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Update 4: Arrival into LaMut
"Our swords and armors are practically falling apart. Yes, we better go into town for supplies."
Choosing to enter the town brings us to the overhead map which automatically moves us into the city.
We are then presented with an interactive overview of the town. My mouse cursor will change as I hover it over different places, but I can always 'TAB' and it will hop over to places we can visit. Right now we can see a hourglass just under the bridge indicating that I can examine whatever is under there. If I hover my mouse or 'TAB' around other parts of the town, I see that I can enter the keep, or visit the inn or the shop.Let's check out the bridge first.
"Yoink!"
Free gold is always good, especially at this early stage of the game.
Let's check out the keep next.
Captain Belford stood as they entered the room.
"It's good to see you once again, Locklear," he said, extending his hand.
"I share that sentiment. What news have you? How is Earl Kasumi?" Locklear asked as the men shook hands.
They sat in hard wooden chairs as Belford replied. "he's well, but he's off taking care of some business with a few new guards come through the rift from Kelewan. As for the rest of us, we're looking for a group of grey warriors from Kelewan who slipped through the rift just before it closed."
Locklear looked a little puzzled. "King Lyam and Emperor Ichindar granted the grey warriors freedom and new status in the Kingdom."
Aha! A quest hook! We can try to find Makala's Missing Ruby.Of course, it is one missing ruby and this is a pretty large world. It could be just about anywhere.
Perhaps we'll get some more information about it as we shop around town?
Oh man, Elf Crossbows, and hell, even Tsurani ones are fantastic in the early game. Elf crossbows (and arrows) are extremely accurate to boot. Unfortunately Fletcher's doesn't have much of use to us at this stage, as 800 gold is a bit out of our price range at the moment.
"Oh man." 
The scroll can teach Owyn the spell 'Eyes of Ishap'. But we can't afford it.I might come back later on to purchase it unless we pick it up somewhere else in our travels. (which generally will be the case)
"Eyes of Ishap allows the caster to locate any vessels that might hold valuable items, like buildings, chests even mounds of dirt, tree stumps, bags or wells! Though for whatever reason, it doesn't work on dead bodies, graves or bushes."
Overall nothing we can really spent our money on in this shop, but we can at least offload our spare Kingdom Armor and Broadswords here to get a little extra spending money.
Not that it is worth much. The shopkeeper's price varies depending upon the condition of the item you are trying to sell. Later on, the price can sometimes vary depending upon economic conditions. Note however, that you can't haggle when you sell in attempt to get a better price. You are only allowed to haggle when you try to buy something.
Some shops will have a Repair option. Usually a find that like is fantastic because you can spend some money and have the armorer get your sword/armor back to 100% condition. However, in this shop...
He only repairs crossbows. 
Even if we had any crossbows this would be a complete waste of money, because the easiest way to get a crossbow back to 100% condition is to put a new bowstring on it. In the case of say, a light crossbow, the replacement string is usually cheaper then what the armorer will charge you to fix your bow.
Clearly we'll have to get better supplies someplace else.
"Off the bodies of the slain, most likely."
We've arrived at the most important place in any game, the Inn! 
We can interact with each of the characters. You can tell who the important ones are because your mouse will turn into a "Talk" icon when you hover over them, whereas if they are unimportant, such as the guy to the far left who is hunched over, its just a simple finger cursor. Those people can be safely ignored, but they will provide some flavor text if you click on them.
Using adventure game logic, we'll talk to whoever the guy is behind the bar first. But first let's see just how good Owyn is on the lute.
"This Kingdom Mine" (not my upload, skip to 1:00 mark in to hear the 'bad' version of the song.)
Yeah, having a low barding skill will sometimes mean that you'll get ejected from the Inn.
Fortunately, we are allowed to re-enter, (we are just banned from playing the lute for a little while). Let's talk to the bartender.
"Honors to your Houses"
Topic: Sumani
"Why did you decide to come to Midkemia and open an inn, anyway? Surely you would get better business on Kelewan."
"I was not always a tavern keeper. As a soldier serving House Shinzawai under Earl Kasumi, I was trapped here when the rift gate was collapsed at the end of the Rift War. It was our belief that we would never again see our families in Tsuranuanni or the green skies of Kelewan again."
"But Tsurani warriors traditionally kill themselves if they are in danger of falling captive to an enemy."
"This is true, lord, but the Earl informed us that we were forbidden to dispatch ourselves until given leave to do so by a Great One --- I believe in Midkemia you would call such a one a magician. Until such a time, I content myself with running the Blue Wheel Inn."
Topic: Rift Gates
"I've heard that the permanent rift-gate to Kelewan is located near here. I was hoping we could get a glimpse of it."
"There would be little to see at the moment. An internal conflict has arisen in the Empire between House Acoma and House Anasati. The Assembly of Magicians have ordered a temporary interruption of transport between the Empire and the Kingdom of the Isles until such time the conflict is resolved. I have been assured the measure is temporary."
Topic: Combat
"You said you were a soldier with the Tsurani forces. Would you be interested in teaching us some of your combat techniques?"
"It would be my honor, lord, but I will require a small fee for my services. If my armor were to be damaged, I would be ill prepared otherwise to pay for it's repair."
"Seventy Five sovereigns should cover any potential harm. Is this fee acceptable?"
Holy crap that's expensive!
"I wish that I could, but it seems that we are low on funds."
"That is regrettable. If you were willing to speak to Earl Kasumi up at the garrison, I am certain you could arrange for a wage to be paid you and then you could come back for my instruction. I think you would find it worth your while..."
Topic: Armor Repair
"I don't know how much longer our armor is going to last. Any idea where we could get it repaired?"
"If your armor was the same as mine, I would suggest trying the garrison, but Kingdom armor is made in a different way. I would think perhaps the dwarves in the Mac Mordain Cadal would be of assistance. I understand from speaking to Dubal that the small ones are gifted when it comes to the manufacture of weapons and armor."
Topic: Grey Warriors
"We were up at the Garrison earlier and they told us that a group of grey warriors stole a pair of rubies. Are the grey warriors some kind of special armed force on Kelewan?"
"Special, yes, but not in the way you imagine. The grey warriors are men without honor, men whose houses have been destroyed by an opponent house. Such men must live off the land until they die, though I have heard that Mara of the Acoma has accepted many such men into her estate. Others have learned they may be granted freedom if they can reach the Kingdom. Many die trying..."
"Where would such men go once they got here?"
"Away from La Mut, wherever they might go. Though the members of the Garrison here are bound by Kingdom law, many of the soldiers still live by Tsurani custom, as I do. It is not easy to fight our feelings about the grey ones."
"If indeed these grey warriors have stolen rubies, I suggest you seek out a man with a tainted honor...Keifer Alescook in the town of Loriel. He is a gem merchant there, out of his home."
Topic: Thefts
"I get the feeling this ruby theft isn't an isolated incident."
"You listen between my words. This is the sixth such theft in the past year. Twice, gems have been stolen near the Assembly of Magicians from Great One Makala's entourage. That would be no simple feat to accomplish, even for a master thief. Whoever it is that is responsible, he must fear little if he doesn't fear the wrath of a Great One."
" I would take care following this thief, friend. I sense he is very dangerous."
Topic: Goodbye!
"Thank you for your services, Sumani. You have a wonderful establishment. It's very Tsurani."
"Your patronage honors us."
"Goodbye. I promise if I'm ever in LaMut again, I'll be sure to drop in for a bit of something to eat."
An enlightening conversation with Sumani, we've got some more flavor on the whole ruby incident, and know that we can come back to him for some combat instruction once we can afford the fee. Let's talk with the other person in the room, the dwarf.
"Aach, what is it now?"
What's that lassie? Timmy fell down Mac Mordain Cadal?
"I'm getting the feeling that you aren't taking me very seriously."
Oh - it's another sidequest: Kill a Brak Nurr
"I've heard tales of these creatures of stone. Thank-you, Dubal."
It might seem like it was a pretty short conversation with Dubal, but as we progress further into the game, we'll see that character who had little to say to you in the previous chapters will have more to say in later ones as time and events have passed on by. I'm sure we can get Dubal talking a bit more later on in the game.
Other things we can do at the inn would be to restock our provisions, as our rations are running a bit low.
"Bring on the brandy! And the ale! And the wenches!"
Since we don't want to use up all our money on that at the moment, or offend Sumani, we beter just leave.
One last guy to talk to - the unimportant one!
"Hey, unimportant characters have feelings too, asshole."
"Actually, we're not headed in any specific direction," Gorath intervened. "We're wandering. Looking for an employer. Treasure to watch, caravan to guard..."
The man snickered. "Or a caravan to steal from, eh? Freebooters then. Well, there's not much going on in the Kingdom these days, not in the west. The Prince has seen to it his roads are safe and his vassals happy. For the likes of us, he's taken all the fun out of life."
Locklear nodded. "You're not the first to say so."
Another interaction at the Inns is sleeping. (go figure)
You see where the characters' health is currently? All three of them are missing a few points of health. Now, if we sleep outside, there is no recovery of those lost hit points, you only recover them if they are highlighted in red. In the inn, you can get full recovery. It just costs you some coin, however there is the risk that can sometimes accompany staying at the inn for more then one night...
Locklear settled the account.
"Room's upstairs," the nightmaster said. "Have a good rest."
And with that disturbing image of Gorath in bed with three other men, let's wrap this up.
Where to next? We've got some sidequests and things of interest that can check out:
- Squire Philip's Chest
- Malaka's Ruby
- Investigate the contagion in Loriel
Or we could try to find and kill this
- Brak Nurr
"This is stupid. I wish I wasn't a rock monster and that my show wasn't canceled."
Or we could ignore all those sidequests and continue along south down towards to Krondor. But hey, that's only the obvious route. Maybe there is some other path I should take instead? Let's consult the map...
