"Dang it, this map is so confusing. I've made the wrong turn five times in a row." Sydra says as he looks around. Currently, Sydra is standing in the center of a red district, and multiple females, and a few males, keep approaching him. 'They might actually be tempting if they weren't all wearing pirate costumes.' Sydra thinks as he shoos away a few more people who were scantily showing off their wooden legs.
"I'd give you splinters all night long if you want," A lady says as Sydra walks by a place called Nightly Splinter. Looking at the woman, Sydra was surprised to see that she had the ability to balance her curvaceous upper body upon two wooden legs.
"Um, no thank you. I prefer my ladies to have smooth legs and I don't mean ones that were sanded down," Sydra says as he picks up his pace and leaves the red district. Glancing around, Sydra notices that he has finally entered the forging area of the town. Checking his map, Sydra finds the forge that David was talking about earlier.
"Hello?" Sydra calls out as he walks into the forge and looks around. In the center of the room is a large wooden post that has a few tools hanging off it, and there are a few storage chests in the corner of the room. Glancing in the chests, Sydra is surprised to find them almost empty, in fact, the entire forge seems to be quite empty.
'Did I come to the right place?' Sydra wonders as he sees a muscular man standing over an anvil with a hammer in his hands. When the man hears Sydra call out to him he sets down his hammer and takes off his gloves.
"Hi, the name is Gail, what can I do for you?" Gail asks as he walks over and shakes Sydra's hand.
"I heard from a guy called David that you were looking for work and that you recently acquired some good materials. He also said you were good at your work, but this forge seems to be empty," Sydra says as he thinks about leaving the forge and going to a different one.
"Yeah, I know how it looks, but I only just recently graduated from my apprenticeship and purchased this forge. But before I started working on my own, I was the apprentice of the master forger Anvel, who works down the road," Gail explains to Sydra, who just nods and decides to get his work done here.
"In that case, I was hoping you could forge me two daggers from the Deepjaw Shark material that you have, and I will provide some metal that I wish to be incorporated," Sydra says as he pulls out two meteorites he took from the Observatory and hands them to Gail.
"Yeah, I can do that. It will cost you two medium-sized pearls, or something of equal value. I can have it finished in eight hours. Come back then," Gail says as he takes the meteorites from Sydra and pulls out two small blue teeth from a chest.
'Ah, those must be the teeth from the Deepjaw Shark," Sydra thinks as he turns around and heads out of the forge. Pulling out the map, Sydra heads to the area that is marked as food, thinking that would be the best place to start asking people about the occurrences of the night.
A few blocks away from the restaurant section, a delicious aroma enters Sydra's nose, and he picks up his pace. As he walks by restaurants, Sydra's mouth begins watering and he peers through the glass to see what is making such a tempting smell. On a table next to the window is a plate of meat, covered in red sauce. The people eating the food seem to have been sent to paradise as tears of joy run down their faces. Trying to bring his focus away from the window, Sydra turns and walks into a lovely woman who is standing next to a sign.
"I'm sorry, I didn't see you there," Sydra says as he steps back and sees the woman eyeing him with a mischievous look. Confused, Sydra tries to walk away, but he is stopped when the woman grabs onto his arm tightly.
"We are trying a new recipe here that uses freshly caught Shallow Seacow steak, and is dipped into our underwater magma sauce. It only cost five small pearls for a plate because we're trying to promote it. Would you be interested? I mean, you should be after bumping into me as hard as you just did," she says as Sydra turns back to her and sees a threateningly look in her eyes, as she lets go of him and rubs her arm like it's in a great deal of pain.
Looking around, Sydra sees people stopping and staring at him suspiciously. "Of course I am," Sydra says, before ducking through the door of the restaurant to get away from the peoples piercing gazes. 'That would have ended badly if I had refused," Sydra thinks as he sits down at the bar.
"Hello, what can I get for you?" Asks a man from behind the bar as he hands Sydra a menu. Skimming through the menu, Sydra decides that the Seacow steak did sound really good he should order that, as well as a drink called a Sirte which tastes like sprite. While waiting for the food to show up, Sydra pulls out a book and pretends to read it, while he actually listens to what people are saying.
"You do anything interesting lately?" A man asks as he sits down next to another man, who sighs.
"Well I was working on a new blueprint yesterday, but I forgot to pay attention to the time and it ended up ruined. I guess I turned last night and decided to tear it up at some point. Luckily, my office door was locked tightly, and I didn't leave the room," The man says as the one who had asked him the question pats him on the back.
"Yeah, this damn curse is a pain, but it's on you for not getting in your night container. You should no better by now," The first man says as their food arrives and Sydra starts to think about what he heard.
'So the island is cursed, and it's a curse that changes people at night. But what do they change into, and why didn't David say anything about it,' Sydra wonders as a plate of food is brought out to him.
Digging into the food, Sydra forgets about his surroundings until he notices that some people have sat down on either side of him. Gulping down the food in his mouth, Sydra slowly looks up to see who is sitting so close to him, only to find out it's Robert and the others.
"Hey, didn't expect to see you here," Robert says as he picks up a menu and begins reading it. "We found out some interesting information about the island, and so we decided to look for you, but you were nowhere to be found. Then we got hungry and came here to eat, and here you are," Robert says as calls the waiter over to tell him what he wants.
"Yeah, I found out some stuff as well," Sydra says as he turns to look at Cidre and Erich, who both have cloth bags hanging from their shoulder. 'I guess they bought some stuff as well," Sydra thinks as he turns back to Robert. Earlier, while they were on their way to the center of the island with David, the group had divided the medium-sized pearls up between each of them.
"Alright, you go first. What did you find out about the island?" Robert asks as he takes a sip from his drink.
"Well, it seems that there is a curse placed on the island, and it changes people during the night. Sadly, that's all I found out, and I had to eavesdrop to figure that much out," Sydra says as Robert nods his head.
"We found out a bit more than you did. Such as what the people turn into, and what they have to do to keep themselves from harming others. It seems that the curse was put in place a few hundred years ago, and during the first night, this island lost a lot of its residents," Cidre says as he pulls out a book and hands it to Sydra. "This is a book written about the history of the island's curse, and what they have done to try and fix it,"
"We also heard that the people on the island are willing to give an incredible reward to anyone who gets rid of the curse. A lot of people have come here to try and accomplish it, but so far they all failed," Erich says as Sydra's ears pick up at the sound of a reward.
"Haha, I guess we'll just have to be the ones to do it then. I'm sure we can get rid of a pesky curse," Sydra says as he throws the book he was pretending to read back in the Arbor Sanctum and opens the one that was just handed to him.