Determined to learn more about the Staff of the Crustacean, Isabelle opened her inventory.
Inventory: Isabelle
Carrying capacity: 22/36
Item
Traits
Steel Morningstar
+3 damage, +5 carry weight
Potion of Lesser Health x2
+5 hp, +0.5 carry weight
Steel Domination Chain
+11 damage, +10 carry weight
Staff of the Crustacean
+5 mana, +2 carry weight
Emerald Amulet of Lesser Stamina
+2 stm, +0.5/sec s-regen
Peasant Robes (human)
+1 carry weight
Stale Bread Loaf x10
+10 hp (cumulative), +0.5 carry weight
Crab Ambergris
+5 carry weight
Crab Flesh
+2 hp, +1 carry weight
Gate Key
n/a
Gold (60)
n/a
She could already see that the staff added to her total mana, which seemed nice, but Isabelle wasn’t necessarily certain what all she could do with her mana, or why she ought to care. Still, she focused on the Staff of the Crustacean, and she thought ‘Learn More.’
Item: Staff of the Crustacean
Traits: +5 mana, +2 carry weight
Description: Nobody knows what occult knowledge belonged to the crab that crafted this staff. It allows the wielder to cast a number of crab-based spells, including:
-Lobster Boil
-Crabwalk
-Crabby Costume
-Call of the Crustacean
Note: This staff carries with it a specific debuff known as ‘Rage of the Endangered,’ which activates when one wields it within 50 feet of any Large Ozian Hermit Crab(s).
“Wow,” Isabelle said. “I’m glad I thought to learn more about that staff. I don’t know what ‘Rage of the Endangered’ means, and I’m not sure I want to find out.”
“What are you talking about, Isabelle?” Tahsi said, furrowing his scaly brow.
“Don’t worry about it,” Isabelle said.
Isabelle wondered if she could learn more about any of her other inventory items. She tried focusing on Kolti’s Steel Domination Chain and thought ‘Learn More.’
Item: Steel Domination Chain
Traits: +11 damage, +10 carry weight
Description: Intimidating and powerful, Kolti’s Steel Domination Chain hits hard and also adds an intimidation debuff to any would-be attackers unless they have the ‘kinky’ trait, in which case it adds an arousal buff/debuff (its status as a buff or debuff depends on how you look at it).
Note: This weapon requires a combined str, dx and const combo of 20 to wield.
Isabelle frowned at the note, unsure what her str, dex and const added up to. Then, she shrugged to check her stats.
Character Status
Name:
Isabelle
Gender:
Female
Level:
2
Class:
Undefined
Race:
Human
Alignment:
Neutral-Neutral
Attributes
Hp:
22
H-Regen:
3/min
Mana:
10
M-Regen:
2/min
Stm:
11 (+2)
S-Regen:
0.5 (+0.5)/sec
Skill Points
Str:
6
Int:
6
Dx:
5
Wis:
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1
Const:
6
Char:
4
Magic Ability Levels
Enchant:
0
Summon:
0
Heal:
0
Destroy:
0
Transmute:
0
Confuse:
0
Normal Ability Levels
Crafting:
0
Sneak:
1
Archery:
0
Lockpick:
0
Armed Combat:
1
Melee Combat:
1
Speechcraft:
0
Slight Of Hand:
0
Her str, dx and const only added up to 17! What a racket.
“Why’re you kicking the sand so angrily, Isabelle?” asked Tahsi.
“Don’t worry about it, Tahsi,” she huffed.
Tahsi bristled. “I think I hear people coming!”
Isabelle looked around, trying to listen. She could hear faint footsteps in the distance. She turned around to see the back of Tahsi’s baking shack, sitting on its lonesome in the night. Then, she saw the warriors. Ten grisly kobolds in purple armor, bearing torches, circled the shack.
“Holy shit,” Isabelle gasped.
“Quiet! They’ll hear us!” Tahsi commanded. Then, he covered his own mouth, as he’d shouted far louder than Isabelle had gasped.
[Current visibility: 30/150]
Off in the distance, one of the armored kobolds turned in Isabelle and Tahsi’ direction.
“Fuck!” Isabelle crouched behind a fluffy bush protruding from the warped, wooden wall of a nearby tavern, inside which she could hear raucous.
[Current visibility: 10/150]
“Tahsi!” Isabelle shout-whispered, “Stop standing there like a dummy and come hide with me! Quick!”
“Coming!” Tahsi scrambled over beside her.
Another warrior turned away from the bakery shack to look in their direction.
[Current visibility: 50/150]
“Tahsi! Crouch down!” Isabelle hissed.
Tahsi crouched.
[Current visibility: 42/150]
“Whew,” Isabelle sighed. “You know, Tahsi, I thought you were supposed to know more about this system than me. Yet here I am, telling you to hide to improve our stealth.”
[Current visibility: 36/150]
The warriors started turning back to look at Tahsi’s former home.
[Current visibility: 32/150]
One warrior dragged a large barrel up to the shack and popped a lid off the top of it. Then, the warrior kicked the barrel over. Black sludge poured over the side of the shack. Soon, the other warriors followed suit, until their was a ring of black sludge around the bakery shack.
A warrior raised a torch and dropped it beside the shack. A brilliant plume of flame shot up in the air, and quickly it grew to surround the bakery shack. The warriors started cackling.
“Oh my gods! Oh my gods, no!” Tahsi wailed.
[Current visibility: 84/150]
“Tahsi! You’ve got to be quiet, they’ll hear you!”
“Isabelle, you have no idea how many hours of my life I’ve spent slaving away in that bakery shack, and I’ll be damned if—”
[Current visibility: 98/150]
Isabelle cupped her hand over Tahsi’s mouth, which was rather difficult due to his fangs.
“Tahsi, if you don’t shut the fuck up, they’re going to find us and kill us. Understand? There’s no way in hell we can take on all those warriors.”
[Current visibility: 86/150]
“Fine,” said Tahsi, pushing Isabelle’s hand away. “Sorry. I’m just very passionate about my bakery.” He turned back to look just as the roof of his old baking shack caved in. “Ohhh gods. I need a drink.”
“Well,” Isabelle pointed to the tavern, “What about this place?”
[Current visibility: 52/150]
“Gods,” Tahsi said, looking up at the tavern’s swinging sign. “The Portly Porthole? What a dive. Plus, they’ll all know me in there, anyway.”
Isabelle thought back to the Staff of the Crustacean she’d gotten earlier from that Large Ozian Hermit Crab.
“Or would they?” Isabelle asked Tahsi with a sly smile.
“Or would they what? All know me? Of course they’d all know me, Isabelle! I’m the only baker in the Port District! The Portly Porthole buys its garlic bread from me!”
[Current visibility: 66/150]
“Please keep the volume down, Tahsi,” said Isabelle.
“Sorry.”
[Current visibility: 54/150]
“Now, Tahsi, let me check something with the system.”
Tahsi groaned as Isabelle pulled up her inventory and pulled up the Staff of the Crustacean’s ‘Learn More’ section. She regarded the list of spells it could cast, more specifically, the ‘Crabby Costume’ spell. Isabelle wondered if she could get a description of that specific spell.
Spell: Crabby Costume
Cost: 6 mana
Description: Disguises whoever it is cast upon in a crablike fashion for the duration of 30 minutes per cast.
“Hey, Tahsi, do you think we’re within fifty feet of any Large Ozian Hermit Crabs?” Isabelle asked.
[Current visibility: 22/150]
“We might have been, if you hadn’t murdered one,” Tahsi said.
“I’ll take that as a no.” Isabelle rolled her eyes.
[Staff of the Crustacean equipped]
[+5 mana]
The Staff of the Crustacean was suddenly in her hands. It smelled like fresh lump crab, and it appeared to have an exoskeleton.
“Alright, Tahsi, get ready,” said Isabelle, pointing the staff at her party member.
“W-wait, Isabelle, I don’t know about this!”
[Current visibility: 45/150]
“Stop waving your arms, Tahsi, you’re bringing our visibility up.”
“Why are you so bossy?”
[Current visibility: 32/150]
Isabelle raised the Staff of Crustacean and focused her thoughts on casting ‘Crabby Costume.’ There was a loud wooshing sound and a puff of sparkles.
[Spell ‘Crabby Costume’ successfully cast]
[Mana 9/15]
“Oh my gods, what’ve you done to me?” Tahsi said, looking at his body up and down. “I’m dressed as an Ozian streetside crabmonger! That’s so embarassing!”
[Current visibility: 21/150]
Isabelle looked him up and down. The only difference she could tell in Tashi’s appearance was a small crab-shaped hat sitting atop his scaly head.
“How cute!” Isabelle giggled.
“Stop calling me cute, Isabelle,” said Tahsi.
[Current visibility: 5/150]
[Mana 10/15]
Isabelle focused on the Staff of the Crustacean, figuring she ought to put it away in case any Large Ozian Hermit Crabs wandered nearby.
[Staff of the Crustacean unequipped]
[-5 mana]
[Mana 10/10]
“So, Tahsi,” said Isabelle, “Do you think this ‘Crabby Costume’ will work for you?”
“Oh, it’ll work, there’s no way in hell anybody will recognize me now,” Tahsi said with confidence.
[Current visibility: 0/150]
[Ozian Sect Warriors have forgotten about you]
[Weather status: storm incoming]
Thunder rumbled through the sky, shaking the ground beneath them. Rain quickly and steadily began to pour. Isabelle couldn’t help but think that it’d be a little more convenient if the system gave her more notice when it told her the weather status.
[Clarification: Your wis and int need to be higher for you to obtain different levels of the ‘weather prophet’ buff, which will allow you to know the weather status before the weather status changes.]
Isabelle smiled and walked slowly towards the tavern entrance. Before she could take more than three steps forward, however, two burly kobald bouncers punched the door open and threw a spindly cat dressed in brilliant, pluming clothing out into the street.
“And stay out!” said a bouncer.
“Yea!” said the other bouncer. “Don’t come back here dragging anything in unless you intend to pay your tab, you wretched tabby!”
The bouncers slammed the door shut.
Tahsi walked towards the door, preparing to pull it open.
“Tahsi!” Isabelle said. “Don’t you feel bad for that poor kitty cat?”
“No, I don’t. These guys used to help pay my rent with their bread orders,” said Tahsi. “I feel no sympathy for anybody who cheats them out of money.”
Isabelle looked over to the cat, laying pitifully on its side. It began to rasp and heave.
“I’ve got to go check on it,” Isabelle said, rushing to look at the cat. “Hello there. Are you okay?”
The cat hacked up a hairball. “F-fine, thanks.”
“Why were they so mad at you?”
“N-n-n—” the cat stuttered with a hack, “—No money. Drank lots.”
“No money?” Isabelle asked. She pulled up her inventory.
Inventory: Isabelle
Carrying capacity: 22/36
Item
Traits
Steel Morningstar
+3 damage, +5 carry weight
Potion of Lesser Health x2
+5 hp, +0.5 carry weight
Steel Domination Chain
+11 damage, +10 carry weight
Staff of the Crustacean
+5 mana, +2 carry weight
Emerald Amulet of Lesser Stamina
+2 stm, +0.5/sec s-regen
Peasant Robes (human)
+1 carry weight
Stale Bread Loaf x10
+10 hp (cumulative), +0.5 carry weight
Crab Ambergris
+5 carry weight
Crab Flesh
+2 hp, +1 carry weight
Gate Key
n/a
Gold (60)
n/a
Sixty gold. That had to account for something. And Isabelle couldn’t abide by this poor cat just staying out in the rain, especially in such fancy clothes.
“How much money would you need again, cat?” Isabelle asked.
“Please, call me Sir Jingles,” said the cat with a weak smile. “As for the money, how much might you be offering?”
[‘Sir Jingles’ failed an int+char check against ‘Isabelle’]
“Oh, no, no, no. I’m not Tahsi, okay? Tell me how much you need,” Isabelle said. She wondered why exactly the system had said this ‘Sir Jingles’ had failed an intelligence check against her when she’d just intuitively known he was trying to get as much money from her as possible.
[Clarification: The only reason you ‘intuitively knew’ that ‘Sir Jingles’ was trying to get as much money from you as possible is through an int+char check. It may seem intuitive to you, that is the nature of the system. However, it was actually a cold calculation based on both of your combined int+char stats plus two random number selections between 1 and 10 subtracted against one another.]
Isabelle felt that the system was quite cheeky.
“Very well,” said Sir Jingles. “I seem to have run afoul of, say, fifty six gold. If we’re being exact.”
“Well, I guess it’s your lucky day, then,” Isabelle said, smug.
“Isabelle!” Tahsi lumbered over, “Did I just hear you say you’re going to give this fucking deadbeat cat fifty six gold? You can’t have much more than fifty six gold, anyway! Fifty six gold, Isabelle? Do you realize the two of us could stay at this tavern for one gold each?”
“Then that’s perfect,” said Isabelle. “I’ve got enough gold to pay off his debts, gets us all rooms, buy some food and ale, and have plenty left over for later.”
“I just can’t believe you’re giving this random cat all that money!” Tahsi said.
Sir Jingles smirked.
“No, that’s not what I’m doing, Tahsi,” Isabelle said.
Sir Jingles frowned.
“I’m going to walk on in there with him and give the tavern’s proprieters fifty six gold.”
Before anyone could say anything to the contrary, Isabelle walked up to the tavern door and knocked with confidence.