Town Builder

Chapter 27: Quest Conundrum

The players were excited to explore the Shiverwood forest on behalf of the town. If it was a viable quest location, the information could be sold for profit. They would wait till the game launch, though, as they promised. I saw them off and went to the enchanter’s tower. The enchanter was due tomorrow, and I was just confirming with Sanso and Jaesmin that we were ready to impress.

Sanso and I talked for quite some time about creating a portal stone and also selecting the perfect stones for the brewery’s foundation. If our enchanter could create a portal stone for Malcum village, it would allow NPCs from the auction to get here almost immediately, according to Simba.

Enchanters were a difficult class to master, according to Simba. They not only needed a myriad of spells but also a number of skills to succeed. I decided to have Jaesmin do her best to furnish the tower for the rest of her day. I spent some time with Sanso working on the foundation for the town hall. We both went to the general store after working well past noon for a meal. It was clear that even with another Elementalkin in town, Sanso was still sweet to Elice, the town store proprietor.

“Good afternoon, Elice! I heard Fareth has sent some ration packs to be sold in the store?” I asked. Sanso mentioned it during our work, and I was curious about it.

“She has sent some over. I haven’t tried them, but they are on the counter in the corner over there,” she pointed, and I headed over there to check them out. They were wrapped in waxy parchment, and I pulled one from the stack and used my skill.

Dehydrated Trail Ration, +100% Satiety, +25% Magic, Stamina, and Health Pool Recovery for 30 minutes, Shelf Life 504 days

That wasn’t all that surprised me. They were selling for just five silver coins! “Elice, these taste fabulous! Let’s send half the stock we get to Galana and Tanguin for the soldiers. The ones you sell here…let’s mark them at one gold coin for adventures and keep the five silver coin price for villagers.” The ration was a portable meal that probably tasted better than most and lasted alomnst two game years.

I looked through the shop and found Galana’s arrows, too; just a dozen were on display, tied in together with a cloth strip. “Oh, Elice, is there any way to order things from a city? Or do we need to travel there?” I was thinking of Zion’s sheep.

“Not that I know of Lord Tallis. I have heard of an auction house, but that must be tied to a portal stone, and only players can utilize it.” She responded before returning to her conversation with Sanso. So, did I need to build a building next to the portal stone and just call it an auction house?

“Elice, do you know of any way I can get some specific breeds of sheep? We have a new barber coming to town and promised to acquire some sheep for his flock.” I asked her hopefully.

“It could be arranged through a traveling trader. We see them infrequently this far north, though. If you give me what you are looking for, I will order them next time a trader comes through. If the coin offered is enough, he may rush to get them here.” Elice supplied.

“Let’s do that!” I said excitedly. Glad to pawn off the quest for Zion to someone else. I gave her the list of sheep. I addressed Sanso next, “Sanso, I am going to see if I can retrieve my armor and axe from the desert. I will be gone the rest of the afternoon if anyone is looking for me.” I said my goodbyes, checked on Jaesmin and then retrieved Titan from the stable. Fortunately, his saddle didn’t drop when he died.

The ride to the location was pleasant. I only killed a few scorpions, anxious to retrieve my armor and axe. When I reached the location, the illusion was in place once again, the valley looked to be barren sand. I left Titan on the crest, slid down the dune, and searched for my armor. I was happy to find it in the sand. My axe had been covered, but after searching for a while, I was able to retrieve it as well. If players always dropped their armor and the weapons they wielded, battlefields would become a mess in the future. I would ask Simba about the next time I saw him.

I hadn’t dropped the ring but chose not to put it on this time and struggled up the slope to Titan. With my armor equipped, I swung wide north to reveal more areas on my player map during my ride home. A trap door spider almost got us. The spider spat a gooey mess that ensnared and slowed you. Fortunately, Titan was still fast enough to get away from its agro range.

There was not much to see as the dessert returned to the plains. Feeling safer, I started hunting low-level creatures. I harvested a fair number of quills for Galana and hides for Curraen. I passed by the dungeon entrance and almost dismounted to explore it. It was just a level 20 dungeon. Maybe I should tell the players about it. They could run it easily enough. No, I should save it for my own leveling.

Back in town, I went to the inn and found the players eating and drinking. Mad Dog waved me over. “Tallis, where have you been? We got back a few hours ago, and I thought you would be here building some structures or other things.” Mad Dog drank deeply.

“I spent the morning building. I tried to get some sheep in the afternoon to complete a quest, and in the evening, I retrieved my armor and axe, which I lost while fighting a troll.” I explained to him as an unfamiliar townsperson placed the food in front of me.

Grinder’s eyes focused on me in interest and asked, “Trolls? We didn’t see any trolls today.” Oops, I had no plans to reveal the location of the caverns.

“Yeah, it was way out in the desert. I don’t plan to head back there anytime soon.” I deflected his interest. “I have a mount. Are you interested in mounts?”

It was the woman of their party that responded, “Mounts? Those big horses in town? How much?”

I didn’t know how much the horses were worth. “What do you think is fair?” I asked, and they conferred amongst themselves.

“250 gold each,” Mad Dog said. “We made fifty-eight gold today while questing, and with our other funds, we can get two mounts at that price. If we put in a full day tomorrow, we should be able to raise enough funds for a third.” The small party seemed anxious.

“Are mounts that valuable?” I asked, curious.

Mad Dog answered, “They are around 1,000 gold in the bigger cities. We haven’t been able to pull funds together to get us all good mounts. You can only bind one land mount, one aerial, and one water mount.” I didn’t know the water mount, but I just nodded.

Next, I listened to tales of their adventures today. The forest was full of various beasts: bears, snakes, wolves, giant squirrels, sprites, and tree frogs. The loot was not great. The goblins were the real prize, and many of them were there. They killed over fifty today and were slowly zeroing in on the goblin village. That was great news! They thought maybe two more days to find it but didn’t think they could destroy it. That was not great news.

With no Simba around, I asked them about the gear that had been dropped from combat. In a monster fight, you always drop your armor and weapon. You were the only person who could pick it up for three game days. This was supposed to limit players from losing gear. If a player killed you, you randomly dropped one piece of gear that was not soul-bound.

I was starting to get a buzz going from the ale and started to tell them about all my town quests. I had to find a frigging tailor! Could you believe that! And sheep, eight sheep! But not just any sheep, color, and breed mattered!

The group said I would be able to access the internet when the game launched. The developers were still working on the firewalls for the game’s AIs. It was also rumored they were dragging their feet to set it up because the admins wanted to slow the transfer of game knowledge to the wikis. It was not really doing that, though; it just made it more difficult to post and drove up the prices for information, which was fine with Mad Dog’s crew.

It was Grinder who offered to help first. “So how do I go about getting a tailor to relocate here to Malcum, Tallis?” he asked. It was not an aspect of the game they had been researching. It would be all the better if they could help me and learn some new things.

“I just find one and follow the trail. I tried to get a barber, and she said no, but she sent me to another barber who needed the sheep to relocate. Do you want to do it?” I asked.

“Oh, Oh, I got a quest offer from you! It says, ‘Get a fine tailor to set up shop in Malcum in fourteen days. Reward: 2,000 experience, +100 reputation with the village of Malcum.’” Mad Dog looked a little shocked. I was shocked, too, as I hadn’t done anything; I just asked if he wanted to do my quest.

Mad Dog said, “Share it with us, Grinder.” They all conferred again and decided this was more important than the horses. Finding out how player-offered quests worked should be valuable information. They were getting ready to head to Stillwater to complete the quest.

“Wait!” I stopped them. “If you bring back my sheep, I will give all of you one horse, each at just 100 gold per animal!” Instead of them getting a quest this time though a player-to-player contract appeared between us. This baffled all of us, but we all accepted the contract. They left and said they would be back in four days.

I was trying to figure out what I had done to trigger the quest offer to Grinder. I couldn’t parcel it out other than the quest, which appeared to be for the village of Malcum and not for me. How did I act in my capacity as lord to offer quests, though? The quest tab in my interface only allowed me to add NPCs under my purview to offer quests.

Frustrated, I went home to find Jaesmin setting up the guest room as a nursery. I helped her forget my own problems. But she offered a suggestion. Maybe I had just transferred Zion’s quest to another player. That seemed…plausible. I checked my interface, and she was right. My quest for Zion was gone! I would have to be careful in the future in my functions as lord of Malcum as I had just given away 2,000 potential expereince.

Tomorrow would be a big day. The enchanter should arrive, and I needed to do everything I could to ensure she stayed.