Bob The Innkeeper

"Did you hear that the statue in the center of town was a petrified bard?" asked a pa.s.sing woman to another.

Bob didn"t hear the answer as he entered the store.

"Good morning, how may I help you?" asked an elderly elf. His hair was white, and he had thick bushy eyebrows. He smiled, showing pearly white teeth, as Bob smiled back.

"I was wondering if I could speak with Alastair?" said Bob, patting his bag.

"I"m him. Do you have items for sale?" asked the elf.

Bob frowned. "I"m sorry, but I"m afraid I don"t believe you."

The elf raised an eyebrow. "Why do you think that?"

"You have no magical talent about you," said Bob, matter-of-factly.
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Laughing the elf stepped back as a large grey cat jumped up onto the counter. Bob ignored the elf, turning all of his attention to the cat.

"You have magical sight. That"s a very uncommon ability. Let"s take our conversation to the back room so as not to be interrupted," said the cat in a purr, jumping down and leading him into the back.

Bob didn"t hesitate in following the cat. It wasn"t really a cat. It was a grimalkin; a creature that chose to take the form of a cat to be able to go where it chooses among human populations. Normally they chose someone to be their "owner" and ran businesses through them, like this shop. He hadn"t known that Alastair was a grimalkin, but the moment he laid eyes on the creature, he knew it for what it was.

As Bob stepped into the back room, pushing the curtain aside, he saw a young woman, only about five-foot-tall, sitting comfortably at a table. She wore a long-sleeved, grey dress that covered her from her neck to her ankles. Setting his bag gently onto the table, he began to unpack it.

The first thing he pulled out was the scepter. Alastair picked it up and examined it, her eyes faintly glowing a warm amber color. Running her hands along the rod of the scepter, it fluctuated between several different forms: a fire enshrouded longsword, a large battle axe, and a short spear that grew to a 15-foot-long spear before returning to its light mace appearance.

"This scepter has a name, which means it"s worth quite a bit of money. How would a young human child, such as yourself come across a magical item like this?"

Bob had frozen with his hand still in the bag. He had been watching the scepter fluctuating, and now wondered if he needed to sit down.

"It has a name?"

She smiled. "It does. This is the Scepter of Lordly Might."

"Did it tell you that?" he asked in a whisper.

She laughed again. "No, it"s written here, in ancient elven."

She held it up for him to see the runes formed on its rod, even though he couldn"t read normal elven, much less ancient elven.

"How much is it worth?" he asked, wondering how he could haggle a price when he didn"t know what it was worth.

She looked at him for a moment, then set the scepter down on the table.

"I will pay you 35,000 gold for it. What else do you have?"

Bob nodded. There was no reason to freak out over the magic he had just witnessed, at least not until he returned to his shop and had a moment to himself. Until he learned the proper values of magical things, he didn"t have much of a prayer of haggling anything. The adventurers Lucas and Giles would have to live with what he gave them.

He pulled out the handful of magical rings next and laid them on the table. There were 6.

"These are interesting. These first three are rings of swimming, climbing and jumping, which I will pay you 1,250 gold each. This one is a ring of force. It pushes with a force, and is worth about 4,300 gold. The translucent one is a ring of blinking that I will pay you 13,500. This last one is very rare. It is a ring of telekinesis and I will pay you 37,500 gold for it."

Bob nodded. There was no reason for him to keep any of them, as it would only paint a target on his back. He had no way to protect such pricey items just yet, so he would be better off taking the money, as no one would expect a boy his age of having so much money.

"Do you have anything else in your bag of goodies?" she asked, running her fingers over the last ring thoughtfully.

"Only a variety of spellbooks," he said, pulling the three battered books out of his bag.

Her eyes lit up in excitement and she all but s.n.a.t.c.hed them from him. He pulled them out of her reach and smiled at her obvious greed.

"You have been very generous with all of the other items, but I"m not sure how honest you have been. I know that if you read these spells, you might not want to pay as much for the books."

She laughed, sitting back and said, "I forgot for a moment that you are still a merchant. I shall tell you how it is, and you can decide for yourself. A spell normally takes up two pages in a spell book. Regardless of how powerful the spell is, the book is useless if you can"t read the special dictation of the mage who wrote in it. If you can read it, then it is worth at least the ink that it took to write the spell down. Most mages will spend about 100 gold per page of ink, to make sure it doesn"t fade. That"s a.s.suming they can"t use magic to preserve the ink. So, a book having 100 pages, means that it would cost a minimum of 10,000 gold for me to sell it as is, to a mage. If I pay you 10,000 gold per book, I would not be making a profit. If you wish for me to buy the books, without knowing what spells they contain, the most I would be willing to pay you for them, would be 5,000 gold each. If you let me see what spells are in them, and they have better than low-level spells, then I would be willing to increase that bottom price accordingly."

"If you agree to pay me a minimum of 5,000 per book, then I would be willing to let you see what they contain."

She nodded and took the first book. As her eyes began to glow again, she went to open the book. A frown appeared on her face as she quickly slammed it shut.

"You got these from that new dungeon just west of town, didn"t you?" she asked, sounding peeved.

"I got them from adventurers who got them from there, yes."

She sighed and rubbed her head. "That would have been nice to know. This headache will last for days."

"Was there a spell on them?" he asked, glancing at them again. There hadn"t been a magical aura around them.

"No, it"s written in dark speech. I"ll pay you the 5,000 each, that I promised, but they"re not really any good to me. I"ll have to sell them to someone out of town."

Bob was happy he hadn"t tried to open them. Dark speech was used by evil creatures and could warp the mind of those who tried to read it, if they weren"t evil. He was impressed that the grimalkin was able to fight off the effects of the evil language.

"Do you want me to pay you in coins or gems? And do you want me to have them brought to you, or do you want to take them with you now?"

He thought about it. That would be a lot of coins, even if he took them in platinum, which was worth more than gold. It would be easier to have gemstones.

"Gems, please, and I"ll take them with me now, so you don"t have to worry about bringing them by my shop when I"m there."

She nodded and got up, leaving all of the items she had agreed to buy from him, laid out on the table, and left by the curtained door. Bob took his empty bag and followed her, pausing just on the other side of the door when he realized they were standing in a storage room that had shelves with bins and boxes, instead of the entrance to the store. The doorway must be magical, with its aura hidden from people with his ability.

"The most a gemstone can cost is 5,000 gold. I suggest you be willing to accept some of the payment in magical items that can benefit you."

Bob did the math in his head and quickly figured out that of the 109,050 gold pieces she owed him, he would have about 20 gemstones. But he also needed to keep in mind that he still needed to pay Giles and Lucas a quarter of what he got. Surely, they would be alright with 25,000 gold pieces?

"What items do you have?" he asked, curious what she had.

She looked him up and down, then pulled one of the boxes down off a shelf.

"I have a shirt here, that will magically protect you with a natural form of armor. It looks just like your current shirt, but will never grow dirty or too small. If someone tried to stab you, it would protect you from the damage."

"How much is it?" he asked. It sounded really good as he remembered how close those two adventurers had gotten to him.

"It would be 50,000 gold for the maximum level of protection. No dagger could harm you, except for magical ones, and even then, most of those couldn"t. Your skin would be as hard to pierce as dragon hide."

"While it sounds really nice, I"m not sure…" he balked at the idea of spending so much on a shirt.

"I also have a green vest that can protect you from any poisons that can be placed upon a blade. That way even if someone were to nick you despite the shirt, you wouldn"t have to worry about any poison. It normally goes for 27,000 gold, but if you get them both, I would sell them to you for 70,000."

"Would the vest also be immune to getting dirty and grow with me?" he asked.

"Dear, they"re magical, that"s part of the game," she said with a smile, handing them to him.

He took them and looked them over. They did have a faint gleam of magical aura about them, but it wasn"t something that would scream to someone with his ability what they could do. That would leave him with the money for the other two adventurers plus a little to put back for improving his wares and getting that addition above the dining hall.