It was morning, so I made my way to the docks, but the guard wouldn’t let me through the gate. I apparently needed permission from Vincent, the guard captain. The thing is, he tried to use me during a quest I did but didn’t write about, so I told him what I thought of him. There’s no way he’s giving me permission.
My two choices were to either wait for the merchant to come to the temple district, which he does rarely, or pay off the guard. I gave him 100 oren and he let me through. The merchant, Declan Leuvaarden, was easy to find. It took some convincing, but he eventually admitted he’s part of a secret society which is trying to destroy the Salamandra. Since our goals match, he agreed to provide help from time to time.
Declan looks far too much like Odo.
The swamps were a huge area with a large number of new quests and new areas, so I didn’t manage to explore it all today. What I did do is take care of the annoying escort quest which was the last thing I did on my last attempt to play through this game. There’s this old guy called Gramps, who needed an escort to the local shrine. The problem is, the escort route leads me through the area where a really tough enemy that’s part of another quest is located.He also asked me to get rid of some drowners attacking the docks at night, to which I agreed. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure if he meant the docks on this side, in Vizima, or on the other side, in the swamp. In any case, I went to the swamp next, which cost me 5 oren for the ferry.
New area, new quests.
This time, I remembered what was going to happen, so I drank a few potions and sharpened my silver sword before I went there. This meant I only nearly died this time. I got to the shrine, Gramps thanked me and invited me to his hut later, saying he has books and knowledge he would be willing to share.
For now, that was it for me.
