The Kartoss Gambit (The Way of the Shaman: Book #2) (11 page)

Quest 'Deliver a letter' completed. Reward: 10 Experience, points remaining until next level: 1081 Experience.

"Dearie, can you help out a weak helpless woman? I jotted down a note for Mabel here, but there's no-one except for you to deliver it. Would you do a kindness for Granny," the old lady's words, who was giving me the envelope with an innocent smile, nearly gave me a coughing fit. A cyclical quest! Well, I'll be! Count on me to get this 'lucky'! I could spend the rest of the day running between the two old women, who would keep bashing me with lectures on morality and ethics and asking me to deliver the next letter. I almost decided to decline, but was hit with a crazy idea. And why not?

"Can you tell me why you can't give her the letter yourself?"

"I told you, I'm too old and have no strength to walk over there. And if you delivered the letter, everything would be just swell," she once again tried to give me the envelope.

"Then hang on tight," I warned the old lady, came up to her, took the letter, crouched, gripped her by the legs and stood up.

"Aw!" Patricia's voice had notes of panic in it. She gripped my hair with one hand and started vigorously waving the other one around. "What are you doing, you maniac?! Dear me! Ah! Oh!" the old woman started to wail and fret.

I confidently headed towards the flower-painted house, where Mabel lived. A cyclical delivery quest, you say? Well, well. We'll see just how advanced an Imitator was installed in these old ladies when they find themselves sitting opposite each other. Will they keep passing messages through me or will they start speaking directly? They can give those moral lectures to each other then. One thing worried me somewhat — the wailing exclamations of the old woman we loud enough for the whole town to hear and could have got me in trouble with the guards.

"My goodness, Patricia, you've got yourself some stallion there!" exclaimed Mabel when we arrived at her doorstep. I put the now quiet old lady down and was surprised once again by how similar they looked. The developers really decided not to work too hard on a free cyclical quest, took one prototype and just changed the color of its clothes.

"Here you go, please sign for a successful delivery," I said, smiling, seeing the befuddled faces of both grannies. "Now you can talk enough to last you a whole week, I'll come by in the evening and carry Patricia back home."

"Why are we standing on the doorstep?" fussed Mabel. "If you've come for a visit, do come in for a cup of tea. You also come in — since you've brought Patricia here, you can look after us for a bit."

Quest accepted: 'Serving old lady friends.'

Description: Look after two lady friends who had just met up. Quest type: Uncommon. Reward: 80 Experience. Penalty for failing or refusing the quest: 3 hours of community service.

'What!? Where the heck did those three hours of community service come from? You can go to hell with quests like that!' I though angrily and got ready to leave, but then saw a group of guards who were casting interested glances in our direction. A chill went down my spine. Looks like they did come in response to the old woman's cries after all, but decided not to interfere and see first how it all ended. If I refused right now, I'd be immediately tied up and spend those three hours doing community service: washing walls, cleaning horses or sweeping the square. What possessed me to carry this granny here?

"Of course, dear ladies, I will look after you, since I helped you meet up," I muttered, entering the house after the old ladies.

Mabel's house turned out to be very cozy and full of light. The white and seemingly weightless curtains were hung on the windows and big pots with flowers stood on small tables. As the old lady passed one of them, she swiped one of the leaves with her finger, carefully looking at the result — she probably wipes dust (which doesn't exist in Barliona) off her flowers on daily basis.

"You go to the kitchen, dearie, and make us some tea. You'll find cookies and sugar in the cupboard; when you make it, bring it here," said the hostess, after settling down in a comfy armchair. "We'll have a girl-to-girl chat while you're at it."

"Tea is a good thing, of course, but I don't know how to make it, I never learned," I made a last-ditch attempt to get out of the quest.

"Have to teach you everything these days — how will these youngsters survive without us, I wonder? It's like you can never retire," grumbled Patricia, and then waved me away. "Go and don't come back without the tea."

"And don't forget the cookies," Mable reminded me, as I examined the message that appeared before my eyes.

New Rare Cooking recipe learned: Aromatic Black Tea. Total recipes: 3.

I quickly opened my cookbook to have a look at what it was I just learned:

Aromatic Black Tea.

• Description: Excellent black tea from the leaves of the highland tea tree, which give off an unforgettable aroma. Crafting stat bonus: + (Crafting) to the maximum Energy value. Whoever drinks this tea will feel extraordinary vitality. Duration: 12 hours. On use: Restores 20% of Hit Points and Mana. Minimum level: 10.
  
• Crafting requirements: minimum Cooking level 5.
  
• Ingredients: simple water, leaves of the highland tea tree.
  
• Instruments: Cooking kit
  

Great! I got a nice little bonus practically free! Sure, I'll make the tea for the old ladies, and then see what the result of doing that with Crafting could be!

I spent some time preparing the tea, found a tray and placed on it two cups full of hot tea, steaming with fragrant aroma. Now I had to find some cookies, which the grannies implacably demanded. Their ceaseless chatter could be heard even from behind a closed door. What a boisterous pair! I wondered how their tongues weren't hurting from talking all the time... After going through practically every cupboard I was about to go to Mable to ask for the exact coordinates of the cookies, but found them in one of the farthest shelves. They were hidden behind an almost full bottle, which was labeled 'Cherry liqueur'. I glanced around thievishly and poured some liqueur into both cups of tea. They really shouldn't have shanghaied me. I don't remember wrongs, but I don't suffer from amnesia either. The liqueur shouldn't do them any harm, but just in case I selected the cup and had a look at its properties. Better safe than sorry.

Aromatic Black Tea with Liqueur. +4 to the maximum value of Energy, +50 Attractiveness to the maker (does not stack with similar effects). The drinker of such tea becomes slightly tipsy and feels an exceptional surge of energy. Duration: 12 hours. On use: Restores 20% of Hit Points and Mana. Minimum level: 10.

Plus fifty to Attractiveness? It sounds familiar, but I don't remember what it affects. I went to the guide to look it up.

Attractiveness
— a character stat that has a value between 0 and 100 and which determines the attitude of NPCs towards the player. It is impossible to choose to level up in this stat — it can only be increased by temporary buffs, a change of clothes, communicating with NPCs or other available means. Unlike Reputation, which affects the entire faction, Attractiveness affects each NPC separately, including an NPC belonging to a faction with which you have a negative reputation. When Attractiveness reaches 80 and above, NPCs of the opposite sex could offer the player a visit to the Dating House. You can look up your current level of Attractiveness of your character to an NPC in that NPC's properties.

That it! How could I forget?! This is the thing for which players create beautiful-looking characters, dress in bright clothes and wear jewelry. The higher the Attractiveness, the higher the probability of being given unique quests. I took the tray and entered the room with endlessly chattering old ladies and smiled — when I looked up my level of Attractiveness in Mable's properties: it was a solid three. It was a surprise that the old lady let me into her house if she finds me so unpleasant.

Without looking in my direction and barely pausing from their talk, the old ladies quickly drank their tea, taking no notice of its temperature. I knew that I couldn't leave until I was dismissed, so I sat on the sofa and briefly closed my eyes. A five-hour nap is a good thing, but it's no substitute for proper sleep. The old ladies started off on another lively discussion and without noticing it, I fell asleep for the second time that day. I was woken up by a song:

And it's no, nay, never,

No nay never no more,

Will I play the wild rover

No never no more.

Embracing each other, the old ladies swayed to the melody and diligently sang out the lyrics, looking at the world with tipsy eyes. Great, now they'll accuse me of making grannies into drunkards. At some point the hazy gazes of Mabel and Patricia fell on me and they stopped singing.

"Just tell me Mabel, how could a young man, who makes such delicious tea, end up in prison, eh?"

"You don't say, Patricia! I'm at a loss with it myself. He seems to have it all: hands, feet and a head, but he still ended up a murderous thug. All the youth is like this today — they want all it quick and easy."

"I think that's because he doesn’t have a proper woman behind him! If he had a wife, she'd stop him going down the slippery slope!"

"Too true! I happen to have an unmarried lady neighbor. She'd put him on the straight and narrow. Even our blacksmith is afraid of her. She's scary, he says... What does he know of beauty in women?"

"You don't say. Always walks past my house with thin stick-like waifs. There's hardly anything there to look at. And your neighbor’s a different story — a pleasure to see how she can carry three sacks of flour on her shoulder."

At this point I completely woke up and stared at the old ladies. What the heck is going on? Drunken NPCs are planning to marry me off? And to some female version of Hercules too? Baffled, I looked from Patricia to Mabel and back. I'm really in it now! First I carried the old lady here and then got them so drunk on liqueur that they intend to get me married. I was afraid to think of what would happen next.

"But where would this pretty boy have the money for our sweet dove? He doesn't have a penny to his name, just look at him. I reckon we need to help him, what do you think?"

"Helping is good. But would he manage it? How many seekers have we already sent? None came back, the woodwothe did them all in, including my own sweetheart," Mabel wiped a tear.

"He'll make it, just look at the wild glances he's giving us. It's like he was himself a woodwothe!"

"True, that. Dearie," Mabel turned to me now, "we decided to help you. You're kind and understanding, arranged this meeting for us, and all. A good lad! But that's not enough for you to win over our sweet lass. You need to prepare yourself. She has to see you as a handsome lad and not some roving riff raff. We know of a hidden treasure. A long time ago a rich merchant Swiftbel buried it and put a woodwothe to guard it. If you can get the better of the wothe, the treasure will be yours and you can ask our sweet lass for her hand in marriage. What do you say?"

Quest accepted: "Don’t wake the wothe in its snooze".

Description: Deep in the forest, ten kilometers to the south of the town (the location is marked on the map) there lives a woodwothe. Find it and take Swiftbel's treasure that it is guarding. Quest type: Rare. Reward: Swiftbel's treasure. Penalty for failing or refusing the quest: none.

The quest description didn't say a word about marriage or a time limit, so I agreed to take it. Me passing up a rare treasure-finding quest? Not gonna happen!

"That's very good then. Now carry me home, I've been here for ages now," said a pleased Patricia and stretched her arms towards me.

Quest 'Serving old friends' completed.

Reward: 80 Experience, points remaining until next level: 1001 Experience.

I said good bye to Mabel and carefully delivered Patricia home, who now looked pleased and cast a masterful gaze at the surroundings, I was on my way to get the maps.

The Cartographer was a representative of a species common in Barliona: gnome, greedybuggeritis vulgaris. For two gold he offered me to buy ‘the most exactest ever’ map, put together by a ‘daring and lucky’ explorer. The snag of it was that I knew full well that good maps cost upwards of two hundred gold, but fell for the Cartographer’s words like a little kid. After handing me the map and taking my money, the gnome did all he could to see me out, saying he was busy, that he needed to visit his grandmother and generally had a headache, but I did manage to unfold and take a look at what I bought. Oh boy! A map like this I could draw myself even without the Cartographer profession! It had arrows, some incomprehensible unlabelled signs and drawings of supposedly interesting locations that took up half the map. With predictable trepidation I turned the page and looked at the plan of the town. Whoever drew this map should be banned for life from ever repeating the feat. The streets were simple straight lines forming a grid and here and there had labels like ‘Bangk’, ‘Meine square’ and ‘Toomple’… I looked at the gnome and was met by the gaze of big, honest eyes, radiating incomprehension.