a physical stat. It seemed more like a stat-based abstraction of the cloaks magical... protection. I freely admit this is a weak argument, but it seems like this is at least slightly dubious.
...though even if the Infinity Prot is 2.99 the +1k of Armor of Midnight wouuuuld still be only a tiny fraction of an ISH-step since it's only a percentage-point increase in value.
 
JOEbob said:
Hm, are we actually sure about that? I mean, 1.99 is the 'pure physicality' cap, but I didn't really get the impression Protection was a physical stat. It seemed more like a stat-based abstraction of the cloaks magical... protection. I freely admit this is a weak argument, but it seems like this is at least slightly dubious.
...though even if the Infinity Prot is 2.99 the +1k of Armor of Midnight wouuuuld still be only a tiny fraction of an ISH-step since it's only a percentage-point increase in value.
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It makes sense in context of Procyon punching through it despite OaF buff. It pretty much has to be about 1.99.

However, even something like difference between +1000 and +infinity being 0.3 would still be absolutely major. Its only that current (assumed) difference of 0.06 is kinda not that important. The assumption here follows Rank, where 9. something is roughly planet level while Rank 10 is already infinite, as well as Hunger's general stat progression(our Agility way back being ISH 1.4~1.6).
 
Did someone say three way tie?
Adhoc vote count started by Wolfy on Dec 8, 2021 at 11:09 AM, finished with 329 posts and 66 votes.
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BrainInAJar said:
Come on, without Armour of Midnight we'd have fucking died. That's very meaningful, wouldn't you say? I know I and many others were quite surprised at the passage, but we shouldn't have been since all the information was there. There's a certain humour in decrying "infinite Protection" as mere flavor text is amusing, and it will still likely deliver it's "maximum value" since the Maiden is unlikely to target civilians, even as collateral damage to her main attacks.
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Armor of Midnight was meaningful, but since we weren't invulnerable it wasn't the infinite Protection part that made it meaningful since we were obviously only getting the +1000 Prot from it. So I described it as flavor text because even when we first got it, a genuinely dangerous opponent was still enough to be a threat on a level of power where the infinite Prot effect wouldn't proc. So an aspect of the ability that can only proc against enemies we don't need it against anyway is... basically flavor text.

Also, the same bit referenced with Procyon makes it clear that it doesn't matter whether Maiden's attacks actually WOULD encompass the whole universe, since Procyon was just punching us when the Armor buckled. All that matters is if the attacks contain a level of power that COULD achieve destruction on that scale, if it were directed to that end instead of just to pushing Hunger's face in. So yeah, we're just getting +1000 Prot against the Maiden from Armor.

Anway, yeah, generally I find it really weird that people are dubious that IN could generate Advancements of sufficient power to directly harm the Maiden in the timeframe that IN buys us. We generated THESE advancements in a span of time that I think is probably comparable to how long we can buy with IN. And we did that without the Progression+ that IN gets us. Even if we can't buy quite as much time with IN, the Progression+ should make up the difference.

As Wolfy has noted, we don't need to just go for the same advancements we have available now either, we could spec towards something that more directly synergizes with the Prot boosts we'd be getting from IN. If I'm just imagining a hypothetical Boss AF way to make super high Prot relevant to hurting people, an advancement like, idk, this would be swole and IMO not implausible in the context of the shit Hunger has already achieved and is still advancing on:
Hypothetical advancement said:
Conservation of Protection: for every stage or partial stage of elevation along the ISH that you have achieved for Protection, subtract half that much from any opponent directly contending against you.
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And then our total of 4.x ISH Protection simultaneously becomes -2.x ISH to Protection for the Maiden and hey, whaddya know, we can hurt her. Or we combo something like this with the advancements Wolfy noted that would give us up to 6.3 ISH Protection, translating into -3.15 ISH on Prot for the Maiden, thereby making the fight hilarious.
 
I have no doubt that IN could generate sufficient advancements. I doubt it could do so in time, because I think the Maiden could destroy enough of the human sphere to trigger indenture-death before reaching a level of protection she could not defeat.

I'm also pretty tired of stalling. My procrastination vote was a meme. I want a conclusive ending.
 
Something I realized. If Blood Halo Hunger uses Closing the Fist with Gisena and Hunger Gets Sophont Halo, does how much does that buff Sophont Halo's Attribute boost? 375*1.5 = 565.2% to all attributes seems plausible given the Interpreted generously clause.

Second Point. Armies of the Shogunning Aobaru may improve his ability to buff Other peoples ISH ratings. Like us.
 
Fumbles said:
I have no doubt that IN could generate sufficient advancements. I doubt it could do so in time, because I think the Maiden could destroy enough of the human sphere to trigger indenture-death before reaching a level of protection she could not defeat.
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Why wouldn't we do it in time? Like, I've just outlined two Advancements we have access to that would put us at permanent 6.3* - assuming that general powerlevel of Maiden is about 4.3~4.5, Apo would have to bump her offense by two points of ISH which is just not happening. Remember that Dien was just somewhat weaker than us, and Apo still didn't think that buffing him would do anything; there is a clear point at which power of our enemy becomes entirely irrelevant for the purpose of Apo procs.

Like, consider Armaments. They went from 5 pick targets Apo could draw to fight us(like Maiden is right now), to roughly peer level foes Apo could call in numbers, to possible target for Apo buff to completely irrelevant in, what, a month and a half? And sure, part of was that 5 pick fight, however our Progression speed is lightning fast, and that's before Apo- increasing the time to next proc and Progression+(and Imperial Praxis) allowing us even faster Progression.

Rendering her irrelevant is doable. As I've talked prior, our +2.45ISH to Protection is basically Progression^, on top of Prog+ and Apo-. We just need to fight ways to transform Prot into other stats so we can fully benefit from that power with our AoQ and Cut Through.

Regarding Human Sphere, that shouldn't be an issue. Everything else aside Hunger can just pick it up and put it inside his pocket. Issue with IN is not immediate attack, but if Hunger can train good enough(and Decimator but that's why we spent 5picks and 25 Arete on Fisher King). I don't see why he wouldn't be able to.

*not that we want Iron Hand per se, but we have a desperation option if it comes down to that
 
I really didn't consider putting the world in a bottle, so I'll withdraw my concerns about losing to the Indenture. I'll fence sit like usual and swap when Crimson looks untenable.
 
Unelemental said:
A list of some Maiden symbolic 'weaknesses' (not really, but it's all I could come up with) that we could attempt aiming for:

1. Her identity as the Maiden vs Ceathlynn.

It occurred to me that Sorceresses often advanced faster if they emulated the Maiden's behavior and character. So this might be just a case of the imitation improving depending on how close to the original it became, but it's also possible that the Maiden took on some restrictions to enhance her power, which expressed itself through her precepts.

E.g. things like purity of thought might be important for some of her Graces, so inciting worldly desires could have a good effect. This would be a completely hopeless endeavor if she was just the Maiden, but she has taken Ceathlynn as a vessel, and as such isn't just the Maiden anymore. Mind, Ceathlynn herself is pretty single-minded and obsessed with defeating Hunger, but she was still way more human than the Maiden before the merger, so something could be left over.

Her desire for revenge? An unwillingness to confront the resurrected Slumber Pilot, should we be able to convert him to our cause? Or even baser desires, though Gisena might not be enthused by attempts to seduce the enemy. Basically, she hopefully hasn't climbed high enough on the power ladder to ignore diplomancy.

2. Implicate Duty.

There are some irreconcilable differences in opinion between Hunger and the Maiden when it comes to how humanity should be governed. Could we also try debating her points? We didn't pick the Mute!Maiden option, so she should be capable of responding to arguments, though whether she would be willing is another question.

Of course I don't expect to convince her of anything or for her to start doubting her long-held beliefs. But forcing her to be explicit about her ideals could weaken her concept of Implicate Duty? Not sure how central it is to her being (might not be important at all), but it's not like we lose anything by trying political debate.

3. Story elements.

This is more relevant for BH, but Zampano's mentions of labeling the confrontation as Night vs Day and framing us as a just visionary made me think. Presenting the two of them as a conflicting duality is one way to go about it, but Hunger might also benefit from escaping the framework of yin vs yang, beginning vs ending, tyrant vs hero, good vs evil etc. Not sure how exactly, but one of the Accursed's titles is 'the sword by which all stories would end'. It might be just referring to the fact that he ends all power debates in this verse, but it could also have more meanings.

Not sure how much of a connection to the original Odyssial remains, but he could have something of a grudge against the Fair Folk? So 'unraveling stories' could be literal here, and findross' effects have reminded me of Fae and storytelling on more than one occasion. Maybe there is some crazy combination of Praxis technique and Nullity that would be especially effective at dispelling the Maiden's narrative? Grasping for straws here...

4. Findross.

Speaking of findross, we could make more targeted arrangements if we knew more about its origins. Other than that Edeldross was its precursor and that Edeldross plus Pressure (plus ?) could be catalyzed into findross? Anyway, if anyone has ideas on what weaknesses something like findross could have, that would be another vector of attack. Draining it is probably pointless, but could we transform it further, changing it into a form that isn't usable by the Maiden? If the magical substance could undergo such a transformation once, maybe it could be made to happen again. It could even be another way for Gisena to distinguish herself from the Maiden!

My ideas have run dry by now, but someone else will get inspired and propose effective plans against her. I can only hope.

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So, I like the Findross idea. I'm wondering if we could turn the Findross into Edelross. If Rank can turn the former into the latter, then the reverse should be possible, yes?

Now, you might be thinking 'Then shouldn't we grab Inheritance for the infinite Rank?' but since we'll be trying to mess with the Maiden's Findross mid-flight, I think Blood Halo is better for, for example, ripping apart the Findross in her self-augmentation Grace's. If we had... any Magic training in Archmage, I might be willing to concede the point, but I think Inheritance would be better for making Big Dumb Object Findross like Dien's Feeder Suns into Edelross or whatever than Blood Halo, while BH would be better if we're facing an opponent in combat who will probably be attempting to contest the effect.

This also has the obvious benefit of letting Hunger turn her buffs into his buffs with his Element, as I don't recall us sacrificing it.
 
ilbgar123 said:
So, I like the Findross idea. I'm wondering if we could turn the Findross into Edelross. If Rank can turn the former into the latter, then the reverse should be possible, yes?

Now, you might be thinking 'Then shouldn't we grab Inheritance for the infinite Rank?' but since we'll be trying to mess with the Maiden's Findross mid-flight, I think Blood Halo is better for, for example, ripping apart the Findross in her self-augmentation Grace's. If we had... any Magic training in Archmage, I might be willing to concede the point, but I think Inheritance would be better for making Big Dumb Object Findross like Dien's Feeder Suns into Edelross or whatever than Blood Halo, while BH would be better if we're facing an opponent in combat who will probably be attempting to contest the effect.

This also has the obvious benefit of letting Hunger turn her buffs into his buffs with his Element, as I don't recall us sacrificing it.
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Edeldross was subsumed by Archmage in a fashion that preserved the benefits we were getting from it. Same with Empyrean Signs.
 
I wonder if GIsena's access to Foremost Sorcery might let her copy the Maiden's omega-tier Graces, if she has time to study them.
 
Aabcehmu said:
I wonder if GIsena's access to Foremost Sorcery might let her copy the Maiden's omega-tier Graces, if she has time to study them.
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She'd need some ISH elevated version of Renaissance Halo to do that maybe. Who knows.

[ ] Renaissance Halo - The flowering of the arts gives rise to their distaff counterpart, the sciences. The privilege to enliven the world, becomes the power to control it.
Evoker's Panoply, Grace of the Glaze, Maiden's Whisper. The bearer loses access to the component Graces, but may through this Halo manifest any two Graces she has encountered, and may alter the manifested Graces every twenty-one hundred hours. The strength of these manifested Graces will not massively exceed that of her mightiest native Grace.
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Aabcehmu said:
That makes sense, but I do think that something like that would be achievable with how far she's come since then, especially with help from Hunger.
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...Yes, "help" from Hunger. If we use Closing The Fist to merge with her, the resulting being is probably enough to make that reverse engineering happen in less than a year, which might be a valid strategy for using our IN bought prep time. Gisena alone, at her current level? I really doubt it.
 
Alright, lets go over some more specific grind plans for IN:
  • Infinite Praxis Works: Throw Aobaru, some praxis books and about two million other people inside hyper accelerated dimension - since Praxis is completely agnostic to metaphysics of a given verse, this works for even shit tier realms so amount of investment from our side is minimal. After two million years of their time pick out the best to act as our Praxis teachers and/or CtF targets. In either way, Praxis effects being largely power-agnostic at our level means that just having bunch of people with various effects makes for a good CtF fodder. Just have someone else learn technique for us
  • For the want of Rank: Above but with Letrizia. While she herself can't obtain transfinite Rank we, and potentially Gisena, can help her in this endeavor. She would require a better Realm to get enough oomph to gain transfinite Rank, but once she gets it she's an awesome Archmage casting foci or a CtF target, based on your preference. Basically the Inheritance we have at home
  • Sigma Grindset: Ignore Gisena's advances and focus on TRAINING. Use power of Law to make Praxis trainings endlessly harder so we get more out of our training session. Alternatively use our clones for training by distributing our consciousness among them. In any case, "Praxis can not be cheated" is not a law, but a challenge.
  • Summer of Love: Don't ignore Gisena's advances and become one with her. CtF with Gisena to gain access to her Halo and then grind magic and graces and shit. Then again she might be doing something useful on her own, who knows
  • Adorie is Helping Too!: We do have Adorie's Naturalism, so we could try and make some use out of it now that we are basically defending a territory I guess? Perhaps we could have her upgrade all those realms within the Hyper Novakhron to upgrade it into Hyper Novakhron Requiem. Or hell, just go full tourism victory and have Adorie create territory that generates tourism based on its Appeal Quality of Life. If there is anything that could make that stat useful it's gotta be the Naturalism
 
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Time for some more crazy Maiden theories, also known as throwing ideas at the wall in the vain hope one miraculously sticks.

So to start with, here some quotes from this quest that attracted my attention:
Rihaku said:
"I do not share your ideals, child, but we may share a purpose. Praehihr he may be, but the usurper must be brought low. If you desire, I shall inhabit you and see it done."
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Rihaku said:
The Artificial princess was resolute as ever, uncommon grimness overtaking her features as she lent the support of her Rank to Hunger's own. The carefully-engineered magic of her bloodline was as precise and delicate as clockwork, beautiful as filigree; art ornamental as it was functional, as if designed to be directly perceived.
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Rihaku said:
Oath of Winter

To Might alone, it is given, to decide who shall rule.

...

The powers of Winter are preservation and destruction, and its purpose is Might. Let the glories that once bestrode this Realm, arise again.
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Rihaku said:
The once and future king. At times little more than feeble whisper of a prophecy, now a promise vindicated in full.
...
Inheritence represents the past, Hunger's identity as the Forebear of Dynasties, the culmination of ancient promises...
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The Maiden seldom speaks, and when she does, it is of great significance. I doubt any part of what she said was randomly chosen, and since she had no need to lie to the desperate Ceathlynn, I'll assume her words were the truth, or at least her version thereof.

I'll admit I didn't give it much thought previously, too busy panicking over the fact that she has pretty good chances of winning against Hunger despite all the bullshit on offer in the latest update, but her motivations and backstory could prove to be fairly important, as oftentimes Hunger won due to noticing some insignificant detail about his opponent.

So what exactly is the Maiden saying in her blurb? She is calling Hunger an usurper. At first I thought she's talking about Hunger's takeover of the Human Sphere, which had been the Foremost's turf before... yet that theory starts breaking down once I consider it in more detail.

The Human Sphere hadn't been under the government of the Foremost for a very long time, and she never objected when humans used the Armaments, the exalted tools of the Foremost, to wage war against one another. Neither did she intervene when Dien started his rampage across the Human Sphere, threatening to consume everything and cast it into his image. Maybe she had faith in Hunger or knew some secret reasons why Dien would stop later, but she still doesn't really come across as someone who cares about the fate of the Human Sphere.

So what is the usurper part referring to then? This is where the later quotes come in. I propose the following theory: the Maiden wasn't just the Maiden of Endings, she was also the Maiden of Winter, or even the Maiden of all Seasons. Not sure whether the AU EFB played a part here or not, but even ignoring EFB's mythology, there is enough lore in this quest to construct some rough theories.

In the beginning, the Foremost spread and developed freely, advancing their magic and science by leaps and bounds, pushing the borders of what was possible. They became the masters of all they surveyed and likely expanded beyond the bounds of their original dimension, maybe doing some conquest, but probably nothing too excessive.

I'm not certain when exactly it happened, but at some point the Accursed or one of his Cursebearers must have granted them access to the Noble Praxis at some point and helped them construct the Armaments in the hopes of finding better means of Mitigation. Maybe Adorie's bloodline was part of their research too, finding ways to enhance the Cursebearers' Praxis stamina.

And then the Forebear came. Maybe he had already started on the road of becoming the Accursed's enemy, maybe this was just a coincidence, but it's pretty indisputable that he had been here and created some Dynasties that have persisted to this day. I reckon the Foremost and the Forebear were enemies, and while the Foremost are fairly impressive, I don't fancy their chances against the Forebear.

So he won, took over and became king. All business as usual for the Forebear. I'm not sure whether he'd killed them all or whether their disappearance is something that happened later (a cleanup after the Forebear's death?), but it must have left an impression on the locals, for them to create prophecies about his return. Or maybe they really liked Arthurian legends, who knows?

Anyway, the Foremost probably weren't very enthused about the takeover, so calling him an usurper isn't too out there. If she means the current Hunger, then if the theory of her being Winter is correct, it could be referring to his takeover of Nilfel. If she truly left some of her Artifacts there and had some greater plans for Adorie's bloodline, she could harbor some resentment for Hunger messing things up.

Speaking of Mirellyian Artifacts, it's been a while since I thought about the Opalescent Tower and its relation to the Evening Sky. We'd been leaning heavily into the Evening aspects of our Cloak, but let's not forget that there were other Signs on offer too. And interestingly enough, the Maiden accessed a Daylight Realm to counter our Evening Realm.

I'd thought at first that it was just a poetic counter to Hunger, but these things don't come from nowhere. What if she was the one who left the Tower and the Cloak behind in this Realm? And maybe some other Artifact we hadn't found that she later recovered. We had long suspected that they had been part of the same Artifact or even being once upon a time. And Zang Kong, the master of the Endless Sky, had been the ally of Winter back in EFB...

Well, that's going too far into the lands of baseless speculation. This is all I have come up with for now. Not sure whether this will be useful, but writing this up had been a fun distraction.

A brief remark on her capabilities to cap this off: this is probably obvious, but I'll say it anyway in case someone missed it. I would expect the Maiden of Endings to have a way of permanently killing immortals and countering resurrection schemes. I mean, "there is always and ending"? Not sure how it stacks up against the Forebear's contingencies, just something to keep in mind.

Edit: Oh, and I'd almost forgotten this little gem, but does this still work?
Rihaku said:
*Season's Greetings: The hands of Fate are not the Apocryphal's alone; and though her power is by far the greater, still she may acknowledge the sanctum of her kin. Allows Nilfel to be shielded by Spare the Innocent even if Adorie is not physically present. You can move your other populations into Nilfel if you want. Given the massive lifespan and vitality upgrades, it's unlikely they would complain. Perhaps more importantly, by retreating into Nilfel Hunger may earn a modest reprieve from whatever interesting times are troubling him at the moment. Abuse this privilege and the consequences will be dire: but sometimes all you need is a day and a night.
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Cause putting the Maiden on pause would be very nice right now.

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beowolf said:
...Yes, "help" from Hunger. If we use Closing The Fist to merge with her, the resulting being is probably enough to make that reverse engineering happen in less than a year, which might be a valid strategy for using our IN bought prep time. Gisena alone, at her current level? I really doubt it.
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Hm... the maiden has every grace at the levels in question, though, which is to say hundreds if not thousands if not billions of them, And the Halo only allows for the duplication of two at a time. If the time to duplicate a grace is more than 1/(number of graces) of our Progression-time, and the grace doesn't have a substantially exceptional effect, it's not worth bothering with. I'm not sure what Would be exceptional enough as an independent magical effect (as opposed to things that interact directly with the mechanics such as Huge Hyperexponential Stat Buff (Theoretically, if we have infinite Stats in the hunger system, a stat buff that was equivalent to +1 [Stat] for Seram would be the equivalent of a cardinality increase or raise the stat to a conceptual-based equivalent or something; Serams system represented 'infinite physical strength' with a finite amount of stats etc etc.
Practically there is no way this implication is going to carry through into actualization.) or +ISH or something)
Wolfy said:
Infinite Praxis Works: Throw Aobaru, some praxis books and about two million other people inside hyper accelerated dimension - since Praxis is completely agnostic to metaphysics of a given verse, this works for even shit tier realms so amount of investment from our side is minimal. After two million years of their time pick out the best to act as our Praxis teachers and/or CtF targets. In either way, Praxis effects being largely power-agnostic at our level means that just having bunch of people with various effects makes for a good CtF fodder. Just have someone else learn technique for us
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...Didn't Hunger need a 25-Arete advancement just to develop the possibility to learn the Praxis? Can Aobaru and whoever else even learn it? Also, this tactic works in Every plan. If you're using time magic, you can use time Travel too, so it'll take zero seconds of thinking or acting and so not depend on the extra time of Imperishable Night. This also applies to every other plan where someone other than Hunger does something.
...
Why didn't we dump Gisena in a time-accelerated-times-a-bazzillion dimension and let her Retinue scaling sort things out, actually? I'd think we'd be able to do that by now. If each progression + is, what, an order of magnitude or something, then Hunger progresses... maybe a thousand times faster than normal time. Letrizia's time-acceleration is past that by orders of magnitude more orders of magnitude or whatever's a suitably ridiculously way of describing 'a tiny fraction of a second is several centuries'. Gisena has Retinue, but Retinue doesn't transfer curses with it or she'd be a Tyrant. Or did she reach the limits of her Retinue scaling already?

STORING A DRAFT
Tab 1
[ ] Fabled Form [2 Obols] - There isn't much to say about this- it seems like a good choice for its price, though it's mutually exclusive with what follows. 'self becomes better'. The protective fate thing is potentially useful but how much so depends on exact mechanics(do you know if it's exhausted, does it work no matter how overkill the 'kill' would've been, is 'being killed by your opponent' one event that would kill you or is 'being stabbed in the heart after a slight break in your guard during a specific part of the fight with your opponent' one event, etc), how greedy you plan to get with power levels, etc.

[ ] Celestine Form [2 Drachmas] - Fabled Form but better, physically speaking. More discussibly- and I'd get the impression more Importantly- it gives broad conceptual powers over a concept sort-of-of-choice up to a quite substantial power level. I don't see any options which look like they're better at providing that specific type of utility at a similar price point, though of course Primordial Form and the Staff are superior. If selecting this, my purely-tactic inclination- with no regard to the 'close to your heart' line- would be something like Progression. Taking that line into account but in a similar vein, I'd select 'Achievement', meant in a sense similar to Arete or doing the intended-as impossible. Like, not literally doing the impossible because that's a concept which can't apply to anything that happens, but as close as reasonable to that. various examples of this would be a video game character who beats a Hopeless Boss Fight not at the end of their adventure when it becomes not-hopeless, but the first time it comes around, be it through unexpected tactics, level grinding, lots of items, or anything else. In a Forum Game/Quest context, this would be when a player does something the QM actively intended would be impossible- Zane surviving the Lotus Flower option to the point of becoming a full Knight, Me sequence-breaking an ARG and making an indestructible shield powered by the big bad. In a book with only one author, this might be a character who was supposed to lose, but the author realizes it doesn't fit their character and rewrites everything accordingly- though that doesn't include the implication of it being difficult, since the character doesn't do anything difficult to get there.
This concept isn't just the 'Screw Destiny' or 'Immune to Fate' tropes. In both cases, there's simply a layer of abstraction between the real 'Fate'- the writer, generally- and the in-story 'fate' which can be defeated. This is like Screw Destiny iterated a layer of conceptual escalation, I suppose.
...back to the option proper, the memory-blurring is unfortunate, but sounds like it's very minor and probably counteracted-on-average by the improved memory of the option. I might be misreading this and maybe it's a lowballed disclaimer I dunno.

[ ] Primordial Form [1 Denar] - You only get 1% power instantly, but 'punch with the force of a planet' and 'run as fast as light' means that, in that regard, you're going to have far more trouble actually making use of your newfound physical gifts than worry for improving them. And the description only says you gain these gifts physically, but that's... well, utterly implausible. you wouldn't be able to even tell your legs to move at the speed of light, never mind avoid running into a forests worth of trees per jaunt, if you didn't have Some degree of mental acceleration. all the more so if relativity applies, but I'll be reasonable and assume that is not relevant here, in part because that requires literally infinite mental acceleration and in part because it's only hugely relevant at the higher levels. You're still going to need literally at least six orders of magnitude of improved mental speed to manage this (Higher, even. I'm being conservative by using a number based on people totally focused on paying attention for a single thing and only needing to react to that one thing with mental preperation, as opposed to the actual requirement of being able to see holes in the ground, trees in the way, nails on the floor- well, I guess not that since your skin is too hard- hills, people you don't want to kill by running through them, etcetra). It can't just be reactions speed, and- well, the point's made. It's sort of very barely reasonable for Hunger to not have that acceleration because his speed is like 99% conceptual, but that just doesn't work for Actually Being Fast, and this is 'improved parameters', not 'conceptual enhancements'.

Anyway, next. it's a bit ambiguous, but I get the impression that as soon as the transformation begins, you are technically a titan, albeit only 1% of one. 1% of absolute immortality is still absolute immortality, suggesting the dangers are mostly sealing even off the bat- though that is indeed a danger, especially if they fire a gun into your remains periodically, and honestly it doesn't change much unless some other option, or a property of this one, would lead to escalating regeneration until you regain consciousness and sufficient scaling to overcome any obstacle in the locality... Perhaps the sign of the bear- a titan which has been attacked with sufficient force 'Sleeps', and that is when you have dreams. Although you'd need to end up occasionally having Lucid dreams so you can spend enough time identifying connections to actually gain the powers in question.
I assume the Gods don't have divination capabilities strong enough to reliably identify a titan at entire-underworld range, because otherwise 'even if they can't be sure where it happened' is almost entirely meaningless and utterly misleading. It's hard to know more than that, but that's enough. Why? because the underworld has no border. Suppose their range is only slightly smaller than the underworld, they're all crammed inside of the middle, and you- wait, no, then they know you're on the border... eh, whatever. In fact, let's be super unfair to my argument and say their range is the entire underworld and this guy is trying to get us caught and sealed/killed. You can Still escape them, because you don't need to drink the cup immediately. Take your other options, run away until you're not in the... main?... underworld and are out of their range- admittedly, you don't know their range, but I'm already being generous to the gods in the first place given the framing here. Anyway, once you drink the blood and they know there's a Titan, let's also say they immediately fan out from the middle of the underworld in all directions. Including up, but not including down. In other words, for every [Detectionrange] of distance the Titan has traveled, they need to travel [Detectionrange]^3 or something like that, with slightly less as the base. They can split that distance between themselves, but I doubt there's... hm.
Okay, so this doesn't actually work, but I can fix it. For the cost of two Drachmas (or, considering it's a bundle, 0.28 of a Drachma.), I can equip the Band of Infinity and travel anywhere I desire- in this case, several million light-years away from the rest of the Underworld using a number generated from my past history to randomize the precise number of millions of light years (2700. That's not a natively-round number, it's the addition of 3 numbers of absolutely no significance to this world but which also aren't mental random Or computerrandomized because you don't have a computer. It ended up round, but that doesn't matter- what matters is that they can't predict it without being able to read my mind from a place I've been (and then I'm screwed anyway), and accepting round numbers if they come only helps that) and another one to determine the exact angle (30.45630 degrees from my initial facing.). After That hop, and after the portal is closed, drink the blood, run in a random direction. Each day, use the Ring to teleport ten times further than last time(So even if you go in the opposite direction the second time you still end up further from Hesed proper). The Gods can teleport too, more than likely. But that doesn't matter. Even if I take a number much larger than scale I've gotten the impression of from the description- a 10 lightyear underworld- and every God can scan a 314.1 square lightyear area around that god for Titans flawlessly once every 0.000001 seconds, With a pantheon of 1000 Gods as a highball and every god able to teleport as frequently as they can scan with no timecost, that leaves the Gods able to scan 314.1*10^6*1000=2.71e16 Square Light-years per day- Compared to the 7.29e18 square Light years they need to search to catch me before I teleport again and add another 7.21e20 Square Light Years of space. Let's be clear here, the problem the gods are facing is not that the titan is faster than them- The problem is that they can't check where the Titan is fast enough. Actually, let's remove Another failure point. Maybe they can track the Band Of Infinity if it teleports me 'through' an area one of them can detect. The likelihood of my doing so is vanishingly small- they are covering increasingly small(relative) areas and I'm probably not so lost I end up going back towards them by accident. But who knows, it's possible. It's even possible they can track the Band whenever it's transporting a titan! Let's go overkill and say not only that, but they're able to figure out where it was used last and so will have a search pattern where they start with the places 10, 20, 30, etc Light-years away from my starting point across the directions of 1, 2, 3,(...) 1.1, 1.2, 1.3(...) etc degrees from my start location. So, I'll randomize my original heading by several more orders of magnitude and increase the distance similarly. 30.45630 is good and all, but lets append to that something else meaningless and meaningful I can remember from memory. what's a good randomizer... hm... Story/fiction stuff, sure why not. using 'Godcard', 'efb', 'Pokemon', and 'Enochiscoming' gives the additional decimal places of 715431184562... well, you get the picture. And then also randomize the distance according to that sort of logic, taking care here that the minimum is high enough that they won't find me for literally a millennia. In this extremely-uncharitable version, that means that I need a number with 3.1536e19 possibilities. Except, I have 4 numbers here(I'll get to that) so actually I'm already going way overkill here- it was 10 digits so the numbers before I appended more decimals were already enough precision-wise- Just need to raise the light-years count to 'trillions' for good measure. So, portal a quadrillion (2700 trillion) light years away, wait a day, portal again 10 times as far, ingest the blood.
At this point they shouldn't be able to find you* before you're a full titan, but start running anyway for good measure, in case the Gods Also have the ability to Eventually track where you arrived at- If you aren't in detection-range by the time they manage this (So, as long as it takes them a good (detection range in light years*10) or so years), they'll probably assume the Titan can spoof magical traces. Which some plans could certainly do!
The main problem with this plan is that you can't grab any Spectralhunter Geas- Wait. maybe it can. Okay, yeah, it can. Theoretically.

After drinking from this cup, forever dispel any notion of 'weakness,' for now an entire force of nature shall bend in your thrall - not a domain, but a grouping of domains that represent the very laws of the cosmos. A mere god safeguards houses, swamps, waters, or fires. A titan rules over all matter, all energy, all prime elements, all gravity and forces, or cause and effect. The base structure of the universe, depending on the nature of your titanic mantle, is re-ordered to your thoughts and happens only with your approval and permission. Although the treacherous gods seized some of the titanic domains, like the sky or magic, it's effortless to reclaim one of them for your own use.

Domain choice is largely irrelevant to this plan. It bets everything on. Uh. Titanhood being even theoretically survivable without guessing about what's a possible counter to divine detection. So in the most-possible-worlds where that's the case, it becomes a Titan, and can then return to Hesed- or leave for greener pastures. Or make greener pastures where it is, with magic. Whatever, really.

---

Necromancy

Or, "speaking with the dead." It's one of the major practices of the living, a magic system that calls upon death and life in order to do the caster's bidding. Alas, you are sadly not suited for it. However, there is another possibility - to become the open target of such spells, and reap the rewards that follow. In order to become a 'target' for necromancy spells, one must first sign a contract with the priests of the Unseen, but I can somewhat... cheat this necessity. As a result, you also won't be compelled to follow the orders of your summoner, although displeasing them or harming them may lose you the rewards you'd normally receive.

All of the payments received for your work appear in your re-emergence spot in the underworld as soon as you're done, placed there by the Unseen's invisible magic hand. They are dependent on the length and difficulty of the work you did - a simple task over a single action will pay you a dollar, while a complex task taking a full week to complete will pay a number of obols, or a minute amount of direct physical power and arcane lore. A task that actually threatens your permanent destruction on a weekly basis and requires numerous decades of commitment will see you return with power equal to a wraith of five-hundred consumed souls or fabulous wealth. All of it also acts as a springboard to ever-greater contracts, as a spell whose summoner desires someone incredibly powerful will be more likely to pick you in such a situation.

Unlike in Hesed, where the native law of the Unseen dissolves any ectoplasmic essence of insufficient coherency to prevent various abuses, in the worlds above, you are free to restore your ectoplasmic body with new infusions of ether over time; sometimes accelerated by your summoner. However, you can also be banished to the underworld with a spell of sufficient might.

[ ] Unseen Servant [1 Obol] - A spell that calls forth an invisible servant from the Unseen World to do some amount of mundane work, such as folding clothes, cooking a meal, or fetching an item. You'll be expected to, essentially, act as a butler or servant for a short while, responding to the commands of the caster with perfect obedience.

Task Length: Anywhere from a single action to a few hours of work.

Difficulty Level: Almost none: mundane work only.

[ ] Advice From The Ancestor [1 Obol] - A spell that calls forth a ghost to converse with and receive advice from.

Many youthful sorcerers attending the great magical academies of the multiverse use this spell in order to ask a ghost for advice. Almost like a dating service, the spell will match you with a summoner that it believes can benefit in particular from your own insight and experience.

Task Length: At least a short conversation, but sometimes as much as a few weeks or months. Rarely more than a year.

Difficulty Level: Moderate, but not in a physical way. Most of the challenges shall be intellectual in nature or demand some kind of wisdom.

[ ] Undercroft Guardian [2 Obols] - A spell that summons a ghost to act as the bound guardian of a physical location.

A bonus - this spell provides a moderate boost of power so long as you remain in the place you're supposed to guard. In wraith terms, it's the equivalent of consuming around a hundred and fifty souls; unnoticeable for the already powerful, but considerable for those who are weak. This strength disappears on your return.

Task Length: A minimum of a few months, but usually at least several years or a few decades. Sometimes as much as a few centuries or millennia.

Difficulty Level: Varies. It can be the equivalent of a mall cop job or a it can be a daily - hourly - battle against eldritch monsters. It will never be something that you can't handle with modest exertion.

[ ] Knight of Death [2 Obols] - A knight of death is a warrior ghost, expected to fight for his summoner and often protect him or her from harm.

Task Length: At the very least a single combat encounter; very rarely, the full life of a single mortal caster. Sometimes, a caster may wish to forge a special contract with the Unseen and with you to protect their family line - this requires your consent, but the Unseen is likely to agree.

Difficulty Level: Varies, but there's always some level of risk. Whether it's a goblin you're expected to defeat or an army, it won't ever be something you can't help with, but in some situations, you may be expected to act as a suicide soldier.

[ ] Renaissance Man [3 Obols or 1 Drachma] - Alternatively, you may choose to become a target for all of the spells above for the cost of three Obols or a single Drachma. An incredibly efficient option if you intend to become a full-spectrum necromantic summon instead of something available for one specific task.

---

Abilities

[ ] Ferryman's Spell [1 Obol] - A simple utterance: a few words and a mystic gesture, which upon being performed, will cause the dust of the underworld to rise in front of your very eyes in order to lead you in the direction of the nearest Ferryman, often myself.

I likely won't sell you anything if we meet again unless you've acquired fabulous wealth, but I will ferry you to anywhere in the underworld - aside from Elysium - for the price of an obol, within the span of a day, and protect you from miscellaneous threats on the way there, unless you desire otherwise. However, I will not protect or ferry you if you are presently and actively being chased by the law for any price, nor will I condone excessive cargo. All friends or companions you bring aboard my boat will have to pay their own, separate fee - an obol per person. The prices of the other Ferrymen will likely be similar.

Note - the currency we're exchanging right now is different from the common mint of Hesed; it's metaphysically enriched with your life's history.

[ ] Sign of the Bear [2 Obols] - A great and fascinatingly simple power - at will, you become capable of falling asleep, your dreams incredibly vivid and lifelike. In addition to becoming far harder to notice for so long as you are sleeping in such a manner, you receive a few other minor boons:

*In your dreams, you may perceive common, recurring themes: for instance, in one dream you might be a trumpeter in a band, and in another, a knight with a buisine might befriend you, and in yet another, you might be a mailman working for a company whose logo contains a trumpet. As you divine and make notice of these themes, and then meditate on them while awake, you may receive low-level magical powers that bear some metaphysical relation or significance. As an example, the power for analyzing the trumpet dreams could result in the ability to produce a sonic shockwave that slays lesser wraiths instantly and harms greater ones.

*After waking up, for every hour you slept, your attributes are boosted 10% for around thirty minutes and boosted 5% for around two hours. This can never stack or overlap in any way.

[ ] Sign of the Lion [4 Obols or 1 Drachma] - The power of the Nemean Lion slumbers within you, great and fearsome.

Aside from complete and unbreakable invulnerability to anything less than a semi-divine weapon or an esoteric power on the level of a powerful specter's soul-draining ability, the Sign of the Lion grants a supernatural intuition, piercingly deep; particularly awareness of things invisible or undetectable.

It also gives you the ability to summon a pride of spectral lions under your personal command, each of them a magical beast powerful enough to challenge a wraith that has the power of around twenty souls on even grounds. Doing this temporarily removes the other benefits of this Sign and grants them to your summons.

The number of lions summoned in one casting depends on your skill with this ability, starting at two lions, and showing a soft capstone at twenty. It's possible, however, to reduce the number of lions down to one, or any other number lower than your maximum, in order to deliberately make use of this ability less draining. As you acquire more experience with this ability, you'll also notice the lions steadily but surely growing in power: challenging wraiths of a hundred souls, and then wraiths of two-hundred, before reaching a soft capstone at the level of a lesser demigod.

Using this Sign's active ability can be tiring, exerting you as much as if you were an ordinary mortal who'd sprinted for the span of a few hundred meters.

[ ] Craftsman's Constellation [1 Drachma] - A power of endless creativity: become a skilled craftsman in every domain. Whether it's the forging of blades or the making of elixirs; the design of architecture or the carving of fine details upon a stone, you are a true expert; endlessly patient and with the experience of hundreds of years.

Every year, the constellation of the Craftsman will shine in the sky of the mortal world, ascendant and glittering. And in that moment, your heart will light up with the inner purple brightness of the starlight within your soul, allowing you to channel the constellation's power into a wondrous working - a single artifact of great power, such as a suit of stylish and self-refitting articulated plate that defies incoming blows like the glacis plate of a tank, a sword that cuts apart steel like butter and stone like air, or a flying rickshaw that can take its driver to anywhere in the Unseen World in the span of two nights. It's possible, instead, to divide power between multiple, lesser artifacts.

It so fortuitously happens the next event of such nature will happen in a night from now.

[ ] Spirit Doctor [1 Drachma] - In life, some possess an uncommon talent for the arts of the lady Changing Moon - of healing magic. The power to call out the natures of man and beast, to heal their wounds, cure their poisons, soothe their pains.

In the world of the living, that power is limited, fragile, but its breadth expands in the realm of the dead - and for a single drachma, it shall be yours. The ability to reshape the matter of ectoplasm, raw spirit, and knead the stuff of very souls with your fingers like a surgeon twining a patient's organs together will be yours. Heal or break; alter or restore, it's all the same to me, and the world under shall be your operating table.

[ ] Sign of the Skull [5 Obols and 1 Drachma] - A terrifyingly straightforward ability - once per day, you may swing your hand in a chopping motion, and ever-so-casually speak the dreadful utterance of Thanatos.

The Skull will instantly kill anything it targets. There will be no accompanying effect or cause - their heart will simply cease beating and their brain will arrest all action the moment the last syllable leaves your mouth. There are, however, targets which are immune to this ability - most high-level specters, a few exceptional eidolons, and every god is significantly beyond the reach of this power. Instead of slaying them, the Sign of the Skull will harm them and make them more vulnerable to harm instead, causing painful and throbbing heart palpitations that weaken their organism, accelerate bleeding, worsen bruises, inflict modest asphyxiation damage, and so on.

As the centuries pass, you will find you can use this ability more often - after a decade, you can use this Sign twice per day; after forty years, you can use this sign three times per day; after a century, four times, and so on.

[ ] Sign of the Dragon [6 Obols and 2 Drachmas] - Somewhere in the Caverns that Whisper, there is a dragon of seven heads, seven crowns, and ten horns; his every scale is a universe whose mortals are devoted utterly to reinforcing his body, and his breath is a quagma phlogiston that scorches away logic and meaning from the world.

Once per month, you may enact a ten-minute ritual that executes the Sign of the Dragon. Upon doing so, you may select one of the following effects:

- A moderate boost of raw power and massive acceleration of training speed lasting for a day. Can't help you progress beyond the level of a major demigod.
- Instantly repair a single 'flaw' or 'wound.' Heal amputation, make a nasty rumor about yourself disappear, return a lost power of moderate strength, etc.
- Create a small, lambent crystal of varied color, with some kind of magical or elemental function - it may explode like a bomb, act as a subspace pocket, etc.
- Summon and bind a single demon, whose powers or skills can be utilized to immediately help in the resolution of some kind of issue plaguing you.
- Travel back in time up to seventy hours. Does not restore the use of this Sign in the new timeline. No being, including the gods, can resist this.

Alternatively, you may permanently forsake any of the effects above in order to summon the Dragon itself to defend you from harm or aid you in a particular task for the span of a single day and night. In most contexts, this is equivalent to instant victory.

[ ] Sign of the Accursed [1 Denar] - Access the Noble Praxis, the personal casting style of an entity from a space far outside of here - I happen to be on good terms with one of that entity's servants, and so I am permitted to dispense a form of limited access to this particular school of power.

A style of magic that emanates completely from the self, relies completely upon the self, and is developed completely by the self. Advancement in the Praxis depends little on talent, much on effort and self-sacrifice. A dream of fairness, defiant against an uncaring universe. And power enough, in time, to make the universe care. The Praxis is renowned for its limitless potential and complete omni-dimensional reliability. Where all other magics fail, the Praxis operates with unerring consistency. It excels at inflicting and preventing harm but struggles in matters of renewal or restoration.

---

Artifacts

[ ] Orphean Hymn [2 Obols] - A harp and a sheet of music written in blood, rolled into a scroll. If the song on the sheet is played using the harp, various magical effects can be produced that manipulate the emotions and perceptions of those who hear the music: the Orphean Hymn can be used to captivate listeners, make them feel pain or sadness to the point of suicide, or to make them flee a scene in utter terror.

[ ] Winged Sandals [3 Obols] - A pair of simple footwear, with soles made of shining gold and laces of knotted starmetal, these sandals nonetheless remain as light as a pair of clouds, and from their side sprouts a pair of dove-like wings.

As one might expect, the Winged Sandals allow their wearer to fly in the air, at speeds up to eight-hundred kilometers per hour, protecting them from minor aerial hazards, such as thin air, insects, or the natural consequences of traveling at such velocities. Also, they look rather nice.

[ ] Sowilo [5 Obols or 1 Drachma] - A stone pressed with rune of sunlight, ever-splendorous and shining with yellow radiance. It may be activated or deactivated. When active, its presence is anathema to hostility, dissolving conflict like a stabilizer thrown into a bubbling concoction, calming down tempers. It may also be overclocked, and when such is done, it will shine on its bearer's path with a clairvoyant outline of the road to their goal, always selecting the path most likely to lead to success. It doesn't work in the deep darkness, failing to amuse the one who dwells below.

Also acts as a handy torch.

[ ] Apple of Discord [4 Obols and 1 Drachma] - An object of laughably simple properties - once activated, all save the user will desire it more than anything else. Some entities of sufficient might are immune or resistant to its effects, but I can personally assure you that Gods are not among them. After getting ahold of the item, most people will realize its utter uselessness and proceed to direct their anger at whoever used to possess it, so I suggest that you throw it as far as possible when you activate it, or better yet, that you remain hidden from whoever you intend to use it on. It can be used, rather easily, to make entire bastions of guards slaughter each other in a race to obtain it.

[ ] The Neverblade [2 Drachmas] - A blade of arcane power, this hand-and-half bastard sword is unadorned and plain, save for the slight coating of crusted blood that seems to cover its flat and never seems to wash off. Aside from being a supernaturally excellent blade with perfect balance, this sword is capable of unmaking magic and divine influence with its swings, every chopping motion severing the threads of magical influence and divine will, and cleaving apart titanic flesh with no more resistance than a particularly tenacious tree.

[ ] Seven Bands [2 Drachmas] - A set of seven rings in various styles of construction and from different materials, each of them bearing a power related to one of Hesed's major rivers. Below are their powers - all of them can be increased by allowing the ring to bathe in the waters of the relevant river, growing and improving slowly over time.

*Band of Agony - At will, inflicts maddening pain on a victim in line of sight, leading to complete insanity with minutes of sustained torture. No cooldown.
*Band of Hatred - A single target becomes ostracized, suffering from immense social disapproval and near-hatred. A cooldown of ten minutes, wears off in a week.
*Band of Oblivion - A maximum of ten targets instantly forget the events of the last four hours; can be adjusted. A cooldown of one day.
*Band of Flame - A fireball of moderate power is shot forward, esoterically piercing, capable of hurting low-level specters and clinging like napalm. Eight uses per minute.
*Band of Frost - A jet of water that freezes whatever it hits so completely that not even thought may take place. Targets can be shattered for instakill. Four uses per minute.
*Band of Infinity - It flies off the character's finger, growing in size and becoming a round portal to anywhere they desire. One use per day.
*Band of Nothingness - A single target (human in volume and metaphysical complexity) is removed from existence.

[ ] Armor of Terror [2 Drachmas] - A chestplate, helmet, bracers, greaves, shinguards, and face-covering helmet in the shape of a dead man's skull, all the color of the darkest pitch and cold to the touch like a gravestone at night.

Aside from being completely indestructible and greatly mitigating most impact forces, the Armor strikes a deep fear into any onlookers and manipulates their perceptions subtly, transforming the bearer into a nightmare praetorian. The reality of the situation seems to be exaggerated to the bearer's enemy; wounds appear deeper, more painful, and more grave; the bearer moves faster and more gracefully, striking with ruthless disregard for the survival of his enemies, with powerful blows that seem to strike at the very core of the being. He seems to feel no pain or fear himself, and one's allies appear to be bending in terror, on the verge of running away and routing. It gives the situation a tense chord of immediacy as if the bearer's opponent was slightly drunk and overtaken by complete fear in the middle of combat.

[ ] The Aegis [2 Drachmas] - A shield of considerable metaphysical power. Aside from being completely indestructible and mitigating any force that strikes it by 99%, the Aegis may also protect from threats of metaphysical and esoteric power, defending its bearer from spells, rituals, divine influence, mind control, poor luck, and similar effects and circumstances that an ordinary shield would be helpless against. Furthermore, the Aegis can shield its bearer's exposed body at a tenth of its normal protective effect, even when not directly interposed.

[ ] Dog's Helm [3 Drachmas and 5 Obols] - A helmet made from dog leather. Its power is that of becoming an undetectable phantom: unseeable, unhearable, and virtually unnoticeable using any other means - the bearer of the helm cannot be detected through scent or taste, or magical spells that pick up the presence of an intruder. It requires an utterly superhuman level of insight to notice the discrepancies that the presence of the user would produce in the environment in order to correctly assess their being there, let alone their exact position.

[ ] Red Gun [4 Drachmas] - A weapon whose name is somewhat misleading: although indeed shaped like a 'gun,' this crimson device is, in actuality, a wand of terrifyingly destructive and versatile power. It's powered with ammunition, forged out of ether, mana, and souls.

At baseline, it has two modes: lethal and more lethal. The lethal mode shoots forth a burst of dozens of ruin-infused soulsteel darts the color scarlet that unerringly home in on an opponent; every dart is comparable to the explosion of a single anti-tank missile and deals spiritual damage as well as physical, capable of slaying gods as well as ghosts. The more lethal mode shoots, instead, a single ball of soulsteel that explodes on impact with the radius and power of a thermobaric missile, expending nearly all of the device's ammunition in the process. There is also a non-lethal 'capture mode,' which fires scarlet chains from the barrel of the gun and captures a single entity in its clutches.

Although its destructive potential is scary indeed, there is more nuance to its abilities.

If fueled, either with the caster's own mana, or fed with the souls of those seized via capture mode, it regenerates its lost ammunition and slowly expands its repertoire of abilities. At first, most of these abilities are focused on brutal and overwhelming offense and firepower, meant to completely destroy any foe, but new and interesting options can be developed in time, requiring skill and research in using the Red Gun to properly direct. Anything from defensive forcefields to weapon transformations is possible in practice, although sustained effort and consumption may produce almost arbitrary options. All uses of the Red Gun cost ammunition, however.

[ ] Staff of Echoes [1 Denar] - A staff from another, distant multiverse: a length of perfect, white material of strange properties, tipped with a crystal of pale lambent blue that chimes softly when in motion, leaving behind an azure trail in the air.

Its most basic power is absolute control over sound of all forms to a level surpassing the divine, letting its bearer silence impudent gods or create a shrieking noise at a frequency that liquefies the flesh and powders the bones of his opponents. It's possible to focus a cascade of noise into a cone of destruction that cores out entire mountains or to fly, held aloft by constant vibrations of air underfoot which create a sound almost like the twittering of birds. As its user more completely understands the power of the Staff, more advanced techniques may be utilized: a song that lulls foes to sleep, a tune that reinforces the fabric of reality, or an elegy that resurrects the dead.

After reaching complete mastery over the Staff of Echoes, the level you achieve will be such that you may even speak across the distance of countless ontologies in order to communicate directly with its maker. He can bestow other powers upon you, or even arrive personally in order to bring salvation to the Unseen World.

---

Drawbacks

I am willing to imbue you with a few rather troublesome maladies that I picked up from other customers, as I tire of bearing them. Don't take more than four of the below.

[ ] A Ghost's Wound [+2 Obols or +1 Drachma, can be picked multiple times] - Imbues you with a paranoid fear of a certain phenomenon that led to someone's death, as well as a matching wound. If you pick death by fire, then you will fear any kind of flame to a manic level and you will be covered in burns. It's possible, however, to pick nearly anything: death is its own grim rainbow, after all. Maybe the wound of a ghost who died to a mage's spell, forever making you feel intense dread at the idea of sorcery, or the wound of a ghost who died to a car, making you cringe at the sight vehicles?

[ ] A Sacrifice to Lethe [+3 Obols and +2 Drachmas] - As unbelievable as this may sound, the Goddess who oversees the River of Oblivion is one of my clients, and she hired me to fill up the river's waters with as many memories as I can manage.

As such, I am willing to pay you richly for the memories of your past life. As you may expect, this process is rather unpleasant, as it completely wipes away all of your memories, including those you'd consider most integral. As you enter Hesed, you are a blank shell, animated only by self-preservation instinct and subconscious quirks of derived experience. Although unpleasant, it does make your chances of succeeding in what awaits much greater.

If you so desire, I am perfectly capable and willing of passing on a message of any length to your future self. Alternatively, you can write down a note of any length and I will hand it to you. However, it's worth keeping in mind the future you might not be willing to listen or humor whatever the message contains.

[ ] Specter-Hunter Geas [+4 Obols or +2 Drachmas] - As it happens, for some time now, the Great Specter Kings have been attempting to hunt me down with the intent of killing me. Although I can perfectly evade their forces or simply flee to Elysium, where I have access, this proves irritating more often than not, and it scares away clientele.

As such, I am willing to hire you to clean up any specters you find. This geas will permanently imbue you with a nearly-unshakable compulsion to fight any wraith or specter you encounter, barring situations where doing so would be extremely dangerous or suicidal. Also, regardless of what you encounter, you will be compelled to slay at least ten wraiths of moderate power a month, and at least a single specter a year. If you slay twice this amount, however, you will be exempt from the geas for the following six months; continuing to exceed this expectation competently and regularly will, in turn, compel me to seek you out and reward you in an appropriate fashion.

[ ] Greater Specter-Hunter Geas [+1 Denar] - Alternatively, it's acceptable for you to promise that, sometime in the future - maybe in a hundred years, or maybe in a few hundred - you will slay one of the four Great Specter Kings. It's a task that shouldn't be taken lightly. However, I will not accept tarrying, and so, this geas will compel you to attempt to make some kind of progress in your quest for at least one year in every decade, whether by slaying the bands of specters and wraiths under the chosen king's leadership or by directly sabotaging his supply line of stolen souls.

If you don't accomplish your task within the timespan of a single millennium, there will be no excuse, and the geas will instantly end your existence. There is no way to forestall this fate, as it's powered by your own soul.
 
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Unelemental said:
I'd thought at first that it was just a poetic counter to Hunger, but these things don't come from nowhere. What if she was the one who left the Tower and the Cloak behind in this Realm? And maybe some other Artifact we hadn't found that she later recovered. We had long suspected that they had been part of the same Artifact or even being once upon a time. And Zang Kong, the master of the Endless Sky, had been the ally of Winter back in EFB...
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There WAS another tower we didn't eated, and never got the option to eat again, that would presumably have buffed our Evening Sky like the first one I think. Sometime around battle with Lord Protector?
 
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