Part 31: Fake update #5: Robbing the Magic Store

Fake update #5: Robbing the Magic Store

Remember that fancy dagger I apparently found in the Barracks armory?



Well, I didn't. That's a Super-Unique item (still with randomly generated stats, though). In this game a Unique item is one which can always be found in the same place or obtained in the same way, and it usually has at least one Charm slot. A Super-Unique item is a Rank 5 unique item, except that it has DOUBLE the normal amount of magical modifiers of a random Rank 5 - it can have up to TEN magical items (and up to 5 Charm slots for even more modifiers).

This super-unique dagger can be found in a chest in the back room of Ars Magicana, the Rivertown Magic shop, run by the wizard Kistandalius. The chest is in the middle of the screen.




When you first get close to the Rivertown market (how close I do not know), a spellbook is placed in Kistandalius' quarters. Only one of the four shown here will show up, and in that position only. I retried until I got the Fade from Sight (because I already maxed out my Elemental Hail).

The strange blue glowy thing is just a suitably strange decoration; you can't do anything with it.

Obviously, you can't just walk back there. Kistandalius won't just tell you that can't go in there; he'll just teleport you out of the building instantly. You'll also take a big hit to your disposition with him if he catches you in there.

Something more clever needs to be done to distract him. In this case, it turns out that Kistandalius has a fondness for the poetry of Alrik Fassbauer.






And just outside his shop is a poet called Melville. As far as I can remember, he's the only person who appears of oriental descent in the game, although he doesn't sound like it.




What are you doing, sir?
I'm preparing myself for my performance, dullard!
What are you performing?
I'm reciting poems... the beautiful poems of Alrik Fassbauer.
I've not heard of him. Could you give me an example?
Oh, I don't know...
Perhaps if I gave you 10 gold pieces for the pleasure of hearing you?
Right then, just give me a second...

That does the trick, and you even get experience for it (3500 at my current level)!

Video - Poetry Reading (Voice Acting)


And I say to you, that the winds are spoken words. Whispering whispers, roaring shouting: a voice from the outer worlds. No matter what race, no matter what species - the Winds speak to us.

Kistandalius gets so excited that he comes out to see.




Suitably encouraged, Melville reads some more.

And it is hard to listen to them, but they are there: the Voices of the Wind. They guide us through our lives. Down the ages the echoing of the wind: crying, whispering, screaming, weeping, breathing.

After that, you regain control and can slip into the back room freely. But you only have a few seconds. I didn't have time to get the dagger, get the book, and raid all 4 of the bookshelves, but I did learn that I could steal from the bookshelf closest to the door using the container-transfer trick before triggering the poet.

You can only do this once, by the way. After that, the poet is gone for good.

Once Kistandalius is distracted, I then quicksaved before another bookshelf and reloaded until I got a spellbook, then quicksaved again before the chest, grabbed the dagger, the Fade From Sight spellbook, and used my teleport stone WITHOUT DROPPING IT to escape the shop unseen and preserve my disposition.

If the dagger sucked, I reloaded to before opening the chest and tried again.

There are also two unique books hidden in the back room which I don't think can be found anywhere else.






Speaking of books...




Here's my spellbook collection after doing most of the market, farmlands, and Dwarven Village, but before going to the Barracks. I also found and used up some more Lightning and Elemental Hail books to get those skills up a lot. Elemental Hail (and Lightning after using that book) should now be maxed at Rank 5.