The answer became obvious just now. All these well trained, highly skilled heroes were huddled around the Xunai Storage spouting their wares. They've all become shop-keepers and merchants. Where one would expect heroes to be huddled in taverns talking of their mighty deeds and sharing tips on how to smite the enemy, there is no talk in Ascalon except for 'Selling this!' and 'WTB that!'. The heroic defenders of Ascalon have been subverted by the profit motive!
Worse still, and only I seem to have discovered this, the evil forces of darkness use this against Ascalon. Small bands of enemy are postioned throughout the realm carrying random merchandise. They don't use it, as then it would be worn and not worth as much to the 'would-be-heroes' Ascalon Tradesmen, but they carry it as a psychological weapon. These enemies nobly sacrifice themselves to pollute the Ascalonians with more merchandise, and thus entice the Heroes to leave their questing and instead setup wailing for hours on end about how many different coloured dyes and different minor runes they have for sale. This has left the realm practically unguarded for the mainstay of the dark forces who come out of hiding during the interim periods to have their wicked ways. One would have hoped that the leadership, Prince Osric, would have motivated his heros into more proactive and heroic pursuits, but he is weak and ineffectual, standing idly by as his forces content themselves with their bartering.
Am I the only one who feels it's pretty crazy to have a couple dozen heroes standing around selling things instead of doing what they're supposed to be doing? Would it not be just as ridiculous to have a Stock Market/Trading MMO game where the bowler-hatted city folk wander out into London and beat up Hoodlums? Buying quantites of Flour and Oil to attack yobs with, and then sell back to the markets at a 28% profit?
Ascalon as it is today paints a sorrowful picture of how easily the mighty fall. Not by blade nor spell, which the well trained, highly skilled Hero can so easily overcome, but by the corrupting influence of the Profit Margin. One can only hope such an infection doesn't pass to all fantasy realms. Otherwise Sauron could have simply bought the ring off a Hobbit Trader, and the invasion of the Orcs across the walls of Minas Tirith would have gone unresisted as the soldiers stood about the courtyard selling sworm pomells and runes.
