Black Zenith [Adventure RPG / Chapter Four: Fires of Heaven]

"Really?" The odd little man says as he hands Savannah the bracelets, indicating offhandedly that a pair or two should go on her legs aswell. "Tomato paste and lime? Really? Oh, well. Anyway, that is 390 gold. And i really wouldnt recommend pointing that sword towards the sky for too long - i am told that results in unpredictable and unpleasant things happening in your vicinity."

As he talks, he rummages through his bags, pulling out several linen-wrapped packages. He unrolls two of them, placing the meat within on a cutting board. Even as he takes up a knife to start cutting, he casts a quick spell with his other hand before he reaches over to reach for something inside his bags. He doesnt seem to have any trouble cutting quickly, smoothly and efficiently with just one hand. He places a small sealed bottle on the ground beside him while still holding a smaller container, which he opens onehanded, taking out a handful of the powder it contains and sprinkling it over the meat. Then he reaches back into his back, withdrawing a scrollcase, a small, ancient-looking disc and set of ornate quills, placing them on the ground and pushing them towards Mayor along with the bottle from before. "I'll even give you a hefty discount on all of those because of the old days."

SpoilerShow

Bottle of Stardust
Enchants the mayorial sash with stardust, granting it an unknown property.
Gold: 60

Scroll of Warding
Enchants the mayorial sash with Warding, making its wearer immune to death for two rounds when they are reduced to 0 health. At the end of the effect, they will fall unconscious with only 1 hp remaining. While warded against death, power is somewhat reduced and certain abilities may be limited. This effect has a cooldown time of really long.
Gold: 70

Heaven Lens
Clips the Heaven Lens on the mayorial sash, thus granting Mayor a fine badge of office.
Allows the user to shoot lazors. They deal ordinary damage but are ranged. You are now Iron Man, Mayor Edition.
Gold: 45
Looks like an old stone disc carved with glyphs, all weaving towards the center. It pulses with power.

Inscription: Powerword: Smash
Increases Power by 20.
Gold: 55

Even as he continues working, he eyes the bow Mayor presents to him. Then he seems to get a second look at it. And a third look. Then he abandons his cooking for a small second in order to swipe it from Mayor, looking it over carefully. After a moment, he hands it back.

"You're aware what that is, right?" he says. "It belonged to a famous ranger-general and hero who lived over three hundred years ago, a catfolk by the name of Kintara. Where'd you find that? Anyway, speaking of old items, let me see that hammer."

As Thunderpaw passes his simple blacksmiths hammer over, Shanterel inspects it carefully, then casts a spell. "And this. Hm. This was made by the Hammer of Kings, no question about it. Theres no telling what that means, though - it is fate magic. Incredibly unpredictable - not worth it if you ask me, but im not really known for my faith in such things in the first place." He shrugs, handing it back and returning to his cooking, now at a point where he has Watson's (and by extension, Nos') request filled. He casts a spell, then offhandedly chucks each chicken and turkey slice into the steaming cauldron atop the fireplace, tomato paste and all. What? You dont cook things like that! He pulls out another slab of meat, this one beef, placing it on his cutting board before casting a spell. It soon starts to look noticeably aged, though not necessarily bad. He casts another spell before also dumping that slab of meat into his cauldron. What up?



Savannah gained the Manacharge Conduits!

Nos gained the Wizard's Focus!
Nos gained the Waterwood Longbow!

Watson is alarmed at the price, and decides to appeal to Nos.

"Nos, old chap, how would you like to share ownership of this lovely vase with me forever? It'll only be 40 gold and you inherit a third of any of the golden eggs it lays. I'm not sure if such a vase might lay eggs, but that shant stop us from finding out!"

Watson meanwhile hands over the 265 for the Greatsword and Leapers. He stores the Greatsword and Ancient Armor in his Bottomless Hatventory and wears the Leapers.

EDIT: Edited accordingly

The leapers are not actual boots. Rather theyre a handy 'add-on' you can put on a pair of boots. Also you've been wearing the armor for a while now.

((So hey, how does Watson wield that runespear and his new greatsword together?))

Nos stares at the orb he purchased for a few moments, looking puzzled. Suddenly he gasps. "Oh my goodness. This thing actually does something! And I think it does something quite useful... let's see..." Ignoring Watson, he steps a few paces back and forms a ball of black, bubbling magic in the hand not holding the orb. As this ball starts to grow in size he slowly makes a fist around it, and just as his entire hand turns dark he grabs the orb with it, the color seeping into the orb. The orb glows black from the spell, but inside it pulses pinkish occasionally, and it contains a 'Horrible Truth' spell, which forces the victim to speak the truth when asked a question and to take some damage when they do so.

Nos grins at the orb for a moment, then he finally turns his attention to Watson acting as though he hadn't just done any of that. "What? Invest? In golden eggs!? Sounds amazing! How much did you need? 400 gold? Boy, I don't have that much gold I think maybe. Do you take counterfeit gold? Or maybe just a tenth of what you want?" He offers up 40 gold.

((So hey, how does Watson wield that runespear and his new greatsword together?))

He doesnt. he said he is putting it in his inventory or whatever.

(just tie them together)

Watson takes the 40 gold.

"Thank you, Nos, this will be a worthwhile investment. You'll soon lay your eyes on possible golden golden egg stocks! P'raps. Even I'm not quite sure."

Suddenly, Watson notices the orb in Nos' hand.

"Oh, Nos! You wouldn't mind me having a look at that orb you have there, you seem really fond of it and-- oh dear"

And suddenly Watson is on the ground, confronted by a dark aura shouting at him, the black flames getting ever closer.

"TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH GIVE US THE TRUTH"

The aura exits the orb and holds Watson to the ground, the torrent of flames of torment kept burning him. He tries to escape the hellish grip while screaming for the pain to go away.

the-VASE-doth-not-yield-eggs--- Mercy the flames!

SpoilerShow

After the flames had departed, Watson is remarkably singed. The orb is back to its original, blank color. He gets up and scorch marks are now visible everywhere on his clothing (nothing he can't fix with some sowing). He walks over to Nos and dusts himself off.

"Well that was enjoyable, that would be anyone's cup of tea, really. I'd indeed still like to know why the orb did that. I wouldn't mind explaining the vase on my half." Watson says this with a straight face while a scorched piece of silk slowly flutters to the ground.

(Just for posterity, this happens before whatever just happened up there. Or during, to be exact.)

Bohw slumps back and stretches out her legs, staying silent for a good while, she winces a little bit when Shanterel mentions "the old days", before glancing over to Myra with a bored expression on her face, deciding not to keep her waiting on a response for much longer.

"Sorry, you could say I've had a lot on my mind lately. But yeah, you're kinda right lady, a break would be nice... ideally, not in the middle of an enemy fortress but... only one way in here, I suppose. Easily defendable."

Bohw takes a look at Mayor to check on him, he holds up the Stardust and Inscription in one hand, the Knee Seeker Bow in the other. He glances over to Bohw for approval, she nods to him and Mayor perks up a bit more in glee, offering to sell the weapon to Shanterel. Bohw glances back to Myra to continue the conversation.

"Myra, was it? Let me tell you what's down there, lots of Naga, lots of Cultists and Demons, both parties seem to be fighting each other for whatever reason, I think, that's a maybe. But that's not important, what's important is that there's some kind of shiny artifact and we need it's power to vanquish the Cultists and whatever things they worship. Plus then there's this 3rd Party lady, Echo her name is, I'm not sure where she stands on the matter but it definitely ain't on our side... needless to say it's a mess. I personally suggest you stay out of it, for your own good."

She sighs dejectedly and keeps an eye on Watson and Nos, she hasn't been paying a lot of attention to those two and she doesn't really enjoy leaving them unsupervised. That is when some horrible black flame engulfs the more dapper of the two.

Bohw does the instinctive thing and starts kicking her feet to move herself back away from the terrifying inferno, then hurriedly standing to her feet and drawing a dagger, but just as quickly as the fire came, it subsides alongside Watson's cries for help, to which he brushes off casually. Bohw slowly and carefully sits back down in silence, looking much more unnerved than ever before. She is never letting her damn eyes off those two ever again.

As Watson triggers the spell Nos had -just- cast, Nos looks at him first with annoyance and then fascination. "Interesting, interesting. I can't say for sure but I think the spell is indeed working better than intended. Very interesting."

To Watson afterwards, he says "The orb did that because I made it do that. I would advise against touching it ever again, if I were you. Unless I... unless told you to, I suppose." He holds up the orb to the light and stares at it again, grinning. "Not exactly what I intended with hat particular spell, but I think we've both seen that it works quite well."
((Unless of course there was actually a really bad roll for the spell which would be pretty funny in it's own way I guess?))

"Those are fair terms." Watson says as he walks to Shanterel and gives him the 125 gold for the Water Vase. He carries it with him with both arms and holds it in front of Nos.

"On my part, I do not think this yields golden eggs, nor any other eggs. No, I think-"

Watson reaches in and touches the bottom. He finds it damp.

"-it may not do much. Shanterel, what does this urn do exactly?" he shouts out to Shanterel.

Savannah takes off her shoes, slips two bracelets on each leg, and puts her shoes back on. They had a weird effect, making it seem like there's electricity running through her. She thanks Shanterel and turns around, only to hear Watson's almost inhumane screech. It shocked her enough that she only watched as the strange black fire peeled away from him, back into the orb, and then as he spoke to Nos as though nothing had happened. "I... What."

Myra stood there, leaned against the tree trunk with her arms crossed as she listened to Bohw speak. As she explained, Myra began to grow a wide grin. Oh, this is too perfect. The winds of fate are certainly in my direction!

When the leader of the odd, newly-met group finished talking, Myra started, "Oh, my, it does sound like a challenge...But, you see, this has been exactly what I've been looking fo-" when the dapper-looking fellow suddenly burst into flames. The ravenfolk turned to the incident, only appearing to be slightly shocked.

As the man with the dapper hat- Walter- stopped being on fire and casually carried on with his day, Myra turned back to Bohw. "...So does that happen a lot?"

"Uhh...As I was saying, if the world is at stake because of these Cultists or whatever, then I am already in this. You see, I have this Coming of Age Trial, where I need to do something great for the world. I've chosen to find a way to destroy the demons plaguing this world from the source as my way to prove my adulthood. And, lucky for me, you're already on the case!"

"So how about it? Would you like a shapeshifting spellcaster who can use magic in BOTH forms on your team? I've got a good eye for magic traps and enchantments, too! You'd only be delaying the inevitable by refusing, since we're after the same thing, anyway." Myra's shameless coaxing is second to none, surely.

Watson manages to scorch himself badly for 720 damage (roll 11+5)! Fortunately, thanks to his resilient nature, the damage is somewhat reduced.

Shanterel eyes all of these shenanigans, concerned at how quickly things started exploding but hardly particularly interested in any of that. He turns back to his cooking. "The vase produces water. It is good for when you're out of other sources of water. Its not just ordinary water, though - it will rejuvenate your wounds. You really shouldnt try drinking directly from the vase, though. Here, use this." He says, tossing a small cup at Watson's feet. "For free, as long as you dont try to put wine in it. If you do, i will hunt you down and exact payment. One more thing - dont try to drink from it in combat, that can be fatal, especially near magic. Something about old, unstable enchantments interfering with new sorcery."
While talking, the curious little man flips a number of different veggies and fruit onto his cutting board, quickly carving them into a variety of shapes. Apples and melons take on boat shapes, which are then carved further to resemble small shields. Carrots and radishes are instead carved to resemble spear and arrow tips and a number of tropical fruits are carved into a number of small soldier-figurines with a quick spell. He also withdraws a large pumpkin from his bags at one point, but he quickly casts an invisibility spell on it and you dont know what happens to it next. Once he seems done, he casts a spell and then casually flips the lot of it into the kettle. What? Why would he cook a perfectly good fruitbowl?
Then Mayor offers the bow to Shanterel. He rubs a hand through his fiber-like beard as he contemplates the bow. "I cant give you much for it, really. Its more of an old relic than anything that is actually useful. The Royal Exhibition would pay well for such a thing, but i find it hard to believe that they're going to even have any kind of money during wartime... Yea, i'll give you 70 gold for it. Hm, unless... I could turn it into something else, i think, if you'd like. I'd need some spare parts, though, but those can be taken from those crossbows you got there. If not, our old friend here gets to spend those two perfectly good enchantments on his silly projects. Which would be a shame really, stardust is hard to acquire. Oh, and your stale meat should be ready." With a flick of his magic fingers, a slab of meat launches from the cauldron, and he catches it in a bowl he had put beside himself earlier, adding a few handfuls of salt on top and then casting another spell, apparently rearranging the placement until the salt seems to have been formed into a ring of 'mountains' around the central slab of meat. Despite having just been submerged in the cauldrons contents, the beef looks dry. The salt mountains look surprisingly realistic and detailed, held together by magic for the moment. You think you recognize some of them as actual mountains, but you might be mistaken.

"Beef, salt and a few choice spices for the young lady. As you can see, the exterior is dry and crunchy, but you will find that the core is juciy and somewhat rare. Enjoy."



Stats

SpoilerShow

Thunderpaw: 1300/1300
Farstrider: 1000/1000
Fury Comet ready!
Vendetta ready!
Blade of Light cd 1
Restoration Cd 3
Slowfall ready!

Bohw: 830/830
Mayor: 1512/1512
Sabotage Cready!
Selfless ready!
Hellbent Cd 13
Block ready!

Nos Reaper: 1200/1200
Kill Time: 0, 0
Calming Breath ready!
Overexcited ready!
Madness Dance Cd 6
Spell Focus Cd 12

Savannah: 1200/1200
Aromatherapy Cd 3
Absolute Zero ready!
Parasitic Relationship ready!
Wand of Healing: 23

Watson: 833/1400,
Wits ready!
Fine Wine ready!
Dragon of the Red Wine ready!
Runeguard Cd 10
Water Vase: 3 charges

Mael: 803/1000
Inner Focus ready!

Map:
[SPOILER]

Watson puts on his armor. He'll need to be as rejuvenated as possible.

"It produces water... forever?" he asks Shanterel.

"Actually it just filters it out of the air and collects it in the vase but yea pretty much. It stops when the vase is full, though."

"...So does that happen a lot?"

Bohw shakes her head, her eye shot widely open in shock and responds. "Not any fucking more it will."

She lets Myra finish talking, but her gaze never turns from the direction of Watson and Nos, still rattling a bit from spell Watson just experienced. When she does finish, Bohw's expression looks as if she is somewhat confused, being curious she decides to check if she fully understands what Bohw just said. "You couldn't of chose anything harder, couldn't you? Look- Myra, this is a whole lot of trouble you're about to put yourself into, I don't think you understand the danger of it all. They have powers that we don't fully understand and we have no reliable way of countering this power, those demons and people down there, are trying to kill us. Kill. Us. I don't think they're above torture either... and the only way to stop them is to kill them first. If you think this is some kind of fun adventure, think again, we are supposedly heroes but this isn't some kind of folk story, this is the real, waking world and most of us here have learned that the hard way."

Bohw pauses to stop staring down the two for a moment to look at Myra, continuing while keeping them in the corner of their eyes. "However, if history serves as any note, you'll wanna come anyway, to be honest any help would be well welcomed, but last time we accepted the help of some lady in the middle of a fortress... it didn't go well, put it that way. Now think about it for a moment while I check this out."

She realizes Shanterel has been talking, to Bohw herself to be precise, she raises up a finger to Myra to signify she'll be a moment, listening to Shanterel's offer and grabbing her bowl, pausing in disbelief that she's getting high quality food in a place like this. Although she doesn't eat it just yet, grabbing it in one of her free claws and looking it over with interest. She hasn't used her bargaining skills in a while she thinks, her charm and sincerity isn't the best, but if this man (if he is even man which she is beginning to doubt) is an old friend of Mayor it's worth a shot.

"Thank you-, erhm, Shanterel? Yeah, Shanterel, you certainty know how to treat a lady, it looks delightful. But before I dig in, may I make a counter offer? I'll give you both my crossbows to turn that supposed old relic into some kind of weapon like you suggest, you give me the weapon and Mayor his items, in exchange I'll give you the rest of my coin, these two, masterfully engineered firework bombs and all the spare parts left over from the crossbows, does that sound like a fair enough trade?"

With that, Bohw sinks her teeth into her steak, looking surprised when she does so, she can taste the chalky, bland magic that was used to cook it, but she can tell it was masked with another magic spell, which was then overwhelmed by the meat and salt. Needless to say she is quite impressed, she snaps out of her state to actually chew and swallow her mouthful, then shouts above all the chaos, loud enough for everyone else to hear. "And to the rest of you lot! If you're done blowing yourselves up, this kind lady has offered her help in our quest, are there any objections?"

((EDIT: I need to stop letting my posts spiral so hugely out of control like this. I mean, having a lot of words is fine but I think this is kinda overkill.))

SpoilerShow

Since Watson has the Trait "Merlin can't touch this" it should count as backstory that he initially doesn't like magic very much.

"Hmm... maybe I'll just have one cup..."

Watson takes the teacup, places it in the vase and then brings it back out, to find it full of the sparkling, clear liquid! He drinks from the cup with delight, soaking in every drop. Watson then cleans out the teacup with a silk handkerchief. He shows Nos the teacup, "Tell me when you'd like your share, although you seem quite healthy at the moment!" he says to Nos.

And with a laugh, he turns to Bohw who has made an announcement. He talks as he strolls over, "Why, I think she would do quite nicely! Having changed forms in our presence, you, Bohw, are witness yourself to an extraordinary way this woman should escape danger, if need be. (I had only seen the transformation out of the corner of my eye). Also, with her telepathy, we'll always be able to receive news of her condition, except of course when she's unconscious, for whatever reason. Granted, I am not a firm supporter of magic, but the lady seems to have some mastery over it. I think it would be a wonderful decision to have her fighting on our side!"

((EDIT: I need to stop letting my posts spiral so hugely out of control like this. I mean, having a lot of words is fine but I think this is kinda overkill.))

No! Silence! You will feed me delicious words. It has been decided.

Savannah watches Shanterel chop his vegetables, not bothering to do anything about Watson. Shoulda been more careful with anything that Nos guy touched. That guy seemed to be a living mass of insanity. Like, geez. She turns to Bohw after she's done talking. "'Ey it's only Watson blowing himself up. I ain't doing anything wrong. And uh... sure. I don't see why she shouldn't join. I mean, if she doesn't mind almost dying to teleporting weirdos, snake people, and shadow things."

"I object, miss Bohw!" Nos yells. "Nobody 'blew up'! They were tortured by dark magics into revealing their darkest secrets. It didn't work as I intended though, I didn't have a chance to question him myself... oh well." He blinks. "But no, I don't care if the birdie follows us around."

SpoilerShow

Things will be slowing down now because i am having exams.

Shanterel seems to consider Bohw's offer, examining the two remaining firework bombs carefully. "Hmm. Very well, but Mayor may only choose one of those two. Such a powerful recreation will already cost me much of my magical might." That said, he turns back to his cooking, waiting for Bohw to agree or decline.

With a flick of his hand, he magically withdraws the turkey and chicken Watson requested earlier from the cauldron. Despite the short time they spent in the cauldron, each slice is already well-cooked, and, like Bohw's meal, the fowl slices are surprisingly not wet at all, nor is the tomato paste he applied earlier the least bit diminished. Instead, they appear to have been marinated with spices designed specificially to bring out the taste aswell as enhance and contrast it. Rummaging some more in his pack, Shanterel supplies the rest of what Watson ordered, presenting it on a clean plate, nice and simple with just a touch of elegance. "No dessert." Shanterel confirms. "One course per person, all for free."
Immediately following this, he repeats the same procedure, handing Nos a similar plate within mere moments of Watson's meal.

Next up, he brings out a round dish, placing it beside the cauldron. Then he casts a spell, causing the vegetables and fruit to leap from the cauldron and land neatly arranged on the dish. The result is a fruitdish of rather extraordinary appearance. At the center of the dish sits a small pumpkin carved to resemble a helmet in the spartan style. Surrounding it are dozens of small soldier figurines carved from tropic fruits, standing in defensive postures, holding up shieldlike slices of apple and melon between them. Carrot spears jab from small indentations in the shields made for this purpose and radish arrows bristle from among the ranks of soldiers. Despite having just come from the hot cauldron, all of these seem to be pleasantly cool. "The world's most well-defended fruit dish is yours to command, general Thunderpaw." Shanterel says with a mock bow and a flourish as he presents it. "Do share with your allies."

Bohw practically inhales the rest of her steak, adding more and more salt to her meal and taking a bit of pride having the least elegant meal here, fitting when accounting her table manners.

She pats her belly and sighs, baring her fangs with a great grin, nothing like a good meal to put you in good spirits. "Sure, consider it a deal then, I wasn't gonna use most of those things anyway."

Bohw coughs a bit, letting her expression fall back to normal while glancing over at Myra. "And you, looks like you're in, don't let me down now girl."

With her meal finished, she stands up and tosses her crossbows to Shanterel, taking out one of Daril's revolvers from her satchel and checking the amount of rounds left. "Give the result to your friend here Shanterel; Meanwhile, you Myra -or anyone else for that matter, if you got nothing better to do, come with me, I'm gonna meet that guy who is apparently downstairs."

(EDIT: Made the whole post more clear, my sloppiness really shows when I rush.)

Savannah looks between Bohw and Shanterel. It was a difficult decision. Food or adventure? She groans, whisking one of the fruit soldiers from the dish and standing up. "I'm coming." She turns to stare at Shanterel. "My food better be warm when I get back or... or something."

Myra scoffs slightly when Bohw mentioned the threat of death, "Caw, I know very well that death looms close along this path. I've already decided that I can't just stand by while this darkness takes over everything."


With Nos, Watson and Savannah giving their approval, Myra's grin has returned and the ravenfolk nearly hops in place. Luckily, she remembers quickly enough that she's not currently a bird, and would look stupid hopping in place like that as a human. "Good to be working with ya," is how she responds instead.
She gives a nod to Shanterel and says to him, "Thanks for earlier, Shanterel! I hope we meet again!"

Her business taken care of, Myra stretches her arms before following Bohw back underground.