‘Emporium of Mystery’ Madrona thought to herself, mulling over that blasted Halfling and his eye. That’s how he was able to suss her out like he had, he was a purveyor of magical items! These little ruffians had raided his stock and when he saw that Madrona was a… a woman with talent, he knew that she would be the only one who stood a chance at recovering his inventory. For all the good it did now that she was sprinting away from the goblins with a woman who was clearly insane. Claimed to be a Wizard, that might be useful, always good to have a spell caster when being chased by a pack of angry Goblins. Wait… what was she doing? She was a caster!
Madrona
took a moment to glance back and take stock of the situation, about ten Goblins
were perusing them. The one that had cast the spell from the wand was now swinging
her arm back and forth, screaming in frustration. The wand sputtered and
crackled, a few errant embers burst forth but you’d have a hard time lighting a
campfire with them, let alone taking off the head of an apparent thief. The wand’s
magic was clearly spent, for now at least. Realizing this the goblin shrieked and
tossed the wand and started digging into a pouch, attempting to fish out
another one Madrona gathered. That was her chance.
She suddenly
stopped, skidding on her heels as she twisted to face the Goblins. Reaching
down to her belt she drew her dagger, a blade of onyx and curved into the shape
of a vicious talon with a polished wooden hilt the color of moonlit blood and a
golden pearl shaped pommel. She brandished the dagger in a reverse grip and
slipped her free arm under the wrist, so that her weapon arm rested atop the
free one. The fingers of her free hand twisted so that all digits were extended
out and spaced apart aside from her middle finger, that one curled in. Words of
power escaped her lips, ancient words, words not meant for mortal tongues. The
air around her chilled and a crackling energy reverberated from the stone of
the hallway. Kassadi stopped, so did the Goblins. All eyes on Madrona.
She wrenched
herself forward as though she were fighting against an invisible force, pushing
it forward with great momentum. The energy crackled like a whip, and then so did
the walls. The sone shuddered and great plumes of dust shook free as the crevices
appeared. Ripping stone thundered through the hall and from the cracks appeared
inky black tendrils. The Goblins began to holler and screech, a frenzy in and
instant as they attempted to flee. It was too late though, the dendrils lashed
out with an impossible speed and started to grasp at limbs, torsos, and necks.
The tendrils began to throttle the goblins who attempted to stab and slash at
them with knives and short swords, all to no avail.
“Oh!” Kassadi said, stepping up from behind Madrona. “Oh yeah,
Magic!” She added, a little more excitement in her voice than necessary,
Madrona thought.
Kassadi
wasn’t aware of the Inferni’s silent judgement, and took a place beside her. Pulling
her skirt to the side she revealed a strange satchel made up of many pouches,
some big and some small, all of which seemed to made of a fine canvas and waxy
blended fabric. She pulled the fasten from one and reached inside producing a tightly
packed ball of what looked to Madrona like top soil that had been dusted in a
fine yellow powder. The grin on the woman was impish and wide, she spoke her
own words of power, much different than Madrona’s, the language of Arcane Magic.
Holding the packed ball in the palm of her hand she gestured over it with the
other, fingers curled in but with the first knuckle extended and thumb out. The
ball began to smoke, then it began to sizzle and glow, Madrona nearly lost
concentration on keeping the tendrils manifested as she watched the strange
blond woman hurl the now blazing orb towards the Goblins. The thing let out a
whining whistle as it soared though the air that expanded and swelled into a
roaring inferno by the time it slammed into the stone floor in between all the restrained
Goblins…
The explosion
was deafening.
The blast
knocked Madrona to the ground, a swell of air rushed passed her one way before
being sucked back over the other. She was dazed and weary as she pushed herself
to her knees, bleary eyes staring back towards where the Goblins had been. She
grimaced. Of the ten, eight had been incinerated, though she was unable to tell
how many had succumbed to the throttling first. One she could see just barely
sprinting the opposite direction away from them, patting at the flames that now
wreathed his clothes, the last… she couldn’t
see, figuring they had also fled ahead of the other one. She pressed herself
against the wall and sighed.
“I’m guessing the reason you didn’t do that before was...”
Madrona began.
“The blowback, yeah.” Kassadi’s voice was clipped, though
she was pressed against the wall and upside-down, so it was somewhat
understandable. She scrambled and flailed until she was seated against the
wall, with bottom on the bottom this time. “But then I saw you had them all
grabbed up like that and, well, seemed obvious.” She shrugged.
“You’re… okay with killing them?” Madrona asked pointedly.
“I mean, no.” Kassadi stated, glancing to the bodies for a
second before snapping her gaze back. “But they would have probably killed us.
They certainly had more than a few bodies in their camp already, they didn’t
seem like very nice Goblins.”
“That’s fair.” Madrona said. “What was that… You pulled it
out of that satchel there before casting the spell.”
“Oh Bat Guano and Sulfur,” Kassadi said, excitement in her
voice again. “I know, I know, most Wizards go with Casting Anchors nowadays but
I can’t help it, I like working with Components, gives a real visceral feel for
crafting magic you know?” She was smiling again, Madrona wondered what could be
going on in that head that this woman could positively beam after being
assaulted by ten goblins with magic wands.
“Sorry, Casting Anchor?” Madrona asked, quirking a brow. She
started to stand and dust herself off.
“Uh… yeah?” Kassadi replied, lifting her hand to Madrona, seemingly
requesting assistance getting up, Madrona paused, but eventually relented, allowing
the woman to heft herself from the ground. “Like your dagger there? Items
imbued with material power to cover the worldly cost of Spells? Aren’t you a
Wizard?”
“No.” Madrona said, pulling her hand back from the woman. “I
just… know how to do Magic.”
“Ooooh! Sorcerer then!” Kassadi exclaimed, and Madrona swore
she even bounced on her heels at the revelation. “So you just know, somehow,
right? Like I bet you saw that dagger and you somehow felt that it would let
you cast spells?”
“Sure. Lets go with that.” Madrona was already turning and
walking away from the woman. “Well it’s been… I was gonna say fun but…”
“Hey you can’t leave like that!” Kassadi called out, quickly
stepping to follow behind the woman.
“I most certainly can.” Madrona snapped. “See? This is me,
leaving. Bye bye.” She said, the last of her words coming in a mockingly high
pitched tone.
“No I mean that’s the wrong way.” Kassadi said, leaning into
the woman with a devilish grin. Madrona stopped and clicked her tongue.
“You know the way out, don’t you?” Madrona said, unamused.
“Yep.” Kassadi replied, very amused.
“And you’re not going to tell me, you’re going to insist on
leading me, aren’t you?” Madrona gnashed her teeth as she spoke.
“That’s right!” Kassadi stated in a sing song voice. “Besides
I can’t let you go without at least offering you a reward for helping me with
the goblins.”
“Seeing the sky again would be reward enough, I assure you.”
Madrona’s glowing eyes peered sideways at Kassadi, who was clearly not going to
give up by the fiendishly smug grin on her face.
“Come ooooon.” She said, brandishing that key again. “I went
through all that trouble to get this, don’t you just want to see where it goes?”
“No.” Madrona said, crossing her arms. “But you’re not going
to stop asking until I say yes I imagine so fine, let’s just get it over with.”
“Yay!” Kassadi jumped with excitement, literally jumped. She
did a small wiggling dance and twirled as well, Madrona just stared and let out
a sigh.
The two
women walked for about forty minutes… probably, hard to tell when you’re a
quarter mile under the surface walking along uniform stone hallways. They
eventually came to a chamber, a rather large one too. Madrona had seen a handful
of chambers in her time here, but this was at least three times the size of any
of those. To one side rested a rather regal chair adorned with what was probably
once a very finely crafted cushioned back and seat, now ravaged by a century of
aging. Behind the throne were what was likely luxurious black curtains now
tatters of dull grey fabric. The rotted planks on the ground showed that this
room was once not stone floored but wood and carpet… This was a living chamber
of some sort. Madrona could see the remnants of a bookcase, long since
plundered, and even a desk against the wall. Where Kassadi was heading was a
chest that rested against the opposite wall to the throne, Madrona couldn’t
help but focus on the charred black scorch mark on the floor that marked the
center piece of room.
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