Hillsfar Hijinx
Kailute pauses outside the magic shoppe for the third time in ten minutes. He doesn't want to enter. Does buying something here represent a personal failing? Kailute has always been willing to fight fire with fire, but the arcane magic items he possesses has been won in combat. To buy something, even with gold won through the strength of his arm, would run against his barbarian nature.
Yet, twice Kailute has faced a dragon and been overcome with fear. The first time, in Sombrero's tower he left concerned that this fear revealed a weakness in his character -- a man who would turn tail when squaring off against a mightier foe. Many battles against creatures of legend convinced him that his secret heart was not that of a coward. But then, on the bridge he was again overcome with fear when facing a dragon that was no mightier than what he had faced before. Were legends of dragon fear true? Were dragons able to make even the bold quail through the use of some blood magic? Kailute had thought such tails were a weakling's excuse, but now he was unsure.
Kailute could at least price out some charm to protect him against fear. (Pricing an anti-fear magic item)
Kailute twice felt his life force stolen by the undead. Truly powerful undead, those able to ignore the orders of Vergadain's instrument, Don Brapp, could steal your lifeforce in a way more permanent than any blow that did not prove lethal. To die and be eaten, or to die while being eaten was just the circle of life, but he had heard that having your life stolen by the undead consigned one to also be undead. That was not the way for Kailute. He wondered if the shop carried items that protected against the soul sucking power of vampires and wights. (Pricing a charm tha tprotects against negative energy/level drain/etc)
To stand frozen, incapable of defending himself while his enemy slit his throat had never been something Kailute had considered until he began traveling with the Heroes of Waymeet. But, he had seen Don Brapp and Quillro freeze a man in his tracks making it trivial to slice his throat. To go down swinging against a superior force was a fine way to die, but the key was to go down swinging. Kailute also remembered his fight against Sombrero with the river much sucking at his boots, slowing his approach so that he could not bring his axe to bear. He had heard of an item that could solve both of these problems, but would the dealer carry it? (Pricing out a ring of free action).
Don Brapp and Quillro had proven that facing a flying enemy was best done from the air, not the ground. Throwing axes were poor substitutes to hand delivering your blade to an enemy that thought itself too elusive to fear you. Kailute contemplated a few resolutions. Possibly the tinkerers in the market could design a suit that would allow him to glide like a flying squirrel, or possibly arrest his fall should a dragon drop him from a great height as it had Quillro. Or maybe he would have to turn to some form of magic, hopefully divine that would allow him to fly like Quillro, walk the air like Don Brapp, or at the very least slow his fall to the earth like a feather. (Shopping for a squirrel suit, parachute, magic item with fly, air walk, or feather fall at least 1/day)
