Persuade The Shop-Keep [Requires Charm Person Spell]

You close your eyes, focusing your mind on a central point, the connection between you and your patron, feeling the tides of the abyss well up inside you, demonic energy that is molded and shaped by precise hands, just as you would with the natural arcana that dwells within you.

You hear the distant sound of a woman’s laughter, a reminder that she’s always close at hand, only a hairs breadth from you at anytime, forever watching, forever listening.

When you open your eyes, the man stares at you, mouth agape and book discarded, he stares at you as though you’re the most captivating creature in all the planes.

“I would really appreciate that map, sir, I’d hate to get lost in those dark, scary woods…”

“O… of course! Right away dear..!” He says, turning and hurriedly ripping the map from the walls, one of the corners tearing as a consequence of his eagerness, before he lays it out across the counter.

“Y… you said you were g.. going to Minerva’s Folly, right..? Y.. you’d wanna head along the road northwest, out of town th.. that way…!” He says, pointing a finger in the mentioned direction, you notice a small shaking in his hand, a shaking throughout his entire body actually, like a school boy talking to his crush.

“Hmm… thank you sir, you’ve been so very kind…” you say, rolling up the map and stowing it in your pack before setting heading for the door.

“O.. of course dear..! Y.. you come back any time now…!” The man calls out, even with your back turned you can feel eyes roaming your body, sure it’s the product of manipulative magic, but it still feels nice to be wanted.

You head out of town, hoping to vacate the premises before the spell wears off and the shop keep comes storming after you.

Just as the man said, you head northwest out of town along an old road that leads directly from Farowind to the town of Minerva’s Folly, an old trade route no doubt, however with the collapse of the town, it’s poorly maintained, weeds and thickets sprout up from the old stretch of dirt and dust, trees press in, invading the path on both sides as they sway in the breeze tauntingly.

As you walk you try to occupy your mind, with 2 days of walking ahead of you, boredom might kill you faster then a highwayman’s arrow, and as your mind begins to wander, your thoughts linger on these artifacts.

Admittedly you have never held any special reverence for the gods, you enjoy the stories, you appreciate the work they do maintaining the prime materium but that’s it, meaning you don’t know much about Helm or these eyes of his.

Maybe their enchanted spectacles? That allow the wearer to see through deception or illusions..? What little material you were given about them, you can certainly see that possibility though the curator didn’t seem too invested in their retrieval, this IS your first mission after all.

And what about those demons? Surely demons would have destroyed or stolen the eyes of they were so special, what if you’re going through all this work just to find an empty temple or worse, a temple that only hold demons.

You’re shaken from your thoughts by a voice, a familiar voice that fills you with dread and anticipation in equal measure.

“I say, you’re shaping up to be quite the little succubus aren’t you…~?” Your patron teases, you turn your head and spot her walking besides you, hands behind her back as she steps along the overgrown cobbles not 5 ft away from you.

“What are you doing here..? Don’t you have… demon stuff to do..?” You ask, not nearly as surprised to see her as you probably should be.

“Well I just got done with my daily orphan flaying and I have some time before my puppy burning appointment…” she says, clearly fucking with you again.

“Whatever… so how long have you been watching..?” You ask hoping to fill the void with words, she’s here whether you like it or not after all.

“Technically, I’m always watching you, but it’s not always my focus, most of the time I just let your silly little life play out as background noise…”

“Uh huh… so… what’s the deal with Minerva’s Folly..? Why did the demons attack that place…?” You ask, genuinely curious about the thought process of demon kind.

“Well, I wasn’t there for that one, but I imagine it was for the same reason demons do pretty much anything, boredom and convenience” she says, not bothered a bit by the implication of her words.

“Demons do pretty much everything because we’re bored or something is easy… it’s the reason our little deal stands after all” she continues.

“So they could have attacked just about any settlement..? No special importance in Minerva’s Folly..?”

“Hmm… I don’t know if I’d say that… demons do so love the idea of sticking it to those self important celestials but there’s a lot of temple out there”

“So these demons… you think there’s a chance they’re still kicking around Minerva’s Folly..?” You ask hoping for some deeper insight.

“Ha, I doubt it, unless there’s any worshippers left to kill or holy sites left to desecrate, those demons would moved onto greener pastures… so to speak, other scavengers however, they might still be hanging around”

As the sun begins to dip beneath the jagged spires of the trees, the forest grows darker, you’ll need to make camp soon, hell, you don’t even HAVE camp supplies… but that’s fine, if you’re patron is here then maybe she can pull some strings.

You find a dip in the road, a small niche that the forest hasn’t taken for itself yet, it’s out of the way but still within line of sight of the road, it’ll suit your purposes for now at least.

You gather sticks, dried out clumps of grass and a few stones, placing them in the rough shape of a campfire before beginning to set it alight, afterwards you turn to the patron who scans the wilderness with apparent disgust.

“Not a nature person I take it…?” You ask as you sit back in the dirt, watching the fire spread and grow larger, crackling quietly as your patron turns to you, the orange light of the fire contrasting with her ocean blue skin beautifully.

“Why would I be? I could be in the abyss right now, laid out in sheets as I’m serviced by lustful condemned souls.. instead I’m here… in this.. dirty, green hell…” she says her voice tinged with frustration.

“Then why not leave..? It’s not like I’m keeping you here..” you say, gesturing to your surroundings, to yourself, you’re a Wintermoor student, yes, but you don’t have the power to bind a pleasure demon to your will.

“Quiet you… I’m just making sure my pet wizard isn’t talking to any scary strangers…” she says with a huff as she takes a seat on a nearby overturned log, scooting to the side a bit as she takes not of a small clutch of mud brooms growing off the dead wood to her left.

“How does one become a demon of pleasure anyway… were you a born like this or were you a mortal once…?”

“Both, actually… technically every demon was at some point or another a mortal, myself included, but who I was, I have no idea… I might have been a hedonistic aristocrat, a common whore, a sex fiend or sexually repressed house wife… whoever I was, I wanted pleasure and comfort more then anything and… I have it now.”

“What’s the first thing you remember..?” You ask, intrigued by the circumstances surrounding demonification.

“I was scared” is her only answer as she stares into the flames. You know better then to pry any further then that.

Minutes must pass like this, both of you staring into the flames, when you finally turn your head to her, she’s gone once again, back to the abyss she calls home.

Unfortunately you don’t have much to eat but that’s fine, wild berries tend to grow along old roads like these and with very few people having come through this stretch of road, there must be plenty to find tomorrow.

You lay back, staring up at the inky black vault speckled with shining stars, distant celestial bodies, like little gems in the crown of the moon, a great white light that shines full and pure down upon the mortal plane, casting a hauntingly beautiful pale light across the wilderness.

Sleep comes fast then you anticipated, staring up at the starry night sky, the rest of the world fading out from the sight, leaving just you and the moon, floating across the eternal, forever, sky.