Betwixt and Between (Magical Curio Shop Quest)

Turn 1 Results

Investigate what has happened here. - AD - 3
Completion Counter : 0/10
Skill : Reason
Difficulty : Safe
Something has happened here. Have a look around see if you can figure it out?

FINAL TOTAL (Action Dice 3 + Skill (Reason +1 ) = 4
Probability: 25% Great Success / 50% Neutral / 25% Failure

NEUTRAL RESULT.

"Well, no use just standing around." Mahogany said to herself, she took off her exterior robe and folded it up, placing it on the counter. "First thing to do is to figure out what has happened here, make sure whatever caused those bloodstains isn't just hiding in the shadows."

Holding her staff out in front of her Mahogany was determined to poke ever tapestry and look at every shelf. If there was something here she was sure that she could find it. She started at the door.
She would never admit it out loud but she had in her time at the Crystal Towers, a need to break into her own room several times. As she left the key inside or forgot what the variation was changed to this month. So she looked at the lock and doorframe for any signs of tampering. "Surely," she thought, "If something came in and did violence here there would be signs of it on the door?"
She did not step outside, nervous of the grey, opaque mist swirling just beyond the steps. There could be anything out there and she would never see it before it leaped out. The exterior doorknob was the same coiled dragon she saw when first entering, but this time when Mahogany touched it a vision of intense flame and heat flashed into her mind before she snatched her hand away. When she looked at her palm it was completely unmarked, not burned like she had thought.

"Ahhh I see. You are not just a little warming charm are you dragon? But a very dangerous and scary defense system? I bet no-one gets in here unless they are supposed to?" She cooed at it. She always did have a fondness for clever little artifacts.

The dragon doorknob did not move but instead a thin stream of white steam curled from the nostrils.

"So. Whoever came in was supposed to be here. Don't suppose you can talk little doorknob?" Mahogany smiled and lay a hand on its carved head. No response. "Alright. Keep your secrets."

"So," she thought, "Not a break in." and she headed back into the shop.

Looking at the floor was her next clue. It seemed like most of the blood and scratches were here in the center of the store. It seemed like the scratches were from some sort of large beast of some kind? They seemed to be in clusters of three, so a three toed beastly claw mark? Mahogany wrote down these observations in a small notebook.

The blood was also a interesting aspect, she noted. A large pool here in the center of the floor, evidence of boot-marks as someone walked through the pool and then maybe a big smear? Was whoever got injured dragged? Moved in some way? It seemed to head towards the door but then it was lifted partway.

"There is a lot of blood here," Mahogany thought, as she tallied each mark. "I'm not sure how big this person was who was injured but I hope they survived."

While down on the floor Mahogany found a very large feather underneath one of the knocked over shelves. It was as long as her forearm and inky black. When she held it up to the light it glimmered iridescent, like oil on dark water.

+2 Completion Counter
Item of Potential found: Iridescent Feather

Items of Potential
These items have been touched in someway by magic or destiny, with the right knowledge, insight and skill they can be turned into Wonderitems.


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A Clean sweep. - AD 4
Completion Counter : 0/4
Skill: Perseverance
Difficulty: Safe
There is dust and blood on the floors, you think you see a broom behind the counter.

FINAL TOTAL (Action Dice 4 + Skill (Perseverance 0 ) = 4
Probability: 25% Great Success/50% Neutral/25% Failure

GREAT SUCCESS

Getting up from the floor Mahogany tried in vain to shake off the heavy grey dust that was over her skirt and hands. She shook them in the air, clouds of motes rising into the weak illumination. She said out loud, "You'd think a magic store would be cleaner," in an absentminded tone. On saying this there was a loud, metallic clank from behind the counter. Mahogany squeaked and jumped towards her staff, clutching it and holding it out in front of her to ward from whatever made that noise. Heart racing, she scanned the room. Nothing here in front of the counter.

She stepped towards the left of the counter, where there was a hatch in the wood she could lift up to step under and go to the other side. On the other side of the counter she could see a number of small drawers. Giving one labeled 'Providers' an absent minded tug it seemed like it was locked or stuck.

It became clear as soon as she stepped around the counter, what it was that made the 'clank'. A dented, metallic bucket full of water, a mop laying on the ground and a small wooden basket of cloths and scrub brushes had appeared sitting on the floor behind the counter.

"Are you serious?" Mahogany asked to the air, voice disbelieving, "You are obviously a magic building and the first magic thing you actually do is make me clean up your mess? If you can summon buckets why am I doing the cleaning? You can't animate the brushes yourself? That's like, a first year ritual!"

There was no response.

"Well.. I can't do the ritual either. So touché Betwixt and Between." She sighed, reluctantly and started to push up her sleeves.

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Much later in the day (or night, the sky didn't seem to change outside) Mahogany sat on the newly polished and cleaned counter. She had found the wood polish much like she had found the bucket and mop. When she needed it, it had appeared with a clatter on the top of the counter.

She looked around the room in front of her. It was much improved! The wood paneling and shelves were a soft honey gold, now they were not covered in dust. The tapestries on the walls depicting images of dragon slaying, tower climbing and other journeys fantastical glimmered with bright colors. The shelves, bare as they were, she had straightened and rearranged along the walls. They seemed almost.... anticipatory.

The floors had taken the most work. Bucket after bucket of soapy water and it seemed like loomful of rags, she had scrubbed them until they shone. The scratches were still there but seemed shallower now, old scars rather than fresh wounds. She had even given a go at the window display. But something had seemed to halt her there, the statues and draped displays of jewels seeming to glint threateningly at her. She wasn't sure how an azurite necklace could display outright rejection, but this one sure did.

She glanced down at a few curious items she had found when cleaning up the main room. The first of these was several small, white crystals. They were irregular in size, but none bigger than her thumb, and when Mahogany held one up to the light it was occluded in the center, as if on the inside was a tiny cloud.
"They kind of remind me of a crystalline soul? Except smaller and less alive. Maybe they are just magic?" She stuck her tongue out and gave one a tentative lick. It immediately shocked her, sharp and ozone like. "Temperance's Tits!" She said recoiling away. "Well that was stupid. Don't put your mouth on weird magic rocks Mahogany."

Another thing she found was a long staff, about shoulder height and thick as her wrist. It was of a grey and black mottled color. She couldn't determine exactly what it was made of but it has that same feeling as the Iridescent feather she found earlier. What were these things? What was she supposed to do with them?

+3 to Completion Counter
Item of Potential Found : Piebald Staff
Currency Found : 5 'Magic Crystals'

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Explore the Betwixt and Between - AD 4
Completion Counter : 0/10
Skill: Reason
Difficulty: Safe
Let's have a look around.

FINAL TOTAL (Action Dice 4 + Skill (Reason +1) = 5
Probability: 50% Great Success/50% Neutral

NEUTRAL

Mahogany had cleaned the entire front of the store, investigated the doorknob and even given the antagonistic statues a swipe with a feather duster. She had been here for hours and hours. Honestly, she was exhausted. But still she felt trepidation about going past that faded black curtain behind the counter. She could feel there were more rooms, a staircase and other interesting things. Mahogany wasn't sure how she knew this, but know she did.

Was it the thought that going in there felt like trespassing? What would she say if she did meet someone in these private areas? Mahogany shook her head at these thoughts, wondering how that conversation would go, "Hello I'm the new Shopkeeper? Oh no, I was supposed to be an apprentice but my Master Magus wasn't here and I got hired by a book."

"Arcana bless, she chided herself "I'm being ridiculous."

Mahogany gathered up her suitcase, and ducked behind the counter. "First things First." she thought "There must be somewhere I can sleep in this place." She pushed aside the curtain to see a long hallway, two doors on both the right and the left of the hall. She pushed open the first one on the left, or at least tried too. The door was locked.

[Crystal Towers Origin] "Not locked, warded," Mahogany thought as she looked closer at the door handle. Runes unfamiliar to her but arranged in a familiar chain pattern. An ownership ward.

Next door then. The second one on the left did open and led into a large, brightly lit room. There was a long wooden table with six chairs tucked underneath it. Upon the table was a tray with a pitcher, cold with condensation, and a flower-patterned glass sitting on it.

"Water!" Mahogany exclaimed happily, rushing into the room. The water was cold with an aftertaste of fresh mint. She drank one glass and immediately poured herself a second sipping on it more slowly while looking around the rest of the room. There was a fireplace with a fire screen on one wall, fire merrily crackling within and a window on the other, near where the table was. Set up as if the people sitting at the table could look out onto the landscape. Along the wall past the fireplace was a number of cups, platters and serving ware in open shelves. By the door where she came in was a small chaise lounge tucked into the corner and a ottoman.

"Maybe they are to be used when you want to sit around the fireplace?" Mahogany pondered to herself.

On the back wall across from the door where she came in was the most curious part of the room. A large drum like device protruded from the back of the wall. As she walked over to look at it there was a clattering sound and the squeak of a mechanism and the drum turned on a central axis. Mahogany tensed, what was this strange device going to reveal or do?

It was actually a circular hatch and the inside was painted a cheery, cherry red. But the best part was that inside the hatch was a bowl of porridge, drowned in hot milk and honey, with the fragrant smell of cinnamon and nutmeg in the air. Next to it lay a spoon, a napkin and a small origami bee.

Mahogany laughed for what seemed like the first time in years.

+2 to Completion Counter
'Kitchen' location unlocked.


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Empty Pages - AD 5
Completion Counter : 0/4
Skill : Empathy
Difficulty : Risky
Communicate with the book? Spirit? in the Ledger.

FINAL TOTAL (Action Dice 5 + Skill (Empathy +1) = 6
Probability: 100% Great Success

GREAT SUCCESS

Mundane needs taken care of for now, Mahogany thought it was about time to go and interrogate a book. She thought she had been very agreeable up to now and it was obvious that there was no Master Magus here. "It's time to get some answers from you." She muttered mulishly as she walked back towards the front of the store.

The book lay there on the counter, just as she left it. She walked over and flipped open the cover feeling as she did something drain from her. Energy lost, but still pushing forward she turned to the first page.

Lose 1 Energy
+3 to Completion Counter

On a Great Success you get to ask the book of Betwixt and Between TWO questions. (Please note these questions are at the approval of me, I'll let you know if I'm not cool with it. )

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