TAKE X (6-5-17: The End)

Why don't you look for a knife store, see if there's anything affordable that's stronger than your current dagger.

Then freak out at the sheer number of knife stores in this town.

>Find more info about This Guy

Oh.

I'm never quite sure how we're supposed to work around failing some parts of the story. D:

> Purchase a new knife.



You make your way down to Edge Lords, which bills itself as the "premiere place to get your stabbing on." You figure it might be worthwhile to invest in a better knife, so you get their deluxe model, "The Degutser," advertised as being the best way to remove the guts from animals.

As a side note, there is a ridiculous number of knife shops here. Why, on Knives Row alone, there's Edge Lords, Sharper Vision, Knives R Us, Serrate Escape, Hilted Lover, Slicers and Dicers, Knives R Us Kids, The Kidneystabbers, and Knives R Us Express.

It's enough to make you a little concerned about this city.

> Find out more about the guy.



With that done, you begin the job. You're not going to get anywhere unless you find out who this guy who has this yellow rock, so you start asking around. Nobody seems to know him, but after some time investigating...



How convenient.

Okay, he's got two guys with him, and... some weird floaty thing. So a direct confrontation is probably a bad idea.

Trail them from a distance and wait for a better opportunity. If you can see a chance to split them up, all the better.

Although then you'll have to take a guess on which of them to follow. You can't be sure he didn't give the thing to one of the others.

> Wait for a better opportunity.



You trail these guys for a little while. They're headed to the north side. Maybe they're trying to skip town? They seem pretty furtive about it. They're making sure nobody else is around, anyway.

'Furtive,' by the way, was your word of the day a few days ago on your "Improve Your Vocabulary" calendar. Just because you're a thief doesn't mean you can't speak good.



Looks like they're splitting up. The big guy is going north into the neighborhood, the guy in blue is going back the way you came, and the small guy is going west.

Well, this is convenient.

You can't be sure the small guy still has the thing, but he looks like the easiest one to start with. Catch him alone, and either get the thing or make him tell you which of his buddies has it.

> Catch the little guy alone.



You catch up to the little guy. "Hey," you say, putting a hand on his arm so he can't get away, "I'm looking for a glowing yellow rock, and I hear tell you've got one."

"So what if I do?" he says, shoving your hand off of him.

"The way I see it, you can either hand it over - that's the easy way - or I'll have to take it from you - that's definitely not the easy way."

"Tch, no way I'm giving you anything," he says.

You shrug. The hard way it is.

>Watch

Best way to deal with These Guys is to counterattack once they stumble their first attack!

>ATTACK

> Watch.






... (Looks like this guy has a tendency to feint before he attacks... That's useful information.)

> Attack.

>use a skill to Counterfeint

> Consider your skills.




... (My skills are Counterfeit, where I fake having a random item and use it, Counterfeint, where I counter a foe's feint attack, and Five-Fingered Discount, where I steal an item from a foe.)

> Use Counterfeint.






... (Worked like a charm.)

>Use the successful feint to stab in the feet

> Stab him in the feet.

Check out that receipt. Why not?

>Examine orb

> Examine the receipt.



You examine the receipt. It looks to be for a lunch at some steakhouse called A Better Place. This guy Giovanni Abategiovanni ordered three steaks, mashed potatoes, the vegetable medley, a second order of mashed potatoes, wine, and a Vezretti Delight. You've never had a Vezretti Delight, but the name evokes images of ice cream, a sweet sauce, maybe some fruit, and a heaping helping of existential dread.

> Examine the yellow orb.



Looks like this is it. It's not as warm to the touch as you expected. You stash it in your inventory.



You check this item off of the list. The item in the Emek Archipelago is next.



You make use of a convenient scene transition to make your way to Emek. The trip's faster than you thought it would be. Not that you mind, anyway, since it means you can be done with these islands sooner.

It looks like there are three islands to go to from here. You don't know much about Emek - because of the aforementioned screaming heebies, and boy are they heebing - so you take a little time to figure out where to head first.

Let's go to the one on the left, the short building.

>Skip the start, enter the center

>One on the right.

>Seems more industrialized.

> Go to the building on the left.



You make the trek over to the leftmost building. It's heavy-duty and halfway in the ground. Looks like the perfect place to hide something valuable. You'll keep this place in mind while you scope everything out.

> Go to the building on the right.



Meanwhile, this building has obviously been abandoned for ages - it's completely boarded up. There could conceivably be something hidden here too.

> Go to the building in the center.



You're not even sure what's up with this building. The aesthetic of the whole thing seems deeply at odds with the others.

('Aesthetic,' by the way, was one of last week's words on your "Improve Your Vocabulary" calendar.)

The door's open, though, which is a little weird. That said, it looks easier to get into than the other two buildings, so you might as well start here.



You're pleased to see that this place is even creepier on the inside.

No, wait, not pleased. The other thing. Unnerved.

There are jars all over the place. Most of them are filled with some kind of liquid, and a few have something... else in them, but there's a couple that are empty.

Looks like someone left their trash on the floor too.

Check out that trash.

Pour one bottle out onto the ground

Hmmm... curious how the room is slightly different to how it previously appeared.
However despite my suspicion, there are the same number of jars.

> Loot the loot.