Just a little something...

[Kyo]

Kyo ran her fingers across the clear and coloured jars that lined the shelf of the Apothecary. Most of them were names that she did not understand, though a few of the names were familiar to her. Poisons, antidotes, healing remedies and various many names that did nothing more than confused her. She was not exactly sure what she wanted, but she did not a quick restock. After her last mission she had, unfortunately, needed the use of the poison hiding within the cap of her Ninja-to and now she needed to replace it. The ninja didn’t exactly expect to be going on any missions any time soon, not since Oyabun had sent her on this self-becoming journey, but it was always best to be prepared. Besides, adventuring had it’s own dangers and who knows when the stuff just might become useful.

Turning around to the simple, wooden countertop that served as nothing more than a formal partition between customer and storeowner. Many people felt safe behind that little slab of wood, a silly though when she could so easily vault over it and potentially kill the person standing behind it. Not that she was here for that. It was just hard to turn off her tuned instincts sometimes. She was always assessing situations. Looking for the best exit point, hiding places and just how easily she could dispatch any number of people.

“I’m looking for a poison powder that I can easily place in the cap of my Ninja-to. Perhaps something that I can place upon the edges of my shuriken as well. What are the strongest poisons that you have?"

[AdventWings]

"Ah, some... poison, you say?"

The sly store owner appeared seemingly out of thin air as she moved away from the shadows, the young lass hidden under a large, pointed black hat and midnight-colored cloak.

Agatha usually did not dabble with such dangerous media, but it was not unusual for a person in her line of work to use them - if only for kicks.

"Well, if you would like to know what kind of poison can kill a grown man three times over and still have some bite left in it..." The shady girl meandered out from behind the fragile piece of woodwork and paused in front of a few inconspicuous ceramic jars. "What you are looking for are some of Fallien's specialties. Vadha’manikkali, paralyzes the body with small dose, large doses and it kills. And then there's Azaya’handra... Get it into the blood and the body just lumps together and die... Such a tragic death that would be."

Agatha glanced at the assassin, already recognizing the line of work this lady was in just by the way she presented herself. A rookie, at best.

"But~ If you're looking for something that's not quite so exotic... I think I can mix some up for you. As for how strong the poisons I have here... Well, how strong do you want it?"

The merchant girl slid across the floor in an effortless glide, coming to a halt at the front of her shop's door with a milky white hand reaching for the sign. In one quick flip of her fingers, the writing on the sign now facing the only two women changed to its opposite twin.

Open.

"I figured it'll be best if no one else interrupt us." Agatha said with a grin.

[Kyo]

Kyo couldn’t help but bring herself to a similar grin. The storeowner clearly knew she was looking for something a little more interesting than the norm. The Fallien poisons were nice and all, but they were a little on the exotic side. She just needed something that would flat out kill a man in possibly an hour or less. She wasn’t too keen to enjoy the look the woman gave her earlier though. It was as if she were trying to judge her worth and skill in a simple glance. As if the way she carried herself now in her adventuring clothes would even give her an idea of how good she was at her job. No matter, she had to deal with whom she had to deal with. Besides, Kyo was quite sure she’d done similar things to people before.

“I don’t need anything exotic with a name I can barely fit my tongue around…” Kyo said as she slipped up beside the woman. The large windows of the shop were covered in thick purple curtains and would keep most prying eyes away from what they were doing. Not that the ninja was particularly worried about that.

“I figure something that could kill a man in an hour or less would be perfect. Also,” She reached behind her and quickly drew one of her Ninja-to with the sheath still upon the blade. “I’ll need a powder format that can easily fit into the cap of my sheath.” She fingers easily removed the cap and revealed the small hiding place. “So, it will need to be effective in small doses.”

Closing the cap once more, Kyosku placed the sword back in its resting place upon the small of her back.

“While I’m at it though, I suppose I should get some poison coating the edges of these too…” Turning her arms to reveal the underside of her armguards where three pouches barely noticeable to the eye lay. With sure fingers she removed a total of six black-coated shuriken from these pouches, three on each arm. “I have some tetsu-bishi as well that I’m sure could use a hallucinogenic… but I might be getting away from myself.”

[AdventWings]

Agatha smiled cooly despite the vicious movement in her face and casually observed the Kunoichi's secret little weapons. Getting the poison into usable forms was not a big problem for her, that was a certainty she did not have to worry about. But there were other problems she foresaw.

"Such a powerful poison you ask for, ninja girl." She could not help but smile as she drifted from one shelf to another, taking a few vials out from one rack after another. "I wonder what you are up to~"

The shadow-clad store owner was merely just musing as she returned to the counter and placed each dangerous mixtures onto a small holder - an object which seemed to materialize out of the very shadow which enveloped the entire store.

"I can make you said poison easily with what I have here. However, I will need to ask you... How much money do you have?"

[Kyo]

((Damnit, give me my extra 300 GP everyone else got when they registered! *cries*))

There was the question she had been waiting for, the one in the end she had been dreading a bit. Kyo had not left home with very much money, after all she had expected to earn whatever extra Gold she needed while on the road. Still, that didn’t necessarily mean that she couldn’t get her poison. After all, she didn’t know how much it would be and she did have other methods to get what she wanted, not all of which involved a weapon. It would be pointless in her mind to attack the shopkeeper, she was probably not a woman easily beat. Though she may look small, within the confines of those black robes the ninja had no idea what may lurk.

“I have 200 Gold in my possession…”

There was a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach as she said it. Perhaps what she asked for was too much. The woman’s other question was completely ignored, though it hadn’t been much of one in her mind. She clearly knew what she was and even musing aloud what she would be doing with this poison was redundant. It was poison, how many different things could one do with it besides kill someone or something?

[AdventWings]

((Sorry, Kyo. I believe the RoG stopped handing those out a few weeks ago. :p))

Agatha let out a tiny sigh, planting her chin upon the upright palm of her hands as she leaned upon the counter and view the little assassin from under her large-rimmed hat. Starters rarely had the monetary resource to purchase her more deadly wares, but it was not as if this mistress of the dark arts also had a dark heart to go with her title.

"Two hundred pieces is barely enough to buy you a pinch of this stuff, you know." The store owner mused and took out two vials, leaving the rest still within its rack. "But for a hundred of those lovely gold coins, I can make a fistful of powder that can paralyze a grown man in seconds even if he as much as inhale a whiff of it. Mind you, it won't be enough to outright kill him within an hour, but if you can get a pinch of it into his food... Well, you know the rest."

Agatha smiled knowingly and waited to see the customer's reaction. If she was looking for something that can easily kill for such a small price, she was looking for the wrong kind of poison. Even still, Agatha was not a black-hearted person to bar the young assassin access to Death.

"Then again, if you can bring me some ingredients." She mused cooly and straightened herself, finishing her idle movements with a sharp grin at the ninja. "I guess I can mix said poison for you. I'll only need you to pay for the rest of the mixture, which will run you only a hundred gold instead of fifteen hundred you would have to pay."

[Kyo]

So her hunch was right. The poison she was looking for was currently out of her price range. Still, the storekeeper offered her some options instead of just walking away empty handed. Not that Kyo was one to generally scrounge around for ingredients, if she wanted that poison she was going to have to. Fifteen hundred gold pieces was just too much for her at this point in time and she didn’t exactly know when she would be able to come across that kind of money. One hundred gold was a much better offer and in return it would only take some of her time to find the appropriate materials.

“I’ll take the paralysing powder for now. It may not have the effects of death, but it is still incapacitating, which pleases me enough. Thank you for offering it.”

If she couldn’t afford the poison though, perhaps she could get a little something different. The oddly dressed woman certainly had enough vials in her shop and if she were willing to create a poison for her, perhaps she’d be willing to create something else. Unless of course she already had it in stock.

“How much would it cost to coat six of my shuriken in a hallucinogenic?”

[AdventWings]

Agatha smiled warmly as she skimmed over a row of jars with her fingers, her lovely black eyes almost never leaving her customer's face.

"That depends on the strength of the hallucination you want to induce. For fifty each, I could coat the blade with a rather potent Nightmare Oil that can cause even hardy young men to scream in terror. But, considering you are on a rather..." Agatha paused for a moment to choose her words wisely, not wanting to provoke the Kunoichi too badly lest she lose her self-esteem. "...tight budget. I can have them coated with something that would make them see their own swords bend before their eyes for just eighty gold total."

The seller of potions and poisons paused for a moment and frowned at her own words, wondering if it was the right combination of words for the drug she was describing. Shaking her head infrustration, she attempted to relay the words again and hoped that it came out right this time.

"Pardon me, the word I was trying to find had eluded me." She apologized and took out a small pouch, taking in a sniff of the minty fragrance of the crushed herb within.

"Phew, much better." She grinned happily and put it away, returning to her duties. "As I was saying, the drug coating will most likely send your victim into a trip - moving colorful shapes in their face, distortion of sight and perhaps a bit of odd ringing in their ear. All quite non-fatal, thankfully. It should persist in the body for no more than five minutes, although I've seen some people reacting a bit odd to the herb I used."

Agatha left a hint to its potency, but generally she knew it to be nonpoisonous in nature. Of course, taking it the wrong way was just as bad as eating a banana sideways.

Frankly, she had never tried it that way. She would rather not do it herself, anyway.

[Kyo]

The second of the hallucinations sounded more reasonable to Kyo, but it wasn’t the price that made her think that way. It was the effects of the drug. Having her victim screaming and running away from her in terror could be rather humorous and entertaining on one aspect, but would completely destroy any cover she had up until that moment. Silence was a virtue and a screaming man was definitely not silent.

The ninja couldn’t help but raise a brow as she watched the woman take a sniff of something from a pouch and then further explain the effects of the second hallucinatory drug. Whatever was in the contents of that bag she didn’t know and wasn’t entirely sure if she wanted to find out. Perhaps this little apothecary took a few of her own drugs.

“As interesting as the Nightmare Oil sounds, it would be a little on the impractical side for me at this point in time. Screaming men just aren’t very appealing.” She smirked. “However, the second one sounds better.”

The hallucinatory would take it difficult, if not impossible, for her opponent to truly be able to focus on her instead of the things going on around them.

Setting her six shuriken down on the counter, Kyo once again reached behind her and removed the ninja-to that were attached to her back and placed them upon the wooden surface as well. She removed the caps from each end as well so that the apothecary would be able to place the paralysing powder inside.

[AdventWings]

The dark-clad girl nodded in acknowledgement and brought the vials forward whilst her free hand drew out the pestle and mortar required for the mixing.

With nimble fingers and careful eyes, Agatha worked on grinding the various herbs, barks and insect shells together within the ceramic vessel until the ingredients blended together into a fine powdery substance. Carefully pouring the yellowish-white substance into the concealed chamber.

Once it was done, she carefully replaced the caps into the saya and began working on the hallucinogen coating of the shuriken. It took her a while to mix the paste into a nice blend and slowly applied it to the edged throwing discs, taking extreme pain not to slice her thumb open in the process.

After a little more than half an hour of near-absolute silence, the tasks had been completed.

"That's about done." The girl finally announced, wiping her hand on a piece of clean white cloth. "That'll be a hundred and eighty gold pieces total. No problem paying that, I hope?"

Agatha could not help but crack a humorous grin as she set away her tools and vials, making sure not to mix up their position on the shelves. It would be a disaster if that ever happened.

[Kyo]

Kyo silently watched and waited as the apothecary carried out her order. She mixed and blended and grinded things down to make the paralysing powder in a fashion that told Kyo she had done this many times before. Once she had sealed the powder away, the ninja picked up her ninja-to and slid them into their place upon the small of her back. Then once again the woman went about her business, carefully coating the edges of each of the six shuriken she had placed upon the counter. Surprisingly, the woman never even cut her finger open upon the sharpened edge.

Once they were finished, them within their hiding place on her armguards. She couldn’t help but smirk when the apothecary mentioned her being able to pay. Grabbing a leather pouch from her belt, the ninja dumped a number of Gold Coins on the counter and mentally tallied them in her head. Taking out the extra, she slid the rest over to the woman.

“Oh, and before I forget… just what kind of ingredients would I need to bring you in order to acquire that powerful poison?”

[AdventWings]

"I was wondering when you were going to say that."

Smiling to herself as she counted through the stacks of golden coins and placing them into a small wooden box, Agatha fished around under the table before producing a large leather-bound tome onto the counter top. Flipping through the worn yellow pages, the merchant paused for a moment before calmly spinning the book around for her customer to see.

"Midnight of Walgur. It's a small herb that grows in the northern mountains of Salvar. Generally, it blooms under the Autumn Full Moon just before winter sets in." She spoke up, planting a pale finger upon the pencil-sketched petals of the flower in the book. "The flower's light blue on the edge and paler close to the stem. It's easier to find when in full bloom, because a lot of the other plants in the area have nearly identical morphology. I can't use those, just so you know."

As outlined in the tome, the plant looked no different from any other weed that might have been growing on the side of the road.

"If you want to make a sizable portion of that poison, I will need three Midnight of Walgur - everything from the root to the tip of its petal."

Getting the plant was no hard feat, that was what Agatha knew. It was the weather she was more concerned with, since the blooming of the Walgur generally coincided with the beginning of the fierce Salvic winter.

"They should be delivered within a month after being removed from the ground. Otherwise, freezing them in the snow should also do the trick of preserving them as well."

((Do you smell a quest opportunity?))

[Kyo]

Kyo couldn’t help but shiver as she thought of Salvar. She’d never actually been there herself, but Corone winters were harsh enough for her. She didn’t need the howling winds and bitter cold freezing her to her very marrow. Still, she wanted that poison and there was no way she was going to be able to afford it. Not any time soon. A trip to Salvar would have to wait for the time being. She did not have the funds to go there right now or the equipment. Perhaps after she finished a few jobs in Corone she would make her way North and retrieve this Midnight of Walgur flower.

“Thank you…” The ninja bowed politely to the apothecary. “You shall hear from me again whence I retrieve this…flower.”

She took one last look at the drawing. Memorizing the shape of the petals and storing it away with all the other information that the woman had given her. She didn’t want to forget anything. Going all the way to Salvar only to acquire the wrong plant would be a true folly on her part, one she had no intention of making. Turning from the woman, the ninja left the store, politely flipping her sign from Closed to Open on the way out.


(I certainly do, shame I’m a bit too busy at the moment to do it. Thanks for the fun Bazaar thread, Raven ^^)

[AdventWings]

Agatha grinned knowingly from the counter as the young assassin disappeared into the crowd, even trying to discern her from within the sea of heads the girl was now lost in. Watching with a slight sigh of amusement, the merchant whipped her wrist friskly and spun the sign around without even as much taking a step away from where she stood.

"Well, we certainly don't get this kind of customer everyday, Agatha."

The girl took a side-long glance at the small dark blob at the corner of the room, which stretched lazily and bore two brilliant white teeth with a yawn. Giving the other occupant a slight nod, she slowly moved towards an empty armchair and dropped her weary form into its comfy velvet hug.

"It's pretty nostalgiac seeing someone who was like me in the past, Kero." She mused quietly as the black cat hopped onto her lap and curled into a ball, letting the gentle girl stroke its fuzzy little ears. "It's been such a long time since I've stopped working as a killer... but those memories just don't go away, don't they?"

"Boy, you sure make it sound like you're so old." Kero gave another yawn and rubbed his head against the girl's gentle hands. "Give that a rest, witch girl. You're even younger than that customer is."

((Transaction Complete!

Kyo loses 180 GP and receives 100 EXP for very good IC interactions.

Kyo also receives the following wares:

- Paralysis Powder loaded into the hidden chamber inside the saya (good for one good blow, lasts no more than 5 minutes. Moderate Paralysis and partial blindness if in contact with eye.

- Hallucinogen Coating on six shuriken. Will last for 5 minutes if introduced into the bloodstream (which a cut from the shuriken will certainly do) and causes mild to moderate sensational hallucination.

Have fun on your journey! Don't forget the Midnight of Walgur if you ever need that poison~))