The Civil Service (Stone Town, Part 1)

(A little introduction... I foreshadowed a fourth character...)

 

(I did it. I made a third sub-account. You can only have five accounts, but I only really need four since you can only have four people fighting side-by-side. It's free to play now but I might give it pre-paid time too - that would mean $40 a month, ouch! And worse, he's just starting so I'd have to spend a month at least to get him to Zafaria, but hey, I'm willing to sacrifice my time on this blog to get a decent healer. ;) )

(Since it's my first character there I had to do the tutorial, but it was quick and we got him situated. I plan on having him work with one of my more negelected wizards as he progresses. Anyways, I won't start speed-running until Monday because I have a lot of work to do on Sunday with church AND a long shift of work! I won't spoil anything about this mysterious fourth character until next part. Back to the story! But first, some foreshadowing...)

"Oh hello," said the handsome guy on the black stallion as he rode outside and nearly bumped into me. "Sorry, I'm new here. This is a rental mount as I'm very poor."

"Oh my," I said. I blushed a bit, he was pretty handsome. "It's okay. Say, you have any meek treasure cards? I can trade you all of my Empowers for them, they sell for a decent amount at the Bazaar."

"I really couldn't," he started but I forced him to trade.

"I insist," I said, throwing in a few Auras. "You need the money and I don't need these cards - it's good stuff but I'm strong as it is and my Couch Potatoes keep giving me these."

He did a double-take. "You're Sierra Fairyfriend, the one who slew Malistaire, right?"

"I had help," I said modestly.

"Well... I've been helping Ambrose deal with some old foes of yours who came back from the dead, like Lady Blackhope."

I gasped. This must be Morganthe's doing, her dark magic was not only affecting Zafaria, it was affecting the entire Spiral! "You okay?"

"I'm good," he said. "Name's Ethan Jadeshade. I'm Wu's student."

"You're a theurgist?" I said.

He nodded. "Just got my Nature's Wrath spell."

"Okay, so you're an Initiate," I said. "That's too bad, we could use a healer. But don't tell Christina if you see her, she's angry because I tank better than her."

"Well, I'm sure I'll, by some miracle, be able to join you and your friends some day, I owe you one." He rode off and I caught a glimpse of a ring...

(Those last two screenshots are something new - KI just added a new update which causes a few events to get camera cut-scenes like in Pirate101. I haven't seen any more new such scenes in Wizard City, but maybe in other worlds...)

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"This is a very sad day," said Mma Makutsi.

"Yes," said Mma Ramotswe. "It is." She would have liked to say that it was not, that there was a positive side to this; she was not one to concentrate on the bleak. (The Miracle at Speedy Motors)
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Queen Amahle directed us to a guy called Hannibal who had a boat on the river of Baobab. Since he was an elephant, I knew the guards would let him pass to Stone Town.

"Yes," said Grace. "We would like to go to the Elephant Nation, please. We heard you had a boat."

"Haven't you ever heard of the Zafarian Queen?" he said. "Well, no matter, the thing's busted."

We facefaulted.

"I traded the boiler to some guy called Esop Thornpaw," he said. "Lives out in the Savannah."

"We know where Rra Thornpaw is," said Grace. "We'll go there."

 

Of course, she just HAD to help out a Marleybone woman who was visiting Baobab, especially when she wanted to try some red tea and some bandits stole it. Grace forced us to go hunt down the crooks. "After all," said Grace. "A good cup of red tea is always important."

I shook my head and decided to go with it. (Touched on this side-quest, which doesn't open up until you reach Zamunda. There are three quests involving a chain of fights and the last one... just has you returning to the Pyramid of the Sun to chat with Professor Winthrop. X_X)

 

Esop offered a trade for the boiler, claiming it was art. One man's trash... we had to harvest the Evil Magma Peas(with Chief Kakura's permission, of course) - I am jealous! I wish I could harvest a few for my garden, I have a 69-plot garden read for the EMPs and I only have three seeds! :(

 

Of course, we had to fix the thing, but Kiliman let us borrow a book from Marleybone and Christina and I got to work on it...

Not. (I had to LOL here. This is the most hilarious line in the game! "This is a complex procedure... oh wait, you're a wizard? Screw it, just magick the thing!" XD)

Hannibal was good on his word and we boarded his boat and took a trip down the river to a much more adobe-built community.

"Thank you, Rra Onetusk," said Grace. "Now if you excuse us, we must go to the palace right away to make peace with your people."

We bowed. "Rra Sharptusk, it is I, the daughter of Obed Rainsmith," said Grace. "My father's cousin lived near here and we traveled here to trade goods."

"Ah yes, the little blue-haired child," said Amar, bowing. "Your people have been very good to us, trading pumpkins and meal for our stone to build their houses with. Alas, things have become more violent as of late and your people have had a harder time trading with us."

"We know," said Grace. "We are here to end this fighting. We need an audience with the queen."

"I'm afraid it's too risky right now," said Amar, polishing his swords. "The Musuth Berserkers have started rioting and I must make sure that the queen is safe. If you can douse the Musuth's fires, I will grant you permissiion to speak to our Highness, Arayane Silvertusk."

Hey, when you are in the Elephant Kingdom... (Yep, the Musuth Berserkers are Fire. Easy-peasy kills for Grace. ^_^)

"We know," I said. "The sooner we get to speak to your queen, the sooner we can end this."

"Very well, you are free to enter," said Amar, stepping aside. "Do behave yourself, though."

I was impressed by the aquarium, but focused on our goal. We approached the reclining Queen and bowed deeply in respect.

"Why you..." whispered Christina, but I held her back.

"No, Your Highness," said Grace, bowing. "We are ambassadors of Queen Amahle Autumnrain. We are here to inform you that the Umbra Queen is responsible for attacking your son and that a traitor to the Zebra Clan, a foul sorcerer called Tse-Tse Snaketail, has been serving her as a spy. If my hunch is correct, The Umbra Queen has your son."

There was a terse silence and I thought we would be thrown out, but she nodded. "Your father, Obed, was a good honest man, my child. If you are as honest as he, then I have no doubt what you say is true. But... my people will not be as easily convinced. They have captured one of your Wizards."

"That must be Lail Brighteyes, the final student," I said. "The Pyromancy student. He was the one

 Go speak to my adviser, Hathi Irontrunk."

"Says you," said Christina. I facepalmed.

"Rra Irontrunk, we are here to ask your help, we want to see the Wizard which is imprisoned," said Grace calmly. "He is with the group I was attending to."

"I see, so he is with you," said Hathi. "We have him impounded in the Dajarani Zoo."

 

Sadly, a Greyhorn guard kept us out. Hathi was not pleased about this rudeness.

"Can you help us get a Royal Order?" I asked.

"Of course, I'll make one for you," said Hathi. "I will need Queen Anryanah's Royal Ring, though."

That was easily done.

"Seriously?" I said in a deadpan.

"Wait, I never forget!" said Hathi. (Yeah, because elephants have perfect memory. :p) "My pen and parchment were stolen by those Musuth Berserkers..."

I sighed. "BRB."

(Several battles later...)

We managed to get the items back to Hathi, and he forged the Royal Order. Rakstede Steelhorn quickly cowed when he saw the royal seal on it. "Okay, I guess it is. You can enter."

"I can't believe our fellow student is locked up with guys like these!" said Christina.

"Here he is," said Grace.

"I'm glad you're okay, Lail," I sighed. "Of course... that's a relative term."

"Oh thank goodness you guys are here!" said Lail. "You've got to get me out of here! I stowed away on a riverboat manned by those elephants but they found me. I tried to explain that the Prince was captured by a crazy zebra but they threw me in this hole!"

We facepalmed.

"Well, now we know where that rumor got started," Christina mumbled.

"Huh?" asked Lail.

Congrats, I thought. Your words started a war between the elephants and zebras!

"It is okay,"said Grace. "For now, be calm. We will try to get you back to Ravenwood."

"Thanks," said Lail.

"For now, this is the safest place for you," I said. "There is fighting in the streets and I'm sure they feed you decently. We'll get you out, though." I turned and nodded. We had to talk to the Queen.

I grabbed Christina's arms as she snarled. Grace calmed here down - I admit I was angry as well, Lail was not a guinea pig! But we were in the presence of royalty, and when you are a 100-pound elephant with authority, you got to say what you dang well pleased!

"Can you help us?" said Grace.

"I am sorry, my head hurts," mumbled Queen Aryanah. "The fighting in the streets is so loud!"

Grace pulled us aside. "We will not be able to reach her as long as the fighting continues. We must quell the rioting before we can get anywhere."

"Yeah," I agreed. "While Lail's to blame for the rioting, we should fix it first."

So we had to beat up a few more grey-skinned guys. (You talk to Hathi and he tells you to beat up a bunch of Greyhorn mercs. You thought we were DONE with fighting these guys? BWA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAA!!! XD)

"We will never serve the queen!" roared one of the rhinos. "She is weak and surrounded by fools!"

"I see we have dissent," I muttered.

We defeated a few more Musuths and then Christina held up something - the hat they were wearing. "This feels pretty wonky."

"Yes," said Grace. "I feel a very dark magic around it."

"Hmmm... maybe that's what is making them berserk," I said. "Let's show this to Hathi."

"Take this to the market, I am sure some people there might know where it came from."

 

 

We asked around the market and were directed to a merchant called Kella Longthought. She too was clueless, but she pointed us to Tala Snakesquasher.

"Thank you," I said.

"I am leaving for a trade pilgrimage soon, the fighting here is unacceptable to me," said Tala. "I will hit all the usual stops - Marleybone, Mooshu, Avalon, Polaris. The usual stops."

"I heard about Polaris," said Grace. "Mma Thatcher told me she broke a notorious criminal from there out of jail. It is a very cold place."

"It is good you caught me at that time, any later and I would not have been here," said Tala, smiling. "So, what do you need?"

I held out the headdress. "We've asked around and people say you might know something about this."

"I see," said Tala, examining it. "But the gem is damaged."

We looked at each other sheepishly. "We'll get some more... and be more careful this time."

(Three battles later...)

Grace grew pale. "I know that place - when I was young, me and my daddy would go there to graze the cattle. We stayed in the outer reaches as the inner reaches were inhabited by the Gorillas. Daddy told me never to go too deep in the jungle as the Gorillas do not believe in politics and we would not be safe from their wrath. We did trade a bit with them, but only for small things. They are powerful magic-users, you do not want to cross them."

"But who and how would associate with them?" I murmured.

"I know of one who trades with them," said Tala. "His name is Belloq."

"I wonder if Hannibal knows about this guy?" asked Christina.

"What's up?" I said. "You wouldn't know a man called Belloq, would you?"

"Ugh, Belloq," he muttered. "He's a shifty one. I wouldn't advise associating with him, but I'm sure you have your reasons if that name comes up. He works down in the Waterfront, a port that borders the Drum Jungle down river. We'll have to see if the Greyhorns will let us pass. Go and 'discuss' it with them. Don't be afraid to use your 'tusks' if you hafta. He he."

Oh yeah, we 'discussed' with our 'tusks.' Unfortunately, the answer was the same: "We will not let you pass down-river!"

"Can't we sneak down-river?" asked Christina.

"The Zafarian Queen's too big a target, they'll blow us out of the water," said Hannibal. He then got thoughtful. "But... I have a friend with a rowboat that barely fits four, he might be able to help us. Go talk to the lion Sobaka in the market."

We had to deal with a mice problem. I knew elephants get a little antsy around mice, but discovered that they were toys.

 

 

We tracked down the culprit laying down these toys. It was a zebra warrior who was sowing chaos in Stone Town. We subdued her.

I let Grace deal with the negotiations.

"Mma Wildside," she said. "We know why you are doing this, you want to drive the Elephants from Stone Town. But we promise that we will return Prince Tziri to his mother's side and she will stop the invasion of Zamunda. We promise this fighting will end, on my daddy's grave. Please stop."

"I see," said Zandile. "There may be more to this war between Zamunda and Stone Town than I know. Very well, I will stop laying down the mice... for now."

I nodded and understood. We were bargaining - if we didn't uphold our end by ending this war, she would start laying the mice again. "We promise we'll keep our bargain... unless we get killed, but I doubt that will happen." I laughed.

"I hope so too, Kella," I said. "I hope so too."

[To Be Continued...]

An Encounter With A King (Zamunda finale)

[We're finally getting this done today. I have work AND church tomorrow so I have little free time to do anything, so I have to get this done now. Also, before I forget, no, these titles are not actually the titles of the book's chapters(except for one); I have used artistic license to rename the titles to fit the scenario of each update. The actual chapter title of this part is 'An Encounter With a Bicycle'; read the book, I am not spoiling story details and the books are great reads.)

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A day -- a weekday too -- with no Mma Ramotswe; it seemed strange, almost ominous, like a day on which something dark was due to happen. But she put that thought of her mind. She had resigned and had moved on. That's what people said these days -- they talked about moving on. Well, that's what she had done, and presumably people who moved on did not look back. (The Good Husband on Zebra Drive)
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(And we start with a side-quest. I am not kidding, this elder fired a side-quest as soon as we opened the doors.)

"This place is creepy," said Christina. "And there's even a skeleton here!"

Grace approached it and it came to life. I grabbed my bow, ready to attack, but it spoke. "Wizard, you have a good heart beating in your chest. I am Zebu Blackstripes, one of the great kings of old. Thieves stole my grave goods and I charge you with recovering them."

Grace bowed to him. "Rra Blackstripes, we will honor you with your request and recover the goods."

"We're gonna have to beat up a bunch of guys to get them back, are we?" groaned Christina. "Can't we skip it for later? Tse-Tse..."

Grace glared at her. "It is always important to honor one's ancestors, and Rra Blackstripes is the ancestor of King Shaka. If we help him, he may help us with his descendant's curse."

"Okay, but if Tse-Tse gets away, I'm blaming you," said Christina. I giggled.

 

In truth, I am glad we helped the dead king as he told us stuff about what he called The Council of Light. I had a feeling we would become very acquainted with them in the future. I also learned that the sword was crafted in Valencia by a 'duelmaster.' Hmmm... I wonder...

(Side-quest time! I didn't detail it, but we had to get a sword from Jackal Bandits, scrolls from the Shamans[okay, so I misinformed you about the last Shaman kill quest :(] and yet MORE of them rhino men for the Imperial Fan.)

Unfortunately, it didn't look like we were getting to the inner sanctum without a fight. :(

(The Ghostly Iklaw Warriors have 1950 HP and are Death, so get ready for plenty of this.)

 "We're okay," I said. "Let's hurry!"

"Tse-Tse!" I shouted. "You are NOT getting away with your evil!"

"Foolish girls," said Tse-Tse, summoning...

 SPIDERS. Oh no...!!! O_O

KILL THEM WITH FIRE! Or frog puke works. :)
 

"No," said Grace.

"We can get out of here and..." I began.

"I don't think this ghost is gonna let us live," said Christina.

"Great Zebu, please don't attack us!" begged Grace. "We are not your enemies!"

 

"I don't think he's listening, Grace!" shouted Christina as she unleashed an attack...

And then got knocked unconscious by the Shadow-Weavers. Me and Grace finished them off.

(Funny story here - I forgot to pack Grace and Sierra away from the center of the room, I thought they would be okay. Two lessons I learned today: [1] Shadow-Weavers respawn quickly. [2] Fleeing a battle in this area is a BAD idea as Dungeon Recall seems to not count this place as a dungeon. Actually, Christina was able to warp back with Dungeon Recall, but it didn't appear for the others, and you can't port to a friend in the tomb, this is one of those 'disabled friend port' areas. Needless to say, the game thought I had switched realms. Short story shorter - I HAD TO REDO THE ENTIRE THING WITH THOSE TWO! Yeah, it's three battles but SERIOUSLY! I was luckly Ryan Blade helped Grace out[he also got denied because he had to flee as he ran out of cards] and I had Amy help out with Sierra, but GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME!!!! :( )

(So the next few screenshots are inconsistent. Sorry.) 

 "Yes, we are trying to stop her," I said. "Can you help us?"

 "Wow, this helps," said Christina. "Grace, you take it. You do the honors."

"I will try," said Grace. "Let's return to Queen Autumnrain."

"Yes, but Tse-Tse stole some of his essence of got away," I said.

Amahle's stripes paled. "You have no time to lose, hurry to the palace and destroy that evil vine!"

"Not if we stop you!" shouted Christina as Tse-Tse pointed at the shield. The barrier fell away and Tse-Tse caught the artifact as Christina powered up her Ra.

"No!" said Grace, grabbing her arm. "If you attack, you'll destroy the shield."

Tse-Tse cackled. "You foolish girls, you think you are warriors but you are nothing but whelps. I will take this to the Umbra Queen... and you will have the pleasure of fighting the greatest zebra warrior alive! Bwa ha ha!" He teleported away.

"DANG!!!!" screamed Christina, stomping her foot. "Dang you, you freak!"

"We have more important to deal with, guys," I sighed.

"King Zebu, resist the evil!" screamed Grace. "Don't make us fight you!"

(Shaka Zebu is Balance and has about 6750 HP; the Carrior Flower Men are Life and have about 2015 HP)

"He's too enthralled," I said as Judgement arrived and zapped me. "I'll Medusa him..."

"No... I must do this..." Grace summoned her power.

"Great King Zebu, wake up!"

The Leviathan slapped him and he collapsed. (Woo! Awesome!)

I still had Medusa appear, and she turned the tropical treant with him to stone. (Had to fight a mob battle of two Carrior Flower Men first.)

Grace took the oddly-shaped blade and slammed it down on the dark vine. It shriveled up and melted into a stinky smoke and the tree recovered.

"Uh, what happened?"

The zebra king was back to normal and his eyes looked fine. We bowed before him as he took to his throne. "My name is Sierra, this is Grace, and this is Christina. We have destroyed the evil vine."

"You have restored me," said Shaka, smiling. "Your names will be told in legends here in Zamunda until the sun grows cold." He turned to Grace. "I heard about you, Rainchild. You are the one whose father traded good food to us. He had fine cattle."

"You honor me," said Grace, bowing low. "Forgive me, we couldn't stop Tse-Tse from stealing the Shield... and the Umbra Queen has the Lions' Crown."

"I feared as much," sighed Shaka, shaking his mane. "I do not know what sinister plan Tse-Tse has for the Umbra Queen, but he will likely go after the Swords of the Elephant next. I know because I am a military genius. If he can steal the essence of the ghosts of our people to break the barrier..."

"He doesn't need ghost guts," I said. "Morganthe's got the Prince of the Elephants."

"I dunno," said Christina. "I mean, wasn't he with the students? Msizi said she helped them escape."

"Even if that were true," said Grace. "He's not in Zamunda - the Shamans would have found him long ago and ended this attack."

"I am sure you will find him," said Shaka. "Just like you saved me, you will save him. Go tell my wife that the spirals are gone from my eyes."

We bowed again.

"You look like Ravenwood students," he added. "Long ago, your headmaster, Merle Ambrose, led the Council of Light to defeat the Umbra Queen and entrusted us with the four Golden Treasures. I am assured that you can, if not protect the Gorilla's Amulet and Swords, you can save the Prince."

That was a bombshell - Merle Ambrose lead this Council of Light?

"We have words for him when we recover the others," muttered Christina. "He has a lot of explaining to do..."

"Iie," said Grace. "No doubt she wants the Prince's power to break into the tombs of the Elephants. We must not let her get him."

"The elephants will not parley," said Queen Amalhe. "They believe WE are responsible for their missing Prince."

"Can you help us go to their kingdom?" I asked. "We can be your ambassadors and tell them what really happened!"

"They live down the river," said Queen Amahle. "They have closed river travel... but one Elephant owes me a favor. Speak to Hannibal at the Baobab Market docks. Tell him his favor must be repaid."

We nodded and looked at each other. We had to hurry before Morganthe got her claws on the Prince... and we have one more student and the professor to find.

 

 

The elder Blind Whitemane asked us for some favors, but they were nothing serious, we didn't have to do any battles. We helped him out and he told us a story which changed our lives forever...

 He said: "Do you know much of Zafaria of old? Time was when the Umbra Queen ruled the whole land from her Spider Temple. Her shadow fell on all people and they were forced to serve her dark whims. But there was always hope. A Lion King, a Zebra witch doctor, an Elephant Longdreamer and a Gorilla Chief created a mighty spell to open a Spiral Door. A council of Wizards came through and helped them tear down the Spiral Temple and restore the world to brightness."

"Perhaps we are hearing that story again today."

That last past was a prophecy though I didn't know it at the time. Grace called us into her office.

(I plan on putting a drawing I made of this part here when I can borrow a scanner to scan the picture into a file.)

She pulled something out of her desk - it was a ring with a lion's head carved out of ruby. She slipped it on her finger. "Nice jewelry," said Christina.

I examined it closely. It was a silver ring forged with expert craftsmanship, like two silver vines in a loop. The head was a ruby inset carved in the shape of a lion's head with two garnets for eyes.

Grace sighed. "My daddy's cousin gave it to me, and she said her mother gave it to her and told her that it was given to her by one of the Lion Tribes and that it would bring good luck to whoever wears it and it was part of a set of four."

I gasped. "That's why you wanted us to see it."

"What?" asked Christina.

"Well, you see..." I slowly dipped into my pocket and pulled out a similar ring. Only it was forged from gold and had a sapphire carved in the shape of an elephant's head with the long trunk holding an orb made of lapis lazuli. Grace gasped.

"This is an heirloom my mother gave me before I was orphaned," I said. "And yes, I am an orphan, my parents... we lived in Cool Ranch before some banditoads sank my parent's ship, with them on it. I was at an uncle's ranch and he took me in when the news hit. She said her grandmother gave it to her after obtaining it from a Elephant merchant in another world and was told it would bring good luck and was one of a set of four..."

"You too?" cried Christina. We turned as she pulled out something from fanny pack. We went eyes wide as we saw the ring she put on her finger. It was like ours only it was made of copper and had an emerald shaped like a zebra's head with jade eyes.

"Let me guess," I said. "That thing is a family heirloom, your parents gave it to you and they got it from their grandparents who got it from a Zebra..."

Christina nodded. "And it would bring the wearer good luck and was one of a set of four. This is beyond creepy."

"We all have rings that are unique," I said, rubbing my chin. "And our grandparents got them from one of the tribes of Zafaria. Look at the colors - red, blue and green, all colors of the rainbow. There has to be a connection between them..."

"And between us," said Grace.

We looked at each other. "Okay," said Christina, taking out her deck case. "On the count of three, all of us will whip off the top card in our decks." We took our cases out too. "One... two... THREE!"

We took off the top card in our decks and showed it.

Reshuffle. The card used to reshuffle cards back into our decks in a duel.

What were the odds?

I felt my body tingle and I am sure the others had too.

"But there is one more ring, the Gorilla ring," said Grace. "Whoever has it... that must be the one who will be connected to us."

I looked at the girls and shrugged. Where could this person be? Was it another wizard like us?

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"Thank you, Headmaster, for showing me around. I am eager to begin my training."

"Of course, Young Wizard. You..." Ambrose paused. "Oh my... I fear that..."

"What?" asked the boy.

"Nothing, nothing," said Ambrose, but the boy suddenly felt a tingle down his spine. He rubbed the ring he had worn since his father had given it to him...

A ring made of platinum, shaped like two vines intertwined, with an inset of a topaz carved in the shape of a gorilla's head with fangs of diamond.

(Dun dun DUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!!!) ^_^