“Hmm, interesting…” Glitz mused.
The tall, handsome Golden Hind examined the soul essences they’d gathered. Apart from the souls, a couple of potions, and some of the furniture, the hag hadn’t really been a walking bag of money like they’d hoped.
“Hand me the wood.” Glitz held out a hoofletted hand.
Geoffrey picked up the block of wood and handed it to him.
The stag took his time, sculpting miniatures for every soul essence they had found. There were quite a lot of them that had yet to be sold off to some extraplanar merchant. The bigger of the figures were a hog and alligator. From their chain vests it was obvious that the two were guards – probably taken together on patrol. There were smaller species as well: a mouse shopkeeper, a badger bricklayer, a skunk perfume salesman. Thirteen in all, a wide range of diverse species and jobs.
Although the party had initially hoped that there might be some other adventurers or otherwise awesome lives to pick from, all of them seemed rather droll.
“That’s likely why these hadn’t been sold off yet.” Geoffrey exclaimed as the party looked them over.
The last, and final soul jar was the Lion Barbarian. They’d found it in a box waiting to be shipped. Charlie had guessed that would be the one, but he’d been hoping for some more diamonds in the rough.
“So…what can we do with them?” Geoffrey asked.
“Become…losers, honestly.” Glitz replied.
“What about quaffing?”
“You want to quaff soul essence? Is that like.. snorting heroin or something?” Geoffrey asked.
“No, dummy! It means just taking a sip,” Charlie said, before turning towards Glitz, “would that make you take the shape of the person for a few hours? Is that possible?”
The stag frowned. “Yes. But, you’d be in a bit of a pickle, as you’d have their mental abilities and memories overlapping your own. Things…they could happen, is all I’m going to say on that. You don’t know their history, so you could end up in deep shit.”
“Is there any way to guess?”
“The backstories?” Glitz blinked.
“Yes.”
“Look at the miniatures. That’s them.” Glitz gestured to the row of minis.
Some appeared very happy while most appeared dour or unhappy.
“Oh.” Charlie gulped. “I see.”
“Yes, I suspect being turned into cat bois and girls was likely the best thing to ever happen to most of them.” Glitz shrugged.
“Having their soul sucked out and becoming nothing but an extension of the hag’s will is better than being poor?” Prince Gregory scoffed. “Yes, I’m sure the souls currently residing in the hands of the fiend she sold them to agree.”
“We’ll figure something out. Thanks Glitz.” Charlie said hurriedly before Gregory could open his mouth again.
They took the tailored miniatures and essences and packed them into the nondescript carriage outside. One of the more interesting aspects of being Greggory having been tailored – this carriage had belonged to the original Prince Greggory, and the stable owner where it was being stored was more than happy to give it back to him. Not wanting to look a gift carriage in the eye, bought a few horses to pull it. They piled their luggage on the roof and secured with it straps. Then they were off down the cobblestone streets.
“We can park this back at the Sit and Swill stables.” Hagerd said. “From the talk at the inn, it looks like the bridge will be back up by the end of the week. Tons of caravans are on the other side of the river, so the inn is gonna be busy.”
“Right, and we need someone to test these essences on. Maybe make some money on the side.” Gregory said.
“Really, my Liege? Theft?” Geoffrey quirked a brow.
“They aren’t going to be using money for anything anymore.” Gregory shrugged. “I have to make it to the Capitol and I’d rather eat well on my way there.”
“That is an excellent point,” Charlie pointed out.
“Morally dubious,” Hagerd agreed, “but they also offer us a way to escape detection.”
“Oh!” Gregory smiled, “Yes! That’s true! Imagine using the guard or soldier and getting into the Holy Capitol.”
“It doesn’t matter if we can’t test the essences on anyone. Who could we hire that would do that?”
“Why hire? Just buy a slave.” Hagerd said.
Charlie looked at him. “What?”
“Slave Market. Tried to close it down but I don’t have that kind of influence.” Hagerd explained.
“Hmph. Slave, peasant, what’s the difference?” Gregory yawned. “They’re all beneath me.”
“Is the Slave Market open?”
“No. Bridge going down means no market.”
“Pah! Waiting!” Geoffrey ground his teeth.
And wait they did. Four days in total. By then, everyone was on edge. There was nothing to do in town anymore, they’d cleared out the Hag and that was pretty much the only big adventure. Fortunately, the caravans poured into town as soon as the bridge was re-opened.
The party gathered at the bar before walking down to the market to find a slave.
Tons of people were on the way to the center of town where the marketplace was held. It was in the courtyard of a large stadium. There was a long line to get in, so the party waited impatiently for their turn to enter before, finally, they were let in.
It was bustling with life. Vendors hawked their wares, desperate to sell various foodstuffs before they spoiled. Armor and weapons stalls with questionable gear, book vendors for academics and magic users. Mostly, though, it was furniture and rugs and regular clothing and baskets and fruits and vegetables. A few cows and sheep were being auctioned.
If there were magic items, they were low-level common items and rather highly priced.
“Hagerd?”
“Wha?”
“You didn’t happen to invent the TV, did you?”
“No, I invented the printing press. Why?”
“Shame,” Geoffrey said.
“Alright Hagerd, where are these slaves?” Charlie asked.
Hagerd pointed near the back. “End of the market. Always.”
The party went straight to the back of the courtyard and found three different slave traders with their slaves on display. A large clydesdale was selling anthro bulls for labor, a timberwolf was selling an assortment of different forest animal anthros – rabbits, squirrels and the like – for domestic use, and a Kobold was selling ten little… kobolds.
Prince Gregory silently evaluated the slaves, clicking his tongue when he found imperfections. Not that they mattered, since the slave was going to be used as a Guinea pig. Personally, Charlie thought it best for him to choose the cheapest.
“Slave collars, how do they work?” Gregory asked Hagerd.
Hagerd sighed. “Complete control over the slave.”
“Can it be beaten?” Gregory cocked a brow.
“Yes. Wait. The slave or the collar?”
“...Both.”
“Yes. To both. But being able to break the control of a collar is generally only done by powerful people… or monks and Paladins.” Hagerd replied.
“Makes sense,” Gregory replied, surveying their choices of victims.
The selection was narrowed down to kobolds, who often lacked any adventuring classes. All but one had dull, mottled colorations, but Prince Greogry’s eyes narrowed when he saw the kobold with glossy red scales.
“What’s this?” Greogory asked, pointing at the brightly colored kobold.
The small red reptialian looked up at the mink, startled.
“Intriguing scale coloration,” the mink murmured, eyeing her appreciatively. “nothing like the rest of this sorry bunch.”
“No.” Palseks agreed. “Not like others.”
“Hrrmmm?” The mink cocked a brow. “You’re rather mouthy for a slave.”
“Me is sorry!” Corrak leapt over to the silk-clad mink. “She not taught manners. Not slave long!”
“Oh?” The mink cocked his head.
“She a fresh young kobold, good for fuck!” Corrak thrust his hips and winked as well as his membranes allowed.
“Disgusting.” the rich mink said and turned to look at the others in line.
But while Gregory resumed ogling the lot, Charlie’s eyes narrowed on the only slave in the market that seemed to be any different than the rest. That kobold seemed to have been placed there on purpose, colored purposefully to catch their attention.
“Buy the red one,” Charlie murmured to the mink.
While they were talking, the kobolds behind them were having a little argument. It was rather cute, in Charlie’s opinion, but the blue ugly kobold guard was trying to snatch the female kobold up out under them. Gregory glanced from Charlie’s to the kobold, understanding what was going on.
“I’ll buy her for a 100 gold pieces!” Gregory announced.
Charlie’s jaw dropped. That was half of what they’d made from looting the hag! No slave could possibly be worth that much.
“Sold!” The kobold slaver said.
The red kobold stared up at the mink in sheer horror as she was led away to a tent. The slaver uncuffed her manacles and slapped on a control collar. Gregory picked his nails and waited for the slaver to read off the documents before signing the ownership papers. Once the contract was done and the magic officially binding, the slaver gave Gregory a bracelet.
“Come…” Gregory paused and read the contract, “…Palseks.”
Then he strode out of the tent. The kobold stumbled along behind him on tiny legs. Charlie watched the kobold veer off towards the blue one and say something to him in Draconic before Gregory turned and sneered.
“Palseks, hurry up and stop dilly-dallying!” Gregory snapped.
Palseks snapped back to attention as her body hurried after him, all the while doing the best that she could to look behind her and shoot the blue kobold a sad look. Charlie sighed. He knew they’d have to deal with this at some point. Finn wouldn’t create such an obvious heart-tugging scene for no reason. Still, with their new Guinea Pig in tow, they walked back to the Sit and Swill tavern.
“How much time do we have until the caravan leaves?” Charlie asked Hagerd.
“Two days. Some of the merchants tried to make up for lost time by opening stalls in the market.”
“Good.” Charlie said. “Bring the kobold up to the room. Let’s get testing.”