Late in the evening believing everyone had nodded off, the Dos Amigo's [Ceti and your modest chronicler] lead Fulgur Caeles by the hand to Yaraq.  There they traveled over to the Advocate's Tower (21.0S .08W) to meet up with the lady called Dame Tsaya.  She is rather curious about the stranger recently arrived to her city and would like some one to gather information about him.  So pointing FC in the right direction we beat feet on over to the stranger in the apple orchard at (23.7S 2.8W).  Turns out he is a lonely new arrival to the city and has made one friend so far, another new arrival over at the Darkened Halls.  Sensing something important in that tid-bit of information we returned to Dame Tsaya to update her.

After FC caught up we were off in a flash to the Darkened Halls (20.7S 0.7E), which now seems to be over run with recent arrivals.  Drudge lurkers have replaced the former inhabitants of easy drudges along with some hollow minions so throw on some armor unless your meleeD is about 300 robes won't survive.  After clearing the place of these unwelcome newcomers we discovered a chest key on a minion and got a note from a strange purple/blueish chest.  More information for Dame Tsaya, so back we sped.

This was something important and we were rewarded with uber loot - 3 wood golem hearts and 5K experience. But the information is too vital and must be passed on, so Dame Tsaya requested we take this information to Sir Rylanan in Holtburg. "NP" we replied, "as soon as FC catches up we'll be off."

Once FC rejoined the party we figured it best to use a portal gem as the information was too important to wait for him to trek all over Dereth getting to Holtburg thru established portals.  Landing in Holtburg we raced to the Advocate's Tower (41.6N 34.2E)  to present him the details Tsaya had inscribed in a note.  Sir Rylanan ponders the details and begins to wonder if the new arrival to Holtburg from Mare Lassae with the same general description is related.  So he asks us to check out this reformed bandit (42.8N 30.4E).

Another period of hurry up and then wait for FC to find us.  Facing the supposed reformed bandit, he isn't very talkative till some hollow minions spawn in his hut.  Killing them we find an incriminating letter and resume our chat with the bandit.  But with a bit of miss-direction and guile he draws our attention off and hurriedly leaves. Even FC realizes this information and note should be returned to Sir Rylanan, so back to the tower we go.

Things are warming up now.  More sources and information has revealed something strange has happened to the banderlings at the Asuger Temple (45.1N 30.4E), and Sir Rylanan would like us to investigate further.  Once inside it is quickly evident that Berserkers have replaced the Banderling Youths.  But the party was well prepared and soon stands in a final room filled with more minions and a strange purple chest. 

A key is found among the remains and the chest looted.  A strange perfect orb with what appears to be portal energy inside.  The run back to Sir Rylanan goes well despite the frequent stops as FC catches his breath.  But it isn't long and we are presenting our discovery to him. More Phat Lewt, 10K experience 3 copper golem hearts this time.  Yet he begs of us to take the collected intelligence to Sir Tenshin in Shoushi to bring him up to date. That seems simple, and a quick portal gem later we are in Shoushi.

The Advocate's Tower is North (32.8S 73.3E) of the town.  He is worried about some farmer (37.4S 75.5E0 to the SE and would like us to drop by to investigate.  Why not it's on the way to Hebian-to and our portal home anyway.

Once found the farmer seems ok but surely has a fixation about avoiding the fireplace.  Well FC being FC the word avoid is like waving a red flag in front of a bull.  Not like, exactly!  So we investigate the fireplace and discover a trap door.  This leads to an empty room, but what is that scratching noise coming from behind the fireplace. The old pull the candle on the wall trick and the fireplace slides away revealing a passage.

Following deeper in we come to a room of armor and a room of uniforms, snatching a strange uniform and message from within the chest we retrace our steps and heading back outside.  This discovery greatly pleases Sir Tenshin and now the loot is heaped upon us - 15K exp and 3 Obsidian golem hearts.  Why am I not surprised by his request to take this detailed account back to Dame Tsaya.  If these folks ever grasp the concept of cell phones a whole lot of wasted shoe leather will be avoided.

Dame Tsaya rambles on deep in thought about the implications of what has been gathered over the night's activities.  Giving us a key she indicates of changes at Fort Wilshire.  Look lady we were on our way home and stopped in to check on the farmer out of courtesy, this is out of our way and morning is approaching.  She swears this will be the last task she needs performed and FC foolishly agrees before we can haggle about a reward.

So we enter her portal and arrive in some dungeon deep in the bowels of Fort Wilshire.  Pressing on thru the minions we find several ramps leading up and eventually there is a portal to the Fort itself.  Yeah it leads to inside the fort and into the arms of more minions that seemed to have surrounded and taken over the place.  Granted we've not visited Fort Wilshire in ages, but I certainly don't remember any minions.

Once the minions were dispatched we scouted out the area and ascertained the key must be of use on that locked door on the building in the center of the Fort.  Opening the door we pile inside to find nothing but a trap door.  Oh well here's hoping that this trap door only is inhabited by rats like the last one.

Well that thought didn't last long as we hacked and slashed our way thru marinates in those strange uniforms and hollow minions.  Down about 3 ramps later we stumbled on to a big open room, where several waves of creatures attacked us lead by one minion named Drinath.  Drinath was of course carrying a note so it was time to return to Dame Tsaya.

Clued into the ways of her tricks we no sooner handed in the note & received our compensation when we gemed home before she could even think of some new adventure to be investigated.

Once home with time to look over our loot, it turned out to be two SIKs and a nice fancy ring.  Maybe after some rest we can go back and see if she has something else for us to research, this is a very nice ring.

Ag

FC version: 

Speak to NPC

While not finished

Run somewhere

Wait from FC to catch up

Kill critters Get note & loot

Speak to NPC

End While

Get 'my pretty' return home