I took the wimpy way out of the marriage proposal. I used logic and reason to show him why he shouldn't ask in the first place. I accused him of being a romantic and told him that I didn't think he wanted to ask Mairi... he just wanted to ask *someone.* Fog a mirror, you know. I told him that he ought to court her first if he wanted to marry her. He said okay. Really, I just think the whole marriage thing is a little weird, and maybe if he spends time with Mairi he will realize he doesn't like her as much as he thinks he does and won't ask. :>

While doing some outfit-testing for the vendors, Mairi took her black sandals (present from Shade & Dundee) off while she tried on another outfit. She put them someplace... and then she couldn't find them again. She was devastated. She looked through *everything* ... twice... and still couldn't find them. They are hard to see against the blackness of the backpacks and pouches. They could be anywhere. She still can't find them.

Hearding said that I should give Damin Tresh the quest of finding a new pair of sandals. He said that a) it would give Damin (the courter) a chance to be a hero to Mairi, and b) it would also give him a quest... which we're kind of supposed to have but don't.

So Mairi brought Damin to BDB and told him her sob story about how she was devastated that she lost her sandals. She didn't tell him *how* to go about getting a new pair... she just said 'do it.' She told him that his prize would be a new outfit w/ colored armor. She said he could find others to help him... but she would only give the prize to him. How he compensated the others was up to him. She gave him the deadline of Midnight on Saturday (2 days).

Saturday evening, Damin came to BDB with a pair of black sandals in his hand. He gave them to an ecstatic Mairi, who outfitted him in colored armor, as promised. Damin chose Dull Copper... which is, unfortunately, the hardest color of armor to get a cloak/kilt/baldric to look good with. She tried Purple Haze (which - I like that - but it's a little feminine).. she tried Red... and a few shades of Blue. Finally we decided on Royal Purple. It still isn't great... but it is okay. I think I will look for a nice Gray... maybe Gray would look good with it.

A few days later, Mairi was at the Skara Bank and asked Hearding (who has been practicing magery like a madman) if he would open up a gate there to get me back to BDB. He said, "Okay just a minute..." and I waited on the North side of the bank, where his rune was marked.

I saw a gate open, and ran into it. "Are you sure you want to go through this moongate?" "Yes. Continue."

When I came out of the other side, I was not at BDB. I paged Hearding via ICQ: "Ummm... never mind about that gate..." I was someplace I had never been before. It was in the jungle, and there was a stone building near a mountain. I figured it was a dungeon entrance. I knew what happened the LAST time I was at a dungeon entrance (pk galore) and so I hid behind a house, wondering what I should do.

I paged the Courter. "I have another quest for you," I told him. "I did something dumb, and now I am lost. So ... your quest is to rescue the damsel in distress." I gave him my sextant coordinates (I actually had one - amazing, huh). He said, "Okay, I'll get someone to open up a gate." I said, "No... the other part of the quest is that you can't use magic."

"I don't have a boat!!!" he said. I said, "So hang out at the Skara bank and spam that you need a boat. Maybe somebody will take you." He says, "The only person I know with a boat is Dundee, and he is never on ICQ."

"Damin," I said, "this is the quest. Just do it."

A few days later, he said he was coming to get Mairi. She wanted behind the house, and saw a gate open, and then a bunch of people come out. Ack! PKs! But then... she saw that they were TNO. Not PKs. Thank goodness. She said hello to the TNO folks, who had absolutely no clue who she was and didn't say hello back. Oh well.

Shortly thereafter, Damin showed up in a small boat. He said hello to the TNO people and they said hello back. Hmmph. Anyway, I wanted to get out of there, so we left. we sailed by Ice Island, and went around the island killing walruses. I made many pairs of studded leather gloves. Below Average Studded Gloves for Everyone!!

We kept running into each other on the boat. "Move please" and just plain "Move" were probably the most oft said phrases that evening. I decided to get a larger boat so that we could have a bit more elbow room. I pulled all the money off my three vendors, and begged Davian for some more. Then I bought a Big Boat.

Marcus, Bob Vila, and I went to the Ice Place in the new lands the next evening on my big boat. I made Bob some leather armor on the go. :) Then we crashed and warped, and lost the whole trip. The next evening, Damin and I drove the boat back to the Ice Place and marked a rune, and picked up Marcus (who refused to make the boat trip a second time) at Papua. After Damin left, little 50 strength Marcus and no-combat-skills Mairi killed two ice serpents, and an ice snake, all at the same time. Then after they were dead, we killed a Frost Troll. :>

Damin has now made a quest for himself. He is going to get 1,000 hides and sail them to the new lands for Mairi to tailor. :)

Quests are fun. :)