Snippet #2408522

The merchant nodded, brow cocked at the mention of an odd crystal and the box this Aisha had a key for but didn't know the contents of. Then he remembered stories of old villages hidden away, filled with ghosts who didn't know they were dead and visitors that would be trapped in their eternal damnation should they run afoul of whatever put the cursed township into it's present state. A chill ran up his spine at the thought but the icy grip of fear lessened its hold when he remembered that in most of those stories the ghosts were never actually able to go outside the village. 'I need to stop reading those damned books.'

"I can agree that getting Zander riled up probably wouldn't be the best idea. Wouldn't want to be turned into cinders so far from home. Though, if that does happen, it would be best to bury me up here and say the Treant did it after I, uh... heroically sacrificed myself to save a passing child or something; don't want to ruin my reputation when someone comes looking for me." Michael's gaze turned to the direction of the village, where this strange object had arrived.

"You know, when we get back, I'm a specialist in enchanted items. That's why I came here, I was going to ask about buying those floating candles in bulk so we, that is to say the caravan I work for, could sell them in other areas. It's a novel idea and I've not seen it done before. But something about that crystal doesn't sound right; actually, everything about that crystal sounds horrible. I could take a look at, if you'd be able to convince your employer to trust me with it." Turning back to Thoroark and following his lead, the merchant also began to peer around in case anything else would decide to mimic the Treant's tactics of ambush.

"That said I was coming here expecting to buy those candles and maybe find other oddities, I might not have the proper tools needed for something that might be cursed. Though if the plants died after that thing arrived, I'd suspect there's some necromancy involved. Eyes are a window to the soul and that thing might have just reached through and tried to takes yours like some thief taking a freshly baked pie cooling on a counter." A second later he sighed, realizing just how frightening what he just said was yet sounded like he was used to dealing with such a thing. That was far from the truth; cursed objects almost never came into his possession, rather his father would constantly tell stories about the objects they had found and examined and they had been repeated so many times that Michael began to think of it as just another thing to deal with rather than a scary proposition.

"Oh, that probably could have been worded a bit better. Don't worry, might just be a way to keep people from looking too closely at it. Putting information into crystals isn't exactly new and it could just be a defensive measure to keep what's held inside from prying eyes." A moment after saying that, Michael rethought his entire plan. He was physically weaker than the two warriors, the gloves on his hands were nearly out of charge, and the best he could do was blind something and throw stones really hard. 'Maybe I should just go back and see what I can do at the village.

"That being said... would you like me to go back and try to help your employer with all of this? The crisp mountain air is nice and all, but unless your party here find anything they'd like enchanted or looked at I might be of more help finding out what exactly your friend received today."