Note: Hey everyone! I hope you're having a good weekend! I'm just here with a little update to the posting schedule around Fable 1, My Story. I will be posting parts every second day, and once the story is completed I will move on to Fable 2. I've also been dabbling with the idea of doing the same with Kingdoms of Amular since I've only played an hour or so of that game! With that little announcement out of the way, I'll leave you to grab a cup of coffee (or don't) and enjoy the content!
I didn’t want to go back to the guild just yet. It's been years since I’ve been back to Oakvale, and the curiosity in my wanted to explore. This is how I found myself talking to a ghost. Yeah, that’s right, a ghost. He wasn’t enjoying his time in the afterlife and thought of it as some sort of torture. He claimed that his wife thought that he was lost at sea, and also didn’t realize that he was a pirate. He wanted my help and told me a bout a treasure buried near the docks and had said if I dug it up and gave it to his wife, he would reveal the location of another treasure he had buried. I thought long and hard about it. Perhaps this torture was the pirates just desserts, but the same thing that drove me to the ghost, drove me to help.
The treasure was gold, a nice sum of 500. To me it was nothing, a Hero can make thrice that amount easily. I found the widow grieving a short distance away from the buried treasure. She still believed that her husband was lost at sea, and after talking to her, I think she knew the truth about her husband’s career, but chose to be ignorant.
The ghost had kept his word. He had given me the location of another buried treasure. I found myself in the graveyard, spade over my shoulder, hoping that no one would get the wrong idea about why I was there. I looked for the statue the ghost told me about and nearly dropped my spade. Despite being made out of stone, the statue looked exactly like my father. The people of Oakvale never forgot him. In that moment I made I promise to myself that no matter what it takes, that I would make him proud.
After getting the treasure(an obsidian axe and a silver key), I headed back to the Guild. Weaver told me that Maze wanted to talk, but he could wait. I checked to see what new quests were available. There were two, one was a woman looking for her missing grandson, the other was a request for help with a hostage situation. I cursed under my breath, reading all the details of the latter quest. I hoped that once Twinblade was defeated, his bandits would dismantle, but I was wrong. They had taken three traders as hostages. Grunting in frustration, I teleported back to Oakvale, ready to not make the same mistake twice.
A guard greeted me outside of the bandit camp. He explained the situation to me. Bandits had taken the traders as hostages and demanded ransom from the Trader Union. And the Trader Union didn’t want to depart from their gold. So they contacted a guard who owed them a favor, and he was standing right in front of me. The guard more or less admitted he wasn’t good at his job. This became evidently more clear when he took the first chance he had to get out of the area, leaving me to deal with the mess.
The bandits didn’t put up much of a fight. I highly doubted that they were expecting a Hero to show up. After I was finished, the only thing left of the bandits were their corpses rotting away in the sun. The traders were grateful for my help, and I was grateful for their gold.
With the Traders safely away from the bandits, I left to deal with the other quest. I found myself in a quant little parcel of land in the woods, just outside of the Darkwoods entrance. A cottage sat on the land and in the cottage was the quest giver, a small, frail, old-woman. She explained that her son was missing and that he had gone to the Hobbes cave. Knowing that the Hobbes would tear a small child apart, I made haste towards the cave.
Getting to the child was easy. Getting him out was a problem in its own right . A Nymph had the kid in some kind of trap, preparing him for a ritual. I had heard this was how Hobbes were created. Nymphs would kidnap lost children and steal their souls, transforming whatever was left behind into a hobbe. It attempted to make a bargain with me, another soul in exchange for his. But whatever nefarious purpose the fairy wanted someone else for wasn’t going to happen. I took my bow out and shot an arrow at her. Turning into a wisp, she flew around the room, calling countless amounts of Hobbes. I knew that I was too slow to get into melee range of her, so I continued to use my bow. Once she was defeated, the force field the kid was trapped in disappeared.
Making our way back through the cave, he had told me that it was his grandmother who had sent him there, and living with her was hell. He made it clear that the first chance he got, he was running away. And I couldn’t blame him. What kind of woman would send her own grandson to a place like this cave?Arriving back at the cottage, the grandmother nagged her grandson. Without saying a word to her, the grandson went into the house, packed up his things, and left. I wish him all the best in whatever adventures he may find.
Now that that was finished, I turned my attention towards Maze. I headed back to the Guild Hall to meet Maze in his tower. Here he told me he had a favor to ask. An archeologist friend of his has gone missing, and that he was last seen in Witchwood near a Demon Door. Maze asked me to find him, and who am I to refuse my savior?
The Demon Door told me that the only way it would open is if I guessed its name. He pointed me in the direction of a set of rocks. Each rock represented a letter, and I had to hit each rock in the correct order to guess its name. It only took me two tries to correctly guess its name, and despite not being impressed, the Demon Door kept its word.
The archeologist was in fact hiding inside the Demon Door. He was there for his own safety. Someone named Jack of Blades was looking for him because of his research into something called Focus Sites. But since I found him, he was no longer safe, and he quickly left.
The Witchwood had a Balverine problem, and I soon was introduced to it when someone dropped a quest card off requesting help with it. A White Balverine has been terrorizing the town of Knothole Glade. Knowing how dangerous these creatures can be, I setted off immediately.
Outside of Knothole Glade, a warning siren sounded. I rushed forward and witnessed a group of villagers banging on a closed gate, begging to be left in the village, and behind them, a fast approaching Balverine. I rushed at the Balverine, shooting lightning at it to get its attention. It worked. The Balverine turned its attention towards me. When the Balverine reached striking distance, I flourished, knocking it to the ground. And I made sure it wouldn’t get back up. Just as I muttered a “That was easy,” another Balverine came charging forwards towards the villagers. I jumped in its path. We exchanged blows with each other, and more than once it reached out with its jaw to bite me. And that was its mistake. When it reached out again in an attempt to bite me, I struck out, severing its neck and causing the beast to fall down dead.
I was just able to catch my breath when another Balverine appeared. I wasn’t able to reach it in time. It struck out at one of the villagers. Thankfully, it didn’t kill them. Bouncing back into action, I dashed forward, using the same tactic I did with the first Balverine to get its attention. The Balverine didn’t put up much of a fight and soon it had joined its brothers in the afterlife.
To my relief, the attack was over, or so I thought. The village gate opened, and the villagers rushed in. I was greeted by the chief of the village. He had explained to me these attacks were frequent and a White Balverine was the leader of the pact causing them trouble. Just then, another siren had sounded. I ran off in its direction and saw the dreaded White Balverine. It was larger than the other Balverines I fought, and the musky odor of it could be smelt from miles away. I exchanged blows with the creature, but could not deliver a final one before it had retreated.
The chief met me again and told me that there was once a White Balverine hunter that lived in the village but was unfortunately killed in his last hunt, but not before slaying the creature. The chief pointed me in the direction of his widow’s house and I made my way towards it in hopes of getting any helpful tips.
As I neared the house, The White Balverine ambushed me. Despite having the advantage of surprise, I was able to fight it off, and like the previous encounter, it fled. After the fight, a woman greeted me. She said that she was the widow of the hunter and explained that the White Balverine was her husband. In his last fight, he didn’t die but was bitten by the creature and slowly turned into the thing he once hunted. After giving me a silver augmentation and telling me that it was what her husband used in his hunts, another siren rang out.
The creature was attacking the town square. With my newfound information, I entered the fray. This time, the creature was no match for me. The silver had done its trick. Wounded, the creature fled to lick his wound. The chief had told me that people had reported previously seeing the creature near a pool in the Witchwood. I left the village, ready to finish what I had started.
The bloodied creature was exactly where the chief said he was. When he saw me he let out a guttural roar that caused my hairs to stand on end. We clashed, the creature fought hard, knowing that it’s very life was on the line. Feeling like defeat was imminent, it called forth its pack. I slayed the other Balverines before turning my attention back on the white one. This time, there was no escaping. The Balverine fell to my axe, and the terror that once stalked Knothole Glade was no more.
The chief was so impressed that he gave me a written recommendation to fight in The Arena. I had heard Whisper talk about it when we were kids. Her brother Thunder was a champion of The Arena, and according to her it’s where all Heros go to prove themselves. So I prepared myself. I cleaned off my new armor, and the Balverine blood off my blade, and got ready for my next adventure.