A Simple Transaction I

[Zampano]

I think it is important to remember that none of these options is a guaranteed win. IN opens the door for overlapping Apo Procs. Infinite Rank from Inheritance isn't enough to stomp the Maiden - maybe because she has a dedicated Hard Counter? Blood Halo risks compounding injuries that are slow to heal.

But of the three plans, both IN and Inheritance rely on attrition, either stalling the Maiden outside the Kingdom so Hunger can Progress, or stalling the Maiden inside the Kingdom so that Sanctum can whittle away at her stats with ISH 3+ debuffs.

Remember when we rushed Trinity because Ber was a lingering threat? We also spawned the Chains of Fate enemy, whose progression can match Hunger's own. Letting the Maiden just... Hang Out? on the fringes of Hunger's cloak absolutely does not strike me as a winning strategy.

High tier combat in the Rihakuverse is basically Rocket Tag, and I'm still convinced that BH's +1ISH is a bigger rocket than RankRuin for this particular matchup. The best explanation I can think of for infinite RankRuin to be insufficient is that the Maiden has a specific countermeasure. In that case, +1ISH Rank (15?) would be better than +0 ISH RankRuin (infinite).

Only Blood Halo leans into Hunger's winning strategy of immediately annihilating the threats spawned by the Apocryphal Curse. Armies of the Shogun allow Hunger to continue addressing such threats as soon as they arise - the Wraith-Echoes serve to project Hunger's power perfectly throughout the universe (not just within his Kingdom).


(Geas of Labor proc'd for me this week really hard, so I didn't get to argue for BH as much as I wanted. But I really think that the Inheritance crowd needs to step up their game in terms of Omakes & Argument power, because the other options are edging them out imo.)

 

[Wolfy]

Remember when we rushed Trinity because Ber was a lingering threat? We also spawned the Chains of Fate enemy, whose progression can match Hunger's own. Letting the Maiden just... Hang Out? on the fringes of Hunger's cloak absolutely does not strike me as a winning strategy.

Click to shrink...

As opposed to doing exactly what she want us to do? Remember, Maiden just spent infinite amount of time training inside supremely potent Realm - to say that few months in random Realms around us don't compare would be a huge understatement. What maiden wants is to fight right now, this moment as:

• She has the initiative and thus can engage with specific anti-Hunger abilities while knowing where to strike for the most damage
• She is at her current maximum and thus at her most optimal
• She fights a Progression Type Cursebearer before he can advance a single iota, countering our best ability without having to commit anything to it

Maiden wants to fight right now so trying to do so just plays straight into her strategy. In general doing exactly what your enemy wants you to do is a completely terrible idea, especially as BH brings nothing new to the table. It just Hunger do what he does right now better(bleed out thing, even if it works against Maiden's restoration and blood manipulation, is still basically Ruin-like effect, which we were employing so far), meaning that Maiden had infinite amount of time to prep exact strategies against our build. So we have foe that is stronger, has the initiative, has exact abilities to counter us and has already ran infinite amount of simulation while we have close to no info.

That? That is not a winning strategy.

IN takes the initiative away from Maiden, prevents her for doing what she wants to do and forces her into arena which we excel in and she is already depleted in - progression. Apo is a constant worry, sure, but tactically it is infinitely more sound than just brainlessly doing exactly what she wants us to do and believing that number=big will hopefully carry Hunger through.

 

[Zampano]

She is at her current maximum and thus at her most optimal

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I have a meeting in a minute so I can't fully engage with your argument, but I don't think this part is true. The Maiden was unable to receive true rest during the training montage in the Realm of Daylight. It is not clear that she is unable to rest now that she's back in real space. IN fully cedes the initiative and allows her time to reset any countdowns / reload her various recuperation powers. Whatever stamina she lost by training for infinite time, IN allows her to regain.

Plus, there are preparations that can only be accomplished after leaving the realm of Daylight. With Archsmith and a defensively-postured Hunger, she could construct any amount of superstructure surrounding the Cloak. Maybe the Maiden can't overcome +ISH PROT, but given time & infrastructure she might build a nutcracker.


Edit: and even at her own power maximum time + apocryphal procs means she could find allies enough to offset the Progression Hunger manages while turtled up. Progression isn't the fastest advancement path, despite having no upper limit.

 

[Tyrant_Rayne]

She has the initiative and thus can engage with specific anti-Hunger abilities while knowing where to strike for the most damage

Click to shrink...

Exactly.

She's prepared herself to face Hunger.

She's ready to counter him in a one on one.

But with BH it isn't Hunger she has to actually worry about. It's the billions (possibly trillions) strong army composed of the clones, our friends, and rank and file human soldiers. All together being at least over 100x stronger than Hunger.

You don't want to give her Hunger? Then let's not. Give her an army instead, one prepared to engage her at every possible moment, at every possible vector.

 

[Valkhir]

In that case, +1ISH Rank (15?) would be better than +0 ISH RankRuin (infinite).

Click to shrink...

Wouldn't the multiple cardinalities of infinity as applied to the RankRuin be essentially ISH elevation? If it were a single infinity, I could see it not mattering, or it not counting for a lot but it should theoretically be something for that.

Edit: Similar to how infinite physical ability would be 1.99, I guess it could cap out similarly? But its also not a single infinity so I don't know

 

[Zampano]

Wouldn't the multiple cardinalities of infinity as applied to the RankRuin be essentially ISH elevation? If it were a single infinity, I could see it not mattering, or it not counting for a lot but it should theoretically be something for that.

Click to shrink...

There's a whole thing about "elevation" and "penetration". If you search the discord for "thesis in ISH" then Rihaku lays it out (a few different times).

Basically, giving an ability more control over its domain isn't automatically the same as giving it a better matchup against competing powers. No amount of Strength +s would ever let you beat One Punch Man, for example.

 

[Wolfy]

I have a meeting in a minute so I can't fully engage with your argument, but I don't think this part is true. The Maiden was unable to receive true rest during the training montage in the Realm of Daylight. It is not clear that she is unable to rest now that she's back in real space. IN fully cedes the initiative and allows her time to reset any countdowns / reload her various recuperation powers. Whatever stamina she lost by training for infinite time, IN allows her to regain.

Click to shrink...

IN doesn't "cede" the initiative because we don't have it. We are getting caught with out pants down. Transferring the board state to one that play to our strengths is going for complete lack of initiative to having it as now Maiden has to answer our move.

Exactly.

She's prepared herself to face Hunger.

She's ready to counter him in a one on one.

But with BH it isn't Hunger she has to actually worry about. It's the billions (possibly trillions) strong army composed of the clones, our friends, and rank and file human soldiers. All together being at least over 100x stronger than Hunger.

You don't want to give her Hunger? Then let's not. Give her an army instead, one prepared to engage her at every possible moment, at every possible vector.

Click to shrink...

That distinction is completely pointless, as Hunger already used bunch of relatively relevant mooks as battle strategy. It is still "what Hunger tends to do" and thus what Maiden's build will specifically take in consideration.

She will have specific counters for Ruin, Rank, Praxis, clones and other major effects we used to have. Going +1 on all of these doesn't change the fact that she would still completely counter them.

 

[Lealope]

[X] The Forebear's Blade - Inheritance

I don't think IN really appreciates the gap between Hunger and the Nameless. Even after plucking the low hanging fruit of our most suited domains, we still were less than a bug to the Nameless. Keep in mind, a difference of 0.4999 ISH is like the gap between Hunger's physical stats as of the Temple arc and total control over physical reality. That gap only grows wider as you move up. Grinding to that level is the very furthest thing from trivial. Keep in mind, Rihaku was doubtful we'd reach that level during the full span of our first Geas task. It ould easily take years and years to attain that level and even that isn't a guarantee against the Maiden! Better to take the power as it comes, especially considering how easy it is to improve substantially (instant godhood, just add Strength!).

There's a whole thing about "elevation" and "penetration". If you search the discord for "thesis in ISH" then Rihaku lays it out (a few different times).

Basically, giving an ability more control over its domain isn't automatically the same as giving it a better matchup against competing powers. No amount of Strength +s would ever let you beat One Punch Man, for example.

Click to shrink...

An increase in Rank provides greater elevation though. If it didn't, it would cap out at 1.999 etc. Elevation itself is a measure of the general "magical-ness" of an ability, with more magic being better. Of course, the amount that an increase provides a meaningful benefit for the purposes of ISH measurement is bounded by the system in question but that's more an artefact of the ISH being an extremely condensed system for powerlevels than the power being limited by a more reasonable standard.

I mean, the fact that the Armor only gave us partial protection is proof enough that Procyon's blow was greater than the Armour, whether it gave +1000 or infinite protection. Looking at our stat sheet as of Foward (thanks for maintaining that by the way) I don't know if our 7.675 Rank included the general +1 buff from Once and Future or not, which means a variance from 8.675 to 9.675 Combat Rank*, which in the best case is still a bit less than overwhelming. Of course, Hero-Defeating Stance quartered the penalty and our alpha strike weakened it a bit, but by that time it had already been able to deploy his Shroud, which supposedly made Armaments "invincible" but we still have no specific details for, plus of course its Rank was boosting 700+ stats...

So actually, I don't know anymore. Great.

*Man, imagine if +1 Defensive Rank had stacked with other Rank modifiers. In retrospect, Sliver of Evening was incredibly lame.

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Base Rank accounts for neither OaF boosting, so we had an effective Rank of +2 (elevated by +0.2 ISH). With Bastion, the difference becomes pretty minimal. I think it's safe to say the Shroud cancelled out the stat difference and showed us the results we had.

Also:

@RedV, calling in my vote marker from EFB, please namevote me.

 

[Wolfy]

[X] The Forebear's Blade - Inheritance

I don't think IN really appreciates the gap between Hunger and the Nameless. Even after plucking the low hanging fruit of our most suited domains, we still were less than a bug to the Nameless.

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This comment is downright absurd given the conversation we just had in discord. To begin with, you are talking as if IN is something unrelated to Hunger - it isn't, we can train it just fine. As I've said more than once, that +2.5ish is basically Progression^ on Protection related effects as all of them are just insanely stronger since they get buffed by IN. That's why in discord I've noted that IN is the only option which gives us (however remote) possibility to get to ISH 7 effect before the quest end.

I already covered fairly basic combo of Always Forward and Iron Hand(which we don't want to get, but in theory we can if things become too dangerous) which would get us up to ISH 6.4 against all effects(at full AF charge and last layer of IN, although later enables the former). Purely hypothetically, getting SitS for OaF 2 doubling and Aobaru upgrading his ISH buff to 0.5 would allow us to go all the way up to 6.8. And yes, I'm assuming certain amount of ISH stacking, but I do the same for other options. This is amount of power that is so hilariously beyond Nameless that it makes me question why would bring him up at all. Or, instead of SitS, say we get Attainment of Battle and upgrade RoW prot to x1AoQ. Suddenly you are looking at ISH 7+ effect on top of whatever AoB would do. Other options can attempt similar combos as these are general ISH boost rather than Protection specific effect, except:

• IN actually puts us in situation to grind for these
• +2.45ISH from IN gives us way bigger numbers
• And we can even go for Prot specific Advancements rather than the generic one Ive listed, its just that we actually know about those so I can use them in an argument

+2.5ISH is a lot. Imagine Nameless getting ability that is just flat +5 Stages, except this is endlessly better. While it is fundamentally limited to it being Prot, it is just such a huge fuck off amount of power that it makes its own lack of utility all but irrelevant. Sheer might is important even if it is limited in how it can be applied.

Which brings me to my second point - IN is not just something we can upgrade, but it is also an engine for upgrading other abilities. You are speaking about us working up from our current abilities; however, in reality, what we want to do is to get Advancements that let us apply IN in other ways. For example, Advancements that would allow us to add Protection to Ruin or Protection to Might are obvious examples for such Advancements. In fact, IN and Archmage both are based on this philosophy as they are fruit of Hunger finding a way to use ability way above his current level, namely the Evening Realm, in other ways. Now, it is obviously hard to speculate what kind of Advancements we can expect, even with Progression buff, but we do have all the pieces we need to smash Maiden. The question is only if we can execute it.

Also getting that 66% Apo reduction while we are in realspace would be real nice, so finding a way how to do that would be quite crucial, provided we don't lose much time doing it.

 

[Zampano]

Feels like the pick drought has been pretty much glossed over in the discourse so far. The Realm of Evening can produce picks-worthy frights, but not indefinitely. I think that's a serious flaw in the way that IN has been marketed. Even +Progression still needs xp to generate new advancements.

Notably, BH relaxes the Ring Malus, which massively accelerates the Fault Defeating Stance even without a new source of Picks.

 

[Wolfy]

How it was "glossed over" when we are almost always talking about Praxis stuff?

 

[Valkhir]

I wonder how SitS Hour of Reckoning interacts with Inheritance, if it does in any way directly, due to it requiring OaF 3. Hoping for a good second ontology from OaF 3 to synergize with new Rank/Ruin and stats could also be a...well, I don't know if calling it strategy is quite right, but a card.

About as hopeful as wanting a Prot to X stat converter, so.

 

[Fayhem]

Notably, BH relaxes the Ring Malus, which massively accelerates the Fault Defeating Stance even without a new source of Picks.

Click to shrink...

But BH gives us minimal leeway on confronting the Maiden, certainly not enough to make full use of FDS again. Unless you actually think even a buffed army can stall the Maiden for any serious period of time? So at that point that has no relevance to BH's suitability for defeating the Maiden, since that's a facet of BH that could only really be applied after the battle with the Maiden was already concluded. "This is useful if we assume that we'll win first" isn't an argument for something helping us win.

Also, what Wolfy said.

 

[Wolfy]

What the fuck is even "pick draught". We were getting a ton of Echoes when picking FDS domains just fine. And why would it even matter, we don't have Arete to spend anymore so getting picks is almost completely irrelevant.

 

[Zampano]

A drought is a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall, leading to a shortage of water. E.g.
"the cause of Europe's recent droughts."

A draught is the British spelling of "draft", the amount swallowed or inhaled in a single act of drinking or inhaling.

 

[OctarineShrike]

The battles domain could well include shonen power ups acquired in the middle of a fight. Violent conflict helps trigger Ordinalist breakthroughs so that's a thing in the Rihakuverse.

So we could use the battles domain to give ourselves and our army a monte haul of shonen powerups.

We weren't actually good at fate manipulation before, we were just brute forcing everything.

 

[Box Lunch]

And here I thought draughts was Egyptian checkers.

 

[Zampano]

Wolfy said something on Discord that feels like a good argument for Blood Halo:

> The Issue is that Archmage is such a huge part of our kit
> that you can expect very specific counters
> to the way we deploy Archmage, to Space and to Law

And he's right. Hunger has used Archmage, and the rest of his abilities, in a very characteristic way: with sudden and overwhelming power. Hunger's control of Rank is clumsy but that doesn't matter because it is such a powerful ability. Coming out of the Realm of Evening, his control was boosted by Gisena's total mastery of Findross (via Spark of Prowess) to a "baseline level of proficiency." The Fault Defeating Stance massively accelerated his proficiency, but only in two domains. His ability in every other domain has remained static!

Hunger has been using the abilities he inherited from the Forebear like a Himbo during the entire quest. What better way for the Maiden to empty his toolkit than to undermine his control over all these overclocked abilities?

Enter: Blood Halo. BH!Hunger has +10000 Prowess before modifiers, and at least +10000 INT. This allows him to (1) understand and avoid traps and locks on his abilities that baseline Hunger might otherwise blunder into. It also offers many new ways to use his existing Domains even though they are locked from advancement by FDS. In addition, (2) the maximized Battle domain will have nuance and tricks that the Maiden absolutely cannot be prepared for. FDS gave Space&Law 90 months worth of skill advancement and we got a total lockdown on sub-3.5ISH opponents.

Imagine what [maximized] skill advancement in Battle could accomplish!

By contrast, IN allows the Maiden to surveillance Hunger's efforts and craft artifacts / superstructures and infrastructure to combat his new techniques. Don't like that.

 

[GenericName]

If anything I think the maiden could work around blood halo better than she could inheritance. Not because it's less versatile in battle, but because it's less versatile in general. Anything that's not battle is actually less effective than it would have been prior upgrade. We're even weaker to workaround sneaky tactics, and that already tended to be our weakness just looking at the Dien fight. I'm sure the Maiden is more than capable of making our lives awful even if she can't fight us up front.

 

[Zampano]

Inheritance is what we have now, but more. If it is successful, it will be bc the Maiden could not directly contest so many cardinalities of infinite Ruin. The best way to contest infinite power is to redirect it, or turn it against itself. I think that attacking Hunger's control / finesse is a much more likely approach to prepare while in the Realm of Daylight.

Blood Halo nullifies that kind of countermeasure.

 

[Tyrant_Rayne]

If anything I think the maiden could work around blood halo better than she could inheritance. Not because it's less versatile in battle, but because it's less versatile in general. Anything that's not battle is actually less effective than it would have been prior upgrade. We're even weaker to workaround sneaky tactics, and that already tended to be our weakness just looking at the Dien fight. I'm sure the Maiden is more than capable of making our lives awful even if she can't fight us up front.

Click to shrink...

Name one major military power in the world that doesn't have espionage divisions.

Intelligence and stealth are still part of warfare and should benefit from the bonus.

And besides like I said before we can have an entire division led by Aeira to do that stuff so we don't have to

 

[Birdsie]

I'll offer vote markers to anyone who switches their vote to Blood Halo.

= CYOA =
Underworld's Pearl​

Introduction

There Charon stands, who rules the dreary coast –
A sordid god: down from his hairy chin
A length of beard descends, uncombed, unclean;
His eyes, like hollow furnaces on fire;
A girdle, foul with grease, binds his obscene attire.

​

---

The Ferryman

Hello there, child of fiery Prometheus, born of Athena's kindling breath. As brief as it may have been - your life is now over, and now you enter the world under.

I am He of Keen Gaze, woven of nocturne, and son of darkness. I am the watchful keeper of these waters, the River Agony and its sister, the River Hatred, but I suppose your mortal legends would have told you as much. Should you choose to pay me the customary fee of a single obol, I will be your Ferryman on this particular eve.

And, before you tremble and ask, no - there are no consequences to not paying, aside from the fact that I won't take you on the other side. If you have money but do not wish to surrender it to me, you're welcome to simply wander down the road and join the others. What others? Allow me to part the veil of darkness and show you.

Indeed. "Oh," is the appropriate reaction.

If your journey is to continue for more than a few moments, I recommend paying me. I can see that you had might in life - a hero or a demigod, perchance? Whatever the case, your achievements in life have transubstantiated themselves into an impressive quantity of currency, which I'd be more than happy to accept in return for various gifts.

Ah, before you make any purchases, however, I should brief you on what lies ahead...

The Land of the Dead

The Land of the Dead

Ahead of you lies a land known formally as the Unseen World, also known as "Hesed."

It's a land of varied geography and landscapes, no less versatile and fascinating than your origin world; there are primordial rainforest jungles of ghost flowers and dead trees, black demonic ponds where your reflection can rise up and take shape as a monstrous copy of you intent on destroying what you hold dear, and there are cities of ashen basalt and poplar timber where trillions of ghosts from countless multiverses live together in something that resembles benumbed harmony. It's difficult to find anything truly alive, but the ectoplasmic ghosts of flowers and animals dwell here as well, replaying the contents of their existences - and they may be harvested and consumed as in life.

Above there is no sky to contain the cosmos; no moon or sun ever shines down on Hesed. If you were to fly ever upward, it'd lead you nowhere but further and further into an infinite void that grows exponentially colder as you progress, eventually freezing even your ghostly self into a static block of nothing. There are no borders to the underworld, as its outermost rim expands outward at effectively infinite speed when interacted with by anyone. Much as in a video game of exploration and survival, if you wander too far from the established locations of the underworld, then more of it shall manifest - empty and barren, and featurelessly flat, but there.

There are several locations of particular interest to one such as yourself:

The Asphodel Meadows

An eternal stretch of autumn-hued fields that comprises around 90% of the outer ring of the underworld, the Asphodel Meadows are the general location that most of the ghosts and souls of the underworld choose as their dwelling. It's a place for the unremarkable and poor, for mortals who do not belong and were neither great enough to receive an invitation to the inner ring nor evil enough to merit being sent to wander in the caves or to be dipped into one of the rivers.

Here, one may find virtually any biome or landscape - although a countryside of pastoral idyll, or a flat meadow plain, are the ones that are most common. It also contains most of the underworld's population, often clustered in dense city-states of dark rock that slowly expand outward into the frontier. A law of the Unseen commands that no city's permanent population may ever rise above a hundred million souls, and so, every now and then, a city that is close to its population limit will gather up volunteers, minor criminals, and skilled craftsmen and send them in to settle a new land.

The Great Hill

A mountain in the inner ring of the underworld, its peak rising almost ten thousand meters over the earth. Around the mountain's peak are the palatial estates of a number of wealthy ghosts and honored ancestors who dwell here - former princelings and lesser heroes who didn't merit living in greater locations. Around its base are the houses of their servants and more than a few independent ghosts who reside in this area, leading relatively bleak and uninteresting existences. There are, however, merchants and other laborers here, performing their duties for ridiculously low prices - as the Unseen's tax does not apply to them - who'd be willing to offer their services to you.

The Great Hill and its surrounding areas are known as being one of the more affluent locations in the Unseen World. As the ruler's taxes here are particularly light, requiring barely any recompense even for existing, many ghosts wish to continue their existence here.

At the base of this mountain, there is a round boulder of brownstone as large as a house and a hundred times heavier than its volume would imply. Even if you have the strength to move it, the boulder seems to be oddly magnetized, gradually sliding to the spot you found it in. It stands there, strangely alone.

Acherusia

A swamp into which the River of Agony empties out, its waters settling down into a magically inert form that no longer induces pain. Around and within Acherusia, countless ghosts make their home, making a living on fishing, the gathering of precious underwater stones, and other forms of simple labor. A sisterhood of witches that worship the Unseen's wife, the Queen of the Underworld, find their headquarters in the very deepest recesses of this swamp, within a quarry of dark shadows and azure fires.

There isn't much to be found here, aside from those few places and some fascinatingly hostile wildlife.

Fields of Mourning

A field in the outer ring, where the Damned City may be found. Contrary to its horrific name, or the name of the region, the Damned City is known for its almost prolific entertainment industry and five-star hotels. Its red-light districts are home to some of the finest courtesans, and its liquor stores are often found containing amphorae of wine so fine the gods themselves would not be able to scoff at it. And remember - whatever happens in the Damned City, stays in the Damned City.

As some people might say, "that's Vegas, baby."

The Seven Rivers

The Seven Rivers of the Unseen World are locations of major import, each one bearing some kind of unique trait. All of their waters are regularly harvested for their wide variety of uses.

Among them are:

River of Agony - As often said, Agony is the only entrance to the Unseen World, and I do not recommend falling within - the pain one of its droplets causes is sufficient to make you unable to ever swim up again. At the end of its stream, there is a prison where particularly loathsome sinners are put in cages and dipped into it as a torture method.

River of Hatred - A river that flows in a circle around the inner ring of the underworld, having no beginning or definite ending. It's often said that dipping within grants indestructibility, but between you and me, all it does is melt you like particularly strong acid. Anyone who says otherwise is probably lying about infanticide.

River of Oblivion - A river of translucent water - as clear as glass - inside of which float smears of white. If you put someone's head in the water, a lot of these smears will float of their ears, their memories lost into the river's flow. Its water can be bottled and drank, inducing forgetfulness - ten kyathoi will produce complete amnesia.

River of Flame - A river that flows with pure divine fire, pulsing with the radiant warmth of the heart's blood of dead titans. Unlike most of its siblings, this river is particularly reactive to the presence of any sentient being that approaches, reaching out with animate tendrils of flame that want to pull you in for a hug with their source.

River of Frost - Also known as the River of Tears, its waters are ice-flecked and colder than should be possible, instantly freezing anything that reaches within. If one focuses their hearing and listens closely, it's possible to hear the river's voice, crying out for mercy. One has to wonder - what is its problem?

River of Infinity - A river that is well-known and, indeed, rather infamous for randomly disappearing and appearing in other sections of the underworld from time to time. It's often said to be the only way out of the underworld, as its waters can snake infinitely across the cosmos into other realms entire. However, such a task should never be taken lightly, as its exit out of the underworld is guarded by a three-headed hound known for tearing apart anyone who attempts to leave without the permission of the Unseen.

Secret River - The smallest of the rivers, it lies at the very center of the underworld, in the heart of the ruler's palace. Its properties are unknown.

The Caverns that Whisper

Never enter a cave in the underworld, and never descend further down - such is a common maxim of the ghosts who dwell here. After all, in enough time, even death may die, and it, too, shall find its place somewhere here. The embrace of the night is infinitely more merciful than that of the deep darkness below...

The Caverns that Whisper stretch underneath all of the Unseen World. Their tunnels seem ethereal, made of a white stone that appears almost translucent up close, displaying shadows of incomprehensible things that invariably turn out to be reflections, dreams, or hallucinations. If one seeks far enough into these arterial caverns, they might find whole worlds made of nothing but lost rumor and whispered tales, spun whole from the bones of dead primordials. However, make no mistake - these places are dead too, and forever will be; there is no repose here.

A rumor abounds that somewhere within these caverns, there is a treasure that is the very concept of treasure, grand beyond imagining, granting every and any wish; cosmic omnipotence and rulership of vast infinities granted with but a whisper. It says a lot about this place that not even the Unseen travels down here in search of it.

Do not wander too far in here, traveler. You do not wish to wake a sleeping titan.

The Deep Darkness

Although no mortal - alive or dead - ever ventured that far, I can tell you there is more below those caverns. A sourceless darkness so utterly, incomprehensibly deep that no light or flame may exist within its embrace. However, there is no reason for you to ever go that far, not that you would manage it.

Sometimes, however, the darkness finds a crack in the Caverns that Whisper, and it wanders up into the world above, a tenebrous fluid that extinguishes the world as it approaches. If you ever find yourself in such a place, I suggest leaving. It's not the darkness itself you should fear, but the byproducts of its commingling with the sky above...

The Elysium

A walled-off section of the inner ring of the underworld, entry is granted only to the few who can prove their worth to one of the judges - either by defeating a number of heroic warriors in combat, or captivating an audience of their equals with a song so beautiful it causes tears to rain free. Inside of the Elysium, there is a heaven of endless splendor and eternal happiness; here live philosophers and heroes, the children of the gods and the great inventors and thinkers of mankind. It's a place of unsurpassed culture and industry, its cities presenting a stylistic mixture of reverentially ancient Greek and efficient modernism.

At the center of the Elysium, there is the Unseen's estate, into which none save his family and direct servants are granted entry.

---

There are countless threats in the Hesed, some of them unimaginable and powerful beyond measure, but these are the most common:

Ghosts - Most often, the baseline inhabitants of the Unseen World aren't hostile to each other, but in the same fashion as living people, they can be persuaded into hostility through greed, anger, or myriad other motivations. Aside from no longer suffering from a need for food, drink, breath, or sleep, ghosts are made from ectoplasm and, therefore, do not suffer 'wound penalties.' A ghost's corpus will restore itself to a pristine state over the passage of days; repairing even limbs, but not the wounds of whatever caused their demise. This shouldn't be seen as regeneration, but rather, the essence-memory of a ghost reasserting itself over the universe's causality.

If a ghost is sufficiently injured, it won't be able to restore itself. Anything that'd cause death in an ordinary if resolute human works - piercing the heart, chopping off the head, complete dismemberment, grievous rending of bodily tissue, etc.

Most ghosts also suffer an overwhelming phobia of whatever led to their demise - in the case of ghosts who died from old age or 'expected disease,' it manifests instead as a general malaise of unease that renders them more vulnerable psychologically.

You belong to this category of being.

Wraiths - Also known as the hungry ghosts, wraiths are those members of the underworld's population that have gone insane with grief, despair, or their desire to move back into the world of the living.

Aside from the usual corpselike resilience and independence from sustenance, wraiths are able - or rather, are willing - to consume the souls of their fellows in order to grow stronger. Although the process of soul consumption is inefficient and diminishing in terms of energy conversion, a wraith that consumed ten of its fellows ought to display physical traits a breath's over the human baseline; a wraith that consumed a hundred would be a match for a warrior of renown and skill; a wraith that consumed a thousand would be a force to reckon with even for a hero or lesser demigod.

Also common for wraiths are the development of proto-sorcerous abilities, most of which are based on their favored prey. Around 95% of wraiths who consumed more than twenty souls have a power known as the Undeath Aura, in which they wrap themselves in a cold violet miasma of ether that dissolves the ectoplasm it touches. Around 25% of wraiths might display unique powers, such as telekinesis, cryokinesis, pyrokinesis, the opening of portals, conjuration of weapons, and similar.

Specters - A specter is seen by many scholars of the underworld to be the next metamorphic step of a wraith; the point at which a wraith's soul buckles under the immense weight and strain of the ghosts it has consumed and incorporated. A wraith at this level melts into a spiritual singularity, not unlike a celestial object fed with such a quantity of mass that it becomes a black hole. A given wraith must often consume tens of thousands of souls to reach such a level, however, the powers conferred by it are obvious.

Aside from physical statistics elevated to the point where contending with a demigod the likes of Achilles or Hercules wouldn't be that much to ask, a specter also benefits from the combined knowledge, experience, and memories of all the souls it has consumed in its lifetime. Its Undeath Aura evolves, not merely dissolving ectoplasm and matter, but actively drawing in and devouring the souls of those around it, constantly adding to its might.

All specters suffer from broad-spectrum insanity of some kind - schizophrenia, paranoia, and hallucinations are the most common, alongside delusions of grandeur, narcissism, and utter, heartless psychopathy. Many specters develop unique quirks of personality as a result.

There are four Great Specter Kings in the underworld and dozens of Lesser Specter Kings. The power of the Lesser Kings is the difference between a specter and a wraith. And the four Great Specter Kings are to the Lesser Specter Kings as the Lesser Specter Kings are to a common wraith - only matched by the Unseen and other gods.

Eidolon - An eidolon is, in essence, the restless ghost of a hero or demigod. The divine or heroic portions of its soul have survived the transition into a ghost, conferring awesome powers upon it. Although most eidolons are no more hostile or threatening than a ghost, many carry over the hubris or blindness that often leads to the demise of such personages - some of such eidolons often swiftly turn into wraiths, seeing the consumption of other ghosts as a dire necessity to bring about the elevation of power that'll let them "take over" the underworld. It's well-known that three of the four Great Specter Kings were eidolons.

They are, basically, "elite ghosts." An eidolon is unburdened with the fear of oblivion or memories of their demise that often afflicts other ghosts, and is as mighty as a high-class wraith even without becoming one. It's not uncommon for an eidolon to also have access to any unique powers or equipment it had in life.

The Deathless - Also wandering the underworld is a conclave of eidolons who adamantly oppose the Unseen and the Specter Kings both, seeing the underworld and its existence as unacceptable cruelty beyond imagining. Aside from trying to topple all of the local governments and find a reliable way to escape the underworld and evacuate as many souls as possible, the Deathless Inner Circle are a band of restless heroes of great power, far beyond any common eidolon - even one of them would be able to contend with one of the Great Specter Kings.

There are five-hundred and eighty-five of them at the present, and they are looking for new members. There are six members in the Inner Circle.

The Others - All beings that do not fit any of the above, including the Unseen and the Queen of the Underworld, who are gods. Anything goes with this category, as beings of this sort are sufficiently rare that it's not possible to make any reliable estimates: necromancers, monsters, entities from the beyond, and similar.

I belong to this category of being, as I am born of darkness and night, an entity of strange power that doesn't quite fit any of the others I described.

A subset of this category are the Living; mortals who somehow wandered into the underworld - vanishingly rare even for this category in general.

The Offers

As you descend into the underworld, you shouldn't come ill-equipped. My powers and gifts are, you will find, quite potent...

You have 10 bronze Obols, 4 silver Drachmas, and 1 electrum Denar.

Alteration - I have amphorae of strange, mystically amplified bloods, and such things are good nourishment for the dead. I offer them to you. Select no more than one.

[ ] Fabled Form [2 Obols] - A form indeed to be marveled at - and the blood of a hero. It grants physical appearance on par with a shockingly handsome gentleman or a lady of unsurpassed beauty, as well as the physical condition of a major hero of legend: easily lift a horse overhead and resist the piercing steel of arrows with your flesh, with speed enough to sprint through an entire marathon and barely tire. Also grants a blessing of moderate protective luck - every day, an event that would kill you will harm you instead, or an event that would leave you harmed will be fully avoided instead.

[ ] Celestine Form [2 Drachmas] - A forbidden ichor - don't tell anyone I have this. It grants eternal youth and beauty that surpasses that of a hero's to the same degree that a hero's surpasses that of a mortal; countless people will fall in love with you at first sight, while those you visibly disapprove of will quake in fear and dejection. All of your parameters go beyond: juggle bulls made of osmium, shrug off spells that would decimate neighborhoods, and run so fast that you appear as naught but a streaking blur to the eyes of mortals, never tiring or breaking a sweat.

Also, you develop a personal 'domain' or 'ability;' some field or concept that your spirit is now innately tied to, close to your heart and determined at least partially by your preference. It could be something physical like water or fire, or something abstract like justice or love. Regardless, it grants some magical acuity in manipulating, inducing, generating, or nullifying the subject of your domain which grows steadily over time, with both age and practice, and caps out eventually at roughly a quarter of the level of a god's power in the same domain. Make no mistake, for that is still enough power to make cities shake.

After the transformation, some of your former's life memories could become a little blurry. There was no choice but to use a cupful of the waters from the River of Oblivion in order to cleanse away the former domain of this blood's holder. Otherwise, your memory is excellent.

[ ] Primordial Form [1 Denar] - A drink most prohibited by the high council of gods who reign above - if it were discovered I peddle such things to wayward heroes, I would surely be hunted down. It's no less than the blood of a fallen primordial, one of the makers of the world, and the fathers of the gods.

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.

All of your physical parameters are equivalent to your mantle: punch with the force of a planet, run as fast as light, or absorb enemy strikes with as much laughter as the sky when a fool attempts to slay it with an arrow. In your specialty, there are none who may equal you.

You are no longer a ghost - a god may die with sufficient time and effort, in spite of their name and insistence to the contrary; but a titan may not: a titan merely sleeps, injured, but never truly 'killed.' As such, even if you are slain, you will be restored in time. All that you must fear is being stripped of your title by another titan, or being sealed forever in a place you cannot escape.

However, such a power has a grave price - the gods will notice your birth, even if they can't be sure where it happened. Another issue is that a mortal shell cannot fully contain the power of chaotic flux; as such, a magical safety mechanism will force the change to occur over time, in seven stages.

The first stage unlocks a single percent of your power and happens instantly; the second one unlocks five percent and will happen in four months from now; the third will unlock ten percent and happen in four years from now; the fourth will unlock fifteen percent and happen in forty years; the fifth will unlock twenty percent and occur in a century from now; the sixth will happen after several centuries and unlock another twenty percent of your power. And the final change, at the turning of the millennium, will turn you into a full titan. At the point of the third stage, you are a match for a Great Specter King; at the point of the fourth, you are a match for a God.

---

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.

This rune has a limited battery which recharges on its own, over time. It can run for up to eight hours a day, or a single hour if overclocked.

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.

It's the last f**king CYOA that I ever make. Appropriate, given that it's about death and the afterlife.

Wordcount: 8.7k

 

[Aabcehmu]

[G] Primordial Form [1 Denar]
[G] Renaissance Man [3 Obols]
[G] Ferryman's Spell [1 Obol]
[G] Sign of the Bear [2 Obols]
[G] Sign of the Lion [4 Obols]
[G] Craftsman's Constellation [1 Drachma]
[G] Spirit Doctor [1 Drachma]
[G] Armor of Terror [2 Drachmas]
[G] Staff of Echoes [1 Denar]

[G] Greater Specter-Hunter Geas [+1 Denar]

Given that I will be 70% of the way to true titanhood long before a millenium has passed, more than a match for one of the Great Specter Kings, I think that this will be reasonably doable.

 

[Prospalz]

Remind me, how bad is Ring's progression malus? ++ equivalent? More? Less?

 

[OctarineShrike]

@Aabcehmu You probably broke your vote.