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ID: fdN6f+HZ/qst/6272280#6272697
7/10/2025, 2:54:44 AM
>>6272694
You find Ayla again, waiting where you left her—where the <Dimension Door> which she summoned let you all out. Everyone else has cleared out, gone to rest in their rooms, or to chow down and tell tales of the northeast, or just to go take a piss. Not Ayla, though—she’s hardly moved, and graces you with a small smile and a glint in her eye that says she was expecting you.
“I see plans have changed,” she comments dryly.
“Yeah.” You huff, and cross your arms. “Carazzi’s practically adopted the damn thing.”
“And yet, we still require the pills.”
“Yeah,” you repeat, and then look up into her eyes. “Tell me: what all do you know ‘bout this Ziwei Bo bastard?”
In truth, it’s not much. As Ayla tells it, she and Veigar were doing their grand tour of Eastland esoteric hotspots when they heard tell of a mysterious practitioner of medicinal magic, capable of otherwise-impossible wonders of body and spirit. This had been of immediate interest to both of them—though Ayla doesn’t specify why, you know Tips well enough to not be surprised that his goblin-green clone would want to check out mystery-magic like that—and they’d gone looking for him.
“Honestly, it wasn’t hard,” Ayla admits. “I made… inquiries, and the way was revealed to me.”
You try not to scowl at the oblique allusion to her contacts, who you assume (with good reason) to be The Dark Gods or agents thereof. You’re not a Paladin-fluffing worshiper of the Gods Above, but that hardly makes you a fan of Those Below, either. Gods are gods, and as far as YOU’RE concerned, they can all get fucked… But that isn’t what’s important right now.
“The way Carazzi told it, it’s just some shitty little shop in that Goldenriver city you two visited.”
“Ziwei Bo’s storefront is… mobile.” Ayla narrows her eyes. “I believe he has found some way to situate it in multiple places at once, and to grant or block access based on who is seeking it, something akin to a <Demiplane>. But then, such advanced Conjuration has always been my greatest aptitude. Even greater than Elementalism, or Mentalism.”
“Yeah?” you say. “That mean that you can get us in?”
“He’ll be expecting us,” she says, and the boastful smirk that took shape as she listed her capabilities slips. “We won’t need to take any special measures to find him.”
“And what about to rob him? Got any special measures for THAT?”
It’s the first time you say aloud what exactly the ‘new plan’ is, instead of the original one to turn the hundun over to the lich. Ayla doesn’t seem surprised about it, nor upset. You wouldn’t say she seems PLEASED, either, though.
You find Ayla again, waiting where you left her—where the <Dimension Door> which she summoned let you all out. Everyone else has cleared out, gone to rest in their rooms, or to chow down and tell tales of the northeast, or just to go take a piss. Not Ayla, though—she’s hardly moved, and graces you with a small smile and a glint in her eye that says she was expecting you.
“I see plans have changed,” she comments dryly.
“Yeah.” You huff, and cross your arms. “Carazzi’s practically adopted the damn thing.”
“And yet, we still require the pills.”
“Yeah,” you repeat, and then look up into her eyes. “Tell me: what all do you know ‘bout this Ziwei Bo bastard?”
In truth, it’s not much. As Ayla tells it, she and Veigar were doing their grand tour of Eastland esoteric hotspots when they heard tell of a mysterious practitioner of medicinal magic, capable of otherwise-impossible wonders of body and spirit. This had been of immediate interest to both of them—though Ayla doesn’t specify why, you know Tips well enough to not be surprised that his goblin-green clone would want to check out mystery-magic like that—and they’d gone looking for him.
“Honestly, it wasn’t hard,” Ayla admits. “I made… inquiries, and the way was revealed to me.”
You try not to scowl at the oblique allusion to her contacts, who you assume (with good reason) to be The Dark Gods or agents thereof. You’re not a Paladin-fluffing worshiper of the Gods Above, but that hardly makes you a fan of Those Below, either. Gods are gods, and as far as YOU’RE concerned, they can all get fucked… But that isn’t what’s important right now.
“The way Carazzi told it, it’s just some shitty little shop in that Goldenriver city you two visited.”
“Ziwei Bo’s storefront is… mobile.” Ayla narrows her eyes. “I believe he has found some way to situate it in multiple places at once, and to grant or block access based on who is seeking it, something akin to a <Demiplane>. But then, such advanced Conjuration has always been my greatest aptitude. Even greater than Elementalism, or Mentalism.”
“Yeah?” you say. “That mean that you can get us in?”
“He’ll be expecting us,” she says, and the boastful smirk that took shape as she listed her capabilities slips. “We won’t need to take any special measures to find him.”
“And what about to rob him? Got any special measures for THAT?”
It’s the first time you say aloud what exactly the ‘new plan’ is, instead of the original one to turn the hundun over to the lich. Ayla doesn’t seem surprised about it, nor upset. You wouldn’t say she seems PLEASED, either, though.
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