Toggle Background Color
S01E21: The Morph Demon.
We head back to the edge of Indinera Woods.
Guanidia repeatedly shouts that we should leave as we get ambushed by worms.
So we get ambushed by two Indinera Worms, an Indinera Dryad, a 'God Worm' and... the Milipuf.
After a couple turns, only the two Actually relevant enemies remain. Except we're a bit strong for this fight. The God Worm has many thousands of HP, but on average we do like 1500 per turn, so it only takes a few turns to destroy it. Meanwhile it's not doing all that much damage to us in return.
The Milipuf wastes its turns a lot but it's EXTREMELY fast and evasive. Dodges more attacks than not and it has sky high defenses. Not that much HP though. I never even really get to see what it does.
quote:
Millipuf (Indinera Woods)
Wasp extremely feared by hunters, merchants, guides, or even Indinera inhabitants. This wasp is highly resistant, stronger than most metals, fast (30 m/s) and can cause major damages with its sting.
Avoid any Millipuf !
Milipuf are a big deal. We'll find out much later that the elves even have a Milipuf god.
Our reward is an ore.
After the fight Random's like JEEZ ALL THESE FUCKING WORMS IN THE WOOD IT SUCKS THE CLOSER WE ARE TO IT
So. Here we are. This scene wasn't -as- bad as I remembered it being, but its still one of the ones I really don't like.
Random takes exception to this remark and orders Wendala to kneel in front of Sarah, presumably as an apology.
Apparently she does obey and then Randoms like, okay good, don't piss off Sarah again or it'll be worse next time.
Wendie's reaction is to think that could be worth trying. Nope. Don't like that.
Lucky for us this is never followed up on and Wendie will continue to upset and mock Sarah unrelentingly with no consequences.
Sarah wraps up the scene by calling Wendie a Wicked Whore. Thanks Sarah.
We head back to SankT Leona and into the Sage's Tower. Steal a few k of GP from him since we can explore the tower now. There's nothing to see at all and most of the guards don't have much to say.
Uhm, I think you're a bit confused guy.
The Sage doesn't have much to say himself, but he does let us know he's put some info about the courses on a shelf.
quote:
The SankT Leona Gym is famous throughout the whole Deport.
It trains to hand to hand fights, and body controlling.
The best warriors will aswell develop regenerative and monk-spells.
Cost: 6 months training with the Masters, 2.900.000 GP
quote:
The Tyrine School of Swords drill is probably one of the best way to become Knight, Paladin or Crusader. Very hierarchised, it will take months to the newbie swordman to reach its highest rank.
A tournament is organised among the best at the end of the school year.
quote:
Cost: 4,200,000 GP for the highest rank, including Tournament and training courses with experimented Knights.
Price decreased for Tyrine's protegees.
quote:
The School of Elven magic in Mt Zulle, bordering the Elven forest of Indinera, offers variety and strong Elven influence.
Many of its Masters are Elves. All Elven spells are learnt, and the training ends for the High Elves with the traditional promotion into Suprem Elf, matching his innate skills. Very famous Elven school.
Cost: 3,600,000 GP, including promotion in the antic Indinera Lakes.
Higher price for non-Elven warriors.
quote:
Built on the feet of the Fanta Mountains, in a wonderful panorama, the School of Magic offers the best potential in quality.
Climates fit perfectly to Magicians' needs, and the Master of the School trains personnally his students. No pre-condition required, only good level in Elemental Magics, the Master also takes the role of tutor to choose the best path for the student.
Cost: 3,000,000 the 8 months.
Food and flat included.
Those courses are insanely expensive.
Time to move along to some more of our postgame content.
Granit Tower. So last we were here, the gate on the first floor was locked.
It is open now. Why? An arbitray postgame event? Well, you're half-right. It sure is arbitrary. You remember that memorial to Wendala Diroslav and Maczo the Zombie we found in the mountains near GandJe Proud? There was a switch by it? That switch opens this gate. There is no hint that it does this. I wish I was joking.
Oh yeah, and if you look at that memorial now that we have Wendie, Random just goes ???? at it and Wendie just goes "..."
Anyway, up and onto the second floor.
Fuck!
Bizarrely this gravestone unlocks the second gate. There is no comment on if there's like a hidden button or something so I don't know.
Chill out buddy.
After a bit of a spiral out we follow a long hall north. Or upstairs. Maybe both.
Is someone trying to scare us?
Right after that we enter the grave maze. I hate this place.
We get some new faces here. None of them are notworthy, though Maneaters do double hit for decent damage.
Tower's Cell are worth 30 XP.
Maneaters are worth 120XP.
The maze is seriously huge, but it's not too difficult to pick your way through. The high random encounter rate is annoying though.
At the end of the maze get a boss fight who is... not much more than a slight speed bump. Best put him out of your mind.
He's worth 185XP and 1500GP and has a 3% chance of dropping a Quartz Hart and I have no idea what that is.
Behind Crisis is a flaming rock.
Alas, the flames are too 'concentrated.' Everyone discusses what to do next, Sarah even offering to call her fairies, which Luci says would not work.
Random and Sarah both go A FREEZE MAGE/EXPERT!?!?!?!?!!
Where have we met someone like that before? ... Oh. Oh no.
Also you may remember picking this up in Evil Tower and not using it right away, cos I was curious about something. I'd wondered if this scene would play as is if you didn't use it. Turns out it did. Now, it is important you do use it now I believe.
For whatever reason, Luci can only learn the Giga version of Flare on her own. Not the case for Freeze and Bolt/Blitz.
I'm not even sure she can learn Giga Bolt.
Also women have their own reapers, apparently. Worth 106XP, 33GP and have an extremely low chance of dropping a Platinum Trident.
Another branch of the maze also has this memorial.
Anyway, time to backtrack to... the DEPTHS OF TANGAR MOUNTAINS!!! Yep! I'll cut right to it.
It took me about 20 minutes to find this guy again.
The gang informs him of what's going on and he seems indifferent for a moment, especially as he can tell Luci is also a powerful magician.
But he takes this as a matter of testing his power and decides to come with, saying no gold or reward is necessary.
... Now we egress out of the mountains and... have to redo the maze.
After a false start, Almon easily freezes away the fire. Luci says she wishes she could be that powerful and...
Almon leaves.
And Luci has learnt a new spell! Her most powerful one! I believe she does not learn this if she does not have Giga Freeze already (it might teach her Giga Freeze, I haven't checked).
Now the party can bypass the rock.
None of this stuff can be examined. But it's here.
And the switch for the next door is just... here. Not guarded or hidden or anything. This is a big open room so it's not even like there's a maze.
This was the door it opened.
The next area has a bunch of reapears floating around we can't interact with.
Also we get into a boss fight with a robot? Titanix is extremely easy and only lasts a couple turns due to having tons of HP.
quote:
Titanix (unique, unknown provenance)
Some say this is a machine, some say this is a ghost...
Who really knows ?
Probably the Titanix is an artifact, but this armored creature is discreet enough not to bring attention on it.
Take care, it's a tough opponent !
It is not a tough opponent!!!!!!
The Titanix shield artifact turns Wendala into the second best character besides Random, though, when she'd only just been the best candidate for fourth.
Behind the Titanix(s??) is...
He claims credit for building the place behind him.
You... built a castle... inside a tower?
Was this like a natural granite tower? I guess maybe it is?
Sarah is highly confused by this. This CREEP of a villain cannot read the party at all.
He says he cursed the Tangerians just for funsies. He also wants to spread his 'Art of Creation' across the Deport and rule it.
Uh oh!
HAhahahaahaha, he turned into a T-Rex!!!!!
or a dragon. OR A FIRE BREATHING T-REX
Anyway as you can see, he is not much of a threat.
Randhaart is not to be so easily defeated, however. Also, I've spent the last couple months listening to the Wheel of Time audiobooks during car rides (also has its own weird thing with women, btw) and I'm so glad no one calls Random RAND regularly.
He makes us fight him in a second also trivially easy battle.
Woo! Let's just assume killing him breaks the curse for some reason!
Sarah completely misses the point of what was going on.
Luci, in fact, tries to tell her that and then changes her mind and gives up part way through
lol
Anyway, they decide it's probably fine and the curse is broken, time to leave. But before we do that...
There's the magically sealed castle in the tower.
Coryool completely fails to break down the door with brute force, so let's look around.
To the east of the castle is this... marsh, apparently? It hurts you for every single step you take in it, too.
If you wander in this marsh, and only in this marsh, after a while, an event will start.
Luci says she ain't doing jack shit so Random asks Sarah.
lol. I know this is meant to imply SOMETHING but i just picture Sarah as the kind of person that annoys everyone she's fond of by flicking ears and stuff.
Random says he could've swore something touched him and then it just hangs on that and then without any fuss we're suddenly in a boss battle.
Hope you've been keeping your HP up while wandering the marash! This thing is slightly challenging and does a fair bit of damage and is fast. Nothing super out there, though.
quote:
Carix Xarisman (rare, marshes and wet areas)
Fast and dangerous creature of the marshes, the Xarisman loves to ambush adventurers.
Its sharp jaws and huge body (more than 3 tons !) make it a tough opponent, difficult to deal with. Its teeth are so resistant antic weaponsmiths used it to build weapons and armors.
A Xarisman hasn't been seen in the Western Deport for ages, and unless you visit the Metrolian area, it shouldn't bother you but... who knows ?
But yeah, in the end, it falters.
Neither could--
.... He... he put himself into the game to -laugh- at himself and I. He laughed at us.
Stop that! We need that shit intact... two games from now!
There's also some loot here (that I haven't used yet).
And there's the key.
There's a save point on the ground immediately inside the castle.
In this room... we find mostly these guys, sometimes some Tower Cells but mostly these.
They are worth a lot. Have a 3% chance of dropping Yveen's Tears too.
This is the dedicated grind spot of the game.
You might remember a couple times in this LP I lost a boss fight and was completely shocked by it, saying it'd never happened before, why was it harder than I remembered!?
These guys were the opposite. I remember wiping to them a couple times last time I played this, during the grind to level 50. After I'd done everything remaining in the game, so everyone was higher level and had all the absolute best stuff. But no. These guys are... really really easy, they just have a ton of HP to burn through.
quote:
Darkenezzeer (rare, haunts remote places)
Very little is known about the Darkenezzeers, antic knights, but their swords still threaten adventurers. Once a powerful guild, the Darkenezzeers got slaughtered by hungry Dragons coming from the Mountains. The Darkenezzeers became huge armored ghosts.
The legend says fighting a Darkenezzeer is among the best experiences for a fighter !
There's only one room we can enter here, and there's nothing to see in it. The other rooms are locked in such a fashion that we can never enter.
I edit the game so that these guys give me 10x the XP and GP. Yes, this does cause GP to max rather quickly.
Look at this. See those XP totals? The total XP, at level 38 or so, where I started the grind, was 290,000ish.
Now look at it.
Last time I played this I spent most of two days grinding -EVERYONE- to level 50.
You really want to keep Random, Sarah and Luci because they can do a lot of damage/heal or the fights go forever, so after grinding the initial four, you grind the remaining four partymembers one by one. Also Darkenezzars are super weak to Laser, so giving Rand the Metal Scimitar helps. Wendies spells were great too but she has very limited MP, and no MP drain spell, unlike Sarah and Luci.
Sarah learns Love Me at level 50, which dramatically improves her usefulness.
Anyway, to make up for the fact that I wasted so much GP income, I gave the Darknezzars a 50% chance to drop Aurora Diamonds. Arguably this still does not make up for the amount of gold we could have if we left to exchange our GP for diamonds over and over.
Even the rewards being increased by 10x don't keep this from taking a couple hours of battles. Probably tens of millions of wasted GP too!
Like so. Granit Tower is probably the only reason this system even exists, or you'd just sell your diamonds at the store like you do with the lesser gems like emeralds.
Anyway, with us on Level 50, hopefully most of the rest of the postgame stuff won't be as much as a pain in the ass as it usually is. Usually I leave level 50 for second last (last being 10k battles) but this time, eh. I didn't want to backtrack through the tower. Even though we still need to go back there one more time in the future.
Let's head to Tangar. Sadly, the villagers are not terribly interesting now that they're people again.
There's a dog barking in the town hall, and...
For someone with perhaps literally no will of her own, Wendie has no patience for people she deems less than herself.
The Mayor gives us our POINTLESS reward. I mean. This sucks, even if you didn't grind, you were just at a place where enemies give you 60% of that reward per fight.
Well, all's well that ends well, I guess.
What.
だめ女神! だめ女神! だめ女神!
What, you don't see sexy women usually?
i also love opulent women
At the Tangerian weapon shop...
Oh no!!
What on earth. The horse says it's happy. The guy then follows up by saying he's got some new stock now.
... Why do you sell this now? The Sankt Leona Weapons store sells them now too.
Is Athors Co. still operational out there...?
I liked you better as a chicken, boy.
Okay. So we did the most tedious dungeon in terms of obstacles. That's nice. Next time we'll be doing the most tedious dungeon in terms of durable enemies. No, it's not Balthus Cave. That's not as tedious despite being nastier.
We also took care of one of the superbosses (The Millipuf and God Worm)
And ground up to level 50. So that's a couple items down.
This will make the rest much less of a pain too. So let's leave it here for now.
the end