“Hello! Welcome to the Village on the Lake. I’m Alex, the leader here, please state your business.” I squinted at the figure riding the massive auroch. He came up as “Izzwix, level 20 Goblin trader”.
The goblin replied in a comically high-pitched voice. “Greetings! I am a trader from Glerzz, I have come to buy and sell!” I looked at his two escorts, and saw that they were level 16 Orc bruisers. I assumed that Izzwix himself could fight, meaning that he and the bruisers would be able to easily take on larger groups if they happened to run into trouble. Since we were planning to go to the goblin village ourselves, I was a little hesitant to take him at his word, that he was here only to trade.
“Sure! Let me see what you have!” Izzwix didn’t appear to be planning deception, as he stopped the auroch, hopped down, and led me to the back of the cart. He scrambled up onto it, and I saw that it had a built-in desk. He had a few fancy weapon and armor pieces displayed along the edges, but most of the rest of the space was filled with crates containing a random assortment of items. Just as I was starting to browse, Alicia came running up, panting.
“Shopping!” She gasped. “You went shopping…” She heaved, trying to catch her breath. “…without me?” She gave me an angry punch in the shoulder, which I shrugged off. Unfortunately for me, she wasn’t done, as she literally shoved me to the ground to get to the goods first. She was already happily chatting with the vendor and counting her coins before I could stand up and dust myself off. The next time I caught her sleeping, I was going to prank the hell out of her. I’d have her wishing that she’d crapped her pants by the time I was done. Resolving to get revenge later, I waited patiently while she made her purchases. Satisfied, Alicia gave me a happy little wave and trotted back to town. The items I was most interested in were the ones that could be bought with crystal, so I started with that.
“Hey, what have you got that costs crystal?” I asked Izzwix.
“Hmm, just a few trinkets, odds and ends, let me show you.” He replied.
Rather than having to root through his boxes, an interface for buying and selling appeared. I had 135 crystal to spend, and it became apparent right away that item quality was separated by orders of magnitude in cost. Some truly amazing items with multiple attribute and skill bonuses cost thousands or tens of thousands of crystal. Alternatively, I could buy a healing potion better than the ones Alicia could make for a single crystal. A similar, but slightly weaker potion cost 10 silver. When I asked him about conversion rates, he said he’d buy 10 crystal for 1 gold, though he wouldn’t trade in the other direction. I asked him why.
“I can use crystal in crafting! Also, my trading skill increases a lot more when I receive crystal as payment. If I make a deal that’s bad for me, my trading skill goes down!” He gasped at his own revelation. “I said too much! Giving away information for free is bad. Bad Izzwix.” He started hitting himself on the head and muttering “stupid” under his breath. I felt bad for the little guy, so I tried to turn things around for him.
“Well, you said you’re willing to trade information, what would it cost for me to buy some info from you?” After I asked my question, he stopped hitting himself and looked at me with a greedy gleam in his eyes.
“That depends on what you want to know.” He was smiling. I decided not to beat around the bush.
“I want info on Francis, he’s a wood elf who was sold to the goblins in a nearby village.” For some reason, this made Izzwix’s ears droop, and I was worried he had bad news.
“Everybody knows Francis. Some idiot bought him for five gold, hoping he was exceptionally skilled at crafting. All he knew how to do was fight, though, so his owner has him working at the tavern in Glerzz. In a few months he’ll have paid off his slave debt and will be free to go.” Izzwix was looking at something invisible to me. “I didn’t even lose proficiency telling you that.” He muttered. “He also makes a killer martini.” Izzwix checked something again, and his eyes opened wide with shock. “NO! There’s no way I lost skill telling you that. This is ridiculous!” Izzwix seemed to get distracted easily, so I thought I’d cheer him up.
“I’m an adventurer, and I want to buy something in the range of 100 to 150 crystal. Can you recommend something? Izzwix immediately forgot his sorrows and rattled off information on several items. A couple caught my eye.
Magic map: Automatically updates with locations and descriptions wherever you travel. Costs 100 crystal.
Ring of Attributes: Gives +CLVL(12)/10 to all attributes (+1). Costs 125 crystal.
Psionic circlet: Base Psi pool is determined by Wil/1.5 instead of Wil/2. Costs 150 crystal.
As much as I’d like a larger Psi Pool and a scaling attribute booster, I was sold on the map. I’d only gotten around thus far by having others lead me around. I also wanted a sword that was more exotic than the standard steel shortsword I was using, so long as it was in the range of 25-35 crystal. Izzwix told me what he had, and I found one that would work nicely.
Iron grip shortsword: This weapon cannot be affected by disarm. Costs 25 crystal.
I would hate to be disarmed in the middle of casting a spell. Although I hadn’t used it in battle, I now knew that it was the first ability available to those who chose to advance swordsmanship, so I could expect to encounter enemies using it later. I bought the Magic map and Iron grip shortsword, deciding to save the rest of my gold and silver for hiring NPCs, if necessary. A trickle of townsfolk had come out to see the trader, and there was already a small line behind me. I thanked Izzwix, but he just shooed me away, excited to deal with more customers. I doubted many of them had crystal, but I’m sure the day would be profitable for him.
I decided to track down Nareth and tell him about Francis. I was expecting a fight with the goblins, but it seemed that we’d be able to go into the town, pay off Francis’ debt, and be gone without any bloodshed. I found Nareth on my way back to the village, as it seemed he was also interested in Izzwix’s wares.
“Hey, Nareth, I have news about Francis.” Nareth perked up, curious to hear what I had to say.
“What is it? Is he okay?” He asked.
I nodded in reassurance. “He’s fine. Apparently, he’s working as a tavernkeeper in the nearby goblin town, Glerzz. If we left him alone he’d pay off his debt within a few months. I was thinking we could bring Krug with us and offer him as a trade.”
Nareth liked my idea and grinned conspiratorially. “I’m fine with that, one good turn deserves another.” I’m not sure how much I liked the idea of slavery, but it was Krug who sold Francis in the first place, so it seemed only fair. Also, slaves being able to work off their debt seemed to be a normal mechanism for dealing with slavery in game. Having decided on a plan of action, Nareth and I gathered the group and prepared to travel to the goblin village to retrieve Francis.
Chapter 19. Glerzz, the village of goblins
Jimmy: *yawn* Did you decide to do anything interesting yet?
Alex: We’re going to trade Krug for Francis in the goblin village.
Jimmy: You could have just said no, I’m going back to sleep.
I’d wake his ass up and summon his avatar for him if we ran into trouble, but I was content to let him rest so long as he was quiet. The rest of our group was gathered, and we had Krug restrained and ready to march. In addition to our normal group, Samuel had decided to come along. He was wearing furs from various animals and carrying a staff. I was curious as to how he’d manage in a fight, but decided not to antagonize him and find out. Lady was at his side, and he was quietly chatting with Samantha. I didn’t often see them together, which is odd since they are companions. Then again, both Samuel and Samantha liked to go off and do their own thing, so perhaps that was why they were compatible. I was happy to have Gina and Gerald back with us as well. It had been a while since we’d all gone off on an adventure together.
We headed out of the village and passed Izzwix, who was still bartering with the villagers. I stopped, asking if anyone in our group still
needed to make a purchase or sell something. Everyone shook their heads, saying that they’d already met with the trader. I shrugged, and tried to figure out how to call my mount. Fortunately, “mounts and pets” was a main part of the game menu. It had been greyed out previously, but now I could see my trapdoor spider listed. I selected the option to summon it, and it popped up out of the ground next to me. I stroked his furry abdomen and he chittered while everyone else recoiled.
“You’re a good spider, oh yes you are!” Having fulfilled my latent urge to patronize a pet, I mounted him, and we made our way into the forest. We passed a pair of woodcutters working on cutting up a massive pine that they’d felled. They paused their sawing to wave at us, and I turned to Alicia to make a witty remark.
Before I could even open my mouth, she said. “Shut it.”
“You’re psychic, aren’t you.” I stated. It wasn’t a question.
Without missing a beat, she responded. “It’s really not that hard to predict the behavior of lesser creatures.” I scowled, and she smirked, having gotten the response she wanted. “What, no retort?” she goaded me.
“You’re an ass sometimes, you know that?” I accused her.
Apparently she wasn’t done with me. “At least I have an ass. I’d check you out, but there’s clearly nothing to see.”
Jimmy: Ok, let me out.
I didn’t see any reason to keep him cooped up, so I summoned his avatar, and soon Jimmy appeared to us as a well-muscled, bare-chested monk. He immediately started trying to flirt with Alicia, and though she effortlessly shot him down, I could see she was getting annoyed. Serves her right! Nareth appeared to be in quiet contemplation. We’d been trying to find out what had happened to his friend for a long time. The game decided to reward us with a quest for our trouble.
New quest alert! Free Francis from his captivity.
That was one aspect of the game I appreciated. Quests seemed to be tailored to the desires and goals of the players, rather than guiding everyone down a set path. I was curious about how procedural quest generation occurred. If characters such as Alicia, Nareth, Gerald, and Samantha were truly artificial intelligences, perhaps some of the AIs in the game had been adapted to control various aspects of the game world. I decided to read up on it when I was finished playing for the day. For now, Krug was leading us towards the goblin village, we hoped. Alicia had escaped from Jimmy’s advances and started ranging out ahead of us in case we were being led towards a trap. After a few hours of traveling, we stopped to make camp and eat lunch. Samuel and Lady went off hunting, as did Nareth and Alicia. In what felt like no time at all, Samuel returned with a dead deer, and we all were eating freshly roasted meat. I started to congratulate him on a successful hunt, but he shook his head.
“It was all Lady. She’s some kind of deer whisperer, except she also murders them after she gains their trust.” Samuel was in awe of his new pet. “At least I’m gaining experience now, it’s much harder to be upset.” Lady nuzzled his hand, somehow knowing that she was being talked about. After we’d all eaten our fill and the other hunters had returned, we set off again. We didn’t need another break before reaching Glerzz, and while there were some forest predators lurking about, none of them were brave enough to attack our relatively large group. When we reached the tree line surrounding Glerzz, I was immediately impressed by the goblin village. Unlike our palisade, theirs was finished. They also had a much larger area cleared of forest, giving them extra time to respond to an attempted invasion. On a whim, I pulled up the map for the Village on the Lake. Construction continued on the cabins I’d drafted. I noticed that all the fishermen I’d hired were contributing to manual labor, and I almost slapped myself. I drafted a fishing dock, and they immediately diverted their efforts to constructing it.
Alicia appeared concerned. “Their village is better than ours, isn’t it?” She looked at me, waggling a finger. “You’d better not piss them off.”
I feigned shock. “Me, piss someone off? I think the only people I’ve managed to upset are you, Frank, and Jimmy.” I grinned. “One of them can’t fight back, two of them fight practically naked, and the third likes me too much to hurt me badly.”
Alicia scowled at me. “I only like you because you’re easy to tease. You’re lucky that you’re not boring.”
I rolled my eyes. “Not boring. Wow, what a compliment.”
Alicia smirked. “It’s the best you’re going to get.”
While we bantered, one of the goblins in the watchtowers must have spotted us, as a small formation of goblins was marching out of the gates of Glerzz. That made me hesitate for a moment. How had we not been spotted before now? Such a large, fortified village surely must have scouts in the surrounding forest. I intended to ask the group approaching us if there was some reason for there to be no scouts. It’s not like we were trying to sneak through the forest, we shouldn’t have been able to get so close unannounced. When the group was about 20 yards away, the leader of the formation spoke up in a high-pitched voice that I now recognized as distinctly goblin.
“Halt! State your business!” I tried not to laugh at his tone, and instead examined him. He was a level 24 Goblin general. My laugh immediately caught in my throat. He could probably annihilate us all on his own.
“We seek to enter the village and barter! We have an orc captive who we would like to exchange for a friend of ours, Francis.” I stated.
There was a flurry of conversation amongst the goblins. They were pointing at Krug and looking excited, but the general shook his head.
“No visitors! No trade! Glerzz is closed to all outsiders. Leave!” The general had his hand on the hilt of his dagger, showing us that he’d remove us by force if necessary. I was cautious, but I wasn’t prepared to take no for an answer.
“Why is the village closed? Also, why didn’t we run into any scouts? We have met and traded with Izzwix, and he didn’t mention anything about Glerzz being closed off to outsiders.” At my question and explanation, the goblins shared a laugh between themselves.
“You didn’t hear about it because you didn’t ask, and you didn’t pay.” The general was grinning. “Everything has a price.” He looked greedy, and I prepared to open my coin purse.
“How much will it cost for us to enter the town?” I asked.
“One-hundred gold!” Shouted the general.
I balked at the price. “We don’t have one-hundred gold!”
The general shrugged and started to turn around, unwilling to barter. “Then you don’t get in!”
“Wait!” I shouted, and the general turned back to us. “Why is it so expensive to enter the city? Is there some other way we can get in?”
I didn’t like the general’s smile. “That information costs ten silver.”
I had plenty to cover that, so I took ten silver from my bag and approached the goblins. I dismounted, handing the silver to the general, and he pocketed it immediately. “Werewolves.” He said. “Werewolves entered the village yesterday in their humanoid form. They drove off an entire herd of sheep during the night. We couldn’t fire on them because they were running through the herd in wolf form. We’d only end up slaughtering our own animals.”
I thought the quest we’d received earlier was too easy. I was clearly wrong. However, I now had something with which to bargain. “If we find and take care of your werewolf problem, can we then enter the village?”
The goblin found the loophole in my question. “Of course!”
Alicia was having none of it, though, and from behind me she shouted. “For free?” The goblin’s face dropped, and he gave me a dirty look.
“For free.” He replied. I shook hands with him, sealing the deal.
Quest updated! Find and deal with the werewolves nearby to gain entrance to Glerzz.
Chapter 20: Wolf pack
After entreating entrance to the village, I mounted my trapdoor spider and returned to the rest of my group, who were waiting for me at the tree line. The goblin general salu
ted and marched his small force back to the gates. It felt wrong for my mount to have no name, so while we were creeping I decided that, as a particularly hairy spider, I should call him Harry. Harry chittered happily, and I mused about my current method of travel. It was funny that “creep” was what came to mind when describing Harry’s movement. Then again, I’ve never seen a spider move in a way that couldn’t be described as creepy, so I decided it was appropriate. Everyone had heard my conversation with the general, so I didn’t need to repeat anything. I started to describe my plan for approaching the werewolves, but was distracted by Samuel and Lady. Lady was tugging gently at Samuel’s leggings, trying to pull him deeper into the forest.
“I think Lady wants to show us something. Maybe we should follow her.” Samuel suggested. As soon as Samuel stopped struggling, Lady trotted deeper into the forest, and we jogged to keep up with her. After a few minutes, we were well away from the edge of the field surrounding Glerzz, and Lady stopped, turning towards us. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t what I witnessed. She stood up, and as she did so her arms and legs elongated, trading a furry exterior for smooth skin. Her snout shortened into a lovely face that maintained a wolfish grin and was framed by silver, shoulder length hair. She was wearing a simple dress shaded with the browns and greens of the forest. Samuel was gaping as he recalled his earlier interactions with Lady.
“Lady Cana.” She spoke, holding her hand out to Samuel. Stunned, he held his hand out to shake hers, but instead of shaking hands she pulled him close and smelled his neck. “You smell nice.” Even I was blushing.
“Th-thanks?” Samuel managed to stutter out, frozen like a statue. She sashayed further into the forest, leaving Samuel with her lingering scent and touch.
“Breathe.” Alicia helpfully suggested to Samuel, and he inhaled sharply in response.
Lady Cana looked back at us over her shoulder. “Are you coming? You have business with my pack, don’t you?” Harry and I creeped forward at her invitation, and the rest of the group followed.
The Conduit Page 14