Scattered Ashes Arcane Warehouse

[Nimh]

After the closing down of the Width of a Circle Arcane Shoppe, with its Fae owner's ostracism, the Aedile was forced to let go on something they had been reluctant to in the past. The building was bought at a high price by a dark figure, mysterious in his intentions and untrustworthy on his looks. The shop wasn't changed at all; the same large two story building, of greyish stones, and on the form of an eight, with few dirty windows. The sign on the other was new, showing huge capital letters contrasting with the Scattered Ashes Arcane Warehouse blunt print, that from afar would merely read SAAW.

Upon entering, one would come in touch with the cold bare floor and the still air that lied within. Shelves at both sides held creepy looking ingredients and tools, mostly for show, as the real stuff was stored cautiously in the back, and some even secretively below, on the basement. The naked walls and the thin beams of sunlight struggling to get past the windows gave the place an eerie feeling, and the dark cloaked figure sitting atop white dusty cushions even more. The figure sat, one leg crossed in front of him, and the other bent over the first, while his hands met beneath floppy sleeves. His hooded face looked almost hollow, the shallow light only meeting it partially, shade and shape undistinguishable, though human, or elf, for the looks of it.

Without a move from his place of rest, the new shopkeep received his visitors, his timber cold and icy, like the frightening sound that came within places where sound hadn't been present for ages.

"I am Aeron Morthen. Name your request and it will be granted... for a price..."

OOC: This shop cannot be self-moderated.

[Willibald O'Dande]

26th brightening of Aperitus Summer of Era II of the Celestine Mandate, Era XI Post Fractum in the Age of the Darkening, the Mageocracy of Julos the Mad.


Willi approached the warehouse with a bit of a shudder it was large dark and spooky.
He had sort of got a plan but until he got inside and saw what awaited him he did not even know if what he had schemed would be even worth mentioning. The door creaked as he pushed it open but that was not a problem doors always creak in these sort of places. His eyes opened wide as his cether vision took in the walls and the strange objects displayed and then he jumped as the sonorous voice greeted him.

More by instinct Willis hand flew up and he knuckled his forehead

ER…Me name is after being er …..Clarence Broadfoot, yer honour and a friend of moine was after telling me about yer foine establishment. Yer see he won a box in a game of dice and he gave it to me ‘cause he could not get it open .He said it contained summat wonderful and strange and worth a lot of crowns. I was wondering if yer were the sorta bloke that might be able to help?

Willi produced the ordinary box with the two stones and handed it over to the odd proprietor The plan was simple, the box was easily opened but if the owner of the shop thought that Willi was an imbecile he might not pay attention when he tried to ask about the dice hidden in his underwear in his pack back at his lodgings.

[Nimh]

Aeron was not unaccustomed to uneasy, nervous customers. In fact, more often than not, they were uncomfortable and some were even scared when they entered his rather strange shop. Most people sought to brighten their stores, make them inviting. But Aeron was not one of these. His philosophy had always been...if someone really wants something, they will come to you no matter what the atmosphere happens to be. He had so far found this to be true. After all, who was not lured in by the mystery of magical objects? For a price, of course.

The storekeeper looked over the Cether with mild curiosity. It was not uncommon to see one of his race, of course, but somewhat odd to see one in his shop. It seemed that these people were rarely interested in the sort of thing he had to offer. But then Aeron had seen stranger, too. "Serale, Master Broadfoot" he responded eventually, his tone just as even and uninviting as it had been upon first greeting his new visitor. He did not immediately respond to the cether's request, but stood, shaking down his robes to cover his feet and arms as he got to his feet. "A box? It looks like a simple box to me. Nothing worth looking at, in my opinion." The hood canted to the side, still giving no sign of the man that lurked beneath it. "Perhaps it contains knowledge, Master Broadfoot. Knowledge of empty spaces."

Aeron was sure his sarcasm would fall on deaf ears, but he humored the cether by taking it in his hands and looked it over. It did not take him long to pop the top open and peer inside. "What exactly were you having trouble with?"

[Willibald O'Dande]

Damn and blast it ! thought Willi beads of sweat appearing on his brow big nob did not take the bait , time for plan b what ever plan b was ?

He looked at the inside of the box and apart from the two ordinary pebbles it was empty but he knew that, time for a little more play acting

Goodness sur, I is so sorry fer a wasting yer valuable time, looks like I got diddled again ah tis the terrible luck I am after having, I ain’t going to be playing no more dice again, puts me last gold crowns on a straight seven throw and all I wins is a blooming box with naught in it but pebbles from a beach in Ieffreon. That bloke is was playing with …Mr Tree ‘e calls ‘imself has all the luck in the world no sur I ain’t playing dice again. It seems that luck just ain’t fer the likes of me or maybe I was just playing against loaded dice.

He looked up at the odd salesman trying to catch a hint of the dark mans face if indeed it was a man under that dark hood. Willi did not trust anyone anymore, the magic dice had already been enough trouble, two murders at least Willi was not ready to be a third not for all the Ikonomaster in the world but he needed information about the dice that had no spots and read out secret messages with an infernal dance.

He stumbled on As yer honour ever heard of magic dice that falls to the will of the thrower makes yer luck better so to speak, dice that can read the game and break the bonds of odds?

And he thought send yer on wild goose chases all over the empire to ask tom fool questions of nasty looking big nobs in very odd shops

[Nimh]

It wasn't unusual to find some oaf from outside the walls with an education that paled in comparison to most of the people that made their home within Vers. It also wasn't odd to find them at his doorstep, babbling on about some trinket they had won or bought that the previous owner had claimed to be mystical. Look! See how it shines, eh? When it was merely a special moss that grew underground that glowed in the dark. Nothing mystical, just natural to the world around them. Not to mention the various boxes and jewelry that people brought to his attention, too. There were very few people, as it turned out, that ever really had anything magical in their possession.

Aeron extended the box back towards the babbling cether, hoping for the one "Clarence Broadfoot" to take the thing off his hands. It was not to his interest and he wanted nothing to do with something he couldn't examine with genuine curiosity. He was all for excusing himself from the inquisitive hobbit when another question was thrown at his feet. "Dice, Master Broadfoot? You've already proven yourself to be a gambler. Perhaps you speak of what most gamblers pray for...a pair of what they consider to be lucky dice that always work for them? Ordinary dice. you see, with a series of winnings behind them. Superstition. Ordinary dice have no mystical powers behind them that work in the favor of their owner." He lifted his head slightly, probably peering down his nose at Willibald for all the cether knew, seeing as he still couldn't see the wizard's face, just a pair of cool, gray eyes.

His hands slid inside of the sleeves of his robe and leaned forward slightly, as if inspecting the cether before him. "Are you looking for such a pair of magical dice, Master Broadfoot?" The tone of his voice had dropped slightly, ridged with the sudden prospect of another hunt on his hands.

[Willibald O'Dande]

Willi was so far out of his depth with all this double talking and hinting at stuff that he was ready to either tear the hair out of his feet or walk out of this creepy shop. He took the pesky box back and put it away. He was about to cut his loses and leg it out of the shop when the proprietor began twittering on about magic dice but what was even more galling , he was asking Willi if he wanted more sets of magical dice. He raised his bushy eyebrows to the heavens

Good grief you already got a pair of flaming magic dice, ones with no spots on them but there was absolutely no blooming doubt the flaming things were magic after all had they not spelt out that he should come to this scrofulous village full of ruddy weirdoes and magicians. About the last thing in the world he needed was another set of magic dice ….oh well !

Willi dropped his face from the ceiling and tried to make out the features of the mysterious shopkeeper, putting both hands on his hips he made a decision. Stupid maybe but he was getting desperate

look. I ain’t been entirely honest with yer but its real difficult to know who to trust these days. I will not say that dice that win most of the time would not be after being a foine thing to have but I was after a bit of information really. Yer see I met this Mr Tree in Ieffreon, nice old boy and he showed me another set of dice .Odd things ‘cause they had no spots on them. This old boy threw them onto sheets of parchment and they did a dance and low and behold they spelt out messages that weren’t there before. I was after trying to find out what sort of dice these could be. I suppose you fink I am insane and these sort of fings cannot happen to a little bloke like me …but I saw them I tells ye

He looked up his big brown eyes full of the fear that he had said too much already two men had died and the Archmage Tyrus was missing and he a rag tag cether was mixed up in all this big nob business

[Nimh]

Aeron stood back quietly as Master Broadfoot finally opened up and admitted what he had really come to talk about. Idly, the wizard wondered how he had been expected to reach this conclusion initially. He was a wizard, not a Mystic. He didn't scry each man's mind for answers and truths. He was no mindbender. People seemed to misunderstand what exactly a wizard was. They were so clouded with the definition of arcana and magi that they could not see that there were other sorts of magic. This hobbit was no exception to the rule.

But maybe there was something else in there... Fear, perhaps? Aeron tilted his head back, the dark shadow of his face peering down at the small man in front of him. And was that some sort of panic in his voice as well? But what did that matter when there was the prospect of a new and interesting magical object to hold Aeron's attention?

"You already have some magical dice, Master Broadfoot?" Aeron asked, his voice even, although it did rise slightly with perked curiosity. "I'll admit to never having heard of such dice, sorry to disappoint you. But maybe you can show me these dice and we can make some sense of the messages? It seems clear to me that you don't know what to make of it." His hands crossed in front of them and folded. "It's good you came to me, Master Broadfoot. Not many would be able to help you like I can."

[Willibald O'Dande]

Oh crumbification, the bugga’s onto me thought Willi …..what do I do now?

This mage was so far above Willi all he had to do was look at the cether and wave his fingers and ….bingo he was a frog without a lily pad….or at least that was what Willi thought magi did to unfortunate cether’s “

He took a deep breath,

“Look sir this is a bit difficult for me , its true I do know where there is a pair of magic dice but how do I know you won’t steal them from me? It would be no big deal for a grand wizard like yerself to simply take them away if I were to show you them and leave me with nothing or worse than nothing.”

“See there’s already been two murders over these dice, some one or some group is looking for them so I got to be a bit cautious as to who I tell about this. I need some information, some help or a bit of a clue as to what to do next, the dice told me to come to Vers and I found some papers that lead me to this shop in Vers. But what I am supposed to do here? I ain’t got a blooming clue, so I reckoned if I came here and got yer talking yer might have just given me a hint.”

“All I know is that some important ikosmasters like Archmage Deirdre Lorelei and this Tyrus bloke are mixed up with a goddess called R’sleen and they and she are looking for the ruins of Kalendryas. I guess that these magic dice are somehow linked with all this business but how I have no idea. So here I am stuck in the middle of this affair and I am lost and blabbing my mouth off to a fella who could turn me into a frog at his will.

It had all tumbled out, Willi was determined to be cool and collected to be in charge of the situation but he had a long way to go before he had the skill and confidence to be like the great hero’s he had read about. He was a scruffy little cether with no skills and little experience of the ways of the big wide world ….he gulped as he realised that his little speech might just have sealed his fate.

[Nimh]

Aeron straightened, his hands held in front of him like a teepee. A brow arched slightly, but it was a small change to his features that would have gone unnoticed by the cether, hidden by the hood as he was. The rambling did not seem to impress the man, only minorly agitate as he shifted from one foot to the other and waited for the smaller figure to cease his prattling. Well, the story was interesting and sparked a few notes of recognition in his mind. It was rare that he encountered an object he knew little about, but this situation just happened to be one of them.

"Ah, Archmagess Deirdre Lorelei, hmm?" Aeron asked after a moment. His voice was thoughtful and he was quiet for a moment as he mulled the situation over in his mind. "It's been some time since this little town has seen or heard from her, I'd imagine. As a fae, she is not permitted within the town. But...interesting. Definitely interesting. She is well known to these parts. Do you know much about her, Master Broadfoot? She...discovered...Ikos, if you will."

Silence again. He lowered his hands and allowed them to settle, clasped, in front of him. "These dice intrigue me, Master Broadfoot. I won't hide that I would like to look them over myself. You say you found a paper that led you to me. Well, don't you think there is a reason for that? I can help you decipher these dice, if you will let me. I am not afraid of murderers and petty thieves. I am merely interested in the magic, Master Broadfoot. I've never heard of these dice and would love to examine them and add them to my bits and pieces of knowledge. I make my living knowing what I can about the arcane, you understand. It is my job. If anyone can help you with these dice, it is me."

He took a small step forward, unwound his fingers, and extended a bony-fingered hand towards the cether. "Might you have them on you, Master Broadfoot?"

[Willibald O'Dande]

As the strange shop keeper spoke Willi was very conscious that a note of avarice was creeping into his voice, Aeron was giving all this spiel about helping him out and adding to his arcane knowledge at the same time, it sounded like poppycock!

Yet Willi was very aware that this bloke was his first hope in getting to the bottom of this mystery and some where along the line he had to at least attempt to trust some one at least as far as I can throw the big nob!

He gulped and summoned up his courage Right mate that’s far enough the big shopkeeper was bearing down with a claw like hand stretched out. Look I ain’t stupid, not very educated but not stupid, if I did have these ‘ere dice, I would not be carrying them around with me .I told yer I know where they are not that I got them on me.

Willi was backing away as Aeron came towards him.

I can go and get them and bring them ‘ere in a candlemark and then you can have a look at them not that there is much to see

If the shopkeeper would let him Willi would back away until he was touching the door and then scarper through it as fast as his little legs would let him.

later

A candlemark later Willi was back at the strange shop and this time he was carrying the double plain dice in his pouch. He nodded to Aeron and fished the dice out and put them on the counter. His hand rested on the hilt of his little knife and if big nob was going to try something Willi was not going to let him steal the dice without a bit of a scrap.

Ain’t much are they? he commented,. The dice were old bone turned yellow with age and neither of them had a single spot on any surface, yet already they had sent Willi to Ieffreon and now Vers and when thrown who knows where they would send him next.

[Nimh]

Aeron let the small cether leave his shop, his arms folding across his chest as he watched the smaller figure scamper out of his shop in a huff of irritation. It was doubtless that the wizard had taken the supposed Master Broadfoot's statement to be the truth. But at the same time, he had no reason to think the cether would bother going out of his way by returning to the store two times in one day. But, then again, cethers were an odd people.

So, to pass the time, Aeron ran his fingers along the spines of the books that lined the shelves of his shop before selecting one that looked to be at least moderately satisfactory for this situation. He slid it from its home and cradled it against his chest as he moved across the room to the bookstand, the hem of his robe dragging noiselessly across the wooden floor. Plunking the book down, he promptly opened it and began browsing the pages.

It was in this fashion that "Master Broadfoot" came upon Aeron when he returned the shop. His head bent over the book, one bony hand rubbed the back of an aching neck. He canted his head, but did not immediately look up, when the cether announced his presence. "I haven't been able to find anything about these dice you were talking about, Master Broadfoot," he murmured, a little frustrated. Resolved, Aeron strode over to the counter and scooped the dice off of them. He pooled them around in the palm of his hand, narrowing his eyes to slits at the aged bone. There were no dots, but one had merely to assume they were dice because of the size and shape.

"Hmm. Interesting." He rattled the dice in his hands and walked back over to the book, flipping a few pages of the tome. "Like I said, I can't find anything about what you've mentioned so far." He held them out to the cether. "Why don't you show me exactly what you did to get these letters to appear, hmm? Just toss them on the book or the counter...or the floor, if you like. I just want to see how you got the letters to appear before I go about doing something foolish."

[Willibald O'Dande]

Oh well in for silver, the die is cast he thought to himself what ever happened he had shot his bolt and had to trust this store keeper mage now, it was too late to go back.

There was a book of close set writing on the counter and Willi flicked through the pages looking for a larger print. Finding some under a bizarre illustration he took up the blank dice and concentrated.

The last time he used the dancing dice he had been thinking about the little fae Mage Deirdre Lorelei , the discoverer of the art of Ikos and now this shop keeper had brought her name up coincidence or the key ?

He rubbed the dice together and recited her name over and over in his mind until he felt that it was the right moment he placed both dice firmly together and began to trace the first letter slowly following the lines of the flowing script .

As the cether began to trace the lettering of the sheet of paper the dice trembled and sparked with some force other than that of Willi's hand, so hard in fact that he had little choice but to release them. Whether their clacking, clicking dance would reveal a message Willi did not know, all he knew was these damn dice had a power and he was pretty sure that Willi was merely the vessel not the power behind the wordsmith dice.

[Nimh]

It was safe, letting the cether demonstrate the use of the dice, that is, before taking them himself and promptly making a massive fool out of himself. He was, after all, supposed to be all knowing about these things, but of this he was not. He couldn't very well have it spread around town that he was incompetent. Because he wasn't. No, Aeron Morthen the Wizard was nothing close to incompetent. He only hoped everyone knew that.

Narrowing his eyes, he focused entirely on "Broadfoot" as he notably sunk into a state of concentration and began to rub the dice between his fingers. What exactly he was doing, Aeron wasn't sure. It wasn't like the cether was explaining the steps to him as Aeron had hoped he would. But then he hadn't been very specific, had he? He had told him to demonstrate the dice and not explain as he went along with it. But hadn't the cether already gave plenty of good directions?

Aeron folded his hands and leaned forward slightly, trying not to appear too curious as the cether finally released the dice over the page. The resulting message was formed of the letters beneath it:

e-l-y-a-D-L-J-C-a-r-m-e-l-y-a-D-L-J

"Interesting," Aeron murmured, scratching his chin, which was somewhere within that dark hood of his. "If you arrange those letters right you get..." he trailed off, a thoughtful 'hmm' tacked on. "You said this led you to Vers, eh? Quite interesting. It seems to want to lead you somewhere else, if it really is directing you. I wonder... Deirdre is an Ikonomancer. I hesitate to say this is an Ikos spell, but what else could it be but that? That DL must mean Deirdre Lorelei, as I presume you already know. Jaedaxia is also known as a safe haven for Ikonomancers to practice their craft. It would make sense for her to be there if she cannot come home to Vers." The hooded head turned towards the cether. "What do you think, Master Broadfoot?"

[Willibald O'Dande]

He should have been surprised when the dice again responded to his touch but for some reason he was not surprised in the least, cogs were beginning to click in his brain and one or two answers were revealing themselves.

He looked up at the mage with wide open eyes

I think that some one is taking the pee out of me, that’s what I fink and I also fink that someone is a fairy. Look each time I have used these damn dice I was thinking about this ‘ere Deirdre Lorelei.…When I threw the bones in Ieffreon I had been reading about her and when I threw them a moment ago I was reciting her name over and over under me breath….it just seemed to be the right thing to do …Don’t know why instinct or something I reckons but both times I got one of these messages. Now why the blue blazes is this ‘ere Deirdre making me go half way round the bloody empire if she ain’t ‘aving a joke at me expense. All she needed to do was when I threw the bones first time was tell me to go to Carmelyn and Jaedaxia

He shrugged; Willibald was one very frustrated cether but at least he now had a working theory as to what these dice were.

These dice are part of a game one of those big games where you cannot see all the board just wee bits of it and it looks as though I am going to have to follow the rules before I get to what ever is at the end of this particular sport. I fink that this particular fella is just one of those pawny thingies and I move according to how the dice roll. But it does strike me that it’s a bit odd that I should be sent to Vers just for this one conversation …not yer understand that I am ungrateful just a bit puzzled. Look you seem like someone who is a bit wiser than me, what would you do next if you were in my shoes?

[Nimh]

Aeron canted his head as the small cether went off about his little predicament. It did seem odd that he would be dragged from one end of Telath only to be told that he should return to the other side of the continent. But Aeron was not the one who had made these dice and therefore had no understanding as to why they would want to pull him from one location to the other. But then wasn't that why the cether had been brought here? So he could answer his many questions about the silly little pair of dice.

Aeron held his hand out and retrieved the dice off of the book where the cether had thrown them. He rolled them around in the palm of his hand, narrowing his eyes on the off-colored pieces. Nothing was written on them. Nothing at all. "I am going to assume that an Ikonomancer put a spell in this," he murmured, probably stating what the cether already knew. "And who knows if it is Deirdre that wants you to follow her? Perhaps someone else put a spell within it so that they could find her. To hunt her down, Master Broadfoot. Maybe that would explain why people are killing to get her back. Deirdre is a powerful woman. She didn't stumble upon Ikos as a dim-witted fool. She would be a valuable asset to those who had need of her power. Of course, I don't understand why they wouldn't chase down another Ikos archmage. Such as Tyrus..." he trailed off, seeming to recall that the cether had mentioned his name, too.

"Well, Master Broadfoot, I am going to assume that this did not lead you to Vers simply to have you speak with me. I am, after all, not particularly interesting." He smiled, though the cether could not see it himself. Many probably would have argued that statement. Aeron was an odd one and there were more than just a few that had mumbled about the fright the wizard often gave customers. It all worked to his advantage, however. What use was all this pomp if he didn't at least succeed in instilling a little unease and fear in customers? "Perhaps Magess Lorelei was down in this area. Maybe she saw that there was no way for her to enter the town and so...she turned and went to the only other place that was safe for Ikonomancers? Perhaps she was meeting with someone who could help her hide? Or she knows there is someone on her trail with a pair of dice and she is trying to avoid them as much as possible. I think the only way you are going to find answers to your questions is to find Deirdre and ask her them yourself."