Greed God chapter 76 (Patreon)

January 26th 2016 Gotham City 4:00 PM EDT

Knowing  we were going to be walking into the lions den, I was officially ready  to stock up on some protection. I wasn't going to this thing as Mammon,  so my mask and Regalia were out as defensive items, so I was going to  have to make myself something bran new. I was looking to kick my  defenses up a notch, and maybe arrange myself some functional weapons. I  had my wyrmkin abilities to let loose with if I got backed into a  corner, but I was going to prepare for anything I could think of just in  case.

My first stop was downtown. I'd been asking around a  bit and had gotten in touch with a few sources looking for places to  pick up mystical gear. I had about thirty thousand points at the moment  from shipments I'd been getting from Galaxy (shipments I was then  reselling to Penguin for extra cash), but hopefully buying some higher  end items would beef up my total before I started work on my new gear.

To  that end I had tracked down the biggest and most random assortment of  magic esoterica in Gotham. my appraisal made magical swap meets a  treasure trove for me, hence my current attendance of the Greenwitch  Magic Market, and extremely obscure and dangerous magical exchange under  the streets of Gotham. Between Whisper, Waylon, and Cheshire we'd been  able to identify the next market location, which was difficult since it  moved around and they usually only invited magic types.

I  brought Waylon and Bonebreaker with me this time, leaving Whisper at  home with Dinah. The two of them had bonded after Dinah found out about  Whisper being pregnant. I'd expected a freeze out, but I suspected my  speech about not ever giving up on here and her own experiences being  shunned by her friends made her hesitant to make waves. She'd been a bit  distant for a day or two but once she and Whisper got talking they  became the best of friends, albeit with Whisper doing her best not to  come across as her usual crazy self in regards to me.

Finding  the place, even with directions, was an exercise in annoyance, the  market was in an old abandoned subway station this week, and Gotham had  more than a few. This particular station was only accessible through  subway tunnels, the street level entrances having been bricked over some  time ago. Luckily Waylon was pretty well versed on the underground or  we might never have tracked it down.

Coming up the  escalator to the massive cement platform, I could see and hear dozens of  people walking between huge tables full of random objects. Some of it  was magical, some of it was probably just junk, and a few pieces looked  like they might be alien in origin and the people who brought them in  were just desperate to unload the things. I was impressed by the sheer  amount of variety present on the tables, and started using appraisal  liberally to try to figure out what was going to be useful, as Waylon  walked behind me carrying a reinforced metal briefcase full of cash.

[Appraisal  function activated. Treasure detected. Cane of shrinking-I rank.  Tapping and object with this item makes the object five percent smaller  in all dimensions. Resulting object also becomes five percent denser.]

[Appraisal  function activated. Treasure detected. Mobius Rope- H rank. When tied  in a knot, this rope creates a recursive conceptual pattern that can't  be unknotted. Excess pieces will reabsorb if the rope is severed.]

[Appraisal  function activated. Treasure detected. Hand of Glory-G rank. An ancient  artifact made by preserving the hand of a hanged man and creating  candles from all five fingers. The hand conveys perfect silence when  entering a location uninvited, unlocks doors and gives light only to the  holder, as well as keeping the inhabitants of the location in a deep  sleep. Magic breaks when all five candles burn out.]

I  was in awe. This place was just wall to wall with insane objects, some  powerful, some useless, and some downright unpleasant. I saw more than a  few things I could use for combination's and considered buying some  others just for the points. I made a mental list and moved on, checking  out the tables as I went to try to keep an eye out for more impressive  things to buy. One particularly intriguing possibility presented itself  buried in a pile of old junk on a table halfway down the aisle.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Babylon  Candle- E rank. A powerful magical artifact with only two remaining  uses. By lighting the candle and speaking the name of your destination,  any place in the multiverse can be reached. The Babylon candle paves the  way past any barrier or defense, but gives the user no information on  what may already lie at their destination.]

I  bought it. Obviously. Not even to merge with anything I just had to have  it. It was a perfect insurance policy in case I ran into an issue I  couldn't get out of. I felt the explosion of points as I got it, and  almost giggled out loud in glee as I paid twenty dollars for the candle  from some broke magical vagrant. None of the rest of the objects on the  table were worth shit, so I kept walking, but still, this trip had  already more than paid for itself. My next find was on a table full of  minorly enchanted jewelry, and this one was actually semi expensive.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Pendant  of Amethyst- F rank. A mystical focus belonging to the princess of a  far off world. Allows limited dimensional travel and augments spells  cast through the pendant. Other abilities specific to the bloodline of  the Gemworld royal family. Locate the rightful owner, Amy Winston, to  unlock more functionality.]

That was...insane.  But I paid for it immediately, obviously. Something like that was an  amazing ace to have up my sleeve, and once this whole insane party thing  was over I was absolutely going to check out 'Gemworld". It sounded  awesome. Plus I would definitely be tracking down Amy Winston. I'd never  fucked a princess before, and I was absolutely going to change that.

The  pendant put me at a hundred forty thousand points and I picked up a few  other things that netted my another ten thousand total. Nothing as  impressive as the first few items I bought. A pair of boxes that could  teleport things between them, shielding talisman that worked for ten  minutes and then wore off, and a cheap enchanting text I was planning to  upgrade so I could learn to make my own magic items to use as  materials. Most of it was I rank and luckily it only cost a fraction of  my cash to get it all.

Other than that I didnt find  anything good. The few pieces that had looked alien were space junk or  deliberately designed to look that way, not worth the price at all and  as I packed up all my new stuff I scanned the room with appraisal to see  if I could pick up anything else that might be useful. I didn't see  anything at first glance, so I decided I'd be best served identifying  the buyers, just to see what kind of people were here. Most of them were  just random magic nobodies here to buy cheap shit, but I noted one guy  in particular who caught my eye.

[Appraisal  function activated. Treasure detected. Zachary Albrecht- H rank. A  cultist with a minor mystical talent and a fanatical devotion to the  cause, Albrecht is one of many envoys sent by a rising dark power in  Gotham to make preparations for a grand magical ceremony.]

That  sounded familiar. Granted it WAS Gotham, so there was a non zero chance  that the cultist worked for some other rising dark power, but I was  pretty sure this was an employee of Drench's boss. The timing and scale  lined up too well for me to ignore. Luckily I was able to follow him  easily enough, because this place was loud and I guessed cultists  weren't the most observant people in the world in either case. I headed  after him, but didn't stop him or anything. I wanted to see what  'preparations' he was making for this grand ceremony.

The  term didn't exactly inspire confidence in me. I wasn't excited about  the possibility of whatever this employer was casting some huge spell on  the city. I wanted to know what the hell was coming, and destroying the  prep work in this one spot might not do much to stop it. My smartest  move would be to let him do his thing and then record or photograph  whatever that was so I could show it to one of my magic sources (ok so I  could show it to Zee) and get an idea of what exactly these assholes  were doing.

I  had Waylon and Bonebreaker hang back with the stuff and the money since  they were less than subtle and trekked after the cultist as quietly as I  could. I controlled my breathing, my footfalls, my weight distribution,  even trying my best to minimize the whisper of my clothes as I stepped.  With my bodily control I was able to be as stealthy as physically  possible as I followed behind Albrecht, blending into the darkness as I  trailed after him down a subway tunnel off this main room.

It  looked like he'd been in to buy supplies for whatever his spell was.  Nothing fancy just some chalk and a bit of red sand that apparently came  from a hell dimension. Now he was checking a map as he trailed through  the dark tunnels, looking for...something. I wasn't sure exactly what he  was trying to find, but whatever it was it wasn't obvious to me,  because when he finally found it and stopped, the spot he paused in was  just like every other part of the tunnels. Messy and covered in dirt and  debris.

Despite  that he lit up when he got to it, and I slipped my phone out quietly to  record whatever he was doing. Making sure to zoom in enough to catch  the movements of his lips, despite being able to hear perfectly from  where I was. I wanted to make sure Zee would have everything she needed.  The Harvest Festival was clearly more than just a party. If these were  the same people, and I suspected they were, that little shindig was most  likely going to be where this so called grand ceremony was held. Anyone  with that kind of magic making preparations this widespread and  thorough probably wasn't planning to build the city a magic ice cream  parlor.

The  cultist poured out the red sand and began to chant. The language he was  speaking was guttural and harsh, not like German, but like it was  probably physically hurting his throat to make the sounds he was. A sort  of rasping, tearing roar, that echoed off the walls of the tunnel as he  barked it out. He pulled out a few other reagents, tossing them into a  small bronze bowl he withdrew from his jacket, and cut himself with a  nearby shard of masonry that he then tossed into the bowl with a final  roar.

There  was a flash of weirdly red flame, and then a glow as symbols burned  themselves onto the wall and floor around him. The symbols blazed  crimson before fading away, and Albrecht packed everything up before  hurrying away, looking suspiciously around to make sure he wasn't  noticed. I, fortunately, had seen him start glancing quickly, and had  ducked behind some busted brickwork to avoid his gaze.

Once  I heard him vanish down the tunnel I wandered down to the spot he'd  been standing and took a few pictures. The symbols were barely visible  on the rock, slight faded burns, but I took plenty of photos anyway.  Once I was done I tried texting Zee, but even I didn't get service down  here. I made a mental note to upgrade my cell. Regardless she would be  willing to see me about this. Maybe I could get an invite to her place.  Girls were always more willing to fuck at their own houses.