Quest for Glory 1-5 Part #2 - I Hope You Like Exposition

Part 2: I Hope You Like Exposition

Chapter 2: I Hope You Like Exposition

QfG1 Manual posted:

The Adventurer's Guild

Meeting Hall and employment agency for all would-be heroes, the
Adventurer's Guild will become your home away from home. This is where
you go to have your exploits recorded in the log and to boast with your
peers. You can obtain information about who's who in the local area.

The bulletin board is a good place to find out about jobs available and
what rewards are posted. Be sure to check out the bulletin board in the
Guild hall nearest you for announcements that could further your career.

There is an Adventurer's Guild in nearly every major town just waiting
for you to sign in and be counted among the ranks as a 'real' adventurer.

Well, no sense just standing here. As the Famous Adventurer’s Booklet of Communication states, I should talk to everyone!

Hey, baby. What’s on the market?

I am sorry, but I am not a baby. But I do have things on the market; right now I’m selling handfuls of apples for a silver, and assorted vegetables at five for one silver.

Sounds tasty. What kind of vegetables are you packing?

Well, it’s spring right now, so all we have are carrots, rutabagas, parsnips, and potatoes. Rutabagas are my favorite.

Mm mmm, I can taste them now. You got a name, sweetheart?

My name is Hilde, daughter of Heinrich Pferdefedern, the farmer. I’m sorry, did you want avocado? Because we don’t have any at the moment.

That’s okay, honey, because you’ve got all the heart I need. So you live outside of town, huh? I bet you can do all sorts of things out there.

Oh ja, you can hardly grow vegetables inside of the town. It is dangerous, though; my dad was attacked just the other day by the brigands. They injured his leg and everything.

Too bad about that. Say, you want to get together later?

Sorry, but my dad thinks I’m too young to go on a date.

Oh? How old are you?

Fourteen.

*ahem* Well, let’s go see what’s happening in here!

*This looks like a dry goods store, but it smells like a musty library. The stove feels nice on such a crisp day. Behind the counter and on the shelves, there are a variety of items for sale. The shopkeeper appears to ignore you while he reads a book.*

Hey, shopkeeper. Hey. HEY!

Hm? Oh, sorry, I was reading. This book is fascinating!

What’s it called?

“Quest for Glory: A Hero’s Death.”

I bet that guy was a loser. Not like me. So what have you got for a prospective adventurer?

Oh, you’re an adventurer? That’s so great! I sure wish I could be an adventurer, and not just a nameless shopkeeper.

You don’t have a name?

I have a name! It’s just that no one remembers the shopkeeper named Kaspar, while all the big heroes get books written about them.

Hey, you should try the Famous Adventurer's Correspondence Course. In just six months, you could be where I am today! But seriously, what have you got for sale?

Well, for adventurers, not much. I’ve got empty flasks for two silvers, travel rations at 5 for a pack, some daggers for 2 gold each, and a shirt of chainmail someone sent here on accident a few years back. For that one I’d need 50 gold, after you trade in your leather, of course.

Ooh, I’ll have to come back for that one. See you later, Kaspar.

Let’s see…there’s the guild hall, a nice old lady, and…a creepy eye.

…That won’t stop following me. Eeeehhh. Well, I guess I’ll go see what’s happening in the guild.

The Guildhall

_{I guess I should be quiet here. I wonder what’s in the logbook?}

*The other pages record the exploits of the great adventurers of Spielburg’s past. The names Wolfgang Abenteuer and Baron Stefan von Spielburg appear most often.*

_{Time for me to enter the annals of this towns history. Signed, [insert name here]. Now what’s on the notice board?}

_{Hm, looks like it’s just the healer and the baron who are giving out quests. Let’s see, so the healer needs some potion ingredients and her lost ring, and the baron wants the bandit leader and the bandit wizard gone, but his lost son and daughter found. Sounds simple enough.

Hey, old man.} Hey, old man.

Oh, what a glorious day it was! I…oh, hello there.

Hi. So, are you the guildmaster?

Sure am. Name’s Wolfgang Abenteuer. Have you signed in yet?

Just did. So, is there anything exciting going on around here?

Not so much, these days. Used to be that me and the baron would get into quite the adventures, but nothing’s been the same since he got cursed by Baba Yaga. Now all the adventurers have left, and all the old monsters have moved back in.

That name sounds familiar. Who is Baba Yaga?

She’s an old witch ogress who lives just to the west. Stefan tried to get rid of her some years back, but she cursed him instead. Now he’s lost everything he held dear, and the brigands basically control this valley.

What happened to his kids?

The baronet, Barnard, went off on a hunting trip by himself one day and disappeared. His horse came back the next day with claw marks on its flank, and no trace of the baronet to be found. Elsa, on the other hand, was grabbed by a strange creature while standing in the middle of the castle grounds. The court jester, Yorick, decided that he was going to go find her, but he hasn’t come back either.

This may be harder than I thought. And the bandits?

They’ve always been a problem, but they only got really bad recently, a few years after Elsa and Barnard disappeared. And with me and the baron being too old to deal with the problem ourselves, we’ve had to rely on advertisments. You probably saw one of the posters we had put up.

Okay, I think I’ve got it now. So what’s with all the trophies around here?

Well, the dragon’s a trophy of mine and Stefan’s. Two dragons came to the valley a long time ago, but the baron and I took care of the one that tried to land. They say that the other can still be seen circling in the sky, never daring to land. I killed the troll, the gryphon, and the cheetaur, and that vicious moose. The saurus was killed by Hans Halfwitten. It’s not much of a trophy, but we felt so bad after he got smashed by a troll that we decided to put it up anyway.

The moose is actually a recurring joke; much like a certain other stuffed animal we’ll see later, a moose head can be found in every single Quest for Glory game.

And what the heck is that purple thing on the right?

That’s an antwerp. We had a pretty bad outbreak of them a few years back. In the end, they were dealt with by a couple of guys from “Andromeda,” wherever that is.

Apparently, this is an in-joke, since “two guys from Andromeda” was a nickname applied to Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe, the two main programmers behind the Space Quest series.

Anything else I should know?

Well, there are a bunch of goblins out there, so watch out for them. Oh, and some saurus rexes. Remember, if you see a saurus rex, run!

I’ll remember. See you later, Mr. Abenteuer.

Well, I guess I should find out what the creepy eye wants me to see.

Zara's Shop

*KRACKOW!*

Nice entrance.

Thank you, I practice.

So, just a random guess here, but would this happen to be the magic shop?

You guess accurately. My name is Zara, and this place is where you may obtain all things magical that you desire. Do you seek my spells and potions, or do you merely wish me to impart my knowledge upon you?

There are a few things I’d like you to impart to me. But for now, let’s hear the price list.

The spells I could teach you are the Fetch spell, for which I require forty silver, Flame Dart, which would cost sixty, and Open, which would only require thirty. In addition, I sell healing potions at fifty silver, mana potions at seventy five, and vigor for twenty five.

I’ll be sure to stop by for those after I get some money. So what’s going on in the valley, magic-wise?

There are few spellcasters who live in this valley. There is Erasmus, who lives on the mountain Zauberberg. He is very old and wise, and could probably help you more than I. Then there is the brigand wizard, whomever he may be. And of course, the witch Baba Yaga.

Ooh, her, do you know anything about her?

I know that she cursed the baron many years ago.

Nuts, I already knew that part. Say, the beggar said something about a wizard woman who enchanted the town a long time ago. Know anything about her?

Indeed. It was the famous enchantress Erana who protected the town. She lived a long time ago, even by my reckoning, and was half-fey, much the same as me. They say that her final resting place is in a meadow to the north of town; they also say that there is a spell hidden there that an intelligent mage could access.

Strange, I get the feeling that I’m going to hear about her again. Must be the ale coming up again. Well, I guess I’ll be seeing you around later.