Inglemia - Right Bastards - Hobbes - Side Quest - "The Merchant of Dreams - A Dozen Downs Adventure"

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Before Merchant Day, before their dire straights in looking at the ritual disollution of the power of Aslan to dark and hostile Gods...

Hobbes found himself in his usual meanderings of some of the darker elements of Inglemian society, the forgotten areas, often the Downs where children of non citizens and the unregistered played in shadow, sometimes victim to horrific magical experiments or abduction for the colonies by the less than scrupulous, though in recent years that had gone down. WAY down for some reason.

Indeed, most had gotten the message rather thoroughly that the children of the downs were Off Limits.

So it was...interesting...to say the least when Hobbes was approached by several of his friends who expressed their concern.

"It's...weird."

Upon query, it appeared that the children were offered access to a magical chamber that would show them their fondest dreams. It was totally immersive. Hobbes, as a wide world traveler, could compare it somewhat to television, but even more interactive. It was likely the kind of thing that Earth would have in mass someday...

"It's wrong." One of the little girls, a rather creepy one that most of the other children rarely spoke to but always seemed to hang around. "The more they use it, the more they want to use it."

They were pretty sure the chambers belong to House Sosori, the major illusion house, but no one was sure.

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"All right, let's see what all the hubbub's about!"

Hobbes has one of the children take him to see this machine. Along the way, he asks the child just who it is exactly that made this mysterious offer, in the first place.

Upon arrival, Hobbes will get the lay of the land, talk to anybody present, inspect the machine and then probably enter the chamber himself.

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The Machine itself is fairly innocuous. It is a thin wooden board with several self replicating runes on numerous sides. The key to the mechanism seems to be four pearls at the apex of each side of the box.

The offer was made by a tall man of gaunt build with brown hair and brown eyes, human, in his early twenties. Upon investigation, this individual is likely Hiderhawk, a free agent who often does deeds that 'need doing' for the powerful (societies, consortiums and the nobility) in the Downs. He is not evil, but kind of a jerk with no direct moral compass.

The children in the box will answer.

Upon using the Box himself, Hobbes finds that it is utterly immersive and responds to his mental commands. The people it makes are kind of stupid, but otherwise the illusion is tacticle as well as audial and visual. Of course...TECHNICALLY it is tuned to human senses so it isn't as effective on Hobbes as it would be a human, and the constant distraction of those sweet delicious pearls just hanging there keeps him from going all the way in, which is how he is able to notice the very subtle addictive quality to the boxes. They're designed to encourage anyone using them to spend more and more time using them.

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After very careful deliberation, Hobbes decides to take the 3 pearls (having eaten one) for later examination by someone smarter than he is. HideyHawk is promptly shoved into the box, which is tied up in rope and hung from a very tall bridge just outside the Downs with the words "AND STAY OUT" scrawled across the outside of the box in red paint. He then treats the Downs Dozen (an urchin gang that has adopted Hobbes as their mascot. Think The Little Rascals but as hardened street criminals. Liars, thieves and con artists, the lot of them) to ice cream.

"What'd I tell ya, gang? Ice Cream beats havin' yer wildest dreams fulfilled any day uh the week."

"Aww, Hobbes!"

'Hobbes and The Merchant Of Dreams'

'...a Downs Dozen adventure!'@

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