Part 27: The Boonies

When we try to leave Pherkad after seeing the cutscene with Giacomo, we come across this lady.


That woman seems to be in quite a fix. I wonder what's happened.

What seems to be the matter?

Tree-Hugging Granny: The woods at Nunki Valley, south of the city, are crucial to out day-to-day lives. But lately the lightbugs which act as the forest's protectors have started coming out in droves.

Lightbugs?

Tree-Hugging Granny: The lightbugs protect the forest from a host of dangers. They serve a vital role. But with this many of them, people can't even walk through the woods. If you find yourself headed to the woods at some point, do you think you could clear the lightbugs away from the path?

All right. We'll see what we can do.

Tree-Hugging Granny Really? You'd do that for me? You're such a kind boy. If you use this holy leaf at the base of one of the sparkling trees in the forest, you can gather holy droplets and be enveloped in their power. For a limited time, that will make the lightbugs avoid you instead of attacking.


All right! It looks like we have what we need to make it through Nunki Valley. Let's go!





Music: The Autumn Night's Breeze Knows No Dearth


Nunki Valley is a peaceful place with relaxing music, and a simple gimmick. All in all it's one of my favorite field dungeons.





The enemies aren't even particularly dangerous, although these bats like to show up in groups of five which can get a little hairy if you screw around too much.







This is why you need the Holy Leaf. Trying to pass without the correct item results in Sagi the Pincushion.







With Holy Droplets, the bugs will slowly move away. Nothing to it, really. The Holy Droplets age into plain 'ol Pristine Water after a minute or so, but that's plenty of time to get where you're going.





There are also a few places with Pollywhales in love. It's one of the more adorable blockades I've seen. Guess we'll have to find a way around.





This is another MP charging magnus, superior to the ones that I have, so I swapped it in. I was kind of hoping the guy on the Flab Smasher waterfall workout regimen would be here. Oh well, we'll give it a couple decades.





This screen wasn't in BKEWLO. I just wanted to include it because it's pretty.





Oh, this must be that Lance person the coliseum letter told me about. He needs directions to Cebalrai, so...





What the fuck kind of directions are those? Uhh, I guess I'll operate based on the camera and say come closer.





And this time the options are “Walk farther back” and “walk down”. I chose down.





Come closer


And that's it! He's able to find Cebalrai form here, so it looks like we've completed our Rank 3 Coliseum quest! I'll have to go fight some monsters there later, but for now we've got work to do.





Also, this level 2 special attack for Milliarde is hidden away under a tree. I traded it for Arabesque for a change of pace.





All right, time to go to Cebalrai and see if we can talk some sense into Rodolfo.





Video: Hyuck

Music: Cornucopian Village


For those of you not watching the videos, Rodolfo has quite an accent. I personally think the VA does a pretty good job of making Rodolfo seem comical and ridiculous while still keeping from going too far over the top.


Pro-MACH-inate.

Right, of course. Promachinate. I'll tell you, Master Heughes, Sadal Suud hasn't seen progress since somebody thought up the two-fisted teat squeeze. Heh heh! If you Empire gents could get promachination goin' for us – why, we'd be much obliged.

I see people here still use their wings of the heart.

Well, we've got a lot of old-fashioned types here, that's all it is.

The heart-wings have to go. No one will miss them anyway, once the Empire issues winglets.

Winglets! Well, listen to that. I'll just have to see what I can do. But, uhh...the thing is, Master Heughes...Things would move all the faster if I had a just a little...you know...

Money?

Eh heh heh...You do have a way with words. Yes, money would do just fine.

...Vulture. Here's your money. Buy yourself a vocabulary while you're at it.


Heughes pulls out a device that makes a bag of money appear out of nowhere (or perhaps he released a quest magnus himself?).


Hehehehe...And in return, you can let us promachinate Sadal Suud and place it under Empire rule.





Says who?

I'm awful sorry – it must be one of the village boys. I'll make sure he gets punished later. (he turns to Sagi and starts hissing) Go on, kid! Get lost! I'm in the middle of important business here!

Please listen to me! I'm here with a message from Quaestor Verus of the Empire. You mustn't help these people with promachination!

Let's go, Rodolfo.

Oh, right away!...Blasted kid. Stop talking nonsense! Quaestor Verus my hide. Who put you up to this?

Sagi, right? Hmph. You can't change anything now. Tough luck. *random outburst of Crispin Freeman laughter.* Rodolfo! You coming or not!

Oh! W-Wait for me!


Heughes and Rodolfo leave the screen. Things aren't looking to good, are they? Unless we can come up with a bigger bribe, it looks like Rodolfo's in Baelheit's pocket.





Maybe we can at least catch him when Heughes isn't around to interrupt us at every turn.


Yeah. Let's pay his estate another visit. Maybe he's more relaxed at home. He might listen to us there.

What about all those soldiers? Don't tell me you forgot.

I know. This time let's just crash the gates. Desperate times, right?

Hee hee! It's about time I got to misbehave!







Cebalrai doesn't have much going on, but it's still a pleasant enough little town. I think Sadal Suud might be my favorite island so far. Well, besides maybe Hassaleh.









This is where the Mountain Apples are.

Someday I will get ALL of the Mountain Apples. But right now my space is a little limited, so I guess Pac-Man can take this one.





That sounds like a dare! Let's go, Sagi!











Y..Yeah, it's adorable. Gotta love all those Greythornes!...

...Damn, I feel sick. What is this feeling...? That kid was right, we don't belong here. Let's go as soon as we can, okay?





I didn't say explore, I said let's go.







I'm actually reaching the point where my reaction to defense magnus isn't total disdain. I might find a use for these soon enough. And hey, if nothing else it's more trade fodder.





Anyway, I'm pretty much done here, but I thought I'd just show off that the people here are fairly divided on how they feel about promachination. Many are uncomfortable around all the automated machinery, but also are endeared to the idea of not having to work so hard to do the simplest things.





I returned to Pherkad and thought that on my way to Rodolfo's I should stop by the church and class up. I raised from class 7 to class 10. Now I get even more MP from playing cards and can discard five cards at a time. Things are looking good!





Huh? Aren't you...Sagi? I guess that business about the quaestor taking you in was true. What are you doing here?

We're here to see Rodolfo. Let us through.

'Fraid I can't do that. Master Heughes gave us orders not to let anyone through. So scram!

This is urgent! Like it or not, we're going in!





And so our team just...runs past. Interesting tactic.



trouble?

Can't argue with that. Let's put them out of commission!







These guys aren't too tough, but slumber shot can be infuriating. Getting hit with sleep isn't really any more or less danger in this game as it is in others (although losing a couple turns can honestly be the difference between lwinning and losing sometimes), but it's also got the same effect as knockdown/knockout in that it completely cancels whatever attack the character had lined up. So you can get a great attack string or even a relay combo set up, only for them to cancel it before you get to do it by sleeping the attacker. It's quite obnoxious.





Despite that, I got my best relay combo yet. 4096 TP reward, oh yes.

(also the camera just shifted a few frames before this picture, which I assume is why Guillo and Milly are transparent).





Reinforcements. We've made too much noise. Shall we fight, Sagi?

What do you think? We can't turn back till we've met with Rodolfo!

Hey! Are you planning on fighting every last man in the building? Misbehaving has its limits! Come on, we should hide.


Some more soldiers rush down while our heroes hide in a corner.


The sentries...What happened here? Intruders? But who could possibly take out a Dark Serviceman?! Carry them up to their rooms. I'll go tell Master Giacomo.


They leave, and we're free to explore. Unlike in BKEWLO, there are storage rooms to the left and right of this foyer screen.





Hey, it's another one of those full party resurrection items. I might use this here.





That's about it for this update. See you next time!












Oh yeah, I remembered to return the mirror to Ladekahn. He offers no reward, but having that space freed up is thanks enough.



-


Decision Time!


Sometimes I feel bad for Giacomo.


> Me too.

> Nah, beating him up is fun.


Do you like Sadal Suud?


> It's nice.

> It's boring.


I don't know if we can trust Rodolfo...


> Well, obviously.

> He seems legit.