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Message: <blockquote data-quote="simmo" data-source="post: 1368223" data-attributes="member: 9744">chapter 2 The Friendliest Shopkeep in the Cage“I need to get something from A'kin”, Littleby stated after the pony cab had set off down the road.Malkir was quite keen to get some rest after a long night at the City Barracks, but after a bit of cajoling from Serena he eventually gave in and decided to accompany his friends to the shop called the Friendly Fiend.Despite the early hour of the morning the Friendly Fiend was open for business and a bell jangled as Littleby pushed open the door. Behind the counter of the little magical trinket shop stood a tall, broad shouldered humanoid figure with a furry body, clawed hands and the head of a fanged jackal. He wore his usual black and gold robe, as well as some colourful bracelets around each wrist.“Hello there”, the shopkeeper greeted his first customers of the day with a warm smile. “Welcome to my shop. How nice to see you again good Sirs and Madam. I trust that you are in good health?”“Very well”, replied Littleby. “In fact I would feel a whole lot better if you could provide with a scroll of 'Zone of Respite'.”“But of course,” grinned the tall Arcanoloth. “What does that spell do exactly?”“It prevents dimensional travel within a certain area.” The dwarvern scholar explained. He was about to launch in to a more in-depth explanation of the workings of the spell when the shopkeeper politely interrupted him.“Ah yes,” A'kin replied quickly. “I do believe that I have one of those scrolls. I usually deal only in trinkets and small curios. But since you have started to frequent my shop, I have begun to collect the odd scroll.” The shopkeeper moved over to one of the many bins in his small shop and began to rummage inside it. As he dug through the bin full of magical trinkets he turned to the other customers who had come in with the dwarven scholar.“Lady Serena, my dear, is there anything that I can get for you?” A'kin asked as he stared at her white dress intently.“Um...” Caught off guard whilst looking at a beautiful silver pair of earing in a glass case, Serena was unsure of what to reply.“I trust that the torc is still functioning well?” A'kin asked casually as he continued with his search through the next bin stuffed to the brim with scrolls.“Oh yes, very well.” Serena looked over briefly at Malkir, whose face was blank and gave nothing away.“No sharp pains, jolly good.” A'kin said conversationally. “It's nice to hear it's working OK. Some people don't attune well to such items. You are wearing a rather powerful psionic catalyst at the moment.”“This?” Serena was somewhat taken aback by the shopkeeper's casual remarks and unconsciously her hand reached towards the torc that she was wearing.“Yes. Quite a potent bit of jewelry,” he replied as his search reached the bottom of the barrel.“Aha! I have it”, A'kin cried out suddenly as he pulled out a thin metal scroll case. Malkir who had been standing close to the front door and observing the conversation between the shopkeeper and his friends thought for a moment that he saw the arcanoloth pull the scroll case from his sleeve, but dismissed the thought immediately when he saw that there was no way for the sleeves to hide such an item.“You're an absolute saviour,” said the dwarven scholar as he manoeuvred his way between the many bins. The shopkeeper had already made his way back to the counter and was busy wrapping up the scroll case in some colourful paper.“The wizards who brought me this was traveling in a muddy landscape and therefore the scroll is somewhat smudged.” A'kin said with genuine guilt in his voice. “My apologies for the poor condition, but I believe that this is the scroll that you are looking for. Are you planning on traveling outside the city soon?”“It's always a possibility.” Littleby answered guardedly.“You are, of course, aware that you can only enter the city via portals.” He paused briefly as if struck by a sudden thought. “Then again, the Harmonium have planar man catchers and special manacles to prevent fugitives from using short dimension jumps o escape.” A'kin said with a knowing grin on his jackal-headed face. “Perhaps you should look in to the Harmonium furnishing you with some.”“It appears that we've had a couple of conversations that I don't recall having.” Littleby replied in a confused and suspicious voice. He was busy pulling his coin purse out of one of his pockets and missed seeing the mischievous smile on the shopkeeper's face.“Rumours do fly,” said A'kin as if that explained everything. “A seller of small trinkets sometimes passes his time with gossip and idle amusements.”“How much do you want for it?” Littleby asked trying to get the conversation back to the scroll he'd come in search of.“I'm not really good at putting prices on scrolls, how much do you think it's worth?” Akin asked.Littleby paused briefly to perform some mental calculations. “Five hundred gold?”“ Five hundred sounds reasonable.” A'kin said smiling. “If you'd like to sell me some of your scrolls, then I'd be more than happy to take them off your hands.”</blockquote>

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