Funny Merchants

As the party made their way up the long stone staircase, the newly freed Mahlajai had his brow furrowed deep in concentration. His features much easier to discern now that he was out of his tiny toy prison. After a long moment, he shakes his head and says to Eylylyn, "Hey...you remember how you told me to let you know if I detected funny business and such after the whole fiasco with the curse? I think I got something you should know."

Rather than actually removing the item from the bag, inside of Eylylyn's eyes flashes page after page of spell books. There was no physical entity before her and only she could see the pages being flipped through.

Mahlajai's voice can be heard in her head and single finger points to the top of a long list of spell names. The pages then turned over to reveal the source of the list of spells as the spellbook the wizard had obtained from Conrad's shop. "I have been going through the spells in that book and I discovered something about the spells that seemed off."

He points back to the list. "I think these spells are mislabeled. They don't do what it seems like they are written for--take this one: Message. That spell is supposed to play out where you point your finger toward a person within range and whisper a message. The target (and only the target) hears the message and can reply in a whisper that only you can hear." Mahlajai's head shakes. "That's not what this spell does. Instead-what this does is when you point your finger at a target, that person rather than getting a telepathic message instead gets a pleasant backrub. If anything I think this spell should be called massage..."

Mahlajai points to the rest of the list. "Here this one-mage armour...not what it does. Instead what you get when you cast it-it summons a fancy wardrobe. I'd actually rename it mage armoir."
He goes to the next, "Hold person-nope. More like fold person. The target still has a chance to resist the spell but otherwise they are forced to bend over and stay restrained for few seconds."
"and this one-Speak with the dead....it doesn't do that. It says you cast the spell and what happens instead is you speak with your father for a minute."

He clears his throat. "This next one-supposedly ice storm...not right. Rather than ice, you get some type of sludge that rains down and makes the area you cast it gross and nasty to walk through for about twenty feet."

Mahlajai chuckles a little before he says, "This one-teleport...I think it is mispelled. If I am reading this correctly-you cast this spell and instead of being in a different location, the destination you intended to go-there is an audible noise....as if someone suffered from flatulence."

He shakes his head and focuses, "The reason I bothered to even really check these out was because of the last one. The wish spell is not easily come by. I was right to have my suspicions because this is not a wish spell. What you have instead is a wash spell. When you cast this spell, a wet rag appears and begins to scrub and clean you clean for about a minute." The Djinn turns to look at the wizards mental avatar, "I know some of these aren't what you were hoping for and I felt you should know."

The diminutive Wizard took in the news as she plodded along up the stairs, staff thunking regularly and providing balance in the absence of reasonably placed rails. After a moment's silent consideration she chuckled softly, pausing to take a quick drink from her canteen.

"I don't know what surprises me more: the thought of finding a grimoire so conveniently and reasonably priced, or the thought that a Wizard would dedicate serious time and effort to such spells. Should we ever run into that merchant again, I'm going to have a few select words for him..."

She shakes her head more in amusement than consternation then turns to regard the Djinn as she resumes the ascent.

"Thank you for your insight. I may have discovered some of that on my own but only after several hours of wasted practice and study."

She's silent for a moment, seeming to wrestle with something.

"Do you have any insight as to what happened with Twang?"

The creature considered her question for a moment before he nodded. "Curses regardless of how potent the magic worked are always removable with one of a few things. The remove curse spell is clearly most applicable, however sometimes magic affects things differently, and requires a more thorough cleanse. Spells are sometimes not enough-sometimes it requires sacrifice or blood. I've been led to believe dipping in Dragons blood is the absolute final answer for hard to disentangle spellworkings. Its theoretically possible though that there may be some say on the part of the cursed-they might not believe they are ready...or worthy. But I don't believe that to be the case here."

He gestures back towards the way they came, "I suspect that Strahd himself or some higher power.... had a hand in interfering with your magic, but the real question is why? In any case I think it be a sort of compliment to you."

A single pierced eyebrow raises up in astoundment.

"A compliment? How is mangling my friend and trying to inflict the same on me a compliment? Lichdom and dark magicks can twist the mind to madness, but that seems far fetched even if something as malevolent as a Lich or Strahd is responsible."

Mahlajai shakes his head and smiles, "Think objectively for a moment. Think like one of the undead. Mortality is of little thought to their actions in the grand scheme. That being the case... take the threat of you losing your life out of the equation and what is left? A tampered with spell project?"

"To me that would indicate that you have been seen as having some measureable skill. Perhaps even enough to one day be viewed as a threat...even to Strahd. This was a bit of an ego crush. Someone putting you in place-showing you who is in charge....yes-I know that is unpleasant and was potentially deadly, but its the fact that someone felt the need to. That is the back handed compliment of which I refer."

"As to the how such a thing could occur-spell back lashes are not unheard of, and in a land this corrupted and dark it would not surprise me if curses in general were more heavily weighted. But I go back to the why. Why would I be allowed to aid you and be free of my shackles but not Twang?" A thought seems to click. "Well. That is an idea. Perhaps Strahd believes me to be a known entity, a controllable force; but Twang is unpredictable. Strahd believes the two of you to be an unknown variable. A...monkeywrench to whatever he's scheming. We had agreed to you removing my curse when we first met. It was planned, but Twang offered unexpectedly. Strahd is able to see our actions but not the future as one of my former masters had hypothesized. Interesting."