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Update 15: Just a slight detour.
Last time we traveled to Sarth, and after poking around for awhile, we finally found Brother Marc - who the Abbott referred us to - in a cornfield. He provided some instruction in Magic to Owyn, as well as a spell that we were able to resell for a nice profit. More importantly, we found out from him that Farmer Rowe is a bit off the bend, that and apparently somebody has been dreaming sending pictures of Gorath's face around.
It is certainly possible that these events are tied together. We should be cautious, especially now that we are so close to Krondor.
First thing first, we poke around the landscape a little bit. The crevasses in canyons are always worth checking out (though in this case, the treasure chests are actually due north of where the party is currently standing)
"As tempting as those chests are, my bump of trouble is telling me that something is wrong."
"Okay, this doesn't look too difficult. We know that if we wander between those red poles we'll get zapped, and that device to my left launches fireballs of some sort. Perhaps we can use that to our advantage."
"It's solid, but if I put enough pressure on this block I can move it."
"Aha! This one is more transparent, if I push it like so, then...[
"Hm, It didn't destroy it, but the red bulbs turned grey. It must be safe to go through. Gorath."
"Very well, but if you are wrong about this..."
"There are three chests here, almost tripped over this one here. Looks like they are all wordlock chests as well."
"Swollag, the famous moredhel craftsman, guarantees his work until the end of time."
W O R G S E L
H B N B M S E
S H I N E T N
A A E O T A R
"Not much of a riddle, is it?"
"Extra coin is always useful, I suppose we can take the sword too and sell it back at Sarth."
"You see it about in the field and town, It cannot get up, but will often fall down."
R S O E
S E R N
E N A T
L A I O
"Now that's an actual riddle. Hmm."
"More coin, always good. What's this?"
"You are going to keep it then?"
"I suppose I will. We could always sell it, but I do admit I feel a bit luckier wearing it. Perhaps Banath's blessing is on it, who knows?"
One more chest to go.
"The chill of its death, you may soon mourn.But though it dies, It cannot be born."
W S T E
A I N L
F O R N
B R E H
"This is a tricky one too. Little spooky even, Something that dies but cannot be born?"
"Not bad! Overall worth stumbling upon that trap to get what was inside these chests."
"We should make haste."
As we continue south, however, we will encounter several enemies. Our introduction to the 
last here was only the beginning, as we encounter a pair of them on the road.
"Hah! There are only two of them. Gorath, you know the drill. Owyn, cast your spells!"
"He's blinded, let's take down the other!"
"I hope you are ready to meet your maker, human!"
"Sorry matey, we can't let you limp away from this battle. No witnesses."
"Think you are being cute, huh? It's three on one now, pirate!"
"Well done, Owyn! To think that just a few months ago, you could hardly swing that staff."
Two dead pirates. Stick a fork in them.
The loot on their bodies is pretty standard. They each carry the lamprey as opposed to the common broadsword. This one here also carries a potion on his body.
The description says it all, a swig of this will increase the drinker's strength (and therefore their damage output). Unfortunately, only one dose remains in this vial.
We continue to push south, desperate to get to Krondor. Still, there are small groups of pirates to fight. We dispatch them all with impunity, though none of them carry any significant amount of loot.
"Heh - with what we've gone through so far, you'd think that the enemy would know to send more then small groups of two or three against us."
"Oh... How many of them are there? I count five."
"Three, sir!"
"No... I said five and I meant five... Owyn, how about you try out that new spell you picked up by Sarth?"
Owyn cast the spell, focusing on the protection of the armor on Gorath. Shortly after, a blue haze enveloped the moredhel, followed by blue sparkles.
Gorath blinked.
"I sure hope that trick works, Owyn!"
The pirates move forward to engage Locklear and Gorath, while the two moredhel pepper Locklear with arrows. On Owyn's next turn, he'll cast another 'Dragon's Skin' on Locklear so that the Squire will stop taking damage.
Owyn successfully casted the spell, and Locklear felt the effects immediately. Even though arrows and blades hit his armor, and him, he did not take damage - such was the power of the spell. The pirates began to rush towards Owyn though, and so before he could cast the spell a third time on himself, he was forced to flee behind Gorath.
Gorath's powerful swings bring down some of the enemy, while Owyn hops around to evade them from catching up with him. Eventually everybody clusters together.
Soon enough, it's down to three on three. More confident of the success of the battle, Owyn contributes with staff as opposed to spell.
It's only a matter of time before only one enemy remains. Locklear and Gorath hold no pity, and certainly won't let him escape to warn any others of Gorath's approach to Krondor.
Locklear gets in the final death blow against the moredhel, and the battle is won!
No surprise there - everybody got hit (even if they stopped taking damage after 'Skin of the Dragon' was cast), and everybody got in blows of their own in battle.
Owyn's stats are a bit off, since he got a hit a few times after he had cast his defensive spells. What's worth noting is that Locklear and Gorath's strength both went up in that battle. Gorath was already a heavy hitter, and now he'll just continue to do even more damage in battle.
"I've been working out."
One of the bodies of the moredhel contains a new (albeit, currently broken) bow!
It's a step up. As soon as we get a replacement string for it, it'll replace either Gorath or Locklear's light crossbow that they currently use.
"Amazing. We've done it. To the south of the crossroads here lies Krondor. You ready to meet the prince?"
"Boy howdy, I sure am!" 
"Wasn't really talking to you, but okay."
"Guess we might as well see what all the fuss is about."
"Why bother waiting? Let's head straight for the palace, and Prince Arthua!"
"I suppose we better get on to the sewer then."
"Well, we are carrying a lot of stuff. Owyn was also pretty beat up in that last battle, so we should rest for a little bit first and gather our strength. Given what's going on, we need to be ready for whatever awaits us in the sewers below."
"...Fair enough."
We have a full scale armory here. Perfect place to offload both armor and weapons, as well as get repairs for anything, which is particularly nice for the beginner player who just barely made it to Krondor.
Krondor being such a large city, there is another kind of shop as well where we can offload the seashells that I've been holding onto for some reason. If I wanted to, I could also unload the Amulet of the Upright Man or any other kind of trinkets that I've been holding onto.
The gem shop also sells a few keys that I don't think we've seen yet.
"Something valuable? Such as ladies' undergarments?"
"Such as ladies' undergarments! You learn fast, boy."
"Interesting, I doubt many chests in the Kingdom have a lock opened by this particular key, however."
Our next stop is the Inn.
Which is a fairly lively place. The man to our far left is somebody we can TALK with, so let's do that.
"I've been to see Nia at the Six Toe near Sethanon. Ah... I can't really talk about it right now. Why don't you come back later and see me?"
"We will good friend! Take care."
I guess this is a hint from the game to "come back after you finish Chapter 1", so we'll come back and talk more with Nivek then.
That about takes care of business upside of Krondor, so we go to sleep and heal up, and then leave Krondor.
"Leave? But we just got here! I thought the whole point was for us to get here!"
"Yes, but I feel something compelling me to wait a little longer still before we begin to scour the sewers."
"The dreamsenders are bothering you?"
"Yes, the whole bloody business has been giving me a headache for days. I smell a mystery there, and I think we 'ought to unravel it now while we have the chance."
"Okay, you're the boss. Let's go!"
Our next port of call will be north, up towards Tanneurs and then over to Eggley. Perhaps there we'll find additional clues as to what has been going on around these parts.
Not too far North is another small squad of pirates, but they are of little challenge to our group.
Our reward is two additional wordlock chests.
"They feel no pain, No sorrow, no greed. They feel no anger, No hatred, nor need."
S H TW E S D
O B SD E A T
L E ER I A S
T R NO R T O
"Guess they all can't be fill with gold and scrolls." 
"It flies without wings, Strikes without beak, teeth, or talons. It has no eyes in its pointed head, but it can kill birds in flight."
P S A O S
L R W T W
E T R H E
A O S E T
"You guys mind if I pocket the gold? I'm saving up to buy that staff at Sarth."
Pushing up ahead, we encounter a few more pirates, along with a rogue.
We fail to surprise them, and the rogue gets the jump on Owyn, preventing him from casting any spells.
"I get nervous when they get too close." 
Gorath and Locklear move to pin the rogue in, and it isn't long before he falls under a flurry of blows.
Owyn inflicts the pain upon this pirate.
He also takes down this one as well!
And gets a boost to his strength as reward! Much more rare for him then the front line fighters.
We arrive into the city of Tanneurs.
We stop off at Tom's Tavern - it goes without saying that Locklear strikes out with the lady to our right, so the guys go upstairs to get some sleep.
And we get this rather strange message before we are taken to the sleep screen. What could it mean? 
After resting a night in Tanneurs, we head out and break into an abandoned building.
We find a very unusual item inside! Maybe we can use it somehow?
But it doesn't seem that we can just use it right now. Perhaps in battle it could be of use?
Knocking on a door on the far end of town brings us this message. Seems that strange things are afoot.
Which is immediately followed up upon by a trap about five steps just outside of the town!
"Looks straightforward. I'll avoid the red poles by cleverly going AROUND them."
"Like so..."
"Now I push this block forward a bit... Hmm! It seemed to hit something."
"Ah, very tricky. There was another red pole there. If I hadn't pushed the transparent one up, I bet I would have been zapped."
"Now I push this one up, and... "
"Ah crap."
I made an error there. I should have had Locklear push the block over one more so it would have blocked the fireball. Still, he's strong enough to take a point blank fireball to the face.
Though a fireball that hits for 60 points of damage is quite painful indeed.The good news is that we are through the trap and it's easy to rest up.
Eggley isn't too far from Tanneurs.
We have a brief layover here though.
A little bit of flavor here.
On the outskirts of Eggley, Gorath discovers a thing!
Yet another mystery! We do get some free elven armor though, but...
It's pretty worthless. We also can't repair it with our armorer's hammer, we'd have to wear it in battle and get hit to further deteriorate it first, or we could bring it straight to a smithy, but the cost to repair probably won't be worth it.
For a small village, Eggley sprawls out a fair amount - but many of the houses are abandoned. Looks like the Inn is open though.
... Awkward. Maybe we can get some information out of the lone stranger here?
"Welcome to nowhere, sires."
"Everyone is elsewhere. With the exception of Rake, myself and a handful of boarders that have wandered in from off the road, there's not been another soul in town since the Festival."
"Everyone? Why? What happened here?"
"Come the eighth hour of last evening, a cloaked gentlemen entered through that same door there and took a seat. He ordered a joint of beef, a loaf of bread and a mug of ale. I remembered these things because I had ordered the same. Soon as he had finished his meal he went to the tavernkeeper and tossed down fifty golden sovereigns, turned round and was gone by the door. Before the first of those coins stopped their spinning on the counter, the rest of the people in the tavern rushed out after him. The keeper didn't even latch the door..."
"Some sort of deal?"
"Nope. Some sort of damn local ritual. It seems I arrived in the middle of a ceremony that was called the Festival of the Stranger. Traditionally the elders of the town would gather in the tavern and draw lots and the one with the longest lot was dubbed The Stranger. On the first night of the festival, The Stranger comes around and offers the members of the town fake sovereigns - they called them nimptos - and then the citizens of the town leave to sleep in the fields. Of course, I wasn't aware of what was going on."
"And they're supposed to stay in the fields?"
"Ah, no, no, no. The next morning, the elected Stranger is to circle the village three times while swinging a strand of hemp over his head. When he is done, he cuts the length of rope and sets it on the road to let the people know that they can come back. They then know that Killian is looking with good fortune on their township and that she won't strike their fields dead. If the strand is not placed, however, it means that she is displeased and any citizen that attempts to return to town will be struck dead."
"Was the Stranger killed by Killian?"
"No, not Killian, but by a man named the Collector to whom he owed money who didn't know about the town's tradition. It didn't matter to the citizens of Eggley, though. They still chose to see it as a sign from Killian and they haven't returned since, think the place is cursed and won't return until the curse is lifted. They've relocated in Tanneurs, Hawk's Hollow, and a few in Malac's Cross. They all believe they've done the right thing and have given me permission to do whatever I wanted here. Out of respect for them, I've decided to keep the old town name of Eggley."
"I don't know. It seems people would have to be pretty thick to believe all of that."
"Would they? Would you have the nerve to spit on a shrine of Ishap?"
"No...but...I guess I can see your point."
"Everyone has their beliefs. Many people in these villages at one time were farmers, and it is difficult for them to simply turn their backs on the goddess of nature. They require her blessing before they can go on to new lives. You should remember that before you judge something to be ignorant. So - as my new job as bartender of this tavern, I suppose it's my duty to see if you need anything? Can I set you up?"
Topic: Festival
"Which god did you say this Festival of the Stranger was in celebration of?"
"The fertility goddess - Bringer of Harvests, The Earth Mother, Silban. Pick a name. All mean the same thing. She's the wench to whom ma and pa ugly pray to have little runt ugly and enough wheat to eat through the winter. Can't say I have much use for her."
"Is there a temple of hers nearby, or..."
"Straight west of Eggley, then north at the crossroads. Big white building with the columns, smells like a whore's bedchamber. Hard to miss."
Topic: Moredhel
"Someone we ran into up the road told us they had seen a moredhel near here. I don't suppose you've seen him have you?"
"Him? I've seen enough moredhel to start a barrel ball city league. Whole clump of them came by here a few weeks ago heading south in packs of twos and threes down the road towards Tanneurs."
"Were they armed?"
"Like the war god Tith's own legions. Looked like they might be out to sign up as caravan guards, but who would hire them?"
"Did you get a look at any of them?"
"None of them came close enough to the Stranger that I could get a good look at them. Now that I think of it, it's kind of peculiar. On the off occasions when moredhel will crash through a town, they'll usually kick up some kind of ruckus with the locals to prove who's the toughest kid on the block. These just marched through town like they were in a parade review, like they were expecting someone to watch them come through."
Topic: Buildings
"With a whole town to yourself, I'm surprised you haven't opened up any of the other shops or houses."
"I'm leaving them be until I know what's eventually going to happen here. Never know when some folk is going to show up and want his property back. I don't want to be the idiot holding the bag. If most of the folks were smart, they probably locked their houses and I'm not much of a lockpick."
"Know anyone who is?"
"Strange character named Abuk. I ran across him when I was working for the Dauphiness Cassandra of Queg. We discovered him once when we boarded a Keshian vessel. After he helped open a few choice chests of mercantile, we chained him up in the belly of the ship so we could make a present of him to Cassandra. But when we docked in Palanque, all we found in the hold of the ship was a note saying he could be found in Silden if ever we needed his services. I've never hired anyone else for a lockpicking job since."
Topic: Pokiir
"Now I think of it, a man we know told us he lost at pokiir to a Devon here in Eggley. Would you be he?"
"Depends on why you're asking, now doesn't it? If you're interested in playing a hand or two, then I might say I'm the same man. If, however, your friend decided to send round a few bravos to collect what I rightfully won from him..."
"What's yours is yours as far as I'm concerned. I was just wondering how good a player you were. Isaac said that you had an unusual talent for it."
"Isaac? Isaac said I had an unusual talent for it? Now if that's not the pot calling the kettle black, I've never heard it at all. While we we're playing, it was as if that scuff knew every thought I had in my head. Every time he would fold he'd just look over at his elven friends with a big smile."
"Elven friends? Like Thorgath here?"
"They could have been brothers by the look of them. Yeah, he looked kinda like your friend, but he damn sure wasn't an elf. He was wearing the clothes of one of Delekhan's moss-troopers. Moredhel. No doubt about it."
Topic: A Game
"I'm more familiar with pashawa, but I've played pokiir a few times with men from the Shamata garrison. You play by special rules?"
"Straight game. Mercy's rules, full deck, nothing wild. Only special rule I have is you cheat, I ventilate your liver. Simple as that. Interested in playing?"
Yes
No
"Not today. It's nothing personal you understand, I just don't feel Banath's with me at the moment."
"I've had runs of luck like that. Once I was riding high while I was working for the Dauphiness of Palanque, won fifteen straight games of lin-lan in a tavern against this miserable old seadog, but he refused to give up. Middle of the sixteenth game, he pulls out a diamond half the size of my fist and says he wants to bet it. I tell him I don't have enough money to match a bet like that, but he suggests I put up the purse I'm carrying for the Dauphiness."
"How did he find out about it?"
"Let's say the liquor told him... So, I put up the purse. He pulls out a Blue Lady, a Red Knight, two Yellow Squires and a King's Jester. Lost the whole lot to him. The Dauphiness was less than pleased. I had to work for that witch as a bodyguard for two years to pay off what I lost in that purse."
Topic: Self-Defense
"If you were a Dauphiness' bodyguard, you must be a superb swordsman. Perhaps you could teach us a thing or two?"
"I have my tricks. You don't stay alive as long as I do without picking something up here and there. I might be able to give you a few pointers if you're willing to pay. Eighty sovereigns a session. Interested?"
Yes
No
"Beyond our means at the moment. Perhaps another time."
"Anytime you like."
Topic: Mercenaries
"One of the brothers from the Abbey at Sarth has seen several mercenaries on the move through the principality, and he said they looked Quegian. With a good Quegian name like Devonius, I was thinking you might know something about them."
"I haven't had anything to do with the Dauphiness of Queg or her bastard father-in-law for over three years now. I burned my Writs of Passage the day Spitzer and I boarded the Dauphiness' war galley, the Storm's Master, and sunk King Lebeus' flagship with all hands on board. Since that day, I've only worked for me. Me."
"Then you have no idea why there would be so many mercenaries wandering free in the Kingdom?"
"You don't get more than three Quegian mercenaries together in one spot unless you're paying them to be together. Small little island like that, most of them have killed a member of another mercenary's family. Pay them well, they'll put their personal vendettas aside long enough to do what's asked of them before they start on one another. Whoever's funding them must have an incredible fortune in rubies somewhere."
"Rubies?"
"Isles sovereigns won't buy you a thing in Queg except a month underground in King Lebeus' pain pens. Rubies. That's all they'll take."
Topic: Spitzer
"You mentioned someone named Spitzer who boarded the Storm's Master with you. Was he a friend of yours? Is he still around?"
"You know, to be passing through you ask a lot of questions."
"Just curious. I was wondering if maybe he would know anything about the Quegians."
"He's got more reason to be afraid of King Lebus than I do. He'd avoid Quegians like the plague. Now if you want to play dice with him, I'm sure he be plenty happy to talk to you. He was in Tanneurs last I heard."
BYE!
"Thank you for your hospitality, Devon. It was a pleasant respite from travelling the roads."
Remember that next time you talk to someone about Eggley. Time to start some new rumors.
"That we will. Goodbye, Devon."