[January 10th]
We're getting closer to where I left off.
Like four more days to go or something.
~~~
[January 4th]
Topsummoner wrote:
Tahu 1000 wrote:
He most likely wouldn't, but how can he keep them when he goes into other bodies?
*walks up to random person* "Here, have all this money!" *FLASH!*
Later....
"Yay, I switched and kept the money!"
THE END
THAT'S how!
Lol.
Part 144: The Catherby Incident
64,000 gp. I've never even been to a store that sells Rune Plate Legs. How would I know how much they cost there? Great, now I've got
another unanswered question. Sigh. This is still all too much. Now
I'm the one that needs some sleep.
I awoke the next morning in the Seers' Village Inn and promptly looked in the mirror. The reflection staring back at me still wasn't my own. I suppose this wasn't just a dream after all. The innkeeper had recognized me as the one that fainted that day and given me a room for free. Even if he hadn't, it's not like the magic log seller would have missed such a little amount of money anyway. It suddenly dawned on me, out of nowhere, that perhaps I should ask Reldo about my little predicament. I don't really know what inspired me to think of that, but hey, since when has asking Reldo ever been a bad thing? That guy's like the knowledge source of Runescape or something. ...Of course, he spends almost all of his time in a library. I looked around the Seers' Village Bank, but there were no teleotherers to be seen. ...Teleotherers. You know, the people that teleother other people. (Heh, I made that up myself.) ...Nevermind, I suppose I'll walk. I've got enough things to think about before barging into Reldo's place, anyway. And on the way out of town, I think I'll stop and see how my actual body's doing.
"He's still sleeping," the Seer explained. Yeah, I could see that. "You still don't know when he'll wake up?" I asked. To which the Seer shook his head, and said, "Not really. I think it may be even a longer time than I first thought." Great. Well, at least my body won't be wandering around without me knowing. Which is, of course, exactly what
I'm doing in the log seller's body...
First stop on the way to Varrock: Catherby. Catherby's not that far away from Seers' Village, even if you use the road. But of course, most people just walk southeast through the trees. It's quicker, there's nothing dangerous lurking in or behind the trees, and...it's quicker. Speed's the priority, really. Catherby is a major fishing zone, so as soon as I left the tree line, the scent of freshly caught fish filled the air. Blech. I've never liked that smell. Luckily, I won't have to stay here long. Just go over White Wolf Mountain, head east, and I'm done. It's a long way to walk, but it's not really tough terrain. Except for the mountain part. That area's got tons of wolves, but there's always enough adventurer-type people to slay them while I simply waltz past. Anyway, as I was waltzing, er, just walking, really, past the Catherby bank, I heard a call inside of "Will anyone fletch these magic bows for me?" Ooh, free fletching opportunity! Obviously, I stopped dead in my tracks and looked inside. I can stand the fish smell a little longer, I think.
"One hundred twelve magic longbows," I said, handing the notes back to the ranger that traded the materials to me. It's a common practice in Runescape, but not so common to find. See, if there's a fledging fletcher (hey, that sounds funny) that can't make certain bows, he or she can just give someone else the materials and have that person fletch the bows instead. The fletcher gains just that much more bow-making experience, and the trader has a completed bow, which is worth a lot more money than a log and a bowstring. All in a day's work for a fletcher like me! "Thanks," the ranger replied, adding, "Here's a little something for your trouble" as he handed me a couple thousand gold coins. I was going to say something about how he didn't have to pay me, or how fletching the bows was a reward in itself, or that it wasn't any trouble at all. But unfortunately, I couldn't get a word out before I collasped to the floor.
~~~
[January 5th]
Part 145: A Dangerous Mountain at Any Time
I woke up in another bed with the scent of fish still in my head. Let me guess, I fainted again and I'm still in Catherby? I sat up and looked around. There was no one else in this tiny house, save for someone sleeping in a bed across the room. Who, upon closer inspection, was the magic log seller! Incredible! Was I back to normal then? I jumped out of bed and ran over to a mirror on the wall. Guess who I saw staring back in disbelief? Yep, the ranger I fletched for from the bank. Black dragonhide armor, magic shortbow, quiver full of mithril arrows, and everything. Perfect. I look like a well-trained ranger, but of course, that couldn't have been further from the truth. I'm more like the most novice ranger there ever was. I hope no one asks me to shoot anything--that'd be disastrous. I was contemplating how I was going to pull this one off when I heard the magic log seller guy groan. Turning my head, I watched him sit up in bed. "...Where am I?" he groggily asked. "Catherby, I'm guessing," I replied. "Oh, so you don't own this house?" "No, I--wait, you don't remember me?" He shook his head. "I don't remember anything...I just recall being in Seers' Village. How'd I get here?" "I...uh...don't know," I lied, sitting down on my own bed. So he doesn't recall anything when I was in his body. I guess the ranger wouldn't know what was going on right now, either. The owner of the house chose that exact moment to step inside. I could see through the open door that it was evening already. Another day wasted. "Ah, you guys are up. I just wanted to let you know that you can use this house for the night if you need it. I've got some business in Ardougne I need to attend to," he said. "Wow, thanks," I said, still slightly worn out. "I'll reimburse you," the log seller added, to which the owner shook his head. "There's no need for that. Just get a good night's sleep. See ya." What a nice guy. I think he teleported out after that. I was really too tired to tell.
Several things weighed on my mind as I started my trek up White Wolf Mountain the very next morning. One of them was why I kept switching bodies with people. Is it random? Is it related to something? Both times were during a trade...that's odd, but it's something I might be able to go on. As I approached the top of the mountain, I saw a few adventurers slaying wolves. That's good--that's real good. I don't want to take on a wolf myself. The thought suddenly occurred to me, though, that they might think I was a really good ranger and leave a wolf for me. So with that, I quickened my pace and jogged down the other side of the mountain, still thinking about my strange situation. And what happens to the person whose body I'm in? My body's still sleeping, so it's not a simple swap. The magic log seller had no recollection of what happened, so maybe...it's a suppression kind of thing? Like I take over
for them? That notion doesn't exactly please me, but I don't really have a choice in the matter anyway. It's not like
I want--what was that? I whirled around to see a wolf growling at me from ten feet away. Uh, heh, that's not good...at all. He suddenly charged! I turned back around and ran away at full speed, but he was too quick and headbutted me. I was sent sprawling across the icy landscape, tumbling down the slope a little bit. Landing in a heap at the bottom, I flipped over onto my back to take another look. He's still coming, albeit at a walking pace now. And it looks like he's closing in for the kill! The ranger's bow and quiver was on the ground beside me where I landed. Seizing my only opportunity, I grabbed the bow and an arrow and took aim. Before now, all of my arrows flew wildly in some other direction, or didn't even shoot right and went about three feet. But this time, my arrow flew straight and true. It pierced the wolf right through the chest, yet he still stumbled forward at me. I snatched another arrow and shot it right in the same place. This time, the wolf took one last step and collasped. Still a little scared and now quite a bit shocked, I ran the rest of the way to Taverly.
~~~
[January 6th]
Part 146: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
Okay, okay, I get it now. When I switch places with someone (or rather, just take over) I inherit some of that person's abilities as well. The magic log seller was a merchanter--that's why I knew how much certain armors cost in stores. And now that I've switched bodies with a ranger, and I made two dead-on shots to defeat that wolf! While this would normally pose many possibilities to the average adventurer, I just wanted my simple life back! I'm not a combatant, never have been, and never will be. My name is Syne, I'm a master fletcher, and that's all there is to it. As I approached a gate, I suddenly realized I had already ran the whole distance from White Wolf Mountain to the other end of Taverly. This next road will take me the long path to Varrock, and then, to Reldo. I
really hope he'll be able to help me out with this. Not wasting any time, I got on the road and started heading east. It wasn't long, however, before something I saw stopped me dead in my tracks--a flood of Black Knights, pouring out of their castle to the north. I hid behind a nearby rockfall, stretching out my neck to get a better view without being seen myself. They weren't even doing anything or traveling somewhere! All the Black Knights were just standing around, mainly blocking the road. What were they up to? The last time I remember this many Black Knights outside the castle was in the Falador siege a year or so ago. And even then, I heard they were looking for someone. Now, walking past a Black Knight or two, though mildly frightening, usually isn't much of an occurrence. But this many--the sheer magnitude--hmm. You know what? I think I'll just take the long way around. It's not worth it to head through that crowd. South through Falador, then east, then back up to Varrock...I can make it. Not a problem.
Although, now that I have to walk that extra distance, I might as well rest my feet before I continue on. My ankle's a little bit sore from getting knocked down the hill by that wolf earlier, and I was running on it even after that. Why not take a leisurely walk around Falador? It's a nice area, all pristine and white. I don't visit here often since I still spend most of my time in Seers' Village, but it's always a nice getaway from the hustle and bustle of Woodcutting Central. There's a mace shop, barber shop, gem shop, chain mail shop ('Wayne's Chains'...heh), shield shop, regular general shop, and so on. There's even a furnace, garden, two banks, and the Dwarven Mining Guild has an entrance in town as well. I was particularly walking past the gardens when I decided to venture into the furnace building across the street to see what was going on. There were four people inside, two of which seemed to know each other. One of them had a heavy Rune two-handed sword at his side, the other a runesack. It's pretty easy to tell what someone's profession of choice is by what kind of weapon they carry. "This is going to take forever," the mage said. "Then ask someone to help us," the swordsman replied. "What's up?" I asked, for lack of something better to do, and an opportunity to help. The warrior turned his head and smiled. "Hiya. We're just smelting these ores into steel bars. Going to take a while, though, with how many we've got." "Need help, then?" I mused. "Well, they're his, not mine. It depends if my acquaintance is okay with it." Still smelting ores, the mage frowned and replied, "I dunno, I'm not used to handing things over to people and waiting for the end product. Someone said they'd cut my diamond for me once, and then ran off with it." I grimaced. "Well, I can understand that." "You can help if you want, though," the mage interjected, backing away from the hot furnace. The warrior turned to his friend in semi-surprise. The mage finally grinned, saying, "You're right, we've got too many. And he seems trustworthy enough. We might finish by sunset if we hurry."
We returned to the bank to get new supplies, where the warrior withdrew a few hundred noted ores. At that point, I suddenly recalled that every time I switched bodies, it was during a trade. What a time to remember that! In my hesitation to decide what to do, he gave me the ores--and nothing happened. He seemed to notice my uneasiness, though. "Are you okay? You look a little pale." I nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine...just kind of...got dizzy for a moment there. Let's go smelt some ores!"
Splitting a workload between three people definitely makes the job go faster than with two. The job took quite a while as expected, and by the time we were finished, it was already dark out. We chatted for a while, and as it turned out, the warrior was helping his friend smelt the bars for the sheer experience of doing so. Then they were going to make arrowheads or something tomorrow. Seemed odd to me, but to each his own. The mage left, teleporting to some other town for the night, leaving the warrior and I alone in the Falador bank. "Here you are," I said, handing him my finished share of the steel bars. "Thanks," he said, adding, "just a moment." Now, see, I'm used to offering my services for free, so when he pulled a couple thousand gold coins out of his account, I got flustered. "This is for all your help," he said. I shook my head. "No, I couldn't take it. I enjoyed talking with you guys, and I really had nothing to do anyway." "Nothing to do or not, you were seriously a great help, and we'd still be toiling away right now if it wasn't for you. Seriously, here," he replied, dropping the coins into my hands. I heard the coins hitting the ground and rolling all over the floor, but I really don't recall anything else as I blacked out yet again.
~~~
[January 9th]
Part 147: He Has a Name
It was already morning when I woke up in bed with a burst of anger. "Not AGAIN!" I cried out. (Although, the fact that I was in a bed somewhat surprised me. People sure are nice to let strangers into their homes so much around here.) I got up and walked over to the mirror in my room. Yep, now I was the warrior smelter guy. I grabbed my (or his, really) two-handed sword leaning against the wall and walked out into the hallway. Looking both left and right, I realized this house was pretty vast. I looked out a window at the end of the hall and recognized the area as the eastern outskirts of Falador, where all the mansions are. I had looked at some of them on my walk around town yesterday. Now, where's the front door? I'm falling behind on my trek to find Reldo now, so I better get going. I'd leave something as a thank-you gift, but I don't have anything on me except my sword and some armor, and I'm pretty sure I don't want to give that away. Perhaps I'll come back later and repay whoever lives here for his or her kindness.
The mansion was bigger than I had first thought, and now I was slightly lost. Peeking into one room, I noticed the ranger (who I had been, yesterday.) As I was about to leave, I heard him groan and sit up. Why does there seem to be a delay between me and the other guy always waking up? I popped my head in again. "You okay?" I asked. He jumped at my voice. "I...uh...dunno. Where am I?" "Falador. One of the big mansions to the east," I replied. "
Falador? I was in Catherby the last I recall. How'd I get here?" "Beats me," I lied. I didn't feel like explaining my whole story to someone else right now. Worse yet, he probably wouldn't be too happy with me for it, although it wasn't my fault. I left, and turning another hall corner, found the back door. Meh, this'll do.
So now, as I was walking towards Falador's south gate, I was pondering the system of trades that always seemed to make me switch. This last one didn't happen when I traded noted ores or bars, but afterwards, when he paid me--when he paid me! The answer is money! Gold coins! The first time, I was buying logs with my own money. The second time, the ranger gave me money for helping him. Basically, same for the third. Of course, this brings up some other unanswered questions about exceptions to the rule. I heard the coins scatter everywhere after this last trade. Surely someone had to pick them all up. Why didn't I switch with
that person? ...Perhaps I have to already be conscious and in close proximity to switch with someone. Sure, let's go with that. But now that I think I know what the problem is, I can avoid it in the future! A big grin crossed my face as I left Falador.
Following the road south, I saw four adventurers coming the other way. I wouldn't have paid them any notice had one of them not pointed at me and flagged me down. "Hey, it's Magicana!" he said. I stopped, and a ranger of the group spoke up. "Hey, what's up? Did you help your friend out?" I had no clue what they were going on about. "W...what?" I stammered. "Your friend. You said you couldn't come to the party earlier because you were going to go help him out." I realized for the first time, with a shock, another consequence of me inhabiting someone else's body. All of his friends expect me to know who they are. But what are the chances I'd actually come across somebody? At any rate, I realized they were all still staring at me. They must mean 'my friend' as the mage guy at the furnace the other day. "I...yeah...he's fine. ...I gotta go." I rushed past them before they could ask me about anything else I wouldn't know about. I think they might have stared after me, but I didn't dare look back.
~~~
[January 10th]
Part 148: More Average Than the First Time, at Least
It's not fair, really. Why would this happen to me, of all people? Unless, of course, it's happening to others, and I just don't know yet because I haven't talked to Reldo. I just need to stay away from gold coins until I reach Varrock. Actually, I should keep away from them even
after I reach Varrock. As far as I can tell, coins are the only activation thingy to make me switch bodies. Of course, I could tell that to myself over and over and still not avoid it. And even if I
can avoid it, who knows when things might suddenly change. All my expectations have gone out the window by now. I turned the corner on the road, diverting my direction towards Draynor Village. A few moments later, some masked guy in a suit and a crossbow came out of nowhere and ran over. "Stop right there!" he yelled, pointing his crossbow at me. Perfect. I didn't feel like getting impaled today, so I halted. "Hand over all your money and possessions," he declared upon reaching me. "Why, is this a robbery or something?" I inquired. "Ha ha, my good sir, ha ha. Of course it's a robbery, you twit." I looked around. There was no one to be seen. I suppose this was a good place for highway robbery after all. "Yeah, well, handing over my money's not going to be an option," I told the guy, knowing exactly what would happen if I did so. "You dare oppose me?" he laughed, putting his hands on his hips in a sort of I'm-going-to-own-you fashion. "I think the problem is that you dare oppose
me," I replied, instinctively drawing my big Rune sword and impaling the man on the spot. Which, moments later, rather surprised me. Where did
that come from? I mean, robbers get killed all the time for being the scum they are, but...I dispatched an evil minion guy on my own! Yay for me! Jeez, at this rate, I could stand up to more than just a stampede of farm animals. Trying my best to shrug it off, I kept heading towards Draynor Village.
As I entered the Draynor Village vicinity, I thought to myself, "Hey, me?" "Yes?" "I could probably use some food in case I almost get robbed again." "Well, that's a great idea!" "Why, thank me." "I'm welcome." Chuckling to myself at how easily amused I am, I stepped into the bank. On the wall was a large poster about the recent publication of
Things You Don't Want to Add Snape Grass To, but it was otherwise a normal bank. I headed over to an empty booth and asked for an account list. Taking the piece of paper from the banker, I did a once-over. Ooh, lots of lobsters, let's go with that. "Ten lobsters, please," I said. The Banker handed me my ten orange crustaceans, and I turned to leave. Only, of course, to come face-to-face with a Dark Wizard. Well, I suppose it didn't have to be a Dark Wizard, but you know, greyish robes, greyish hat, evil smile, no weapon...yeah, that guy. "Can I...help you?" I asked. "Yes, actually," he said, grabbing my hand and thrusting something into it. I can only assume it was a coin, because moments later I was on the floor.
I woke up, yet again, in Draynor. Still in the bank this time, actually, but propped up against the back wall. Last time I woke up in anger, but I heard that there's a pattern to this sort of thing. Anger is apparently followed by acceptance. I never thought it'd be true, but sure enough, I woke up with more of a "Perfect. Let's get a move on," feeling than a "CRUD! Not AGAIN!!" feeling. Remembering I'm a Dark Wizard now, I figured that's why no one took me into their home this time around. Who wants an evil guy lurking around his house, anyway? Sighing in self-pity, I left the village and headed east again. It didn't seem like more than a couple of hours had passed, judging from the sun's position in the sky. Reaching into my robe pocket just to see what was there, I pulled out a small, glowing red orb. The orb seemed to pulsate rather quickly, and little else. I wonder what weird purpose the Dark Wizard was using it for.
I'll start over and post a part a day until this is finished. I'm editing the parts before I post them, too, so what you'll be seeing is pretty much the finished product!
burnout paradise
Know what I mean?