The Staff of Souls

A staff containing 15 Souls



A face in a staff, looking at you curiously
They are all disgusting souls. Vomiting, peeing, what have you. Mischief and troublemakers.
They are on the mend though. They want to do good. This began as a mystery find in the forest.
The top of the staff, with the lines carved but not painted. Also a pair of eyes in the knots.A little figure in the staff looking like he's standing smuggly.
A face kinda looking at you questioningly.A face kinda smiling.
East of where I live, is a forest of sparse poplars of all sizes. A grassy floor, beautiful woods. Barely an underbrush to be found. I was scouring for staves. I had been in a carving frenzy, barely finishing one before the next had started. I hunted for a straight one, a poplar that I could carve.

I got to a dark part of the forest, so to speak. An overhang of dead branches, a path wide and straight.

I am a spiritual person. I talk to everyone. I should make a page about my realm of spirituality, I don't want to prattle on about spirit names and animals all in one go here, so like... click here like, and it'll take you to a page where I prattle on about that. Anyways.
A face with a twisted sneer. There are multiple faces if you look around.That same part of the staff but turned just slightly, showing yet another creepy face with it's mouth open.
A face looking grumpy and quiet.A face looking calm, almost tired.
So I been like chatting it up in this place, talking to the trees, talking to the spirits. Was this the trip where I talked to a pixie in the grass? It might have been. Anyway, I'm wildly spiritual, so I was like talking to everything there, and I get to this dark part. Well I'm like... well hey, let's go see what they have to say. So it was a cordial visit at first, I can't remember what all they talked about. It was a generally gruff tone, but kinda lower. So anyways, I was like 'aw, cheer up' and 'happy days' and like 'the sun!' and stuff, and smiled at them. So I walk off away from them, still hunting for a staff and such. And I find this glorious... beauty, this staff of unparalleled amazingness and design. Just awe. Like... solid to the core, like so-lid. SO many beautiful facets to it, it's got these eyes, which we call diamonds, because it's a diamond willow. Anyways, the original plan was to actually peel this thing! A face looking cheeky.A very tall face with its mouth at the bottom.
This might actually be that same cheeky face again, near duplicate photo, sorry about that. Nothing behind this, honest mistake, just pointing that out, a bit why they were sent with me actually, I'm completely honest.A face looking like it's throwing up to the side.
Like, diamond willow looks incredible peeled, it's got these dark bands, and the curvature. So, that was the original goal. I knew that it was full of souls, the old forest told me. Like, that dark forest back there, the second I found this thing, they started talking to me, and like "can I be allowed to take it" and stuff. So I'm like bartering with Them (I'm talking to them, they're making me say barter here XD), and like... awe c'mon, I'm a pretty good artist, I'll carve it up all nice, and describing to them and stuff. And we come to an agreement where I take the staff, and that I take care of the souls inside of it. A face looking somewhat hippie, and smiling to the right.A pic of that same area but slightly lower down, showing a second smaller face.
A grotesque face with sticks coming out for eyes and a twisted nose.A figure hiding in a hollow.
Now like, I made sure of this, like maaAaade sure, that these guys are here of their own volition. You are not bound to this staff, you are not... unable to leave it. Like, you want to be here, ok, I'm not having any haunted souls stuck here. No like, you guys wanna tag along, let's get this thing. So like, I thank the forest and stuff, and because of what I pulled from the tree there, I got the base of it which will make an amazing base to a lamp, and there are two souls in there. That wood chip has a soul named Tooja. So yah like there's 18 here in total. Aaaaand they're all kinda along for the ride. The giant pair of eyes at the top of the staff.The foot of the tree, sitting on a desk to show its size. This will be turned into a lamp one day, and it's up to the spirits if they want to stay with it or not. I guess that depends on who has it at the time as well. Contains two spirits at the time of this photo.
A closeup of the base, showing a smiling face at the bottom.A little tiny chip of wood in Kabutroid's hand, showing a spirit with wild hair and big open eyes and is smiling.
And what I mean by along for the ride is, ok and now here's where it goes places, is like taking them to comic conventions, and faires. I have a business number, and a tabletop with... well, dragons, and magic staves, and wands and potions and stuff. Like a magic shop, we're doing that. A witch selling her wares. So I'm going to be taking them to conventions and stuff, and like... they're for sale. $3000 is the asking price, but maybe after I move, and they attend a convention a few times. I did promise to take them to a convention, so I at least have to hold onto them until then.

So yeah, I say hi to Tooja every so often, the others are just kinda there hanging out in the staff, waiting. To make a long story short, covid is this year, and I'm also moving to another country, so I'm not about to open up shop before I leave (I need some product for when I get to England, omg I want to set up as soon as I can!), so like... it's wait it out. Like covid, nothing is opening up, they're hanging with me until a vaccine is found and like, shops open back up again.

So it kinda sucks, but like... I guess the end of this will be updated once things are back into gear again. They're chilling here, I'm chilling here, waiting for travel times and dates. Just waiting.

Wouldn't mind if time passed real quickly, wouldn't... wouldn't really complain.

April 2020

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