Mellie was startled awake by rough hands ripping her from her hammock. She was surrounded by a crew of sword wielding beastkin garbed in rough patched together leather armor. "Good thing Roy was watching for the wyverns. Bandit level 8 it says. hahahaha! Looks like we just struck gold." The leering man gripped her breasts and traveled to her privates as she squirmed away unsuccessfully. "Dont handle the merchandise!" Polyglot lvl 3! The boss gnoll yelled sneering at his lackey. Roy licked her cheek while eyeing the boss aggressively and shoved her in the wagon with the other prisoners.

The men rooted through the few belongings she had and divided them up. Meanwhile Mellie knew she would be using test of wills on the cuffs. She looked around at the other prisoners. She could turn her cuffs but she might not be able to turn the others. "Give me your hand" she loudly whispered to the lady next to her. She seemed to be in her 40s, human, and she was angry and scared. "Quiet!" She snapped in a whisper. Polyglot lvl 4! Mellie grabbed her hand and wrestled the cuff under her spell, but the spell slid right off.

"What is going on?" she whispered to the man staring at her to her left, as she gestured around them. His skin was blue and he had little black nubs. I guess he wasnt a human... Maybe he was demonkin? "What are you?" she asked, almost pleading. He decided she was rude and didnt respond.

The old man on the other end of the wagon whispered, explaining, "Our town was captured. We are all from Nort, brought north across the across the sea to Talah to be sold as slaves. This is a slavewagon. Those are your masters now."he warily sneered at them, watching that they didnt see. "So" Mellie concluded, "Talah is really unsafe but Nort is somewhat safe in cities maybe?" She wondered how she would cross the southern sea.

Mellie glanced at the mans covered horns again and he shuffled to keep them covered under his oversized wool hat and hood. "Is he demonkin?" she whispered. Silence fell upon the cart and flashes of suprise and fear crossed their eyes, darting from eachother to him to her. She didnt read the room. Her charisma score wasnt a boon dropped in her lap. She was always a socially inept.

He didnt want her to know. He couldnt have her know. He bit out his response boldly hiding the fear behind his words. "Now youre gonna stop running your mouth or I'm gonna risk the beating I'll get for beating you. Be quiet and keep your head down."

Mellie let out a frustrated breath. Fine. She didn't even have to test of wills the cuffs. Her strength could even bend the bars of the cage, but Mellie had a plan. She wasn't going to just sit there and be served up to some creep like a dish of spaghetti. Her ancestors gave her power to help herself, to help other people. She was done being taken advantage of. It was time to fight back.

After everyone in the cart fell asleep she started coughing. "Someone get that bitch some water!" yelled the boss. One of the lackeys stumbled over with half drunk ale " I'll give you some of this, if you take some of this!" He loud whispered into the cart while grabbing his groin. She grabbed his hand. "Okay!" And turned him into a glass of water, then drank it down in one go, breaking the glass near the cart. Dickie Evansbane Bandit lvl 7 dies!

Jackson Magemind started awake to glass being broken. He assumed it was just his captors being drunk again. At least they hadnt uncovered what he was yet. As long as he remained captive it was only a matter of time. It was hard to explain wearing hats and hoods in the hot seasons while being forced to do manual work. He was lucky that his captors hadnt thought to take his hat, but his luck stat was high enough for him to hope something would save him. He was worried that Mellie Adams Bandit lvl 8 would sell him out for freedom or coin so he kept his face covered and out of her sight, falling right back into a much needed sleep.

When the next captor came over to the cart to inspect the glass he got just close enough for Mellie to "Testofwills" quickly and efficiently. Bobby Dauergruff Murderer lvl 8 dies. Level up! The man dropped next to the cart as a clean pair of black slacks. She stared through the bars sighing thinking of how to lure in the final three men. It didnt take long though. Mellie finally used "testofwills" on her cuffs.

Metal manablood wand increases range of touch spell by distance of wand touched by manablood.

The next bandit to approach was wobbling his way for a piss. Mellie poked her stick out thinking her spell as fast as she could. And when it didnt work and the man started to react she thought it again and he turned into a cheeseburger. Roger Gnarlsnark Bandit lvl 9 dies! Test of wills lvl 8! She couldnt eat a people burger though. Thats just wrong. And as she was thinking that Roy creeps up to the tent sidling up to where im sitting and starts rubbing himself. He starts moving closer and closer intending to finish on me. I poked him with the rod and he turned into a pig which started squealing loudly and ran off from the camp.

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The boss got up from his bedroll as the fire started to go out. "Roger what the hell man light the damn fire!" The woods were quiet save the sounds of sleeping. "For fucks sake Roger light the fire!" He rolled back over for another few minutes and let his anger soak in. He threw the blankets off yelling at everyone at everything being useless as he dropped the logs into the fire. "See. Simple. Why cant you guys do anything right?" He yelled at the forest. But nobody yelled back. "Roger, Bobby, Roy, Dickie?" He ran his hands through his hair.

Things have been tough since Albert left to go hunting and didnt return. Albert was supposed to be the leader. He never had the stomach for this life, but money keeps the roof over your head and the shoes on your feet. And women in your bed, willing or not. "Oh, no!" it suddenly struck him "the merchandise!" The women were never the same once the men broke them in. He didnt mind if they were meddling with the older one but the pretty young one should coat their pockets in gold. He hastily moved to the wagon to check on his cargo.

His men were nowhere to be found. The four prisoners were all accounted for and they werent even crying. They looked like they were sleeping. But on the ground in front of the wagon was a pair of pants a trampled on broken glass and a sandwich. What on earth happened here. He picked up the sandwich and sniffed it. It smelled good. He took a bite. It was heaven. Where were his men? He continued to stuff his face, banging on the caged wagon bars. "Hey!" He yelled jarring three of the passengers awake in the pre-dawn. "Hey Hey! Hey!" he yelled until all four of them were awake sitting up and focused on him. "If someone tells me where my men went ill let you walk alongside the cart today. I'll even give you water."

He finished off the last of the cheeseburger, sucking on his fingers. "So" he says like hes getting ready to open a birthday present "where did they wander off to?" Three of the prisoners looked at him with wide eyes wondering what kinds of torture he had in store for them for not knowing what happened while they slept. They kept quiet.

"I cant hear YOU!" he yelled, forgetting that his party was missing. He called them names and cursed his party. And the forest stilled as the zombie horde redirected themselves towards the piercing shouts in the night.

Ten minutes later the prisoners listened quietly huddled in the center of the wagon as the zombies tore the slavers intestines from his torn flesh, tearing chunks from his cavaties. Mellie had about enough but she didn't want to expose her spells to her new allies. She wasnt sure what was normal or abnormal on this world, and so far she hasnt seen any other magics coming from anyone she has met. The four sat in the cart until the dawn broke and the zombies shambled away.

Mellie really wanted some new clothes so she planned on chasing after one of them to will them since they were only Dumb Zombie lvl 10 . For a moment she speculated how horrifying Smart Zombies might be then she remembered the zombie Romeo and Juliet movie and moved on with her life. You never know what lifes gonna throw at you. Roll with the punches and all that. Quite literally these days. Sigh.

As the three captives argued over how they were going to remove their cuffs, Millie slowly used brute strength to push open the back gate. It groaned a little but her new allies were busy trying to break their cuffs. She closed and backed away from the gate, waiting for someone else to attempt to open it. Meanwhile she sat down pretending to work off her cuffs while she willed her manablood stick to turn into a key.

Manablood key

Crafted by the only demonkin hybrid. Imbued with manablood. Like a skeleton key. Can form to open any lock.

She stared at the key. She would use this, but she needed to hide this. If truthsense is a common skill, anyone who knows about this will hunt me for my blood! She bit her tongue, grabbed Lindas cuffs and unlocked them. Linda sneered " So we sittin here trying to crack these open and you had a key this whole time?" She rubbed her chaffed wrists. Mellie ignored her and grabbed George's hands. The old man blushed. "Thanks" he said. She grabbed Jacksons hands next as he stared her down. Just as she finished unlocking his cuffs and they clattered to the ground, he grabs her hand staring at the key.

"Where. Did. You. Get. That." He spits out. Mellie Adams Guard lvl 12. What the hell? Is she a spy? Whats she doing in a slave cart? Is she the reason the slavers dissappeared? Maybe its some sort of noble house trade disruption. As he realized this he knew he needed to cwt away from her and here before he was caught and turned into a manablood key battery.

Mellie was sick of being manhandled. She twisted her arm and knocked him on his ass. Then she went ahead and kicked open the gate and strode out of the cart. She spent the next few minutes walking around the camp collecting and dusting off her things. And when the group wasnt looking, the bandit leaders corpse was willed into a new pair of guts free pants. Woohoo! "Ok guys. Which way is north?" The group eyed her warily. +1 Charisma!