Duke wandered the city, visiting every shop that caught his eye. The first was a shop dedicated solely to wands. As he wandered in the door, he saw wands on display all over the shop. His first impression was that it was far cleaner than the shop depicted in that kid’s movie. There were wands in display cases as well as hundreds of different wands mounted on the walls for browsing. He suppressed a chuckle as he entered.
Much to his surprise, he was not immediately greeted by the shopkeeper. Instead, he browsed around the shop looking at various wands. Most held utility spells of minor utility such as light or even one that produced a “cooking beam”. Duke found that the prices were much higher than expected with even the minor utility wands going for thousands of gold. It seems that prices are inflated despite the mayor’s best efforts. Not sure I can help in this case.
In the actual display cases, there were wands that were clearly of higher quality and Duke found a few that struck him as interesting. He used his IDENTIFY Ability on the ones that struck him as most interesting.
*** You have found the Wand of Slipperiness. This wand will coat an area with a slippery substance, reducing friction to almost nothing. Beings will be unable to walk, run, crawl, or otherwise move while in contact with the substance.
Area of Effect: 5-meter radius
Range: This effect can be targeted up to 30 meters away
Duration: The effect will last for up to twenty minutes. Duration is reduced based on the number of creatures affected.
Number of Charges: 10. This wand can be recharged.***
*** You have found the Wand of Earthshaking. This wand will cause a large area to shake as if an earthquake were occurring. It can cause effects similar to an earthquake such as landslides and rockfalls if targeted on areas prone to such conditions. All creatures within the area of effect will find it difficult to remain standing or travel on the ground
Area of Effect: 250-meter radius
Range: This effect can be targeted up to 1,000 meters away
Duration: The effect will last for four minutes.
Number of Charges: 17. This wand can be recharged. ***
*** You have found the Wand of Summoning. This wand will summon one creature at random. The creature summoned will vary in capability based on the amount of Mana channeled into the wand upon activation.
Area of Effect: One summoned creature
Range: This effect can be targeted up to 30 meters away
Duration: The effect will last for up to one minute per 1,000 Mana invested in activation.
Number of Charges: 6. This wand cannot be recharged. ***
*** You have found the Wand of Bleeding. All creatures targeted by this wand will suffer from a bleeding effect, causing them to lose Health at a rate of 100 Health a second.
Area of Effect: Targeted Creature
Range: This effect can be targeted up to 30 meters away
Duration: The effect will last for up to twenty minutes. Duration is reduced based on the number of creatures affected.
Number of Charges: 12. This wand can be recharged .***
Duke got the attention of the shopkeeper with a wave and the woman came over with a glowing smile. “Good afternoon. Have you found something that has piqued your interest?”
“Indeed, I have. These four wands interest me. What can you tell me about them and why are there no prices listed?” Duke pointed out the wands in the display cases.
Her smile broadened and she moved to each case, opening them with a key that appeared to be an enchanted locket of some sort. Each wand was withdrawn from the case with white gloved hands and transferred to a black velvet cloth on the counter at the center of the store.
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“Each of these is an excellent selection. This first one, the Wand of Slipperiness, was recovered by Jesul Malnor of the Bold Boulders in the boss loot chest of the eighth floor. The boss was a tremendous slug that was highly resistant to many forms of damage. It was a tremendous battle and nearly wiped the entire party. It can be used to create an area of extreme slipperiness that will likely incapacitate your ground-based foes. It has 10 charges remaining.”
“This one, the Wand of Bleeding, was recovered by Hansel Meisterburger of the Crimson Claws. He would not share where in the dungeon it was retrieved, but since he was the sole survivor of his party, I chose not to press him on the matter. It creates a bleeding effect in your foe, causing them to steadily bleed out their health. It has 12 charges remaining.”
“This third one is the Wand of Earthshaking. It was sold to us anonymously through the exchange market, so I don’t have much on its history, but it creates a powerful earthquake effect that covers a wide area. It carries a ban on use within two kilometers of the city for its potentially disastrous effects on city infrastructure. It has 17 charges remaining.”
“This last one is the Wand of Summoning. It was recovered on the seventeenth level of the dungeon by the Acolytes of Fire. It will allow you to use your own Mana to summon a creature to serve you for a limited time. It has but 6 charges remaining.”
“Thank you for the descriptions. It seems like I picked out some good ones.”
“You certainly did, probably the best of our entire collection.”
“But you still haven’t mentioned prices yet.”
“Ah, yes. This is where I tend to lose people, so please forgive me if I dawdled too long in the descriptions. The Wand of Slipperiness goes for 85,000 gold, the Wand of Bleeding goes for 107,000 gold, the Wand of Earthshaking goes for 92,000 gold, and the Wand of Summoning goes for 207,000 gold.” Her face took on a bashful look as she absently twirled her brunette hair with a finger.
“So, nearly half a million gold for the four of them. Is that right?”
“Yes sir.” She moved to start putting the wands back in their display cases.
Duke held up a hand. “Don’t put them away. I’ll take them.” He removed five Large Crystals from his INVENTORY and placed them on the cloth next to the wands. “Now, do you have something for the ten thousand gold difference?”
She stared at him for a moment before pulling a Medium Crystal from a hidden pocket. “I can give you this Crystal in change, or were you looking for something else from our collection?”
Duke thought about it before responding. “I suppose the Crystal will be fine. Thank you.”
She collected the Large Crystals as Duke collected his wands and the Medium Crystal into his INVENTORY. With a broad grin, she offered Duke a final thanks and went to re-arranging her wands to place her next best four wands into display cases.
Duke continued to browse other stores for the next few hours. He was pleased to see the quality of goods that were being offered. Even the most mundane of items carried a level of quality that surpassed his expectations. He had to laugh at himself when he involuntarily declared, “Now, that’s a good fork.” He fled that shop rather quickly afterwards.
Eventually, he wound up a few items heavier and many coins lighter but satisfied with his shopping spree. He had found a jeweler that he especially liked and had bought a number of items from. He selected one necklace in particular with Aurelia in mind. He was sure the combination of sapphires and gold would suit her nicely.
When he entered the tavern at last, he found that everyone else had already arrived and had taken up a corner table. Duke joined them mid-story. It was a tale of an event that Axis had hosted for Leviathan to try and break the tension after a string of particularly brutal matches. The event involved an ultra-competitive game of tag which had been won by one of Gefolich’s students using a version of a telekinetic hand spell. Some thought it was cheating but since most others had used their Abilities, they were overruled.
Duke joined in and enjoyed the conversation, adding in where he could but mostly listening to the others reminisce. After the food had arrived and more than a few drinks had been consumed, they got to the discussion of the adventure ahead of them.
“The dungeon comes at you in waves of enemies travelling down a winding road of some sort. The first wave was twenty, tier one enemies that were around level ten. It took almost nothing to defeat them. The next wave was twenty-five level twenty enemies. When I got to the twentieth wave, there were one hundred fifteen enemies in the wave. They were level two hundred and tier three.”
“That’s no small force to deal with, Duke. And you say it’s going to be harder than that?”
“Yes, I am sure of it. In the fiftieth wave, I expect them to be high-level tier fours and more than two hundred of them.”
“I don’t think we can do it.” Jablach shook his head.
“I will help.” Greslanier volunteered.
“I didn’t know you did field work.” Duke responded.
“I don’t often, but this sounds like quite the challenge, and I don’t want to see you three fail at it. Is there anything else you can tell us?”
“There was a points system of some kind. I have 17,620 points saved up from my first attempt. Since I was there alone, I didn’t have time to check everything out but there has to be something to spend the points on.”
“Likely some sort of defenses since you called this a siege dungeon, right.” It supposed.
“That’s my guess as well. There will be at least one more joining us, hopefully two or three. Aurelia, the general of my Legion, Eihlen, the top healer in the Legion, and Baslin the Archmage.”
“Three more will help, especially with one being a healer and the other an Archmage. I think we can do this with the additional team members. Jabalch and I will handle the front-line duties and Duke will be the utility fighter. How will this general of yours fit in?” Axis asked.
“She is best with a larger group but she can handle front-line and will give us some buffs.”
“Maybe hold her as the designated protector of the healer.” Greslarnier suggested.
“I don’t think she will like that, but it is a good role for her. Where will you fit in, Greslarnier?”
“I will manage our communication and coordination. When you all are in the thick of battle, there needs to be someone seeing the big picture and directing you to where you are needed. That, and I’ll figure out how to spend all those points you accumulated.”
“OK, I think we are all set. Let’s meet back up at the gate in the morning.” With sounds of agreement and assent, they went their separate ways for the rest of the evening.