Tough Save

D20 + 6 = 26 (20)

Success!

Adam awoke with a gasp from his dreamless sleep, feeling the burn rushing through his entire body. He rolled out of bed, falling onto the floor, grunting as he landed on the floor. He was hot, as though he had stepped out of fire, and he knew the feeling since he had done so once. After a moment, the feeling passed and he was back to normal.

‘What the hell was that?’

Arcane

D20 + 8 = 24 (16)

Success!

Feyded, otherwise known as magical sickness, was a disease that sometimes took to one’s body after learning too much magic in a short period of time, usually affecting those enchanting. It would reduce one’s Mana daily, and upon reaching no Mana, it would harm the mind of those afflicted. If they survived, they would be healed of the malady.

‘I should have taken another level into Guardian,’ Adam thought. The next level of Guardian made him immune to such diseases, and would be useful to allow him to continue working hard whenever he would like to. He also cursed himself, having already thought that he was going too quick. He needed to relax, spend some time to himself. Plus, he could always wait to see what rolls his Omen would allow him, as rolling well or poorly could allow him to affect his life.

Omen

2, 5

He looked over to the sword, which was now filled with the gem dust, though it had become a part of the weapon, taking form where the empty runes once were engraved. ‘I could have made something which fit the runes…’ He thought about what kind of magical effects his blade could have had for Strength, Luck, and Heart. He didn’t ponder on it for too long though, as he had so little to do for the next week that there was no need in spending it thinking.

He went to have a quick bath, changing into his Iyr clothes, since they were comfortable, and then made his way down to the guild. He thought about whether or not he should grab a new set of clothes, considering he had the money now and his old clothes were slightly torn. Plus, he had the most wonderful idea when noon would come.

He went down to the guild to grab some food, greeting Emma and then finding himself a corner to eat at. He noted the number of parties here, only some of them he recognised from the days before. Breakfast was some soup, an adventurer had slain a boar recently and the stew was cooked overnight. It was delicious and salty, though he ate quickly.

As he looked around, he noted there were a few mages with the various parties. He wondered what kind of mages they were, if they were Wizards or Sorcerers, but decided to not leer too much in case he started an issue. There was no need starting a fight at the guild, he had already done so the last few times he was here.

He walked to the centre of town first, wanting to see what else was there at the moment. He kept all of his gems with him, in case he found anything he wanted to buy that would cost a fair chunk of change. He had been gone for a while, roughly two months if one were to include the time he spent smithing, and he wanted to see if there was anything new on offer at the centre of town.

There were a number of merchants around, selling all kinds of wares. From cloth, to wood carvings, to jewellery, and even arms. There were many superfluous items about, though he didn't seem keen on most of them. He did find a merchant that sold specific types of leather and cloth though, which intrigued him.

The merchant was a human woman, her skin a bronze tan. She had dark hair and dark eyes, though not quite in the Iyrman way, as she had a little more colour with her eyes, just a little bit of green when the light hit right. She wore a long piece of loose cloth around her, like a red snake coiled over her body. She also had a bracelet on her wrist, and a collection of rings on her other hand.

"Morning," Adam said, "what kind of leather is this?" He pointed to a small patch of leather, which was bright red. It was about the size of a dinner plate, fairly small.

"This is salamander leather, though not any salamander, the red salamander of Itol." She smiled at him.

Nature

D20 + 4 = 20 (16)

Success!

The red salamanders of Itol were quite a powerful beast. They would often travel in packs of three, six, or nine. They lived in the sand kingdom, typically, and were quite the nightmare. They were about the size of a wolf, though they were far more fierce, as their jaws could crush a man in half.

"How much is it?" Adam asked. He would like another pouch to keep some of his gems inside, though he had thought about a pouch to keep an emergency stash, or to make the leather into something more fashionable, like accents to his belt and such. He still had his rhino-belt, which he never thought of, so perhaps a pouch would be better…

"Twenty gold for this size," she said.

"Do you have a larger piece of it?" Adam asked.

"Not for the red salamanders. What purpose would you like for your leather?"

Adam thought about what would be useful. What did adventurers need to use daily or near daily? He had a scabbard already, which did its job fine enough, and he had a pack. Perhaps a small pack to keep stuff in? What else… ah, that's right! One thing Adam used daily!

"I'd like some leather to make a pack, as well as some leather which would make a pair of comfortable boots." Boots were important to all adventurers, as boots would determine how long one could move in a day. He liked his current boots, sure, but he wanted something he could walk in all day, and a pair that revealed to others he was probably a more experienced adventurer than he already was. Or, at the very least, just a comfortable pair of boots.

“For a pack, something like this,” she said, revealing a large roll of black leather. “It’s durable, won’t break apart like some leathers might over time. I won’t claim it’s resistant to stuff that adventurers may have to face on the daily, but it won’t break apart if it took a quick dip into some acid.” She smiled. “It’s black cobra leather, and this much is worth close to twenty gold.” She placed the roll of leather over the counter.

She then checked the inside of the tent behind her. “Now let’s see, boots… boots… here we are!” She revealed a slightly smaller roll dark leather, not quite black as it had a touch of grey, brown, and even a hint of green. “This is the leather of a nerogater, found down near the swamplands of Myrk. They prefer using the leather of this creature to make boots because they’re so comfortable, and they conform fairly well to one’s foot.” She leaned in. “I hear they use dragon scales on the bottom to keep their feet protected, but you didn’t hear it from me.” She placed a finger over her lips and pulled back. “This is thirty gold. How much would you like?”

Adam wondered if he could buy any dragon scales, though he doubted he could afford that. He thought about how much money he had.

Currency

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

27 Gold

28 Silver

79 Copper

7x Obsidian Disks (10G)

13x Black Onyx (50G)

1x White Tiger Eye (20G)

Actually, he probably could afford a handful of dragon scales for the bottom of his boots, among other things. He had enough to consider buying plate mail too, though he didn’t quite have enough to pay for it downright, which is how he preferred to pay for things, and so decided against it.

“I’ll take the pair,” Adam said as he reached into his pouch, felt for a black onyx, which wasn’t quite as flat as the obsidian disks, and then handed it over.

Currency

13 Black Onyx -> 12 Black Onyx

The woman seemed surprised, but gladly accepted the gem as he handed it over. She handed over the leather squares, bundling them together with rope to keep them from falling apart.

“Is there anything else I could help you with?” she asked.

“Uh, I think that’s about it.” Adam recalled why he wanted the leather for originally. “Uh, actually… do you have any flexible leather I could buy that could be used to make a couple of pouches? Preferably two different colours?”

“Flexible leather pouches? Something like this might be better,” she said as she pulled out some dark blue and dark grey leather, about one square foot in size. “These are a gold each. It’s leather from a grey elk. Don’t mind the name, you can also get the blue leather from it too. Blue elks have a different blue that you can get from them.” She shrugged.

“Ah, that’s perfect,” Adam said. “Thank you.” He slid over two gold pieces and took them from her. “Pleasure doing business with you.”

Currency

27 Gold - > 25 Gold

“You as well. If you decide you’d like some more leather, I’m here for another three days,” she said with a smile.

Adam left her be, exploring the rest of the market. He did find a few others he was interested in, though also found another store he hadn’t been expecting.

The woman behind the stall was one of those you’d find giving tarot readings. She had a scarf that covered most of her face, only allowing a little of her nose and eyes out, and wore long robes that hid her body. She looked as though she had fallen in a mass of blanket, spun around to wrap them around herself, and then stepped out to fight the day with her blanket armour.

“So you’ve finally come to me,” she said. She reached into the bundle of robes and pulled out a necklace with an eye.

“Uh, yeah. I thought it would be quite nice to come and see what you have to offer…”

“I see, as dense as always,” she said. “I think this is the point in time I ask you as to why you’ve come.” The scarf took form into a smirk, as though she already knew.

“Well it says you have spells for sale,” Adam said, pointing to the painted sign at the front of the stall. It was a fairly small stall, with a glass orb sitting atop it. She had a small tent behind her too, though there wasn’t much more to it.

“Spells and fortune,” she says. “You need some fortune in your life, don’t you? Though Mistress Fate does favour you, it seems your naturally unnatural luck is hard to overcome.”

Adam raised his brows in surprise. She spoke as though she knew him, about his life, about his misfortune. “Well… that may be the case.”

“Do not worry, little Adam,” she said. “I will hold your secrets, those that our Mistress has shared with me. Come, you want to buy Burning Hands, Blind and Deaf, Blur, and Blink from me, don’t you?”

“Uh, yes, yes I do.” They were a list of spells he was interested in, each so useful in their own way.

“Of course, because as much as you want the other spells, they aren’t exactly your, cup of tea, isn’t that right?”

“R-right?” Adam replied, sure of his response, but unsure of how she knew all this about him. Not only that, she knew the phrase he was probably going to use and then explain to her. It wasn’t a common phrase, in fact he was pretty sure he was the only one to know it.

She winked at him and then handed over some scrolls. “Six hundred and fifty gold pieces, but since you’re one of ours, six hundred gold, which is rather convenient for you, isn’t it?” She cocked her head to one side and slid the scrolls over. “And no, I don’t mind if you check.”

Adam nodded his head tentatively, checking the spell scrolls quickly, before then handing over the last twelve of his black onyx gems. Who was this woman?

Currency

12 Black Onyx -> 0 Black Onyx

Adam’s mind was racing as he bought the scrolls and then looked at her, unsure of who or what she was, and how she knew all these things about him.

“Agatha,” she said, in response to his next thought. “No, I’m not reading your mind either,” she continued, answering the thought before it came to his mind. “Mistress Fate has given me such knowledge.”

Adam could see her smile through the scarf as he put away his scrolls and then nodded his head. “It was nice meeting you, miss Agatha.”

“You as well, little Adam. Don’t forget to buy the materials to inscribe them into your spell book.”

Adam nodded, returning back to the guild, not wanting to explore any more whilst he could still meet with Agatha for the day. He felt as though he’d see her everywhere he’d go, and he just wanted some time alone after that. He didn’t even head to Marnie, just in case he’d meet her again.

When he returned to his room he realised he had spent almost all of his money on buying the spells, and he didn’t actually have enough money to transcribe them all. He could at the very least do Burning Hands, though that meant he would have several spell scrolls lying around.

‘Damn it.’

Still, having access to the scrolls was pretty useful. He wondered what other spells Agatha had, though he doubted he wanted any of them since she had been so spot on with who he was. He hadn’t told her his name, though she knew it, and though she could have seen it from his tag, she also knew he was a Fortune Weaver, or at the very least she heavily implied such a thing. She also knew how many black onyx gems he had left and… perhaps she was just using spells to figure out all that information?

No. She was too specific about him being unlucky in life. She was probably the real deal, though he wasn’t sure what seeing her had meant for him. Was this a sign?

Seeing that he was pretty poor right now, maybe that was a sign? A sign he’d need to go find another job. Nothing too intense, just enough to let him afford putting his spells into his book. He’d need about three hundred and fifty gold pieces for the other spells. Ah, he’d need to buy some ink too…

So he crept out towards the front desk, where Emma was currently working. She nodded to Adam as the half-elf approached.

“Hey, uh, Emma. Good afternoon.”

“Afternoon,” she said. “Do you need something?”

Adam nodded. “Do you know where I could buy some ink for spells?”

“We have some ink if you need it.”

“Oh, you do?”

Emma nodded. “How much ink do you need?”

“Just fifty golds worth.”

“I’ll send it over to your room and you can pay James,” Emma said, writing something down.

Adam nodded and then returned back to his room, surprised that it was so easy. Being in a guild sure was rather useful. He wondered if the guild also sold spells, he’d ask sometime later so it wouldn’t be awkward.

James appeared not long after with a bottle of ink. It was a fairly small bottle, about the size of his entire pinky finger, and the ink inside was black, sprinkled with silver and gold flakes.

“Here you are,” the boy said, handing it over.

Adam handed him the gems to pay for the ink, as well as a silver piece to tip him.

Currency

7 Obsidian Disks -> 2 Obsidian Disks

28 Silver -> 27 Silver

James smiled wide, his eyes beaming as he received the silver coin. “Thank you mister Adam!”

“It’s a thanks to you for your good work.” Adam nodded as he left. Perhaps he was tipping James a little too much, but the youngster worked so hard and brightened up his day, so he felt as though it was worth it.

Adam opened up his book, licked his quill, and then went about inscribing the spell into his book. It required some effort, but his hands and mind flowed together as he went about inscribing his spell into his book, his mind grew fuzzy as it expanded to welcome in this new knowledge.

Wizard Spells Known

Alarm, Language Insight, Mage Familiar, Identify, Magic Arrows, Sleep, Shield, Wild Gem, Burning Hands, Mirror Mage, Shatter, Locate Object, Invisibility, Fireball, Tower of Adam

Now that was a list of spells. He hadn’t realised it was so easy acquiring new spells, even if it was a little costly. He wondered if there was a magic shop within Red Oak that sold such items, as well as spell components he may need. He realised he probably should try to buy some spell components to spells he currently had access to, though decided he would need to adventure first.

Adventuring was costly business.

Tough Save

D20 + 6 = 10 (4)

Health: 164 -> 153

Adam spasmed a moment later. “What?” Adam’s entire body began to shake, as though his body was exploding from the inside out. He coughed, wincing a little as his body continued to spasm, his body screaming out with burning pain.

‘What…what’s going on?!’

The fire spread through his entire body as he fell onto his bed, switching as he clutched at his chest, squirming against the sheets.

Feyded disease gained.

‘Oh no.’ He cursed within his mind. ‘Why now?! I wanted to go and-’

Then all turned black as he fell unconscious to the disease.