Life in a Magic Item Shop
The Other Half of the Mae-West Story:
With a loud thud, the door to Quel’Rose's storeroom opened up, as Wendy stumble-walked back into the main foyer of her adoptive mother’s magical tower; her arms full of an assortment of magical trinkets. Held in her left hand was a Winged Mask, a magical mask that provided at-will flying...so long as you remembered to reactivate the mask every few minutes. In her other hand, she held a traditional Broom of Flying, which, while it didn’t require reactivation, currently with bulky, and difficult to carry. Wrapped around her arms was a Winged Vest, and the Cape of the Dragon, both useless bundles of silk that had simmaler magic to the other items, but alas, rather then fly her up, simply weighed her down with over a quarter of her body weight in silk and wool.
Bursting through the door from the storeroom, Wendy simply let out a “Found it!” in her best professional tone of voice...but received no response. Curious, Wendy tried to raise her neck above the bundle of magical items, before simply dropping the pile of enchanted silk upon the ground, and looking around at what she perceived to be an entirely empty magical tower; with neither her mother, nor the customer she had been speaking to in sight.
However, Wendy was not stupid. Just because her mother chould not be seen with the naked eye did not mean she was not around. And so, Wendy began her line of inquiry. “Quel’Rose?” Wendy asked out into the void of the empty tower. When no response was heard, it was a simple matter for Wendy to cast a See Invisibility spell. Still nothing. Wendy followed this up with a simpler Detect Thoughts spell, an even simpler Detect Magic, and even ramped things up with Arcane Sight. All nothing, though she was forced to call off her Arcane Sight as the entire tower lit up like a flair under night vision goggles.
Dispelling her magic, Wendy took one last look around with her natural eyes. Still nothing. Wendy spied some diamond dust her mother had left of the counter; that, and the fact that the door to the tower had been left open, meant that Quel had not gone far. Still, the idea that Quel had simply gotten up and left without any warning worried Wendy. Grabbing a scroll of Etherealness off one of the shelves, Wendy turned herself Ethereal in the hope that perhaps Quel was simply showing their customer one of there planar travel options. Alas, as her body became fully transparent, the magical shop around her did not change, and neither did her mother appear, and Wendy let out a heavy sigh.
Wendy was just about ready to prepare a scrying spell in order to locate her mother when the sound of marching boots and a thick walking stick caught her ethereal ears. Turning her head towards the sound of the noise, Wendy noted a trio of sailors making their way into her mother's magic shop. And they had weapons.
The first sailor, standing to the left of the group looked fairly standard, white shirt, leather pants, with a sword in his hand. However, the weapon is what made him special..his cutlass glowed with magic, and dripped black, evil goblets of blood onto the Quel Rose's clean floor. The sailor scanned the magic shop, his attention clearly on something beyond the multiple thousands of gold worth of magical items; his eyes focusing on a point above the counter. The sailor squinted. “There!” he said; as he pointed his sword towards where his eye had landed. “Do your thing, Brian.”
The sailor to the right of the group stepped forward. He was a tiefling, and dressed in robes, it didn’t take a mage to recognize one of their own. However, rather then let loose a fireball, or lighting bolt, “Brian” simply conjured a silvery, see-through ray, up towards the location that his comrade had pointed out. Wendy’s eyes followed the silvery ray, as it snaked its way up to above the countertop. It moved and extended slowly, like an ethereal lockpick, before landing on a barely-visible magical sigil etched above the countertop..a sigil that not even Wendy had noticed in her time working here! As the silvery ray approached the sigil, the magical symbol glowed with intency, causing the magical ray that the Tiefling had summoned to move quickly, landing directly upon its target as it seemed to engulf the sigil, causing the magic withen to quickly dim.
With the dimming of the sigil above the countertop, Wendy watched with amazement as the rest of the smaller sigils around their magical item racks appeared to flicker and go out alongside it. It only took Wendy a moment to process what happened: with the (former) master Sigil out, it didn’t matter if they triggered the smaller sigils around the shop or not...they wouldn't be able to activate!
As the silvery ray spell retracted into the hand of the smug tiefling, the third sailor spoke. He had long blonde hair, blue eyes, and a perfect complection; like he was a Prince Charming, lifted right out of a fairy tale. Yet, he appeared to have none of his storybook’s doppleganger’s charisma....he simply produced a pair of chests, seamingly out of nowhere, and handed one to each of his companions. “Sack the place!” he ordered. “ Grab the smaller shit first!”
Wendy’s ethereal form ducked behind a desk as the two men fanned out to opposite sides of the shop, and began stuffing items into the chests they brought. Wendy could clearly tell the chests were magical...as the tiefling appeared to dump an entire rack full of magical weapons into it, while the sailor with the blade appeared to be ransacking the potions rack. All the while, Prince Charming walked over to the door, and..while not closing it completely, closed it most of the way; whilst grabbing a loose metal vial and proping the door open ever so slightly. At the sight of this, Wendy began to make her way over to the group, still Ethereal. She was aware why he had done this. And it gave her an idea.
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Jack took the sack that Olbergro handed to him and made his way over to the rack full of potions and other liquids. Ripping open the magical chest, his first instinct was to simply shovel all of the bottles into the sack. Alas, the glass bottles containing the valuable liquid prevented such a brute force approach, thus forcing Jack to grab the bottles, two at a time, and directly place them inside the extradimental chest, taking care to make sure the fragile bottles didn’t break, before reaching out to grab another pair. And again. slow and Steady. And he hated it! Grabbing another two bottles, he looked over at Brian..currently in the process of stuffing entire racks worth of magical weapons into his sack with imputy.
Shure, magical potions were small, and easily sold, but each of those magical weapons was worth the price of a small house! He looked back towards Olbergro by the door, who simply responded with a gruff nod back towards the potion vials, an order that Jack grungently obeyed. Two more potions into the bag. Then 6, then 8. Meanwhile, Jack saw Brain loot, ten, twenty, perhaps even thirty different magical cutlasses...each of them more enticing than the last! If only there was a way to make this go faster! Then he chould finish with these dumb potions, and move onto the good stuff!
Looking towards the rack of potions that he was in the process of looting, Jack noticed that his hands hovered over a pair of potions...one green, and one yellow. Curiously, he checked the labels. The green potion was labeled “Haste” with the description “For a speed boost when it matters!” The yellow potion’s label was particularly ripped, and read “Time Stud-” with the description “For an exciting chance of speed!” Intrigued, Jack popped the cork on both potions, before downing them.
He felt the effects of the magic almost immediately. His heart started pumping faster, and the world around him seemed to slow, as he moved at super speed. He grabbed potions with effortless speed, 10-12-14-18...he could hardly even feel the potions in his hands as he packed with such efficient speed. But the table was so full of potions...still it did not deter him! He began packing with extreme efficiency, 20! 22! 24! The potions table should be done in no time! He thought, as another speed boost washed over him!
He felt the effects of the magic almost immediately. His heart started pumping faster, and the world around him seemed to slow, as he moved at super speed. He grabbed potions with effortless speed, 10-12-14-18...he could hardly even feel the potions in his hands as he packed with such efficient speed. But the table was so full of potions...still it did not deter him! He began packing with extreme efficiency, 20! 22! 24! The potions table should be done in no time! He thought, as another speed boost washed over him!
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Brian looked towards Jack...now moving with such enchanted speed that he looked like he was reaching for potions that weren't even there! “Show off.” thought the tiefling mage, as he lugged the chest full of magical weapons across the floor of the store. Brian looked back down towards the chest he had collected....it was absolutely overflowing with magical weapons of all caliber, from simple glow sticks, to Axomatic battleaxes, Keen Greatswords, and even a pair of Vorpal sickles that he figured he probably get a good price for. Altogether, the tiefling estimated he was carrying a good quarter-million gold worth of enchanted weapons. Perhaps more. Easily enough for them to retire like kings for the rest of their lives.
Yet The Boss wanted more. As Brian finished looting the last of the weapons into the magical chest, he proceeded to drag it back towards the entrance of the shop, where his boss unceremoniously handed him a Portable Hole, and directed him to keep looting. On any other occasion, a job Brain would take up in a heartbeat, but with his mind and arms tried, Brain simply took the magical sack and moved back to near where he had been standing.
As Brain moved to the next section of the shop, however, he looked to be in luck! Moving past the emptied racks of weapons, the tiefling saw rows and rows of capes, cloaks, masks, and other fairly light items. Holding back a smile, Brain reached for the first item....a white vest decorated with wings. Upon holding it, he instantly knew what it was....a Winged Vest! This would make his job much easier! Looking back at Jack, who’s magical speed had rendered him a blur, Brain correctly summarized that, apparently, his boss did not mind them using the magical items they planned to steal, in order to speed up their looting. And this vest would make things quite easier, indeed!
Brain disrobed, and strapping on the vest, prepared himself to takeoff. He placed the vest over his arms and onto his chest, and......nothing. Nothing happened. Brain frowned. There was probably some sort of command word required in order to activate it. “Go!” he spoke towards the vest. “Fly!” Still nothing. “Upwards!” he commanded the vest. No response. Annoyed, Brain reached for another item. This one he also recognized...a. Cape of the Dragon. Also another magical item capable of generating lift. Brain placed the cape across his back. “Go!” he commanded the cape. “Take off!” Still nothing. Brain saw a magical broom laying next to the display, and also reached out for a third item.....a white mask inlaid with winged symbols. Brain summarized that he had made his way to a magical flying item display. Alas, if only he knew the command word!
Brain took a step back from the display, and began to think this through. As long as he could get one of these items to activate, he would be good for the rest of their time here. Thus, placing the magical broom, between his legs, he began rattling off as many magical keywords as he knew. “Take off!” “Vroom!” “Woooosh!” “Sky!” “Blue!” “Abra-Kadabra!” “Alakazam!” “Horicalnos!” “Doritos!” All nothing.
Feeling frustrated, he began walking over to the front counter. Brain felt his bosses eyes lock onto him as he left his “designated area” of the shop, and he could almost predict down to the word exactly what his boss began yelling at him. “Hey Demonblood!” Boss whould allways yell “Where the fuck are you going?” Brain looked towards his boss by the door, his gaze barely passing over the potion table that Jack had barely cleared, and addressed his boss “Yo, I’m looking for the keyword for these damn items! What’s the name of the bitch who owns this place?” “I dunno,” his boss responded back in an apathetic tone, “Some, Quel’Rose, or Quel'Dorei, or something!” Brain gave his boss a smirk before responding, “Quel...WOOOAH!”
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Wendy watched with an invisible smile as the tiefling thief activated ALL of the magical flying items he had done simultaneously, causing him to soar into the air, and up into the tower, towards the ceiling. Such a dramatic display currently caught the attention of there leader, who drew his blade. With the potion thief stuck in a time-loop, Wendy figured now was her time to act. As the final thief moved away from the door and began to shout after the flying tiefling, Wendy, with his Etherealness spell almost out of magic, made her way over to the front door, and removed the metal potion vial leaving the door ajar. Instantly, the wooden door slammed shut, with an as an illusionary “Closed” sign manifested itself atop.
This attracted the attention of the last thief, who, rather then run after his flying comrade, turned towards the entrance way until his eyes landed on Wendy, his eyes full of violence. “You!” he shouted. “You did this!” Wendy tried her best to think of a reply...how the three of them had come here as thieves, how she had only disabled the two of them...but no words came out by the time that a blade came crashing down upon her head!
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Ignoring the plight of his comrades, Olbergro charged at the little girl who had locked them in! To reinforce this fact. He shouted at her again. “Your trapped with us here now, little girl!” He didn’t even have time to think how exactly this girl had gotten in here, and to be frank with himself, he did not care. All he cared about was getting rid of her. And so, longsword in hand, he brought in down in a smashing motion right to the top of her head. Perhaps not the best vector of attack, given sufficient time to plan, but Olbergro knew from experience just how soft, and easily breakable the skulls of children ought to be, as he brought his blade down like a mace upon her skull with a loud...CLANG!?
Olbegro’s blade impacting on the girls skull hit with the sound of a mace glancing off reinforced Adamantine, causing his weapon to resonate and vibrate from the impact, even causing some of the bones in his hand to shake slightly. Looking back towards where he had stuck, the little girl was already gone, though her voice was not. “No.” he heard the voice responded “Your trapped in here with ME!”
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Wendy moved quickly to avoid being hit by a follow up shot...moving quickly behind the target to prevent him from spotting her. As the thief recoiled from the force of his impact, Wendy drew a dagger, and lunged at the target’s back, piercing her dagger into the back of the thief, and holding on like a mountain climber as she twisted the blade.
“By ASMODIOUS!” she heard him yelp, as the man suddenly lurched back, knocking her off of her back as he quickly retreated over to the bag of weapons that Brian had acquired, before pulling out a cutlass that glowed with yellow energy. A yellow, Brilliant Energy. “I don’t know who the fuck you are,” threated the thief, adoping a parrying stance. “But this one’s gonna cut you real good.”
Turning towards the thief, Wendy responded to this threat by holding up her dagger in a defensive posture as she cast a quick spell and began studying her target, looking him up and down, and watching his every mood, as magical armor began to wrap around her.
“Don’t you stand their casting spells at me!?” the man responded incoherently, as he charged at Wendy, caching the girl off guard as he slammed the full might of his body into her, knocking her back into the far wall of the shop, and next to the countertop. In response, Wendy, as she was lying down on her back, lifted up her legs so her center of gravity was on her upper back. With this position, she pusher her legs upward, creating inertia that took the rest of her with them, lifting her entire body upward, and over the countertop. As she did so, she pushed her legs back down, essentially flipping forward to a crouching position behind the bar.
Without words, the thief brought his sword of brilliant energy onto the side of the countertop itself, cutting through the wood like butter, as he slowly approached Wendy. He reached a hand out towards the girl to grab her, but it only took a moment for Wendy to grab a hold of the handful of diamond dust laying atop off of the countertop and, throwing it atop herself, caused her flesh to harden into solid rock, so that as the thief grabbed her in his oversized, muscled hands, his blazing cutlass failed to penetrate her rocky skin.
But rather than engaging him...her new form only caused the new thief to smile an evil smile. His cutlass clattered to the floor “So, your hard as a rock too, hun?” he sneered at her. “I know just how to break you!” Wendy felt the man grasp a hold of her body with two hands, and then bring her entire body down onto the countertop like an improved mace, smashing through the remaining wood, and causing her a mighty headache. Wendy attempted to cast another spell to get out of the grapple, but her concentration was interrupted as her face was slammed into one of the nearby empty weapon racks.
“Batter up!” he yelled, smashing his new “weapon” at the remaining display racks, the wooden display tables, and even against the stone walls of the shop itself. With each hit, Wendy felt the pain more, her magical Stoneskin shattering more and more with each impact. After another solid hit against a set of armor, she ceased her attempt to use magic to free herself, and began to physically struggle against the hands of the thief. Upon feeling this, his grim begin to tighten around her, as he held her in the sort of death grip an abusive parent might to a disobedient child. “Oh you poor little girl!” he spoke, as Wendy fought to pry his fingers. “Your cant get out?” Wendy said nothing, her attention focused on her attackers fingers, as she pried, and gnawed at them. Still, the thief continued with his mocking sympathy “Your not so tough you know, all alone! You going to need to cry for Mommy?” “Oh Mommy! Mommy! Help me! I need help Mommy!”
The thief laughed another mocking laugh, and looked down at the girl in his hands. To his surprise..she was no longer struggling. Her arms had gone limp. Had he killed her already? No....he could still feel her chest struggling to breath. It was then that he locked eyes with the girl he was holding..and he saw her face. Her expression was not that of defilence, or perhaps of fear. No. on her face was that of a thousand yard stare. And then...she melted.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “ What the fuck.”
Olbegro could hardly believe his eyes as the girl he held in his hands seemed to melt through his hands, like that of an ice cube suddenly exposed to a Fireball. Her flesh and bones seamed to liquefy, as liquid spilled out in front of him, into a small...human-colored puddle with, after a few moments, seamed to reconstitute itself into the girl he had been fighting. Unnerved, Olbegro grabbed another nearby blade and took a swing at the girl, but was horrified when the blade seamed to cut right through her...as if he was swinging through water, with her seemingly unaffected. They locked gazes again. Their was another expression on the girls face now. Her eyes lit up and her eyebrows raised. Far higher than one might expect. “It’s been a while....” she spoke. Olbegro only stepped forward to take another terrified slash at the.....thing, in front of him, but as his blade made contact with the girl, she once again melted...this time, attaching herself to his blade like a liquid, which quickly made its way up his arm. Albergo dropped his sword to the ground with an unceremonious clatter...but it was too late. The liquid that had once been the girl slid up his arm, up towards his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. The last thing Olbergro heard as the monster made its way inside of him was “It’s REALLY been a while....”
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Epilogue:
Wendy looked around the interior of the shop. Potion vials littered the floor, along with weapons. There was also the tiefling screaming in terror at the top of the tower...some 50 feet up. And still, Quel wasn’t home yet! This was currently unlike her. Wendy wondered exactly what, or where, she was up too! She considered heading out to go and find her...but, taking another look around the magic item shop...reconsidered. Quel had, after all, always left her in charge of cleanup of the shop. And there was currently a lot of clean up! Smashed potion vials, left over items, the bloody spatter that remained on the door, tons! Still, it was all within her abilities. Wendy conjered herself a broom, and a wet mop. It was going to be a long night.
With a loud thud, the door to Quel’Rose's storeroom opened up, as Wendy stumble-walked back into the main foyer of her adoptive mother’s magical tower; her arms full of an assortment of magical trinkets. Held in her left hand was a Winged Mask, a magical mask that provided at-will flying...so long as you remembered to reactivate the mask every few minutes. In her other hand, she held a traditional Broom of Flying, which, while it didn’t require reactivation, currently with bulky, and difficult to carry. Wrapped around her arms was a Winged Vest, and the Cape of the Dragon, both useless bundles of silk that had simmaler magic to the other items, but alas, rather then fly her up, simply weighed her down with over a quarter of her body weight in silk and wool.
Bursting through the door from the storeroom, Wendy simply let out a “Found it!” in her best professional tone of voice...but received no response. Curious, Wendy tried to raise her neck above the bundle of magical items, before simply dropping the pile of enchanted silk upon the ground, and looking around at what she perceived to be an entirely empty magical tower; with neither her mother, nor the customer she had been speaking to in sight.
However, Wendy was not stupid. Just because her mother chould not be seen with the naked eye did not mean she was not around. And so, Wendy began her line of inquiry. “Quel’Rose?” Wendy asked out into the void of the empty tower. When no response was heard, it was a simple matter for Wendy to cast a See Invisibility spell. Still nothing. Wendy followed this up with a simpler Detect Thoughts spell, an even simpler Detect Magic, and even ramped things up with Arcane Sight. All nothing, though she was forced to call off her Arcane Sight as the entire tower lit up like a flair under night vision goggles.
Dispelling her magic, Wendy took one last look around with her natural eyes. Still nothing. Wendy spied some diamond dust her mother had left of the counter; that, and the fact that the door to the tower had been left open, meant that Quel had not gone far. Still, the idea that Quel had simply gotten up and left without any warning worried Wendy. Grabbing a scroll of Etherealness off one of the shelves, Wendy turned herself Ethereal in the hope that perhaps Quel was simply showing their customer one of there planar travel options. Alas, as her body became fully transparent, the magical shop around her did not change, and neither did her mother appear, and Wendy let out a heavy sigh.
Wendy was just about ready to prepare a scrying spell in order to locate her mother when the sound of marching boots and a thick walking stick caught her ethereal ears. Turning her head towards the sound of the noise, Wendy noted a trio of sailors making their way into her mother's magic shop. And they had weapons.
The first sailor, standing to the left of the group looked fairly standard, white shirt, leather pants, with a sword in his hand. However, the weapon is what made him special..his cutlass glowed with magic, and dripped black, evil goblets of blood onto the Quel Rose's clean floor. The sailor scanned the magic shop, his attention clearly on something beyond the multiple thousands of gold worth of magical items; his eyes focusing on a point above the counter. The sailor squinted. “There!” he said; as he pointed his sword towards where his eye had landed. “Do your thing, Brian.”
The sailor to the right of the group stepped forward. He was a tiefling, and dressed in robes, it didn’t take a mage to recognize one of their own. However, rather then let loose a fireball, or lighting bolt, “Brian” simply conjured a silvery, see-through ray, up towards the location that his comrade had pointed out. Wendy’s eyes followed the silvery ray, as it snaked its way up to above the countertop. It moved and extended slowly, like an ethereal lockpick, before landing on a barely-visible magical sigil etched above the countertop..a sigil that not even Wendy had noticed in her time working here! As the silvery ray approached the sigil, the magical symbol glowed with intency, causing the magical ray that the Tiefling had summoned to move quickly, landing directly upon its target as it seemed to engulf the sigil, causing the magic withen to quickly dim.
With the dimming of the sigil above the countertop, Wendy watched with amazement as the rest of the smaller sigils around their magical item racks appeared to flicker and go out alongside it. It only took Wendy a moment to process what happened: with the (former) master Sigil out, it didn’t matter if they triggered the smaller sigils around the shop or not...they wouldn't be able to activate!
As the silvery ray spell retracted into the hand of the smug tiefling, the third sailor spoke. He had long blonde hair, blue eyes, and a perfect complection; like he was a Prince Charming, lifted right out of a fairy tale. Yet, he appeared to have none of his storybook’s doppleganger’s charisma....he simply produced a pair of chests, seamingly out of nowhere, and handed one to each of his companions. “Sack the place!” he ordered. “ Grab the smaller shit first!”
Wendy’s ethereal form ducked behind a desk as the two men fanned out to opposite sides of the shop, and began stuffing items into the chests they brought. Wendy could clearly tell the chests were magical...as the tiefling appeared to dump an entire rack full of magical weapons into it, while the sailor with the blade appeared to be ransacking the potions rack. All the while, Prince Charming walked over to the door, and..while not closing it completely, closed it most of the way; whilst grabbing a loose metal vial and proping the door open ever so slightly. At the sight of this, Wendy began to make her way over to the group, still Ethereal. She was aware why he had done this. And it gave her an idea.
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Jack took the sack that Olbergro handed to him and made his way over to the rack full of potions and other liquids. Ripping open the magical chest, his first instinct was to simply shovel all of the bottles into the sack. Alas, the glass bottles containing the valuable liquid prevented such a brute force approach, thus forcing Jack to grab the bottles, two at a time, and directly place them inside the extradimental chest, taking care to make sure the fragile bottles didn’t break, before reaching out to grab another pair. And again. slow and Steady. And he hated it! Grabbing another two bottles, he looked over at Brian..currently in the process of stuffing entire racks worth of magical weapons into his sack with imputy.
Shure, magical potions were small, and easily sold, but each of those magical weapons was worth the price of a small house! He looked back towards Olbergro by the door, who simply responded with a gruff nod back towards the potion vials, an order that Jack grungently obeyed. Two more potions into the bag. Then 6, then 8. Meanwhile, Jack saw Brain loot, ten, twenty, perhaps even thirty different magical cutlasses...each of them more enticing than the last! If only there was a way to make this go faster! Then he chould finish with these dumb potions, and move onto the good stuff!
Looking towards the rack of potions that he was in the process of looting, Jack noticed that his hands hovered over a pair of potions...one green, and one yellow. Curiously, he checked the labels. The green potion was labeled “Haste” with the description “For a speed boost when it matters!” The yellow potion’s label was particularly ripped, and read “Time Stud-” with the description “For an exciting chance of speed!” Intrigued, Jack popped the cork on both potions, before downing them.
He felt the effects of the magic almost immediately. His heart started pumping faster, and the world around him seemed to slow, as he moved at super speed. He grabbed potions with effortless speed, 10-12-14-18...he could hardly even feel the potions in his hands as he packed with such efficient speed. But the table was so full of potions...still it did not deter him! He began packing with extreme efficiency, 20! 22! 24! The potions table should be done in no time! He thought, as another speed boost washed over him!
He felt the effects of the magic almost immediately. His heart started pumping faster, and the world around him seemed to slow, as he moved at super speed. He grabbed potions with effortless speed, 10-12-14-18...he could hardly even feel the potions in his hands as he packed with such efficient speed. But the table was so full of potions...still it did not deter him! He began packing with extreme efficiency, 20! 22! 24! The potions table should be done in no time! He thought, as another speed boost washed over him!
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Brian looked towards Jack...now moving with such enchanted speed that he looked like he was reaching for potions that weren't even there! “Show off.” thought the tiefling mage, as he lugged the chest full of magical weapons across the floor of the store. Brian looked back down towards the chest he had collected....it was absolutely overflowing with magical weapons of all caliber, from simple glow sticks, to Axomatic battleaxes, Keen Greatswords, and even a pair of Vorpal sickles that he figured he probably get a good price for. Altogether, the tiefling estimated he was carrying a good quarter-million gold worth of enchanted weapons. Perhaps more. Easily enough for them to retire like kings for the rest of their lives.
Yet The Boss wanted more. As Brian finished looting the last of the weapons into the magical chest, he proceeded to drag it back towards the entrance of the shop, where his boss unceremoniously handed him a Portable Hole, and directed him to keep looting. On any other occasion, a job Brain would take up in a heartbeat, but with his mind and arms tried, Brain simply took the magical sack and moved back to near where he had been standing.
As Brain moved to the next section of the shop, however, he looked to be in luck! Moving past the emptied racks of weapons, the tiefling saw rows and rows of capes, cloaks, masks, and other fairly light items. Holding back a smile, Brain reached for the first item....a white vest decorated with wings. Upon holding it, he instantly knew what it was....a Winged Vest! This would make his job much easier! Looking back at Jack, who’s magical speed had rendered him a blur, Brain correctly summarized that, apparently, his boss did not mind them using the magical items they planned to steal, in order to speed up their looting. And this vest would make things quite easier, indeed!
Brain disrobed, and strapping on the vest, prepared himself to takeoff. He placed the vest over his arms and onto his chest, and......nothing. Nothing happened. Brain frowned. There was probably some sort of command word required in order to activate it. “Go!” he spoke towards the vest. “Fly!” Still nothing. “Upwards!” he commanded the vest. No response. Annoyed, Brain reached for another item. This one he also recognized...a. Cape of the Dragon. Also another magical item capable of generating lift. Brain placed the cape across his back. “Go!” he commanded the cape. “Take off!” Still nothing. Brain saw a magical broom laying next to the display, and also reached out for a third item.....a white mask inlaid with winged symbols. Brain summarized that he had made his way to a magical flying item display. Alas, if only he knew the command word!
Brain took a step back from the display, and began to think this through. As long as he could get one of these items to activate, he would be good for the rest of their time here. Thus, placing the magical broom, between his legs, he began rattling off as many magical keywords as he knew. “Take off!” “Vroom!” “Woooosh!” “Sky!” “Blue!” “Abra-Kadabra!” “Alakazam!” “Horicalnos!” “Doritos!” All nothing.
Feeling frustrated, he began walking over to the front counter. Brain felt his bosses eyes lock onto him as he left his “designated area” of the shop, and he could almost predict down to the word exactly what his boss began yelling at him. “Hey Demonblood!” Boss whould allways yell “Where the fuck are you going?” Brain looked towards his boss by the door, his gaze barely passing over the potion table that Jack had barely cleared, and addressed his boss “Yo, I’m looking for the keyword for these damn items! What’s the name of the bitch who owns this place?” “I dunno,” his boss responded back in an apathetic tone, “Some, Quel’Rose, or Quel'Dorei, or something!” Brain gave his boss a smirk before responding, “Quel...WOOOAH!”
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Wendy watched with an invisible smile as the tiefling thief activated ALL of the magical flying items he had done simultaneously, causing him to soar into the air, and up into the tower, towards the ceiling. Such a dramatic display currently caught the attention of there leader, who drew his blade. With the potion thief stuck in a time-loop, Wendy figured now was her time to act. As the final thief moved away from the door and began to shout after the flying tiefling, Wendy, with his Etherealness spell almost out of magic, made her way over to the front door, and removed the metal potion vial leaving the door ajar. Instantly, the wooden door slammed shut, with an as an illusionary “Closed” sign manifested itself atop.
This attracted the attention of the last thief, who, rather then run after his flying comrade, turned towards the entrance way until his eyes landed on Wendy, his eyes full of violence. “You!” he shouted. “You did this!” Wendy tried her best to think of a reply...how the three of them had come here as thieves, how she had only disabled the two of them...but no words came out by the time that a blade came crashing down upon her head!
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Ignoring the plight of his comrades, Olbergro charged at the little girl who had locked them in! To reinforce this fact. He shouted at her again. “Your trapped with us here now, little girl!” He didn’t even have time to think how exactly this girl had gotten in here, and to be frank with himself, he did not care. All he cared about was getting rid of her. And so, longsword in hand, he brought in down in a smashing motion right to the top of her head. Perhaps not the best vector of attack, given sufficient time to plan, but Olbergro knew from experience just how soft, and easily breakable the skulls of children ought to be, as he brought his blade down like a mace upon her skull with a loud...CLANG!?
Olbegro’s blade impacting on the girls skull hit with the sound of a mace glancing off reinforced Adamantine, causing his weapon to resonate and vibrate from the impact, even causing some of the bones in his hand to shake slightly. Looking back towards where he had stuck, the little girl was already gone, though her voice was not. “No.” he heard the voice responded “Your trapped in here with ME!”
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Wendy moved quickly to avoid being hit by a follow up shot...moving quickly behind the target to prevent him from spotting her. As the thief recoiled from the force of his impact, Wendy drew a dagger, and lunged at the target’s back, piercing her dagger into the back of the thief, and holding on like a mountain climber as she twisted the blade.
“By ASMODIOUS!” she heard him yelp, as the man suddenly lurched back, knocking her off of her back as he quickly retreated over to the bag of weapons that Brian had acquired, before pulling out a cutlass that glowed with yellow energy. A yellow, Brilliant Energy. “I don’t know who the fuck you are,” threated the thief, adoping a parrying stance. “But this one’s gonna cut you real good.”
Turning towards the thief, Wendy responded to this threat by holding up her dagger in a defensive posture as she cast a quick spell and began studying her target, looking him up and down, and watching his every mood, as magical armor began to wrap around her.
“Don’t you stand their casting spells at me!?” the man responded incoherently, as he charged at Wendy, caching the girl off guard as he slammed the full might of his body into her, knocking her back into the far wall of the shop, and next to the countertop. In response, Wendy, as she was lying down on her back, lifted up her legs so her center of gravity was on her upper back. With this position, she pusher her legs upward, creating inertia that took the rest of her with them, lifting her entire body upward, and over the countertop. As she did so, she pushed her legs back down, essentially flipping forward to a crouching position behind the bar.
Without words, the thief brought his sword of brilliant energy onto the side of the countertop itself, cutting through the wood like butter, as he slowly approached Wendy. He reached a hand out towards the girl to grab her, but it only took a moment for Wendy to grab a hold of the handful of diamond dust laying atop off of the countertop and, throwing it atop herself, caused her flesh to harden into solid rock, so that as the thief grabbed her in his oversized, muscled hands, his blazing cutlass failed to penetrate her rocky skin.
But rather than engaging him...her new form only caused the new thief to smile an evil smile. His cutlass clattered to the floor “So, your hard as a rock too, hun?” he sneered at her. “I know just how to break you!” Wendy felt the man grasp a hold of her body with two hands, and then bring her entire body down onto the countertop like an improved mace, smashing through the remaining wood, and causing her a mighty headache. Wendy attempted to cast another spell to get out of the grapple, but her concentration was interrupted as her face was slammed into one of the nearby empty weapon racks.
“Batter up!” he yelled, smashing his new “weapon” at the remaining display racks, the wooden display tables, and even against the stone walls of the shop itself. With each hit, Wendy felt the pain more, her magical Stoneskin shattering more and more with each impact. After another solid hit against a set of armor, she ceased her attempt to use magic to free herself, and began to physically struggle against the hands of the thief. Upon feeling this, his grim begin to tighten around her, as he held her in the sort of death grip an abusive parent might to a disobedient child. “Oh you poor little girl!” he spoke, as Wendy fought to pry his fingers. “Your cant get out?” Wendy said nothing, her attention focused on her attackers fingers, as she pried, and gnawed at them. Still, the thief continued with his mocking sympathy “Your not so tough you know, all alone! You going to need to cry for Mommy?” “Oh Mommy! Mommy! Help me! I need help Mommy!”
The thief laughed another mocking laugh, and looked down at the girl in his hands. To his surprise..she was no longer struggling. Her arms had gone limp. Had he killed her already? No....he could still feel her chest struggling to breath. It was then that he locked eyes with the girl he was holding..and he saw her face. Her expression was not that of defilence, or perhaps of fear. No. on her face was that of a thousand yard stare. And then...she melted.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “ What the fuck.”
Olbegro could hardly believe his eyes as the girl he held in his hands seemed to melt through his hands, like that of an ice cube suddenly exposed to a Fireball. Her flesh and bones seamed to liquefy, as liquid spilled out in front of him, into a small...human-colored puddle with, after a few moments, seamed to reconstitute itself into the girl he had been fighting. Unnerved, Olbegro grabbed another nearby blade and took a swing at the girl, but was horrified when the blade seamed to cut right through her...as if he was swinging through water, with her seemingly unaffected. They locked gazes again. Their was another expression on the girls face now. Her eyes lit up and her eyebrows raised. Far higher than one might expect. “It’s been a while....” she spoke. Olbegro only stepped forward to take another terrified slash at the.....thing, in front of him, but as his blade made contact with the girl, she once again melted...this time, attaching herself to his blade like a liquid, which quickly made its way up his arm. Albergo dropped his sword to the ground with an unceremonious clatter...but it was too late. The liquid that had once been the girl slid up his arm, up towards his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. The last thing Olbergro heard as the monster made its way inside of him was “It’s REALLY been a while....”
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Epilogue:
Wendy looked around the interior of the shop. Potion vials littered the floor, along with weapons. There was also the tiefling screaming in terror at the top of the tower...some 50 feet up. And still, Quel wasn’t home yet! This was currently unlike her. Wendy wondered exactly what, or where, she was up too! She considered heading out to go and find her...but, taking another look around the magic item shop...reconsidered. Quel had, after all, always left her in charge of cleanup of the shop. And there was currently a lot of clean up! Smashed potion vials, left over items, the bloody spatter that remained on the door, tons! Still, it was all within her abilities. Wendy conjered herself a broom, and a wet mop. It was going to be a long night.
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