a customer walks in the door.)
Customer: Good Morning.
Owner: Good morning, Sir. Welcome to the National Fiend Emporium!
Customer: Ah, thank you, my good man.
Owner: What can I do for you, Sir?
C: Well, I was, uh, sitting in the Sensate library on Clerk's Lane just now,
skimming through "Rogue Hurron" by Herkel Darkstep, and I suddenly came over
all peckish.
O: Peckish, sir?
C: Conjurian.
O: Eh?
C: 'Ee, Ah wor 'sumonin-loike!
O: Ah, Summonish!
C: In a nutshell. And I thought to myself, "a little nasty fiend will do
the trick," so, I curtailed my Walpoling activites, sallied forth, and
infiltrated your place of purveyance to negotiate the vending of some fiendish entertainment!
O: Come again?
C: I want to buy a fiend.
O: Oh, I thought you were complaining about the bazouki player!
C: Oh, heaven forbid: I am one who delights in all manifestations of the
Terpsichorean muse!
O: Sorry?
C: 'Ooo, Ah lahk a nice tuune, 'yer forced too!
O: So he can go on playing, can he?
C: Most certainly! Now then, some fiend please, my good man.
O: (lustily) Certainly, sir. What would you like?
C: Well, eh, how about a little red Abishai?.
O: I'm, a-fraid we're fresh out of red Abishai, sir.
C: Oh, never mind, how are you on Ice Mephits?
O: I'm afraid we never have that at the end of the week, sir, we get it
fresh on Monday.
C: Tish tish. No matter. Well, stout yeoman, four ounces of Canoloth, if
you please.
O: Ah! It's beeeen on order, sir, for two weeks. Was expecting it this
morning.
C: 'T's Not my lucky day, is it? Aah, Beial Please?
O: Sorry, sir.
C: Red Slaad?
O: Normally, sir, yes. Today the van broke down.
C: Ah. Gablerzu?
O: Sorry.
C: Fire Elemental? Goristo?
O: No.
C: Any Norweigan demon, per chance.
O: No.
C: Danish Achairai?
O: No.
C: Double Demogorgon?
O: <pause> No.
C: Rutterkins
O: No.
C: Lemures, perhaps?
O: Ah! We have Lemures, yessir.
C: (suprised) You do! Excellent.
O: Yessir. It's..ah,.....it's a bit runny...
C: Oh, I like it runny.
O: Well,.. It's very runny, actually, sir.
C: No matter. Fetch hither the diable de la Belle Enfer! Mmmwah!
O: I...think it's a bit runnier than you'll like it, sir.
C: I don't care how




ing runny it is. Hand it over with all speed.
O: Oooooooooohhh........! <pause>
C: What now?
O: The cat's eaten it.
C: <pause> Has he.
O: She, sir.
(pause)
C: Barbazu?
O: No.
C: Yagnoloth?
O: No.
C: Nightmare?
O: No.
C: Smoke Mephit?
O: No.
C: Japanese Ugulu no Oni?
O: No, sir.
C: You...do *have* some fiends, don't you?
O: (brightly) Of course, sir. It's a fiend shop, sir. We've got--
C: No no... don't tell me. I'm keen to guess.
O: Fair enough.
C: Uuuuuh, Wensleydale.
O: Yes?
C: Ah, well, I'll have some of that!
O: Oh! I thought you were talking to me, sir.
Mister Wensleydale, that's my name.
(pause)
C: Uuh, Graazt?
O: no
C: Nycaloth,
O: no
C: erinyes ,
O: no
C: Bone devil,
O: no
C: thoqqua,
O: no
C: Xill,
O: no
C: Dretch?
O: Not *today*, sir, no.
(pause)
C: Aah, how about Imps?
O: Well, we don't get much call for it around here, sir.
C: Not much ca--It's the single most popular fiend in the world!
O: Not 'round here, sir.
C: <slight pause> and what IS the most popular fiend 'round hyah?
O: Faratsu, sir.
C: IS it.
O: Oh, yes, it's staggeringly popular in this manor, squire.
C: Is it.
O: It's our number one best seller, sir!
C: I see. Uuh...Faratsu, eh?
O: Right, sir.
C: All right. Okay.
'Have you got any?' he asked, expecting the answer 'no'.
O: I'll have a look, sir...
nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnno.
C: It's not much of a Fiend shop, is it?
O: Finest in the district!
C: (annoyed) Explain the logic underlying that conclusion, please.
O: Well, it's so clean, sir!
C: It's certainly uncontaminated by fiends....
O: (brightly) You haven't asked me about Nalfeshnee, sir.
C: Would it be worth it?
O: Could be....
C: Have you --SHUT THAT BLOODY BAZOUKI OFF!
O: Told you sir....
C: (slowly) Have you got any Nalfeshneer?
O: No.
C: Figures.
Predictable, really I suppose. It was an act of purest optimism to have
posed the question in the first place. Tell me:
O: Yessir?
C: (deliberately) Have you in fact got any fiends here at all.
O: Yes,sir.
C: Really?
(pause)
O: No. Not really, sir.
C: You haven't.
O: Nosir. Not a scrap. I was deliberately wasting your time,sir.
C: Well I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to cleave you in twain.
O: Right-0, sir.
The customer takes out an axe and hacks the owner's head off.
C: What a *senseless* waste of human life.