Group One traverses the crossway, finally ending up in the central room. The walls have been lit slightly, and inside is a floor with nine glowing pads, illuminated with a red light. With the walls lit up, the group can see a large door, once again with the symbol of two unicorns bowing to one another. The left wall is lit up with a pattern showing 5 green squares in an X shape, and four yellow squares in a diamond pattern. Spoiler: Knowledge Checks Perfect Melody: 65 Zephyr: 37 Emerald Whirl: 92 Emerald Whirl quickly discerns that this must somehow have to do with the 9 colored blocks that are in a square block. On the right wall, there is a pattern that quickly solves her suspicion. There is a single dot in the center that is red, and a square surrounding it that is green. Current Pattern: [TABLE="class: grid, width: 200, align: left"] [TR] [TD]Red [/TD] [TD]Red [/TD] [TD]Red [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Red [/TD] [TD]Red [/TD] [TD]Red [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Red [/TD] [TD]Red [/TD] [TD]Red [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] To step onto the block, a pony would need to pass over the SW block. Unless of course... they can fly. Group Two Spoiler: Perception Checks Silver: 67 Arc: Crit 98 Total 108 Throw Down: 28 Arc Gust quickly finds a blacksmith's shop. Though it doesn't say anything about weapons... the outside display almost looks like the place the armor came from. Unfortunately that's all he sees until... he notices another wandering merchant with a spear painted on the side of his cart. He doesn't seem to be getting much business though. Silver finds a brick building with an open book sign hanging outside over the door. This could, perhaps, be the library he's looking for.
Hmm. A sign with a book on it? Vague...yet, there was sure to be SOMETHING of use. "If you guys need me, I'll be in here," he said to Throw Down, pointing to the curiously nondescript sign. He then entered the...place...and took in his surroundings, specifically the pony at the front desk (if there was one) and whether this looked like a spellbook library, or an "other" book library, or perhaps not a library at all but a bookstore.
Silver When entering the building, the scent of lavender is the first thing Silver noticed as soon as the door was opened. There was a white unicorn sitting on a cushion seat near the door. She was reading a book she had levitating before her. Behind her were two incense burners that were expelling the initial aroma. The first thing she said was; "Please close the door first thing upon entry." She looked over to Silver and her eyes lit up. "Oh my, I don't get outsiders often... rather, almost at all other than the two merchants that wander." The rest of the... shop/library... was a number of shelves that lined the walls. The square shape of the building made it feel like a library, at least. There were some other cushions for seating near the back of the... building.
Silver's first thought was how odd it was that a bookstore be lavender scented. Not that he disliked the scent, but he had been expecting old-paper-and-ink smell, which he personally found quite comforting in its own way. Obediently, he closed the door behind him. Probably because the owner didn't want to pay to scent the street outside... He couldn't quite tell if it was a library or shop by its feel. He could always check the books to see if they were marked (library books always were), but... Silver approached the white mare. "Yes, well, it seems that not many foreigners come up here." He looked around some more. "This is a nice place you have here." He smiled at her. "I'm looking for some spell books. How much can I expect to pay?" He carefully but discreetly observed her reaction.
She seemed thoughtful for a moment. "Spell books? So you're a magic specializer. Did you go to school in Canterlot?" She bites her lip and shakes her head. "Sorry, I shouldn't pry. Yes, I do have a few spells. Nothing too fancy though. I'm an expert in scribing them for spell books, so you'd really be paying for my scribing service. Unfortunately, I can't sell those books." She gives a weak smile. "So it depends on how hard the spell is to scribe. I usually charge ten bits a page."
"Hmm." He looked around. "Well, can I look through them? I prefer defensive spells, but...y'know, almost anything's okay."
Throw Down watched Silver disappear into the shop. As he trotted out of site, Throw squinted accusingly at the shop. That building feels off, he thought. Turning to Arc, he said "What about those armaments you were talking about? See anything worth checking out?"
"Well, I do have a selection of defensive spells. Not large, mind you... but some." She levitates some tomes from the shelves. "I have all levels of Magic Armor, Elemental Ice Shield... to protect from the cold... the Warmpth cantrip... and a spell to help with accuracy when using shields." She lays the four tomes before her and looks aside. "So if you want a cantrip or a first circle spell, it's ten bits. Every circle up is an additional ten bits. Just, if you buy something you can't cast yet - it's not my fault." Arc appears to be without answer (for a month and a half,) and Throw Down ends up spotting a shop that has a sign which is a hammer sticking out of a horse shoe. That may be a fine place to start asking about armaments, at least.
Ah! Perfect! "I'm gonna look at that one. Seems he's having a slow day. I can try and get him down to a steal." Arc says, trotting over to the kart with the spear symbol. "Hi, I'm lookin' for something light and very sharp. What you got?"
"Light, and very sharp?" The merchant grins. "Well, you've come to the right place! I've got slashy things, stabby things, and definitely long and pointy things. Plenty sharp." He turns and pulls out a few objects. The first is a thin straight sword, second one is a quarter spear, and for the third mention, he points back at a lance that's leaning against the structure of the cart. "I've also got javelins for throwing, bows for firing, other, more normal-weighted swords, certaintly a collection."
Throw Down took one last look at the store Silver had disappeared into and followed Arc to the stand where it appeared the merchant had already put up a display of various pointy objects. Throw arrived as he pulled up the last item, a long lance that looked rather dangerous. Throw raised an eyebrow and pulled the sword off the stand, weighing it carefully. [size=-2]"Too light,"[/size] he mused before placing it back on the table. The other items didn't look much heavier, as if they had all been created to fit only one pony. "Got anything more suited to actually killing stuff? I certainly can't do anything with these toothpicks.
"Killing things?" The shop owner said in an apalled manner, drawing his head back. "Most of these are for light blows, not really murder. You don't intend to murder anypony, do you?" He smirks. "Actually, I do have a few things; you should just be careful where and how loud you say that... but enough about you, let's talk about me." He goes under the counter and grunts as he pulls up a broadsword that has a blade much like a big cleaver. "Let's see... swords, polearms, axes, and I have hunting bows in the box."
Throw's eyes flashed at the broadsword momentarily before he looked back at the merchant. "They're not for ponies specifically, there's other things out there, but if the need arises then yes, it would be used for that." He turned to gesture towards Silver before remembering he wasn't there. "Our third misfit caused a bit of trouble back in some caves, these blob things came up and tried to eat us or something." He shrugged, eyeing the sword again. "How much would this cost?"
The shopkeeper raises a brow and forms a curious expression. "Blu... what? Blobs? Like, just gooey blobs?" He hold a hoof up and tapped his chin, off-wardly mentioning "38 bits" as he contemplated. "What did they do to you? How do you defeat blobs? Did you eat them? Did you freeze them? How would that work?"
Arc picks up the straight sword in his mouth and steps backwards into an empty space. A quick check left, then right to see if anything was around. He swings left, steps forwards then swings right. He slides around, swipes diagonally then leaps into a front flip with the blade still in his mouth. His hooves land with a heavy thud on the ground, panting heavily. He trots back towards the stall, dropping the sword back down. "I'll take it." He said. "It's much lighter than it looks. Does it come with a scabbard and belt?"
Nice! It passed through our town already! My cousin was running it in Swindon, however, so I couldn't watch it in my town, I had to go to Swindon to watch it there.
With many questions unanswered, the merchant's attention turned back to Arc. He winced a bit and looks around as his sword gets tried out. He looked over at one of the town guards, who seemed to be half paying attention. Of course, the guard would be paying more attention if he knew what happened with the last pony to try out the light blade. He fears turned out to be un-founded however, as Arc finished the short routine, and the merchant let himself breathe. With a smile and a nod he says, "Yes. The package is 24 bits." He grabbed its scabbard and placed it on the table. The scabbard and belt were both a simple brown leather.
