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SpRahl posted:
Damnit Snugglecakes stop reading mediocre books and update this thread.
Update 14: Enjoy this mediocre update! 
"So how was everybody's week (or two...) off?"
It was pretty awesome, man. We in the Kingdom celebrated what is known as "Valentine's Day."
"Yeah, I've heard of it. We have a similar mating ritual in the Northlands. Though it involves much more blood and murder." 
"Anyway, the whole point of Valentine's Day is, well, I don't really remember what but it involves trying to sleep with a lady."
"How did you make out?"
"Remember that girl at the 'Dusty Dwarf'?"
"Not particularly."
"I'll never find love! Never!" 
"In our week off from adventuring, I went back that way, brushed up on my game a bit and pulled a little bit of the 'Locky' charm on her. She was a tough nut to crack, but I have my ways, eh, eh?" 
"So, you slept with her?"
"Uh, no. But I did get her phone number!"
"What's a phone number?"
"...Damnit."
"Anybody want to hear about my Valentine's day?"
"No."
"You guys remember that chest that almost blew me up back the dwarf caves outside of LaMut?"
"Who would forget it?"
"Owyn the chest did blow you up. Remember?
"Owyn, buddy, you okay?"
"I couldn't stop thinking about it. I never felt so alive as when I was almost dead. I just had to have more near death experiences."
"You, uh.."
"Yup. I totally blew myself."
"I think you have a serious problem."
That little bit aside, let's continue along with the game proper now.
This stretch of the road is actually a bit boring at first. A few combats, some dialogue and this abandoned house, but not a whole else lot going on.
"Eh, let's dig it up."
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Guess we'll have to fight whatever monster lies down there some other day."
"Thank the Gods for small miracles."
Nice job trying to blend in to ambush us, assassins. Locklear, you know what to do.
"Ruff ruff. Woof woof. Bark bark! Uh, Kill?"
That's not really what I meant, but I guess charging forward and barking like a dog works, so good job!
We stop by here to restock on some provisions.
I tend to go through whetstones and armorer's hammers pretty quickly, and it is harder to find aventurine then some other items so I take advantage of the availability of them here.
Next stop is Questor's View
We stop at the first stop. stop at the first house.
Yes
No
"I've almost forgotten what it's been like to talk with people who are kind and caring. Everything that Locklear isn't!"
"What was that, boy?"
"Nothing!" 
We step over the next building, which turns out to be an inn.
"Oooh! A lute!"
"No!"
We then turn to the gentleman sitting next to the lute.
Who doesn't want to talk to us.
Jerk. <
>
"FRUIT!"
"Alright, that joke is over starting now."
We'll check out the shop in a minute, let's continue knocking on the doors first.
"As good as Tad is at a sword, I think we are okay for the moment. At least, I am." 
Indeed, Locklear is correct. We'll come back to visit Tad later on as we'll have a new character that will need the boost to combat.
Questor's View features a pretty nice weapons and armor shop.
There are two armors that I don't think we've seen yet either - the Euiliko armor and the Grey Tower Plate.
"A cancerous human torso" Holy shit, that's an amazing description.
We don't buy anything for the moment, but it's worth noting where the shop is in case we head up this way again.
Heading out of town, we see a new type of enemy! A pirate! 
A Quegian Pirate.
There are no words.
Even though he looks like poorly dressed knockoff of Inigo Montoya, we engage in battle, which turns out to be a crossbow pissing match between us and them.
We do better then them though. I have fun and have Gorath lob off a few fire arrows as well.
Our pirate friend had a pretty decent haul on him, all things considered. Also, I think this is a new kind of key!
Nice to know that the key is prone to breaking... a lot.
Checking in on the main map. We are actually getting pretty close to Krondor now. Sarth is the next city (and considered a major one as well) before we hit the capital. For the purposes of this update, we'll travel on down to Sarth.
You encounter a farmer!
"This is a bad time for travel"
Who sounds a lot like Red Green.
I love Locklear's one word replies.
"Surely you have heard. The learned monks of Sarth have predicted a terrible storm is coming this way and I would hate to think of anyone caught out in it. Why a man could catch his death of the fevers. If you would like, you may ride it out in my barn."
"And what profit would you turn in this enterprise?"
"Five golden sovereigns, a reasonable sum, and the guard over my cows. You can sleep in the hay loft of my barn but my wife and I don't take in elves."
"Seven gold pieces, the elf stays with us and we each get a hard roll for breakfast."
"Ten gold and the lot of you milk cows the next morning. That's the offer. Take it or leave it."
Eh, we can say no and then re-encounter Rowe again, but it's not that big of a dent in my pocket.
Yes
No
"Deal. Where is this barn of yours?"
"Keep heading south - you should pass the Abbaye of Ishap at Sarth. You'll know you're right close to it when you've passed up the Temple of Sung. From there it's just around Yellow Mule mountain. When you find the barn, just go knock on the door and my wife will fix you up."
"Thank you, farmer. Your hospitality will be remembered."
"I have a name, you know."
"Yeah whatever, bye!"
We continue on a bit further and find ourselves another wordlock chest.This one is very important.
"Buckets, barrels, baskets, cans; What must you fill with empty hands?"
S H O R A S
T L L T D R
G R E E S H
A E R V E E
"Meh, a sword, seashell, lockpicks... wait. What's this?"
Skin of the Dragon is a fantastic defensive spell. It's been touched upon earlier in the thread, and I think somebody had even called it a bit of cheat mode, which is accurate as a character who has this spell cast on them cannot be harmed. Which means that you can just have them charge straight through traps without taking any damage.
It's also extremely useful in general in tough combats when you are well outnumbered or have to deal with a lot of mages who are targeting your front-line fighters.
Anyhow - we've made our way down the coast, time to head up the hill into Sarth.
I like Sarth's music. It has a nice blend of mysterious, ominous and larger then life.
It is a bigger city, and where Pug set up his academy of magic, which Owyn had studied at (briefly) prior to meeting Locklear and Gorath. We'll poke around for a little bit.
Strange! Doesn't seem to be a pattern on the wall here.
Which sucks because that means that we can't just teleport directly to the city, which would have been pretty nice.
We go into the back to speak with the Abbott.
But where can we find Brother Marc? 
Is he in the shop?
"Doesn't look like it, but who cares? Look at all this awesome stuff!"
That's right, an awesome staff and a ton of spells are here for sale. Too bad we aren't going to buy any of them.
"What? But why?"
Eh, most spells we'll pick up later. An upgrade to your staff would be nice, but 1200 is pretty expensive.
"There, you read that? You can shoot lighting out of the staff. I MUST HAVE IT!"
We'll drag Owyn out of the shop and head down the library. Maybe Brother Marc is in there?
Wow. That's a lot of books, and... no Brother Marc, so let's get out.
"Wait... let's at least look around a little first."
"Dickbag."
The other sections we are allowed to read, and they'll pop up occasionally with some tips. As a kid, I used to think that there was a stat bonus that went along with reading the books, but I'm pretty sure that isn't the case here as I didn't get any notification pop-ups after I had left.
Oh well.
One last place to go, and this one is easy to miss if you aren't hovering your mouse cursor all over the screen.
Trees whipped at their faces.
Mumbling about the inconvenience of castle engineers, Owyn lead the way down the fir covered slope, arriving at last at the mouth of a large cave. "Told you I wasn't mad," he muttered. "Looks like a cave mouth. Want to have a look inside?"
Yes
No
On second thought, let's pass on the dungeon crawl for the moment. We can always come back, and I don't think Brother Marc is going to be down there.
We leave Sarth, and continue on our journey. Same that we never found Brother Marc though...
Oh God, what are you doing Locklear?
"Ishap!"
"No, no. I was about to leave the garden anyway. Busy hands set the mind to work you know. On your way to Sarth?"
"Perhaps, brother...?"
"Brother Marc of Sarth. Glad to meet you. We don't get many illirati here. Books don't seem to interest the commoners as much as gold or wenching. But we have scholars enough, all going blind from reading worm eaten books and a dozen boys scribbling away their youth in our vaults. It is an unusual place."
"I've a friend who visited here once. He told me that you worship the god of Knowledge."
"They do say that, yes, and I suppose after a fashion it is true. If there is a question that can be answered in no other place, your best hope is to look in our vaults."
Topic: Casting
"Do you know anything about spell casting?"
"I know a little of it, though Brother Dominic knows more about it than I. As soon as he finishes his studies on Quegian civil codes, I'm certain he would be more than happy to sit down and talk to you about it. He should be only another two or three months at it I would think."
"I'm afraid we don't have two or three months to wait. Why don't we leave the brother alone, nephew?"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk! Now don't discourage the boy from asking questions or he'll become afraid to question anything. I think I might have some time to teach him a bit about focusing if you can spare a few sovereigns, say fifty. Is that acceptable to everyone?"
Yes
No
"More than acceptable. Where do we start?"
"Ah, an enthusiastic student! Delightful. This will be a pleasure to teach."
Owyn blanched.
He had been assigned a simple enough task; cast a telekinetic spell to move his satchel closer to him. Instead, his satchel had remained obstinately stationary while hurling Brother Marc backwards into his well-tended crops...
"Are you all right?" Owyn gasped. "I didn't mean for that to happen."
"You are still depending on your eyes." Brother Marc sighed, brushing a stalk of corn out of his face as he struggled to his feet. "Concentrate. If you ever find yourself in a situation when you can't see what you're affecting, all the spells in the world will be utterly useless to you. Instead of trying to see your target, try to feel it. Now let's try this again. I know you'll learn this eventually..."
"We don't have any more time to waste," Gorath said. "Why don't you pick up your things and we can get ready to move, Owyn?" Again on his feet, Brother Marc went to console his downcast pupil, patting him reassuringly on the shoulder. "Remember, feel the target. That's the key. Until then, I suggest you stock up on a good supply of Lewton's Concentrate to get you through your exercises."
Topic: Spells
"Now that I know a little more about spell casting, perhaps there's a simple spell you could teach me?"
"Owyn..."
"Just something simple, so we can defend ourselves in case we run in to anyone hostile on the road."
"I don't know what you imagine is waiting out there for you, but I believe I have just the thing. I will have to run up to the Vaults to search for it, but it is a little spell called Flamecast. Of course, there will be the matter of a fee, say 30 sovereigns. I know precisely where it is if you want me to run and get it. Shall I?"
We already know Flamecast, but... we can turn around and resell it for more much then 30.
Yes
No
"You can be quick about it?"
"I won't be a moment. I will return as quickly as my little feet can move me."
They waited.
When at last it seemed the priest was never going to return, he appeared waddling down the hillside, a beribboned parchment missive stuffed beneath one of his arms. Collecting the money owed him from Owyn, he cheerfully handed over the scroll.
Topic: Road South
"Are there any hazards on the road south from here to Krondor? We are in something of a hurry and I would hate to run into any unexpected delays."
"I haven't heard any complaints from the travellers that have been through here in the past few weeks. I don't think the mercenaries that stopped by to speak to Brother Dominic said anything of it."
"Mercenaries? They're not in Quegian press gangs, are they?"
"Not to my knowledge, no. These lot landed just south of Questor's View on a ship called the Foamspinner. As much as they've been up and down the road, I assumed they were in on a shore leave."
"Were there many of them?"
"Many of them? If you laid them head to foot, I imagine you could walk across the Straits of Darkness without getting your feet wet. It seems one of those Quegian galleys can carry a small village from one place to an other!"
Topic: Inns
"Do you know of any good inns in the area? I think I might sleep a little better if I could bed down on something other than cold ground tonight."
"There are a few. You might try Babon's Hostel in Questor's View or the old Bywater Inn. If it weren't for my duties here, I would be half inclined to join you. Some acolyte somewhere has been trying his hand at dream sendings and I've not had a good night's sleep in weeks."
"Dream sendings?"
"It's a way to send messages over long distances. Only certain magicians have the talent for it. Whoever it is, they can't be too far away because his images are fairly strong."
"What do they seem to be trying to say?"
"I'm not certain. The images are too disjointed, though now I think of it, I thought I had seen your elf friend's face before. Now I know why. His face was in the sendings."
This is certainly a concerning conversation piece here. We've heard about the dream sendings before, or rather - mind communication - between magicians. Seems like somebody has been putting up wanted posters of Gorath's face, so to speak.
Topic: Vaults
"Is it permitted for outsiders to browse the books in the vaults? I would be interested in looking them over."
"It's fine with me, but it's Brother Anthony you may have to convince. He doesn't like strangers wandering around down there without supervision. We have a number of rare and valuable books and it would be the worst kind of tragedy to lose them to a casual browser. I'll warn you though, you may have difficulty finding what it is you want. Many of the books have never been cataloged and unless you know very specifically what you are looking for either by the scribe's name or the title of the work, you might not find anything that will be of any value to you."
Topic: Bad Weather
"So when is the storm going to hit? We're a little concerned about finding a place to stay so we don't get soaked."
"Storm? It is the first I have heard of such a meteorological disturbance. Brother Gierom didn't mention it to me before I left the abbey this morning."
"That's strange. We met a gentleman named Rowe who said a storm had been predicted by the brothers at the Abbey."
"I wonder why he would tell you such a thing. Of course, he has been acting peculiarly since his wife died. Terrible tragedy, and striking at such a time when he had to give up his farm. I really must feel for the poor old soul."
BYE!
"Seems we at least have a few things to think about. Thank you, Brother Marc."
"Always a pleasure to help. Come back and visit me again."
"Perhaps we will. Goodbye!"