Lisette stared at the spot where her Guild Master's portal had been, and sighed. A deep, desperate, and painful sigh. Jaeger could almost feel the anger, stress, and madness in her sigh. Then, as if to close the door on those emotions, Lisette turned and gave him a smile.

“Now that this has happened, you are officially a member of the guild. Before, you were just an adventurer working for the guild, but now that you've met and been approved by the guild master, you're an Adventurer of the guild.”

Lisette seemed to emphasize the title adventurer, but Jaeger couldn't tell the difference. Then again, after meeting Hecate, he understood that sometimes there was more to things than what he understood. Jaeger decided to gloss over the issue and ask a burning question he now had.

“Lisette, why didn't you mention that you were so important to the guild?”

“It didn't matter. A high-ranking member of the guild is required to vet Outworlder applicants.”

“Why help me now? Nothing is free.”

“Since I've helped you before, I've decided to do it again because I think you have potential. You got the job done quickly, bringing in a Killers Chain and a slaver that escaped a guild wipe. You seem to handle things in a straightforward manner, so I'm going to be straightforward here. I want to help you now, build trust, and when you're strong, I can call on you for help when I need it.”

Jaeger let down a mental wall he had begun to build. He hadn't been sure what her deal was, but now he knew and respected her. She helped him because she saw his abilities and his value. He also appreciated the blunt honesty she had told him. No flowery words about friendship or hope. No, this was a simple build you up to help me later scenario, most of his lasting relationships had been built that way.

“I can accept that. You play fair with me and I'll play fair with you. Is there anything else you need from me for the jobs, or are we good to go over my loot?”

“We're good to go over your loot, the room is secure from everyone but Hecate. So just dump your stuff on the table and I'll get to work identifying it.”

Jaeger opened the saddlebags he'd brought with him and began piling up the loot. He started with Calico Pete's swords, unrolling them from the blanket he'd hidden them in, then dropped the gloves and the large leather piece. Finally came the bag of jewels and another bag of rings and bracelets. He only had hopes for the first items, but he didn't know much about magic.

Next, he unloaded the equipment he'd received from the raiders, the leather satchel, the gems and the strange orc vest. He knew that the satchel had to be something special, otherwise it wouldn't have been empty, and as for the gems and the vest, he thought it would be better to check them out than not.

Finally, he unrolled a blanket to show the items he'd taken from the innkeeper. First was a bone dagger, it seemed to be made of a large tooth perhaps, but it was worked to have a series of serrated hooks along its spine and its hilt looked like a shark, but with tentacles, very strange. Keeping with the theme, he also had a belt buckle with a shark octopus on it, and a single arm bracer made of leather with teeth running along it. If he had to guess, the leather was probably shark as well.

“This first pile is from the bandits, they had a small cart full of loot. I took my share and left the rest. The second pile I took from Crusher, and the last items are from the slave trader. I thought he was just a sea-obsessed innkeeper, but now I think he's something more sinister.”

Lisette moved a little as she looked at the items. She reached into a small pocket on her dress and pulled out a case. Opening it, she took out a pair of glasses and put them on with a whispered word. She quickly went through the piles, pushing some to one side and others to the other. Once she had three piles, she took off the glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

“Phew. I've got these in three piles, this first pile is mundane,” she pointed to a pile of mostly rings, bracelets and jewelry. “This second pile is slightly magical, utilitarian stuff, useful but unlikely to attract much attention.” There were only eight items in this pile, the gloves, the vest, the belt buckle, and five rings. “Finally, we come to this pile, it's the highly magical and/or cursed." This had the swords, the large leather piece, the satchel, the bone dagger, the bracer, and a few bracelets.”

Jaeger collected the mundane items and put them away. Then he looked at the other piles.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Tell me about the slightly magic items.”

“The rings all improve one of your stat groups. The vest can take the form of any garment, as long as it is outerwear. It seems to mend and clean itself; I'd have to do an individual test to measure the strength, but it may be indestructible. The belt buckle has three different effects, but only one works at a time. It can give you shark-like skin, shark-like teeth, or the ability to secrete poison. I put it under mildly magical because there are stronger magical belts. The gloves are interesting, though, as they give you almost perfect control over your hands. It doesn't sound like much, but for wizards and alchemists it might be better than a divine staff.”

“Why is perfect hand control good for wizards?”

“To cast a spell, a wizard needs three things: a verbal phrase, a focus to cast through, and a physical movement. The more complex the spell, the more complex the verbal and physical movements need to be. This is further complicated by the need to have a focus, so you're stuck trying to sign and hold something. That's why there's no fixed focus for wizards, I use a wand,” Here she tapped her bandolier of wands. “But I've met wizards with staves, swords, bracelets, and rings. A smart wizard could make these their focus and take their magic game to a whole new level.”

If his guns still had powder and shot, these gloves would have been perfect for reloading and his marksmanship. As it was, however, they might be useful, but not necessary for him, at least not for him to wear.

“Then take it to Lisette.”

He tossed the gloves into her lap, and she seemed startled.

“Don't look so shocked. You just gave reasons why they're perfect for a wizard. I don't think it was your plan to convince me to give them to you, but you are a wizard, so they are perfect for you. Take them as a gift from me to you.”

She hesitantly reached for the gloves before taking them. With a determined nod, she looked at him.

“Thank you, I wasn't trying to convince you to give it to me, but I'll take it. Like I said, it will greatly improve my magic and bring me one step closer to my goal.”

Clearing her throat, she put the gloves away and looked back at the pile of loot.

“What about the rest?”

“I'll take the vest and the rings. It'll be nice to have a jacket I don't have to worry about, and the boosts to my abilities seem like they'll be useful. I'm not sold on the belt yet. The idea of having shark skin sounds nice, though, so I think I'll stick with it for now. Now let's get to the good stuff, these items were powerful enough to warrant the use of analysis cards. As a side note the guild does keep records of the analysis cards, it helps us tie down sets and keep track of cursed items. Speaking of.”

“The high magic items, the cursed ones first. I don't recommend keeping or using any of them, but you have a bone dagger and a bracelet. Here's the card for the dagger. I don't think you can or should sell the bone dagger, it might be best to give it to the guild to study and destroy.”

Sacrificial Dagger of Greeth

[cursed]

A dagger given to worshippers of the mighty primordial lusca, Greeth. It offers a taste of the mighty lusca's power.

When drawn, the wielder must resist a bloodthirsty curse. Failure to do so, or the voluntary infliction of the curse, will plunge the wielder into a blood frenzy, unable to distinguish friend from foe. Everything is meat.

Damage dealt is increased and some is returned to the wielder as healing.

The curse is broken when the dagger is removed from the wielder or after a certain amount of time has passed. Time is determined by level of failure or level of devotion to Greeth.

Witness and accept this taste of my mighty thirst, and bring me more sacrifices that I may quench my thirst.

Lisette looked at him as he read over the card, trying to gauge his reaction to the information. He simply nodded.

“I don't want anything that will affect my self-control. Will the guild confiscate it or will I be compensated? Also what’s a lusca?”

The tension left her shoulders at his answer, she'd been ready for him to claim the dagger for himself.

“A Lusca is a shark octopus monster, they are evil predators, rulers of the ocean. Most people only see the young ones, but there are older ones and even a primordial one as you can see. It's an evil entity, bad news all around.”

" The guild has a standard price we pay for cursed items; it's not great, but it's decent. If the curse is broken and the weapon becomes usable, the guild will also offer the finder first rights or a portion of the purchase price if the weapon is sold." She takes a deep, possibly relieved breath and continues after his decision.

“Now we come to the bracelet, its curse is more inconvenient than deadly. Read for yourself.”

Armory of the Armiger

[cursed]

A bracelet that once belonged to a royal family. The royal family died defending their lands from apocalyptic destruction, but this bracelet survived. Having developed a low consciousness, it curses anyone who wears it to never wield a weapon it has not consumed, believing that only it can protect its wearer.

Cursebound, once on, it won't come off until the wearer dies.

The Armory can hold a number of weapons equal to the number of beads on it. Once placed inside, the weapons become unbreakable and linked to the bracelet, and has a resummon ability.

Weapons not placed inside the bracelet cannot be wielded.

Requirement for placement: Bearer must be fatally wounded by the weapon.