Please Excuse The RPG Analogies

Today I was baaaaaack, baaaaack, back in Ballarat, but this time I was on a quest that I had been given last week after via email.

You may remember I posted an ad on Gumtree to promote myself in an eloquent way. If you don’t remember then go back and read it again! You should start paying attention or you’ll fail your end of year exam!

And stop chewing gum!

Well that piece of genius advertising returned one result in the form of an Irish lady called Noreen. Noreen runs a cafe in Ballarat and she emailed me with a handy tip, her neighbour knows somebody who is looking for workers at his potato packing place.

Brilliant! Quest accepted: Talk to Noreen in person

I would meet Noreen today at her cafe and then, in the usual RPG style, I would have to talk to her neighbour after talking to her. Noreen’s neighbour was a mysterious gentleman by the name of Bryth , he had a Jack Russell dog and as I knocked on the door he bellowed ‘COME IN, LAD!’

After some dialogue he would eventually give me a cryptic message that would ultimately lead me to the potato packing shed in a town called Wallace

OOOOOH YEEEAH

But how did Noreen find my ad? Well, Bryth is friends with the owners of various farms including a Christmas tree plantation and Ray Gregory’s potato packing shed. Alan Gregory (son of Ray) asked Bryth if he knew of anybody who might need a job, Bryth then asked next door if they knew anybody who would need a job as they had relatives etc. . Noreen (from next door) happened to be looking on Gumtree one day when she stumbled upon my ad (labelled as ‘Ballarat’ in the location box) and got in touch.

Bryth would tell Alan that I would be there later in the day to talk jobs as Simon was at work and Bryth didn’t have a phone number for me to call. I gave him my number to pass onto the Gregorys and that was that.

Objective complete: Talk to Bryth

New Objective: Return to Noreen

Noreen had asked me to come back to the cafe once I had spoken to Bryne, so I did. I received a free coffee for turning in the quest which gave me a small stat boost (Energy +5). Then I received an optional quest line, Noreen asked me if I ‘had any cafe experience?’ to which I replied ‘No, but I have worked in a pub for a while’, which was true as I had completed the ‘work in a pub’ achievement ages ago which gave me +9 to my Customer Service stat, but it wasn’t enough so I failed that speech option. Noreen said ‘OK, are you any good with a shovel?’ I chose the option <Exaggerate> ‘Yes, I haven’t done a lot else since getting to Gordon’. Noreen then gave me the optional quest ‘Ask a nearby site office if they need any labourers’ and marked the location on my map (showed me the site at the end of the street)

Objective Complete: Return to Noreen

New Objective: Talk to Gregory at Wallace

If I did choose to pursue the optional quest, Noreen mentioned she could rent a room above the cafe.

So I had exhausted that quest hub for now and had to wait for Simon to finish work as he was my fast travel option, plus the packing shed was on the road back towards Gordon.

With a fair few hours to kill I got my hair cut (+20 Charisma) and had some lunch for an extra 150hp, then I walked up to Lake Wendouree, sat under a tree by the lake and wrote all of the above from the title to this upcoming full stop

After gaining some writing exp I decided to walk the full 6KM route around the lake (with a detour to look at the botanical garden) before walking back through Ballarat to look at things I cannot afford.

I then completed another quest, ‘Grab some shopping from Coles’ and Simon then enabled the fast travel option so we went to Wallace to find the potato packing shed.

After following the directions given, which were surprisingly accurate once we deciphered them, we found the objective and I walked up to talk to Alan Gregory. Alan seemed alright, a normal bloke that runs a packing shed. I introduced myself and it seemed Bryth had kept his word as Alan knew who I was. We talked terms and he offered a trial, two days at $14 cash per hour, then we’ll see how it goes with the promise of a wage increase if the job and I suit each other. I agreed as those two days, whatever the outcome, would give me a bit of instant income.

Objective complete: Talk to a Gregory at Wallace

New Objective: Pass the two day trial that begins on Wednesday at 7AM
(Optional: Repair a bike to go to work on)

I took the fast travel option back to Simon’s and Atti, who had been WWOOFing at the house today, had almost finished making dinner. What an interesting day. Now I’m off to save my progress by transferring it from short term to long term memory. G’night everybody!