[x] Gentle, ordinary hands. (10 MUS, 10 SIN, 11 ORG, 10 TCH, 10 ARK) [Lv. 11]
[x] Take a look at the goods. (Opens Ion's Shop)
Since awakening you hadn't given your hands much thought, ordinary as they looked. Your grip is measured and exacting but not particularly strong, your fingers show no wear other than the chill of winter on your palms and fingertips. How odd that the creases have been ironed flat. Still, the night won't last forever. You have work to do.
"Well? Will you sit here gawking all night?" Ion addresses you as you stand up.
"No, I'm alright. You said you had items for sale?"
Ion sneers. "Yes. Though I barter in oddities, not commoner goods. If you're looking to buy apples or gunpowder you'll be sorely disappointed."
"I see."
You slide over and lean closer, watching as he turns the paperback catalogue towards you. A shallow emboss in brazen lettering reveals the words
ALDINE SALESMAN ALMANACH, laid neatly into the thick paper binding. Each page holds a generous woodblock print, article number and description of the virtues of a given item writ large. You crouch to get closer and flip page by page. Many of the pages appear blank, and the book insists on two currencies you don't recognize to be the norm in the city. Perhaps you've simply forgotten.
What might be worth taking?
PROVIDENCE: 1, ODEMS: 1000
[ ]
Nalva Whisperer's Almanach [
1 Providence]: A leatherbound almanac that enters the reader's hands empty but inevitably fills up with all sorts of drivel, as the blank pages compel even the most disciplined calendrist to vandalize the crisp white pages with their idle fancies. A few mad funeral workers in Nalva swear by these books, which they claim connect them to the voices of angels, the dead or the wisened men of the future. That the pages are treated with sickly-sweet embalming vapors provides a second, more obvious explanation.
Allows for write-ins by players.
[ ]
Dolne Pistole [
3 Providence]: A fancy pepperbox revolver affixed to a set of brass knuckles, with a folded double-edged knife concealed in the handle. Typically used by a certain group of Ruffians from a distant metropole, the Dolne Pistol is commonly referred to the name of the gangs that carry them. In Nalva, the maker's name takes precedence, as the weapon was always intended to be used by a gentleman-duelist. Though small, quick cartridges are suited to killing men, the dead do not flag from blood loss. For burials, it's better to take advantage of the weapon's accuracy instead and score crippling blows on heads and spines.
[ ]
Subscription to the Nalva Physician's Guild, Bronze [
600 Odems]: The Nalva Physician's Guild have maintained a ten-year tradition of reviving their own to work as paramedics and delivery-men for medicine. Affixing this badge provides a subscription worth a few lifetimes, though the daily allowance is small.
Provides 5 restores to full health, for 3 lives or resupplies.
[ ]
Subscription to the Nalva Gunsmith's Association, Bronze [
600 Odems]: Having disdain for corpse labor, the reclusive geniuses of the Nalva Gunsmith's Guild operate an elaborate network of ziplines, chutes and a pneumatic tube line that runs through the old undercroft of the city. Each medallion is a conductive plate designed to fit into an electrified recess by a delivery point, sending a signal that permits funeral workers and the gendarmes to refill their bullet pouches to their hearts' content. Poor alloys result in them eventually wearing out, but this merely guarantees repeat customers.
Provides 5 bullets, for 3 lives or resupplies.
[ ]
Embalmer's Jar [
300 Odems]: Plastinating reagents popular in preserving corpses for cosmetic, rather than utilitarian purposes. These flasks burst on impact, coating corpses with skin-hardening tonic that makes them sluggish and vulnerable to heavy-handed strikes. Living creatures are also hampered by these tools, but become desperately ill instead.
[ ]
Grounding Jar [
450 Odems]: A tacky, greasy colloid of rubbers and certain metallic powders, designed to make electrified surfaces safe to cross. Electrified fences and flooring keep cattle and parasites from crossing their assigned barriers, but are powerfully painful for humans as well. Engineers in Nalva always keep a few flasks of this substance just in case.
[ ]
Old Crusader's Mechanical Key [
10000 Odems]: A strange mechanical key unlike the typical machinery found in modern Nalva. The intricate engraving speaks to an era when men lived and died for faith and the hereafter, rather than reason and the now. Opens locks to a certain old tomb.
[ ] Too rich for my blood right now. (Leave)
"How exactly should I pay for this?" You ask.
"I prefer to trade in oddities, as I said. Any little bit of odd information, or a handful of Odems pulled from the dead to freshen up our horses and other helpers. That said... a secret is never valuable once more than one person knows about it, so I won't give you nice things just to be told the same odd story again and again. Hnf!" Ion regards you again, tugging on the lapels of his waistcoat and straightening out. Trying to seem taller, maybe. He's not small for his apparent age, but competing with an adult must cause some sort of insecurity in him.
You are an adult, after all.
"I should take something but my pockets seem to have gone empty after that beating I took in the shop," you comment.
"Hah, I knew it. A pauper, this one." Ion smirks and hands you a vial containing a gas that swirls and glows, like nighttime thundercloud dissolved into dirty sluice from the street. Electricity arcs between the extremities. "Here, consider it a present to a first-time customer: a centilitre of rendered Odems, I'd say, and a Cloudcatcher Jar to hold them."
(GAIN 1000 ODEMS, CLOUDCATCHER JAR)
"Odems?" You mutter under breath, eyes still fixed to the contents.
"Ah, damn. Aren't you supposed to be in the business of burials? It's that synthetic scrap of animus that all the continental philosophers claim is a materialization of the essence of man, or the essential lightning. No shortage of usages for that, especially if you're looking to raise some dead yourself tonight."
You look to your hands. "That's unlikely."
Oinone grabs the hem of your jacket and tugs gently, eager to get your attention. "Any of that you spare could be put to use extending your life-lines. Regaining your strength is more important than trinkets on a night like this."
"Says my Dearest Sister, who never once read the schema of the era's finest inventors." Ion cackles to himself quietly, clipping his book shut as you finish shopping. "Now, you've had enough time to warm your bones. Go outside and break some on our behalf, that this trip wasn't all a waste of time."
You give a small nod and push out through the carriage doors. Neither horse nor driver greet you, both dead-still and sewn into harnesses of purple quilt, black leather and silver filigree. Only the cold does.
It's still late and night. The clouds have parted to expose the pearlescent moon, bathing the streets in cold blue light. You're not far from where you were before, ablock closer to the gates at most in a cul-de-sac framed by a trio of fanciful mansions, one of which has the gates open. A long procession of the laborious dead still mill up the hill towards the gates with parcels, coal and lumber. Among them you recognize a few wearing doctor's coats and masks, carrying sacks of medicine, and the delivery chutes of the Gunsmith's on the streetcorner opposite the carriage spot.
You draw your crook and slide your arm back into the grapple, drawing it taut and secure.
It's time to work.
What are you doing?
Pick 2:
[ ] Go check on the old man.
[ ] Go up the hill to the gates.
[ ] Explore the district.
[ ] Return to the crematorium.
[ ] Return to the clothier and fight Plastinated Arietta again.