Part 17: Small Town Life, Hig Seas adventure, Part 1/2

As promised here is the very beginning of chapter sixteen. We've got a major decision regarding mercenaries here so be sure to weigh in with your opinion.

Previously, on Let's Play Paladin's Quest After destroying Noi Gren and escaping the clutches of Zaygos Johnny and Mindy found themselves in a robot infested underground complex that spanned the length and breadth of Lennus. After much exploration they found several gates to the surface. Of these one actually lead to the remains of the magic school where Johnny's adventure started.

As predicted, the school headmaster had not moved from where Johnny left him, and was very eager to shout more orders at Johnny. With the Kormu weapons destroyed he advised Johnny to seek a way to destroy Dal Gren in his home town Reiyold. We rejoin Mindy and Johnny as the contemplate this advise.

I'm telling you Mindy. If I have to introduce you to my mother that make s you girlfriend. Further, if you're my girlfriend that entitles me to, at the very least, hand holding privileges. Oh come on.

Anyway let's get over to Ratsurk. As long as we're there we can say hi to your dad.

Yes Mindy, something's different. Something isn't right.

What now, we've only been gone a few months. It might have gotten bad, but this is excessive.

That's a lot of weight to put on a teenage girl's shoulders. Even if they are undeniably sexy shoulders. Don't worry Mindy, we'll find a way to help them. Mindy let's get the scoop from your dad, there has to be something the community can do short term to get through this.

Way to give us hope in a trying time Mr. Mayor. Hell, way to greet your daughter who you never knew if you were going to see alive again.

Yes I know. It's all my fault. I'm basically deaf to further complaints at this point. Keep it together people. I don't know what you've been through since I left here, but I'll bet if we compared notes you'd find it's nothing compared to what I've been through.

Most the buildings are trashed and the shops are out of business. What caused this? By that I don't mean the vague effects of Dal Gren. I mean what caused this? Economic collapse due to monster attack? Radiation? I'd like a little more to go on. There could be a temporary solution.

It's true what they say. When society collapses the bars remain open.

The bartender is gone, but the mercenaries who were too good to work for me in chapter two are still here. Let's talk to them shall we?

Merc Alert!
It's that time again ladies and gents. Time to decide what the makeup of our team will be for the next chapter or so. Let's look at the contestants. Starting with the challengers.

First off we have Peppi, the Skuruu. He's an interesting mage fighter hybrid with a good set of spells. Some of his gear is strangely outdated.

This is Hawk. Despite being in contact with the headmaster he did not offer to help at the beginning of our adventure. I guess he didn't think the end of the world is all that serious. That aside he is an undeniably powerful spiritualist.

These two are trying to replace

Mouth is a competent all arounder who's in game sprite looks better than his portrait. He casts hard and hits harder.

Speaking of hard hitters we also have the robot Nails in the party. He's a powerful fighting with a wide range of attack options. Of course conventional healing doesn't work on him, so he has to rely on his energy train weapon, which isn't quite up to the task. Also he doesn't gain levels like a normal character.

Also of note. This is about the first time it's been practical to use the several S Taverns I've acquired to summon any mercs Johnny has worked with previously. So if anyone would like to have a blast from the past considered just nominate them and I'll flash their stats for the consideration of voters.

I hope you enjoyed this brief update, and I look forward to a lively discussion during this selection process.

Chapter 16, Part 2/2

Here we are again folks. I thought I'd take a moment to inform everyone that we are in the last legs of this game. We only have a few chapters left before the curtain falls on our Johnny and Mindy. Don't be too sad though, because I'm planning on doing more threads like this in the future. Now let's get on with the show.

You know what? I've weighed all of my options and I've had it with friends of people who ditch me, and gender confused spiritualists who refused to help me when I desperately needed it. I won't be needing the services of either of you.

Mouth, while you are unquestionably skilled I'm afraid that our quest is very urgent. We don't need the constant distraction of the paparazzi and news reporters clamoring for an interview that follow you everywhere. I'm sure you'll do fine without us.

I like you Nails, I really do. I also hate to deprive Mindy of her favorite source of piggy back rides. That said I just don't think the surface, with the raining, and the large bodies of circuit shorting liquids is the best place for a robot. I think you should stick to more robot friendly areas.

Only the baddest of badass mercenaries will do. We need to make a call Mindy.

Booming voice from the heavens, neat.

You read my mind J, we could use your help.

Welcome back guys, how've you been?

J you're looking fit as ever. How's your brother.

You've become strong? That's an understatement. Try you've become a mushroom cloud layin' motherfuker, motherfucker. What have you been eating? (In addition to being level 55 now, G's sword freezes the enemy on almost every hit. If he doesn't just kill them outright that is.)

You know magic now magic too? Damn you've been working overtime haven't you? (I should note that while G only knows four elements he knows most of the useful buff spells, and a decent array of attack spells too.)

Team it's time for the most dangerous part of this adventure yet. Introducing you to my mom. Let's see if they fixed the rope network.

Chin up people. It's not the end of the world. At least not for a few more weeks.

Next stop, dinner at my place.

I should warn you. There are two scenarios on how dinner at my house is going to go. It's important to remember that this is a fishing village. That means there only two kinds of meat available; fish, and chicken. The guy who started selling chicken is the richest guy in town now. That's how small it is. Anyway if it's chicken night at my place we'll be having chicken casserole. This is good, my mom makes great casserole. We all have a great dinner and talk to my mom, and make out after words and everything's great.

On the other hand it could be meatloaf night. As I said before there's only chicken and fish available. So the meatloaf is made from fish. Yes, it actually tastes even worse than it sounds. In that case we're going to go through wacky sitcom hijinks as we each take turns distracting my mom while we dispose of fish meatloaf unfit for human consumption. We will still make out afterwards of course.

This is our stop. It's a short ride because for some reason they couldn't put the network station near the town.

You can also tell it's crappy because there isn't anyone attending the station. It works on the honor system.

To get to Reiyold we still have to walk through the swamp of eternal gas.

And the quick sand sea. Whoever founded Reiyold really hates company.

Here we are. Brace yourselves for nostalgia and tear filled reunions.

I'm back everyone. And I caused the end of the world.

Yeah it's me Frank. Don't act like you don't remember about that five gold you owe me.

I'm gong to Carl. Do you happen to know what she's making for dinner tonight? If it's meatloaf night you can smell it for miles.

Mindy. Everyone can see it but you. Why can't you feel the love baby?

I know I know. Everything wrong in the world is my fault.

Well this is it guys. Mom, I'm home.

Who else would it be mom? Have you been seeing gentleman callers while I've been away at school?

I'm famous? That's actually really bad. The only thing I could be famous for is causing planet wide disaster. Stupid headmaster spreading bad PR about me.

Well I kinda tired mom. Let me introduce you to my friends. This is Mindy, and these large guys with the Horns are the Rasav brothers.

Was that a wink wink from mom about Mindy? Look ma let me clear something up. It looks like you were right. They're going to have to bury me under a hopscotch field before any girl is going to jump my bones.

Hey it is casserole night! That's the best news I've heard in about a year now. Anyway mom you wouldn't believe some of the stuff that's happened.

Yeah so now we've got to find a way to destroy Dal Gren without the items of Kormu.

Hey that's a good point mom. If these weapons were so important Kormu probably made a spare. We should look for that.

Mom you are as helpful as I'd expect my mom to be. Thanks a lot, we'll get right on it.

That was remarkably easy too. Guess there are benefits to questing in your home town. Good thing we've been studying our seamanship. Told you we'd end up on a boat again sooner or later.

And we're off.

Now that we know how to operate a boat we're pretty busy and there isn't any time for me to harass Mindy about making out.

Yeah J. I think the island with a hole in the middle is probably the one we're looking for. Let's drop anchor.

So should we just jump in?

it didn't look like there were any stairs from the outside. Also this architecture looks very familiar. It looks just like that underground complex we were in. Also the same enemy attacks us. That means that it was built by the same people at approximately the same time. That further means that Kormu, Gabnid, and Sophie were somehow involved.

I found a generic key.

These look like they might be vital information dispensing computers. Turns out they're just to make the room look cool.

Johnny finds gravity boots. Boys like Johnny should not be given things that mess with the fundamental laws of nature.

Use generic key on generic locked door.

And we move deeper into the mysterious dungeon.

More broken glass tubes. I wonder what this place was used for?

Mindy do you think this is a Phantom Cane, or a Photon Cannon? I can't tell.

This is almost as bad an abbreviation as the last one. After some thought I think it's a Thunder Blade. While it's an okay weapon it only has a bit more attack power than the wind blade. When you factor in the Wind blades double striking abilities, the Tdr sa is the inferior weapon.

If your like me this is the part where you wander around for a while thinking there has to be more to this dungeon. Turns out there isn't. Time to move on.

Well we better head back and tell my mom this wasn't quite what we were looking for. I'm sure some of the local folklore will lead us to a Dal Gren destroying weapon. We just have to work through them one at a time.

Looking good there Mindy. If the savior of the world gig ever gets old you should look into a career in sexy female piracy. By that I mean being a pirate that is a sexy female. Not people who pirate sexy females.

We're back again. I can't believe in all the years of this town nobody gave that island a thorough investigation.

What's up with the faint red glow? Is the mayor trying to prove that we can triple our GNP by renting the town out to ravers again?

This is not good.

Hey old man thanks for letting us borrow you boat. We brought it back without a scratch.

Things just went from bad to worse.

Whoever these idiots are they're much better at killing random townsfolk than taking on any real challenge. And so we clear out most the town before I even have time to think about…

Mom!

Oh sucker. You should realize something. Zaygos only throws chumps after me. I'm gonna take this sword of mind, and plant it right between your eyes. I'm telling you this just to hammer home the point that there isn't anything you can do to stop me.

You guys aren't getting any prettier. (Though I guess to be fair you aren't getting any uglier.)

What will Johnny do? I just said, the sword goes in his head. Since it's a wind sword it's actually going in his head twice if you want to get technical.

This is what happens when you mess with my mom. Your ass gets the hell killed out of it.

He's I no position to absolve anyone of their sins bucko.

Okay mom you better be alright. This game's been enough of a downer already.

Yes mom it's me once again. You always ask that. It's not like your blind or anything.

I don't like the way she said that. Mindy check her for stab wounds.

The what now?

Wow mom. This is something I thought you would have told me a while ago. Hell the villagers have to know. How did I go thirteen years without even one of them letting it slip?

That's kind of creepy and obsessive mom.

Mom I think you must have taken a blow to the head. There's no way a boat his hidden under your bed.

You're crazy mom. There is no boat under the bed. I'll prove it to you.

Well that explains why you spanked me unmercifully whenever I even thought about hiding under the bed.

Well mom. I promise I'll be back soon to help restore the village, but I've got to save the world first. Take care, and send the surviving villagers my regards. Don't worry about anyone attacking for a bit. I wiped out the whole strike force.

Mom was hiding a secret underground passage from me? My entire childhood feels like a gigantic ripoff at this point.

Wow this baby's fully loaded. It's got GPS and everything.

Okay Mindy let's see what this baby can do.

Wow. That's a smooth ride.

It can go right through a reef no problem. Now that we got a boat let's do some exploring.

Sweet buried treasure! It's the best bottle in the game. The Giga bottle.

I think we've got a long ride ahead of us, but my mom kept it fully stocked with provisions. She always plans ahead.

You know Mindy making has been shown to cure scurvy in studies done by the national let's make out association. I'm pretty sure you have scurvy. Let's get to it before your gums start to bleed.

Actually it just occured to me Mindy. Our origin stories are eerily smiliar. We clearly came from the same place. It's possible we're brother and sister. On the other hand we're less than nine months apart, so we'd have to be twins. Additionally, we don't look anything alike really. Not even close enough to be fraternal. Oh what the hell, I like those odds. Let's commence to tonsil hockey. Don't look at me that way. I got needs, I can't take another long night a sea.

After a long boat ride in which we learned that J and G can play an awesome sea chantey. We arrive at a mysterious island on the other side of the world. I also learned that Mindy knew quite a few more painful wrestling moves than I thought she did. Thos Guud love wrestling, and they taught her every move in the book. Even the illegal ones, especially the illegal ones.

All ashore everyone. The isolated location of this place means it likely has the answers we've been searching for.

To Be continued!

There you have it. It took me a while to get it posted. Waffleimages is acting a little sluggish so be patient with the old girl. Only a few chapters to go. I'm starting in on the next chapter right away so it should hopefully be up tomorrow morning. With the next chapter I will finally reach the part of the game that stumped my father and stole his will to game. Soon he will be avenged, stay tuned.