- Location
- yes
Thank you! Definitely the intention, although "voice" can be hard and I always worry about overdoing it.
Let's just say the ~20 years since have had their ups and downs :|
Red Skies (Original Fantasy/SI-as-demon)
- Thread starter Death and Faxes
- Start date
- Original
The interlude is entitled Tenzik Saloman's Letter. We found a
It wasn't explicit, but it seemed more likely than having two unrelated TSs who are unusually knowledgeable about magic.
1.1: Knowledge and Power
- Location
- yes
[x] Investigate the Book. The faster you figure out what and who you are, the faster you can figure out what you should actually be doing.
[x] Hunger. You're not actually hungry at the moment, but you remember how it felt in the cave. You're worried that you might not be able to control yourself if it gets that bad again, so maybe working on your self-control—or at least finding alternative solutions—would be a good idea.
- [x] Alternatives. Maybe animals, or something?
[x] Hunger. You're not actually hungry at the moment, but you remember how it felt in the cave. You're worried that you might not be able to control yourself if it gets that bad again, so maybe working on your self-control—or at least finding alternative solutions—would be a good idea.
- [x] Alternatives. Maybe animals, or something?
I bet you thought this quest was dead! Well, too bad, have an update.
More seriously, had some RL stuff flare up the last few months and didn't have much time to write. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to a more regular update schedule (but no promises).
Thanks to @keios and @bidoof for reading drafts of this.
1.1: Knowledge and Power
The book is a real big thick number, but the night is still young, and you're far from tired.
The first thing you notice about it is that it feels alive. Even with the Haze all around you, you can feel something move and pulse under the cover—a weird bundle of contraction and contradiction, like the heartbeat of a corpse.
You're actually a little disappointed when you flip it open and see only a normal ink-on-paper page. It's normal only in the sense that it's mundane, though: the first page you flip to is an art insert depicting a fearsome-looking winged creature with gigantic claws—hey those kinda look like yours—menacing a half-flayed man while a pair of hooded figures look on in the background.
Edgy.
But it's otherwise basically just a book, albeit one printed in an unruly handwritten script, interspersed with diagrams of strange arcane symbols and interlocking circles and just generally rocking the "inscrutable arcane" aesthetic.
(no skill, IQ-3=9, -4 for difficulty): 3d6=11 vs 9-4(difficult task)=5 (failure by 6)
You quickly find that, besides a few opening pages with rather… macabre poetry, it's basically the most dense and jargon-laden thing you've ever seen. It talks at length about "ego-positivity" and "transformative exotery" and "sub-manifested intent" and "umbriferous aether". It's not clear precisely what any of it means at first, but as you read the words they seem to flow from the page and transform themselves directly into meaning.
Perception: 3d6=9 vs 13 (success by 4)
Will: 3d6=16 vs 11+8(magical power)=19 (success by 3)
Will: 3d6=16 vs 11+8(magical power)=19 (success by 3)
Wait, no, that's not quite right. It actually feels like the Book is directly feeding information into your brain. It's not just information, too—every little iota of meaning the Book provides has a strange enthusiasm, like it wants to be used. There's definitely an intelligence in there, trying not only to provide you with knowledge, but to convince you to use it. You suspect that you'd be itching to draw some magic circles on the floor by now if you were just a regular human.
Well, okay, it's possible that you knew some of this already, and the Book is only providing the emotional commentary? You will the book into silence—it mentally gurgles and folds under the weight of your mind in a way that's kind of cute—and read another sentence: "Noumenal conjunction can be heightened via the use of either the 12- or 20-fold dialectical arrays, but none of lesser complexity." Nope, no idea what that means. You let the Book back in, and it obligingly feeds you the meaning of the passage, this time with a strange combination of pride and eagerness. It's strangely flattering and just maybe makes you feel a little bit self-conscious.
So, you definitely don't know any of this stuff already. Good thing you have a book about it.
Sadly, a whole lot of what said book covers seems to just be boring logistical things, like reagent choices, surveys of different types of mana-conductive inks, proper operational procedures for ritual circle drawing, etc. There's an incredible amount of it, too: chapter after chapter of minutiae and tables and long lists of bullet points about stuff you might care about if you were the kind of person who did their taxes for fun.
Overall, you get the impression that magic is really, really finicky.
You end up skipping over a big chunk of it, and the Book seems to noticeably deflate over it—you swear it's drooping—which, in turn, makes you feel kinda bad. You make to give it a conciliatory pat on the head before you remember that it's a creepy demon-book and not a dog or something.
Some ways into the book, though, something catches your eye. One of the pages prominently displays a complex series of magical circles that looks strangely familiar. It's an intricate fractal of runes and epicycles, multifarious beyond your ability to really commit to memory, but somehow you know you've felt it before—it's the same circle that was on the floor in the cave when you first got here.
You read the accompanying text. "For the grandest among Inimicae, greater measures are needed—we adapt the standard senary array with additional reinforcing glyphs; flow cycle lock-in encourages an equilibrium with high levels of residual stresses, allowing containment of even the most puissant of outsiders." So, a really heavy-duty circle, for binding really heavy-duty demons.
You distinctly remember shredding the one in the cave by accident. Hm. What does that say about you?
You manage to make it through half of the book in one sitting before you remember that you're supposed to be tired and/or sleeping, and the sum total of your exhaustion hits you like a truck. You're actually really, really, really unbelievably exhausted, and you somehow didn't notice until now. Part of you wants to just flop down on the spot and snooze away, but it seems a little bit undignified. It doesn't help that Doukas didn't really set aside any sleeping arrangements for you, and who could blame him, really? Regardless, there's a vaguely couch-like arrangement near the hearth—a wooden frame draped with some pillows and sheets in a crude approximation of upholstery—so you decide to just flop onto that instead.
You close your eyes. The fire is warm, the white noise of the Haze is surprisingly comforting, and it isn't long before it all falls away into a sweet peaceful nothing.
===
You wake to a few slivers of daylight, and… well, more or less the same room you fell asleep in.
Doukas's house has no windows, so what paltry natural light it gets seeps in around the doorframe and through a few small ventilation grates set near the ceiling. The same set of candles are still lit from the night before—you suspect at this point that they're magical in nature.
You dreamt a strange dream, but you can't recall much of it. Something about a war, and a wall, and gods, maybe? Probably? It makes less sense the more you think about it, and you don't have a dream journal or anything to write it down in. It probably wasn't important, anyways.
Doukas himself is, somewhat surprisingly, still in. He's perched attentively, leaning forward in a chair that he's moved to face you, and you suspect he might have been watching you sleep. Which is kinda creepy and might have been worrying if not for the fact that you're probably strong enough to flick him in half.
"You were sleeping," he says, with a little more gravity than the situation seems to demand.
"Really?" You crook an eyebrow. "People sleep. It's a thing."
"People sleep, yes."
What— "Yes. And I'm a people. Is this really a productive discussion?"
"You are a walking calamity. My inability to defeat you does not lessen the necessity of your demise."
Oh, jeez. It's too early for this.
"Are you really—okay, c'mon. You stabbed me first. I politely refrained from tearing your arms off. I don't see how this makes me the bad guy here."
"You slaughtered four dozen men."
"Armed men. Who, by the way, also stabbed me first."
"You cannot—"
"We've gone over this. If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead. If I wanted to level this town, it'd be leveled." You tilt your head and shrug. "But I don't."
This gets him to shut up, at least, although he holds his composure irritatingly well.
"Anyways, I'm going to go take a walk in the woods now, find some animals," you say, because you feel the conversation has taken a turn for both the awkward and the uninteresting.
"Find some… animals?"
"Girl's gotta eat, ya know?" You shrug. "Not sure if animals will do it, but it'd be nice to have an alternative to, uh, people."
Doukas shudders a little at this, but is surprisingly forthcoming with advice. "I would search in the north first. Most game seems to favor that area."
"Ah, great. Thanks. It's cool if I leave this here, right?" you ask, indicating your bag of various trinkets from the mines. Doukas nods.
You should probably look into selling those off later, if possible.
"Okay, see you around."
And then you're out the door, before he can respond.
===
Westfell is smaller than you thought. Three rows of buildings—mostly houses—bracketing a pair of dirt roads constitute almost its entirety. The roads themselves run north-to-south and are bent in a rather curious semi-circular arc, so that the little village is effectively a little crescent of wooden structures. All in all, it can't house more than a hundred people, many of whom are now milling about their daily business or leisure. You consider trying to make small talk or something, but most of them give you a wide berth and just generally kind of seem uncomfortable around you, which is a little awkward. Fortunately, Doukas's house is located almost on the northern tip of the crescent, so it's only a hop, skip, and a jump before you've left the village's clearing and entered the forest proper.
You take a leisurely pace at first, but the few animals you find seem especially skittish and, just like the night before, flee on sight.
That's a little bit troublesome. You were kind of hoping—well, you're not really sure what you were hoping. Maybe that they'd just let you walk right up to them or something. They're clearly not, though, which leaves you with a bit of a conundrum: you don't have a bow or a spear or, for that matter, the skill to actually use either of those things effectively.
Which you suppose is totally fine, because what you do have is tremendous magical power.
You point a finger at a fleeing deer and summon forth your tremendous magical power to strike it down. Well, just a little bit of it; you're looking for a result somewhere between mild stunning and crippling injury, not deer puree. As before, the power surges forth from somewhere deep inside of you, and as it thunders through your veins you direct it forwards and out towards your quarry.
3d6=10 vs 12-6(difficult task)=6 (failure by 4)
There's a crack like thunder, a deafening impact, and everything in front of you simply vanishes, replaced by a fan-shaped gouge sixty feet long. At its farthest, widest point, you can see some things that are recognizably the stumps of former trees, but everything closer is a barren, smoking wasteland of scorched earth.
There are no recognizable pieces of deer. There aren't even any recognizable pieces of deer soul. Woops.
Well, surely this is just a problem of scale. You center yourself, focusing your attention inwards, and try again, this time at a random tree and with the smallest, finest possible amount of power you're capable of calling forth.
3d6=13 vs 12-6(difficult task)+4(focus)=10 (failure by 3)
Another crack, and—well, it's a smaller blasted wasteland, so that's nice. You decide that, while tremendous magical power may be a pretty good solution to a wide variety of problems, maybe this specific application of it needs a bit more work.
What other options do you have, though? Could you try catching some woodland creature the old-fashioned way instead?
You wonder how fast you can run; you're orders of magnitude stronger, so it would make sense that you could kick off that much harder, right? You turn to that time-honored answer to questions of this type: empirical verification. It confirms that, yes, you can kick off that much harder, and yes, it does seem to translate to speed.
3d6=13 vs 12 (failure by 1)
Unfortunately, you completely neglect the fact that kicking off with that much force actually does quite a number on loosely-packed topsoil; you end up losing your balance and sliding a couple dozen feet on your face. Thankfully you're all by yourself out here, so the only evidence of your unfortunate pratfall is an impressively large divot—add that one to the collection—and a long trail of crushed undergrowth.
After a few more tries, though, you've discovered that you're actually pretty fast—if not terribly agile—and it doesn't take long much longer before you've managed to chase down a deer. Whatever it is about this place (or, you increasingly suspect, about you) that sets woodland creatures on edge is in full force: it struggles desperately against your grip, literally frothing at the mouth in terror, but you're a lot stronger and you effortlessly pin it against the ground. It's a little bit sad, actually, with its cute little deer-face and (literal) doe-eyes, but it's either this or mass murder, so it isn't really much of a choice in the end.
"Sorry," you mumble, and then you suck out its soul.
It tastes… incredibly bland, but tolerable? If humans were delicious gourmet meals, then this would probably qualify as a thin gruel or something, which is a little disappointing. On the plus side, though, it appears a deer soul is more or less the same amount of soul as a human soul, so you figure this is a workable solution in the medium term.
Actually, there's one more thing you should try.. You recall your experiences with "eating" bread earlier; maybe that would work here as well? You attempt to literally suck out the essential deer-ness from the deer corpse, and soon it collapses in a little cloud of grey dust and you're a tiny bit more full than before. It's a lot less satiation than an actual soul, although you suppose that every last bit counts.
3d6=11 vs 12 (success by 1)
Throughout the rest of the day you manage to catch a half-dozen more deer. You go after some foxes and smaller animals too, but, well, you're not very good at changing directions yet, and so you trip and go down again more than a few times. Literally sucking the souls out of the cute local wildlife is a little bit of a bummer, too, but it does noticeably fill you up. You suppose if it can help you avoid another hunger-rampage, it's probably for the best.
Regardless, it's well into the afternoon by the time you declare your little experiment a success and start heading back to town. You've actually managed to get quite far away from town from all the high-speed chasing you've done, and you briefly worry that you might have gotten lost. Thankfully, you've moved mostly uphill from Westfell, and so you're able to easily pick it out on the horizon after you find a suitable vantage point.
The walk back is pleasant. The weather isn't bad and the forest is a picture-perfect idyll, so you actually find yourself enjoying it despite the continued berth given to you by all the woodland creatures. At a light run it's barely any time at all before you're back in town.
===
Doukas is absent on your return. He's probably out being dour or something; you wouldn't really know.
It does leave you the house more or less to yourself—which, as it turns out, is pretty boring. You consider checking up on the Standard Fantasy Tavern, but the whole "makes mortals uneasy" thing is almost certain to get in the way of that, so... guess it's another night in, with a quasi-intelligent magical artifact to keep you company. To be honest, you're pretty surprised Doukas hasn't thrown the Book out, considering how obviously demon-y it is.
The second half of the Book, as it turns out, is a lot like the first—more seals, more spells, more mind-numbing minutiae—but it's mind-numbing minutiae that's, in a way, about you, so it's probably good that you're learning it. In fact, the more you learn, the more your knowledge seems to come together; facts congeal into concepts and concepts into understanding, and when you finally make it to the last (non-appendix) chapter you feel like you have a much better understanding, both of how magic works on a fundamental level, and also on the specifics of summoning, banishment, and warding.
<New skill - Thaumatology: the theoretical study and understanding of magical processes.>
Eventually, you get tired again. Like the last time, it comes all at once and doesn't feel anything like the gradual creeping kind of tiredness you used to experience... before. It's still exhaustion, though, with all the impairment that brings, so you decide to call it a night.
===
Doukas is, in fact, still absent the next morning, so you repeat your stint with the animals, but he's finally back when you return that night. In fact, it looks like he's been waiting for you for a while, maybe even psyching himself up. Or maybe he just really likes pacing around the door area without any visible diversions. Hard to tell.
"You were gone for a while," you say, as you cross the threshold.
"I have been making preparations," he says, rather gravely.
"That's vague."
He sighs. "The circumstances of my… captivity, and of your arrival, lead me to believe that there are forces at work here that mean harm to myself and the people of this village. I have been taking steps to mitigate this to the best of my ability."
Well. Actual conversation, without any pointed accusations! Nice.
"You think there's someone out to get you?" Hey, wait a minute. "Is that why you're being nice all of a sudden?"
There's a little bit of an awkward pause.
"I—yes, in part. But there has also been something on my mind," he says. "Will you hear me out?"
You raise an eyebrow at this. "I dunno, are you going to try stabbing me again?"
He lets out an awkward little sigh, and then a slightly more awkward little pause.
"I believe I made a mistake," he finally says.
This… is somewhat promising. You motion for him to continue.
"I am not skilled at sensing magics. Only enough to sense those who wear their essence, proverbially, on their sleeves."
"Like demons."
"Like demons, yes. And when I first saw you, a demon was obviously what you were. But when we fought—"
"'Fought' is kind of a strong word." It's kind of a cheap shot, but who's counting?
He grimaces and sighs again, and for a second you almost feel bad for him. You don't, though, because he stabbed you in the throat with a spear.
"—it should have been obvious then, that a demon you were not."
Huh. That was a remarkably fast turnaround. "Can't say I'm not glad you decided that, but… can I ask why?"
"You hid your power." He looks at you meaningfully. "A demon is its power. It could no more suppress that power than a human could suppress the color of their hair."
"Huh." This is a good start. If you want to figure out what you are, you just have to figure out all the things that you're not. Simple.
...still, a little more detail would be nice.
Doukas is, surprisingly, happy to oblige you. "There is more," he says. He looks like he's searching for the right words. "I have fought and slain many, many things of magical nature. Dragonspawn. Mechanii. Hundreds of demons. You are not like any of them. All of these creatures… their spirits are pure, in a way. Dragons are aspects of War, and of Conflict. Mechanii wish to Construct. Demons to Unmake. Their spirits have a single clear color, or a tone, perhaps? They are aligned to a purpose that is inherent in their nature, and the auras they project on the world reflect this." He pauses. "You are not so simple. Your spirit has… texture. Breadth. A subtlety that those others do not. Your soul is a human's, writ grand."
That's pretty convincing, although you don't have much else to go on. Or… wait a minute, you actually just read a book about this.
"What about pacts?" Those are a thing, right?
"Pacted are still, at their core, human. They are limited in intensity by what a mortal vessel may contain."
Hm, you actually already knew that. Woops. Well, this has been a very interesting conversation so far, but what's the angle?
"So… is this an apology?" You haven't exactly been delicate so far, why start now.
Doukas actually stops and blinks. "I—yes, I suppose it is. I apologize for my rash judgment and for what… inconvenience I may have caused with my following actions."
Well, that's a nice start.
How do you respond?
It turns out that animal souls are a valid source of nutrition. More interestingly, though, it seems that animal meat remains a source of nutrition even with the soul removed. Combined with the seeming edibility of the bread from earlier, and, well, this could use some additional examination. Will you continue pursuing this line of experimentation?
Lastly, you still have a bunch of probably valuable formerly-not-your-stuff burning a hole in your proverbial pocket, when you could have their market value in cash burning a hole in your pocket instead. You'll probably want to make this conversion over the next few weeks. How?
Also, A/N:
I'm considering toning down the mechanical aspect of this a little bit—in particular, reducing the dependence on rolling to something more like "eyeball skill, make up result"—since unexpected dice rolls can often add a lot of difficulty to the writing process due to throwing planning out the window. Any thoughts?
[X] Accept his apology. Maybe you can be friends; you don't really have any, now seems like a great time to start.
[X] Yes.
[X] Illegitimate means. You're not really familiar with criminal stuff, but there's probably a… black market, or a fence, or whatever in town. You bet Doukas would know. A fence would probably be less well-equipped to identify specific magical functions, but would probably also ask fewer questions.
[X] Yes.
[X] Illegitimate means. You're not really familiar with criminal stuff, but there's probably a… black market, or a fence, or whatever in town. You bet Doukas would know. A fence would probably be less well-equipped to identify specific magical functions, but would probably also ask fewer questions.
- Location
- scrabbling
[X] Accept his apology. Maybe you can be friends; you don't really have any, now seems like a great time to start.
[X] No. If not, what will you do instead?
-[X] Mana control!
[X] Shops. It looks like there are some shops in town you might be able to sell to. One of them even looks like it specializes in minor magical tchotchkes. Any such shopkeeper worth their salt should be able to help you identify the enchantments on the minor magical trinkets you have. Hopefully they take pre-owned, slightly bloody jewelry. Maybe you should wash it off first?
[X] No. If not, what will you do instead?
-[X] Mana control!
[X] Shops. It looks like there are some shops in town you might be able to sell to. One of them even looks like it specializes in minor magical tchotchkes. Any such shopkeeper worth their salt should be able to help you identify the enchantments on the minor magical trinkets you have. Hopefully they take pre-owned, slightly bloody jewelry. Maybe you should wash it off first?
[X] Accept his apology. Maybe you can be friends; you don't really have any, now seems like a great time to start.
[X] Yes.
[X] Shops. It looks like there are some shops in town you might be able to sell to. One of them even looks like it specializes in minor magical tchotchkes. Any such shopkeeper worth their salt should be able to help you identify the enchantments on the minor magical trinkets you have. Hopefully they take pre-owned, slightly bloody jewelry. Maybe you should wash it off first?
[X] Yes.
[X] Shops. It looks like there are some shops in town you might be able to sell to. One of them even looks like it specializes in minor magical tchotchkes. Any such shopkeeper worth their salt should be able to help you identify the enchantments on the minor magical trinkets you have. Hopefully they take pre-owned, slightly bloody jewelry. Maybe you should wash it off first?
[X] Accept his apology. Maybe you can be friends; you don't really have any, now seems like a great time to start.
[X] Yes.
[X] Illegitimate means. You're not really familiar with criminal stuff, but there's probably a… black market, or a fence, or whatever in town. You bet Doukas would know. A fence would probably be less well-equipped to identify specific magical functions, but would probably also ask fewer questions.
[X] Yes.
[X] Illegitimate means. You're not really familiar with criminal stuff, but there's probably a… black market, or a fence, or whatever in town. You bet Doukas would know. A fence would probably be less well-equipped to identify specific magical functions, but would probably also ask fewer questions.
Vaalintine
Wild Wondorous Wolfalope
[X] Accept his apology. Maybe you can be friends; you don't really have any, now seems like a great time to start.
[X] Yes.
[X] Shops. It looks like there are some shops in town you might be able to sell to. One of them even looks like it specializes in minor magical tchotchkes. Any such shopkeeper worth their salt should be able to help you identify the enchantments on the minor magical trinkets you have. Hopefully they take pre-owned, slightly bloody jewelry.Maybe you should wash it off first?
If any blood remains we can easily explain it off as being from bandits. Nobody is going to give two shits about what happens to bandits.
[X] Yes.
[X] Shops. It looks like there are some shops in town you might be able to sell to. One of them even looks like it specializes in minor magical tchotchkes. Any such shopkeeper worth their salt should be able to help you identify the enchantments on the minor magical trinkets you have. Hopefully they take pre-owned, slightly bloody jewelry.Maybe you should wash it off first?
If any blood remains we can easily explain it off as being from bandits. Nobody is going to give two shits about what happens to bandits.
- Location
- St. Petersburg
[x] Accept his apology. Maybe you can be friends; you don't really have any, now seems like a great time to start.
[x] No. If not, what will you do instead?
-[x] Mana control!
[x] Illegitimate means. You're not really familiar with criminal stuff, but there's probably a… black market, or a fence, or whatever in town. You bet Doukas would know. A fence would probably be less well-equipped to identify specific magical functions, but would probably also ask fewer questions.
[x] No. If not, what will you do instead?
-[x] Mana control!
[x] Illegitimate means. You're not really familiar with criminal stuff, but there's probably a… black market, or a fence, or whatever in town. You bet Doukas would know. A fence would probably be less well-equipped to identify specific magical functions, but would probably also ask fewer questions.
Blazinghand
O cursèd spite
- Location
- California
[X] Accept his apology. Maybe you can be friends; you don't really have any, now seems like a great time to start.
[X] Yes.
[X] Shops. It looks like there are some shops in town you might be able to sell to. One of them even looks like it specializes in minor magical tchotchkes. Any such shopkeeper worth their salt should be able to help you identify the enchantments on the minor magical trinkets you have. Hopefully they take pre-owned, slightly bloody jewelry. Maybe you should wash it off first?
[X] Yes.
[X] Shops. It looks like there are some shops in town you might be able to sell to. One of them even looks like it specializes in minor magical tchotchkes. Any such shopkeeper worth their salt should be able to help you identify the enchantments on the minor magical trinkets you have. Hopefully they take pre-owned, slightly bloody jewelry. Maybe you should wash it off first?
- Location
-
[X] Accept his apology. Maybe you can be friends; you don't really have any, now seems like a great time to start.
[X] No. If not, what will you do instead?
-[X] Mana control!
-[X] Other - ask Doukas more about the threat to the village
[X] Shops. It looks like there are some shops in town you might be able to sell to. One of them even looks like it specializes in minor magical tchotchkes. Any such shopkeeper worth their salt should be able to help you identify the enchantments on the minor magical trinkets you have. Hopefully they take pre-owned, slightly bloody jewelry. Maybe you should wash it off first?
[X] No. If not, what will you do instead?
-[X] Mana control!
-[X] Other - ask Doukas more about the threat to the village
[X] Shops. It looks like there are some shops in town you might be able to sell to. One of them even looks like it specializes in minor magical tchotchkes. Any such shopkeeper worth their salt should be able to help you identify the enchantments on the minor magical trinkets you have. Hopefully they take pre-owned, slightly bloody jewelry. Maybe you should wash it off first?
Blazinghand
O cursèd spite
- Location
- California
How do we feel about asking Doukas about the threat to the village?
- Location
- yes
It is a thing we will definitely ask about if we choose not to snub him (which it looks like we're unanimously voting to not).
Blazinghand
O cursèd spite
- Location
- California
Hmm, think I'll leave my vote as is then
- Location
- yes
Looks like we'll be accepting the apology, delving deeper into the science of Eating Things, and—well, a tie on item stuff, so I'm going to go with "legitimate means" here.
Voting is now closed, unless somebody wants to specifically tiebreak the item shop choice.
Voting is now closed, unless somebody wants to specifically tiebreak the item shop choice.
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