Dimensional Traveller CYOA
Part 3
The Traveller's Pocket Dimension.
I really wasn't a morning person, I tended to take my time waking up, but today things were different as I'd woken up with a case of morning wood to find Emma, in her maid's outfit, standing by the bed with my breakfast. Emma slept in the stasis pod which as it turned out could be used for sleep as well its normal purpose. Upon spotting my hardon she put down the tray and then offered to help me with my erection.
"Strip and then lay down on your back, slut" I ordered "I'll fuck you before breakfast".
Calling her that might sound a little cruel, but she no feelings outside of a desire to please me so it didn't really matter what I called her, it was all water off a duck's back with her.
"Yes Master!" she replied, sounding all eager.
Emma quickly undressed and since I'd been sleeping only in my underwear I only needed to remove them in order to be ready. Emma existed to be fucked by me so she was ready to go when I needed her to be. She got wet very quickly as far as I could tell.
"Oh, please fuck my pussy!" she begged as I liked hearing her say stuff like that "I need it so bad Master! I need to be filled up with your cock!".
Before long I positioned myself over the slave with my cock between her wide open legs. In one long push, my cock pushed inside and was buried balls deep in her cunt. Then I began fucking her. There was no need for me to start off slow or worry about my slave's pleasure so I just did what felt good for me.
"Oh yes! Fuck me! Fuck me hard!" Emma said.
I'd told her before today that I wanted her to talk dirty, and since she'd been created to please me sexually she did as I desired, and she did a good job, what came of her mouth didn't at all sound forced. Which made sense to me as she was a replication of a talented actress, at least in my opinion, and she'd been programmed to be a perfect sex toy.
"Oh! Yes! Never stop fucking me, Master! Please fuck me harder!" she begged.
The pleading tone of her voice really got me going as the squelching sounds my cock made as it moved in and out of her cunt. The clone of the famous actress was soaked between her legs, making it easier for me to fuck her more roughly.
"Yes, Master! Do it just like that! You really know how to fuck a slut!" Emma said to me.
The clone held on to me, using her arms and her legs to keep us as close together as possible so that my dick wouldn't slip out of her.
"Fuck me Master!" she begged "Make me scream in ecstasy! Make me cum all over your cock!"
She was capable of having orgasms despite only existing to please me, or she faked them, it didn't really matter. Only my pleasure mattered and I totally focused on that, using her as a sex toy.
"Cum inside me... please. Cum in me please... cum in me" she said between pants.
Never in a million years would I have ever dreamed of hearing Emma Watson say those words to me and sure this clone wasn't actually her, but dick simply didn't care. The moment her pleas reached my ears, I drove into her hard and deep as my cock began to fill the clone with my cum. Something she expressed thankfulness for by screaming 'Master' very loudly.
(Line Break)
Rivet City. Capital Wasteland.
"This place is a dump" my pokegirl commented.
While it may have been wiser to bring Faith along with me in case of danger, I'd decided to only drag along my G-Pointdexter for this trip, who I'd named Velma due to her resemblance to the Scooby-Do character. She had much longer hair than the cartoon character and a more noticeable set of breasts, but she did have the glasses and the nerdish look going for her.
I should be safe as I had my power armour on, as for the pokegirl she needed to get used to travelling the multiverse and she was the closest thing to a tech expert that I had. A quick trip Fallout Earth wasn't the best choice of places to pop in for a visit, and I might not have come here at all if not for the fact that I needed more weapons.
"It's no holiday resort that's for sure" I agreed "But we came here for weapons, not a good time".
We were now crossing the bridge which had been put into the right position so that we could cross. And since Velma and I might be the healthiest and cleanest people around who didn't live in a vault, we'd gone to some trouble to make ourselves blend it. This had involved Velma dressing in some clothes we'd gotten in a second-hand shop.
The two of us carried bags, mine a large duffel bag, and Velma's a big backpack, they were full of stuff that we could trade here within the converted aircraft carrier. Unlike in some worlds, things like gold and jewels were worthless here so instead we would trade clean water, simple weapons I'd gotten elsewhere and bottle caps, which weren't too hard to get your hands on when you had access to modern-day versions of Earth.
"Just focus on the lasers," I said to her.
I really wanted some more firepower.
"Real laser weapons," said Velma "Golly".
They were impressive given the tech level of this world, and while plasma weapons would be better, I doubted that they'd have any and I didn't fancy going up against any Enclave troopers in order to acquire any.
"That's the place," I said while pointing out the store "Flak 'N Shrapnel's, they sell the weapons, but first we need some caps".
Velma gave me a puzzled look.
"How do you know so much about this place?" she asked.
We headed over to the store called Rivet City Supply while talking.
"Well since I can open ways to any version of Earth I figured that would include fictional versions of Earth since it's in a near-infinite multi-verse anything can exist" I explained, "So I decided to see if we come to this world, which I know has advanced weapons as its the setting for a video game where I'm from".
The store owner had by now noticed us.
"If you've got stuff you want to sell, then I'm your man," the owner said.
Velma and I piled our stuff on a counter and bartered for more caps than he offered at first. My thinking was that it would be best to pay in cash for the laser weapon. While I bartered my clever pokegirl spent her time staring at the helmet that must have belonged to a member of the Brotherhood of Steel.
"That's part of a set of T-45d power armour" she was told by the guy who ran the store "Useless without the rest of the set".
The clever pokegirl seemed very interested in the helmet.
"Is it real?" she asked.
The store owner gave her an odd look.
"Of course it's real," he said "And it works too, it's just useless without the rest of the suit. You can have it for 25 caps".
The pokegirl didn't need a helmet for a suit of power armour, because even if he had a whole set of power armour she wouldn't know how to use it, yet Velma did seem very interested in the helmet. Getting to play with advanced tech might something that got her nether regions all wet, not that her breed of pokegirl was known for getting horny very often. Still, it cost so little that I saw no reason to deny her. I'd made more than enough caps and could always return if needs be, although I'd rather not given how hostile this world could be.
"We'll take it" I decided.
Velma looked giddy as she took the helmet, holding it to her chest while grinning at me and I soon moved over the where the weapons were sold. I asked about laser weapons, and as it turned out they only had one beaten up laser rifle. Not unexpected given their rarity, and at least that came with a manual. Hopefully, the tech wouldn't prove to be too complex as Velma and I would need to maintain this weapon
"There's not much else here," I said to Velma, once we had the laser weapon "We should go back home".
Even in the safer parts of this world, you had to worry about radiation and such so as soon as possible I'd get us away from this messed up version of Earth.
(Line Break)
Westcliff. Albion.
"It certainly isn't much to look at" remarked Twilight
After some wandering around we'd finally came across a proper settlement, although if we were where I thought we were then calling this place proper in any context would be a mistake. It could better be considered a hive of scum and villainy.
A local man we'd come across, who was acting as a tour guide, spoke to my sorceress pokegirl who I'd named Twilight due to her purple hair and eyes, her love of books, and the fact that she could be socially awkward. Like Velma, she wasn't very attractive when compared to other pokegirls, and she'd been working in a pure research role until I'd brought her, but when compared to a normal human woman she was cute, very powerful with the magic, and always did as she was told, and these things pleased me greatly.
"Hate to break it to you lady, but this is the height of civilisation in the area," he told her "Only place for miles around. Ships stop here to transfer goods before heading down the coast, and there's good fishing here too. Plus there's The Crucible".
Which I knew all about since I'd known about this world and what it contained long before picking up the journal the last Traveller had written when he was visiting this world. I didn't know long it had been since he'd visited this world, but he recorded the fact that he'd met with an old blind seer I concluded that the present era would be sometime after the first game since the Seer was a girl during the first game, but since she was around hundreds of years after the first game that information didn't help me narrow down any sort of date or time frame.
"The Crucible?" asked Faith.
Since this was a magical world it was wise for me to have both Twilight and Faith close to me. Twilight did her best to look like a fantasy realm female spell-caster, complete with staff, cloak and under that a dress that exposed far too much cleavage. I wouldn't tell her this, but in my view, she looked more like a renaissance fair entertainer than a medieval sorceress.
As for Faith and I, we both dressed as warriors in a mix of armour plate, chainmail, cloth, and leather that I'd picked up from pokegirl world as I had done with Twilight's outfit. In one of the Leagues of the pokegirl world, Tamers both male and female, got into the habit of wearing sets of enchanted armour as it offered some protection against wild pokegirls.
"Its an arena," the native told us "Survive all 9 rounds and you win the mother lode. Its entertainment for the sailors, even pirates come here as they've got to have someplace to spend their loot after all, and the only other bandit friendly town is Bloodstone".
Tom, if I remembered his name correctly, stopped in the middle of the street, if the dirt path could be called that, and faced me.
"I've brought you here as I promised," he said, "so are we done?".
Almost. Soon we would part ways.
"Sure," I said amicably, "We're done. After you tell me how to get out of here and to some real civilisation".
The local man was not happy to have heard those words.
"I brought you here, ain't that enough?" he asked.
He didn't need to worry I wouldn't be dragging him anywhere else.
"I just need directions," I said.
Clearly he wanted his payment so that he could go off and get drunk.
"Okay," he said, giving in "Caravans and coaches don't come through much, bandit trouble and all that. It's much safer to travel by ship. If you go ask around down at the dock you're sure to find a boat headin' the way you want".
I could just teleport us around, that would have been safer, but the whole point of travelling was to actually see the places you'd travel to. To meet the locals, to shop at their stores, to learn about their culture, my companions and I couldn't do that unless we actually spent time with people and took in the sights.
"Thank you for your help," I said while passing the bandit some gold coins/
With our business done, Tom gladly started to walk away, a spring in his step that the gold in his pockets, that I had just given him, did nothing to weigh down. While he might have been an unrepentant scumbag, the place was full of them, it turned out he wasn't dumb enough to lie to us. There was a ship heading out in the morning for Oakfield to pick up grain and flour to take to Bowerstone, where they traded for other consumables before coming back to Westcliff. Booking passage was simple enough since I was very wealthy I had more than enough to pay passage.
The ship was hauling stone north, taken from a nearby quarry, which apparently meant that was some legitimate business going on around here. The captain was happy to supplement his income form this voyage with paying passengers, and he informed me that while the accommodations wouldn't be the best, his crew wouldn't bother us. They'd better not. The girls belonged to me.
(Line Break)
Oakfield. Albion.
The ship we'd rented passage on was going to stay at Oakfield for a few days so that the stone in its cargo hold, which was going to be used to build walls around new farms, could be exchanged for flour made locally as well as some other foodstuffs. Then the ship would be on its way to Bowerstone. Which was where I wanted to go as that was the best place to pick up some more local books, as well as potions, and anything else that took my fancy.
"Know any place my lady friends and I can stay?" I asked one of the dock workers.
We'd actually be sleeping in my pocket dimension, and while that was secure it would be best to have rooms to stay in for appearance's sake.
"The Sandgoose is the local tavern," he said while pointing in the direction of a large wooden building, "the innkeeper's wife makes a great stew".
Faith, Twilight and I soon got moving, and before long we ran into a monk who wore a white robe and a serene look on his face.
"May I be the first to welcome you to Oakfield" he greeted "If you have time, please stop by the temple, it is quite beautiful this time of year. May the Light be with you".
I nodded in reply and then set off down the path the dockworker had indicated, Faith and Twilight both followed me, saying nothing and taking in the sights.
After passing by several fields full of crops we finally reached the town proper. The Sandgoose stuck out, being the largest building in town, only dwarfed by the temple sitting on a hill just outside town. The village of Oakfield had a vibrant feel to it, it was very much a living community, full of farmers who'd come here to trade and to talk about their work, their playing children, and chatting wives.
As for the temple, which could easily be checked out even from a distance I could see white walls rose around the dome-shaped centre. I'd go and take a closer look before moving on the Bowerstone as it looked like an interesting place to go visit.
My girls and I stepped into the tavern and we were immediately hit by a wall of noise, the smell of smoke filled our noses and I could already taste the ale. The lanterns were lit, a fire was roaring, and the place was packed. Sailors swapped news with farmers while flirting with anyone female.
The farmers spoke about their problems to each other, the monks debated philosophy and preached to anyone willing to listen and the sailors spent their time drinking. The scent of stew and fresh bread made my mouth water as a barmaid walked by carrying a tray covered in food, which made my stomach growl as while I didn't need to eat I still felt the need to.
"Let's get some to eat," I said to my girls.
Not long after reaching the bar, the barman wandered over, a rag clutched in his hands, the unofficial badge of office for bartenders everywhere.
"What can I get for you?" he asked, "We still have stew and bread left from lunchtime, but it's too early for dinner right now, the wife decides when it is ready".
Clearly she was the one really running this business from behind the scenes leaving her husband to deal with the customers.
"I'll take a couple of beds for the next few nights," I said "Also bread and stew for three, along with some ale for my friends and I"
The innkeeper nodded and held out a hand expectantly.
"Money upfront for all out-of-towners," he told us "I can't hunt you down and beat the tab out of you like I can the locals. The cheapest option is to bunk down in the common room, individual rooms cost much more, and if you want the key for the lock on the door that it'll be extra"
From inside my coin bag, I took out some coins. They weren't local currency, but that was less of a concern when the value of the coins was decided on the metals they were made from rather than who had issued them.
"I think the key would be a wise investment," I said.
After taking some of my money, only two silver coins, and making them disappear; the man gave me some information.
"Room is up on the third floor, second door on the right. Key can be picked up from either me or the missus. Grab a seat, food'll be out in a minute" he said.
The seat I had picked was near the fire, after the time at sea where the wind attacked as it was seeking vengeance upon mankind and the spray seemed to get everywhere, the heat felt glorious.
I just sat there and enjoyed the peace of this place, until a waitress plopped down two rough-hewn wooden bowls filled to the brim with stew, and the smell of fresh bread grew stronger as a chunk of it was dropped down on the table.
The three of us dug in ravenously as the food on the ship had been very basic, and both Slayers and Sorceress had healthy appetites, soon my spoon was scraping the bottom of the bowl. After using the last of the bread to sop up the last bit of the stew, I leaned back with a sigh of contentment. This inn might lack the comforts of what I considered modern life, but this place was still damn nice.
(Line Break)
Oakville. Albion.
"My friends and I are mercenaries, among other things," I told the head guard guy "and I need to make some coin. I figure you must have something around here that a warrior can handle".
The sheriff nodded slowly while tipping back his hat.
"Alright," he said, "Can you handle bandits, Hobbes, trolls, balverines, anything like that?".
I nodded as we could. Twilight's spells weren't very offensive in nature, but Faith and I had access to energy weapons, and she was the Slayer. While I had plenty of money, that wouldn't last if I kept spending it as I had no income. Besides I wanted to increase my wealth.
"Well let's see" the sheriff was now saying "Bandits aren't much of a problem, at least not until you get to Rookridge. The place is in the no man's land between Bowerstone and here. Our patrols don't go down there, and Bowerstone doesn't send any men. That why we move goods by the ships".
He paused, scratching his chin in thought.
"There are the Hobbes, always the Hobbes. We have to clear them out every few years; little buggers love to steal livestock and children" he was now saying "Last time we cleared them out was…was…".
The man in charge of the local's law enforcement had to stop and think for a while.
"After they took the Jenkins boy," he finally finished "So, every once in a while we get together and run em out with pitchforks, torches, and the like. Little buggers keep coming back, no idea where from. They like the old mine though".
If my memories of this world could be depended on I knew that some Hobbes were in fact converted human children, so it made sense they'd keep returning to bother this village and the farms around it, they had lots of children in these parts.
"And it's probably about time to clear them out," the sheriff said.
He began to tap his fingers together, lips moving soundlessly as he worked through a problem in his head. Finally, he nodded sharply as if coming to a decision.
"Tell you what. I'll have some words with some people while you go clear out the mine and the forest around it" he offered "Bring me as many Hobbe heads as you can and I'll pay you what I can for them. We'll put them on spikes, make the damn bastards think twice about coming back".
Gruesome work, but it was work, so I decided that we would go and clear out an old mine full of goblin-like creatures. I wasn't the passive observer the last Traveller had been, and while I had no desire to go around solving other people problems I did want to make some money.
"Just point us in the direction of the mine" I requested.
(Line Break)
Near Oakville. Albion.
This area was not populated, and so rather than having crops growing it was filled with fields of grasses, wildflowers, and shrubs and as well as a lot of trees. As of yet no farmer had pushed the boundary of their farm out this far, and wouldn't for some time I figured, not when there were plenty of safer areas around the town still open to be turned into productive farmland.
I supposed that was what made the Hobbes keep coming back here, they could lurk in and around the mine during the day, then go raiding at night, and the rare traveller or wandering rancher that came out this distance from town could easily be put in the stew pot.
With a groan of protest the supposedly locked gate that led into the dried up mine creaked inward, the chains were apparently just for show and not actually hooked to anything as they did nothing to impede our entry into the old mine. Immediately the smell of damp and mould hit my nose, making me and Faith gag. Twilight had requested to stay behind and go see the temple so she wasn't here to be assaulted by the smell.
"Okay, Boss so tell me about these demons," Faith said to me.
I told her that according to legend, the very first Hobbes were lost children who had their souls stolen by dark Nymphs. They can transform lost children into more Hobbes, but the sheer number of Hobbes indicates that they have another method of reproduction, given that there isn't a pandemic of lost and kidnapped children throughout Albion.
Although often considered dim-witted when compared to humans, the Hobbes appear to have some cognitive abilities, which was evidenced by a degree of ingenuity and a social structure. They wore clothes, could make crude weapons, and even had magic users.
"They aren't a real threat to humanity" I finished by saying "They'd be considered to be mere pests if they didn't have a habit of stealing children and attacking people".
I doubted that they'd be a threat to us since we had energy weapons.
"We just need to kill all the Hobbes we can find and then collect the heads" I informed my Slayer "Then we get paid, and we split the reward.
I'd even been provided with a sack for the heads.
"Okay let's do some pest control," I said to Faith
The energy weapons would make this easy.
(Line Break)
Near Oakfield. Albion.
"Explore the multiverse, meet new kinds of people, and cut their heads off," said Faith as she worked with the hacksaw that The Traveller had gotten from the workshop part of the house in the pocket dimension "I'd complain that you don't pay me enough for this, but you do".
Not that the Slayer was really complaining, actually she was rather enjoying this adventure, for the most part, seeing new sights, meeting people who didn't judge her, and the fresh air had been nice. Even the food wasn't as bad as she'd feared.
It would have been far less fun if they hadn't spent their nights inside The Traveller's house. With the TV and what was called a DVD player that her new boss had supplied for, she could just lay around in her room, and listen to music while reading magazines, or watch some movie. She planned to buy some video games with her wages when she got the chance.
She liked having her own room, which the slave girl Emma kept tidy for her, Faith didn't approve of slavery, and she might have done something about it if not for the fact that the clone wasn't able to be anything else other than a slave, so the woman from Boston just did her best to nice to Emma, and it wasn't if she wanted to rock the boat since Faith now had such a sweet setup.
Sure she still felt a bit guilty about eating the food prepared for her by the clone and to have the slave clean up after her, but Emma really seemed to have been made for it and she certainly kept the boss happy, her Slayer hearing never missed the sound of them fucking. While Faith was in no big rush to get her pussy filled, she did spend a little time wondering when he'd ask for her sex. Perhaps she was supposed to make the first move.
Without the house, they would have needed to sleep in beds at the inn, which could have bugs and there would have been no hot shower for last night, and she was sticking to modern style bathrooms as much as possible.
"Why are you taking the teeth?" the Slayer asked her boss.
The Traveller had even brought a pair of pliers with him out of the Pocket Dimension. He didn't seem at all bothered by what he was currently doing, and Faith was aware The Traveller had inherited memories along with her powers, somewhat like how she'd gotten Slayer dreams, and she figured that those memories were what allowed him to so casually mess with a corpse he'd recently helped to make without any sort of reaction.
"I was thinking about how parts from magical creatures can be used for the creation of magical potions" he replied, "When ground down they might have a use in potions that Twilight can make".
Since she would get a share of any profit made from the killing of enemies, she didn't see any problem with this, it wasn't as if the little demons could now feel any further pain and the more money she had the better in her mind. She'd been broke for most of her life, and she had no desire to go back to being poor.
With that Faith got back to the messy work of harvesting heads, and putting them in the sack. Who'd be a Slayer?
(Line Break)
Bowerstone. Albion.
This city was divided into several sections. There was the Bowerstone Market, which catered towards the lower and middle classes. Also, there was Old Town which could either be a crime-ridden slum or a newly renewed area of well to do people.
In this reality, it turned out to be later, which suggested that the Hero of the second game was around here somewhere, but I'd not heard anything about them so I figured that he or she was still living in a gypsy camp, and I had no intention of bothering him or her since they had important work in this world.
Aside from those places, there were Fairfax Gardens and Fairfax Castle to go see, that part of the city was home to the more upper-class people kind of people. According to the book I'd brought upon arriving here, Fairfax Castle had been constructed on the site of where Bowerstone Manor, the home of Lady Grey, once stood. It was burned to the ground by witch-spotters who were convinced that Lady Grey was a witch.
Where I desired to go first was Bowerstone Market, which was a bustling, thriving hub of commerce for the entire city of Bowerstone, if not the whole of Albion. Here could be found The Cow & Corset Inn, barbers, a furniture stores, as well as an Alchemist, who sold potions that would be very useful to me and my girls. I went right over to the most expensive potions on display, which were in cases that were locked. Each of the potions had a sign beneath them explaining what they were.
The same sect of Old Kingdom alchemists who are said to have solved the secret of immortality also created the recipe for this life-prolonging potion. Few have the knowledge or the skill to brew it successfully now.
"Life extending?" asked Twilight "They can make you live longer?".
Her guess was as good as mine. Actually here's would better since she would have some knowledge of magical potions.
"There's only one, so if you want it's yours," I told her.
I'd already obtained immortality of a kind and when you can potentially live forever adding a few years to your lifespan would be pointless. Besides, I didn't actually pay my pokegirls as I paid Faith so it seemed fair to give them a few treats.
"Guess I could try it," she said, "Maybe the store owner knows more".
I gave her some gold to buy the potion with and started looking elsewhere.
Death need not be the end. Resurrection is possible with this potion.
I knew this item to be Resurrection Phial is a special potion available in the Fable games, it acts immediately when the character loses all health. How this worked in real life would be interesting to find out but I wasn't to risk a life just to find out. Still, it would be wise for everyone in my group to carry such a potion should the worst happen.
"You're in luck," the store owner told me "I have nine such bottles. The biggest collection in Albion".
When I brought all nine, which involved laying a lot of gold bars on the shop's counter, the store owner handed over all nine bottles, and I had my girls store them carefully in their pouches, and I kept the spares. They only had to keep them close in order to make them work, should they need to be used. I could still be killed by blunt force so there could come a time when something killed me without destroying my body and then the potion would come in useful.
I would have brought some skill potions too, but the owner of this business closed his doors very quickly, so I decided to come back later someday in the future. He must want to secure his new fortune in gold.
"There's a guy who sells weapon augments around here somewhere," I said to my harem "They can greatly enhance non-magical weapons".
Augmentations, or Augments for short, were mystical stones that could be blinded with weapons. They provide a benefit to the user, usually something involving a weapon doing extra damage, while the augmented weapon is being used by a fighter.
Once bound, the augmentation was permanently fixed to the weapon, and there were great bonuses to Augments. In the game, some may increase the amount of gold, experience, or the even attractiveness of the playable character. If I recall correctly some of the cheaper augments have some drawbacks, such as an exchange of strength to be more easily killed/knocked out.
While I had an elemental shotgun, that I'd gotten from the pokegirl world, ammo for it was costly and the weapon needed a lot of maintenance. My laser rifle and blaster were easy to keep in working order, but I could use a sword for times when I wanted to hide my other weapons, and for appearances on some worlds, and a magic sword would be best.
On the way to that place of business one of the locals called us over.
"Do I know you?" I asked.
The guy seemed like a sleazy salesman to me.
"I am Murgo," he said to us "Albion's most trustworthy provider of mystical curiosities and enchanted items".
Murgo is an "honest" merchant in Fable II who sells so-called "Old Kingdom Artifacts" in Bowerstone Old Town. Most of his wares can be considered worthless; for example, he is observed selling a mirror which transforms anyone who looks into it beautiful... but it only functions in complete darkness. He is assumed to be a descendant of the original Murgo.
However, one of his artefacts proved to be more genuine than he ever suspected; a music box that he sold it to Rose and Sparrow, it was valued at five gold pieces, and them buying it proves instrumental to the main plot. An initially sceptical Rose states that the box is "rubbish", and is immediately corrected by Theresa, who asserts that the seller has "no idea of its true value".
In the second Fable game, Murgo also sells a thesaurus to a man called Barnum, which he couldn't seem to get the hang of using.
We all ignored the slippery salesmen and looked at the man's wears. Twilight pointed out a skull that she knew to be a real magical item, due to her magical affinity perk, and she assured me that it wouldn't do me any harm even if she didn't know exactly what it was for.
"Do you wish to buy it?" I was asked.
If nothing else I could put it on a shelf.
"Sure let's have it," I said
After I handed him five gold pieces, I'd exchanged some gold bars for some local coins, he handed me a skull. Then bright light engulfed Faith, Twilight and I. We then ended up inside some creepy dark ruins.
"Boss, we must have been transported by the skull" my sorceress pokegirl stated.
I'd instructed everyone to refer me as 'boss' when we outside of the pocket dimension. Me getting called master might seem odd to people we talked to.
"Where the hell are we?" Faith asked we started to look around.
While we looked around for some clue as to where we'd ended I approached a strange wall that looked like a skull and oddly enough its eyes glowed.
"I sense the presences of the living…..hear my plea," a voice said
This must be like those demon doors they had scattered around Albion.
"We're listening?" I said.
If I heard something I didn't like then I would take us out of his dimension.
"I was once a brave knight who was cursed by a vile Necromancer to spend eternity in this terrible dimension, only the Wisps who hide nearby can release me from this torment," he said, "Free me and I will reward you".
Wisps were the restless souls of the dead that didn't move on, they could animate bodies and those were called Hollow Men.
"What do you want us to do?" I asked.
"Bring them to me, that I may find peace at last," he said.
That wouldn't be possible as wisps become Hollow Men and attacked the living on sight, I told the skull wall thing that.
"The Wisps fear all that is living" was the reply I got "hide behind the visage of the dead and you will gain their trust, lead them to me, I implore you, open the sarcophagus,"
I pushed off the heavy lid off the sarcophagus and then I inspected its contents.
"What's in it?" Faith asked.
"Well apparently 'hiding behind the visage of the dead' really meant I have to wear a Hollow Man costume," I said holding up the costume "Reminds me of a Samhain tradition".
I explained to the two girls with me that Halloween had some basis in the Celtic festival of Samhain which was celebrated between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice, Samhain marks the official start of winter, known to the Celts as the "dark season" During Samhain, the spirit world and the mortal world sort of bled together and many believed that the spirits were prone to playing tricks on humans so people would disguise themselves as animals or beasts, hoping to hide from the malevolent spirits who might bring them misfortune. It seemed as the restless spirits of this world could also be deceived by someone dressing up.
"And these Wisps are stupid enough to fall for that?" Twilight asked.
That seemed to be the wall's plan.
"Only one way to find out," I answered, "and if doesn't work I'll just teleport back here and we can leave. You two stay here".
After putting on the costume I went up to a locked gate that had an ugly looking statue which was making a nasty expression.
"This bewitched statue shall open the way if you can mimic it exactly," the knight said to me.
That seemed needlessly silly, but I did what the voice was telling me and the gates flew open.
"Remember, the Wisps fear the living flesh," the cursed knight said, "only in the suite of the corpse will they follow you".
I led the Wisps back to him as the wall absorbed the Wisps.
"Yes, yes I can feel the chains that hold me slipping away, bring me more I beg you!" he said "I can sense them, more Wisps cutting through the air like mocking rays of sunshine! Bring them to me!".
Since I could just teleport about it didn't take me long to find the wisps and lure then back to the skull wall. I half expected some monsters to turn up, but aside from myself and my girls, there were no living creatures in this strange place, so nothing distracted the wisps from following me or me from finding enough to free the cursed knight.
"Thank you, witless mortal! You have granted me my freedom!" the Cursed Knight said
I got the sense that this trapped person was not a noble knight after all, and the wall was not some sort of demon door as I'd been expecting.
"So no reward then?" I asked.
I felt annoyed by all of this, I'd been through some risk, so I should get something for my trouble.
"Now I will grant the greatest gift of all, death!" he said.
Before the Necromancer, who must have been trapped by the knight, could do anything I pulled out my laser rifle and shot the figure as Faith opened up with the blaster pistol I'd given her so that she could better guard me.
"Next time a talking wall talks to us, let's just ignore it" I decided.
I opened up a portal back to Bowerstone with the intent of getting my money back from that Murgo fellow. If he didn't give me my money back then I would be tempted to shoot him as well. Hopefully, I still had enough money to buy a weapon's augment.