I began my journey in Constantinople. Having heard of the glory and riches a merchant brings in, I immediately signed up at the merchant guild, and bought myself a body bag (anyone else find this creepy?). Choosing my ID took a bit of time, since all the ones I wanted were taken. I eventually found one I liked (I won’t reveal it, but it's laced with irony. Mmm, irony....)
I also bought 5 camels, 50 pet recovery pills, and my usual potions. Next, I visited the specialty trader to get the goods. The system confused me, and I ended up buying a one star's worth of linen (I wanted to diversify).
Oh well, no biggy, as long as it didn't go past one star. Feeling pretty confident, I headed out the west gates. On my way out, I spotted a huge caravan entering Constantinople. I hoped that one day, I could reach their level.
About a minute into the run, my first thieves spawned. I was elated, and proceeded to kick their sorry npc butts. It was easier than I first thought, especially since one of them was a wizard. In fact, the possibility of a wizard spawn caused me great confusion, as I was debating on which armour type to bring beforehand (I settled for heavy armour, since it looked the sexiest :p).
The process of thief spawns and butt kicking continued up until I crossed the docks. Little did I know that my journey would suddenly become much harder.
After maneuvering my way across the beach, I hit the plains. It was at this point that I encountered my first player thieves, thief_red, and asd_2009.
I remembered that they couldn't attack me, what with this being a 1 star run. Nonetheless, I was wary of their presence.
They trailed me as I went on, and I made small talk with them. It became obvious that English was not their first language, but that's beside the point. Aside from asking me for my level, they remained silent.
After passing through this secret passage in the mountains (it’s a secret to me!), the player thieves began their mischief. Both were Chinese characters, and they began using ghost walk to draw agro on me. Things suddenly got a lot harder. Not only did I have to fend off npc thieves, but I also had to deal with the hordes of agro mobs on me. My pet pills began to dwindle, and I doubted if I would ever make it to Samarkand.
The commotion drew the attention of several passer-bys. One of them, _moraine_, decided to tag along. Luckily, moraine proved to be a much nicer person than the two thieves, killing most of the mobs they aggro'd onto me.
Pretty soon, I was down to 30 pet pills, as opposed to the 50 I started with. It didn't get any easier from here on. It became a nightmare when I reached the closiers and punishers. Mobs were running in every direction, either being aggro'd on me, or were already mauling my camel. I lost sight of moraine and the two thieves as I made a break for it. I ignored any npc that spawned, and left my camel trailing far behind me. To make things worse, more player thieves showed up. They, too, aggro'd more mobs onto me. One even summoned their own camel, positive that I would die.
Just when things looked unsalvageable, I saw the bridge up ahead of me. I knew no mobs would be there (what kind of mob lives on a bridge?!). The aggro'd mobs began to retreat back to their spawn point as I drew closer to the bridge. Once they had all left, I dealt with the 5 or 6 npc thieves I had racked up. I took this moment to catch my breath.
Checking my supplies, I noticed that I was down to 10 pet pills. I pulled up my map, and took joy in the fact that Samarkand was not too far now. I decided to take the northern path, hoping that grinders would take care of most of the mobs.
It turned out to be a winning bet, as the mobs the thieves pulled in faced a quick death. One kind character, Florian, joined efforts with Moraine to create a clear path for me. The player thieves eventually left as I neared the southern gates.
I had made it, my first ever successful trade. I boarded my camel, and began the walk of victory towards the specialty trader (looking back, it wasn't that glorious).
I was so happy that I didn't care if I made a profit or not.
So, there you have it, my first trade run. I have learned to despise player thieves (but only on a one star trade. anything higher, and it's their job to kill me), be thankful for kind players, and respect high level traders. I can only imagine the turmoil they go through on anything higher than a one star trade.
I'd like to thank _Moraine_ and _Florian_, who made this run possible, banzaimonkey, whose trader guide was invaluable to me (I highly recommend it to any beginning traders. viewtopic.php?t=1167), and PB_and_J, for directing me to the right board.
Cheers!
), instead of just complaining.
- NevadaTan - 
- BlackHand - 
Good luck with your career!
