Part 33: More Marketplace Mayhem

Update 10: More Marketplace Mayhem

Last time we dropped a shitload of weight in the form of steel coins and jewelry while making a long circle up to Kalaman. Now that we're here, it's time to get on with things.



"Sure, he says that now…"

"On the plus side, the street gangs seem to be giving us a wide berth."



"I hate to be the one to tell you this, but we found Ariela's earring…"

"Well, it's certainly kind of you to bring it back. Thank you!"

"We're not quite finished yet. We found it in Vingaard Keep. In the middle of a pool of blood."

"Which we believe belonged to a man who was helping us to find a powerful weapon against Lord Soth."



"Well, we've kind of seen something like this coming for a while now."



"Huh, my first guess would have been that she was cheating on the old guy."



"From the sounds of it, that could have gone better."

"Hurry up, he needs our help!"

"Not from the sound of that scream, he doesn't."





"Sivaks. There might be even more knights missing than you feared, Major."

"Worse than that, if the Blue Lady is involved. It's a good thing for us they're fighting amongst themselves."

About ten seconds later...



"Yes… that's probably for the best."

"Now that we're alone, would you like to tell us what's going on?"

"I could, but I have a much more entertaining idea in mind."



"Ha, I knew it! No human woman would have left jewelry behind!"

"I hate to break this to you, but dragons are even less well-known for losing valuable objects made of gold."



They really need to beef up the dragons by this point. Even without the dragonlance, with this kind of HP and armor class she isn't a match for a bunch of characters with levels in the teens.



For some reason she's actually hanging onto an elixir of youth. I'm not sure how many years this gives back, but it's about the only way to restore a character who is your designated haste monkey.





"Denissa… she might not have been lying about that sister."

"We'll just have to keep an eye out for another angry dragon and hold onto this in the meanwhile."

"Y'know, it seems like that Major's been gone for a few minutes now."



"Kids these days, they can't do anything right."

"Are those…ah, c'mon, did none of these people talk to each other?"



More sivaks. They seriously must have replaced half of the garrison at this point. You would really think someone would have noticed. And yes, that is a fireball spell I'm targeting right in the middle of them.



"My question is, who's doing all the shouting?"



"I'm getting a feeling like we've done this before."

"It takes a certain amount of gall to actually hide Sebas here in Kalaman."



"I promise, we're not with them… um.. where did they go?"

"Nothing to see here, folks, just go on about your day."



"Ahhh, memories."

"This also probably means we're lost."



"This is making that innkeeper seem more and more untrustworthy."

"Especially since I can see them queuing up at the door. Well, he can't blame us for any property damage."



This… doesn't take long. One delayed blast fireball and we're left facing two slightly singed warriors.



"I'm not sure if I'm disappointed or not."



"At least we know he's alive… and as long as they don't realize that the secret is out, they have a reason to keep him that way."



"It's a good thing we've already cleaned that place out."

Shortly afterward...



"I'm suddenly unsure about going in here. There's something about it that's kind of unsettling."

"When did anybody tell you that good meant either safe or comfortable?"

"At least it generally means that you won't be stabbed in the back, and you can't ask for much more than that."



"Sam, can you make heads or tails out of the path?"

"I… think so… yes, we go this way. Follow me."



"Friggin' fairies. Those flutter-bys always irritate me."



"We'll be sure to follow up on your advice."



"Huh. Probably used protection from good spells to come in, and once those ran out…"

"I think it was wights, too. You can tell by the beard outlines."



Within Voice Wood there are a few arches that can take you to distant towns and places. This could be useful, but it's not generally worth the trouble when you could get there just as quickly on the over world.



"Really? You and what army?"

"I'm guessing he means that one. They're all odd shades of green, so they blend in a bit with the trees."




Yeah, that's not two battles being pictured here, it's two halves of the same battle. If those giants had been blocking access to the mages with the wights scuttling around on the side, this could have been a pretty dangerous fight. As it is it just tends to take a while and results in some decent experience.



"C'mon, you just told us to come find this place a few minutes ago!"



"Thank you so much for clearing them out. They were giving me the creeps."





"Absolutely."



"I'm not even going to ask how you knew about that."

"The trees are always watching us."



"So that wasn't your doing? I'm honestly a bit shocked. It seemed like a forest spirit thing."



"D'you think they're talking about the meteorite we already found? Because it'd be a bit weird if they knew about the key but not about that."

"No, I think they're talking about that rock over there. The one surrounded by fire minions."



"…I just hope that doesn't count as using it."

"No, I think that was the Rod using itself. We'd really better keep that thing covered up."



"You too, little guy… girl… whatever you are."

"Cerebus seems to be right next to Dargaard Keep… we might want to make sure we don't leave anything undone when we go in there."

"Ya don't have to hide it, you just want to go do some more heroics and the like. It's okay, missy."

That would have ended the update (possibly with violence), if we hadn't had a new random encounter show up on the way back to civilization.



Also known as a false dragon, but not a pseudo-dragon since those are just tiny dragons. Since it's got a fire breath weapon, I would just classify it as a wingless dragon but I'm crazy like that. They're supposedly resistant to fire, but I haven't seen it.

Character Update





Sam has hit max level for this game, along with Durfey since he actually gains levels. Rip and Gable are inching closer, and even Amanda has only a few levels left to go. No new upgrades to equipment during this update, but that'll chance with a bit more judicious side-questing.