1.2 - Shopping Trip

The van rolls into the Trade Ward. You follow the Nav unit as it tells you to turn right and left in a jovial, but robotic, manner. You find yourself in front of a small hole-in-the-wall shop with an aged sign over it. Still using outdated fluorescent lights. They audibly hum as you approach the store and enter.

It's mid-day outside but the store is still out of the light so it seems fairly dim. You find a Lizard Man standing behind the counter. He has a few opened data-pads around him he is fixing. As the door closes behind you it bumps a bell that jingles. The sound seems overly loud in this quiet little store.

The Lizard Man looks up at you, a monocle lense in one eye makes it seem much larger than it is. Even in this dimly lit store you see the Lizard Man has a puckered and white scar that runs from up above his eye, all the way down and around his jaw, cutting a jagged trail all the way along. Part of his upper and lower lip are split where the scar runs across his snout. His dark grey scales make the scar all the more prominent.

Welcome. How may I be of asssssssissstance, he says, almost accentuating the s noises intentionally.

Mack winces. First the hum from those lights, and then... like dragonnails across cobblestone. It really raises the hair on the back of his neck. Trying to look casual and cool, he gives his shoulders a shake.. you know, to arrange the duster just so. "Hi. We're looking for some..." he casts around, "stuff. We have a colleague who thought it might be a good idea to drop in on your store in particular. She was most insistent."

Breecha follows Mack into the store, jingling the door bell again as his head bumps into it. He stands behind Winchester, motionless like a statue, red optics glowing in the dim.

Kessel pulls up behind the van and dismounts. He digitizes his bike, breaking the vehicle down and absorbing it into his own cybernetics. He transmits instructions for O.W.L. to watch over the entrance, then enters the shop behind Breecha.

Ah. Yesssss. You musssst be Tymora'ssss boysss, he hisses out as he eyes you over, adjusting the magnifying monocle over his eye. He rounds around the counter to greet you, but strides past Mack and stops in front of Breecha.

Ooooh, a classic BR33CH-A unit. They don't build them like thissss anymore. How much for the bot? It could early plenty of GCsssss on the market, he says as he raps his knuckle on the armor plating of the bot. He turns towards mack with a raised scaled eyebrow.

"Not for sale." Kessel says levelly. He just manages not to hex the lizardman.

Breecha takes the knuckle-rap with the stoic and impassive grace of a tin man. His red optics are the only indication that he's even on.

Mack thinks about adding a comment, mouth open and finger pointing -- but decides better and shuts his mouth before opening again, "Is the front of the shop the extent of our options, or are there any more.. peculiar items that you might have for a more discerning clientele?" He gestures around the small place of business.

The Lizard Man regards Kessel for a moment, That'sssss too bad. Pleassse keep me in mind if you ever...reconssssider.

He turns back to Mack. Ah, yessss. For Tymora thisss rubbish will simply not do. Follow me.

He turns and heads back around the counter and withdraws a small data key from within his shirt. It hangs on a small decorative mythril chain. He walks you to a door that looks like an entrance to a back stockroom and plugs the data key into an almost imperceptible port on the wall. When he removes the key the door sliders open and you indeed find a very disheveled stock room.

Half deconstructed datapads lay all around. The lizard man leads you to the back of this room where some open piping come down from the ceiling and run along a portion of the wall. He grabs one of these and pulls it and you hear an audible click. The rest of the section of this wall swings backwards. He pushes on through and you find that the door leads to a dark tunnel, lit by a few sparse wall lights.

Right thisssss way. Please close the door behind you. You can never be too...sssssecretive, he says, clearly using that word for the 's' sound instead of careful, which would have made far more sense.

What do you all do?

Mack continues to twitch at the sibilant speech. It gives him chills. Every. Single. Time. Shrugging, however, he will follow the Lizard Man into the back. "One of you wanna close the door after us?"

Breecha will be the last to enter the stock room, and he turns to attempt to close it so that their entrance into the secret room isn't in public view. He gives the common room one last sweep with his optics before returning his attention to the lizardman, whom he scans to try and pick up his vitals and determine his state of mind.

Kessel enters behind Mack. Out of force of habit he looks around for surveillance cameras and the like, as well as an exit if things should go south. Half of him wishes he'd brought O.W.L. in here with him.

For both Kessel and Breech-a there are no detectable threats here. Kessel also notes an extreme lack of technology. A quick scan of the place in HUD view of RAIN reveals the area is devoid of any hard lines to the network. Even your connection to the global network is suddenly becoming spotty. A few more feet down this long tunnel and you suddenly can't get a signal to RAIN at all.

You trek down this tunnel for a while, a few twists and turns here and there, and find yourself at an old rusted metal door, with one small rusted keyhole. The lizard man pulls out a key and unlocks the door. He struggles a bit getting the rusted door to swing open, and as he does you see the door is about a foot thick of solid metal. He walks through the door and says, Hold on one sssssecond.

After a few moments you hear a CHUNK, and suddenly lights flicker on revealing a rather large vault-like room. Shelves and racks and walls are lined with all sorts of weapons, devices, and all manner of technology. Inside this room, Kessel, you also realize any of your techromancy Magic is simply inaccessible to you. It's as if the whole room is either shielding you, or suppressing magic as a whole.

What are you in the market for, my friendssss, the Lizard Man says with a toothy grin revealing rows of small needley teeth.

Mack considers.

"Well, maybe something that provides healing or repair? Or perhaps something that can give my guns a little extra juice?" he shrugs, "To be honest, I hadn't really thought of needing anything in particular. I suspect Breech may have something on his shopping list, since he likes the heavy hardware..."

"ADVISORY: Secondary Source of Alternative Identification," intones Breecha. "Inquire Availability And Cost."

Kessel can't help but admire the way this place has been shielded, even though this leaves him feeling somewhat vulnerable. He is glad, as always, that Breecha is around. He moves to stand closer to the battle droid, but then is unable to contain his curiosity and takes a step closer to the shelves of tech.

Ah, yessss. Healing and repair, gun modsssss. Even sssspare credentials. I can help with all of that, the lizard man says, gesturing at the shelves all around. He starts leading you around the shop space.

The first shelf is lined with repair and healers kits, as well as stims for both repair and healing. The kits are generally cheaper, but will only stabalize, not actually heal. The stims are more expensive, but they work much like the old healing potions of the olden days.

He also shows you a whole display section of various gun mods. For 3,000 GCs you can add any one property to a weapon. This includes the Burst Fire ability. You could instead use that 3,000 GCs to add a stock or a scope onto a weapon, the stock adds +2 to weapon attacks, the scope adds +2 to weapon damage. (I am working on more weapon mod ideas).

He also informs you that clean credentials are 4,000 GCs per person. Generating credentialssss comessss with added...risksssss, he says.

"Hrm. A false set of clean credentials might be pretty handy for you, Kessel. Or do those not have value on the net?" Mack wonders. He walks over to the healing kits and starts to poke around, as the mundane additions to weapons have no interest for the gunmage.

"I don't suppose you have anything to modify an an arcane focus?"

He stops showing the goods off and squints at you, Mack. Ahhhh, he says after a short pause, I didn't realize we had a gun mage in our pressssssence. He grins a little wider and walks over to a row of shelves that have a safe below them. This safe seems to be a very old mundane safe with a standard spinning wheel. Nothing electronic about it, which is quite rare these days.

He spins the dial a few times, and then grabs the big turn bar attached to it and you hear it clunk loudly as the safe unlocks and swings open. He pulls out a small black case, about the size of a briefcase. It's black rugged looking plastic. He clicks the two locks on it and opens it, spinning it around to see. You see what looks like many internal components to your pistol, but they seem to be made of a smooth polished obsidian stone.

Thissss kit will allow you to replace the trigger mechanisssssm of your pistols for one more conductive to your magical powersssss. This is a highly illegal modification. It will run you eight thousssssand GC. It will boost your magical power, and allow you to hold more magical chargesssss.

Mack's eyes grow large. "Very interesting.. but that price is a little dear. And it would seem to me to be a selfish purchase..."