Basket opens this one with a reset. Frost Nova on its own "seems pretty useless," so the class and skill points get wiped and rebuilt around a different mage ability. After that comes a lot of wandering in search of something to do. It takes most of the episode, but a quest turns up at the very end.
Respec, take two
Basket has found the switch for the patron sparkle dust, too. The class stays mage, and the new pick is Arcane Strike: hit an enemy with a wand and it sets off an arcane explosion, 6 damage to everything within 4 blocks of the target, on a 6-second cooldown. The first attempt happens on the wrong side of the hall. "This is for warrior. I was gonna say it doesn't quite sound right."
On the mage side, the button still won't work. Basket types into chat that the Arcane Strike button isn't working, and another player, Fangride, asks the obvious question: "are you a mage?" The reset had cleared the class too. One trip back to pick mage again, and Arcane Strike Level 1 unlocks.
Nobody has a quest
Basket's rule of thumb is that an NPC with a gold name might be part of a quest. The King gets the first visit, along with a promise not to make fun of the crown. "Hello King. You have a quest? I'm not mentioning anything about your hat." No quest. There's a parkour course that needs a bow, which gets skipped. So Basket goes back for the luck helmet and heads to the mine near the start, to try the new ability and see whether luck changes what's in the chests.
The mine, with a wand this time
Nobody has cleared the mine this time, so there's plenty to hit. The explosions go off in purple bursts and Basket likes it right away. "I think it's a lot better than Frost Nova." The wand also never loses durability. There's a foreman, a witch that's worth spending arrows on, creepers, webs to get stuck in, and spiders. One archer turns out to be just a head. "It's not actually a dude."
The webs give Basket an idea about the shops. Some things in town cost a lot of experience bottles, like a bow, but spiders and webs give you string for free. "If you go out and mine your own stuff, you can actually get quite a bit better stuff than the expensive stores." Basket skips the lower level and loots the chests up top with the helmet on. Did the luck help? "Maybe. I'm not sure." The haul includes a pair of boots that go straight on, lots of bread, a healing potion and some coal grabbed before the reset.
Change for experience bottles
Back in town, Basket finds out the money changer works both ways. Experience bottles can be condensed, and the condensed ones can be changed back for the same amount. That leaves 21 condensed bottles and 6 loose ones. The city map still doesn't seem to do anything, so it goes.
Next stop is the teleporters, which only go to towns you've already reached on foot. So Basket picks a direction. "Let's go east and find out what there is."
The Town of Nyr
East leads to the Town of Nyr, Gateway to the Blackroot Jungle. It has a farmer, alchemists, and a tavern selling cheap beer with Nausea. "Anything with Nausea is not really worth it." At the royal armory, Sergeant Sigrun assumes Basket is there to complain about the smell by the river and says troops are off to introduce Scarface Ed to soap. "I wanted a quest."
Jake Finch, a fisherman, offers a boat in exchange for listening to a joke. What do you call a pirate with two eyes and two legs? A rookie. Basket gets the boat and takes it out on the river for a bit.
Finally, a quest
Doctor Laurie has a problem. An outbreak of the Blackroot Plague is fatal to two thirds of the infected, and none of the doctor's drugs work. Some Tlaxani say their shamans could brew a cure. Bring back five doses: four for the patients and one so the doctor can learn to make it. "Took a while, but I got a quest."
The Plague is marked long, difficulty medium: look in the Southern Jungle for a Tlaxan Shaman. Basket notes it says find the shaman, not kill the shaman. That's next time.
