The Blue Banner

At The Sword & The Grail, geeks and nerds find a haven where these labels become words of acceptance rather than rejection. Now, with an impending move to New Leicester Highway, some regulars and employees of the downtown comics and gaming shop welcome the increased space and parking to come, while the distance of the move discourages others.

"That kind of sucks," said David Howard, sophomore student. "I didn't even know they were moving."

With the raised price of rent in downtown Asheville as well as the decrease in tourism over the past few years, The Sword & The Grail owner Alex Murphy finds himself forced to leave downtown since he is unable to pay rent after four years.

Though Murphy isn't happy to see the store move, he does not foresee it being the end of the shop, he said.

The move will combine the shop with Virtual Ambush, a video game lounge off of Leicester Highway. With the move will come a few pros and cons, according to Drew Meyer, employee and junior sociology student.

"It's quite a good thing in many ways," Meyer said, "but I will miss the location because it's central. Also, there are regulars that come in from work and spend a lot of time downtown, and I'm going to miss them. On the other hand, I think moving in with a video game lounge is going to introduce a lot of new customer base, and with the money we save we will be able to stock more of our products."?

One of the regulars, 16-year-old Donovan Marshall, said he has been frequenting the store for over a year now and will miss it a great deal.

"We have a D&D group going on every Monday and Thursday, and I also stop in on the weekends," Marshall said. "I come here mainly to hang out with friends. With the move it's going to be harder to find a place to hang out."?

Many regulars said they found out about The Sword & The Grail because of its centralized location. With the move, some of the younger regulars will have a more difficult time simply stopping by after school. It will also reduce the number of people who drop in as they walk by, according to Murphy.

"The location itself is not as good as far as walk-by traffic or drive-by traffic, but we will have convenient parking which, for our industry, is far more important," Murphy said. "Now that we are known, people are more likely to stop in, and downtown is not known for its parking. So that should be a really good thing for us."?

The store holds evidence of the kinds of people who frequent it on a daily basis. In the front, comic books line one wall. Various toys, such as a killer rabbit from Monty Python, line the opposite wall. In the back of the store are books for D&D and other popular tabletop role playing games in which people roll dice to determine the fate of their characters in the game they create.

"In other stores there is a high concentration of people without social skills that are geeks," Murphy said. "For some reason in this one we seem to have some of those, but for the vast majority, most of the people are normal people who like gaming or normal people who like comics. So, just a little bit of a different view."?

The customers on an average day usually range from ages 15 to 40. There is one 9-year-old whose parents drop him off from time to time to play, according to Murphy, and there are some people over 50 who come in to read comics or play D&D, according to Meyer.

Of course working in a store such as The Sword & The Grail does not come without its share of odd stories. One time a bunch of zombies stopped in for refreshments during the local zombie walk.

"A number of zombies were sitting around a table, and two old ladies walked in," Meyer said. "Then they saw the zombies eating and drinking and rotting around the table, and they looked at the zombies, and the zombies looked at them, and the ladies slowly backed out of the store."

Some people come in and ask for weapons, though they do not sell weapons at the store, according to Meyer.

"I had one guy who was most likely high on something to the point that he was not understandable, and he walks up to me, points at the case, and with his yellow, bloodshot eyes, he goes, 'Sword,' and I said, 'You couldn't afford it.' He just looks at me, and then walks out," Meyer said.

Despite the odd events that sometimes occur, the store generally promotes a relaxed atmosphere for hanging out.

Between Magic the Gathering, a card game, and D&D, the store often has a few people in it who are more than happy to talk and enjoy each other's company with little reservation.

"This place is just so open and laidback and friendly, and it's centralized," Marshall said. "I'm really going to miss it."

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