Part 3

"Of course I can.. I wager none of you have ever even had a seven course meal. After that five steaks is a cakewalk."

"Care to put your money where your mouth is? I'll bet you five gold pieces that you can't."

"You're on… and quite pushing the bread basket in my direction, I won't make a rookie mistake like filling up on bread!"



Or we don't, as it's irrelevant and is also a solid page of text. The night goes on...



"Did anybody get a look at the cart that ran me over?"

"If I had I'd have torched it, because it got me too… how much did we have to drink?"

"Not enough to put us all out like that… besides, Galen wasn't even drinking."

"They spiked my apple cider! Those villains!"

"They weren't very good villains… they took our weapons and armor that were worth a couple dozen gold and left my money pouch alone."

"Mine as well… the loss is minor in value, but the insult to my pride cannot be forgiven."



"I don't even think this is the inn we started the evening at… how did we get here?"

"More importantly, those are the city gates. We might still catch the thieves!"

"Assuming they've actually left the city..."





"A troll attack? And it's your business about us going out in the wilderness and possibly getting ourselves killed why?"

"Don't hassle the nice men who are just doing their jobs. Besides, Kedzie's right. They might still be in the city, so it won't hurt to look first."

"We're also probably going to need some replacement weapons and armor before we catch up with them."

"Does anybody really NEED weapons?"

"Yes."



"Well, isn't this convenient?"

Five or so minutes of shopping later...



"Finally, I don't feel naked anymore."

"That was a part of last night that I remembered, and was trying desperately to forget. You were on a table."





"Now I don't want to alarm anybody, but I'm pretty sure those guys were kind of evil."

"You don't say?"



"Alright you lot, let me do the talking… noble to noble. I'm sure he'll help us."



"Before that, maybe we should deposit our money to make sure that the thieves don't get it next?"

"Bankers are just thieves who've managed to make the marks come to them instead of the other way around."

"It's the trap of the establishment, man."





"So… he's not going to help us?"

"He literally told us to hit the streets. He's going on the list."



"Well, this sounds promising."



"Silver mirrors, oil, and holy water… do you guys have a vampire problem or something?"



"Hey, not cool guys! Leave that dude alone!"

"Such unchivalrous behavior cannot be allowed."



Our first combat, with our characters in all their glory. From the upper left corner we have the guy we're rescuing, Zanros, and The Dude in a row. Starting from the top of the next row we have Alaric, Galen, Kedzie, and Vermunt.



Our opponents are considerably less intimidating. You'd be forgiven for thinking they look kind of dead.

"You guys need to chill out and take a nap…"

"And then we can kill them in their sleep. You're speaking my language now."

"Actually, we should probably turn them over to the gua… and they're all dead. Nevermind then."



"Wow. Quick little bugger, isn't he?"




The rewards for combat are not very lucrative. You're really much better off with treasure and quest rewards. For those who aren't familiar, 1 silver is roughly 1/50th of a platinum coin.





"Wait a second… how did you know we need to get back on our feet? You're one of them!"

"Can't… breathe…"

"Please unwrap your hands from around his throat… it's plain to see we're in a bad way, and his offer could be useful."

"See, we are friends!"





"Sorry man… wrong house?"





"You had me at Banite."



"Gah! Yeah, he won't be hard to pick out of a crowd."

"Those facial tattoos really spell out 'bad life decisions.'"

"Wait, where did he go?"

"He kind of does that sometimes."



"Sure, man. We're all traveling life's path together, you know?"

"Could we go back to the inn? I'm feeling a bit unsteady on my feet…"



"I think I remember why we chose this inn…"

"A full platinum? That's highway robbery."

"We'd recognize that if we saw it, after last night."

"The longer we stand here, though, the more reasonable that price seems."

After a rest...



A fish market? That's a pretty huge building for a fish market."





"Definitely a fish market. You just… you just keep carving that wood."

"Is fish oil flammable? Just for the sake of curiosity?"



"I'm getting a definite nautical theme for this place."





"We would know, though… yeah, we're not getting any boats from here."



"This is pretty much our last option as far as getting outside of the town without going through the gates."



"That's twenty five "hell no's" I just heard from my pocket. Okay, we're done with this town. We'll take our chances with those trolls."



"See? Sometimes you just have to take the long way around to find the shortest way home… or out of the city. It's all the same thing."

Character Snapshot





So, this is our first look at all of our characters. There wasn't much room for change in this update, so this is more of a baseline than anything else. Of note is that Vermunt is already eligible to gain a level, but can't because it costs 1000 gold (or 200 platinum) to train for your next level. Also, Krevish is a pretty poor fighter but he's at least another target for the enemy and he likes to hang back and pick enemies off with arrows.

Next update: The wilderness and the city of Nesme.