| Name | Oboli |
| Order | Laments |
| Progenitor | Denominatus |
The oboli are servitor demons created by the Mint That Walks. They are a bit unusual as a first-circle race, in that each one was formerly another sort of demon who was found guilty of misuse of hallowscrip, counterfeiting, or other monetary crimes. The Essence and mind of the former demon is kept alive within the hallowscrip, and folding one into an obolos causes incredible spiritual pain. So long as the obolos retains its shape (and what limited agency it is allowed), the demon is in constant pain, though not as intense as during the initial folding.
The oboli are not especially numerous; Denominatus only keeps as many on hand as are required to keep the books of the Unquestionable Bank. When one gets summoned away or earns its release, he will fold a new note of hallowscrip into an obolos.
Oboli, being literally made of money (yet eternally destitute), have an intuitive sense of economics, and they make very good accountants and gambling advisors. They make terrible bankers and gamblers, however, because their diet consists entirely of currency. Their denomination slowly erodes, increasing the pain of their folded form, but eating other coins and especially notes raises their value back up. Their hunger for money is an extremely strong urge, especially as their value gets very low, so care must be taken to isolate them from any actual money aside from their allotted diet. An obolos whose denomination drops to zero is all but paralyzed with agony, incapable of doing much of anything but eating any money that falls near it. Oboli who glut themselves and grow to extremely high denominations become stronger, more capable of resisting the pain of their condition, and often cleverer. Such demons have been known to find ways out of their slavery contracts, magical bindings, etc. and make careers for themselves. Fat oboli also find it easier to resist the urge to eat any money they come across, so it is possible, though not easy, for them to do their own business.
Oboli are exceptional in that the conditions for them to slip out of Malfeas are, first, easily reproduced, and second, capable of inflicting a type of binding that is comparable to sorcerous binding. A simple ritual involving folding money into intricate shapes is all that is required to summon one. If the summoner has done their economic analysis correctly and paid the exact value of the obolos, the Mint That Walks accepts the transaction, and the summoner now owns the obolos. If they have paid too little, the money is lost to no effect. If they have overpaid, the obolos arrives enraged, intent on killing the summoner, devouring the offered money, and gorging itself on any other currency it can find. The trick lies in determining the precise exchange rate between hallowscrip and the currency the summoner has on hand; if the summoner has a sufficient quantity of hallowscrip with which to make the purpose, it becomes a trivial matter, though such transactions are obvious to Denominatus, and he will gleefully arrive along with his obolos to punish a demon who uses hallowscrip without authorization.
Once bought, an obolos serves faithfully forever. The owner is responsible for keeping it fed, but failing to do so results only in a useless, miserable obolos (and possibly a visit from an outraged Denominatus, should he discover such abuse of hallowscrip). Upon the death of a mortal owner, their next of kin will inherit the obolos. All sales are final, and any attempt to sell an obolos will result in it becoming enraged and attempting to kill its contract-violating owner. Since their flesh is made of indestructible hallowscrip, oboli are notoriously hard to kill, though they are not much stronger than the average human. Sufficiently powerful magical attacks can discorporate an obolos, at which point it will reform on the next 1st or 15th day of the month wherever its owner keeps the majority of their wealth, folded down small enough to fit a purse or wall safe if necessary. Oboli lose half their value when they recorporate, so they are ravenous when they regain consciousness.
Possible Uses for Summoners
The most common uses for oboli are as accountants and gambling advisors. They have very good heads for numbers where money is concerned, and they display a decisive knack for winning money on games of pure chance. Unfortunately for their owners, any accounting errors they do make or bets that don't pan out tend to be major, setting their owner back considerably.
They react strongly and visibly to very wealthy people, so you can use them at the door of a party as a bouncer to only let the wealthy past. Alternately, they could spot someone powerful who is dressing down to walk anonymously through a city.
They are capable of smelling the Essence fumes of black markets, leading you to the right tea house where you could find gatherings of illicit transactions.
They can be folded up into a piece of paper that can be tucked into a folio, allowing a summoner to suddenly whip out a gang of enforcers merely by throwing their ledger book on the ground. This process is quite painful for the obolos, and they require additional food based on how long they stay folded up.
A summoner might smuggle them in a book into someone's home, only to have them slither out at night and go hunting around the house for that tasty pantry/safe.
A summoner could station them as guards at an employee entrance to a business building, ensuring that they snap up and eat any money that employees try to smuggle out or embezzle.
A summoner could establish an exclusive high end bank that has squads of oboli at the entrance so that the only people who can safely enter have great wealth.