by marurun Mon Apr 12, 2021 3:05 pm
Maru, Ack, Pidg, and Popo emerge from a mountainous passage into the light of day and venture south to Baharata, where they are informed that the only shop that sells pepper is now closed because the shopkeeper's daughter has been kidnapped. When Maru & Co offer to help, the kidnapped daughter's boyfriend decides to go save her himself, because something something masculine insecurity. The party ventures out after the idiot and after freeing the two find out that their good pal Kandar was the kidnapper. You know, Kandar, the one they fought in the Tower of ShanPane. See, the Maru Cru didn't kill Kandar. They beat him down and then let him go after he handed over the crown and promised to reform. Seems his promise didn't stick, so the Cru beat him down again. At the point of Pidg's claw he begs for mercy, and for some reason the Cru are unable to say no. Literally unable, as if the universe denied them that option. Upon returning to Baharata Maru is given pepper as their reward for freeing the captured lovers. But the Maru Cru also hear of a shrine up north, called Dhama, where one can change their class. The Cru venture forth to take a peek and discover they are not ready, so they return to Portoga to claim their ship.
Once they lay claim to an ocean-going vessel, Maru cannot resist the urge to explore, so he drags everyone else along. While chilling in the crow's nest Ack spots a shrine within sight of Portoga and makes the mistake of sharing, ruining nap time. So now they have somewhere to go instead of just being a party barge. In the shrine an old man advises Maru of what's to the south and mentions 6 orbs that will let Maru go anywhere. Yes, within moments of getting a ship that opens up large portions of the world, Maru is told this is inadequate and what he really needs are 6 orbs. FML. Heading south, as day turns to night, the Maru Cru discover a nearly destroyed town which is still inhabited. They ransack the place and learn that there is a Final Key out there in the world somewhere and they will need to go further east and south to Lancel to find it. They then spend the night in the Inn and wake up in the morning to discover that the town is actually deserted, and only skeletons, and apparently apparitions at night, remain after the town's destruction. The Cru find a Dark Lamp which changes day to night on command, which is presumably how they would have discovered this town's hidden night club scene in other circumstances. There's some dude in a jail who wants to give away his orb, but during the day he's just a skeleton and at night there's a guard blocking the hole in the wall. Apparently the Final Key will be needed to get in and get the orb.
The Cru venture onward to Lancel and find the Navel of the World nearby, which they promptly ignore. They suit up on new equipment in Lancel and are motivated by somehow having some cash left to revisit some overpriced haggling merchants in Ashalam in search of rare offerings. Ack is finally motivated to get off his ass by some fancy Gold bling and turn to the Lewd side for better stat development. Only Popo is not totally onboard with the new majority perv party. At this point the Maru Cru are getting close to being beefy enough to change classes and start over, so they head back to Dhama to level up a bit in the hills nearby hunting elusive Metal slimes. They also learn a nearby tower has a mysterious Zen book that will allow someone to change to the Sage class, which is basically Priest + Wizard. Popo encourages (at staff-point) Maru to take him to the tower and retrieve the book. After much adventuring Popo successfully makes the transition to Sage and has to start over at level 1. That means more hunting of Metal slimes to try and get him up to speed. Luckily, even though level resets to 1, stats and HP/MP are only halved and Popo can still use all his beefy gear, so even at level 12 or so he's already mostly back in the game. Ack and Pidg start wondering if maybe they aren't missing out and mull over whether they, too, need a change of pace.