We’re wandering. I have a portcrystal, something I can drop at almost any location I find on the map, and thereafter I can fast travel to it. If I want I can pick it up and use it elsewhere. These things are the BEST.
On the town notice board are escort quests. Someone wants to go somewhere, usually someplace dangerously far away. The easiest way to do these quests is to have gone there by ourselves already and drop a portcrystal. Boom — take the quest, greet the traveller, zip to the location, and clock the completion.
This is why we’re wandering. I know that Quina will have an escort quest, and I know her travel isn’t random like most of these quests are. I’m headed to the Abbey to drop my purple stone.
Quina’s already there, dressed in nun robes. Dangit. Her escort request would’ve been on the village notice board, and I didn’t check there. At least, that’s what I think. We’ve missed whatever she would’ve said about her reasons to go to the Abbey.
Sorry.
She gives a “tee-hee” and says everyone’s talking about the Arisen.
Now that it’s too late for Quina, I go to the village. Valmiro, a local fishing lad, is missing. He is prone to mad quests, apparently, and we’re to find him.
Also, one last little surprise: as I manage inventory at the inn, Pablos chats about Gran Soren guards and how drunk they are. If the dragon brings trouble, he would “sooner turn to sisters of The Faith for protection”. Quina’s Abbey quest takes on more meaning. She’s in the robes, right? She’s become a postulate of some sort.
This game can be very particular about timing and order of quests. I’m sure it won’t be the first story moment I miss.