Taloon the Arms Merchant

I dreaded this, but I didn't think it would be this bad.

Our tale tonight starts off in the sleepy village of Lakanaba. Our hero tonight, Taloon, is a shopkeeper who works for another person. It pays the bills, but he has dreams of owning his own shop one day. This chapter is interesting for a number of reasons. The most of which is we're not hunting some big bad guy. Our goal is to make money. We can do that the way every other RPG has us doing it, which would be via combat and looting. However, we can also man the shop as we always do. Later in the night, we'll get shop orders to fill, but I'll get to that later.

What I did was work at the weapons shot for three days. Customers will come in and buy our goods, sell their stuff, or waste my time and not partake in the glories of capitalism. In those three nights, I made enough money to get decent armor and the best weapon Taloon's shop sells. If we talk to our fellow villagers, we can get a bit of a lay of the land. The innkeeper, specifically, starts our tale off by telling us about the Iron Safe, an item that keeps all of our gold on us if we die.

Once you're decked out to your liking, you should head in search of the Iron Safe. The dungeon it's in is to the north, and it's a pretty okay area. The encounter rate is pretty low, and the mobs aren't too deadly. Bring an antidote, though. Poison killed me the first time I came down. Along the way, we can open stone doors that hold back water. Rather than drown us, they can push us to other areas, and the second one opens a shortcut. Eventually, we'll notice a giant rock behind one door. As we go south from it, it'll start rolling towards us. This part doesn't make sense, but we'll need to guide it around the circular area we're in. The rock will follow you, so take it east, south, then west. It'll fall into a hole, letting us use it as a bridge. Down a set of stairs will be the chest that contains the Iron Safe. Push one of the boulders down here in with you since the safe kept the doors open. Picking it up will have them close on you permanently. I got stuck in here, which is pretty lame, game.

Return home to refuel/gear, and head back out into the world. South will take us to a strange village. A man tells us that foxes in the area like to trick people. There's also a guy who says he got stuck here and fell in love with a girl. Remember him. Don't buy anything at the item ship. Even if broad swords can sell for 1500 gold, just ignore them now. Talk to the priest in the back of the village, and he'll let us sleep here. For some reason, we're stuck in the area as it loops around itself, so we might as well. In the morning, we'll find ourselves in an open field, but we can leave to the world map from any side. Also, the "sleep" didn't heal us. Keep heading south until we come to the castle of Bonmalmo, we gain a better understanding of what's going on. The King of Bonmalmo wants to invade Endor to the south. Fortunately, the bridge between the two nations was destroyed, so they can't. One of the NPCs here tells us to meet them behind the weapons shop in the night. Should we follow what he says, we learn that this is Prince Reed. He wants us to send a letter to Princess Mia of Endor. But how do we get there?

Another NPC reminds us of the foxes and says a dog might scare them off. Return home, and talk to Grandpa Tom. Push him to the house of healing, and he'll tell us about his missing son. Long story short, his son is in the jail cells beneath castle Bonmalmo. Bring a wing of wyvern with you, and avoid the guard's gaze. They'll turn around before they turn down the next hallway, so stay hidden. Talk to the missing son, give him the wing, and return the Lakanaba. We can now get Tom's dog. Take the dog to the fox village, and he'll eat the priest. The town will proof away, the fox will give us a half plate armor, and we'll meet di Gardi, the architect. Return the dog and head south. The bridge will be fixed, and we can head to Endor. We've also heard that a shop owner in Endor was looking to sell his shop. We even met him last chapter.

Speak to him first because we really want that shop. It turns out we'll need the King's permission, so go talk to him. He tells us he'll think about it, so speak to Mia while we're here. The note is a love letter, but it also warns of the impending invasion. The King overhears it and tells us to return to Castle Bal with a royal proclamation. Do so, and we'll read it. It's a note saying that Endor is cool with the two of them getting married. King Bal understands how succession works, and this means Reed and Mia's kid will be the heir to both kingdoms! War is off! Return to Endor, and the King lets us buy the shop. All we need now is 35000 gold.

There's a new cave to the northeast, across the new bridge near Endor. At the bottom is the Silver Statue and a bunch of gear we can't use. We'll need to head there, pick it up, and sell it to a rich guy on the east side of Endor. There are two mercenaries in town that can help us with this. Hardie is in front of the church and can be recruited for 400 gold. He's a basic soldier with good attack and HP. Laurel is on the second floor of the inn and is our mage. He costs 600. Once we have the statue and an additional 10000 gold, we can buy the shop, and our family will join us. Our wife says we should bring her stuff to sell, but I won't be doing that.

Instead, talk to the King again. He's requested seven broad swords and half plate armors. We can buy the armor in town for 1200 gold, the sword in Banamudo for 2000, or find everything in the dungeon as random drops from mobs.

Once we do that, the King will give us 60000 gold, which is just enough to complete the tunnel for the old man in that other cave I didn't discuss yet. Once we finish the tunnel, we'll end this chapter.

I think, at least. I haven't done this yet. This entire chapter is filled with backtracking and tedious nonsense that I hate. I ran out of time looking for all this stupid gear, so I'll finish this later. Why does it have such a low drop rate? What's worse, our mercs kinda suck. They don't hold any gear, and inventory management in this game is terrible. Taloon can carry his equipment and the Iron Safe, so he only has three open slots. This limits healing, antidote usage, and how much stuff we can hold. I'd be a lot closer to fulfilling the King's request if I didn't need to drop all the chests we can find in here. Is Dragon Quest IV a terrible game, or is it the opposite of VI? Maybe I'll find out, or maybe I'll drop the stupid month off the Grand Canyon...