Elmo’s Potion Shop was never very popular. Elmo put a lot of
work into his potions, stories of how they were made, the quality of ingredients,
the best intentions, and everything in between. He had lavender effervescent wine
harvested on the night of a full moon and exposed to only starlight for 14
nights. Elmo also carried cooking salts and oils made from a nearby mill. The
mill made enough for the whole town, and Elmo was grateful to share the profits
with the miller.
A potion shops attracted travelers, thirsty from the road,
weary for magical nourishment.
Elmo was used to all sorts of people passing through;
mercenaries, soldiers, farmers, adventures, folk wizards, and priests of
strange and esoteric cults. He liked people, and always seemed to know just
what someone needed. Whether an anxious customer needed some laudanum, or a
sullen farmer needed caffeine.
However, one dry summer afternoon, a traveler came to his
shop trying to sell him dragon teeth. The
stranger called himself Ghoulgore the Terrible, an aspiring wizard who claimed
to have killed a dragon to acquire the teeth. Elmo was accustomed to wizards,
usually they were delusional, often overestimating their abilities, and perishing
on the practical side of a sword.
Elmo had never seen a dragon, nor heard of one other than
the rumors of adventures who perhaps drank too many of Elmo’s Purple Dream
Deluxe; another sweet concoction laced with poppy seed oil. The teeth were jet
black, and quite lustrous. Under closer inspection the black teeth seemed to
glitter with flecks of crystal. Ghoulgore claimed it was from the minerals the
dragons ingested for their dramatic breath of fire. Elmo had never met
Ghoulgore before today, but enjoyed the details on the teeth, he could probably
sell them to someone, and the teeth pleasing to look at on their own merit.
Ghoulgore accepted the first price Elmo suggested, and left before
he could change his mind.
The dragon teeth were very popular with the locals and Elmo told
the story of the mineral diet, and drew nearby listeners close for an
inspection of the jet-black teeth. He sold the teeth easily and was eager to
see Ghoulgore when he returned the following month.
The self-proclaimed wizard had more dragon teeth to sell and
brought a few dragon scales and claws as well. The scales were black and green,
red and blue, mixes and solids of brilliant chromatic beauty. The claws were
curved and sharp, unblemished, and lethal looking. Elmo had so many questions.
What do the different colors mean? Where did you find dragons to get these
scales from? Elmo was transfixed.
Ghoulgore the Terrible described great battles, where he was
surrounded by the cultists of Tiamat, a dragon goddess who has 5 heads and a
great lair of gold for each color of dragon. The chromatic colors are red,
green, blue, white and black and correspond to the unique biology of each
dragon. Red dragons can breathe fire, black dragons and spray a jet of acid, dissolving
the strongest armor or sharpest weapons. The white freezes, and blue emits bolts
of lightening like the crest of an angry storm rising overs the northern
mountains. Green dragons had a poisonous fume of choking smoke.
There claws come form the ends of their wicked hands; thick
and vicious talons which can rend a wild boar to ribbons. Elmo wondered for a
moment why the claws were unblemished but the quality of the artifacts seemed
genuine, the claws were not from any creature Elmo had seen, and the scales,
again looked dazzling enough to sell, especially with a rich story.
Again, Ghoulgore took whatever Elmo offered and left before any
more questions could be asked.
The next few weeks Elmo was reciting the details and dragon
facts to his customers, even going as far to name some of the brightly colored
potions after the dragon colors. He now carried Red Dragon oil, and Black
Dragon Cure-all for turbulent stomachs. Customers were asking more and more questions
about the dragon pieces. What does a whole dragon look like? What do the mixed
color scales mean? Who is the wizard who can defeat such a beast?
When Ghoulgore returned, there was a crowd of villagers waiting
with restless curiosity. Elmo didn’t want the wizard to feel unwelcome, so he sheltered
him for a moment from the crowd. Ghoulgore brought a parcel wrapped in linen
about the size of a loaf of bread. He looked anxious and nervous about the
questions. He unwrapped the package revealing a large lizard head covered in
bright green scales and solid emerald gemstones for eyes. The cut of the
jeweled eyes was masterful, and Ghoulgore claimed only proper treatment would not
be preserve the flawless geometry. The wizard elaborated on the preservation
process while Elmo stared enchanted by the luminous green eyes of the dragon
head.
Elmo snapped out of his daze feeling a little embarrassed at
being lost in the beauty of gemstones. He offered to hire a scribe to record
the details, offering to pay for services and comforts for knowing more of the
story of the dragon slayer wizard. Ghoulgore seemed irritated at the idea of
explaining himself, but then a change overcame his face, and with a broad smile
he offered demonstration for everyone at his nearby wizard tower.
Ghoulgore claimed to have the ability to summon a tower, for
conducting his arcane practices and keeping his alchemical ingredients. He also
asked to be paid for the dragon head first, describing with utmost detail the
process of preserving it after death. Elmo offered every gold coin he had,
considering himself lucky to even have the ability to purchase such an
extraordinary object.
Ghoulgore told the villagers to come to his tower at dusk in
three nights and all would be revealed.
The villagers didn’t know where the tower was, but the rumor
of a magical tower nearby spread to nearby towns. By the 3rd night, adventures,
priests, knights upon horses, and even a rabble of curious farmers buzzed
around the small village like nervous beasts.
At dusk of the third night, a fog rolled down from the
hills, and at the edge of a town a stone tower could be seen rising high above.
The crowd gathered near the entrance, the priests tried to provoke the knights
to knock on the wooden door, and a couple of farmers suggested setting up a
nearby table for food and drinks.
A few minutes after dusk the door opened and Ghoulgore
stepped out. He told the crowd to step back, and drew attention to a chain he
carried in his left hand. He said the chain is holding back a captive dragon,
to please make space for the creature.
“I have pacified the dragon; behold I have muzzled it!”
The crowd backed off, and the line to the food table changed
directions suddenly. At the end of the long chain was a lizard, nearly the size
of a full-grown human, limbs ending in long claws, and folded wings tucked
tightly to the dragon’s body and bound with leather straps and silver rivets.
The eyes and mouth were covered in an iron cage, with bars almost touching each
other. Only the faintest glint of the dragon’s face could be seen. Ghoulgore cinched
the leash, and the dragon hissed as small fire jets flashed out from the creature’s
head cage.
The crowd gasped in amazement, ogled in wonder, and begged to
know more about the dragon. Where did it come from? How old was it? Can it fly
if you remove the leather straps? The priests denounced the dragon as an
abomination, the knights wanted to fight it, asking about its scales and the
type of iron in the head cage. The farmers marveled at the shimmering skin of
the dragon, the scales appearing bright red to some, and others exclaimed they
had never seen a deeper blue.
Ghoulgore then raised his hands and shouted confidently at
the crowd, “Tonight I will show you how to kill a dragon, since nether sword or
arrow can pierce its skin. It is the power of lightning which can kill a dragon!
Again, with all your senses, BEHOLD! “
The crowd watched silently, and a great thunderclap boomed
overhead, followed by a bolt crawling down from the sky and into the wizard
Ghoulgore. He glowed with electrical energy, blue and silver until he could
contain no more. A bolt arced from Ghoulgore’s fingertip to the iron head cage
of the dragon. The dragon hissed and screamed in his chains, thrashing
helplessly. Then it fell motionless, and smoke rose from between the bars.
“I will have the body prepared and available for sale in a month.”
Said Ghoulgore as he straightened his robes.
The wizard took some of the delicious food from the farmer’s
buffet table, and dragged the dragon body back into his tower, locking the door
behind him. No one in the crowd wanted to provoke the wizard. By the morning
the tower was gone, vanished, not a trace other than a large blackened area of
ground where the lightning struck.
The next week a traveler came to Elmo’s Potion shop, an
investigator carrying a sigil of great authority. He was looking for a wizard
known as Ghoulgore the Terrible, he was guilty of arcane violations. Ghoulgore
had discovered a method of slowly transforming one creature into another, making
several unsuccessful attempts of turning people into horses or dogs. The results
of his experimentations are being hunted down by others. The investigator
claimed he and others of his order are close to closing in the evil wizard.
Elmo remembered the night of the tower and the dragon and thought
a moment about the bolt of lightning and the dragon. Elmo said he didn’t see
any wizards or hear about any animal transformation. The curious investigator left
after buying a Red Dragon potion. That was the last time he saw the
investigator.
Next week another investigator showed up looking for the
first one. Same questions, same story, however this time Elmo understood that more
investigators would be following. He didn’t want to be known as a collaborator,
especially since he sold things from Ghoulgore the Terrible. Elmo told the investigator
that the wizard arrives every month to sell and buy ingredients from his shop.
If they wanted to arrest Ghoulgore for his crimes.
By the time the month rolled around, there were 3 investigators
waiting for Ghouldgore at the potion shop.
Ghoulgore seemed to know there were people waiting for him. He
was calm, thanked the shop keeper for his services and told him her wasn’t angry
about informing the authorities. “Such things happen Elmo, it is the nature of
wizardry to be at odds with authority.”
The investigators had little interest in asking Ghoulgore
questions, they drew swords and aimed crossbows while shouting that he must surrender
himself. Ghoulgore muttered arcane words, waved his hands, and the crossbow
bolts flew towards him. They stopped shortly before hitting him and then turned
into small hissing snakes. They coiled and squirmed on the ground. Ghoulgore
yelled “RETURN!” as the snakes crawled back towards the investigators. They frantically
slashed at the ground as angry vipers struck at their legs.
The arcane words bubbled up from a low murmur, then the murmur
turned into thunder, as if the words were shouted by some disembodied voice. With
a large lightning bolt, Ghoulgore vanished in a dramatic display of radiant blue
light followed by a preternatural stillness.
Elmo counted himself lucky and would think twice before buying
dragon claws or teeth from strange wizards. He didn’t tell the investigators
about his emerald-eyed dragon head in the back room. He would have to wait. However,
Ghoulgore did not return, nor was his tower ever seen again.
Elmo now looks to the sky whenever a storm rolls through,
thinking of the wild night of magic. He never sold the dragon head but decided
to mount it in the front of his store and renamed his potion shack to Dragons Slayer’s
Potion Emporium.
