Corrupt's Intergalactic Artifacts
Created | Updated Feb 2, 2004
On a rather well-kicked-looking door behind a jury-rigged airlock attached to a large building floating in space (formerly attached to the h2g2 Space Centre, but that's another story), a surprisingly shiny brass plaque reads:
CORRUPT'S INTERGALACTIC ARTIFACTS!
MAGICAL AND MYSTERIOUS ITEMS RECOVERED
SOLD TO YOU AT REASONABLY OUTRAGEOUS PRICES!
In slightly smaller letters, it then adds:
If I'm gone questing, no worries!
Our ('friendly', crossed out and replaced with 'Killer Nerd') prototype will handle all requests!
A smaller cardboard sign below the plaque reads in hastily scrawled letters:
If something still goes wrong, call CLI.
Crammed on the bottom of that sign, in much smaller, messier letters reads this:
Kudos isn't here. Ever. Really. Please stop asking.
Those undeterred by the door step inside to a remarkably large, old-fashioned shop cluttered with all kinds of different items. The most obvious ones are these:
Weaponry
All manner of staves, wands, swords, and spears sparkle despite the dust on the racks they hang from. Some are obviously enchanted, others more subtly so. Below these racks are shelves of cheezy sci-fi weaponry: several models of the Kill-O-Zap line; classic rayguns, stunguns, sleeprays, disintegration/antidisintegration guns, and the like; a few stray Snowzars and Binary Blasters (Mark I) retrieved from some S.T.U.M.P.E.D. fora; and a few stranger pieces that look like they were picked out of NYC Student's endless stash.
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Jewelry
Geared toward practicality rather than fashion, cratefuls of amulets, rings, armlets, crowns, and other trinkets sit alongside the weaponry, with a sign above that warns: READ THE LABEL BEFORE YOU WEAR IT!! (with a shaky, scrawled-in 'now you tell me...').
Armor
Around the door is the armor, ranging from clanky knight-in-shining-armor to samurai-gonna-hurt-you-bad-armor to even fighting-in-the-depths-of-space armor. Most models are sizeable to whomever would wish to purchase them, but most also come with warranties that become void if used near improbability fields,
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Fashion Victim Boy,
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or reality-altering attacks.
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Some other things of note in the shop:
Crate of Improbability
In one corner sits a large crate labeled CRATE OF IMPROBABILITY: USE AT OWN RISK. An artifact itself, it is rumored to be the ultimate source of all deus ex machina ever generated!
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However, this can have startling consequences; you never know whose plothole it's about to fill for the better...
Kudos's Room
Of course, no one's saying that Kudos lives in the store's storage room,
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but if he's really not home and you find anything in there that looks good, by all means, Corrupt will gladly sell it to you. Heck, just take the whole lot. He won't mind, really.
Front Desk
When Corrupt's not around (which seems to be most of the time - artifacts aren't easily come by nowdays) the desk is run by K.N.P., a humanoid robot that stumbled out of Kudos's room one day when he wasn't looking. Nicknamed 'Kalia', she'll take care of all transactions, questions, and even any interesting adventures you might have... after all, Corrupt won't notice until it's too late. Be warned, though, that neither Corrupt nor Kudos has ever found out how to turn the darn robot off... and that's the least of their problems with it.
There is also a box labeled 'Comments & Complaints' with a beckoning slot. One can assume that Corrupt reads these from time to time, but it's probably a safe bet that she doesn't listen to them much.
Corrupt's Lair
Stairs leading up from behind the front desk would take you to a well-locked, cursed, trapped door that has a sign warning to that effect. Apparently this is the lair of The Corrupt One herself, the place that she calls home whenever she can manage to get home. Attempting to enter that particular room is not recommended, unless you're completely mad (in which case, you should probably be visiting the Supervillains' Weapons Shop on your way out).