Part 5: Hourglass of Death and Rebirth

As you may remember, the local coal mine just collapsed. This has presumably bad reprecussions, but at least one good thing came out of it.



Just north of the village, there's the Sanctuary, but further north from there is where a man named Olen lives. Up until this point, Olen is inside his home and blocks the acquisition of one item.



The reason Olen isn't here now is simple; he was in the mine when it collapsed. Fortunately, he isn't dead. Apparently.



Yuri: He's been taken to the Mayor's house.

In case you can't figure out where to go, at all, Yuri's on-hand to just tell you outright. There's two ways in which this is unnecessary though: almost every villager is either in the Mayor's house or standing just outside it and every other house is locked.



: Why have the gods done this to Olen? A kinder man does not walk this land!
: Olen and the others are experts at their work... but could one of them have caused this accident?
Lutas: What shall I do? I just have no idea as to the best course of action...

After to speaking to everyone, when you try and leave Septimus walks in.



: Kline has given me interesting news, Alundra. He said that when Olen was brought into town, just before he passed out... He whispered the word "Murgg."

Murgg are the monkey enemies that you may or may not remember from when we were at Tarn's Manor. They're the closest thing to a "mascot" enemy the game has, and they're oddly plot relavent at that.

: Did you say Murgg...? How is it that we have had the misfortune of crossing those devilish monkeys from the tree?! And it's even more curious that they've attacked humans! They usually don't do that!




: It's quite possible their work disturbed them.
Lutas: Can you imagine the horror of Zane and the others? Hearing the low rumble of the roof about to cave in... Having just enough time to realise what's about to happen and then... Buried alive, suffocating under tons of damp, pungent soil.
: But why would the Murgg react so violently in the first place as to cause such a terrible thing?
: If we try to rescue Zane and the others, the Murgg might attack again... How can I justify risking lives to save lives?
: But we can't just wait for it to happen!



: There's only one way to learn what happened at the mine... You must enter Olen's mind. You have to explore his dream...or whatever state he is experiencing. But remember this word of caution: If Olen should perish while you inhabit his unconscious, you will surely perish as well...



Out of all the dream like areas thus far, this one is by the most boring. There's barely anything to it, and it takes all of a minute or so to do if you know how to do everything exactly. It's also the only time you'll really see the portrait of any miners, and with two exceptions you have to go out of your way to do that much. Much like with the Klark prologue, the best way to handle this is to just rush through it as fast as possible.



Zane's in the only other accessible screen and talks a lot. He says a whole one thing of note, though.



If this was a reminiscence of what truly happened, which it clearly isn't based on Olen acknowledging Alundra's existencing and knowing his name, this line would be ridiculously out of place. As is, it's clearly going to be relavent at some point since Olen wouldn't tell you this via a figment of his mind if it wasn't. Or maybe I'm just over-analysing the whole thing.




The Mining Bomb is pretty sweet. Olen decides to show Alundra just how sweet by blowing up an entire segment of the wall. Since something apparently awesome happened, that surely means something awful has to happen at this point too.



Yeah, that certainly qualifies. Now from this point, you're on a very limited timer to kill all the Murgg that appeared. Upon doing so, a chest drops from out of nowhere and you acquire a...



This is quite possibly the easiest one to miss in the entire game. If you don't kill the Murgg fast enough, the chest doesn't appear. Not to mention this is obviously a one-time area means that you can easily miss that one, not know about it, get to the end, only have 49 and not have a clue where you screwed up. And then have to start all over again when you DO find out. Which is a goddamn nightmare because of that asinine bullshitty Falcon and I couldn't bring myself to play the entire game over again for one Falcon and re-subject myself to that.

...No, I'm not bitter about anything. What makes you say that?



Since the Falcon is still on-screen here, it's pretty apparent that I got this one by the skin of my teeth. Following that message, regardless of when it occurs and if the Murgg are all killed or not, you get out of Olen's mind immediately.

: Alundra, are you all right?
: What did you say? Olen and the others were attacked by the Murgg? They dug a tunnel into our mine? But why...
: I am certain that the mine shaft collapsed because of the Murgg.
Lutas: I never imagined the Murgg were clever enough to dig tunnels, let alone ambush...
: They dug a tunnel into our mine...and when the hole was large enough...
: Those damned baboons must be planning an attack on our peaceful village!



This isn't particularly a good sign, all things considered...



I know I'm probably supposed to feel sad about this all things considered, but I genuinely don't here since it's practically impossible to become attached to the guy since you only really know him for about a minute or two, at most. And that's presuming you go out of your way to speak to him earlier as well.

Sad music still plays though, and since I want to know other people's opinions on this matter I'm linking it here in case it wasn't clear enough in the video;



Now, maybe it's just me, but that sounds identical to Cara's Theme from Legend of Legaia. I've read that it's apparently the exact same track, and I'm inclined to believe that, but I read that before ever playing Legend of Legaia so I might have been biased in that regard.

If that is the case, then the composer, Tanaka Kohei just got really lazy at parts. It's kind of shitty but at least it's sort of acceptable, since he did compose the Legend of Legaia music as well.



: If she learns he has expired, she will most certainly be crushed...



Turns out, she was listening in the entire time. Uh, oops? She refuses to believe it, though, and runs off to lock herself in her home.

: The gods can be cruel at times. Events like this are a true test of one's faith, Alundra... I can only pray Kisha possesses the strength to withstand this cruel trial!

Following Olen's death, it's not particularly clear what there is to do at this point. Jess' home is unlocked now so it seems like that's where to go next.



Hey, is that... it is, isn't it? It's a bomb. Forget the idols right now, tell me more about why you made a bomb.

: They were material representations of our gods, you know? But then, quite unexpectedly, the King decreed that all idol worship was forbidden! The people had no choice but to comply. We watched the destruction of our statues in tears... About that time, the palace in the North Lake was submerged. Sunk, actually. That was five years ago, but it feels as if it were just yesterday, you know what I am saying? Since that time, we've los the passion to create. What if the gods became angry and took our passion from us? O'm not saing they did, but it certainly makes me think at night, my boy. But...gods or no, I must regain my passion.

Great, so, about that bomb. Why is it there? Why did you make this?

: I can almost hear Olen's spirit talking to me...demanding that I make the finest weapons once more. Or even better, demanding that I assist in the fight for this land...



So, you made a replica of the bomb that Olen had before? That sweet as hell bomb that blew a hole in a wall like it was nothing? Purely because he died? That's... that's kind of badass actually. I mean, I'm not glad that a dude got killed by insane monkeys for doing his job or anything, but still.

: With this, you could easily get into the coal mine... But it's just too dangerous to attempt. Here's the plan. I go to the mine. I see if it's safe, and maybe I let you go inside. You stay here, all right? One way or the other, I'm going to keep you alive through this...

And he's gone, and left the bomb just sitting there on the table. Since Alundra's such a kind and noble hero, there is only one way to handle this situation.



Just steal the fucking thing. The bomb is one of the best items you could get. Yes, items. It doesn't count as a weapon. You have an infinite stock of them, and they can blow through specific rock formations but they have an even better use: instantly killing anything that isn't a boss. Sure, they might move out of the way but it's a risk worth taking. Plus, since no regular enemy has a lengthy amount of invincibility frames you could always just smack them onto the bomb before it blows as a last ditch attempt.

Now with this, we can go enter the dungeon right? But first we might as well take this opportunity to speak with Jess since he's stood just outside it.



: Oy! Are you crazy? You can't go into the mine! You should be lucky to come out alive! I refuse to let you go, Alundra. You can't... You shouldn't... Oy, I give up... Promise me this, all right Alundra? If you sense danger, don't be a hero. Just get out of there alive. Okay?



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Next time: one steps forward, two step back, is the rule of a world turned black...