by Shane Walker
“Nik, it’s time to invest! I, and by that I mean WE, need a few things that we, and by that I mean YOU need to buy before we go.” I told him. There’s the confused face again.
OK look, before anyone judges me, I have no intention of trying to scam him out of his money. I promise! I just need to build up his confidence in me like the beginning of a scam so he trusts me enough to help. If all goes well, we should both make a nice bit of gold to get us started.
“What do you think we n-need, Jack?” Nik said through squinting eyes. He’s doubting me already?
OK, step one: get him off balance. “Nothing, Nik. I don’t think we need anything.” That made him stop dead in his tracks.
Step two, pull him in with a grand, but vague promise. “Do you want to hear about what I know we need? Do you want to hear about my plan to get us well funded for the foreseeable future?” No distrusting squinting was left now-I could almost hear him thinking about all the gadgets he could make with a big pile of gold.
“OK, Jack, what do we need?” came his suddenly determined reply.
Got him.
Step three, give him enough details that he believes the plan will work, but not enough that he can start picking holes in it. “We need two pickaxes, some travel rations, a wagon, and some sort of beast of burden.” He was doing the math in his head that I’d already done. Better cut that train of thought before he second guesses. “If I had to guess, we’re looking at about 10g for two pickaxes, 12g for two rations per person per day for three days, and about 50g for a horse and wagon.”
Realizing those numbers added up to more than 50g total, Nik wanted to interrupt again, but I addressed those fears first. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll sweet talk my way into some discounts.” I said, before flashing him my best Cheshire grin and starting back towards the market.
“Look, son, I’d love to give you a discount on these pickaxes, but business is all but non-existent around here when it comes to mining supplies, so I have to make the money when I can.” the proprietor of the General Goods store said when I asked if he could give us a better price than 5g per tool. “That’s what we heard from the mayor, sir. It’s also why I’ve promised to clear the kobolds and take control of the mine from them. Well, promised to clear them if I can do some mining when we get there to confirm the ore is worth taking it. I’d imagine things will pick up once the mine is up and running again.”
If one were to have listened very closely to the shopkeeper’s head at that very moment, I guarantee you’d have been able to hear the gears turning as he ran the cost-benefit analysis of selling these to me cheaply right now for the possible reward of steady business once we were done in the mine. “What sort of deal do you have in mind, Adventurer?”
“Well, 2 pickaxes for 5g. If I clear the mine, I pay you the 5g you discount me. If we aren’t able to, we’ll return the pickaxes back to you. We also need rations and we can buy twelve for another 5g. Thatway, we you get 10g for no matter what, plus the rest of what we should have paid today when we finish the mine.
“You’ll miss out on 17g today, but when we return you’ll get a minimum 10g plus pickaxes you can resell for 10g. So, in three days you’ll have made at least 8g more than if you’d sold these to anyone else.” I did my best to maintain eye contact so that I came across as trustworthy, but I really wish I could have taken a full look at Nik’s face. Every word must have made his jaw drop a little bit more at the impossible logic I was relying on.
New Skill!
Bluff
Level 1
+1% Chance to trick/deceive someone
Note: There is no charisma stat in The Realms. Social skills like Bluff combine with your own conversational talents and situational factors to determine your success or failure!
New Skill!
Haggle
Level 1
+1-10% Selling Price/-1-10% Buying Cost
Thanking him for his time and his willingness to invest in the future of the mine and the town, we moved on to the stables.
Wait a minute. Why does a gnomish town have full size horses? There’s no way they can ride them, right? I asked my guide.
“You are correct in that they cannot ride them, sir. However, smaller horses would have great difficulties pulling many of the heavy shipments and devices the gnomes are often required to move.”
Fair enough, I suppose.
“Welcome, lads. I expect you’re wanting to get yourselves a horse or two?” the jovial stable master greeted us as we approached. Looking closely, I realized he was probably the tallest gnome we’d seen so far. Of course, that only means he was about 4’3”.
“That we are, sir. Hoping to rent a horse and wagon for about three days or so. And if I’m being honest with you sir, we only have about 20g left to us.”
Your Bluff has increased to Level 2!
“Whew, that is a bit of a predicament. What do you boys need it for anyway?” he believed we were broke, but didn’t trust our intentions.
“Well, sir, we’re hoping to clear the mine out in a couple of days and would like to have the wagon to bring back our spoils and maybe some ingots.” Mention of the mine brought that hopeful look to his eyes that I’d seen before since I got the Hidden Quest. At this point, even if the mine wasn’t about to turn into my cash cow I’d probably still help.
“Well, son, I’m afraid I can’t do it for that long for that cheap.” he responded with disappointment. Well, if that’s how he responds, he clearly wants to help, so I’ll give him one.
After a few minutes of discussions involving times and maps, he agreed to have someone meet us in 3 days time to collect us and our loot. All for the low price of 10g.
Haggle has increased to Level 2!
5-Entry Level Position
Alfred, accounting for Nik’s shorter stride, how much longer will it take to get to the mines?
“Gnomes are surprisingly quick when moving on an open road, sir. That said, it only adds about 50% travel time in spite of the fact he’s roughly half your height.”
Forty-five minutes, eh? Plenty of time to go ahead and clear the air.
“Nik, I have a bit of a confession before we get to the mines.” Nik turned to look at me with nothing but curiosity. It says a lot about someone when they can look at you in response to that without preemptive fear or anger, without looking at you like they just realized you screwed them over. It says they’ve never had someone admit to screwing them over.
It says they had a better life than me.
“What I said earlier about needing the things we bought, that was a con. Now, before you think I screwed you out of your money, you need to understand this wasn’t malicious and I have every intention of making us as much money as possible.
“First off, do you know what con man means?” Nik slowly shook his head at me, clearly unsure of where I was going. “It’s short for confidence man. Basically, a con man builds up your confidence in what he’s trying to sell you, whether it’s a product, service, or his crazy sounding plan. The modern equivalent would be social engineering.”
I paused for a beat to make sure it didn’t look like I lost him so far. “What I did used the same concept, but not to take your money for my own benefit. I knew my plans would work and would benefit both of us, but we’ve only just met. That means if I laid out my plans and asked you to have faith in me, a reasonable person would just say no and we’d both miss out on the opportunity to invest in our future.
“I’m not entirely certain why I felt the need to tell you this, honestly. Maybe I just didn’t want to feel like I was screwing over my first friend here.” At that, he stops dead in his tracks and looks at me.
“Why would you feel like you’d screwed m-me over?” He had a point. I guess normally this would just be a friend talking a friend into going along with some crazy idea.
“Once upon a time, I was screwing people over this way. Hell, I was doing it for a living. I’ve stepped away from that life, but I guess it
felt like I was up to my old tricks.”
Nik thought about this and I guess decided it was a good enough answer for him. “If you m-mean what you said about n-not trying to screw me over then I’ll trust you. It would be nice to have some friends.” he said without being able to hold eye contact. I knew then that his stuttering was more nerves and shyness than anything. I smiled in response.
“Thanks, Nik. Next we need to work on your confidence!”
The rest of the walk was pretty enjoyable. Nik and I made small-talk about what we’ve done in previous games and what we expected to do in this one. Nik wasn’t as interested as I was in making money in the real world. It sounded like he was wealthy in the real world, but I didn’t trust myself enough to go down that road. He heard that it was a game where you could do practically whatever you wanted-something beyond the typical MMO of “Loot, Level, and Quest.” He was right and it was something you could feel very quickly in-game. The whole world feels alive.
He’d also heard about the realism of NPCs and wanted to try it out. It turned out that he didn’t have the same problems with his nerves when he talked to NPCs even though they essentially acted like real people. Some part of his brain knew they weren’t real so he let his guard down and was able to interact with them like he’d always wanted to talk to real people.
The gnomes told us before we left town that it would be fastest and safest to follow the road, so we did. Normally I’d want to start grinding XP as soon as possible, but getting to know Nik was more important. As Alfred predicted, it took around 45 minutes to reach the marker on the road letting us know to branch off the main path and head towards the mine.
“Here’s the safe-spot the mayor told us about. Based on my guide we’re safe once we light the bon...I mean the campfire.” Nik seemed like he still didn’t trust it.
“You’re sure we’re safe?” he asked. I looked to Alfred for confirmation and he nodded.
“Yep! It’s part of the in-game mechanics. These things are located all around the wild areas of the world and allow players a place to recover and log out safely for the night. While we’re in the area of effect, monsters can’t get near us and other players can’t hurt us or steal from us. As far as I know, they aren’t even aware of us while we are in here. I guess that’s a safety feature to make sure you can’t get camped...so to speak.”
With a bad pun under my belt, I started unloading everything we didn’t need right then, except for a pickaxe for checking out the mine. Time to kick some low-level kobold ass!
“Alright, Nik, so what can you do during combat?” Nik straightened his back a bit trying to look proud. “I have basic proficiency with a crossbow and I have a few small grenades and traps I made in the first few steps of the Artificer quest chain.” OK, he’s ranged support.
Alfred, are there parties in this game?
“Yes, sir. As is typical in role-playing games, you will share experience and be able to track party member’s positions and Level, Class, and HP/MP/SP status. To create a party, simply think about creating a party and adding someone to it.”
Easy enough!
Party Created
Party Members 1/5
You have invited Nik to join your party!
Nik has accepted!
New Skill!
Leadership
Level 1
Party members receive half damage when struck by other member’s attacks.
Note: Increasing this skill adds new bonuses instead of increasing a specific bonus.
Party Members 2/5
Name: Nik
Class: Mage
Level: 4
HP: 140/140
MP: 450/450
SP: 100/100
“Whoa, you’re a couple of levels higher than me already? Guess that quest chain gave solid XP for something where you never had to leave town. And 450 MP? Someone is stacking Intellect!”
Nik gave a proud grin at that as we started making our may towards the mine entrance. “It’s required for certain crafting skills. Things like grenades require me to pump mana into them to stabilize them. My trainers said later I can use it to create magical weapons and eventually even make gadgets that aren’t physically possible without magic.”
Interesting.
“Hopefully you brought along plenty of those grenades. Your job is to stay back and give ranged support. I’ll be tryiing to sneak up on them and fight up close. You stay back and out of harm’s way. And please warn me before you throw any grenades at what I'm fighting.”
Nik thought on this and agreed with a nod, although he did seem nervous once I’d mentioned grenades. “If you can, try to pull with that crossbow mounted on your arm. It won’t do as much damage as mine, but it’s a good opener for someone who is going to rely on melee anyway.” he added on.
Wow, I’d almost forgotten that thing! “Good call. Now stay here, I think we’re getting close to the entrance.” We quickly found a good spot for Nik to fire from cover and I started sneaking my way towards the entrance.
Holy shit do movies make this look way easier. Everything here is trying to make noise just from me looking at it.
“Yes, sir. Do try to minimize your silhouette as well. A standing human silhouette is not a shape that naturally occurs in nature, typically, so it is easy to spot.”
Oops. I’m really starting to wonder if I can pull off this whole Rogue thing in a game like this when I get the notification.
New Skill!
Stealth
Level 1
1% harder to spot when hiding per level.
Note: This skill is affected by environmental factors (light levels, walking surface, etc.) and the perception abilities of your enemies
Realizing I’m about to hit the treeline, I take a knee as gently as I can and pull a couple of bolts out of the small quiver I received with the crossbow. Looking into the clearing I finally get a good look at the kobolds themselves. They’re small, maybe Nik’s height. With rat and lizard like features, it looks like they tried to wrap leather scraps around themselves as an extra protective layer over their tattered cloth scrap clothing. I’m definitely sensing an overall scrap motif with how they dress. Those spears seem sharp enough to do the job, though. I may have chosen a bad spot for Nik to stand. He's not going to have a safe shot from there.
I really need to work on tactics.
Nocking the first bolt and holding the second in my firing hand, I steady my outstretched arm with the other hand and do my best to control my breathing in spite of the excitement of finally entering combat in this world. I already know roughly the basics of how to breathe and how to fire the weapon. I guess it’s from starting the game with the skill.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Pause.
Fire.
Kobold takes 10 Sneak Attack (x2) damage!
Kobold defeated!
You earn 10 XP!
Stealth has increased to Level 2!
Gadgets & Trick Weapons increased to Level 2!
Ignoring the notification, I managed to get the second bolt nocked and fired it at the second kobold that was at that point running towards me.
Kobold takes 5 damage!
Well, I guess that’s a start. Both swords out, I charge in to meet my foe.
Dodge has increased to Level 2!
I see now what El meant about training from the best to make someone great! This thing moved glacially slow compared to her. Half of its attacks I can just sidestep with minimal effort. It was coming after me with what I finally realized was an incredibly well made iron spear. Unfortunately for it, it was not good with it. After a few easily dodged sidesteps, I decided to end it.
The kobold goes for another one of its incredibly telegraphed thrust attacks and it seems like a perfect opening. Using my off-hand sword, I push the spear to my left as I step to the right. With the Skills El taught me, combined with some slight intuition granted by the skill itself, I’m able to change the trajectory of the attack wit
hout reducing the momentum. The same momentum that carries the kobold forward just a few extra, fatal steps that allow me safely into its guard. That’s the problem with spears: let the enemy get too close and suddenly it’s an over-sized, unwieldy club. With no way for the kobold to block my follow-up, my main-hand sword easily takes his head and ends the fight.
Kobold takes 5 damage!
Kobold defeated!
You earn 10 XP!
Parry has increased to Level 2!
Dual Wielding has increased to Level 2!
Short Swords has increased to Level 2!
Oh no. That was easy. Dropping back into Stealth, I start looking for more kobolds. Every other game that has the little bastards in them, the danger is from their numbers. They don’t send their champion to beat you in glorious one-on-one combat, they just overwhelm you.
Alfred, is there a way to communicate directly to party members? I don’t exactly have a chat window. That does mean no trade chat though, so silver linings I guess.
“Yes sir, there is. It’s just like how you communicate with me, but think about your party instead of me.” my guide quickly explained.
Thanks. I replied before shifting my mental focus onto Nik.
“Hey Nik, if you can hear me, this is the party chat. You just have to think what you want to say and I will hear it.” I could almost hear him jump as soon as I started. If I wasn’t in full paranoia mode about getting ambushed by kobolds I might have laughed.
“Is this how it works? Can you hear me Jack?” the response comes up in my mind seconds later.
“Loud and clear, little buddy. Move up to where you saw me shooting from and give cover me. I don’t want any patrols coming through and catching me by surprise.” After I get an affirmative from Nik, I feel somewhat better about taking my time out here. At least nothing can sneak up on me now.