Now that the monster is dead, Team Alena is free to
get attacked by giant half-bird half-cow monsters?
Yep, get attacked by giant half-bird half-cow monsters.
The Brahmird is a strange beast. Usually it's an ordinary monster - has some hit points, hits you for some damage, whatever. You punch them and smack them and shoot them with ice, and they die. Nothing to it. But sometimes...
...sometimes...
...sometimes they start the battle
asleep.
It doesn't sound like much, I know. But sometimes...
...just sometimes...
...they
roll over on you.
This is significant because the Brahmird's "roll over on you" technique (and the rarely seen "body attack") deals enough damage to bring Alena from full HP to dead in one whack. Attack the sleeping ones first; they're far less dangerous awake.
Wildlife aside, Frenor! Nestled in a leafy valley amid picturesque hills, on a clear day you can see Lakanaba across the sea (though recall that water forms an impenetrable barrier in this world. We'll return to that theme in a bit).
But despite its pastoral beauty, Frenor is a strangely backward town.
They've mastered the Wooden Hat - still the pinnacle of head-protection technology...
...but they apparently have yet to invent the second person pronoun. On the plus side, they're strangely observant; Alena was doing her best to travel inconspicuously. Her retainers probably gave her away, with their giant hats and magic wands and so forth.
That last guy wasn't just a fluke. These people might be friendly, but they've never heard of the word "you"...
...or manners...
...or verb tenses? Shouldn't that be "will entertain?" I think something's up.
It's starting to look like this isn't a language issue at all! Team Alena hurries upstairs to confront the false princess...
...only to find that they've been preempted by some industrious kidnappers.
: The hell we will!
: Oh.
Unwilling to risk the hostage, Alena lets the kidnappers escape unhindered.
At least her followers aren't seriously hurt. It's a good thing - her clergyman seems to be a fake, unable to heal himself.
Team Alena tries to tail the kidnappers stealthily...
...but by the time they leave the village...
...the jerks have already made a clean getaway. Well, shit.
Everyone's really broken up about the "Princess"'s kidnapping. Except for the dog, he's new.
Interviewing witnesses, Team Alena gets a major break from a small boy:
This is what happens when your village lacks a school, people: your children grow up unable to identify even the most obvious ransom notes. In the world of DW4 that's an important life skill, and this poor deprived child has been left helpless.
Alena had a personal tutor, so she knows a ransom note when she sees one. Thus, a plan took shape:
: I am going to find these guys and punch them until they vomit marrow.
: But if you do, they'll kill the false princess!
: Fine, fine. We'll get this Bracelet thing, make the trade, and
then punch them until they vomit marrow.
: Agreed.
So what's the deal with this "Golden Bracelet" thing anyway? An NPC explains:
: It caused too much conflict among us and was finally hidden away in the southern cave.
: Off to the cave!
: Not yet. You see, Princess, it's like this: you've got your Silk Robe and your Feather Hat and your unnatural agility to protect you, but Cristo and I are clad in animal hides. Hides! Like witch doctors! It will not stand!
: That's not true; we bought those hats.
: And magnificent hats they are! Oak, I think. But that is beside the point. Princess, earlier this week Cristo was killed by a half-bird, half-cow - not, I would point out, creatures noted for their deadliness or fighting spirit! Further, this inoffensive-seeming creature did him in by
rolling over. In its
sleep, Princess!
: Ugh, don't remind me. Ok, you've made your point and I agree. What can we do?
: We must journey past the southern cave, and take the Travel Door to Endor. Recall from your geography that Endor is a powerful military nation, well-supplied with weapons and armor of all kinds. There I'm sure we'll find the finest goods available to us.
: Makes sense, but the trip will take at least a week. Won't the kidnappers kill the princess?
: Surely not. You see, the kidnappers will soon deduce - if they haven't already - that their victim is not truly the Princess of Santeem. They had one chance at surprise, and they have bungled it. But they do not know that we know! Thus, they'll surely keep her alive, hoping to trade her for this Bracelet before anyone catches on.
Brey is right; at level 8 with only the gear you can buy around these parts, the Cave South of Frenor is a bitch and a half to navigate. And, indeed, the kidnappers will bring the princess to the meeting point
every single night until you bring them the Bracelet. This is what you get without a police force.
And, indeed, a Brahmird killed Cristo without waking up, earlier. He wasn't quite at full hp, but still.
La la la bypassing the deadly cave for now.
Random encounters here give great xp, and Alena has, at last, begun to come into her own.
As planned, the party heads for Endor. How is that humble shrine going to get us across the strait, you ask?
That swirly blue thing at the top of the screen is a Travel Door. Step into it, and you'll be teleported to another Door somewhere else in the world. This one just takes you to the other side of the strait.
Note again the complete ignorance of even rudimentary ferrying technology. The Burlandese built a tunnel, the people of Santeem apparently
warped the fabric of space, but no one ever thinks to lash together a raft.
So anyway, there's a soldier chilling out, keeping an eye on the hole in reality. Right now he's just sitting at his table playing his 3066th game of Solitaire and wishing he'd never even
heard of the prime minister's wife, but as soon as we get too close...
...he rushes over to bar our way.
: Drat and blast!
The king of Santeem may be a jerk, but he's a sly jerk. He doesn't want Alena wandering too far from home, so he thought ahead to stop us.
This isn't really a surprise, though; Chapter 2 has been unrelentingly linear. Rather, I can't stop wondering about the architecture. They have a room, they have a door to that room, and next to the door they have a giant
hole, which is apparently what people actually enter through. Probably they just lost their Final Key and had to dig a new door to get at their teleporter, but I can't help but wonder. Maybe this wall-breaking thing of Alena's goes deeper than we realized. Maybe the incident at the castle wasn't Alena's first experience with smashing holes in stone. Maybe the king has known about her Hulk-like tendencies all along, and has been doing his admittedly inept best to get her off the path of mindless, wanton destruction.
Heavy stuff.
Anyway, Team Alena has been outfoxed and the Endor Plan is off the table.
: So, punching, marrow-vomiting?
: Not yet. There's a bazaar to the west - not so central as Endor, but it should offer us a chance to equip ourselves.
Continuing the theme of the update, Brey is right: there's a bazaar to the west. You're not really supposed to go here yet, but the Cave South of Frenor is really rough and we need every edge we can get.
Just as advertised.
: Yeah, unless you're
us.
Things we can't afford! But the monsters around the bazaar are wealthy enough that it won't be an issue for long.
We have suffered the traditional penalty for sequence breaking: DW4 is trying to cue us to the next plot hook before we're ready for it. Sadly, you can't skip the Golden Bracelet quest altogether; this next quest relies on the current one in a pretty stupid way that we'll go into later on.
Anyhow, Team Alena doesn't bestir itself to go find out what the king's problem is. He's got advisers and physicians and things, he'll be fine.
: Just rub it in, why don't you.
We're surrounded by excellent things we can't afford, so it's grinding time. And that means fighting a bunch of these bastards:
Orcs cast Surround. Surround envelopes your party - your whole party, mind, not just one character - with mirages that reduce their chance to hit to nearly 0. It doesn't wear off and can't be cured; you're just fucked for the duration of the battle. Luckily(?) Cristo can cast Surround too, so these encounters aren't very dangerous, they just quickly devolve into an ineffectual slap-fight punctuated by Icebolts. Speaking of, Brey is once again carrying the team, as he's the only one who can deal damage reliably while Surrounded.
Orcs are very common in the bazaar environs. Thank God for Nestopia's Fast Forward feature.
The good news is, they're rich!
Sand Masters are tougher Giant Worms, basically. Sometimes instead of attacking, they'll do a strange dance that drains 1 or 2 MP from Cristo or Brey. Somnabeetles allegedly cast Sleep and Sleepmore, and I vaguely remember hating them as a child, but in this playthrough they always die before they get to do much of anything.
Crested Vipers can poison you or cast Defence, which reduces the whole team's defense power. But again, mostly they die before they can take advantage of your vulnerability.
Extremely high defense, otherwise not a big deal. Sap would probably work, but you don't need it.
This guy's trick is cowardice. Seriously, Kordras just run away from time to time.
But all good grinds must someday come to an end. Team Alena has gained a bunch of levels and accrued a bunch of goodies.
Monsters found near the Cave South of Frenor. Carnivore Plants are terrifying
looking, but not that dangerous. Blazeghosts, on the other hand, are jerks. Let me demonstrate:
Sometimes when you attack them physically, they just jump into the air like this and take no damage. And if you're
really unlucky:
...you get an extra Blazeghost out of the deal.
And they can set you on fire, reasonably enough.
At long last, the Cave South of Frenor! Is it as deadly as I vaguely remember from my youth?
Not yet. Thevros spit fireballs that hit the whole party. Vampire Bats are generic monsters, but sometimes start the battle Confused, attacking friend and foe alike.
The theme of the Cave South of Frenor is "treasure chests that look like they might hold the Golden Bracelet, but do not". This one looks quite promising: raised dais, supporting pillars, &c, but...
...no, someone just left an agility seed lying around.
The unremarkable chest had gold, or something.
Once we reach the second level, the four Orc encounter starts showing up a lot. Here we see Brey, in the early stages of his plan to win the whole encounter singlehandedly.
That first chest was disappointing, but I have a good feeling about this one: it's surrounded by special tiles,
and you can't access it directly.
Aw dammit, this encounter again. But it's ok, we're closing in on the Golden Bracelet and Brey has a spell to teleport us outside as soon as we've nabbed it.
Getting hit by four fireballs in a row is not the funnest experience ever, but at least I get to hit back.
Almost done, almost done...
Yeah, ok, should have seen that coming. Third time lucky?
Damn it!
At least they give good XP: behold another of Alena's level ups. Note the extremely large numbers. This is how it's going to be from here to level 50, pretty much.
(Not pictured: me backing out of the Cave with Outside, resting, and going through the rest of the dungeon a second time. DW4 is a harsh mistress sometimes).
More special tiles to the left. Maybe this time...?
Damn it!
DAMN IT!!
But we're closing in.
Hah! No more Orcs!
Attention kidnappers! Your doom approaches.
Brey casts Outside and Return to teleport straight back to Frenor, but of course we need to wait for nightfall. We'll eventually lay hands on an item that lets us manipulate night and day to our whims, but for now if we want night to fall we need to wait for it like chumps.
Before long...
Frenor at night.
They're lurking in the graveyard, as they have been every night since the kidnapping. Seems risky, but I guess when you're operating in a land without any kind of law enforcement you can get away with a lot.
Note also the complete lack of escape routes.
As soon as you talk to this guy, you're committed. You can tell him no as often as you like...
...but he's really, really persistent. Gwaelin has nothing on this jerk, I tell you.
Not that we really
want to tell him "no". Alena's original plan is still in effect: we make the hostage trade, then we administer life-altering violence.
And then the kidnappers disappear. Just vanish into thin air. The Bracelet was magical, the kidnappers knew of at least some of its powers, and they actively planned around them. Two things:
: This is a complete ripoff! The Bracelet never did anything cool like that when
I tried to use it.
: I'm suddenly really worried about what they'll do with it.
Cristo's fears are not unfounded, but it'll be a while before we learn the scope of the disaster that we've unleashed upon the world.
But Team Alena can at least take pride in having rescued the Not-a-Princess:
: I'm not really a Princess. My name is May. I'm just an actress.
: I got carried away because people treated me nicely when I pretended to be a princess...
: I'll join my companions now. It's not much, but I'll give you this Thief's Key.
: Goodbye...real princess.
: Argh! Is this disguise fooling
anybody?
Reactions were mixed.
Some people remembered the false princess fondly...
...others took the opportunity to tell outrageous lies about their own powers of insight...
...while still others had already forgotten her, and moved on to the next piece of news.
All right DW4, we get it already, geez.
But since we've already been to the Bazaar, and already heard that something nebulously awful has befallen the King of Santeem, we'll just teleport straight there.
I say teleport, but the mechanics are more like cannon travel from Secret of Mana: you go hurtling into the sky...
...and land next to your intended destination..
The guards let us
in with no issue, of course.
Team Alena proceeds to the throne room, braced for the big reveal:
: ...oh.
Even as a kid I never quite got this. Laryngitis is unpleasant and all, but everyone's acting like he has a terminal disease/kitten fetish. It's just not that big a deal.
Except to Alena. To
her, it's a chance to demonstrate her power and win her father's respect once and for all. And the King's adviser has a plan, which he has not acted on for whatever reason:
Well, ok, not a plan so much as an idea of where to start thinking of a plan, but still.
: So, uh, hey Daddy.
: Right, no talking. Um, tell you what, how about if I go on another adventure to fix this, whatever "this" turns out to be?
: If you don't like it, just speak up!
: Fantastic. Back later.
The King of Santeem manifestly does
not keep the peace, but let that pass - so what if he can't talk? Did he never learn to read and write? Is Santeem one of those weird aggressively-inbred monarchies from Europe's dark ages?
We're tripping over ugly secrets every five seconds, I swear.
Credit where it's due, though: they're doing a good job keeping things quiet. Their efforts may be misguided and futile, but at least they're succeeding.
This door can only be opened by the Thief's Key. It leads to the king's room, but there's nothing to appropriate, just a bunch of unsearchable bookshelves.
The old man's shack is locked with the Thief's Key; you can't get in until after you've rescued the UnPrincess and received her reward. NES RPGs are silly sometimes.
: Now he has the loveliest voice in the country. He may know what to do.
You may remember Marone as the poet who wasn't interested in helping those two lovers from Surene get together. But now he has something we need. To Surene!
: I think taking Birdsong Nectar, an elfin medicine, helped.
: I found it in a desert bazaar during a trip. La, la, la...
Helpful, but we've already been to the bazaar, and they weren't selling any elfin anything. Maybe we could find out where it came from?
Next time: robbery and intimidation.
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Topic: Let's Play Dragon Warrior 4! (Read 56433 times)