Sausalito's Progress:
Moves: 24,700
Level: 5
Runes: 4
Mantras: 4
Shrines: 3
Pals: 2
Party deaths: 7
We camped outside of Trinsic. I was about feed the fire with the History of Britannia when by chance I noticed that it explained how to tell when a moongate will pop up and where it will take you. From the map website (the cloth map was not very helpful), I found out that the Trinsic moongate could take us to Magincia! That nearly disastrous boat excursion was unnecessary, a point I didn't belabor to the others given how shook up we still were from the ordeal.
Actually, only Tubbs and I were shaken; Jaana was stirred. When the young druid had joined our party, she was meek, tending to cower behind Tubbs and myself during battle. When our ship was surrounded by the sea beasts on the way to Magincia, however, each of us had to fight alone for survival. Jaana, armed with nothing but her dagger and her will to live, prevailed. The experience had changed her; you could see it in her eyes. The druid's world of sun and moon, flora and fauna had gotten bigger. And so had she.
We moved to the moongate area and waited for it to open, making a detour to Paws to stock up on Gelatinous Pudding Packs and dragon jerky. When the gate appeared, we went through and found ourselves near Magincia. It was impossible to enter the dilapidated town without wading through some caustic muckity-muck, and I ended up getting poisoned. The locals remembered me instantly:
See that snake? That's the same critter that gave me my very first taste of poison and death. I stayed away from him while interrogating the undead townies (who said some hilarious things when asked about their health). One of them told me that the snake knew the location of the rune, and I should ask it before it had the chance to attack. Aw, poor creature, it's just misunderstood. So I stopped running from it and gently asked about the rune. He told me that it been banished to Paws on account of Magincia's pride. Realizing that he was referring to the humility rune, which I already had in possession, I thanked him for being such a nice venomous reptile.
"No hard feelings about before?" he asked with a puppylike expression. "It's cool," I replied. "Then it's okay if I do this!" he yelled as he sprung into the air and onto our faces. Great, now we were all poisoned! In the little time we had left, we pumped the locals for more information. At least we discovered the humility mantra: "PREORDER TABULA RASA."
Death. Then, a sickeningly familiar light...
