The goblin settlement looked crude on first inspection, but after a bit, Danika realized that it was full of mechanical contraptions. Heavy things were being lifted by pulley systems, and clever devices were in use everywhere. It wasn"t really that surprising, since goblins were half gnome and half human. They found a fisherman tending yet another contraption along the bank a bit upriver from the settlement.The contraption held five lines with various crank handles to reel them in, and what looked like small spring loaded catapults to throw them out. The fisherman goblin asked grumpily as they approached, "What do you want?"
Silvam asked curiously, "How do you know we want anything?"
"No one ever seeks me out unless they want something," the goblin replied sourly. His brown skin was weathered looking and his clothes were rather tattered.
MatchlessMinion rolled his eyes at Magna Silvam and said, "Even I could have answered that."
Danika zipped forward and told the goblin, "Actually, we just want your advice. We"re looking for a good place for a farm, that would have good fishing nearby. It would be good if it were a bit out of the way so that it didn"t attract trouble, but not too far from civilization."
"Ha, civilization? Aren"t you lost?" the fisherman asked mockingly. He waved his hand toward the settlement, "Only us goblins here."
"Do you hold a grudge against the other races that destroyed the fortress where they are building a new town?" Danika questioned directly.
"I think it"s those adventurers that have a grudge against goblins. When are our towns considered valuable or civilized? But what do I know? I"m just a fisherman," he replied sourly and then grabbed a handle that had started spinning on his odd fishing device.
"Maybe goblins could help build that town and welcome adventurers in this one?" Danika suggested. Even her own party members rolled their eyes at her. "But anyway, we"re looking for somewhere that would be good for farming giant snails?"
The goblin reeled in the small fish that he"d hooked before replying again. After he"d carefully stored it in the covered bucket near his feet, he said with interest, "Giant snail farming sounds interesting? Can those things be tamed?"
"No idea, we"ve only harvested them for their teeth and flesh," MatchlessMinion spoke up cheerily when Danika hesitated.
"I use snails and worms as bait, imagine the fish you could catch with one of those monsters?" the goblin fisherman said speculatively.
Danika eyed the river doubtfully. "I don"t think the river could hold a fish that big?"
"It runs all the way to the northern sea though," the goblin informed her.
Aishin spoke up and asked, "So do you have any ideas about a good location for the farm?"
--
Silvam and MatchlessMinion were out of time by the time they had the location they planned to submit for the quest. The fisherman had introduced them to a local herder who could show them the boundaries of the currently claimed territory.
Danika said, "I"ll message Kit, and ask if she can view the animal territories too tomorrow."
Silvam commented before she logged out, "No wonder you"re always running into obscure corners of the game and coming up with ideas no one has ever thought of. You guys are definitely not going about this quest in a normal manner."
"Oh?" Aishin asked a bit cooly, "How do you think it should have been done?"
Silvam grinned at him. "You"re going to be really fun to tease aren"t you?" she asked, before logging out without answering.
"Oops, speaking of weird corners… I should have asked about letting familiars choose which messages to carry while he, while she was here," Danika complained. She no longer doubted that her guess about Magna Silvam being Lin Hao"s character.
"Seems like a pretty annoying person," Aishin grumbled. "Think I"d get you in trouble if I killed her when she tries to "tease" me later?"
Now that they were alone apart from a few wandering NPC animals, Danika flew up to him and waited for him to hold his hands out. She thought of the kinds of subtle things Lin Hao might be able to do to effectively curse a character to any extreme within "Living Jade Empire" and said nervously, "Lin Hao is more odd than annoying I think, and I don"t think so, but I wouldn"t try to get on his bad side?"
Aishin raised his eyebrows at her, and asked, "Isn"t that the department head who invited you to dinner?"
"Yeah," she agreed, a little surprised that he remembered.
He frowned but didn"t immediately reply.
"But I"m not saying you have to cozy up to Magna Silvam either, just you know, what if you really annoyed him and he gave your character the same negative luck as those flying pigs in Kit"s book?" Danika questioned.
"I won"t do anything," Aishin said with a sigh. He paused and then added, "At least not unless Silvam does something first."
Danika grinned at him. He smiled back and kissed her on the nose.
"You plan to stick around here until Kit can log in again tomorrow?" he asked.
"Yeah, but I"m pretty sure I can find this place again if you want to go somewhere else?" she replied promptly.
He hesitated and then shook his head. "No, I should probably quit for the night too. Feel like talking on the phone for half an hour?"
"Can"t we talk just as well here?" she questioned.
This time his grin was a lot wider as his eyes crinkled at the edges. "Yeah, but I can"t do laundry then," he explained.
"You do your own laundry?" she asked with amazement.
"Well, not all of it? The uh, costume outfits we wear at concerts all get dry cleaned or something?" he told her questioningly. "Is it really that amazing?"
She grinned and shrugged. "I don"t know. I guess I only have weird a.s.sumptions. Like next you"ll tell me that you guys don"t take skiing holidays in the Alps or go sailing on yachts in the Caribbean like we all know that real celebrities do?"
Aishin laughed. Then he told her teasingly, "We can go try those things one day. But so far the closest we"ve come to those is water skiing on the Gold Coast on our one day off there."
"Oh, that"s not the same at all," she replied facetiously. She grinned at him though and suggested a little wryly, "So this whole weekend off will be quite luxurious."
"Yeah," he agreed cheerfully.
She called him after they both logged out, and they talked for more than half an hour.