Is this the end? Gabrielle, a high level priestess of loviatar, is casting a spell. There is a second or two delay between casting and when the spell goes off. So is a player is really quick they could have typed one of the exits and got out of there and avoided the spell. In this case north, east or west would have been viable options. Alas, Isaiah’s player had not honed his instincts to dodge a spell with a second’s notice so he took the spell full force.

Gabrielle touches your nose and heals you completely.

HP: 35/35

Huh? It wasn’t an attack spell. Isaiah’s HP was completely restored. He was at around 50% health because he was dragging his feet on using the heal command to painfully restore them a few HP at a time until he got back to town.

Isaiah just sat there dumbfounded for a few moments. He expected death or dismemberment but got the opposite. What was Gabrielle’s game here?

Gabrielle smiles at you.

Gabrielle says: “Greetings cousin.”

Isaiah says: “Hello.”

Gabrielle says: “Stay safe Isaiah.”

Isaiah says: “...Thank you.”

Isaiah waves.

Isaiah bows.

He left east heading back to town in a rush. He focused on what he came to town to do. Sell some goblin loot. At the general store he sold everything he had in his inventory that wasn’t equipped. Luckily, the vendor didn’t buy his spellbook when he unthinkingly tried to sell it. The vendor just said it was worthless and it stayed in his inventory. However, being on autopilot noticed that did in fact sell the scrolls he wanted to transcribe for his spellbook. Grumbling internally, the list of things the shot had for sale had some scrolls that shouldn’t be there by default. And worse, they were marked up about 20% from what he sold them for. It sucked to waste coins by being careless but he wasn’t thinking straight and needed to collect his thoughts.

First, Gabrielle is an elven high priestess of Loviatar. Loviatar is the goddess of pain. Isaiah expected to get blasted into negative hit points and meet the gods showing off the wall they made out of faithless souls….again. Isaiah’s player tried to gather his garbled thoughts. Second, she did something nice to him. Why would a goddess of pain offer her clergy healing spells? Shouldn’t they only have spells that hurt? Lastly, the grim facts. This MUD had evil characters. Evil roleplay was a fact of life here. Isaiah was lawful good. He expected his adventure in this land to be the tale of a hero of justice.

So far his stay in this land had been helplessness against higher level players, relying on the generosity of them, and goblin genocide. Maybe Gabrielle didn’t want him dead but what did she want? Trying to understand women was never a strong suit for him.

Trying to do something he could do, Isaiah transcribed the spells into his spell book. The first spell was ‘acid arrow’, and the second spell was ‘know alignment’. He got a little lucky with these scrolls. They were both level two. He could finally say he wasn’t a mage that only cast level one spells. Know alignment didn’t need components. However, acid arrow needed three components to cast.

Acid Arrow:

Shoots a magically created arrow by a ranged touch attack. It does damage per round that lasts longer per level. Material components are a dar, powdered rhubarb leaf, and an adders stomach.

Okay, it was time to figure out these spell components. Isaiah’s player took to the lines to ask a question. Hopefully the wizards didn’t snap at him this time.

Isaiah (OOC): How do spell components work?

Gabrielle (OOC): You need to have a component bag with them in it to cast the spell. They sell the components at the alchemist's shop. Most towns have at least one.

Isaiah (OOC): Where is shadow’s?

Someone (OOC): Ask in character….

So Isaiah headed back to MAH hoping to see if someone was there that he could ask about spell stuff. Today seemed to be the day he crossed paths with a lot of elves. Because there were two elves standing there chatting. Daelmas and Ambrosia were chatting to one another almost like they were on a date or something. Isaiah entered and tried to think of a good segway to ask them a question. He didn’t think of a good introduction though.

Isaiah says: “Hello.”

Daelmas looks you over

Daelmas says: “Hello cousin.”

Ambrosia looks you over.

Ambrosia smiles.

Ambrosia says: “Hello!”

Isaiah bows to the other elves.

Isaiah says: “Greetings, I am isaiah, elven mage and I’m new I was hoping to ask for directions.”

Daelmas raises an eyebrow.

Daelmas says: “Pray tell what are you looking for?”

Isaiah says: “I am looking to cast spells that need spell components but am not sure where to find a components bag or the components to cast them.”

Daelmas hmms and nods.

Ambrosia giggles.

Daelmas says: “Cousin Isaiah, there is a shop south of here that has what you seek, also south of the southern gates is the mage’s guild. They can sell you what you need there too.”

Isaiah says: “Thank you Daelmas! I’ll go do that right away!”

Daelmas smiles at Ambrosia

Daelmas says: “Princess Ambrosia, let us leave.”

Ambrosia nods and smiles.

Ambrosia says: “Nice meeting you Isaiah good luck with your magic!”

Daelmas begins casting a spell.

Ambrosia begins casting a spell.

A blue light envelopes Daelmas and when it dissipates he is gone.

A blue light envelopes Ambrosia and when it dissipates she is gone.

Isaiah went south and found the mage’s tower. On the second flood he found an odd shop with a shopkeeper selling components. A components bag cost 10 gold. He bought one of those and checked the list of components that the store sold. He was bombarded with a massive wall of text.

Aluminum chaff 48 gold 72 stored

Bat guano 10 gold 22 stored

Clay model ziggurat 48 gold 30 stored

Diamond 960 gold 35 stored

Diamond dust 1200 gold 88 stored

Eye of roc 2400 gold 24 stored

Copper 5 gold 80 stored

Granite dust 48 gold 15 stored

Mini shovel 48 gold 6 stored

Nitric acid 72 gold 95 stored

Rose petals 2 gold 53 stored

Spider 10 gold 1 stored

Sulfur 24 gold 12 stored

Tiny chest 72 gold 40 stored

Vermilion 18 gold 47 stored

Oh getting the things he needed was going to be such a pain. Next stop go and find the other alchemists in town. Also, likely find another town. It seems like the shops don’t have a comprehensive inventory. Instead, they are each randomized from what was available. Also there was a limited amount that one kept in stock so they could get their whole inventory bought out. Getting components could be done but it promises to be a very time consuming task.