The Potion Maker

As the energy sped across the sky Akash called out, "Look at that!" The rest of the party quickly looked up as well just in time to see the light disappear into the trees up ahead. "Guess we follow that?" he asked the party.

"Unless anyone else has a better idea, I say we follow whatever that was" Naivara responded. The going through what they hoped was the final leg of this little search was tougher than expected. Now that there was no trail to follow they had to cut their own through the underbrush. Eventually they came upon the ball of energy floating just inside a rotted wooden gate. The gate, along with a low stone wall surrounded a ramshackle shack with boarded windows and a half-shed thatch roof. Before anyone could truly take in the scene the ball of energy spoke out to them.

"Do you have any idea how much of a pain it is to make all that stuff that you have been smashing through for the last two hours!" Taken aback by the sudden, not to mention shockingly human exclamation, nobody said a word for a moment, before Gnoll finally stepped up.

"Uhhh, hello, we are sorry for the trouble, but, who or rather what are you? And have you seen three children around here?"

"Children? No, I haven't really seen anyone for a while now, as for me…" the ball brightened to a brilliant light before expanding into the form of a tall blue man garbed in a dark flowing robe splotched with all manner of strange multi-colored stains. "I am Allister! I don't suppose you all would like to come in for a spot of tea, or to discuss business?"

"Business? I am afraid we are just looking for some missing kids."

"Oh come now, come have some tea, and I will see if there is anything I can do to help find these missing children of yours." He turned his back and began to walk to the cottage.

"You guys really think we can trust this guy?" Halimedes whispered to the group, "seems like he's got more than a couple screws loose, living all the way out here."

"The stars guided us here, I trust he will stay to his word and he will do what he can to help us find the children." replied Akash, "That being said, we should keep our guards up, just in case." Following in the footsteps of Allister they all crammed into the entryway of the cottage. The interior of the cottage was sparsely decorated, but was in much better repair than the exterior.

Once everyone was inside Allister turned to face the party, and spread his arms wide, "Alrighty, hold onto your hats!" With a clap of his hands the room compressed, twisting down upon itself and then with a loud pop it re-expanded larger than before. The once bare walls were now covered by a myriad of glass alchemical instruments and a large honeycomb shelf overflowing with scrolls of various sizes. "Now tea and business!" Allister's form split, with a blue ethereal version of himself taking station at the table of instruments, and with a mind of its own began preparing a fragrant tea. Meanwhile, his physical form walked over to the shelf of scrolls and pulled one from its hole. With a click and a creak the shelf swung outwards revealing an additional room full of oaken casks labeled in a shifting script that never quite settled. "This is the business that I was talking about. My potion casks!" He produced a small vial from his robes and held it out, "You see, potions are an invaluable resource for adventures like yourself and a number of other individuals. However, carrying around half a dozen bottles of the stuff can be overly burdensome. So, I invented this little contraption. This vial acts as a spout for these casks. Once you pay the upfront cost for the vial I will keep a cask of a particular size filled for you depending on what tier of subscription you pay for. Pretty clever eh?"

"That is an interesting idea, but I have to ask, if you are a store, then why all the defenses?" Asked Gnoll, "If we weren't prepared we could have died before we got to you."

"Good question! Two reasons, firstly, my potential customers need to know that their casks of product will be safe, if someone were to just show up and destroy the casks then there goes my business. And the second reason is that I needed to make sure you weren't a part of those bastards from the Golden Chain, I've got a rather unpleasant history with those pirates."

"Fair enough, what are your prices? I could see your product being beneficial for us."

Allister's face lit up, "You're actually interested? Amazing! The initial bottle is ten gold, and then it's twenty gold for a cask that contains enough potion for five potions and forty gold for a larger cask containing ten potions worth of product."

"Wow, that's a bit steep for us at the moment. Are you open to negotiating the prices a bit?"

A slight frown appeared on Allister's face, "I suppose I could be open, what do you have in mind?" A hint of suspicion growing in his voice.

"What if we pay the upfront cost of the glass bottle and then you provide us a small cask, and in return we will find and pre-screen additional customers for you. That way you have more customers, but have the peace of mind that people showing up to your shop will be trustworthy individuals."

Pausing for a moment Allister's eyes flicked between each member of the strange collection of individuals that he was now slightly regretting letting into his laboratory. "I have some reservations about this idea, but I am willing to give it a try if you pay for half of the first cask and then we can talk about additional free casks if this works out. Additionally I would like you to travel to Eldrin to see my brother. He is the one who constructed my Gorgon Bull which you destroyed. It was very expensive and he is the only one who will be able to repair it in its current state."

"Would you give us a moment to discuss please?" Gnoll turned back to the rest of the party, "I think it's a pretty good deal. Potions are very valuable and Eldrin isn't too far."

"I'm more concerned about how we are supposed to transport this bull, it's not exactly light. Perhaps he's got something that we can use to carry it." Akash replied.

"I think that's a good idea, everyone else onboard?" asked Halimedes. Everyone shared a quick nod.

Turning back to Alister Gnoll said, "we accept these conditions, however, we will need some way to transport the Bull."

"Excellent, as for the bull I think I have something that will be of help, one moment please." Allister led them back into the main room where his astral form was just finishing up a pot of tea. Allister himself rummaged through a number of drawers while mumbling under his breath. Until with an exclamation, "Aha!" he stood up and turned around with a small stitched leather bag in-hand.

"Ummm, what is that?" Asked Naivara, "I thought you were looking for something to help us transport the bull, not a piece of an actual bull."

Allister's eyes narrowed at that remark, "This is a Bag of Holding, it is enchanted to hold more than it should, and remain light as a feather while doing so. This one should fit the entirety of the bull, but not much more. As for the potion part of our deal, pay up and I can get you set up." Halimedes and Charles step forward and deposit a small pile of gold coins into Allister's outstretched hand, where the coins promptly vanish with a puff of blue smoke. "Excellent, now, here is your vial, and your cask will be paired shortly. Now I think we are quite done here, so if you will please kindly leave the premises. Now." He shooed the party towards the entryway and with a snap of his fingers they were ejected back out into the cool night air.

"Well he was interesting," said CHarles breaking the silence, "he didn't really help with the kid situation though." He looked back over his shoulder at the dark cottage, "I don't really want to bother him again right now though. To the fort now I suppose?"

"How about we just make it back to the road, and then continue in the morning, it is getting really late." Akash responded. And off they went retracing their steps stopping only briefly to stuff the mangled body of the Gorgon Bull into their Bag of Holding the party finally made it back to the main Road to Fort Thundercliffe, where they promptly set up camp, established a watch schedule, and went to sleep.