In which we actually become a thief
Here we are at Ragpicker’s Square, where the search for Pharod sent us. I figure here’s a good a time as any to review what we know about Pharod so far: apparently literally everyone around hates him. The harlots, the Dustmen, etc. He has a reputation for unscrupulous behaviour, and every corpse he and his gang turn in seems to be looted of all their valuables. Rumour has it that, given he’s turning in so many corpses, he or his followers might be killing people themselves. As for his personal history? We don’t know much yet. I did get some details off the planewalker in the bar:
It’s odd to go from being someone in the upper wards to someone on the streets. I question the ‘locals’ for more information. Looks like Sharegrave and Pharod are in a little gang war, and though Pharod tried to oust him Sharegrave’s still solidly in charge of this little patch of land. Pharod isn’t here, exactly, but he is near, in hiding.
Unfortunately before I go any further, I run into some troubles. I’ll elaborate in a mo’.
This is Carver. He’s actually ‘Ratbone’ in the unmodded game; a restoration mod renames him as there’s another character called ‘Ratbone’ who was initially deleted from the game. I guess the developers wanted to reuse the name elsewhere. He’s a thief-for-hire – sorry, thief-fer-hire – working for Sharegrave, who refuses to answer any other questions about what he’s doing.
Seems like a forthright guy, let’s get him to teach us thievery for 50 coppers.
It goes pretty well. If I had more Dexterity I could’ve gotten more experience, but it’s no huge loss. One of the ideas behind Planescape is that the Nameless One kind of already knows all of thievery, magery, etc. over the course of his many lifetimes, it’s just a matter of remembrance. Hence why his stats can get so high. That said, right now we are a godawful Thief. Pickpocket isn’t so much a ‘steal’ button as it is a ‘make someone hostile’ button. And you can attack everyone anyway.
Planescape doesn’t offer a multiclass or dual-class system for the player. Dak’kon is a Fighter / Mage, later on we’ll get a Fighter / Thief, but TNO is stuck to one path, albeit he can switch between them on the fly by talking to companions. XP and levels don’t translate between classes, but you keep some physical attributes from levelling up as another class. Which is probably for the best, since it means having a few extra Fighter levels early on won’t really hurt.
We pass by Yellow-Fingers, named so because his fingers have caught jaundice from rummaging around in corpses, and here our problem begins to reveal itself. So, Yellow-Fingers thinks that Morte is his skull. It’s not really clarified if he means, like, he owns Morte as a mimir or something, or if he thinks Morte is, like, his skull. You know, the thing in your head. As far as I can tell, he’s just talking completely out of his arse to pressure you for some coins. I admit, you have to admire the willful delusion to accuse someone of having your skull. Anyway, there’s no reason whatsoever to believe him.
Let’s offer to buy the skull with five coppers.
I mean, I think 5 coppers for someone’s skull is a good price, in fairness. If you do let him live / pay him off, the conversation will end with him trying to pickpocket you. Great guy, Yellow-Fingers.
It’s profitable for us, the player, though. With high INT we can catch him in the act, and observe his technique. The reward, a very slight increase to our Pickpocket skill and some experience. Call him out, and we can demand our money back. Alternately, we can give him money in sympathy for his poor, hard-knock life. The final option is to threaten to kill him unless he gives you information, either truthfully or as a bluff.
It’s here I suddenly realise my error, however. I cannot offer this poor, innocent soul money because I just hit zero. Those five coppers were the very last coins I had. I’m broke. Skint.
This is what happens when you go around giving random people money to tell you about journals. But don’t worry. I have a get-rich-quick scheme.