Loopshard

Once Beck had explained everything he knew about stage ten, they all split up for now. Kat wanted to visit the market and Lasse planned to talk to the survivors from his last group.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mention the wishing coins,” Beck told Adam. He had a frothing glass boot in his hand and a plate of hotdogs in front of him.

Adam still hadn’t ordered anything from Charlie yet, since he didn’t want to interrupt her conversation with Weaver, Belamouranthe, and Yenna. The wasp wasn’t really engaging in the conversation, but mostly just listening. So far, she hadn’t brought out her instrument, and Adam wondered why.

“It’s fine,” Adam said. “Everything else you told me came in handy. I was able to save Gothershall and kill all of the knights. Killing the last one dropped a cursed suit of legendary armour. The First Light worshipper in my group seemed to think it would allow the wearer to worship the Headless One.”

“Interesting,” Beck remarked. “I met a few people who changed their patrons after finishing stage ten, and some of them had completely new options to choose from. Maybe the Headless One is one of those.”

“Won’t it risk scorn though?” Adam asked. Even if not all of the Absolutes tried to kill their worshippers with scorn, it was still unlikely to be worth swapping, since the effects were no doubt permanent.

“It’s a bit different after stage ten. You can decide to continue as your original patron’s ‘Chosen’ or you can seek out other Absolutes that have an interest in you. There is of course punishment to consider, but at that point, most of the Absolutes seem wary of starting a conflict with whoever a player chooses next, so I believe the scorn players receive is not as punishing.”

Adam thought back to how the Tome Keeper had defended him with his mercury spell-tome.

“I doubt the Flayed Lady would care,” Adam said.