Part 8: Scarred Summit

Sorry for the extra delay on this update. I should still have the next one ready in a day or 2, so I should be able to still stick to my schedule for the future.

Update 8: Scarred Summit



We’re back again. Last time, we met our friend Bzaro the Bzil after we rescued him and a Kawa merchant from a ton of Vangals and Komainu. This time we’re headed to the Scarred Summit, where the Highlands Temple (and hopefully Alphonse) lie in wait.




When we approach we just get thrown right into a fight.



The enemies have a pretty nasty setup with a healthy mix of physical attackers (knights, ranged scoundrel and the reaver), magic attackers (wizard and one of the knights has wizardry as a secondary), and support guys in two new classes: The plague doctor ( a bit of a wonky class that has some support and damage) and the alchemistic (stereotypical buffer, all about group buffs). Additionally, they all start out up high, making it kinda difficult to rush them quickly.



In comparison, we start out clustered down at the very bottom of the hill. Hannah’s sitting out this time since she was getting a bit higher leveled than everybody else, so Mongo’s going to be fighting in her place.



Bzaro’s also helping us out. He’s pretty helpful, but still a guest and uncontrollable.



As sellswords, we don’t always have the most honorable contracts, but we do honor every contract we take.
Then defend yourselves!



The alchemystic starts the battle off by buffing a few guys to negate the next status effect on them.



While Reiner goes and blinds the nearest knight. He’s able to reach our starting area pretty easily, so mitigating his damage is pretty important.



Bzaro charged in, so I send Kyrie up to support him, but manage to miss a 95% chance to hit. Thankfully, I just heal Bzaro afterwards so there are no real consequences to the miss.



Meanwhile, the mender targets Reiner with a new skill from the Gambler class. This one has a chance of inflicting a random number of debuffs, and I believe he gets poisoned and weakened (all healing turns to 0 until cleared). Not too bad, but it does mean I need to be careful with Reiner for a bit.



However, after Bobby weakens her, Reiner is able to take the mender out in return. Really nice to take out their main healer so easily.



Kyrie runs up to take a whack at the wizard, but I notice this command that I’d totally forgotten about. I activate the statue, and it gives me an Obelisk Clue. There are a bunch of these and they form a neat puzzle that lasts a good chunk of the game.



Up top Bzaro shows off another new skill. This one starts off as a weak attack that clears all of the target’s buffs and does bonus damage for each one. Super useful to have, and very annoying when enemies get access to it.



Jumping back down, Reiner sneak attacks the Reiver to set up an alley-oop



For Bobby who just pokes the guy with a stick to take him out.



Bouncing back up to the cluster, Bzaro gets taken out by the AI



But is quickly avenged by Reiner taking out the wizard. That knight down with us has also been pretty nasty and has taken good chunks out of both Bobby and Reiner.




Thankfully, Anadine and Kyrie can cooperate to nearly burst him down, though he just retreats back up top.



But doesn’t go far enough and Reiner continues his kill streak.



Mongo is hurting and misses the kill on the knight, surviving the knight’s counterattack with literally 1 hp.



Though Kyrie is able to confirm the kill this time.



And Sophia can juuuuuust barely reach Mongo with a heal spell to save his butt.



Espcially because he nearly goes down again thanks to the scoundrel running around in the backfield. Kyrie also takes out the alchemystic, leaving just the scoundrel and plague doctor to deal with.



At this point I start stalling to grab the treasures. I heal up Mongo again and have Anadine take out the plague doctor.



The chest holds a dispelotron, which is a gadget. Gadgets are a pretty neat mechanic for a specific class that I have barely used. I’m hoping to actually show it off later since it seems pretty cool.



After grabbing the treasure, Mongo executes the scoundrel to end the fight.



Unsurprisingly, Reiner got the MVP for his kills.



Now, since that fight was so short, we might as well continue on to the temple and confront Alphonse.



Inside the temple, we see Alphonse standing in front of an altar. A purple object that looks almost like a heart hovers in front of him, pulsing.



We barge in down at the bottom of the temple.



But it does not matter. You are too late.



He pulls out a big spear-looking thing and dots of energy start flowing from the heart towards Alphonse.

Is *that* supposed to be part of the Pilgrimage?!
I’ve got a bad feeling about this.



Soon, the flow of energy stops, the heart goes dim and a purple flame envelopes Alphonse.



And I think I’ll leave things on that cliffhanger this time. However, I will follow this up with Kyrie’s unique Job Overview!