When last we met, Jessica and her new friends were at an impasse. They need to explore the world, find the "points of light" that keep showing up in Nara's prophecies, gather them together, and use them to defeat the Ruler of Evil. On the way they hope to find the time to stomp all over Balzack (killed the sisters' dad), Keelion (rules their whole country in secret), and Necrosaro (ultimately responsible for every bad thing that's happened so far).
But there's been a hitch. Sea travel isn't very well-developed in the world of DQ4; there are maybe four port towns in the entire world, and only one of them is on this continent. To get there, and thereby gain access to the rest of the world where our chosen companions probably are, we need to cross a desert.
In order to do
that, you need more supplies than three people can carry. You need a wagon, in other words, but the only one we've got ready access to is in the hands of a young man who doesn't trust anyone or anything.
According to his father, his faith in humanity broke after he entered this cave. He went in seeking "the world's most valuable treasure", but his best friend betrayed him and he almost died.
So we're going to explore it, find the treasure he couldn't, and prove that some trust - specifically, the Chosen, Destined kind - can never be broken.
Pictured: this dungeon's gimmick. You can smash through these stone barriers with the combined strength of 3 people.
The idea, I guess, is to keep you from taking this dungeon out of sequence. The monsters around here are calibrated to a team of 3, but you could in principle grind Jessica up high enough to handle them. But now that we have three people there's no reason to
Or two pits could open around Jessica at ludicrous, screenshot-defying speed, leaving her alone and helpless. Sure.
Yeah, I know, you all guessed it three images ago, let me have my fun 
Also, the stone barriers miraculously reknit themselves. Like any good horror-movie victim, Jessica is trapped in the house until she's faced the killer. Let's aim for something less
Scream and more
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, eh?
That nice-looking set of stairs will be our reward for finding our two companions. The path off to the right leads to a set of stairs, which lead to...
...our two companions. Nice! Easiest crisis ever!
Let me have my fun, I said
At a guess, Jessica got lucky; Mara and Nara got picked to fight whatever evil is down here, and now they're running away. Not encouraging, but maybe the destined hero can tip the scales.
Hold up, damn it!
It's just me!
Indeed! Sure, either one of you could kick Jessica's ass, but never mind that, let's
Wait, uh, something about your phrasing there was a little
Aw, crap.
I remembered this fight as an opportunity to hand Jessica a bunch of easy XP, helping close the level gap without a lot of tedious grinding. And indeed, it does award a bunch of XP...
But first you have to live.
Ok, one round of combat in, I'm at one hit point and I've inflicted all of four damage on one of my two enemies. What to do?
This isn't as bad as it looks. Expel banishes an enemy from the battle no matter how many hit points it has. These guys are normal monsters, so it'll probably work first thing. I just need to act first, and have the other one miss, and then...
Failure: when your best just isn't enough.
But Jessica has an advantage not shared by the frightened young man with the wagon:
She's been Chosen.
The creepiest part? Mara and Nara remember
nothing about their part of the cave; just a pit, a fall, and a confused awakening in the House of Healing.
All right, so, clearly level 4 Jessica is not equipped for solo adventure of any sort. It's time for that fine old tradition of RPG LPs:
The training montage.
As a break from all the slaughtering, Jessica and Friends head north to the Santeem border. Maybe we can cross over to the Bazaar region and bypass the whole Cave of Faith situation?
Yeah no. This poor guy is
still stuck blocking access to the Travel Door. Necrosaro surely killed whoever he pissed off to get stuck with this duty, but still he persists. This is either commendable loyalty, or a sign of how terrible the Santeem civil war has become.
Direct orders from your Princess do help morale. And if Alena's been through, things might not be as bad as I've theorized.
We stop off briefly in Endor and Bonmalmo for the Broad Sword and the Half Plate Armor for Jessica. Remember how back in Chapter 3, I took one of each of those from the cave with the Silver Statuette, saying that you
could save them for Chapter 5 but that there wasn't really any point? Yeah, I was entirely wrong about that. Learn from my mistakes, honored readers!
But we raise the levels, we raise the money, we buy the stuff, and soon:
It's time for round two.
Not pictured: me rearranging the party to put M&N first, so that Mara and Jessica would both be caught by the pit trap. That failed, of course; like many DW4 dungeons this cave possesses a crude, malign sentience, and instinctively knows how best to split the party.
What a difference five levels and a massive armor upgrade can make!
But on the other hand the XP, contrary to my childhood recollections, is crap.
After Jessica slaughters the Liclicks, a pit opens in the floor (again, at ludicrous screenshot-defying speed)...
...and we're dumped down another pit into a room with the
real Mara and Nara, being pursued by monsters.
Again with the sinister phrasing, but Nara's a prophetess so I suppose
Oh for fuck's sake.
If you had a hard time with the Liclicks above, these guys will murder you. These Vampire Bats don't seem to cast Sleep like the normal ones can, but still...four on one odds. Bad times.
But Jessica is grossly overleveled and overequipped; the monsters can barely scratch her. Before long, she's collecting her enormous XP award - I knew there was one in here
somewhere.
With the fakes dead, Jessica has been left alone again.
Up the stairs, we find...
The
real real Mara and Nara!
This time, we can't see what they're running from...
: You won't fool us again.
: You're not Jessica! We'll fight you this time!
Ah, of course. They're running from
Jessica, before she turns into a giant vampire plant or whatever.
And just like that, my "Mara is secretly pretty bright" theory is back on the table! Nara didn't think of that, and Jessica fell for the same trap
twice.
Anyway, as sensible/unethical as it would have been to send the fortuneteller into the casino, Nara wasn't there. And so...
: Sorry we doubted you.
: We've been chased by your imposter for so long....
: Let's go now!
If you answer incorrectly, Nara convinces Mara to give you another chance. On a question that only has two answers to begin with. One suspects that she recognized Jessica right away with the same "points of light" prophecy magic she used before, and is just messing with her sister for kicks.
Details aside, the band is back together, and now we can we can break this barrier and head below.
There we find a great many more of those stone blocks...
...concealing a treasure chest.
For those of you who don't have fuzzy, decade-old recollections of the Dragon Warrior 4 manual, here's what a Symbol of Faith looks like:
Shiny, no? And is it just me, or is there a suggestion of a woman's face and hair on the middle bit?
The Cave of Faith has no random encounters, so once you've proven your trust in one another, escape is easy.
On the way back, Mara learns this devastating little number. 30-40 damage to a whole group, just like Brey's Snowstorm from chapter 2. It's tempting to spend some time with it, decimate the local wildlife a little, but we have higher priorities:
: HELL YEAH!
: HELL YEAH!
The wagon! It's not just a desert-crossing MacGuffin, either; it has a number of interesting and valuable properties. But alas, we won't be able to explore them until we get a fifth party member.
Next time on Let's Play Dragon Warrior 4: some long-overdue audience participation. Also Neta's new business, since I see reading this over that I completely forgot about that. Look for it in the week after WorldCon.
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