Part 7

"I bet if we shoved you hard enough you'd squeeze through, and probably go through fast enough that the rats and spiders won't get a chance at you."

"C'mon, go ahead. The rats might even be friendly."

"You guys are forgetting that whoever we send actually has to be strong enough to pull out the grate on the other side while being small enough to get through."



"…you're all looking at me, aren't you? Fine."



"You all also forgot that it had to be someone who could open a locked door… but don't worry, I took care of it."




"Dibs on the magic scroll!"

"Dibs on the book about how to skin a cat!"



"I'm thinking we might want to use the secret door, instead of the one they're obviously going to be watching."



"Okay, the squid fetish these guys have is getting really, really creepy."

"Maybe they're just raising them for future calimari dinners?"



"Your squid loving days are over, you vile thugs!"



We've kind of seen this fight already. It goes about like the other one, only the enemy is in a slightly more convenient formation for getting hit by a sleep spell and losing half their team.



The journal entry is calling back into a throwaway line in the game's introduction that tries to pin a specific story arc to one of our characters. We're not having that, so we'll just skip to the treasure:



"A sword fit for a nobleman… I'll take custody of this. Now, let us be off!"

"Hold on a second… we can rest here, and if anybody tries to come in we can just pretend to be the captain and tell them not to bother us."

"That's actually dishonest… I'm proud of you!"




"I just felt a tentacle on my leg… I don't like where this is going!"



So yeah… the squid from the intro make their triumphant return. Krevish, since his bow is useless, goes ahead and runs right into the midst of them. It goes about as well for him as you'd expect. The squid have more HP than just about anything we've dealt with, but other than that they aren't that threatening. For some curious reason stinking cloud still works, so that helps even the odds a bit.



"And they never went back there again. Ever."

"Now we just have to continue our plan to go visit Amanitas and see if he's gotten anymore news on where those statues are."



Secomber is far to the south along the trade routes, and actually the first place we have to get to that's somewhat difficult to get to by boat. As such we have to walk our way there random encounters are a given, but can be evaded fairly easy if they look like a waste of time. Anything but hill giants qualifies.



"I definitely can believe that this is where Amanitas comes from."





"Anybody want to make a bet on one of those statues being down that river?"



"They're not very neighborly around here."

"Come to the frontier, where you too can be murdered in your own house and none of your neighbors or the town guards will do anything to stop it."



"Far out. And pretty obviously the house we're looking for… no wonder he didn't feel the need to tell us anything more than what town it was in."



"Yeah, it's good to see you too."



"You really don't remember?"

"Your tall friend here had discovered trees growing in the high forest that could hum along in three-part harmony when he sang 'Until tonight, my love!" No, no, no… that was Erek's cousin from Icewind Dale."

"Wizards have some REALLY strange problems to deal with."



"You'd think that a little thing like certain destruction would have stuck in your head a bit more."

"I told you that you must raise your eyes in hope even when all you see fills you with despair. There is a great, tall tower in Luskan that is filled with much evil, but perhaps it also holds something that you seek!"

"You're telling us to raid the Host Tower in Luskan? Are you out of your mind!?"

"Maybe we can just kind of sneak in and help ourselves?"



"You take care now, we'll just go out save the region from evil."

"Isn't Luskan all the way on the north end of the continent?"

"Yep, up past Neverwinter. We might want to stop in on the way."



So getting to Neverwinter and then on to Luskan requires us to go back up to Yartar and then head west to the coast. From there it's a straight shot north, but we definitely have some stops to make.




"If this place keeps growing this way, they're going to have to put in subdivisions."



"I think we need to go in here."



"Is there anything else we can bring you while you're at it? A hen's tooth? Snake tears? A virgin maiden from Amn over the age of sixteen?"



"Only Helm's followers? Sucks to be us."



"Ooh, ghost ship! I wonder who's trying to use it to scare people away from their treasure?"



"How does a gardening society generate this kind of irritation? Planting corpse flowers?"



"Umm… thanks? We'll get right on that."



These go to Kedzie and definitely not to Krevish. They also get saved, because there are enemies in the game that can only be hit by magical weapons. The last thing I need is Krevish wasting them on goblins or the like.



"D'you think he'll mind if we drop in?"

"I think I can work something out. Besides, it doesn't look like he even bothered putting guards out front."





"Your gardener told us… we kind of told him we'd do it when he shoved some magical arrows in our hands."

Continuing outside...



Is there a town outside of Yartar that isn't infested with these things?"

"As an elf, I can't help but agree with you one hundred percent. There are some species we could live without. Admittedly, I'm not a very good elf."



"How many people have come here and tried to rent a ship that they actually need that sign?"

"Since that river doesn't really seem to go anywhere, I know we won't be going in there for any purpose."



"Oh man! We've got to stop!"



"Just try and stop us. Or not, since you've got all the magical items right now."



"…and you're going to keep them for a while, because money doesn't grow on trees."

"Maybe trees are the answer… did anybody say there was a reward for clearing out those gardens?"

Character Snapshot





Not much changing yet, but we've finally dealt with our money problems to the point where we'll probably never have to worry about training again. Now we just have things like magical items to buy, and that's a whole new level of expense. After a while you really don't have much else to spend money on, which its own barrel of wax.

Next update: Ghosts and Gardens.