Broken Lands

Sophia turned to leave.

“Before you go,” Aymini stopped her, “go talk to Vramt about the Shard of Kestii. We’ve been talking, and he’s willing to trade a set of his old armor for it. It’ll probably fit Dav better than it will fit you, but he can adjust it if you two decide it should be yours. For the Fragment, I recommend talking to Arryn; neither Vramt nor I have an immediate use for a Fragment. It’s probably worth more in a place with more enchanters.”

“An alchemist can’t use it?” Sophia was pretty sure that alchemists could use almost anything, and the Fragment had promised to be useful to counteract the Ruins Constrictors that were common in the area. “Maybe a poison for the Ruins Constrictors?”

Aymini shook her head. “I can probably make something that kills them and still leaves the meat edible with it, but there’s not that much reason to. Vyk has a pretty easy time hunting them when they come close enough, so it’s not that worthwhile. I’d probably use it for a Potion of Unrestricted Breathing, Escape Oil, or to make a snake antivenom. The first two are fairly straightforward; the last would be harder since the Ruins Constrictors aren’t venomous, but the fact that they’re snakes would let me make something that would work specifically against snake venom. The thing is, I haven’t used up the last Fragment I have from a Ruins Constrictor nest. I just don’t use it that often.”

“No one else can use it?” Sophia had somehow expected the Fragment to be valuable, though probably not as valuable as the slab of bronze they’d gathered from the monster-maker they’d found with the Shard.

Aymini shrugged. “There are some who can, like Vyk, but they already have their own. Ruins Constrictor Nests aren’t common, but there’s generally one or two a year that is close enough to Fallen Kestii to be concerning. Vramt and I clear those out. The one you found might well have gone that way if you didn’t clear it, but you did. We sell them to merchants. Arryn gives fairly good prices for them, but he gives pretty decent prices for everything.”

“Would it be better to wait until we’re in another city to sell it? I think Arryn said we’re headed to Casterville; that should have enchanters, shouldn’t it?” Sophia didn’t really like the idea of selling everything to Arryn without checking prices elsewhere. There was every reason to assume they wouldn’t be the same, and if Arryn knew there were a lot of Fragments available here, they were probably less valuable here than elsewhere.

“There will also be a lot of other Teams trying to sell things,” Aymini countered, “but they may well not have Ruins Constrictor Nest Fragments. That means they’re a bit less valuable to enchant with but they’re also less common. It’s hard to say, but if you have enough to buy the charms you want, it’s not a terrible idea to hang onto it for a bit.”

Sophia nodded, then realized there was a question she hadn’t asked that she should have. “Is there anything else you can make for me that would be helpful? I wouldn’t know about the sterilization oil if Arryn hadn’t mentioned it.”

Aymini smiled at Sophia. “You might as well take a seat. This could take a while. I assume you aren’t interested in contact poisons that would work on monsters? They’re useful, but they have the same effect on you if you touch them accidentally so they are usually best on weapons designed to use poisons, unless you have a poison-related Ability.”

Sophia shook her head. She knew of people who used them, some quite successfully, but she didn’t have the training and she didn’t think Dav did either. She also wasn’t sure his healing beacon would do anything about it if they did get poisoned. If it would, then poisons might actually be worth using. If it didn’t, it probably wasn’t worth the risk.

“Then how about stimulants? The basic ones just help you stay alert when you’ve been on your feet too long…”

It took hours to go through everything Aymini could make. Most of it either had drawbacks Sophia wasn’t interested in, like the potential for addiction or a blast radius farther than the alchemical grenade could be reliably thrown, wasn’t useful, would take up too much space in her pack, or simply cost too much. That still left a lot of things to buy from Aymini.

It didn’t help that Dav showed up less than an hour into the discussion. Aymini insisted on going over everything she’d already covered with him, and Dav ended up picking up a couple things Sophia had passed on, including both a lightning grenade and a “poison gas cloud” glass canister that Sophia worried about causing more issues than they solved. Dav promised to use them responsibly, and Aymini backed Dav up with anecdotes of both items used well. Sophia had to concede, but she still wasn’t going to get them herself.

They didn’t pick up any healing potions because she had some from home and they were less effective than Dav’s healing beacon. Mana potions were more interesting, but after they found out that it was closer to a boost to mana regeneration than a direct mana infusion, they decided it wasn’t worth it. Sophia didn’t mention the fact that she wanted to teach Dav at least enough mana control to be able to supply her with mana, but that seemed like a far better option since his only use for mana at the moment was the healing beacon.

Other than that, it was open season on alchemy. Matches, flares, energy drinks, a basic antidote/antivenom, monster repellent, a pepper bomb, some scent reducer and a few chameleon potions, several stunning light flasks, some potions of improved eyesight and a pair of potions of fire resistance were all on the list. They passed up significantly more items than they bought; they simply didn’t have room to carry them.

Neither of them entirely trusted that they’d remember everything they had, either. They’d be better off buying items for specific situations and generally depending on their own abilities to get them through most of the time than trying to carry an arsenal that could handle everything at all times.

When they were done, they headed over to Vramt’s room. The armor he was willing to trade for the Shard of Kestii was laid out on the floor. It wasn’t like any armor Sophia had ever seen before; it was mostly mail, but the chest, back, and limbs had stonelike plates, closer to very large scales than the large expanses Sophia thought of as “plate armor.” It would be relatively mobile, if it wasn’t too heavy. “How much does that weigh?”

“More than I’d like,” Vramt admitted. “It worked well for me because I’m a stone mage; that’s why it’s covered in stone plates instead of metal ones. The extra weight is useful, even, since it doesn’t make it harder for me to move but makes it harder for others to move me.”

“I’m not a stone mage,” Dav noted. “I can’t do that.”

Vramt nodded, then gestured towards the armor. “Touch it, let’s see how bad the weight and fit are for you.”

Dav turned to Sophia, as if he was asking if he should go for it or if she wanted it. Sophia was in armor; it might be light, but between it and her new Aura Armor Ability, it seemed to make more sense for Dav to get new armor. He didn’t have any. She waved her hands at him to tell him to go ahead.

Once Dav touched it, so did Vramt.

Dav seemed surprised when the armor separated and flowed around him, quickly fixing itself in place as best it could. Armor-donning enchantments were fairly rare in her experience, but she’d seen them. Dav remained standing there for a long moment after the armor finished moving. He seemed more puzzled than anything.

Sophia had to suppress a giggle; he looked like a kid playing dress-up in his father’s armor, since Vramt was at least half again his height.

Vramt frowned and the armor started to shrink. It was clear that he had control of the metal as well as the stone, which told Sophia that calling him a “stone mage” was a misnomer. Stone might well be easier for him to work with, but he was far more capable than only stone. “You’re lucky this has a better-than-average enchantment for adjusting to different sizes. The set before this didn’t, but I acquired this set during the fight against Catshold. Custom-made armor takes more time, and the spiritual burden of a size-adjustment enchantment is relatively light, so that’s what they did.”

“Are you sure you won’t need it?” Dav seemed absolutely amazed as the armor shrank to fit him. “I know you and Aymini are two of Fallen Kestii’s strongest defenders.”

Vramt chuckled. “I haven’t worn it in years. It’s useful when I’m exhausted or running from fight to fight and have to watch my mana consumption, but for Nest clearance on a new Nest it’s not even very helpful; I have spells that are better protection. I’ll be fine. Ah, there we go. How does it feel?”

The last step of the shrinking was that the armor fitted itself closely to Dav. He shifted his shoulders, then started testing the limits of his movement. It took a few minutes, but Sophia knew better than to hurry him; getting the fit of armor right was the only way to avoid raw patches or an unfortunate surprise from not being able to move quite as far as you thought you could. The armor seemed good to Sophia, as far as she could tell from the outside.

“It’s pretty flexible,” Dav admitted as he finished, “But it’s really heavy, especially on the arms. I’m not sure how long I could wear this without getting too tired to fight well.”

“I expected that,” Vramt admitted. “I’m sure you did too. That’s one of the reasons for the enchantment that assembles the armor on you; that way, you can carry it elsewhere and only put it on when you need it. The other thing you can do, though it will take time, is replace the material in the plating. I had that enchantment added to let me add the stone, but you’ll probably want metal. If you can get it, enameled azurite is a good choice. I’m not sure if you’ll be able to get it to affix properly without a few levels; it depends on how well you can bond to the armor. You may not even be able to adjust the plates at all at your level.”

“At my level? What does that have to do with anything?” Dav looked just as puzzled as Sophia felt.

Vramt paused, then shook his head. “I guess you’ve never attuned an item, have you? This is attuned armor; that means it only works for the person attuned to it. I had to command it to move and shrink. If you’re not attuned to it, it’s purely mundane for you. You can still wear it, but none of its enchantments will work. At Level One, you have several attunement slots, but I’m not sure you have enough for this armor. Each level you get will expand your attunement slots, which means you can either attune stronger items or simply more of them. Most permanent items require attunement. That’s how they know who to listen to. You wouldn’t want an enemy to be able to command your armor to remove itself, after all. Give me a bit to break my attunement and we’ll see if you can attune it or not.”