Since the dawn of time, the continent of Vester has been a land of magic and mysteries.

Whether it's dragons roaming the skies, elven forests with their thousand secrets or even rising waterfalls whose falls no one has ever found, its inhabitants have over time gotten used to the most incredible... and sometimes the most absurd things. Magical discoveries are made every day, yet some mysteries remain unsolved. Much to the frustration of eminent magicians and a few unlucky or unwary travellers.

Gregor Mallory certainly could attest to this.

Being cursed by an Enchantress was not even a frequent occurrence, given the small number of practitioners of this type of magic. What's more, most of them limited themselves to beneficial spells.

Yet, Gregor, seasoned mercenary that he was, had committed the unforgivable blunder of confusing wild fruits with the orchard of a powerful Enchantress, an action he bitterly regretted. There was no indication that the fruit trees belonged to anyone!

Well, yes, apart from the little wooden sign reading " TRAVELLER !!!!! THE NEXT ONE WHO STEALS MY FRUIT WILL MEET MY STAFF !!!!!" but in his defence, he hadn't eaten anything in two days, having lost his supplies in the nearby forest, where a violent storm had taken him by surprise. The informant had told him of a treasure that was easy to find, with an accessible path - a little walk in the park, in short. A golden opportunity for a mercenary of his calibre! Argh! If only he could get his hands on that brigand, he'd wring his neck !

Unfortunately for him, instead of running off from an enraged farmer with his precious loot, he was instantly paralyzed when he touched the tree. A second-class magic spell! No one would have ever imagined running into a second-class mage in the hinterland of the kingdom's most remote corner ! Although, with these mages, you never knew what to expect.

The Enchantress had stormed out of the trunk of a nearby tree (and he still couldn't believe it... a trunk, really? why couldn’t they live like everyone else? Bloody magicians...), shouting and waving her magical staff above her head in great motions. The woman he would have taken for a sweet little granny in any other circumstances seemed absolutely terrifying at that moment.

Gosh! The old lady was hitting  so hard with her staff ! And if that wasn't enough, she'd dealt him the coup de grace with a curse! How could he have known was an Enchantress!

So, yes, under her blows, his words may have gone slightly beyond hid thoughts, and he'd perhaps insulted her looks, her fruits and her place of living. Which she had obviously not taken well.

Her curse was, in her opinion, the best way for him to learn good manners: three years of bad luck would teach him to speak politely to others, she had said. And to not steal what belonged to others. Once the paralysis was lifted, he ran off like he had a demon on his heels. Which he had. Kind of.

From then on, everything went from bad to worse : his future contracts were all cancelled one after the other, his various contacts no longer replied to him, his meagre remaining possessions were stolen, no one agreed to team up with him for some unknown reason and his mercenary license was even temporarily revoked for failure to pay the annual guild fees! Not to mention stumbling in the mud, his shoes that unexpectedly broke and so on. For a first-rate mercenary, this was a burning shame. All his attempts to break the curse had failed (some desperate attempts were best forgotten...).

In desperation and penniless, this led Gregor to the City of Magi in the Kingdom of Neriamen: only the Kingdom's best magicians could break this blasted curse.

Except they didn't work for free, let alone without a reservation. Eight and a half years to wait for an appointment... No need to be in a hurry…

It was when he was walking back down the main avenue, with his spirits in the dumps, that a glimmer of hope appeared: a small flyer he had just stepped on indicated that a magician from the Small Tower was offering his services with an appointment during the same day. There was even an option to pay with a service !

Gregor had only discovered too late that this magician, Zokel Katastrof, didn't actually have any customers because of his extreme clumsiness and his legendary bad luck (how could anyone blow up a magically reinforced laboratory with a fork and a sandwich? How??!!), and was in fact looking for someone to clean up his new (old and shabby) residence, now that he had been expelled from the magical premises of the magicians' guild.

What a fool he had been, signing the contract without reading it, so happy to be soon free of this hell! It was only when Zokel handed him a bucket and broom with a big, satisfied smile that the mercenary realised there was a catch. But as the contract was magical, it was impossible for him to go back on his words without the agreement of that damned magician, who refused to listen to any argument to that effect. From successful mercenary to cleaning man for a magician on the bench of the magic society, what a downfall!

Ah, he would remember that lesson!

******
At the other end of the building, in his laboratory, Zokel Katastrof was sleeping soundly, slumped over his desk, his face glued to the parchment on which he was writing before falling asleep. Under his quill, a large ink stain made his last words completely illegible. A satisfied smile stretched across his lips.

Ah, how pleasant it was to have a mercenary under one's command, free and at one's mercy! The magician dreamed of his research projects, greatly aided by his new handyman. The Great Council was bound to recognize his misunderstood genius when faced with the proof that his Miracle Healing Potion could heal any wound! Even Count Hyuri, who had experienced some... unpleasantness... following the last prototype (ingested without his knowledge, but he obviously needed it badly given his deep crimson complexion during their discussion, and the result was there! Pretty much) would applaud him! They were going to award him a medal and offer him a place in the Great...

BAAAM !!!!!!!!

"ZOKEL !!!!! COME OUT OF YOUR CAVE, DAMN IT!!!"

The laboratory door swung open with a bang before slamming against the wall with an enormous crash.

The magician awoke with a start and hit his head hard on the shelf above him, causing the vials stored there to clatter. The one closest to the edge rolled for a few moments before falling off the shelf directly onto the parchment, rendering the contents of the page completely unintelligible.

"Lunch has been served for over 40 minutes!!!! I’ve already drummed on the door three different times, with still no answer!!!! I warned you that on the fourth, I'd break the door down!!!" The ex-mercenary exclaimed as Zokel held his head, groaning. “You better get your ass back to the kitchen right now!”

With that, Gregor turned and stormed out of the room, his apron billowing around him like a cape. The magician watched him go with a few curses. Then turning to his work, he let out a horrified cry as he discovered the extent of the damage.

"OH NO!!! My theorem for transmuting water into gold!!!! I was almost there!!! Gregor, you lout!!! I just lost weeks of work because of you!!!"

"AH! It’s karma !" Gregor shouted from the hall. "Because of whose spell did I have to re-clean THE ENTIRE THIRD FLOOR!!! Which had been covered in slime! Because you were, and I quote, ‘’curious to see what this spell would do’’, said spell being written on a dubious piece of paper covered in slime! Five days !!!! It took me five days to clean it all up!!!"

Zokel didn't reply, grumbling under his breath that he would have to reduce the effectiveness of the deafening spell around his laboratory. It was out of the question to lose the results of his brilliant research again. Dejected, he levitated his parchment into the wastepaper basket before leaving the room. He might as well go and eat, and get back to it with a clear head the next day.

In the wastebasket, the parchment began to glow, brighter and brighter, before fading away with a loud flash. The outline of the ink stain began to undulate soundlessly. Two large eyes appeared in the middle, before blinking in surprise. The ink stain moved across the parchment for a few moments. Then it left the parchment entirely.

So, what will this new living ink stain do ?

Choice 1 : Explore the room
Choice 2 : Get out of the laboratory and explore the rest of the house
Choice 3 : Follow Zokel and Gregor’s voices to the kitchen