Connection and Contention (IC)

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Replying as Arlar to Zhin (Sir Spikes-a-lot):

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Zhin nods to the small shopkeep. Hm... That nugget appeared to be worth quite a lot more than I supposed... I only have one other, so it seems I'll have to take greater care with it. Time to cut to the point. Taking a deep breath, Zhin does his best to keep his spines flat as talks.

"I come from a distant land, of many miles... and years... distant. It is thus that I speak no word of your tongue here. There are several spells for such uses, and I desire one. It is no large thing, no onerous task to cast it. Perhaps the gold should suffice?" Foolish, foolish, warrior, you. Now that he knows you have at least one of these worthless chunks that he so values, he may seek others... and without appropriate reconnaissance of the prices here, you may well lose a sum...

Leaning back, Zhin decides to play it calm, and pops his knuckles in a manner either threatening or entirely at peace -interpretation to be left up to the shopkeep, it would seem.

The magic shop owner scratched his head in slight confusion, and then held up a finger to beg a moment. The man cared not what land the thing was from, payment was more important. Since that was already taken care of, he needed to understand exactly what the polite monstrosity meant that he couldn't speak in Arlar's language, yet was. He cast detect magic and squinted at the customer for several moments. He saw now the figure before him had an enchantment on him, and based on the school of magic, it was all likelyhood a comprehend languages or some such. He realized this customer's time was urgent, and immediately Arlar got to work.

From under the counter he pulled out a scale, and quite a large book. He began flipping throught the pages one by one, many of which had each line neatly crossed out. Arlar feared the day the last of these lines would be. That would mean the end to the shop, at least eventually. He couldn't make the items himself, and his father who had made or traded for most of these items was long gone. Magic items were a pricey market these days, since magic in the city was so few and far between. There was alway Karl, but he charged an arm and a leg...not without good reason though. Though he was a bit eccentric, he was the best in the city. Most of the other ones were hackjobs and brigands. Still, pricey also worked in Arlar's favor, too. After all, he WAS selling the items.

"Ah ha!" Arlar exclaimed in a satisfied manner. Whoever said neatness didn't have its uses. "One moment."

Arlar placed the gold nugget on the scale, nudged around the weights a few times, and scribbled out a few numbers. Surprisingly, the nugget matched the price of the item he requested and almost exactly...well, that and the door. Arlar glanced mornfully at the splintered wreckage of his shop entry.

"Alright, so I do have what you're looking for, but it's in the back. I'm going to go get it. If you could please wait here, I'll be right with you."

The back of Arlar's shop was the opposite of the front. The front was filled with baubles and trinkets and whose-a-ma-whatsits, many held little or no magical properties. The front was a front against theft, or to get the window shoppers in. There wasn't much order or purpose other than a sort of color code. In the back, the truely magic items were alphabetically organized. They weren't labeled, but he knew which letter was where. Further, the shelves were 'Shelves of Holding'. This meant that if the letter had 50 items, or one, they all still fit. Arlar was fortunate to have dropped by Karl's one day for an order, and had noticed him dragging the shelves out to put in the trash. Karl wasn't really that fond of order, and stated he didn't really want them, he just thought they were a good idea at the time. Arlar offered to take them off his hands, almost bouncing with delight.

Arlar took from the 'B' shelf a gold bracelet. This should do the trick. He came to the front, and handed it to the spiked customer. He hoped it would fit on the wrist. The item did have a clasp and hinge, so at least it didn't slide on. Eyeing the spikes around the wrist area, it would not have fit over the hand. Perhaps it might fit on the forearm, however.

"Try that on. Hopefully it fits. It's the only one I have."