Traudl Quest: Part 4

Based on how much of the old version of this story is left, and about how much I’ve been excising in the re-write, I anticipate there are probably 3 more parts to go, so 8 parts in total.

Will it be worth it to stick around to the end?

OF COURSE!

Traudl made a brief stop in Uleag to stay at the inn, buy some more potions, and get a magic ladder, which, surprisingly, fit inside her backpack.

She ventured onward to the tower and used the silver key to open the door. This was her greatest struggle yet, proving her theory that some evil will was against her. Halfway up the tower, she found a man walking around by himself.

Forgetting the spell that seemed to confuse everyone, Traudl yelled to him, “Careful! This place is full of strong monsters!”

He didn’t seem to take heed of her words and only said, “I deal in items, would you like to see my wares?”

“You’re selling items in this dangerous tower?” Traudl asked in a very confused voice. “How do you get new items in here to sell if you are out? How often do people come in here to buy items from you? Where do you sleep when you get tired? Don’t you get attacked by monsters all the time like I do?”

He did not answer her. “Yes” Traudl finally said with a frown. And a list of items appeared. She purchased more healing potions and was on her way.

Finally, after numerous battles, Traudl arrived at the top floor where the wizard stood. Traudl drank one of her healing potions, to make sure she was at full health, before talking to the man. If he was going to attack, like the bandits, Traudl would be ready for him.

Slowly Traudl walked forward. “I won’t awaken the town!” the wizard shouted, before Traudl had a chance to say anything, “My ungrateful son disobeyed me and ran away with that woman from Porzoin. The town will sleep until he returns to me and denounces his love for her!”

Traudl stood there for a moment, waiting for the wizard to fight her, but he never stirred. “What do you want?” Traudl shouted. “Won’t you fight? Do I need to get something else so you can wake up the town? Just fight me and give me something to wake the town up!” He didn’t say anything in reply.

Traudl used her magic ladder and found herself on the outside of the tower. She was at a loss now. She expected to just fight the wizard and be done with it. The only other thing someone told her was about the Cave of Peril to the south. So far this adventure of hers had made little sense, so she wouldn’t try to find any in it now. She ventured south to the cave.

The cave was not very big and there were no monsters inside attacking her. She came to a long narrow passage that was blocked by a humongous troll. Traudl drew her sword and held her shield high.

“Foul troll! Block my path, will you?” she shouted as she charged forward. She swung her sword at the troll, but nothing happened. She hit him again and again, but did no damage.

“You can’t pass!” the troll said.

“Let me pass or I will smite you!” she shouted, waving her flaming sword around.

But he never said anything more. Traudl wandered back out of the cave and into the bright world above. She had no idea what to do now. She was sure that she could defeat the troll, if he would fight her, but monsters seemed pretty picky about who they fought.

Just then Traudl remembered a silver door in Ailehan castle that she couldn’t open. She wondered if maybe her new silver key might help things.

She headed east into the clearing of the mountain range and found her earlier suspicion was correct, there was a passage and a bridge to the east. This made things much easier than having to walk all the way around the lake to the north.

When Traudl arrived at the castle she went straight to the door. To her amazement the door opened. To her complete surprise there was a guard inside.

“This is the king’s treasure room. Take what you need.” The guard said.

Traudl was furious. “The king had a key to open silver doors and didn’t give it to me??? I’m the hero! I needed that key to open up the wizard’s tower.”

She stormed into the room to open up the treasure chests. She found the magic sword, magic armor, magic shield, magic helmet, and magic ring. They were all much more powerful than the items Traudl already had.

“The King had this magic stuff and didn’t give it to me? I could have used these things to stop the strong monsters!” She shouted as she put the new items on. Without another word, Traudl headed out into town and sold her old weapons and armor for a hefty sum.

On the way out, Traudl spotted the well in the center of town and decided to get a drink of water. As she pulled the bucket up she bumped into the man that was standing there. “My grandfather lives in a house far to the west of here.” He said.

“I know!” she said sharply to him. “You told me that before! Can’t you say anything else?”

She was so consumed now by frustration she was yelling at people, even though she knew they wouldn’t respond. To let out some of her anger Traudl poked the man in the belly with the pommel end of her sword.

“My grandfather studies trolls.” The man said.

“What?” Traudl’s eyes grew wide. “You said something different!”

She prodded him and he said, “My grandfather lives in a house far to the west of here.” Upon a second prodding he said, “My grandfather studies trolls.”

“Some people say more things?” Traudl asked, though he wasn’t likely to respond. Regardless this was indeed good information. His grandfather knew something about trolls and might be able to let Traudl pass the Cave of Peril.

Traudl ran out of town and headed over the bridge to the west. To her surprise there were no monsters attacking her. She didn’t understand why, but short of someone blurting out a reason to her, she wasn’t likely to find out any time soon.

Far on the western side of the continent Traudl found a little house in the middle of the black swamp.

“An old man lives in there?” she said in shock as she took a step forward. Suddenly she felt a twinge of pain and knew she was weaker. “The swamp is poison!” She double-checked her supply of healing potions, then continued on to the old man’s house.

Sitting in the middle of the house was an old man, who seemed not to notice the sudden appearance of a petite armored warrior.

“You know about trolls?” Traudl asked.

Traudl looked around the house briefly. “No food in here, huh? Must be hard to get food if you have to walk out through the poison swamp. Maybe you should have built your house on the grassland instead.”

Finally, she walked over to him. “Take this note to the troll who guards the cave. He is a good friend of mine and he will let you go by.” The old man said.

The man removed a blank piece of paper and handed it to Traudl. She wasn’t sure if maybe the Troll language didn’t use writing, but used something else like smells. Maybe the troll would smell the paper and know Traudl could pass. Questions like these would never get answered, so she didn’t bother to ask.

“Okay. Now I can go through the cave. Maybe there I can—” Traudl took a deep, exaggerated, breath “—find something to make the wizard wake up the town, so I can get flower seeds, so Lindin will build me a ship, so I can go east, so I can defeat the evil fiend, so I can bring back the crown, so I can restore peace, so I can find Sylva’s husband.”

Traudl wandered out through the poison swamp and down into Uleag, where she rested at the Inn instead of using up an expensive healing potion. Afterwards she ventured south to the Cave of Peril. Still no monsters attacked her, she found now that she missed the attacks. They tended to break up what was otherwise a rather boring day of travel.

Traudl reached the cave again and gave the note to the Troll. “Why, I haven’t heard from old Vespis in years! I better go say ‘hi’. Thank you!” the troll said as he walked past Traudl and out of the cave.

On the other side of the cave Traudl could see a town right away. “Ooooh! I wonder if there’s better weapons and armor in there!” she yelled, as she sprinted for the entrance.

Just like before, Traudl ignored everyone in town, and went straight for the weapons and armor shop. There were new and exciting items there, but something told Traudl they weren’t nearly as strong as the stuff she had on. Not for the first time in this adventure, Traudl felt something was off about her sudden desire to have gold and fine weapons. Was this something she wanted before? She could barely remember. She arrived in this land in worn rags without a coin to her name.

Yes, of course, she came here to earn money and find weapons, right?

No. No! She came here to find Sylva’s husband. She needed to stay focused.

“Welcome to Jereth!” A boy said.

“Woof” A dog said.

“No warriors who have gone to face Mozebarr have ever returned.” A lady said.

“I’ve heard of a magic ring that makes it so monsters don’t attack you outside, but it doesn’t work indoors.” An old man said.

“Where is George? He’s late again.” Another lady said.

“Oh no! I’m late.” A man at the eatery said.

Then Traudl came to a house with a man and woman living in it. “Things are so nice here in Jereth, but sometimes I miss my home in Porzoin.” The woman said.

“Porzoin?” Traudl asked. “The people there are asleep. Do you know where I can find a cure?”

The woman did not answer, so Traudl prodded the man of the house. “What? My father has put a spell on the town of Porzoin? I see, he thinks I betrayed him, by running off with Madeline. If only he could understand. Take this note to my father, and this jewel.” The man handed Traudl a note and a medallion.

“You’re the wizard’s son? But I didn’t tell you about a spell, or a wizard, how did you know?”

She prodded him again. “Take the note and pendant to my father. Good luck.”

Traudl looked at the note, but just like the troll note, there was nothing written on it. “It must be magic invisible ink.” she said as she tucked it away in her backpack.

Without further delay, Traudl left the town of Jereth, went back through the Cave of Peril, then up the Wizard’s Tower. The magic ring, as she learned, was protecting her outside, but in the tower, she was attacked again. Magic rats, mummies, animated treasure chests, and tufts of fur with teeth all came out to fight.

Traudl again reached the top of the tower, where the wizard was still standing in the exact same spot.

“Here you go!” Traudl said as she gave him the letter and jewel.

“What’s this? ‘Dear Father, I love Madeline and want to be with her. Please understand.’ This jewel? It was my son’s. You must have met him. I’m glad to know he is safe and doing well. It’s time for this curse to end. Take this bag of wake-up-powder and give it to the people of Porzoin.”

Traudl took the bag of powder and put it in her bag. She then looked for the magic ladder, but she had forgotten to buy another. “RATS!” she shouted.

“Now that you’re a good guy again can you make the monsters ago away?” She asked the Wizard, but he did not answer.

Traudl went back down all ten levels of the tower, fighting monsters the entire way. Unlike the first trip through, they were no match for her magic armor and weapons this time.

The fights had become routine. Most of the threat was gone, but she still found a thrill in it. The last town she visited didn’t have any good things she could buy, but she was still excited to collect more gold.

“Stay focused!” she kept reminding herself. “You’re not here for fighting and gold, you’re here for…”

She stopped in her tracks and stared off to the south, as if it might reminder her, but she could no longer remember.

EDIT: Art credit for the featured image to the Dragon Quest game series. The image itself is attributed to Akira Toriyama, but you can’t always believe what you read on the internet. I sourced it from HERE.