Raven deepens her focus. What does she see?

Hey, uh, you know how when you suddenly got access to witch stuff it was cool? What if everyone suddenly got access to everything? That'd be even cooler, right? 🝝 sure thinks so. Raven can help if she isn't squeamish. She could pick from things like a talisman for not dying and for growing extra eyes, a key to anywhere, a sword that's a portal, a candle that helps with alchemy, lots of cool stuff. It'll be great.

Okay but 🝝 won't let Raven see the truth of all things, unlike 🜓. Does Raven want to mistress a field of magic far more thoroughly than she normally could? See emotions and heat and look through objects? Visit the Index of Everything? A lot of this could be hers, if…

"Pause! These are offers from horrors from beyond the universe and you should not take them. There should be some other offers here also, but I guess I should have expected more Outsiders than usual given that I'm far from home."

Raven isn't zero percent tempted by whatever the "Index of Everything" is, but she knows a trap when she sees one. No thank you.

"Generally it's possible to acquire relics presented in warlock offers through other means, the advantage of taking relics here is that you can't lose them. Let me see if I can find you some better ones."

Arakiel, whose name is a sequence of phonemes and not a raw difficult-to-translate concept, is a celestial who favors silicon-based things and knowledge. For a while he focused mostly on stonecarving and lenscrafting but these days there are computers and possibly that is what he was built for all along! Truly, the Light is magnificent in Its wisdom.

Stuff he can offer includes the same glasses 🝝 listed, a magic internet router that works nearly anywhere, a mirror that allows the operation of a scrying sensor which can even do two-way communication, and a packet of nonmagical seeds for crops which don't exist here.

Oh, the higher-ups would be very interested in seeds for crops that don't exist here. What kind of quests would Arakiel assign, can she tell?

Things Arakiel favors include assisting traumatized moderators, data archival, geological surveys, concerns regarding medical device engineering, but sometimes crises come up and he will also want help with those.

Not entirely things in Raven's traditional wheelhouse, but "assisting traumatized moderators" and "data archival" are, and the life of a demigod is nothing if not responding to crises. He's not bothered by the fact that she worships other gods and intends to keep doing so? She'd have expected that to be a problem for a servant of capital-G God.

The node doesn't seem able to answer that question.

Fair enough, presumably she'll get the chance to talk to someone about it eventually whether she picks this particular patron or not. Are any other options for patrons immediately presenting themselves?

"Hey, Imrijka, do celestials have a defined stance on the whole 'thou shalt have no other gods before me' thing? I'm getting an offer from one, and I would've expected the paganism to be a dealbreaker."

"If you're being offered a deal without that as a condition then it's not a dealbreaker. And they don't have a defined stance."

"Good to know."

Hecate likes magic and is interested in having a witch's perspective on the local magic. Things she can offer include a system for rapidly solidifying mana, a deck of cards that lets her summon and resurrect supernatural beings that sign them, a set of inks and needles perfect for magic runic tattoos, and a specialized cauldron that makes it easy to brew multiple potions simultaneously and combine them.

"Ah, to be clear, some of the things you're being offered are ones you could probably get from any patron if they want you to have one. I think the way this works is that patrons can give out items donated or sacrificed to them. Kits for building, say, those internet routers, get sold all the time and not for particularly high prices, I would be shocked if any of the normal patrons were unable to offer routers."

"Huh, I wonder if sacrificing things here would be a way to make them available to the broader multiverse, the Ministry of Finance will be very interested in testing that I bet."

This one is more appealing to Raven's personal interests and more theologically comfortable for her! (Even if it isn't her Hecate.) The admin would also be happy for her to get the mana-solidifying device, get a good start on properly compensating Imrijka. If she goes with the warlock option she's likely to pick this one.

But what if, instead, she sold her soul and got a bunch of easy quests and a set of spikes that prevent death. She'd be fine as long as she doesn't slip up, and she knows she's good, right?

Four generations of Raven's ancestors await her in Elysium. No.

"That's not even a very good soul purchase offer. They should be offering you a Talisman for an appealing area of magic, not those spikes. I have a set of them myself for emergencies and they're a terrible long term life extension method, they hurt a lot."

"Maybe my soul's not worth much to them!"

"Their loss."

"Indeed."

Are more warlock offers presenting themselves, or is it time to look at the other methods?

There are more offers, but they're not particularly impressive.

There's a stellar deity whose quests would mostly take place in the vacuum of space and who's only offering a few cheap relics that add up to a much smaller package than other deities are offering. She has a few more even worse soul sale offers. Hestia is making an offer but isn't offering as good a relic selection as Hecate and doesn't have notably more appealing quests. And there are more Outsiders.