Racketeering

We made the long trek to Pravoca (not Pravoka) after our ordeals in the Temple of Chaos. The people there seemed friendly enough. They just whined about the tough pirates that had taken up residence near the back of the town. The pirates were very disrepectful and just plain mean. Obviously something had to be done.

I went around to all of the shop owners, including the weapons shop, the armor shop, and both magic shops, and explained the situation. Basically I laid out the facts and gave my thoughts thusly:
1. The town was under seige by notorious pirates from the Aldean Sea
2. No one in town could force them out
3. I could easily do it if I had the right equipment
4. I didn't have the most up to date spells or weapons and armor

So what do we have? The shop owners have equipment and want the pirates gone. I want equipment and can get rid of the pirates. It seemed easy to me, that they should give the party giant discounts on stuff as a kind of payment for our good deeds.

Unbelievably I had no such luck convincing them. They kept going on and on about their "bottom line" followed up with praises and thanks to the "Light Warriors" who they were sure loved to "help people" out of the "goodness of their hearts".

What a racket. So we left town and left the pirates and started wandering around the woods to find enemies and take their money. Since the stuff we needed was so exhorbitantly over-priced we wandered around for a while, resting at the inn (again, no discount) when we needed to. We did get to level 5, which could only help with the pirates.

After a long time we finally had enough Gil to buy the spells and equipment we needed. So we went back to town, bought our supplies, readied ourselves, and waded into battle.