Path To Radiance; First Ascent

Chapter 6 - Ground Work: Part 2

Moss found a whole street that's a mini-shopping center. She blushes as she explains how she had mostly forgotten about her task and perused the shops instead. She describes a weapon and armor store, a clothing shop, and some other odds and ends vendors with a lot of variety. The most interesting shop to me is the one that only accepts Tower Gems. Since Moss had spent all of her Gems during character creation and getting her skill, she hadn't paid any attention to what was being sold. I make a mental note of where Moss had gone. I was going to go there and see if anything catches my interest.

Moss attempts to describe the direction she went as "North-East", but I unintentionally uncovered her little fib. She, too, had gone North. She was trying to not make Brick feel bad. Brick turned down an ally after leaving the "Skill Game Vendor". If he had turned left only once instead of taking that ally, he too would have gone to the bazaar.

How I knew she hadn't gone "North-East" is because I had gone that direction. I found what seems like a city hall. It was a very professional looking building, very modern and square being made mostly of glass. I didn't investigate too much more as there were guards everywhere and I wasn't trying to draw attention to myself.

In the same plaza as the city hall, I had found a few vendor stalls that look like newspaper stands. Each stand carried a different news source. I reach into my bag and pull out nine unusual coins. All were either blue, red, or black. I explain each as I pass them around to everyone.

"I was able to purchase subscriptions to each news source available in the plaza. Blue is the Southern Ascension Ledger, red is Tower Weekly, and the black is called Dungeon Crawler. SAL, or the blue one, tells about events here in this city. The Weekly reports the progress of Players in the Tower every Monday and the black one regularly updates the location of Dungeons throughout the over-world. I was only allowed to purchase one week for everyone but it shouldn't matter soon enough. Once we can enter the Tower, I feel everyone could afford these at two coppers a day."

Everyone accepts their tokens. After interacting with them, the coins disappear.

Tella finally takes her turn by saying only one sentence. "I have a lead which I will follow up on tonight." She won't explain further. I just shrug it off and continue to devour the food I had ordered while everyone takes their turns speaking.

We keep the same sleeping arrangements as the previous night. This time, however, I am sufficiently drunk on ale. Brick and I stumble to our room pretty late. The sensation of being drunk here is unsurprisingly the same as in real life. With a general buzzing, I pass out the moment my head hits the pillow.

I get up early, despite my hangover. Tella had gone off before Moss was even out of bed. She must be following up on her "lead". The other two come down for breakfast relatively early as well. We are all pretty antsy to get this show on the road. We divide up again and everyone picks a new direction to try and gather more information.

I send Moss with Brick so he won't get lost. Brick also requested that arrangement since Tella had refused to swap beds with him the night before, effectively blocking his advances toward Moss.

When I playfully tease him about what his reasoning is for the pairing, he swears he won't do anything untoward to her. I told him that if his actions cause her to quit the team, untoward or not, I would permanently assign Tella to him and make sure he never got any ever again. He just chuckled and left with the green-haired woman, waiving over his shoulder at me. If he's cool with some good-natured teasing, I won't have to worry about filling another spot in the party right away.

I slip away to the shops and make a few purchases here or there. I easily find my way thanks to Brick and Moss' tales. I didn't spend very many coins at first. The real money suck was the Knickknack vendor.