Chapter 9

It took almost three weeks, but I had finally emptied out Herb’s shop. And I was amazed at how full the storage room and garages were. Cliff took a lot of the stuff in the front, and also gave me a nice line of credit I could use for parts from him. Rosie loved her new computer, and the one I had gotten her before I configured into another file server, and was now set up in our house.

I had just returned from my therapy appointment at the VA and gave Brad a call. The convention was that weekend, and I asked when he was flying in. He told me the next day, so I invited him up for dinner. I gave him the address for the shop, and he said he would come over once he got his rental car.

I told Dee that her and dad were invited also, but she declined, saying it should be just us with Brad. I was putting the finishing touches on the adventure I had been working on, this one was a bit different. This time it was a hunt, where they had to track down a caravan that was carrying stolen jewels, and try to regain it. I had a caravan route set up on a map, and a token that would be moved from location to location. A die would be rolled to somewhat determine how fast it moved and the route it would take, so it was unpredictable in its path. And there were several paths where it could take two or three different paths between cities. They had to track it down, then recover the stolen items.

I liked this one because it was a combination of trying to predict the route, and then catching it and deciding how to do the recovery. Steal it back through stealth, buy it, threaten them, or even simply attack and sack it and take the jewels and other merchandise. The caravan master himself does not know of this, one of his hands stole them and hid them in the bottom of one of the water casks.

One of the things I was proudest of was that this could be done by a party of any level. I had a chart of random encounters and guards that scaled up or down, depending on the party being used. So this could be an introduction at first level, or at fifteenth level, all would find it a challenge. I had printed it off, and I had already run the group through it and they loved it. They had managed to catch it two days before it reached the destination, and managed to locate and steal the items back without being caught.

Becky came in once she got off work, and collapsed into the chair. I told her Brad would be there the next day, and she smiled. “Good, the cases look empty, and we need more stuff there. I want to check the pawnshop, come with me honey?” I smiled, and hand in hand we walked over.

The owner smiled when we came in, we were becoming a common sight to him. He came over and said he had something that fell out of pawn a few days before, and thought we might like it. We had let him now the kinds of things we were interested in, and he took us into the backroom. The shelves were full of stuff, mostly being held on loan. He said these were things he had gotten from a musician who had pawned them almost a year before. He had been making the interest payments, until this month when he never showed. Becky asked if he knew what had happened, and he shrugged. “Got busted, broke, who knows? But I took possession of this last week, and you said it is the kind of thing you like.”

“It” was a DX7, a Roland JX-8P with some kind of expansion module on the end, a three keyboard stand, and two speakers. Along with a case that had an amplifier, mixer board, and several other items I could not identify. Becky had “the look” in her eye, and asked him his price. He threw one out, and it was quite a bit more than I had paid for Becky’s keyboard. She then made him a counter half of that. He refused, and she just said “Let’s go Pete.” She took my hand, and we had not even made it to the front counter before he made another offer, this time only $250 over Becky’s. She asked to see everything that came in the lot, and he sighed and pulled out another case, inside was a Roland guitar. I never even knew Roland made guitars! And a big box that looked to be full of cables, microphones, and other stuff. Becky nodded and smiled, then looked it all over, then increased her offer by another $250 for everything in the lot over his last offer, and he nodded. Wow, she had complained when I spent a few thousand not long ago, and she just dumped over two grand. But I could tell she knew what she was looking at. The guy from the shop helped us get everything moved over, but it still took two trips. There were also hard cases for each of the keyboards.

When the assistant left, Becky started to do a happy dance right in the middle of the floor as Dee was looking everything over. She then gave me a huge hug and kiss. “Honey, this is a score! I don’t know everything here, but those keyboards, stand, and speakers alone are worth that. I will check it all out, and then start pricing everything out.”

Dee called for our attention, as she was digging through one of the boxes. “Score!” she said and held up yet another MT-32. Holy crap! Then she pulled out a few more boxes, but no card. I smiled at Becky, and asked if she would run to get one as I got a computer ready. She giggled and with a kiss was out the door. Dee and I laughed, and started to move everything to the far side.

By this time the center area was largely the “Computer Store”, the right side the “Game Store”, and the left side was the “Music Store”. I moved the stand into the center of the wall, and we moved the Casio onto the top shelf, then the DX7, then the Roland keyboard. Dee remarked the Roland was “Good for the time, not as good as the Yamaha”. And the box on the end of the Roland synth was a PG-800 programmer and controller. I pulled over the small desk that I had found at a yard sale the week before and put it on the right side, and the amp stack on the left. The speakers went on each side, and I got all the patch cables out and started to hook them up. I got the sound cables all set up, but was lost when it came to how the MIDI cables should be run. Dee went and made a call, and said that Sharla would be over in about an hour. I went to the back and got out a 386 system and set it up on the desk. I put the MT-32 next to it, and opened the top, and removed a bracket cover.

Dee did a basic cable setup, with just the keyboards hooked up to the amp and speakers. She then started to play around with the two new keyboards, and after playing with the volume a bit seemed happy. I looked at my watch, and called Keith. Jan answered, and I asked if they could come to the shop when Keith got home from work, I had something he might want to see. She agreed, and said it would be less than an hour.

Becky got back with the card, and I asked her to go home and get the software. She grinned at me and pulled a copy out of her desk. “I have had a copy here just in case we ever got one, no need to go home, silly.” I threw it in, and soon she had the software loaded. And as they were playing with the keyboards, I opened the guitar case. God, but it looked funny and ugly! It had “G-707” on it, and the angles were just, weird. It was mostly white, but the neck bent at a crazy angle and this weird almost handle on the top was black. But it seemed to be in good shape, a few stickers that had been added I would have to remove though.

I decided to poke in the back of the rack, and there was another item inside, some kind of, foot pedal? It was too large for that, almost the size of the mixer board and it felt more flimsy that something you would step on. I set it on the desk and pulled out some manuals. I separated them out, and it was for most of the equipment.

Keith and Jan showed up first, and Keith went nuts when he saw the guitar. He quickly had it set up and connected to the board, which he surprised me by putting on the ground. He spent several minutes tuning it up, and it sounded just like a guitar. He ran through the opening of “Smoke on the Water”, and a few other songs, then hit a few pedals. And holy crap, Becky and I both jumped when it sounded like bagpipes. He hit a few more, and it was a violin.

“Holy hell, it’s a MIDI controller!” Becky said.

Keith grinned and nodded. “Yep, it can be played as a guitar, or as you would a synth.” He played with it for about 15 minutes, then Sharla came in. “Hey Shar, Karl! Come check out what these two just bought. I think it’s Jimmy’s!”

They both looked, and nodded. “Yep, that’s Jimmy’s, I wondered what he did with it after Disaster imploded.”

Becky asked, and it turned out to be another typical tale. “Exceptional keyboardist, mediocre guitar player, great voice, horrible drug habit. He OD’ed about two months ago, everybody wondered where his stuff went. His last band was called ‘Disaster’ and broke up about a year back, and he just kinda faded away.” Sharla sighed.

“Well, he hawked it at the shop on the corner, we just bought all of this. But this goes beyond anything we have worked with before.”

Sharla smiled and told Karl to get her tape out of the car. He came back with about ten rolls of electrical tape, all colors of the rainbow. Sharla then started to tape the ends of cables, with colored strips over the ports to show where they all went. “Yeah, a lot of stuff you all would not have seen before, this is true pro-level equipment you got here. But I helped him set this up more than once, hand me the red please baby? It is a mess, but this should help you in the future. There, now stand back boys and girls. Keith, move over, let Karl take it, he has used that a lot more than you have.”

And we all stood back as they started playing “Come on Eileen”, but with Karl actually playing bagpipes on the guitar! And Sharla playing guitar on the Roland keyboard, as she did piano and drums on the DX-7. And at the end as they faded out, Karl broke into “Amazing Grace”. Wow!

But what blew me away next was when Karl looked at me and offered $1,500 for the guitar. I simply smiled and shook my head. He offered $1,750, and I shook my head again. “Dude, you are talking to the wrong one. Becky bought this, you need to talk to her.”

He offered her $1,500, and she just laughed. “Do I look like I fell off the back of a lettuce truck, gringo? You just offered my boyfriend more than that, and you offer me less? Why, because I have tits and a cunt? Go away, us girls are talking serious business here.”

I could tell Karl was shocked, and Sharla was grinning. She whispered something to Becky, and she nodded as she was pointing out features of the new keyboard. When Karl finally offered $2,250, Becky nodded. He whooped, and only then did Keith ask if he was nuts. “Dude, that is like a brand new price, why?”

“Because it’s Jimmy’s. Most of these banks he programmed himself, I just wish I had his computer.”

I quickly dashed out the door, and caught the shop right before they closed. I asked if there was also a computer with that lot, and he nodded. It was a 286, with EGA monitor, and for $650 it was mine. I picked it up as the assistant brought the monitor and the rest, and I saw in the back the Roland card. Score times two!

We carried it in, and I told Becky to shut down the other computer and disconnect it. We quickly had it hooked up, and Karl whooped again! “OK Becky, how much?” He offered $1,000, and she shook her head. Then again he offered $1,500, and she shook her head. “Karl, music is my thing, computers are Pete’s thing. He bought this, talk to him.”

When it was all done, Karl gave me a check for $4,500 for the guitar, computer, and some of the other things including some of the microphones and other stuff in the box. One was a gaudy looking red thing, with plastic jewels all over it, but it came in its own plastic case, and Sharla said it was Jimmy’s mic. But I told Karl he could pick up the computer next week, I wanted to copy everything off of it first. He agreed and seemed happy as hell. I went to make some popcorn, and Keith went with me. “Dude, how much money do they have?”

“Don’t ask Pete. If their families were as rich as Rad’s, that would be a step or two down for them. I know you well enough, you just made a killing, right?” I closed the lid on the popper and turned on the head, and nodded. I told him I more than doubled it, and he shook his head. “I wanted it, but I knew once Karl saw it, it would be his. But it’s OK, I never could have afforded it, and he will let me use it. Plus I know him and Sharla, they will share the samples, so Jimmy will live on. And if I ask, they will let me borrow it unless they have a gig scheduled.”

Dee left for the night, and Keith and I went to the corner and got six large orders of fish and chips. Jan smiled and fed the baby as the rest of the evening turned into a four hour jam session. Finally, everybody took a break, and we were finishing the food as Sharla asked what we were doing here.

“Well, it started as a used computer store. But if you look on the other side, we are going to be selling game stuff over there, and this side is going to be music stuff. I got the Casio at the pawnshop, to give Dee and Becky something to do if they were bored. The rest kinda came along.”

Sharla asked if we were willing to take commissions, and Becky nodded. The two of them got to talking, and Jan, Keith and I walked to the other side, and I described how we wanted to set up the game part. “Not even sure if it will make anything, but it will be fun, the computer store is making more than enough to pay for it if nothing else.” They both nodded, and said the framed copies looked great. I handed them a set of four XXX adventures, and Keith smiled and gave me a hug.

Eventually, it was closing in on 11, so Karl packed up his new guitar and synth controller and loaded them and a small box with the other stuff in the car, and after setting the alarm we locked up and headed home.

Once we got inside, Becky gave me a huge kiss. “God baby, we already made a profit, I can’t believe how much he paid! And how much did the computer cost?” I told her the price, and she shook her head. Then I told her what Keith had told me. And she had been to Rad’s place twice, so knew how much money that would have to be.

“Thank god for rich friends with more money than brains. I’m gonna copy everything off next week, then we can give him the computer. He has so much stuff on there! And I mean some really professional software, much better than what we had. And Sharla knows a few people that want to sell their keyboards, we will do that on commission. So no risk, we make money if they sell, no loss if they do not.”

The entire time we were talking we were walking to the bedroom, removing clothing as we went. Becky guided me inside of herself, and she was dripping wet. Finally, with her clawing my back as I had moved her legs inside of mine she came for the third time as I started pumping her full of cum. We continued to kiss and cuddle, and we eventually fell asleep, with me still on top of and inside her. At some time later she nudged me to move and mostly asleep I rolled off, then slid behind her again.

Mandy was there right after we opened, and we spent an hour checking over all of the adventures and signed a few that got missed. We packed up all of them, and put them in the back of Scout. “Pete, are you sure I can borrow it?”

“Yes Mandy, it’s mine after all. And how are you going to get all your stuff, and this there in your little car? Yea, it’s cute. But it sucks for moving things.” She nodded, and said that after this weekend she might look into getting another vehicle. She went back to work on “Kaos Ascending” on the computer, and it was looking damned good. She had changed one of her electives to a new computer graphics course she had to go to CSUN to take, and I could tell it was paying off. And I reminded her Brad would be over tonight, and she said she would be here. Then she started disconnecting the computer and packing it up.

I helped her load it into her car, and with a kiss she took off. I pulled out a computer to replace one I had sold the day before, and saw I would have to bring more from the garage soon. We were starting to run low here, which was good. We were into our second month, and making a ton of money. Becky was even talking about buying a newer car.

I sat down and worked on some monsters I had been working on for Spillikan’s Bestiary. The Kattala was the newest one I was proud of. A race of intelligent humanoid felines, they could not use most weapons, preferring to use a glove not unlike Freddy Kruger if they could not touch their enemy. But their claw and bite attacks could be devastating. If they latched onto the throat, a check must be made each round or the enemy would go unconscious, and eventually die from suffocation.

Among Master Spillikan’s notes on the Kattala were such entries as “Does NOT like catnip”, “Very playful”, “Shrewd traders, do NOT insult them though”, and “Their purring almost seems to act like an aphrodisiac on most humanoids. Be very cautious when around an amorous Kattala though, their claws are sharp”. I smiled and printed off the forty pages of monsters I had created, knowing at least half of them will make it in. Especially the Kattala, as I almost had an adventure ready that would feature them.

Then a customer came in, and I went to help them. As I helped the girl look at the computers, I saw the guy looking at the framed adventures on the wall. She was looking at one of the 286 systems when he suddenly said “Hey Karla, check these out. These are new Peter Culver adventures, I had never seen these before.” She apologized to me and walked over. She looked them over and nodded, and said that was Amanda Carol’s work all right, she would know it anywhere.

“Hey dude, can I ask how you got these?”

I walked over, and grinned. “These? Sure, I just printed them off.”

“No freaking way? How did you do that?” I just pointed to the long table, where the printer, scanner, and binding machine were at. “How did you do that? I have never even seen these before! Where did you get them?”

I just pointed at the computer a few feet away, and said “Simple, the files are on that, I just printed them.”

“Wicked, did you like take that in on trade or something?” I looked at the gal, and I saw she already got it and was trying not to laugh. “Nope, I actually built that one, I brought them over from another computer I own at home though.”

She finally lost it and started to laugh. “Dean, don’t you get it yet? Look at him! Give him longer hair, take off a few years, this is Peter Culver.” He shook my hand and started to say how much they both had loved my works, and he read my article every month. The girl did nod, so I knew this was not just him talking for her.

“Well thank you, I love writing them. So are you here for a computer?” But he went right back to my adventures on the wall, and asked if they were going to be for sale soon. I told him they were, at the convention that weekend near LAX. She said they were going to be there, and I said to look for Mandy’s booth at the vendor area. “They are $25 each, but they are a limited edition, signed by both Mandy and me and limited to 250 copies of each. First come, first served.” And at the perfect timing, I saw Mandy pull up. She got out with a large cardboard tube in her hand, and she almost skipped as she came in. “Pete, when you’re done, I got something I gotta show you!”

“You’re Amanda Carol!” Karla said. “I do recognize you, you have signed my modules before.” She went to shake Mandy’s hand, and Dean did also. Mandy said that since they were friends, they should see what was in the tube.

Wow! They were huge, 3 foot by 6 foot color prints of Kaos Ascending! And each signed by Mandy on the bottom. She explained how she had printed them off at the college, it was actually a class project as well as a work still in progress though. “It’s not done, but I wanted to be able to hang it behind me at the booth. And here, this one is yours, Pete, the other is for Brad.”

They both looked at the art and were trying to figure it out. “It’s called ‘Kaos Ascending’, it is from an adventure that Pete here is premiering this weekend at the con. Are you two going?” Indeed they were, and they started to pump me for information. I told them that no, Kaos was not dead. But it was a new Kaos adventure, and in one of the playtests we did she did die. And as she was ascending to heaven she was still talking in full “Valley Girl” mode, and that is what inspired Mandy to make that. And no, the print was not for sale, it was still unfinished, but she hoped to have it ready for the Labor Day convention.

They did leave with a 286, that both of us signed. And a complete set of adventures, Mandy just pulled one of each out of the back of scout. She laughed as she waved the money around after the left, saying we had already made money. Maybe Becky was right after all, and people would pay that much for my old discards.

Mandy carefully used some kind of stuff like gum to hang the print on the wall over the framed adventures, and it looked great. I printed off another copy of my newest monsters, and after looking through them she started on a new sketch. And I saw the Kattala forming on the screen in front of me. A female, with sleek breasts, encased in a peasant dress and a saucy smile. A beer stein in one paw, her tail visible from the side.

I kissed the top of her head and said that looked fantastic. She looked at me and grinned, then returned to work. I liked how empty the storeroom was, and was thinking that we should stock it with more computers, and store the finished and bound adventures at home next time.

The phone rang, and it was Becky. She asked when Brad would be there, and I said sometime in the late afternoon. She said that sounded great, and she would stop and bring dinner for everybody. She asked what we wanted, and when I asked Mandy she shouted out “Beef Bowl!” We both laughed, as Mandy had become as addicted to those as we were. I told Becky to just grab two large ones of each, along with some bowls. Anything we did not finish we could take home and eat later.

I was helping an older lady who was looking at buying a computer when Brad walked in. He saw me and waved, and I waved back. He started to look around the shop in curiosity as I continued to help the lady. It took almost 45 minutes, and Becky had returned and was at the table talking to Brad before the gal decided to get one of my 286 systems. Finally, we had it loaded in her car and I went back in to greet Brad.

“Pete, I like it! When you invited me to talk and dinner, I expected to meet at your house, I was kind of surprised when I saw the address was in this strip mall, but now it makes sense. And you are looking good, nice to see you up and about already.”

At that point I gave him the grand tour, starting on Becky’s side. And all her music stuff which was now priced if it was for sale, then the computers. He was surprised at how cheap I was selling the computers, then I told him our average cost per unit which Becky had provided after a few hours at a spreadsheet a week before. He whistled and said that was an amazing cost per profit ratio.

“Well, I am basically picking these up as scrap you might say. Most came from two different stores, I pick them up there cheap, fix them up, then sell them. I still have well over a hundred at home in the garage, we are trying to push the volume to make up for that and so far we are doing pretty good.”

I then took him to the empty corner. He chuckled and said he had seen the print of Kaos when he came in, but then walked over and saw what was in the frames under it. He read each one, then went back and read them all again before turning and looking at me. “OK, a few of those I remember, we rejected them. Mostly because they did not fit our scope. A few because they were kinda bad, to be honest. And a couple were before Mandy became your illustrator. Care to tell me what’s going on?”

Mandy pulled out a copy of each numbered 7 from the back of the truck, and we set them on the table and explained what we were doing. He looked through them, one after the other. Looking at each page as we talked, and explained what we were going to be doing with them, and why. “Brad, I wanted to tell you this in person, so you do not get blindsided in this. We are not trying to compete, these are limited editions, and once we hit 250 of each they are sold out and will not be printed again.”

“Pete, I rejected these, you are free to do whatever you want with them. Have you sold many yet?” I told him we were going to start at the con, but we had sold a set earlier in the day. He shook his head and asked who all was involved in this project.

“Well, right now it’s Mandy, Becky, and myself. I do the writing, Mandy does the illustration, Becky is actually the one that does the layouts and typesetting. We then print it out and bind them here with Dee’s help. We do it all ourselves. The idea is that if these sell well enough, at each convention we will make up four more and repeat it. After that, I have no idea as I do not have that many rejections like this lying around. I am in no way going to dump working with you and just go solo, short term this may make more, but the royalty checks are long term money and I am not stupid enough to throw that away. But maybe I can publish the works of others. Kind of like a game version of a vanity press.”

“Oh trust me, you would do good at that. Becky, you have an amazing eye by the looks, this is better than some of the stuff we were putting out until a few years ago when we went digital. Almost on par with ours, and mostly because we have had more experience. But I have never seen a home-printed module that looked so professional. Now, care to tell me about that print Mandy? Are you going to sell that also? You know that Kaos is our intellectual property, right?”

She shook her head. “No, that is actually something I did for two reasons. First, it’s a school project for my computer graphics design class. Secondly, I am giving away some copies to friends as gifts. Pete, Holly, Becky, and you actually, plus Dee, Peggy, and a few others. But once that is done and one for display at my booths, that’s it. I know Kaos is yours, these are not for profit but as gifts for friends.”

Brad shook his head. “Mandy, everything to a businessman is profit. Keep working on it, send me a final design when you are done, then I will talk with your agent and we will buy it from you. We have actually expanded to the point where we are about to buy out a medium-sized print shop in Texas and move to self-printing instead of contracting a lot of it out like we normally have. And offering posters is a great use of some of the machines if they are not otherwise in use. But the deal would be similar to Pete’s. We will pay you you secure the rights, an advance, then quarterly royalty checks once that is paid back. So I was right, that one was digital and not hand-drawn.”

Mandy said that sounded fine, and went over and showed him what she was working on at the moment. He watched her add in some more detail to the Kattala, and said it looked really good. “But Pete, that’s the computer we bought you earlier this year, right?”

“Yep, it is. I really needed it while I was in the hospital, I had nothing else and the idea of going back to pen and paper was out. Now that I’m basically at home I’m letting Mandy use it, as she takes it home and works there, and to the school where she printed these copies. But she knows she is only borrowing it, I am still trying to find another solution for her. The files she works with are so large they will not fit on disks.”

“Oh, it’s alright, technically you are buying it from us, and Mandy is using it for work also for us. So that more than meets the intent of it. But what are you drawing Mandy?”

“Oh, this is a peasant Kattala, just go ahead and give it to him Pete.” I chuckled and selected the right binder and handed it to him as she continued. “I’m still working on illustrations that we will send up to you when I finish, but I told Pete to give you the drafts he has done so far so you could see them.” He went through each page and chuckled a few times.

“OK, yes I love these, especially that Kattala, the remarks of ‘Master Spillikan’ are priceless. I am almost tempted to have him write a commentary booklet on the TSR books, just to say what he has to add about them. I take it those are going to be part of an adventure like the Fyta are?”

“Yes, but I will only put forward that one once we are close to the release of the book itself. Maybe a quarter prior, and include something like ‘More details can be found in Spillikan’s Beastiary’. Kind of like what TSR did with Temple of Elemental Evil, but without the six year wait time between them.”

Brad laughed and slapped the table. “Oh god, when we do that, I will use that to burn Gary’s ass next time I see him after that.” Mandy looked over at us and asked what that was about. And Becky looked puzzled also. “Oh, back in, 1978? 1979? Around there, Gary Gygax came out with this module called ‘The Village of Hommlet’. It was popular because it had a lot of details about what a small farming village would be like. It had a small keep to clear and other things. But over and over again in it, it kept saying ‘For more details, look at the next module, ‘The Temple of Elemental Evil’. It became like a running joke in the entire industry, as no such module existed. They finally did release such a module, and it was awesome. But in 1985, close to seven years later. We will be doing the same trick, but actually following through with it, that will burn them good!” I laughed along with Mandy, as I had bought it long ago myself, and was frustrated by the references to a module for more details, that did not exist in 1982.