Part 74: The Towns of Footracer Province
Update 068 – Footracer Province
“The last place we haven't been too. It's so scary!”
“And cool. These walls stop ground-level winds. It's almost stale.”
“It's death, that's what it is.”
“I agree. This place, it is empty.”
“Not empty. Emptier, of course. We just killed a couple dozen of the Beasts. But there is still the last source of Rentar-Ihrno's plagues somewhere in this province, and we have no idea where to start.”
“The Keep of Tinraya. It's to the west. If anything survived, it would be there.”
“So naturally, Art leads us North, instead.” “Hey, the map showed four towns in the province. I want to see what happened to them.” “We know what happened to them!” “Or maybe what's left?”
“Map says this was Wyvern Pass. Noting the lack of a real 'pass' and the definite lack of flying creature.” “At least the Alien Beasts don't fly!” “Thank everything for that.”
“This wouldn't have been much of a place even before the Alien Beasts got to it.”
“Oh, that doesn't look nice.”
“Let me see what it says here...”
“Makes sense. These are Quickfire containers.” “Should we explore?” “It wouldn't hurt.” 
“Did anyone else read the sign of impending doom?”
“Oh, we don't need quickfire for that. Just endless hordes of Alien Beasts.”
“I see what you mean.”
“It wasn't that bad!”
“I doubt we'll need raw ores where we're going.” “I agree. We should leave it.”
“Wrecked.”
“Ruined.”
“Devestated.” “Devastated.”
“Oh, my turn for a synonym? Um... Trashed?”
“Someone had their last stand here.”
“At least they tried.”
“Or we could finally step on a trap.”
“RUN!”
“WHY DID THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN TO ME!”
“Outrunning Quickfire is something that happens to me more often than not. I wonder why?”
There are four towns surrounding the Keep of Tinraya here in the front half of Footracer Province. You've seen what happens in two of them. They're empty of all but meagre loot, and plenty of Alien Beasts until you finally wander over a rune by accident and have to run away from Quickfire, which locks off the town for several days.
“Well, this looks like a pass.” “Still no Wyverns.”
“I wonder if they had anything useful...”
“Just bait.” “When are we going to fish?”
“And back on the road for now – or what's left of it.”
“And another town.” “But first, a sign!”
“Let's see if the traps are different.”
“Nope. Not bothering.”
“Perhaps this would be a good time to bypass an enemy strongpoint?”
“MY PRECIOUS BABY!” “Why won't you work?” “Did someone hurt you? Mommy will make it all better!” “There appears to be some sort of wide-area diffusion spell in the region, preventing the Flight Spell from forming in the first place. If we are to cross the river, it would have to be on foot.” “That's evil. I feel the need to vent my frustrations on something. Oh look, Alien Beasts, just lined up for the slaughter!”
“CHARGE!”
“And that makes me feel better. Slightly.”
“This region will take years to recover. The damage to the infrastructure is extensive.”
“Which means this is the Keep of Tinraya.” “Which means we'll check out the other two towns first.”
“Which means that there are Alien Beasts guarding the other approach as well.” “Still feeling annoyed.” “CHARGE!”* * *
“So, this is the southern entrance to the region. Nice to know.”
“Well, this is unusual.”
“That's a lot of marsh.” “A different type of trap?”
“Perhaps.”
“Ugh, this place reeks.”
“Oh, that explains it. Someone tried to defend this place by summoning something even worse than the Alien Beasts.”
“I vote we kill them all, then leave.” “Seconded!” “Thirded!' “Passed!” “Unanimously.”
“And this way must be the last town.”
“What horrible trap awaits us this time?” “It won't be horrible. Just tedious. Or necessary for us to run.”
“Buildings aren't falling over?”
“Maybe they just didn't bother finishing. Or will come back later.”
“Perhaps.”
“Still waiting for that trap.”
“That's bad.”
“The Barracks are intact? Weird.” “Very.”
“There's the trap!”
“Right, let's just fight our way out.”
“That was ... intense for a few moments.”
“I wonder if any of the books survived?”
“Guess not.” 
“Guess again!”
“Except we already know both of those.” “And there's something in the desk here...”
“What does it say?”
“I, uh, think it's the first draft for that book we've seen around.” I'm confused too, but it's not the first time that something has been mislabelled, or glitched to do the wrong thing. The Airy Stone for starters. I have no idea what this piece of paper could actually be saying, as all it does is go to this book instead. “Well, that's enough wandering around. Let's do this.”
