The Exclusion Zone: There's magic in the air
By Patrick
After Davy was so nice to go shopping an AK 47 with The Bard, Stargazer is trying to teach The Bard, how to shoto with it, aiming at a wall ... a big wall ... with moderate success. But at least, The Bard did not shoot into his own foot, so it seems to be a success. Suddenly The Bard stops and is looking iritated at some steel door ... TB: "Hey Stargazer, somethings wrong with that door over there." SG: "What do you mean, it's just a f*cking steel door and it is at most a mircale, that it is still standing, while the rest of the building is a pile of rubble." TB: "Nonono, I can feel magic from there." SG: "Bro, there's a lot of unseen shit in the air arround here. If you start feeling it, you should check your Geiger counter immediately!" TB: "What's a Geiger counter ? Whatever, let me have a look at the magic arround here." TB: "Oh, I see ... that's nice, let's go inside and have a look." SG: "Inside what ? The rest of the building is gone." TB: "Just take my hand and close your eyes." SG: "Yo Bro, I think you got some wrong vibes there, I'm with Amalia!" TB: " sigh ... no bro, that's not what I meant ... you will not be able to walk through a steel door, while your eyes tell you, that it is there, even when it's an illusion. The reality density of this illusion is way to high for that." SG: "The what ? Wait, you want me to walk face first into a steel door ?" TB: "Like I said, just take my hand and close your eyes, I will lead on." SG: "If you lead on, that's fine ... I guess ... but when I hear your face hitting the steel, I will stop walking ... and have a good laugh." So The Bard takes the hand of Stargazer, opens the door and walks inside. To Stargazer's surprise, the expected noise of a bards face hitting a stell door, failed to materialize. When The Bard told him to open his eyes, he was standing in a shop ... a magical shop ... with a magical shop keeper. The Shopkeeper: "Oh, hey there, dear customers, welcome at McGuffins McGuffin shop, Shamus McGuffin my name. Long time since someone entered my shop through this door from that world. How can I serve you?" To say, that Stargazer is astonished about the situation is an understatement ... TB: "Hey there Shamus, I'm The Bard and this is Stargazer. Yeah, the city arround that door is quite f*cked up. I wouldn't expect many customers coming from there. Say, there Shamus, do you have some magic books about magical music, especially from the world, where we came from, right now ?" SMG: "Hmm, let me think ... there's not many books about real magic from there. You know, I think I have two books from there about magical music. Both going into the eldritch section, when you know, what I mean. Have a look at them." The Bard has now a look at both books ... TB: "Well, Shamus, I think, the first book looks fine to me, the second one is a little to negative for my taste. And hey Shamus, what's this beauty over there ?" SMG: "Oh, you have a good eye for quality, my friend! This is the exquisite Dragonslayer 5000. Build together from the best gnomish tinkerers. It shoots compressed fireballs, which can even melt through dwarven made steel doors." While The Bard was thinking " Oh damn, he called me 'my friend' andsaid 'exquisite' and 'best' ... this will be expensive! " ... he still took the gun into his hands and asked: "Hey Stargazer, what do you think, do I look cool with this ? To be honest, I couldn't really warm to the AK 47. " SG: "Yeah man, it looks great, can't wait to see, what this baby can do!" TB: "Sooo, my dear friend Shamus ... I have here a purse with some gold coins." SMG: "Oh my friend, you don't want to insult me, don't you ? These gold coins are barely covering the book, but not at all the gun." TB: "What if we bring you some very special monster pieces as alchemical ingredients ? Can we make an adventurer deal ?" * * An adventurer deal, covers the problem, that adventurers need good gear to be successfull, but can only afford good gear, if they already are successfull. So a shopkeeper, who is convinced, that they will be successfull, can give them gear in advance, and they will have to pay it back later ... but of course it will cost much more this way, because the shop keeper bears all the risk, that the adventurers will end as dragon poop and never will be able to pay him. SG: "Hey bro, I could lend you some rubel or dollars." SMG: "No offense, dear Stalker, but paper money only has a value, because people believe in the value, because they trust their governments and think that their country has the counterpart of the paper value stored as gold reserves. I on the other hand, don't believe in the value of printed colored paper, don't trust any goverment and know, that they don't have the gold. So I guess will accept an adventurers deal, but you better have to pay me soon, dear bard friend." BT: "Sure I will, you can trust me, I'm a bard." * * The Bard has heared this phrase from a very very handsome wizard and like it seems to work on many people, he also wanted to try it. SMG: "Hey there, dear Stargazer ... as a new customer I offer you these very cool sunglasses, with them you can see the magical doors to my shop and the magical marking signs, pointing to the doors. And if you find anything special, that you want to sell, come back and we talk. And psst .. . if the bard doesn't survive, bring me back the gun. " SG: "Ahh ... thanks Shamus! Sure." So The Bard and Stargazer leave the magic shop and of course want directly test the new gun on an inocent wall and building. And they seem to realy enjoy the result.