The door opened, although there had been neither a knock nor a word from the ones coming in to warn her.
With furrowed brows, she stopped binding the herbs with some string and looked up. There, at the entrance, stood a young warrior in leather armor, with a dinged metal helmet on his head and a sword of much better steel in his hands. Behind him there were a man in black clothing, a rouge apparently, a girl in a wizard robe and what looked like a hired hand from the village down the mountain road.
Maureen almost groaned as she knew what was coming next. These adventurers were useful, yes, but they were also very rude.
"We found the Forest Witch! I told you I knew where she was!" The Rouge called out in triumph.
The wizard girl did not seem convinced. "But we walked in circles for an hour following you. If I hadn't logged off and looked up the map online we wouldn't have found her at all."
Ignoring all the banter, the warrior in his mismatched armor got to the point much quicker. Maureen liked it when the adventurers said what they wanted quickly since that way she could get rid of them sooner. Visitors from a higher world or not, they tended to be annoying.
"I want 15 high health potions, 5 high revival potions, 1000 perfect cure illness potions, 2000 long flight potions and a barrel of fairy wine."
Maureen nearly asked the warrior whether he had gone insane, but then reconsidered. There was no guild sign, but the kids in front of her were likely running an errand for their guild. Otherwise he never would have told her such high numbers for the more precious potions. She couldn't just sell those, of course.
Thus, the young woman nodded sagely...just joking. Maureen pointed towards the stone plate where she had written down prices and requiremets. "First of all, welcome to my lodge. If you know what I can sell you ought to know the prices in gold and materials, I assume?" That was, she hoped, part of what the hired hand from the village was for. Carrying everything in a wagon.
On the plate it said the following regarding the last 3 requested potions:
Perfect Cure Illness: 700 gold, Green Deepshroom x3, Spotted Snake Fang x2
Long Flight (duration 20 days): 500 gold, Griffon Feather x1, Ghost Plasma x1
Fairy Wine (Barrell): 20.000.000 gold, Honey 5.000 pounds, Elderberry 5.000 pounds or Elderflowers 1.000 pounds or Elderflower cordial 2.000 l
The other potions were 1 gold for a high health potion and 5 for a revival potion. Standard potions for the more successfull adventuring parties, really. Though the helper probably only got a few silver for his services. After all, 1 gold or 10 silver were plenty to feed a normal family of six for a week. Not that there was any real silver or gold in those coins.
The warrior rolled his eyes at her and then gestured outside. "Stuff is on the wagon. Though I don't get why we need to pay in material. Fetch quests are annoying and dumb."
Because she couldn't be bothered to go to all those places weeks away just to get a single type of material she needed to make more. Obviously. If they didn't do this fetch quest as they called it she would have to take care of it and fetch quests really were annoying. Wandering about searching every nook and cranny for no more than a dozen ingredients at the end of the day...no thanks. Let the player guilds pay their low rankers for everything useful they found by accident and everybody was happy in the end.
Stolen novel; please report.
Maureen nodded at the warrior then and made her way to the door, her feathered cloak floating around her. It usually kept her clothing clean enough during alchemy so she could forgive little antics like trying to impress visitors. Outside it wrapped itself around her tightly and looked like a fancy feather dress in green, blue and purple. Showing off.
Outside there was the wagon they talked about standing at the end of the dirt road in her clearing. A nice one with good space suppression, too.
Maureen whistled like a shepherd with two fingers in her mouth and a few seconds later several small green figures in neat linen clothing popped out of the berry bushes at the edge of the clearing. Contrary to popular opinion goblins could be very useful, with their childlike intelligence and general cluelessnes they tended to follow the directions of a kind but firm hand rather well. Hobgoblins were much smarter, of course, but they were not necessary if she just needed some help carrying goods.
The adventuring warrior was halfway through pulling out his sword when the rogue grabbed his hand. "Damn it, did you seriously forget everything SilverLight told us? Those are the goblin servants. When Dishy attacked them last time she trashed his party and got her blacklisted, like, everywhere!"
"Huh?" Was the very intelligent response, but since nobody ended up attacking her helpers Maureen decided to overlook the whole thing.
Adventurers always killed goblin packs after all and most of the time it was kind of justified. They did act like childish wannabe bandits and gutter rats if they had no significant amount of hobgoblins or other leadership around. And if left alone they had so many young they ended up in a famine and started swarming farms to feed themselves. Treat them like kids and prevent any kind of sexual contact though and you had some eager if dumb helpers.
The little helpers started carrying the goods to her storage shed while Maureen inspected them with the identify skill and counted. Adding up the materials she ended up with the exact number her price list required. Big guilds were usually honest that way, but checking never hurt. The chests of coins even had them packed in pretty blue linen bags with 1000 gold each.
Once everything was in her shed Maureen smiled at the group of goblins and patted each of their heads, which caused the little things to hop about happily. They could be such adorable little things if someone bothered to raise them well! Comparing them to wild goblins was like...like comparing an obedient shopkeeper's or farmer's kid to a gutter rat with gang brands from the capital.
She would give out elderflower lollipops later as a reward, Maureen decided.
Reluctantly, she turned to the adventurers.
"Everything is in order. Only the 40 gold for the health and revival potions are missing but I assume you'll pay for those yourself?" Her pause was answered when the mage girl started counting out the gold coins and handed them over. So she continued. "Do you want to take everything with you right now or should I send a messenger somewhere with the goods?" She preferred to dump it all on these guys but, again, big guilds often wanted delivery to their headquarters. For big orders like this one Maureen often arranged delivery as a service.
"The Guardian Angels of Doom branch in High Landing, please." The rogue responded politely.
Considering the fact that they bought fairy wine that could sate hunger and thirst for weeks and gave boosts with a few drops, flight potions and potions against illnesses and then wanted them delivered to a city at the border in a mountain range...it was obviously a war of some sort, likely with a few hundred high level adventurers involved. Those potions were expensive.
"Is someone laying siege to High Landing?"
The girl shook her head. "The leadership is going to tame flying tigers. High Landing is just the closest branch."
Maureen nodded. That, too, was not unusual. "Very well. I'll have everything there by tomorrow. Yours you can take with you immediately."
From a hidden pocket in the feathered cloak she pulled the 15 high health and 5 revival potions. The feathers got all fluffy at the surprised gazes of the adventurers. He was a vain thing sometimes, but there was no denying that he had all the enchantments one could wish for in a cloak. There was not even a bulge where the potions came from, after all.
"What do you want for that cloak?" The rogue asked with sparkling eyes.
"Not for Sale. Ask the Enchantress of the Labyrinth in the South if you want one." Maureen pushed the potions into the mage girl's hands. She was the one who paid, after all.
"If that was all...I have work to do now." With a nod towards the adventurers she went back to her home.
When she came back out with candy for the goblins the adventurers were gone.