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mystery-moose · 7 years

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FIC: Angus McDonald and the Flight of the Flying V (4/?)

[AO3 link]

They’ve come a long way, but even ten years after the world was saved, they’re still not quite where they should be. A whim, a missing painting, and a handful of near-death experiences help a flip wizard and his apprentice bridge the gap.

Taako does his best. Angus takes some risks. Introductions are made, bonds are tested, and lessons are learned — better late than never.

Angus changed quickly. He'd never exactly had a large wardrobe, though years of birthday and Candlenights presents from the Bureau (and Taako in particular) had given him a particularly eclectic selection. He chose the usual, and briefly thought about wearing one of his gifts before deciding against it; in all likelihood, Taako would have either forgotten he gave it in the first place, or would pretend to as a goof.

Taako was actually ready to leave before Angus, which surprised him. His new outfit was a little more sedate than the one he'd arrived in town wearing, aside from the constants of his hat, umbrella, and jewelry, while his makeup (beyond the glamour he always cast on himself) was as perfect as it always was.

"Thought you were in a hurry, Agnes," he said smugly, checking his nails.

"Not as much as you, I guess," Angus countered, grabbing his blue cap from the shelf by the door. "You must be excited."

Taako shrugged and said, "It's something to do," and Angus immediately knew he was right. He grinned as he left the apartment, and Taako followed after him.

It was a beautiful day in Neverwinter, and it made for good walking weather. Angus chartered cabs when he had to, but he always preferred to travel on foot. It let him get to know the winding streets and alleyways of the city, and kept him fit, the latter being almost as important as the former. Something Carey had drilled into him back in the Bureau days — it was one thing to know what you had to do, and it was another thing entirely to be able to do it.

Taako, of course, disagreed.

"Are we there yet?" he whined, bracing his umbrella across his shoulders.

"Almost, sir!" Angus said cheerily, pausing to look before crossing the street. Simple legwork like this always put him in a good mood.

As they crossed, Taako made a very impolite gesture to one of the wagon-drivers hurrying them along. Angus led the way down a set of old stone steps into an alley between two larger buildings. There stood an old oaken door, with a viewport and an iron cage over it. Angus knocked once, twice more, then once again. The port slid open and a pair of large, intense eyes stared out, first at Angus, then over his shoulder at Taako.

"What's the good word?" a deep voice asked.

"Never a good word," Angus replied, "only a polite one."

After a moment to glance at Taako again, the port slid closed. A series of snaps and clanks sounded as the door was unlocked. When it opened, Angus ducked inside with Taako close on his heels.

The basement shop had changed a great deal from the last time Angus had visited — he recognized a few of the paintings leaning against the far wall, and there was a bronze sculpture of an aarakocra he'd seen before, but the rest was all new. Art of all kinds littered every available surface, from floor to ceiling across the room. There were scroll cases tucked neatly alongside bottles in a wine rack to his right; urns so old the designs upon them were faded almost to invisibility; a suit of armor with an elaborate chest-piece in the shape of a blossoming rose, holding a spear with a bright blue ribbon trailing from its haft; and a large animal horn tucked into a leather bag that itself looked hand-crafted in a old tribal style.

"Boss is in the back," the goliath said as she closed the door. "You're here to talk to 'em, yeah?"

"Yeah," Angus said, tipping the brim of his cap. "Thanks, Sheila."

Sheila nodded, then glared at Taako, who smiled in what he probably thought was a disarming way.

"Don't worry," Angus said. "You can trust him. Can't she, Taako?"

"Oh, absolutely," Taako agreed, nodding emphatically. "I'm as trustworthy as they come!"

Sheila crossed her arms and didn't take her eyes off him. Angus patted Taako's shoulder.

"I'll be out in a minute," he said. Then whispered, "Don't touch anything."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Taako murmured, smiling and nodding at Sheila.

Angus headed for the only other door in the back of the room, past the long ornately carved dining table where place settings of a dozen different styles were stacked a dozen high. He knocked politely before stepping inside.

This room rarely changed much; pieces came and went, certainly, but there were more fixtures here that Angus imagined were kept as much because of their beauty or sentiment as their price. A massive redwood desk with a relief of an ancient battle scene carved into the front dominated most of the room, with a couple chairs in strange and unique styles sitting by the door. There was a grandfather clock in one corner, mostly hidden behind a bookshelf stacked with tomes so old their titles were long faded. An alchemical lamp with a beautiful stained glass shade sat on the desk, illuminating a collection of papers with indecipherable handwriting.

"Be with you in a sec," the tiefling said, standing behind their desk and writing something on a slip of parchment.

Angus closed the door and waited patiently, hands in his pockets. Rocco was worth waiting for; always polite, always helpful, occasionally difficult but never obstinate. It was a shame they were sort of a criminal, but then, so were a lot of Angus' oldest friends. He tried not to judge.

Rocco finished whatever they were doing, swiping their pen triumphantly as they did so. They straightened and smiled as they removed their reading glasses. "Ah, Mr. McDonald! What can we do for you today?"

"Nothing major," Angus said with a shrug. "Just wanted to know if any new paintings came through recently."

"There are always paintings coming through here, detective," Rocco said. "You know that."

"This would be a big one. You'd recognize it."

"Big as in...?"

"Flight of the Flying V."

Rocco blinked — they seemed genuinely surprised, but Angus kept his eye out for any tells. "Flight has been stolen?"

"Less than two days ago," he said. "It hasn't made the papers yet. The Museum contacted me to look into it quietly before the story breaks."

The tiefling's hand rose up to stroke across their horns and run back over their hair. Rocco stepped around the desk, glancing thoughtfully around the room and looking a little disappointed, if Angus had to guess.

"Detective," they said, turning their attention back to Angus. "I'm... speaking honestly, a bit flattered that you thought my business would be able to fence something like the Flying V, but... even if someone had come in with it, brokering a deal for a painting by one of Faerun's oldest masters is beyond me."

Angus' eyebrows rose — Rocco was polite, but they were never exactly humble. "Is that so?"

Rocco nodded, and they wrung their hands a little as they spoke. "To say nothing of the attention it would bring, Flying V is a masterwork. It's the symbol of an entire artistic period stretching back thousands of years. I'd be afraid to breathe on it, let alone touch it."

"The Curator said it was priceless," Angus said. "But if you had to fence it?"

Rocco almost looked like they'd been asked to put a price on their mother. Then they paused and looked down thoughtfully. Rocco was a collector, Angus knew that, but they were also a consummate professional. There were times those two things had clashed in the past, but never quite like this.

After almost thirty seconds of serious consideration, Rocco looked up and gave their price. Angus balked.

"Are you serious?" he asked, already knowing the answer from the look on Rocco's face.

"It's the place I'd start bargaining," Rocco said firmly. "And I'd take a fifth right off the top for the amount of trouble it would bring."

Now Angus was the one running his hand through his hair. He tried not to set expectations early on in a case, but apparently that ship had sailed, because that was very much larger than he thought.

"You see what I meant, now, yes?" Rocco said. "I'm proud of my business, Mr. McDonald, but I know my limitations."

"Yes, I can see that." Angus shook his head. "Well. This is going to sound unnecessary, after that, but if someone does come in wanting to fence Flying V, can you let me know?"

"I won't be making that deal, so all I'd be able to give you is a description."

"That's fine," Angus said, reaching into his pocket. "Whatever you can do will help."

He pulled out his notebook and a small satchet of bonds — paper money was less visible than gold, and Rocco had an account under an alias at Neverwinter Trust. Angus tore half a page out of his notebook and handed it and the bonds over to Rocco, who pocketed them in a smooth and practiced motion.

"Thanks, Rocco," he said, holding his hand out. Rocco shook it. "Stay out of trouble."

"Quite," they said dryly. "Sorry we couldn't be of more help."

Angus stepped out of the office, preoccupied with his own thoughts, and was startled to attention by an unexpected sound.

"—and I was like, 'careful, don't burn a spell on it!' "

Sheila slapped her knee, roaring with laughter. Taako doubled over cackling and leaned on Sheila's shoulder.

"What a stiff!" Sheila said, wiping her eyes.

"I know, right?" Taako said. "You should have seen the look on his face!"

Angus stifled a grin and cleared his throat. Taako looked over, brows raised.

"We're done!" Angus said cheerily. "Thanks for waiting."

"Oh, no bigs," Taako said. "We really got to bonding, right, Sheila?"

"Yeah. I'll 'member about that nail polish," she said, wiggling her fingers. "Thanks."

"You'll look marvelous, ketzile," Taako replied with a brush of his hand over hers. "Adios!"

They stepped outside and Sheila shut the door behind them. Angus turned and regarded Taako.

"What?" he asked, fiddling with a bracelet. "She's a fun lady. Just gotta get past that rough 'n tumble exterior, y'know? Can't judge a book by its cover, Ango. You should know better."

Angus stared at Taako for a moment, then shook his head and started up the stairs to the street. "It's not her I'm surprised by, sir."

Taako feigned shock. "I'm a social butterfly! People like me!"

Angus turned once he got to the top. "Not normally, no."

"Oh, go to hell, twerp," Taako retorted casually, flipping his hair over his shoulder. "You get whatever it was you needed?"

"Yes and no," Angus said, glancing down the street. "They'll contact me if they hear anything, but I doubt they will."

"You attune your stone with just anybody?"

He grinned. "Even better."

Angus pulled out his notebook and handed it to Taako, who flipped it open and shook his head at Angus' handwriting. "I don't get it."

"Remember that old interceptor book I had?"

"Assume that I do."

"This is the opposite. Sends and receives." Angus allowed himself a moment to geek out while Taako paged through the book. "Anything I write in there gets archived in a journal back at my house, as a backup. And if I tear out part of a page, anything written on that piece appears in both. More surreptitious than a stone of Farspeech, and less chance of being overheard."

"Huh." He furrowed his brow. "You enchant this yourself?"

Angus puffed his chest out a bit. "Yep!"

Taako looked momentarily impressed. It shifted into amusement as he handed the book back. "Cute. Real Caleb Cleveland stuff."

His grin turned sheepish. "I came up with it on my own,"

"Are you sure? Because I seem to recall a similar device from Caleb Cleveland and the Treacherous Trail—"

"A wholly original creation!" Angus loudly declared.

Taako snorted and put his sunglasses on. "Well, where we going now, Poirot?"

"That depends." Angus started down the street with his hands in his pockets. "How do you feel about a trip down memory lane?"

Taako's whole head rolled along with his eyes. "Must you speak in riddles, sahib?"

#the adventure zone #thezonecast #fanfiction #taako #angus mcdonald #post-campaign #mystery #adventure

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gamingtipsandtrickshacks · 5 years

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Moonlighter is the Love Child of The Legend of Zelda and Economics

My initial impressions of Moonlighter might be a bit much considering I only got my hands on the game for about 30 minutes at this past weekend’s PAX East 2018. But I have to say that even in the short amount of time that I had with it, the game really surprised me in a lot of ways. Moonlighter puts you in the role of a young shopkeeper who dreams of becoming a hero someday.

Moonlighter‘s charming aesthetic has no business looking as good as it does. While we see developers go with a pixel art style pretty often nowadays, Moonlighter manages to animate how its world and characters interact and move with fluidity. This attention to detail really did help the game stand out to me.

The title is set in a town known as Rynoka, which is conveniently located near a set of gates that lead to a whole bunch of different realms and dimensions. A young shopkeeper named Will uses these gates to collect a whole slew of unique weapons, armors, and items. You’ll take as much as Will can carry back to the shop, where you then set your own prices for everything you find.

“Moonlighter‘s charming aesthetic has no business looking as good as it does.”

You’ve got a huge encyclopedia filled with tons of different items that you can find in the game. Once you open up shop again, you’ll have customers swarming in and you can see how they react based on the prices you set. Your encyclopedia will automatically mark down what prices worked the best and what don’t. I’m sort of an addict when it comes to gathering collectibles, so this really got me excited when I saw it.

Players can also use the money they acquire to hire an assistant, upgrade their shop, and more. Customers will often occasionally offer you quests where you’ll have to get them a specific item. I also forgot to mention that if you’re too greedy with your pricing, there’ll be a higher chance of thieves getting involved with your shop. The shopkeeping phases of gameplay ended up being my favorite part of Moonlighter.

The few realms I got to experience weren’t very difficult, but the developer assured me that enemies will increase in difficulty as you progress. The enemies you’ll encounter range from some things that players might expect out of a game like this, but there are also a few enemies who are very strange. Some enemies move in unconventional ways and only take damage in a specific way that’ll require the player to experiment.

Taking on each realm slowly might be your key to getting the most out of each run. Your inventory is limited early on and dying could cause you to lose all of your items, although there are some ways that you can work around this. You can take some supplies with you to prolong your time running through different areas but they don’t last forever, and when you’re significantly closer to death, going into another area could cause you to meet your demise.

“The shopkeeping phases of gameplay ended up being my favorite part of Moonlighter.“

There are also boss battles that’ll be included in Moonlighter. I only got to experience one and didn’t last very long, but from what I did experience, the bosses aren’t a cakewalk. Like the more unique enemies in the game, players will have to figure out each of their attack patterns and weak points. As for the rewards you can reap after defeating a boss, I have no idea what awaits.

“Some enemies move in unconventional ways and only take damage in a specific way that’ll require the player to experiment.”

Moonlighter has no shortage of weapons from what I experienced. I used the bow, sword and shield, great sword, and a fist-type weapon; each one felt unique and valuable in its own way. I’m personally a sucker for the great sword as it feels like such a tremendous force compared to everything else I used, but I’ll be sure to experiment with everything once I actually get my hands on the game. There’s also a rolling move that really reminded me of something straight out of The Legend of Zelda. It’s a conventional mechanic but it works well for this game. If you use it too much, you’ll also manage to roll yourself right off a bunch of edges like me.

You can interact with locals in your town as well as a few other shopkeepers, as each of them can sell unique items or services to Will. I didn’t get too much time to interact with these characters in our demo, but I’ll be interested in seeing how things in town get during the late game and how those shopkeepers also develop.

The two phases of gameplay continuously felt engaging to me. Developer Digital Sun was inspired by the likes of Rogue Legacy, The Binding of Isaac, and The Legend of Zelda, and it really shows in this game. They’ve taken a lot of mechanics from other games but have blended them in a way that gives Moonlighter an identity of its own, and that’s really got me excited for it.

Moonlighter is coming to just about every current platform on May 29 with the Switch version coming later this year, so there’s really no reason you shouldn’t check it out. I know I’ll be grabbing it on either the Nintendo Switch or PS4. If you don’t happen to own one of those consoles, it’ll also be available on PC and Xbox One.

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gamingtipsandtrickshacks · 6 years

Text

Moonlighter is the Love Child of The Legend of Zelda and Economics

“Moonlighter‘s charming aesthetic has no business looking as good as it does.”

“The shopkeeping phases of gameplay ended up being my favorite part of Moonlighter.“

“Some enemies move in unconventional ways and only take damage in a specific way that’ll require the player to experiment.”

0 notes

gamingtipsandtrickshacks · 6 years

Text

Moonlighter is the Love Child of The Legend of Zelda and Economics

“Moonlighter‘s charming aesthetic has no business looking as good as it does.”

“The shopkeeping phases of gameplay ended up being my favorite part of Moonlighter.“

“Some enemies move in unconventional ways and only take damage in a specific way that’ll require the player to experiment.”

0 notes

gamingtipsandtrickshacks · 6 years

Text

Moonlighter is the Love Child of The Legend of Zelda and Economics

“Moonlighter‘s charming aesthetic has no business looking as good as it does.”

“The shopkeeping phases of gameplay ended up being my favorite part of Moonlighter.“

“Some enemies move in unconventional ways and only take damage in a specific way that’ll require the player to experiment.”

0 notes