Part 48: No Escaping Carlie
"Will do, old man. And you stock up on the rum in case we have to get out of here in a hurry. Damned if I want to go on a sea voyage sober."
Duran's unique in that he's the only character besides Kevin who doesn't get his clock cleaned by the beast-men. I guess he's just too tough looking to mess with?
"Can't let the other beastmen see me now… please…" "Whatever, man. If you want to hang out here it's no business of mine."
"No weapons!? Okay, that's where I draw the line…"
Despite the beast-men mostly leaving Duran alone, he still has to fight his way out at night. The inn is free, so there's no reason not to rest up until night.
Duran opens chests through the simple expedient of bashing them with his sword. It's kind of a neat animation.
After playing through this section so many times (About 5 or 6 at last count for this LP) I'm just interested in getting through the routine parts as quickly as possible. These two seem to be the key people you actually have to talk to in order to trigger the
In Duran's case, Astoria offers one of the more glaring bits of silliness that creeps into RPGs. Duran comes from a martial culture with an established military, but he's got a primitive bronze sword while a backwoods village like Astoria sells an iron weapon?
"Piss off, old man. I can get all the girls I want with this face."
More meta concepts, thrown into sharp relief by Duran's focus on his class change.
Now that the light is going on it's merry way we can continue. I realized while doing this that while you can follow the light immediately, there's nothing that says you have to follow it right away. Instead, we'll check in with the townspeople.
"That's an awfully specific legend."
"According to legend, it's the doom of your city. You might want to get out of here.."
"Yeah, yeah. I didn't exactly disbelieve you, you know.."
"A faerie? That'll be the day! Ha!"A few minutes later...
"Oooh… I'm all right now. Who might you be?" "I'm Duran, a warrior of Forcena. I saw a light from the inn at Astoria, and…" "…Duran… Well, I haven't much choice now… All right, I've picked you…" "We're going to Wendel. Chop chop!"
"Oh, that should be no problem if I'm with you. Let's hurry! A disaster is taking place in the Mana Holyland…" "Mana Holyland!? That's…"
"Let me take a rest inside your head for a while…" "What!? Wa, wait a minute!" "Whoa, there's a voice going through my head!" "You'd better get used to it. Astoria, then Wendel. Get moving!" "Got it!"
Turns out there's a little scene to remind you about Astoria if you just happen to try and skip it. It's not important for gameplay reasons, but I suppose for the narrative it's kind of necessary.
"Looks like the beastmen invaded while you were gone…" "But why!?" "In accordance with prophecy, obviously. Anyway, Wendel? I don't think there's much we can do here."
"Well, I suppose I can let you in with this faerie I have…"
"Huh? You have a faerie that can let us in? You serious!?" "Actually, I'm…" "I saw that light, too. Good thing I didn't follow it! I'd have to be possessed by something like that!" "So come on, get her to open the cave.. then you can take me to Wendel." "I'm tired of being left alone…" "BE SILENT, WOMAN!" Goddess, a man can't even get a word in edgewise."
"You mean Koren? The Wizard of the Red Lotus? Don't be stupid!" "Who'd want to be friends with THAT guy? He and Mother tried to KILL me!" "Huh… seems like we have something in common. Except about your mother. I'm fairly sure she didn't try to kill me." "No, she's been locked up in the palace being nuts ever since Koren decided he was in charge."
"He used to be just like me… totally useless with magic…" "Our magic teacher, Jose, was always getting angry at him…" "But then, all of a sudden, he became the greatest magician in Altena…" "Now, as the right arm of my mother, he's acting all high and mighty!"
"Oooh, just thinking about it makes me mad!!" "Wait a second, Angie… did you say the greatest magician in all of Altena?" "My name is Angela!" "So you're not insisting on Princess?" "I..shut up!" Yes, he's the greatest magician in Altena. "I'm the son of the greatest swordsman in Forcena… I can't afford to lose…"
"…women are strange."
"Yes… did you want something?"
"HELP ME!" "Man, it seems like everybody wants something from me today."
"Well, what's a cute little girl doing here? It's dangerous!"Some time later (Yes, you still get the digest of her story even if she's not one of your characters)…
"If you were any later… poor, poor Carlie…" "Well, I was on my way to visit the Priest of Light anyway. I'll take you there!"
"Aw, I don't need your help, anyway, Wendel's close by! This way, don't get lost!" "…y'know, I don't think I like kids. Except maybe my sister. Sometimes."
"As long as that's all he brought out." "What's that supposed to mean?" "Nothing, nothing… I'm just saying that you can't trust a bugger that goes around wearing robes all the time." "Hmm… thinking about Koren, that makes a bit of sense…"
"What if she were eaten by some monster!?" "Then you know about it when you found a monster being sick somewhere. Kid's fine, we saw her in the cave." "Really? Somebody's got to tell the Priest!" "Funny you should mention that.."
"… (sigh…) Class changing isn't as easy as that. You need experience…" "There's no way you can change to another class until you're much older." "What!? What are you talking about?"
"But not until you have all the experience you need! Strength comes with responsibility!" "Dammit! I want to get strong NOW!!" "You got your answer, now move over!"
"But I heard that you can help me out!" "…" "Is this a two for one special on idiots, or did I just get extra lucky today?" "I'm afraid it's all my fault… sorry about this." "A faerie too? And I thought this day just couldn't get any better." "Huh?? I don't understand…" "The world's going to hell in a handbasket, and since the faerie chose you it's your job to go to the Holyland to pull out the Sword of Mana and fix it."
"Sorry, it's a bit difficult to do anything with the power of Mana declining… I just figured you'd take it a bit better from the Priest of Light than from me." "And don't think you're gonna stick me with this, either. Once the faerie's in your head, it's stuck in there until you either die or get the sword."
"Didn't you want to defeat that crimson wizard?" "With the Sword of Mana, you could be the world's greatest warrior!" "H… hey! Wait a minute! Were you looking inside my mind!?"
"I'm going to keep this short and with small words so that you'll hopefully get out of my temple sooner. The Goddess used it to create the world, and if you have it you can change the world the same way."
"I can work with that. So how do I get it?" "We're going to have to use the 8 spirits around the Mana Stones… so you're okay with this?" "I suppose… but stay out of my head next time. Especially between six and eight at night."
"Some people say they've seen him in the Cave of Waterfalls, near the giant waterfall… you know, outside the city of Wendel and my temple."
"Please?! Can I go with you?" "Huh? Well… sure, if you want. I don't have anything against it." "Of course! And when you obtain the power of the Spirits, you'll be able to use magic too!" "Really? Yay!!" "Yes, both of you, go away together and don't come back until you've got the sword… damn kids these days… I'm going to put up an even stronger barrier this time and get some peace and quiet.." "Whatever you say. But before that, we're hitting the bar. Damn wolf-men drank up all the booze in town...Once again, some time later...
"An'… uh… can you help me? I gotta go find Heath! He's in trouble!" "No. It's dangerous to go any further… you'll be safe if you stay in Wendel." "Hell, you almost got yourself killed five minutes away from home on a path that hundreds of pilgrims get through with no problem at all." "We'll find Heath… don't worry." "But… Carlie's worried about Heath! Please, can I come too? Please please?" "For the last time, kid, NO! Now get the hell out of here and don't let me catch you following us again." "Aww, why did I ever ask you, anyway? Carlie can find Heath all by herself!" "Ouch. Don't you think you were a bit harsh?" "Nah. If I'd said yes she'd be following us everywhere right now, talking in the third person and falling off shit left right and center. Trust me, we're better off without her."
"Strange energy, yeah, but… what the heck are we supposed to do about it?" "Check those openings higher up? Maybe there's a way around it that way."
"Forgot we can't fly, or failed to notice our huge lack of wings?" "Idiot. Wings don't have anything to do with flying. I'd have to flap like a hummingbird to stay up if I was actually using these things to fly… they're completely decorative." "I'm going to have you repeat that to any bird-like monster we run into searching for these damn spirits that looks like it can't possibly fly but still flaps its wings like crazy anyway." "More to the point, are you ever going to use this ability to get us across a gap or a chasm again, or is this the only time?" "I can't imagine anywhere else it'd be useful… c'mon, let's go."
"Hey Angela, did the Priest mention anything about giant crab monsters when he told us where to go look for Wisp?" "I kind of zoned out about halfway through, but I'm pretty certain that he didn't."
"Okay, that stung… yeah, I'm gonna have a conversation with him when we get back to Wendel." "Who cares? It's all you can eat crab leg night!"
"Really? I can!? Wow, I have to try it!" "I don't know if you caught it, but I think the faerie just suggested that you're too dumb to use magic right now… maybe that's what the problem's been the entire time!" "Grrr… shut up! What do you know about magic, anyway!?"
"I know enough about magic to blow open a passage with a giant crab monster. Let's see you do something half as magical as that, witch girl." "I'd show some by turning you into a pig, but that wouldn't be a magic trick at all!" "Good Goddess, can't you two do anything without bickering? Look, we're almost back to the waterfall."
"Hah! The joke is on you. Those two pissed the priest off so badly that he's putting up an even stronger barrier. Nice try, though. Now, if you don't mind I'm going to see if they're alive or if I'm free to find two people who can actually do this without being at each other's throats all the time."