"So, are we going to do some crafting together, or what?" Tahsi asked Isabelle.
Isabelle figured it was about time she learned what exactly the deal was with her ‘questing menu.’ Remembering the clarification from her system, she thought ‘Enable questing menu.’
[Questing menu enabled]
[Achievement Unlocked: Enable questing menu]
[Notice: You have 6 unseen quest requests. View now?]
Only six? Well, that wasn’t so bad.
[Y/N]
Isabelle thought yes.
Quest: Start Your Tutorial
Description: Welcome, player! It’s time to learn more about the world of Beaubinte and how to use your system.
Deactivated
Note: You must meet with your assigned tutorial NPC to activate this quest.
That figured. Isabelle tried to get over her irritation so that she could look at her other quest requests.
Quest: Go To The Corner Store
Description: Go see if you can find some potions at the corner store that might help your memory.
Deactivated
Well, Isabelle wasn’t sure what exactly she had to remember, but Tahsi hadn’t known that when he sent her the request.
Quest: Go To The Horns
Description: Tahsi suggested you go to the Horns so that you can learn more about Beaubinte.
Deactivated
Aw, poor Tahsi. Isabelle had completely forgotten he’d mentioned going to the Horns thanks to all the crab business. Isabelle was already starting to see how useful the questing menu could be.
Quest: Save Tahsi’s Home
Description: Ozian Sect warriors are trying to destroy Tahsi’s home! Maybe there’s something you can do to stop them…
Cancelled
Note: You cannot complete this quest now because Tahsi’s home has been destroyed.
Isabelle was starting to change her mind about the questing menu. It was making her feel like a jerk. She wondered if she could hide or delete a quest.
[Clarification: To delete a quest, think ‘Delete quest (quest name).’]
Isabelle thought ‘Delete quest Save Tahsi’s Home.’ She felt dirty.
[Notification: Deleting a quest cannot be undone. Continue?]
[Y/N]
Isabelle thought yes.
[Quest ‘Save Tahsi’s Home’ deleted]
[Achievement Unlocked: Delete a quest]
[Notice: You have 1 unseen quest request. View now?]
[Y/N]
Isabelle thought yes.
Quest: Train Your Sneak With Sir Jingles
Description: Sir Jingles offered to help you level up your sneak by training with him.
Deactivated
Isabelle was glad she’d finally gotten the questing menu enabled. She must’ve been coming off as completely antisocial before!
Quest: Learn About Crafting With Tahsi
Description: Tahsi wants to show you how to craft things.
Deactivated
Hey, there was the quest she was looking for! Isabelle made a guess at what she had to do to activate it. Isabelle though, ‘Activate Quest Learn About Crafting With Tahsi.’
[Quest ‘Learn About Crafting With Tahsi’ activated]
[Loading quest]
[…]
[…]
[Quest prepared]
Quest: Learn About Crafting With Tahsi
Description: Tahsi wants to show you how to craft things.
Active
[Talk to Tahsi to begin]
“Alright, Tahsi, I accepted your request,” Isabelle said to Tahsi.
“Great!” said Tahsi. Now, the first thing we’ll need is some crafting material. My favorite thing to craft, as you may have guessed, is bread. However, you need a bakery for that, and since mine burned down we should probably craft something else. Did you have any idea of what you wanted to craft?”
Isabelle tried to forget how heavily Tahsi was guilting her and focus on the task at hand. She remembered her crab exoskeleton. “I would really love it if we could ‘cure’ my Crab Exoskeleton. Right now it gives me this awful debuff that negatively affects my speechcraft.”
“Hmm. We could give that a shot,” said Tahsi. “Can you pull up the item’s crafting menu?”
“Crafting menu?” Isabelle said with wide eyes. She hadn’t realized that items had a crafting menu.
[Clarification: Think ‘Open (item name) crafting menu’ to open an item’s crafting menu.’]
Isabelle thought ‘Open Crab Exoskeleton crafting menu.’
Crafting
Item
Craftable
Crab Exoskeleton
Cured Exoskeleton
Sleek Crab Exoskeleton
Heavy Crab Exoskeleton
“Nice job, Isabelle,” said Tahsi. “I’m guessing you want to craft a cured exoskeleton?”
“Yes, that’s right, Tahsi,” said Isabelle.
“Okay. I think you’ll want to use your system to select ‘Cured Exoskeleton’ under the Craftable section,” said Tahsi.
“That makes sense,” said Isabelle. She focused on the ‘Cured Exoskeleton.’
[Notice: To craft ‘Cured Exoskeleton’ with party member ‘Tahsi,’ you will need 1 ‘Shattered Exoskeleton.’]
“Did you see that notice, Isabelle?” Tahsi asked.
Of course she’d seen it! Isabelle had to fight the urge to roll her eyes at Tahsi. She only managed to because she saw that he was being completely genuine in asking her.
“Yes, I saw it, Tahsi,” said Isabelle.
“Great. Do you have any shattered exoskeleton?” asked Tahsi.
“No,” said Isabelle, “But, I do know where we can get some—that Large Ozian Juggernaut Hermit Crab we just killed has fifteen of them, I think.”
“Sounds perfect. Since I’ve got a higher crafting, I’ll just go ahead and loot that real quick,” said Tahsi. He looked over to a bit of crab guts, focused with his eyes, and then looked back to Isabelle. “Great, I got it. Now, would you pull the crafting menu back up, Isabelle?”
Shit. Isabelle hadn’t even noticed the crafting menu had closed, that was embarassing. She thought, ‘Open Crab Exoskeleton crafting menu.’
Crafting
Item
Craftable
Crab Exoskeleton
Cured Exoskeleton
Sleek Crab Exoskeleton
Heavy Crab Exoskeleton
“Thanks, Isabelle. Now, go ahead and select the ‘Cured Exoskeleton’ again,” said Tahsi.
Isabelle focused on ‘Cured Exoskeleton.’
[Craft ‘Cured Exoskeleton’ out of items ‘Crab Exoskeleton’ and ‘Shattered Exoskeleton’? This cannot be undone.]
[Y/N]
Isabelle thought yes.
[‘Crab Exoskeleton’ taken from player Isabelle inventory]
[‘Shattered Exoskeleton’ taken from party member Tahsi inventory]
[Crafting ‘Cured Exoskeleton’]
[…]
[…]
[…]
[Crafting complete]
[‘Cured Exoskeleton’ added to inventory]
[Crafting increased to level 1]
“And there you have it! Now you know how to craft,” said Tahsi with a smile. “It can be pretty fun. Also, just so you know, you can craft with most anything. It’s just generally easier to do with items that are marked ‘craftable’ in your inventory, and of course even easier when you have a high level of crafting experience like I do—all that bread making has really paid off, you could say!”
Isabelle tried not to scowl back at Tahsi in jealousy. “Thanks for the help, Tahsi, I appreciate it.”
Quest: Learn About Crafting With Tahsi
Description: Tahsi wants to show you how to craft things.
Completed
[Achievement Unlocked: Complete a quest]
Isabelle opened her inventory.
Inventory: Isabelle
Carrying capacity: 35/43
Item
Traits
Steel Morningstar
+3 damage, +5 carry weight
Steel Domination Chain
+11 damage, +10 carry weight
Staff of the Crustacean
+5 mana, +2 carry weight
Cured Exoskeleton
+10 hp, +5 stm, +11 carry weight
Crab Claw Gauntlets
+4 damage (armed), +8 damage (melee), +2 carry weight
King Crab Crown
+2 cha, +1 carry weight
Pearl Ring of Crabby Combat
+3 damage (melee)
Emerald Amulet of Lesser Stamina
+2 stm, +0.5/sec s-regen
Peasant Robes (human)
+1 carry weight
Stale Bread Loaf x6
+10 hp (cumulative), +0.5 carry weight
Gate Key
n/a
Raw Pearl
n/a
Gold (500)
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
n/a
Wow! Isabelle was thrilled. Her new Cured Exoskeleton no longer gave her a debuff, and instead it added more hp and more stm than it did before she crafted it. Isabelle had a feeling she was going to enjoy using crafting to improve her items. It was so satisfying! Isabelle went ahead and equipped her new Cured Exoskeleton.
[Cured Exoskeleton equipped]
[+10 hp]
[+5 stm]
How satisfying. That was it, Isabelle had to see if she could do some more crafting. She thought, ‘Open Crab Exoskeleton crafting menu.’
Crafting
Item
Craftable
Cured Exoskeleton
Sleek Cured Exoskeleton
Heavy Cured Exoskeleton
Isabelle figured she’d give ‘Sleek Cured Exoskeleton’ a try. It sounded nice, and she liked the idea of having a sleek exoskeleton over a normal exoskeleton or a heavy exoskeleton.
[Notice: To craft ‘Sleek Cured Exoskeleton,’ you will need 10 ‘Shattered Exoskeleton.’]
Wow, that was a lot of Shattered Exoskeleton. Good thing Isabelle knew where to find some. She focused on a part of the dead Large Ozian Juggernaut Hermit Crab lying on the battered tavern floor.
[Loot ‘Large Ozian Juggernaut Hermit Crab’?]
Isabelle thought yes.
Inventory: Large Ozian Juggernaut Hermit Crab
Item
Traits
Crab Ambergris x3
+5 carry weight
Crab Flesh x5
+2 hp, +1 carry weight
Shattered Exoskeleteon (craftable) x14
+1 carry weight
Isabelle went ahead and took all fourteen of the Shattered Exoskeleton.
[Notice: You’re over encumbered. Please check your inventory.]
Ugh. Over encumbered again. Maybe Isabelle could just ignore it?
[Notice: You’re over encumbered. Please check your inventory.]
She thought, ‘Open Crab Exoskeleton crafting menu.’
Crafting
Item
Craftable
Cured Exoskeleton
Sleek Cured Exoskeleton
Heavy Cured Exoskeleton
[Notice: You’re over encumbered. Please check your inventory.]
Isabelle focused on ‘Sleek Cured Exoskeleton.’
[Craft ‘Sleek Cured Exoskeleton’ out of items ‘Cured Exoskeleton’ and ‘Shattered Exoskeleton x10’? This cannot be undone.]
[Y/N]
Isabelle thought yes.
[‘Cured Exoskeleton’ taken from inventory]
[‘Shattered Exoskeleton’ taken from inventory]
[Crafting ‘Cured Exoskeleton’]
[…]
[…]
[…]
[Error: Crafting failed]
[Item ‘Cured Exoskeleton’ was broken]
[Achievement Unlocked: Break an item while crafting]
[Crafting increased to level 2]
Isabelle’s lip quivered, and her left eyelid twitched. Did she really just break her Cured Exoskeleton?
[Clarification: Yes.]
Isabelle wished she could slap her system. She hadn’t even known it was possible to break an item while crafting!
[Clarification: The higher the difficulty of crafting a given item is, the higher the likelihood there is of breaking a given item while crafting with it. Generally you can consider it a combination of your crafting level, dx, str, and of course some randomization.]
Isabelle walked back over to Tahsi, who was sitting on the half-broken bar and chomping on his beloved stale bread. Standing before the kobold, she noticed for the first time that she was standing there in only her bra and panties. How embarrassing. It must’ve been because her Cured Exoskeleton had broken. Worse still, she was cold, and Isabelle could feel her nipples getting hard. She crossed her arms and opened her inventory.
Inventory: Isabelle
Carrying capacity: 37/43
Item
Traits
Steel Morningstar
+3 damage, +5 carry weight
Steel Domination Chain
+11 damage, +10 carry weight
Staff of the Crustacean
+5 mana, +2 carry weight
Crab Claw Gauntlets
+4 damage (armed), +8 damage (melee), +2 carry weight
King Crab Crown
+2 cha, +1 carry weight
Pearl Ring of Crabby Combat
+3 damage (melee)
Shattered Exoskeleteon (craftable) x14
+1 carry weight
Emerald Amulet of Lesser Stamina
+2 stm, +0.5/sec s-regen
Peasant Robes (human)
+1 carry weight
Stale Bread Loaf x6
+10 hp (cumulative), +0.5 carry weight
Gate Key
n/a
Raw Pearl
n/a
Gold (500)
n/a
At least she wasn’t over encumbered. Isabelle focused on her peasant robes.
[Peasant Robes (human) equipped]
Then, Isabelle turned to look at Tahsi. He was so engrossed in chewing his bread he didn’t seem to have noticed her, thank god.
“Hey, um, Tahsi?” asked Isabelle.
“Yea, Isabelle?” Tahsi asked through a mouthful of bread.
“I broke my Cured Exoskeleton, Tahsi,” Isabelle said, trying to hold back all of her emotions.
“Oh, wow, that’s no fun! What were you trying to do to it?” Tahsi asked.
“I wanted to craft it into a ‘Sleek Cured Exoskeleton,’ I think it was called,” said Isabelle.
“Sounds pretty cool. Bummer that didn’t work out for you, Isabelle,” said Tahsi.
[Speechcraft attempt: persuade]
“Tahsi, um, would you be willing to craft with me again? Since you’re such a high level?” Isabelle asked.
[Speechcraft failed]
“Isabelle, I don’t know if I should do that. You’ll never get better at crafting if you’re always using my level to circumvent any difficulties,” said Tahsi.
[Speechcraft attempt: persuade]
“Please, Tahsi,” said Isabelle, pouting as hard as she possibly could.
[Speechcraft had mixed results]
“I’ll tell you what, Isabelle. I won’t craft with you again, because I don’t want to set a precedent, but I’ll give you these old crafting gloves I used back when I was really bad at crafting things. I really do feel bad for you, that exoskeleton was pretty cool. Hopefully with these you can craft another one,” said Tahsi.
[You received ‘Lesser Crafting Gloves’ from Tahsi]
Isabelle pulled up her inventory.
Inventory: Isabelle
Carrying capacity: 37.5/43
Item
Traits
Steel Morningstar
+3 damage, +5 carry weight
Steel Domination Chain
+11 damage, +10 carry weight
Staff of the Crustacean
+5 mana, +2 carry weight
Crab Claw Gauntlets
+4 damage (armed), +8 damage (melee), +2 carry weight
King Crab Crown
+2 cha, +1 carry weight
Pearl Ring of Crabby Combat
+3 damage (melee)
Shattered Exoskeleteon (craftable) x14
+1 carry weight
Emerald Amulet of Lesser Stamina
+2 stm, +0.5/sec s-regen
Lesser Crafting Gloves
+2 crafting level, 0.5 carry weight
Peasant Robes (human)
+1 carry weight
Stale Bread Loaf x6
+10 hp (cumulative), +0.5 carry weight
Gate Key
n/a
Raw Pearl
n/a
Gold (500)
n/a
Isabelle focused on the Lesser Crafting Gloves and thought ‘Learn More.’
Item: Lesser Crafting Gloves
Traits: +2 crafting level, 0.5 carry weight
Description: Improve your crafting ability with these well-worn crafting gloves, originally sold by Crafty Craig’s Collector’s Corner in North Wheatstar, Thres. Along with adding to your crafting level, they lessen your chances of breaking an item when your crafting attempt fails by 15%.
Not bad.
[Lesser Crafting Gloves equipped]
[+2 crafting level]
Now Isabelle just needed to see what exactly she needed to craft herself up another exoskeleton. She figured that if there was anything she could use to craft a crab exoskeleton, it would be a shattered exoskeleton. Isabelle thought, ‘Open Shattered Exoskeleton crafting menu.’
Crafting
Item
Craftable
Shattered Exoskeleton
Crab Exoskeleton
Exoskeleton Shield
Wait, Isabelle could make an exoskeleton shield? That sounded super cool. Isabelle had to force herself to focus instead on ‘Crab Exoskeleton.’
[Craft ‘Crab Exoskeleton’ out of items ‘Shattered Exoskeleton x5’? This cannot be undone.]
[Y/N]
Five shattered exoskeletons. So Isabelle wouldn’t be able to turn this new crab exoskeleton into a sleek exoskeleton. Still, it was worth it. Isabelle thought yes.
[‘Shattered Exoskeleton x5’ taken from inventory]
[Crafting ‘Crab Exoskeleton’]
[…]
[…]
[…]
[Crafting complete]
[‘Crab Exoskeleton’ added to inventory]
Isabelle felt much better already. But now she needed to see if she could at least make this new crab exoskeleton a cured exoskeleton so that she could wear it without stinking like a dead crab. Isabelle thought ‘Open Crab Exoskeleton crafting menu.’
Crafting
Item
Craftable
Crab Exoskeleton
Cured Exoskeleton
Sleek Crab Exoskeleton
Heavy Crab Exoskeleton
Great. Isabelle focused on ‘Cured Exoskeleton.’
[Craft ‘Cured Exoskeleton’ out of items ‘Crab Exoskeleton’ and ‘Shattered Exoskeleton’? This cannot be undone.]
[Y/N]
Isabelle thought yes.
[‘Crab Exoskeleton’ taken from inventory]
[‘Shattered Exoskeleton’ taken from inventory]
[Crafting ‘Cured Exoskeleton’]
[…]
[…]
[…]
[Crafting complete]
[‘Cured Exoskeleton’ added to inventory]
Isabelle felt a weight lift from her chest. She’d gotten back what she lost. Tahsi’s crafting gloves weren’t half bad. Isabelle decided she wouldn’t immediately give them back to him, unless he asked of course.
Now it was time to change out of her awful peasant robes. Isabelle opened her inventory and focused on her cured exoskeleton.
[Cured exoskeleton equipped]
[+10 hp]
[+5 stm]
Isabelle figured she ought to take a bit of a break from crafting after all that.
[Lesser Crafting Gloves unequipped]
[-2 crafting level]
“Well, guys,” Isabelle said, addressing Tahsi and Sir Jingles, “Maybe we ought to get the hell out of this shattered tavern. Unless you guys have any more looting or healing you need to do, of course. No pressure.”
“That sounds fine by me,” said Tahsi. “Hell, I’ve just been eating.”
“I’m good with leaving, as well, Isabelle,” said Sir Jingles. “As long as we can be sure to find somewhere else to sleep tonight. I am feeling quite haggard.”
“We shouldn’t have a problem with that,” said Isabelle with a smile, thinking of the five hundred gold in her inventory.
The three party members cheerfully walked to the front door of the tavern, sad to see it in such rough shape, but happy to be alive.
Isabelle pushed the door open. She was immediately greeted by five knights in full armor.
“By order of the City of Cloud Reach, the Cloud Reach Guard places the three of you under arrest for destruction of wildlife, destruction of property, manslaughter, and disturbing the peace!”
Before Isabelle or any member of her party could react the guards surrounded them, bound their arms, and covered their faces with burlap sacks.