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 The party arrives in Pickham. It's somehow dustier than the entire rest of the world put together.    "You go and find this Brains fellow. I'll be waiting for your report!"  "Some of us 'ave gotta keep our minds on the job, eh? We gotta find that Dhoulmagus." Pickham is the town of-  ... Pickham is the town of criminals and crime. You don't have to worry about your gold randomly decreasing or anything, though. It's mostly flavor.  "But I got fed up wiv all that criminal stuff, so I decided to wash me 'ands of it an' leave Pickham for good. Goddess, 'ow long's it been since I was last 'ere, I wonder? It feels funny bein' back, I can tell ya!" The daugher of a noble house in a town where they store poo poo in urns.  It's also very, very smelly.  I wish you could do something about this wanted poster, like punch the guy and get a modicum of cash for it.  Isn't "off the rails"'s etymology based on railways?  People in Pickham have embraced giving up. It's kind of sad.  Also I was being literal about poo poo in urns. Believe it or not this fixed-poo poo drop is extremely valuable to me getting Yangus's penultimate helmet.  The town priest has two dialog boxes of whining about criminals not being very religious, every time you talk to him. I wouldn't care so much but there's a reason this priest specifically annoys me,  The armor shop has decent upgrades for everyone. It's the best for quite a while, actually. The Dancer's Costume is a hefty upgrade over anything else available to Jessica at this point.  There's also weapon upgrades but besides the Hunter's Bow we've been able to get them elsewhere. See, we saved a lot of cast by sticking two scythes together, and the rosary the Twisted Soul dropped could've been used to get the Holy Lance early.  Anyway, this is all stalling. The main attraction of Pickham.   Fun Casino  The items a- oh come on.   The items are all important alchemy ingredients. Agility Rings are part of two fairly important items.  Silver Platters seem useless but are key to quite a few significant armor upgrades.  Titan Belts are half of Mighty Armlets, and Mighty Armlets are hellarad.  Rune Staves cast Kabuff for free, and are used in several weapon recipes.  Okay, Platinum Headgear has no use in Alchemy but they're tougher than every helmet for like 10 hours.  Getting enough tokens to buy even a Magic Water takes 2000 gold. 100k to get the headgear. This won't do, so our only option is...  To actually gamble. The slots suck, obviously, but bingo...  Bingo sucks has better rates. And a slime. I loving hate this slime an I yell at him to get the ball I want all the time.  The sooner you get Bingo, the higher the payout.  More often than not, you get 4 in a row at about 7 and scream at the game when none of the rest make you win.  Then bullshit like this happens. Holy poo poo. I have utterly failed and wasted my money.  No I don't wanna save.  No I don't wanna continue. This is the closest DQ8 has to a soft-reset.  So let's try again.  Eventually, we hit a x25 payout. This will enable 25 more games. This didn't take anywhere near 25 games. And thus, bingo's dark secret: on average, the house loses. I don't know the exact rates, but I've left the game running with a turbo controller enough to watch it slowly tick up. Even without one, just press X a few times every 80 seconds.  "Nice! I shoulda known you'd be goot at that kind o' thing. I'm 'opeless at it meself. All them numbers an' that. Goes right over me 'ead. But you could teach me, guv! How about you give me a few pointers, eh!?"  "So long as you always keep the true purpose of our journey in mind, you won't hear a peep out of me."  "I was looking forward to introducing our very own Queen of Diamonds to the rest of the pack! You see, Jessica, you might have won with a good pair in the past, but you'll need more than that to beat my hand!" "And don't go getting up to any of your tricks, okay? You could get into serious trouble here." "Are you worried about me darling?" "No, I'm worried about all of us... honey!" So when you beat the house, it's just a matter of time until you win.  I... may have went too far.  One for a shield for both Jess and Ang.  I'm making the same thing... three times!!  For Angelo. Eight's getting a new hat elsewhere.  I can stick it with the Wizard's Staff for a neat stick.  So let's go to Port Prospect to bu-  Well, why not? He'll be fine! Ugh, guess I'll just have to do alchemy here.  So, today, endgame hats.  While waiting for it to cook, it's rummaging time.  Pickham seems to be more "people who make bad choices" than anyhting. Makes me feel better about looting them.  It's amazing; this is the second fortune teller we've seen. Most games would have one.  Since she is the worse one (we didn't have a dungeon for her) I am perfectly justifed criming form her.  I swear I've heard of this lady before...  I know there's making the best of a bad situation, but this makes rummaging for restoratives really annoying.  Amor Seco Essence heals relatively well for being a store-bought restorative, and it's not an herb so it's used in somewhat different recipes.   One day we're gonna get some hella advanced loitering.   "Yer not burglars? Oh, I'm sorry. It's just there's been so many break-ins recently, I was sure... Anyway, wot d'you expect if you go wanderin' around people's 'ouses in the middle o' the night!?" Anyway we rob her and others and move on.  Who's this Golding, and how are they in debt to them? Could this be... the mythical Mightier Casino?  Weird, considering the sidequests I have to complete to get the suit and stockings when I have had the ears forever.  Anyway I did this way back in Pereguin Quay. It's still Jessica's best hat for the continent.  I want a key sexy enough for this job.    Rumor of Dhoulmagus's weird appearance spread faster than news of his murders, I guess.  The tortune-feller's tent has items to steal. I am... not really need a second one.  Brains's place, that this man cannot find, is right down those stairs.  Well, looks like our man isn't here. We're practiced masters of bad timing.  Next time: running in circles.
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| ← # ? Mar 8, 2015 17:49 |
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