"Why would I do it?" Remnok asks, scratching his chin and arching his head, as if pondering deeply. "Let's see. Is it the endless walks in the blistering heat? Could it be that I LIKE being homeless with nothing to eat for days at a time? Or maybe," he pauses, then says with a grin, "it's the joy I get when I gaze into the eyes of some unsuspecting sap, and say, 'I'll be perfectly honest... this dagger of yours, it's hardly worth six or seven hundred Neopoints. However, because I came ALL THE WAY out here, and I don't want to leave empty handed, I'll give you a thousand points for it. Is it a deal?' That's when, nodding like a puppet on a string, they utter those words that I long to hear: 'It's a deal.' THAT'S the reason why I do it! Although, not all my negotiations go so smoothly. Why, I remember this one time..."

I was wandering along the outer reaches of Sakhmet, after hearing that the legendary staff of Hakethon had recently been spotted. I came upon a wise old gypsy, who told me that, "Beyond those dunes, you will find that which you seek." Granted, I'd bought a few of the gypsy's clay trinkets before he offered this pearl of wisdom, so I was skeptical, to say the least. Anyway, I headed off into the dunes, walking for nearly three days. Then, just as I was about to give up and turn around, I saw in the distance a scattering of palm trees, and what looked like a pool of cool, blue water. "Surely a mirage," I told myself...

Water you waiting for?

However, as I reached the edge of the oasis, I saw that this was no mirage... this was real!!! I fell to my knees and eagerly drank the cool, refreshing water. Just then, to my utter amazement, the waters parted, revealing the staff of Hakethon, surrounded by the blinding glow of an orb-like force field. "Oh, I get it. The water was poisoned, and this is just some hallucination. I suppose I'll be drifting off to sleep in no time..."

Strangely enough, though, it was soon clear to me that this was more than just some delusional daydream. As I walked through the soft, squishy path that lead up towards the staff, I knew this had to be real. Shielding my eyes from the glare with a sleeve, I saw a block of stone at the base of the force field, with a riddle inscribed on it, which read:

With that, I was stunned to feel the glow of the force field suddenly fade. Thinking back on what happened, I guess that when I said the word, "luck," I'd accidentally uttered the solution to the riddle. Slowly glancing over my sleeve, I beheld the staff of Hakethon, resting there in all its glory. I ran to the staff, then proudly held it aloft. At last, it was mine...

Remnok continues to span the outer realms of the Sakhmetian empire, searching high and low for the best deals on hard to find Battledome items. Granted, his weapons usually receive a sizeable mark-up before hitting the shelves, but when you consider the perils he faces in bringing them to market, you're actually getting quite a bargain.