Part 55: Nervanzer Wellspring

Update 55: Nervanzer Wellspring



Welcome back! Last time we had a big chat with the Kawa Elders and learned 2 methods of dealing The Maw. One would defeat it for good, the other would merely seal it away. This time we’ll be chasing after The Maw, looking for a final showdown.




As the party climbs Mount Nervanzer, they come upon a weird landscape.




What happened to this land?! Are those demons responsible?
This has to be The Maw’s doing. Raife warned us the beast couldn’t be allowed to roam. I’m starting to think this is what he meant.
What made him think he cold ever control such a monstrosity? The corruption threatens the very land itself!
I think Raife lost himself along the way, a long time ago.
The only way to counter this corruption is to deal with The Maw itself. Judging by how the corruption is spreading, I’d say we’re just a small ways off from where The Maw must have settled.
Once more push then. We deal with these demons and then we have to stop The Maw, one way or another.




And it’s time for another fight. This one’s pretty simple, just kill all of the demons.



I’m bringing Hannah, Selina, Bobby, Bzaro, and Sophia in this time.




And are up against 2 Overscourges, 2 Undead Kawa Warriors, a Harrower, 2 Domincubi (one is hidden in the bottom corner of the map), 2 Helhund variants, and an Abyssal Aeoth (which is essentially just a dark version of a regular Aeoth).




Since the map is pretty small, I’m able to start whacking enemies right out of the gate.



I also have Sophia boost Bzaro’s MP up so he can start casting Plaguestorm ASAP. I make sure not to move her so that the Helhunds can’t pounce over to hit him.



He casts it once and advances. Didn’t get too many crazy effects, though a few of the enemies did get rooted.





There’s a bit more skirmishing as both sides advance. Kyrie and Hannah both get whacked a bit, but are mostly fine until the Xolotl’s cast of Quetzalcoatl brings them both to under half health.



Kyrie retaliates by taking a big chunk out of the Kaftar. I hold off on having Bobby cast anything while both of the Helhund variants are up, and instead he just uses a potion on Selina.



The Kaftar uses Pick off and does a surprising amount of damage to Kyrie, leaving her very low on health.



Hannah’s just barely unable to finish off the Xolotl, and I have Sophia heal Kyrie back up.



Meanwhile, the Aeoth chooses a very annoying spot to lock me out of for a round.



And on Bzaro’s turn, he scores the first kill of the fight by taking out the Kaftar.



While the lower Overscourge fires off its own cast of Plaguestorm. The most notable consequence of this is that it roots Bzaro.



Selina kills the Xolotl.



While an Overscourge comes up and whacks Hannah, transferring its debuffs to her.



While Kyrie attempts to kill a Domincubus but whiffs the lightning part of the attack so it survives.



And the other Domincubus flies up and puts both Sophia and Bobby to sleep.



The Aeoth’s Barrage lands, thankfully only hitting enemies. Despite their high resistance to Dark damage, the attack still does some good damage to the Harrower and Domincubus.



And then, because he’s nearly dead and can’t move, I have Bzaro cast another Plaguestorm. He dies to the counterattack from the Harrower, but I get very lucky with the status inflictions.



Specifically, it charmed the lower Overscourge who comes up and hits the other one, transferring the charm to it.



Then, on its turn the newly charmed Overscourge casts Plaguestorm. Due to the weird mechanics of charm, this also hits the casting Overscourge. Because it’d been weakened by Hannah and the previous hit, this cast kills it.



The Harrower takes out the nearly dead Hannah, triggering her reraise.



While Kyrie finishes off the Domincubus that she’d previously weakened.



And then Hannah gets revenge on the Harrower and kills it.



Back over in the corner, Sophia gets a very rude awakening as a small barrage lands on her. She does survive, though it puts her down to about 1/3 hp.



And one of the Undead Kawas takes out Hannah, spawning a weaker Undead Kawa in her place.




I send Kyrie to kill the other Domincubus. She hits the swing, but misses the lightning and thus the kill again. So I have Sophia make absolutely sure it dies with a cast of Fafnir.



Over on the other end, Selina’s not having a very good time as she gets swarmed and stuck in place under a Barrage marker. I have her heal up since she can’t really do much else.



And the heal does let her survive the initial hit, at least.



I have Kyrie heal Bobby, ready for him to do some big damage now that he’s actually awake and won’t get ganked by Helhunds.



But he wouldn’t do enough damage to kill anything, so for some reason I decided to just have him reanimate an enemy instead.



Conveniently, it does draw the Undead Kawa Warrior’s attention away from Selina.



While the other one starts a chain that I love. See, both the Undead Kawa Warrior and the Overscourge have the Plaguebearer passive, which passes afflictions from the attacker to the target on a basic attack. Since it mutes the Overscourge, the Overscourge can’t cast Plaguestorm, and instead the 2 just sit there punching and recharming each other for a while.



Meanwhile, Kyrie takes out the summoned Undead Kawa.



And after a little bit more faffing about as the demons fought each other, Sophia obliterates both of them with a cast of Immortal Souls.



And then a little while later, Kyrie takes out the Abyssal Aeoth to end the fight.



Not too bad a fight overall. There were some close calls, and I really didn’t use Bobby as well as I could have, but even with those it wasn’t that hard.



And we’re put back on the map, just outside The Maw’s lair.

Now, I’d like any of the readers’ opinions on how to do the next bit. As is probably evident from the conversation with the Kawa Elders, there are multiple endings for this game. There are also a good number of side quests that have opened up since beating Raife and talking to the Elders, as well as a bonus dungeon of sorts.

There are three ways I can think of to show everything:

1st is to just cut out, kill whatever of the pacing is left, and show all of the sidequests before doing the endings.

2nd is to continue on and show the ending that you’ll likely get your first time through. Then do all of the sidequests before circling back for the final ending.

And 3rd is to show both endings, then do the sidequests, leaving the bonus dungeon as the final section of the LP.

Any preferences as to which way to go?