: Let the looting...BEGIN!
This is Branca Castle. You may remember it as the first piece of civilization Jessica ever encountered.
If you are exceptionally observant, you may also remember its treasure vault.
Mystic Acorns and a Small Medal - not bad for a tiny kingdom.
An exhaustive search of the castle turns up no other treasure. You may remember these two as the dancers who told Jessica to go west to Endor instead of east to the desert, thus saving her from instant vaporization at the claws of the overleveled monstrosities to the east.
They'll never know it, but these two saved the world.
Anyway, Endor.
Thanks to Taloon we've already burgled Endor's greatest treasure, but there's a hidden door in the main atrium that we only just discovered.
Behind it we find a tower.
Quite a lot of tower, in fact. But all things must come to an end:
This tower has a big, wide-open window. You can't see it thanks to the text box, but Jessica can. So when she hears
yet another divination via weather forecast, she can't stand it any more and leaps out, plummeting thousands of feet...
...to land on a roof below, entirely unharmed.
: AHHHHHHHH!!!
: Relax. Nobody ever died from jumping off a giant tower.
: It's true; even kids can do it! This one time -
: You are
insane.
: If jumping off towers is so insane, why'd
you do it?
: Well, the Princess jumped first, so I...I...
: ...huh.
: OH HEY LET'S SEE WHERE THOSE STAIRS GO
It turns out to be a restaurant or something. The proprietor (not shown here thanks to Nestopia's realistic sprite flicker) is pretty peeved with us.
But Jessica's had enough of jumping off of stuff for a while, so she heads down the stairs instead.
And is very glad she did. Strength Seeds are Strength seeds, always and unambiguously great, but what's this "Multi-Edged Sword"?
: Something I want.
This from the man who's using the "Sword of Malice". But never mind that, we've curiosity to satisfy. Once we've jumped out the window, as requested...
We find ourselves on the street below.
Which means we can enter through the
front door, this time.
Not an eatery, but a shop! With "unique goods", even. Let's see if it lives up to the
Metal Babbles are the toughest enemies in the game. Metal Babble
Armor, therefore, is as good as it gets. And by some incredible coincidence we haven't spent much money up until now, and can afford two suits! Fantastic! First we get one for Jessica:
First we clear some inventory space, then we get some for Jessica. Note also: Taloon can equip these! I'd forgotten all about that.
The Iron Apron, a fine piece of armor in itself.
The Metal Babble Armor, half again as good. So much for his defense problems, he's fine.
: Hey, if Taloon gets a cool new toy...
Right, right. Here's Ragnar's attack power with the Sword of Malice...
...and here it is with the Multi-edge Sword. Check out that giant number.
Well. Giant numbers are nice, but DW4's battle algorithms are sorta opaque. Let's go find some monsters to -
: Hey, uh, guys, is it supposed to do this?
That's right, the Multi-edge Sword is a two-edged sword, ha ha. Once you've equipped it, you can't remove it...
And your cursed status is marked with a little star.
: You know, this isn't so bad. Sure, it's fused with my hand, but if I were to have anything fused with my hand I'd want it to be something like this. I mean, just look at it:
It's a fair point, so to speak. It'll make eating and using the bathroom a little inconvenient, but in return you get unparalleled lethality. Let's try it out.
Hanzoku was right; Brey absolutely does cast Bikill. If anything he's a little too free with it; more on that later.
Ok, so with Bikill and a critical hit, Ragnar can do incredible damage. Not really the test I was looking for. Let's try again:
: Ow,
what?
Yeah. The Multi-edge Sword deals excellent damage to your enemies, but sometimes bites the hand that wields it. You could make the case that it's still worth using, at least for now - if it helps you kill enemies faster, it might not be hurting you overall.
: No thanks.
Fair enough. Houses of Healing have an "Uncurse" option precisely for situations like this.
There's no other way to uncurse things, so you have to pay through the nose. Once again, the
Church House knows they have you over a barrel.
But if you fork over...
They do at least do good work.
Going down the list of "Places we can reach via Return spell", the party heads to Bonmalmo. But it's a bust; Bonmalmo has no treasury, only an empty prison.
Anneaux goes much better.
Remember this, from back before we had the ship?
: There is no way this can go wrong.
: Well, if you're sure...
Here's the before-and-after comparison. Even better damage than the Multi-edge Sword!
Of course.
Yikes. That "Defense" number is usually much larger than 0.
Unlike the Multi-edge Sword, the Sword of Decimation is basically suicide. Monsters can now one-shot Ragnar with a single lucky hit. We can get some use out of it by putting him in the back and treating him as a vulnerable, inflexible version of Mara, but let's not. Instead, we'll leave the sword in Jessica's inventory; it reduces enemy defense power when used as an item. Usually you don't need that, but it would have been very handy against Bakor.
We get Ragnar uncursed
again, and go on our way.
Mintos and Soretta were complete dead-ends. Even Taloon's Medal Sense didn't pick up anything.
Keeleon was similar, but we did run into this guy. He no longer hears the voices, but he still wanders the roof anyway. Hoping to hear them again?
: The Secret of Evolution is already in the hands of Necrosaro.
: Do we kill humans?
: No.
: Even if -
: Not even if.
In Haville, to the north, Taloon's finely-honed Medal senses lead us to a pot in a jail cell.
: Ew.
Ew indeed! But our next stop is Monbaraba, home of the famous comedian Panon (Tom Foolery in the remake, and one of the few remake names I actively prefer).
: You know, ever since that comedy fiasco at Stancia, I've wanted -
: "Fiasco"? His jokes aren't any better than mine! Some of them I just flat-out stole!
: Maybe you weren't telling them right?
: It's worth a shot.
: That's right! We can offer you fun, adventure, and a minimal chance of horrible death by monster.
: What's more...
: And to get it, you'll need my talent....
: By any chance, do you intend to go to Zenithian Castle?
: !
: No, you don't have to tell me.
: I understand. I'll accompany you.
: Stancia?
: Santeem was next on the list, but sure.
Meet Panon. He's a Jester, he's got one spell, and his sword can cast that spell for him so it's not at all clear why he bothered. I like his role in the story, but mechanically he's a crappier Taloon, which...yeah.
Stancia, you may recall, is this world's Venice, with a thriving artistic and economic life.
It's also surrounded by monsters, but a) we can teleport, and b) Taloon's got it. Note the party formation: we've put Panon in the healer slot despite his lack of healing abilities, in the expectation that Operation "go to the King, tell him some great jokes" will be casualty-free.
: And no one's managed it yet?
: No one.
: But you're a master comedian! We believe in you! "Thursday is your day in the barrel", hahaha.
: What's that?
: I've sorta spoiled it now, but a man walks into a monastary...
: See? Easy. Just walk up these steps and lay it on him.
: Let's walk around a bit first, I want to talk to the people of Stancia.
: For material?
: Sure.
: All of their jokes are of this calibre, I'm told.
: What were the others?
: One girl forgot hers. The other just said, "What do you do when you have a problem? Ignore it because it won't go away!?"
: I see.
: Is that true?
: About monsters getting smarter? Maybe. If so it's quite ominous - the same thing happened before the Ruler of Evil first rose.
: Psh, that's not even full plate! I don't know why she's complaining!
: Her hands are soft and her hair is styled. She hasn't had your training.
: I don't blame the King for wanting to laugh away his fears.
: Balzack was tough, but in the end we killed him.
: But you didn't bring his victims back to life.
: For a jester, you're really depressing.
: to destroy the Ruler of Evil and other monsters.
: We
already heard this stuff.
: I didn't.
: And it's helping?
: Oh, yes.
: We'll have to return at night, then.
: Can do!
Brey recently gained the ability to warp space and time to our whims, so soon after:
If Yes:
If No:
It ends in tears either way, is the major thing to notice. Jessica says "Yes", of course; the world will
not end, because she's going to stop it, because her family died to give her the opportunity. Anything less would be an unforgivable betrayal of their sacrifice.
: Ok, I know you're the expert but
how is this helping? The others were bad enough, and now we've got a priest on the verge of giving up his work? That's material for the most depressing "joke" in the world!
: That's right.
: So, why?
: Why do people laugh?
: What?
: Don't worry about it; I'm ready. Tomorrow morning, the King of Stancia will give you the Zenithian Helm.
It's hard to resist that kind of certainty, so Brey bends time again, and in mere moments:
...and remember, Mara already told the barrel joke. Sorry about spoiling it for you.
: Don't worry about it.
And the show begins. I'll just give you all the screenshots:
Just like that, it's over.
: People laugh...because they're happy?
: People laugh for many reasons.
: Oh that is
such a cop-out -
: Laughter can be a great medicine, easing sorrow and lightening the unbearable. People might laugh because they're happy, but most of all, people laugh to release themselves from pain.
: Then these people need laughter more than anyone.
: I agree; they need it, but they can't accept it. These people have lost all hope. They can't know release from pain, because they can't imagine themselves without it. I gambled that the King would understand that, if I explained it the right way.
: I can't argue with your results, but...who knew traveling with a jester would be so depressing?
: A true comedian knows his audience, and you've got
plenty of hope. So an elderly man walks into a House of Healing, and he walks up to the priest...
The Zenithian Helm isn't much better than the Iron Mask - even if you're a divinely powerful ancient civilization, there's only so much you can do with the head slot, I guess. It doesn't cast anything when used as an item, either.
Still, it's a Zenithian item - if the Stancian legends are correct, we'll need it to get into their castle in the sky.
Outside, the party gathers to bid Panon farewell:
: Goodybe, Jessica. I wish you success!
The wisdom of sages is well-recognized; the wisdom of fools rather less so.
: "I'm eighty-four years old; I'm telling everybody!" Classic.
See?
And not everyone can accept it. Even after all that...
: What, you haven't heard? We won that already.
But in fact:
: Until then, I'll keep issuing the proclamation.
Wah wah waaaaaaah!
"It can't possibly work, and I know
why it can't possibly work, but I'm gonna keep doing it anyway, because eh"
This is in some ways a very realistic game.
Castle Santeem holds nothing we haven't seen before...
...but neighboring Surene holds a secret.
Remember this? We could have followed up a few updates ago, but I simply forgot. Oh well, we're here now.
The door leads to a long, windy passage over the roof of the merchant's guild.
Which leads to the special merchants-only store.
: Can you spare a moment? I have a proposition...
Down the stairs, we find a tragically out-of-touch old man. "Have" is not the verb tense you want there, buddy
But verb tenses go funny when it comes to fortunetelling.
: to put up a signpost to help his daughter who was in trouble....
: Let me see...where did I put it up?....what did it say?...I can't remember.
We find these two in another building down a path from the Secret Merchant Warehouse. The same gift of prophecy that led Necrosaro to kill the King of Santeem gave him the ability to help his daughter, even beyond the grave.
Presuming we can find it.
But that turns out to be pretty easy.
This roaming dog shows that we can walk around the outer edge of the merchant's guild without being forced to leave town.
We just have to follow that path, and soon...
"Master Dragon is so strong. Long ago, he imprisoned the Ruler of Evil in darkness."
"I think the people of Stancia in the northern sea can tell you more about Zenithian Castle."
This puts a new, tragic spin on the King of Santeem's refusal to let his daughter learn to fight. He knew even before she was born that she was going to need help in the future, and that only Master Dragon, the one who defeated the Ruler of Evil, would be stong enough to help her. Something terrible was coming in the future, and all that he knew about it was that his daughter would be involved somehow. He must have hoped and prayed that she'd turn out to be a demure, refined noncombatant, somebody the Hero could go to for advice and then leave in peace.
But it didn't turn out that way. Alena's a fighter, a champion, and she's got a compulsive need to do good and save people. She'd put herself in the middle of the apocalypse, just on principle. He saw those impulses growing and did his best to smother them - but his every effort just made things worse. Finally he became reconciled to it...and then he was killed.
To cut through the fog of tragedy, I decided to follow
janglur's advice from several updates ago, and search the place where Alena fought the Chameleon Humanoid all the way back in Chapter Two. Sure enough, Lifeforce Nuts awaited me.
Burland is another bust; we already opened its only treasury with the Thief's Key.
I thought I was being clever, checking on Alex's old jail cell, but he didn't leave any Small Medals behind.
Actually, speaking of those:
It's also worth remembering that the Zenithian Armor is supposed to be nearby, but first we have looting, and then Rosaville, to deal with.
Speaking of looting, there's an area we haven't visited yet that's ripe for the plucking. Remember this portal?
It leads to that weird shrine in the middle of nowhere, but now we can get out into the main shrine area...
...and into the other portal...
...and back into that strange, monster-infested continent we were driven away from before.
We're a lot stronger now than we were then. These are tough fights, but certainly within Jessica's abilities.
Hey, a shrine! That we can...only reach by boat. And our boat is on another continent.
But we have the Map now, so we can find our absolute position in the world and figure out how to get back.
After a mere dozen or so random encounters, the party returns by ship, and sails up the river...
...and into a town. This is Riverton, and it will be terribly important later.
Not much of a nightlife, though.
There is an inn, but the proprietor's asleep.
Luckily for us, he has ears like a bat.
The next morning, the party obeys tradition and checks out the weapon and armor shops:
This may be a tiny, secluded river village, but their equipment is first-rate. Where are they getting this stuff?
: Wasn't me, this is my first visit too.
The local gossip is mostly taken up by the
GIANT MONSTER CASTLE that they're apparently sharing the island with.
: It's almost complete. All I need is a gas lighter than air.
: A
what?
: May I?
: Please.
STORY TIME WITH PROFESSOR BREY
There's a reason for that!: The Zenithians lived in the sky - and still do, if what we've heard is accurate.
: They had wings, so they could descend to visit us, but we couldn't go to them.
: That wasn't enough, especially for human merchants.
: Of course!
: They discovered and harnessed a lighter-than-air gas, and filled giant balloons with it. That way, they could arise to the lands of the Zenithians, and more importantly, bring their trade goods with them.
: When the Ruler of Evil smashed the Zenithians' great cities in the clouds, the balloons fell with them, and the precious gas escaped.
: If there's any of it left at all, it'll be in one of his old places of power: his tomb, his old fortress, someplace like that. And apparently his old fortress is near here.
: Thanks, Professor Brey!
This concludes our looting extravaganza and impromptu lesson in the wisdom of the Fool. Next time on Let's Play Dragon Warrior 4: Rosaville, and finally some ans - oh fuck, I forgot Lakanaba. Next time on Let's Play Dragon Warrior 4: we loot that basement,
then Rosaville and finally some answers.
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