First Day of training

The next day Talc rose early. He found a spell stone of blue quartz. He cast fabricate and made it into a dagger with a good bit left over, then put it beside one of the 2 adamantine diamond containers on his work bench. He cast fabricate on the remaining crystal and half of it became a second blue quartz dagger. He placed the dagger next to the same container and picked up the previous dagger that was now a blue quartz pike(this is all 5e phb material no homebrew). He set the pike on a nearby wall and started debating whether he should make a third dagger or not when 5 imps and a quasit came out from door 68 followed by several goats and a cow. "Arthur! Brian! Get dressed and run 10 laps then fly 10 laps!" They groaned but walked to where thier armor was waiting and started getting dressed. "Who's here for what?" A female imp and q uasit stepped forward. "We're Gucci and Prada, we're here to learn leather working." Talc beamed at his new apprentices and thier animals. "What kinda tools do you wanna start with?" ".....leather working tools." The quasit groaned as she rolled her eyes at the annoying dwarf. He fixed her with a stern look "Made from what?" The girls looked at each other confused then smiled and replied. "Gold!" "Mithril" Talc nodded and dug under his counter and tossed Prada the quasit a set of mithral leather working tools. Their jaws hit the floor. "Gucci gold is a shit weak metal you'd have to be a master to get anything outta it and it'd only slow you down. Pick something usable you twit." "....uh...Platinum" Gucci was slapped aside and had a dagger thrown in her general direction "Just share and kill a goat together" He then hurled a barrel thier way "Save the blood!"

The remaining imps were only mildly shaken, they were known as useless to thier lady, bullied and tortured by their fellows. They knew they'd be sacrificed someday, while the stories of Talcs cruelty were well know so were the tales of his honesty and fairness, they said he never punished he merely demanded you worked as hard as him and made sure you did so. It was the closest thing to a chance in life the pair ever had, even though it was a fate even the demon lords feared. "Who are you two?" Talc asked them after a moment. "We are yours to command, and call as you wish." They replied and kneeled in unison. Talc was confused by thier statement how was he to call them if they didn't give him their names. "...uh what names were you called before?" Talc asked after a pause. "Our mistress called us all names of failure, as our master you may chose to name us." They replied again without getting up. Talc was clearly getting annoyed but didn't think they were being manipulative, he figured they must be fancy servants talking rich like that. That was troublesome he wanted workers. "Tell me your names!" The imps shook slightly at this, they were being as respectful and submissive as they could be yet they had already angered thier new master. The smaller of the paired started crying and squeaked out "I'm peanut! She's Harriet!" "Don't cry peanut we've gotta lot of work to do." Talc groaned. "We're bound to this plane and we have to tell you that!" Peanut yelled and started crying harder. Harriet looked to peanut, then risked a look at her new master. She was surprised while he was clearly annoyed and impatient his expression was somewhat soft if not concerned. Talc sighed "Look you can die now that's a lot to take in Harriet you can feed knives to the left crystal, peanut why don't you go help Gucci and Prada with the leather" Peanuts eyes when wider than imaginable his face blanched he could barely whisper "no" and he met Talc's eyes and fainted in terror. Talc picked up peanut and huffed in annoyance which Harriet read as disgust, she screamed and threw herself as his arm gripping tightly "Please use me not peanut, he can do better I promise please!" talc just huffed again. Then walked with them both over to his craft area/sales counter with Harriet pleading while bawling her eyes out the whole way. He picked up a sack put a second sack in it and started to stuff peanut in but found Harriet was gripping Peanut's neck like her life depended on it and had wrapped her tail around Talc's arm. She cried out desperately when Talc pulled them apart. The other imps kept thier heads down to pointedly ignore all this. Talc then had to pull her away from the sack he held her up to his face which she stung "What are you doing you both were given a day to do nearly nothing to adjust! I put his soft ass to bed with a pillow cause he couldn't to that what more do you want!?" He roared. "Skin me instead!" Talc face went flat clearly dumbfounded, Harriet's panic and rage all but vanished at this as she also felt completely dumbfounded. Talc gently set her on the counter. "What were you told you were here for? " She looked at his eyes searching for the trap, searching for the sadistic glea, but only saw impatience with a hint of concern. Like a worker being delayed by the task they liked the least. Uncertainly she replied "I was bound to this plane to be used by you in any manner you need. If you need my bones, skin, or blood they are yours to take but please be gentle with peanut he's!" Talc raised a hand to stop her. "Angie is sending me a load of white demons skin and a barrel of demons blood. Demons horns make decent decorations but otherwise your bones are close to useless, your poison is useless against demons. Your only value to me is as a healthy worker same with peanut...can I show you your job now?" Harriet nodded not quite trusting the dwarves words, he scared her former mistress his evil had to exceed that of a demon lord right? Talc picked up the stunned imp and set her beside an adamantine and diamond container. "Watch that knife and give John this one when he's done." He handed her an iron knife and walks away. ""Are you ok?"" A voice sounds in Harriet head. She looks around only to hear laughter. ""Down here"" She looks at the container and notices a ring of words one of them was abysall for john. Her eyes widened. "Are you john?" She asked the container. Another short laugh responded in her head. ""Yes Harriet"" She squeezed "No don't control my mind!" She heard three chuckles John, Talc, and a third feminine voice. "She looked around and saw a second almost identical container with the name Ruth in the same writings as John's. ""Are you Ruth?"" Harriet thought. After a few seconds she heard an echoed ""We aren't mind readers"" She trying thinking to the containers a few more times when she got no response harriet finally said "What are you, how did you know my name?" After a pause Harriet heard the feminine voice respond ""We saw and heard you introduce yourself to Talc, we are in soul jars"" "Did Talc trap you?" She heard an echoed chuckle. ""This is our spell we are not trapped we can trap others within but we do not age within them"" "Are you here to trap me?" after a pause, ""It's easier to show you than tell you. could you put that mace there atop of me?"" Harriet looked at Talc chanting something then at John. ""Don't worry I'll need a bit more time before I can take that knife"" she heard John say. She flew off the table to fetch the mace and with great effort brought it up and gently set it over Ruth. "Checkout my base you'll see how it works" The platform under Ruth looked a lot like a water basin it had a hole at the bottom, Harriet flew off the table again to look at where it led, it was a gnomish...sealed cauldron? There was a lever next to it. ""Wait until I tell you to touch the lever."" She heard Ruth's Voice again. ""Not long now come watch"" Harriet landed on the table again to see what Ruth was doing when suddenly the mace melted? No it turned to water and drained down below. ""You'll see them soon John should be wrapping up about now"" She turned to look and her johns voice "Ready?" Harriet watched unsure what she should be ready for when the crystal dagger vanished. Twelve seconds later a crystal pike appeared. ""Set this on the mount nearby with the other one."" Harriet did so after setting the knife against him. "Is this all he wants me to do?" ""Until you learn to do more"" The voices echoed in her head. She watched and waited as Talc finished his chant and handed her a crystal dagger then walked out to give the other imps more instructions.

Peanut woke up in a panic he couldn't see!! He clawed his way out of the unsealed sack only to see Harriet talking to herself then looking at him uncertainly... "We need to talk" Peanut was caught up to speed but wasn't sure he trusted talcs words or Harriet's. John and Ruth joined in but it didn't help much to belay his fears. "Peanut you either need to get back in the sack or go help Gucci and Prada like you were told, Talc may not be as cruel as we were told but we should still do as he says." Peanut thought about this and headed over to join the girls. The day had just started and everything had both gone far worse than he could've feared yet he seemed safer than he dared hope, nothing made any sense