Item: [Sin Essence] (unranked, legendary)

Manifested essence of transgression (consumable, essence).

Requirements: Less than 4 absorbed essences.

Effect: Imbues 1 awakened sin essence ability and 4 unawakened sin essence abilities.

You have absorbed 1/4 essences. Once absorbed, an essence cannot be relinquished or replaced.

You are able to absorb [Sin Essence]

Absorb Y/N?

“May I?” Farrah asked, reaching for the essence. Jason nodded and she picked it up, turning it over in her hands.

“Pretty,” she said. “I don’t recognise it.”

“It’s a sin essence,” Jason said.

“Are you sure?” Farrah asked, examining the white and gold cube. “It looks more like the holy type.”

Rufus looked at Jason with a thoughtful expression. “You have an ability to identify items, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Jason said. “It’s one of my outworlder things.”

“I’ve seen it before from other outworlders,” Rufus said.

Farrah placed the cube back on the table.

“I’ve never heard of the sin essence before,” she said. “It must be one of the really rare ones. I would have thought a sin essence would be all dark colours.”

“You have a problem with dark colours?” the midnight-skinned Rufus asked.

“I knew a guy with the sin essence,” Gary said. “Back when I was growing up there was this priest in my home town who had it.”

“A priest had the sin essence?” Farrah said. “Who was he a priest of?”

“God of Justice,” Gary said.

“Seems a little odd,” Rufus said. “What kind of powers did he have?”

“I was just a kid and it was a long time ago,” Gary said. “He was bit of a hard man, the way those Justice guys can be. I seem to recall a lot of smiting going on.”

“I could get behind some smiting,” Jason said. “Hold up; you guys have gods here?”

“Of course,” Gary said. “You don’t have gods in your world?”

“We have religions,” Jason said.

“Isn’t that the same thing?” Gary asked.

“No,” Jason said. “No, it is not. Do your gods turn up and do things? Where people can see them?”

“Of course they do,” Farrah said. “Anisa’s a priestess. We’ve seen her god show up in person. Spend some time in the worship square of any good-sized city. You’ll see one sooner or later.”

“That must forestall a lot of theological debate,” Jason said.

“If you decide to use that sin essence,” Gary said, “you might not want to tell Anisa about it.”

“Why not?” Jason asked.

“She’s a priestess of the God of Purity,” Farrah explained.

“That’s not good,” Jason said.

“You have a problem with purity?” Gary asked.

“In my world, you have to keep an eye on the ones who talk about purity all the time. Leave them be and they start rounding people up into camps, getting all enthusiastic about purging the unclean.”