Avari's Fortune

[Anselm]

Anselm was silent for a few moments as though recalling the woman to mind. “A plain looking woman, dishwater-blond hair down to her shoulders, a scar on the left side of her neck, perhaps in her early twenties. Her clothing suggests he has seen better days and she keeps a significant amount of cleavage on display. I do not know where she lives, but she occasionally comes to the inn in the evening, locates a well-to-do man, has a few drinks with him, and then leaves with him. Sometimes they go upstairs where the man presumably has a room. Other times they leave the inn entirely for some other private place. I suspect she leaves her patrons with less gold than they had at the beginning. “She wears an amulet on a sliver chain around her neck. It is golden, although I do not know if it is actually gold, and has a large, oval shaped ruby in its center. It is the amulet that I want. I will meet you at the location you have specified in four days time. It might be wise to leave now. The man you robbed is re-thinking his earlier encounter with you.” OOC : The thread is yours to finish. I look forward to following your exploits as you relieve the woman in question of her amulet and rack up some XP.

[Avari]

Avari left the inn that evening, her mind already whirling with dozens of questions and ideas about the new opportunity that the old fortune-teller had offered her. Thankfully, her quick but nonchalant exit must have escaped the notice of the huntsman she had robbed of his trail rations, or else he wasn't sure enough about the culprit to come chasing after her in particular with accusations of thievery and trickery on his lips. If it hadn't been for that huntsman with the nasty, bloodthirsty desires, the Konti might have been tempted to linger in the common room and watch out for the woman who owned the amulet the old fortune-teller wanted. No amount of potential profit was worth the risk of capture and captivity, though, so Avari headed home that night with images of golden amulets tormenting her and challenging her imagination.

She returned to the inn the next night, rubbing dirt and ashes into her skin to darken it and swathing herself in cloak, gloves, and hat to make sure no one recognized her, and chose a small side table from which to survey the common room. While Avari kept an eye out for the blond woman, she occupied herself with studying other women wearing necklaces and thinking of how she'd steal their jewelry. To Avari's disappointment, the woman didn't appear, but the Konti did return home with some ideas about how she could unlawfully obtain the amulet.

That night, she tossed and turned in bed, going over each idea and discarding them one and one. She had thought of following the woman home and breaking into her room, but such an undertaking would either take more time or incur more risk than Avari had bargained for originally. Then she thought of hiring some urchin off the street who could bump into the woman and unhook the latch of the amulet so that Avari could snatch it, but a plan like that depended on finding an urchin who was both nimble and honest, an extraordinarily rare combination. Trying to unlatch and grab it herself would get the city watchmen called to pursue her, and Avari treasured her freedom and independence too much to lose it on behalf of some old man's twenty mizas.

In frustration, Avari punched her pillow a few times to vent her feelings and decided to sleep on the matter. Just as she fell asleep, another idea came to mind, enticing in its simplicity and symmetry. Her lips curved in a mischievous smile as her eyelids drooped closed.

The next evening, as she slipped unobtrusively into the World's End Grotto's common room, Avari saw the woman sitting at a table near the wall. Her heart jumped when she noticed her stringy blond hair, torn dress, and blemished neck encircled by a plain silver chain hung with a golden amulet bearing a large, deep red ruby. The Konti tried not to show her excitement, but took her usual small side table to order a drink and watch the woman.

Just like her, apparently, the woman was canvassing the room as well and frowning every time she saw a well-dressed man entering with a lady on his arm. At one point, the woman gave a predatory smile as her gaze alighted upon a single man in a fine velvet coat and cravat, only to frown even deeper when he welcomed an equally elegant lady to his table with beaming pleasure. Avari took this as a sign to move in and make her own move toward the woman with the amulet.

Taking care not to look at the amulet at all and give away her motives, Avari affected to stroll casually past the woman's table and then stopped abruptly, letting out a sharp gasp of horror and whirling about to face the woman.

"You!" she exclaimed, lifting a trembling finger at the woman. "I feel...I feel... There is an air of ill luck upon you, stranger, a feeling of bad fortunes and trouble! I feel it!"

She threw back her head dramatically and wrung her hands, letting the lamplight illuminate her pale skin and hair and the scales below her hairline that marked her as a Konti. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched the woman's mouth drop open in a startled expression. Hoping that her race's reputation for clairvoyance and extrasensory sight would help her get away with outright lying and stealing, Avari snuck a peek at the woman.

Surely, Avari thought dizzily, the woman had not had such rich olive skin before now? Surely, she had been wearing a torn, ugly dress, not that velvet and satin gown? By some trick of the light or Avari's own eyes, the plain-looking woman now appeared far younger and more beautiful. Only the amulet around her neck remained the same, glittering and set with that massive ruby. That amulet was more than just an amulet, Avari realized vaguely; it was no wonder the old man had been willing to pay twenty mizas to get his hands on it.

Trying not to look affected, Avari reached her hands toward the woman and spoke in her most eerie, mystical-sounding voice. "Ohhhhh, ohhhh," she moaned softly, "I feel the darkness around you. I feel the doom that clutches around your throat, able to squeeze the life out of you at any moment! Any moment! I feel it... I feel it..."

She gasped again and pointed directly at the woman's amulet. "It is this!" she exclaimed. "This jewel, I can feel its magic...and its curse. It carries darkness with it. I can see that it will ruin you one day, even though it seems harmless now. I have parted the veils of the future, and I can see it will leave you poor and alone and far older than your years."

When the woman said nothing, her mouth still hanging open, Avari continued, "I cannot leave you with such a terrible object in your possession. Mother Avalis will never forgive me if I saw your dark fate and did not help you avert it. I can cleanse your necklace, with holy rituals and sacred spells, and take away the terrible curse lying upon it. Then, and only then, will the ill luck it brings you fade and the darkness within it be purged at last."

The woman touched the amulet hesitantly and looked over Avari's shoulder to the door, and the Konti could tell by the way that her face fell that no well-to-do men had entered the common room. Her dark eyes looked the Konti up and down, and Avari held still, her skin tingling with electric excitement. Time itself seemed to stand still for her as the woman studied her up and down, and the world held its breath as she looked the woman in the eye and showed her only genuine calmness and concern.

At last, the woman gave a tremulous smile. "Oh, I thought there was something about this amulet!" she cried, taking hold of the chain in her hand. "I never knew it had a curse! How can I get rid of it?"

Avari finally let herself take a long, deep breath. She had tricked the woman into trusting her! Now she would just have to trick her even further into giving up her prized possession.

"The only way," she murmured, still using her eerie voice, "the oooooonly way it can be done is if you come with me to a cleansed and sanctified area by the sea, where the waves can wash away the curse. Then you must leave it there, while I perform secret Konti rituals upon the area and implore Avalis and Laviku alike to take mercy on you. And then..."

The woman's eyes grew wider as she spoke. "And then...?" she whispered.

"And then," Avari finished, "after three days of fasting, praying, and cleansing on my part, you may return and reclaim your amulet, cleansed of its darkness and ill fortune forever."

For a moment, the woman's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Why would you go to so much trouble? You don't even know me! Why would you fast and pray for me?"

Avari did her best to blink her eyes guilelessly at the woman, knowing that this was a decisive moment. "The curse upon that amulet, and all other curses like it, is an abomination to the sight of Lady Avalis, the goddess whom I serve. It is no trouble for me to cleanse such a curse away, but a sacred, important duty. I could not live or even visit a city that held dark curses like that, bringing misery and horror to all who came into contact with it. I must cleanse away the curse, not for your sake, but for my Lady's sake and my own."

The woman hesitated for a moment and then reached to unclasp the chain, divesting herself of it. The glow of her exotic beauty faded as she slapped it into Avari's hand. "Then take it," the woman breathed, her face shining with conviction.

"Come with me, then, and I will show you the place where it will be left to be cleansed," Avari told her, hiding a secret smile.

The woman followed her to a secluded area near the harbor, just far enough away from Avari's cottage to avoid any possible connection between the two locations. Avari made a great show of kneeling on the ground, burying the amulet underneath a layer of pebbles and rocks worn smooth by the sea, waving her hands over the pile, and uttering a few incomprehensible prayers full of gibberish. Solemnly, she told the woman that the rituals must begin at once and started to unhook her cloak and unbutton her shirt. The woman's mouth gaped wide again and her blemished neck bulged as she saw Avari about to disrobe, clearly believing it must be part of the secret rituals that Avari had stressed most fiercely that no outsiders could witness at risk of losing their sanity.

"I'll be back in three days," she promised hurriedly and hurried away. "Three days! I promise!"

Avari watched as the woman disappeared behind a nearby building and grinned to herself. Carefully, she tucked the amulet even more securely within its pile of rocks and crept away. She wasn't about to take the amulet right away, just in case the woman felt more suspicious and distrustful and decided to come back to check upon the amulet and its "cleansing." The Konti wanted her to believe the ruse for as long as possible, so that when it disappeared, the woman hopefully wouldn't know what to think at all.

It tested all of Avari's self-control, but she managed to stay away from that secluded spot by the harbor for two more days. Finally, on the dawn of the third day, she gratefully snuck back and extracted the amulet from its hiding place, before piling the stones and rocks so that they looked untouched. This way, the woman might imagine the amulet's "cleansing" had caused it to disappear forever, as the only way to destroy its curse. Careful to touch the amulet with gloved hands, Avari carefully tucked it into a safe place within the many pockets and compartments of her cloak.

She was going to enjoy spending the old man's twenty mizas, that was for sure.

[Arcane]

Rewards and Treasure! Creepy_Zombie_Prophet : Experience Points +2 Fortune Telling +1 Observation +1 Persuasion Lores Avari the Konti Avari's Thieving Skill Tasking Avari to Steal the Amulet Amulet Stealing Task: Promise to Rendez-vous Miscellaneous Ledger: -1gm Comments Note that wine isn't available at Zeltiva unless you purchase it at high prices. I assumed that the "wine" in this case is Kelp Beer, which costs half a nilo. Sneaky_Konti! : Experience Points +1 Observation +3 Acting +2 Larceny Lores Anselm the Fortune Teller Anselm's Bitterness Towards the Gods Konti Gift Memory: Love of the Hunt, Love for the Kill Anselm's Proposition: Stealing an Amulet Amulet Stealing Task: Description of Woman Amulet Stealing Task: Description of Amulet Amulet Stealing Task: Promise to Rendez-vous Miscellaneous +Ledger: Amulet (Quest Item)As described in-thread Comments lmao at the pompous words. I feel like smacking Avari for that pompousness... how can she not stand laughing while she says that?! xD A normal pickpocketing should not get any XP at expert, but I acknowledge the additional challenge, and so you get +1 for each attempt. In Conclusion Quite a few lores I gave were quest-specific lores more than anything else, sort of like quest-milestone markers. PM me if you have any questions.