22 - Purgation Chimney [Cherno]

The prices went up steeply from one to the next, each being some variation of a flat head with a long body, some resembling keys, others blades or icepicks. There were two keys she considered within her budget, and two others that grabbed her eye as potential future purchases. Both were in the ten-thousand DD range, the second approaching twenty-thousand. One was thick and heavy, resembling some sort of ornamental nail or stake, made from a dark marbled stone of some type. The other was shaped more like a circuit board than a key, rectangular and flat, with a head around a centimeter wide and four centimeters long. Its blued steel surface glistened with intricately embossed patterns.

“What of this one?” she pointed to the first, not wanting to trust just her glasses.

“Strong. Good for enforcer types. Reinforces your Tolerance above all else, with a secondary focus on Throughput at the cost of Dissipation. It bestows a Boon that allows you to agitate your Wards for a few seconds every half-minute or so. Lets you withstand powerful attacks without serious damage to your Wards, though you won’t be able to cast Thaumaturgies or raise Barriers while the boon is active.”

“And the narrow one?”

“Uh… I think this one modifies your Barrier in some weird way and catalyzes the Thauma-burning reaction in some improved manner so the Barrier can absorb more punishment for the same amount of Entropy buildup. As for its Boon, it does do something very nice for its price point - it lets you dissipate Hard Entropy while you have a Barrier raised at half the usual rate or somesuch. I’ll be honest, I am nearly certain the guy who sold this to me stole a test model from the Silversword Agency when he got expelled from their research division or somesuch, so I wouldn’t buy this if you plan to sign up with them. Hell, that’s why I put this cheap of a pricetag on it.”

“Hot goods are only worth a tiny fraction of their market value because of the heat they bring,” Krahe nodded. “How about you reserve it for me? In exchange I’ll make really sure to look into Casus’s case.”

He squinted, and with some reluctance, nodded, opening the case and removing the thin voidkey.

“Appreciate it. Now, if you wouldn’t mind,” she began, pointing at the cluster of keys she could afford right then and there, “mind going over each of these?”

Some fifteen minutes later, Krahe had decided on an unsettling thing that looked like a steel tube with a jagged, gruesome edge on one end and violently unsettling sigils crisscrossing its tarnished surface. Garvesh described it as such: “It’s downright iconic, this one. They were made and used by a gang of pyromancers that would stick them into the palms of their hands so that the key’s black circle mark would show. Those lot are long gone, but the keys are still in circulation and causing as much mayhem as ever. It’ll run you a tidy five-thousand three-hundred DDs.”

“Drop it to four thousand and you’ve got a deal.”

“I can’t do less than five thousand. This thing’s got history.”

“A history in the hands of small-time gangsters. Forty-three hundred.”

“Forty-five hundred.”

“Deal.”

The face value of a Jas’raban Brass Coin.

There was one more thing that had her curious, right next to a jar full of dried Arrha and a box with thin cigarillos. A silver trinket with a crank wheel on one side, only about ten centimeters long. She also wanted to fish for intel some more.

“The cigarette roller. That’ll be everything.”

“Hm? This one?” he asked, taking the item. He opened it, cranked its gears a few times to make sure it worked, and put it on the counter. “Six hundred.”

A pointless expense, but she acquiesced. A few more click-clacks on the keypad to account for the price, and he handed her the souldreg vessel. An engraved number appeared on one side: 9240

It really wasn’t much money, considering the cost of food and really everything, but it was something. She fully expected to be short on money soon given that she still needed to get proper clothes and boots.

Krahe gave it a once-over with the Prospector’s Eyes.

[WARDED SOULDREG VESSEL]

[Status:]

Good

[Details:]

Contents Concealment E1

Anti-Scrying E3

[Contents:]

9240 DDs

“Uh-huh. One more thing - can you point me to someplace I can get things tailored and some leatherwork done? I figure a pawnbroker like you-”

“-would know good local merchants and craftsmen, yeah. I do. And you need them, those pants don’t fit worth a shit. Question is, what do you have to offer me for that kind of info?”

Krahe squinted at him, raising an eyebrow with a quizzical smirk.

He chuckled. It sounded more like an alligator growling than a laugh. Another paper of directions, these purely written based on landmarks. A street not far from the Grafting Church.

“It was worth a try. A cousin of mine works at a cobbler’s, there’s a good tailor across the street from that place, too. Tell ‘em Garvesh sent you, they’ll hook you up with… Whatever you need, within reason. Fair word of warning, they’ve got baneworm employees, but they’re a good sort.”

With a nod of acknowledgment, she took her things and left Garvesh’s pawn shop. However, she stopped right outside the door, using the opportunity to change her Voidkey and make sure Garvesh hadn’t tried to scam her. First, a once-over with the Prospector’s Eyes. Everything seemed to line up with the pawnbroker’s promises.

The Jas’raban Voidkey came out, the Purgation Chimney went in. Her mind’s eye wandered to [Fleshgrafting].

[PURGATION CHIMNEY, BLACK IRON VOIDKEY]

[Tags:]

Second-order

Voidkey

[Details:]

Thaumic Throughput +F1

Entropy Tolerance +F1

Entropy Dissipation +G2

Barrier Catalyst (Basic)

Ward Catalyst (Basic Hardened)

Ward Hardening +G3

Grants Boon: “Lesser Purge Acceleration”

[LESSER PURGE ACCELERATION]

[Tags:]

External Source (Voidkey)

Entropy Purge Enhancement

[Details:]

The holder’s Entropy Purges dissipate Entropy approximately 1/4 faster. Does not apply to Meltdowns.

Satisfied that she hadn’t been taken for a fool, she made her way to the street above, stowing her old voidkey. It would’ve been too obvious to just go back in and try to sell it to Garvesh right then and there. As for the evoy’s Blasting Ring, she kept it as a curiosity.