When last we left Our Hero, the young bard on the server where his player
knew no one, he had just made level 6. He had done lots of pixie dust and
spider silk quests, been given a Dwarven Ringmail Tunic and a Pugius by kind
passers by, bought a shield, a spiked collar and a Purity belt (likely a
gift from an adoring sister to the seller, who only had to sell it to buy
her a present in return), and found several pieces of Bronze Plate laying on
the newbie lift platform. Lets tune in and see what did with his newly found
wealth...

"At last I found a buyer for the large bronze breastplate. An ogre of
considerable mass, who sees to have been grudgingly accepted by the kelethin
guards. What shall I do with this wealth? 34 platinum is a fortune...and
not, it will not buy me the armour I will need to survive. I must invest
this money in my willingness to work hard, and I must serve a just cause...

"Friends, every day our young are dying, slaughtered in heinous manner by
bats, bugs, rats, snakes, spiders and even *shudders* ORCS. Why you ask?
They have naught but rusty weapons to defend themselves with, an item you
would rather destroy than even carry! I am here on the behalf of the Arm the
Children Campaign, buying your Fine Steel weapons...

"Those laying siege to the Temple of Cazic Thule responded to my please,
opening their hearts and backpacks, even slaying the vile lizards at the
entrance for me so I might waddle my encumberedness towards civilization
with a minimum of perishing.

"I returned then to that part of the world to face danger once again...in
the Lower portions of the pit known as Guk. On my way I saw a brave hunter
waiting upon a frogluk known as the Squire. I wished him luck that this
fiend (erm, though their impression of me was significantly better than mine
of them) and offered to lessen his undoubted load of collars. He would not
accept my offer of payment and I continued on with my new magical item. The
spiders of Lesser Faydark would soon feel my vengeance for my various
deaths.

"But I was not ready to seek them yet, I made straight for the Undead side
of Guk, quickly discovering a pair of Shin Gauntlets. Thereafter I was to
die repeatedly in search of Grieves, in large part due to going as far as
the Bedroom in my search."

(Authors note: The point of doing the spider silk quest so many times was to
have many spare drums in the bank for running back to LGuk, at the end I had
like 4 on me :o)

"During this time, a passing Troll, totally without petition, gave me a
Bloodstained mantle to aid me in my efforts. In the end I left without
grieves, some day I will have to return...but I had another appointment in
the Temple...

"Friends, lets get weapons OFF the streets and keep our children safe, I
have been authorized by the Guards of Norrath to administer the Guards Fine
Steel Weapons Buy-back program...

"Once again, the people heard my message. This time I offered the fine steel
items to thoroughly screened Law-Abiding Citizens (there was no trade window
hanky panky, a very good indicator of high moral standing) from Freeport to
Kelethin."

This Weeks Epilogue:

My newbie bard is still level 6, despite his deaths in lower Guk. he now has
95pp and many nice pieces of armour, leveling now should be pretty fast.
None of the pieces were gained by begging, but only by be vocal about who I
was, what I was doing, and always always, offering (if not TOO vigorously)
to pay for things. yes, I think trying to be entertaining defiantly helps
too. He has stopped along the way to help folks if he could, this has not
been a mercenary effort, he is just having fun, but knowing a few tricks.

There has been a long running gag with the entire zone of Ocean of Tears,
which I won't relate now (I am not sure how well it would translate) but my
young bard *did* get a guild invite last night from a good fellow who heard
me in Cazic AND OOT. I am willing to bet they are a good guild too, at least
attitude wise, from my short tells with him. While I am not planning on
joining any guild at all, I do plan to seek out their members when hunting.

The point of this "series" is to pass along any tricks to young bards that
might help, to make the case that there is no need to beg and KS and all the
other ugliness to get ahead, and to share a bit of the total blast I have
had with a newbie bard on a strange server.

Tszaaz

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