Guild Wars 2

I keep seeing spooky energy people everywhere I go.

The Consortium wants to give me Krait Oil for it in exchange for a valuable Seer artifact and I kind of feel like the Priory is trying to pull one over on me.

At first it seems like a clear choice; The Priory obviously. This commander wasn’t born yesterday. Snake Krait Oil isn’t going to fix anything for me. But here’s the thing.

I meet with a Historian Tranton. He’s the leading expert on the Seers now that his teacher hasn’t been seen since his expedition into Arah.

Never met him before. Seems like a decent guy, Canthan descent. I go about the business of finishing up collecting bloodstone slivers.

Get a letter from Tradesman Maezz. Tells me not to trust the Priory on this and even fixes the device proper for me before I return to Historian Tranton.

When low and behold, I return to the priory to meet a Historian Tranton… red hair, blue eyes. Ascalonian most likely. This is not the same man I met previously.

I have eyes man. What are you trying to pull?

Yes… I have eyes that are constantly seeing spooky energy people now, and I’m sitting here with a primed shadowstone and some serious trust issues.

I don’t trust that Tradesman Maezz’ Krait Oil cure is worth anything long term wise, even if it does suppress the anomaly visions for a bit.

And in exchange he wants a super rare seer artifact that may be the only thing that can fix me.

Or harm me, if I’m to believe the tradesman… and I don’t suppose there are any other Historian Tranton’s here that I might speak to?

So here I stand… unable to make a clear choice on the issue. Or at least I think it’s just me. Might be a spooky energy person or two around here somewhere.

Eh. If this does kill me I at least want to keep my wits. The visions are harmless anyway… right?

I wouldn’t be surprised if this 2nd Tranton has kitnapped the original one and wants to trick you. He may be one of those Consortium spys…

I needed krait oil to make Astralaria. Sounds to me like a conspiracy of the stars.

Maybe Tranton used a Total Makeover Kit while you were gone?

I didn’t notice his appearance changing but I decided to trust Tranton and the Priory. Mostly because of past experience, I have a good track record with the Priory (3 of my characters are even members, although my main, who did this bit, is Whispers). Meanwhile I can’t remember having anything to do with the Consortium that didn’t start with them trying to profit from poorly understood magic and end with me cleaning up their mess.

Plus a bit of genre-savvy. As a general rule if you start a quest to help a researcher and then get contacted by some shady merchant offering an alternative deal the first choice is the ‘right’ one and the second will at best make you more money while everyone will hate you and at worst will ruin everything.

Also the guy is literally selling snake oil.

Im thinking tranton using a FMK is viable given how anet likes to reference options players have. Trantons appearance change may also be a red herring as a way to troll paranoid theorycrafters. Lastly there’s the ‘alternate reality’ theory in that you’re in an alternate universe when you meet tranton again. We’ve seen alternate universe concepts before. Asura who chose the infinity ball got to meet a ‘scarlet briar’ version of themselves who successfully conquered the world, is dragon-less and was the priginal designer of the steam autonoma.

At least you have a choice. I haven’t even seen a vision since the last patch to get the achievement started…

Tornupto.2304:

I wouldn’t be surprised if this 2nd Tranton has kitnapped the original one and wants to trick you. He may be one of those Consortium spys…

Plot twist!

Hesacon.8735:

I needed krait oil to make Astralaria. Sounds to me like a conspiracy of the stars.

Did you really? I thought Krait Oil was a fairly new thing and Astralaria came out with HoT (or shortly after). That’s weird.

Danikat.8537:

Maybe Tranton used a Total Makeover Kit while you were gone?

I didn’t notice his appearance changing but I decided to trust Tranton and the Priory. Mostly because of past experience, I have a good track record with the Priory (3 of my characters are even members, although my main, who did this bit, is Whispers). Meanwhile I can’t remember having anything to do with the Consortium that didn’t start with them trying to profit from poorly understood magic and end with me cleaning up their mess.

Plus a bit of genre-savvy. As a general rule if you start a quest to help a researcher and then get contacted by some shady merchant offering an alternative deal the first choice is the ‘right’ one and the second will at best make you more money while everyone will hate you and at worst will ruin everything.

Also the guy is literally selling snake oil.

Oh yeah. I mean before the double Historian Tranton thing it was a no-brainer.

I don’t trust Tradesman Maezz as far as I can throw him (which is probably actually pretty far because he’s an asura, but still).

But come on, they were two different people. It’s already a stretch to be doing this as it’s pretty much on a hope and a prayer, but the Priory tends to know their stuff.

I was willing to trust in that, but I have two different people telling me they’re the same person and the second one knows everything I confided in with the first?

That’s super suspicious! Maezz is full of it, but I can’t be sure I can trust these Tranton’s either.

Carlin Sanders.3587:

Im thinking tranton using a FMK is viable given how anet likes to reference options players have. Trantons appearance change may also be a red herring as a way to troll paranoid theorycrafters.

If they’re trolling, they got me. Because I ain’t picking until I can be sure it’s a nuance of the game (some NPCs load as different people) VS an actual second person.

Or my character starts bleeding through their eyes. Maybe the spooky energy people start doing more crazy things beyond standing there and being spooky?

Then fine, I guess I’ll pick priory. But yeah… Historian Tranton is a pretty important character.

In the mean time? I guess I’ll just go investigate Gillscale Pond.

Randulf.7614:

At least you have a choice. I haven’t even seen a vision since the last patch to get the achievement started…

If you saw them before the update, you’ll still see them.

It’s completely random and client side when and where they appear. Sometimes they show up frequently, other times less.

If you wanna be crazy though and really get things moving, you can do a ley-line anomaly event (the one where you chase the anomaly around the map)

And it’s pretty much certain you’ll be seeing more spooky energy people then you can shake a stick at. :>

When one does pop up, steel your nerves, run up, and touch the spooky. It’ll unlock the event. It’s interesting.

Ironically one appeared minutes after I posted.

It was just weird one hadn’t popped in a week when I was used to seeing them daily. No matter now though.

I don’t trust anyone. I’m going to choose the one which will profit my interests.

Them riches.

are we sure the priory dude changing appearance isn’t just a bug?

I seriously think -snake- Krait Oil is a wink at the old bauble-merchant who sold ‘manmade lemonade’ as medicine

zealex.9410:

are we sure the priory dude changing appearance isn’t just a bug?

I wish we could get some confirmation on that, but the only comment an Anet dev made about it was deleted on the reddit…

Which, just makes me even more paranoid and unwilling to choose at this point.

If it was a simple bug with the NPC not being flagged as important enough to stay consistent, I’d just ignore the inconsistency and choose Priory.

Can’t be sure of that, so I can’t trust the Priory is being on the up and up with me. Or at least with regards to this/these Historian Tranton(s).

Maybe the Priory is being infiltrated. We know for a fact the White Mantle had some spies inside, maybe the Consortium planted some of their people in as well?

The Priory is great, but they need to work on their vetting process or they’ll be undone from the inside.

Until I can get more information, I’ll bear with my condition and the spooky energy people a bit longer assuming the situation doesn’t escalate.