Part 36: Woodfellah

Yeah. Let's stop by the palace and find out what's going on.





Video: Some cutscenes

Music: The Edging Away


How could you allow such an invasion? You should have noticed sooner!

But my queen, we never dreamed they would strike right at the Veinroots! They caught us unaware.

They've brought in some sort of giant machina. If we don't act soon...

Companies Two and Three, hurry and join Company One. Company Four, you protect the Celestial Tree. I shall follow shortly. We will not suffer this invasion a moment longer!


The soldiers all run off, and Corellia turns her attention to Sagi.


You're still here? As you can see, I don't have time to humor you.

They mentioned machina...Don't tell me it's the Empire!

That's none of your concern. Now kindly stand down – my men await me.

But we can do something about the machina! Please, Your Grace, let us help.


We...can? Last time I checked, every time we tried to do something about the machina we barely survived and accomplished nothing. Oh well, maybe this time will be different?...


The answer is no. Anuenue can solve its own problems. We have no intention of accepting another nation's aid.

I'm not asking for an alliance. This has nothing to do with the quaestor's business. -I- want to help!

…

...Very well. If it means that much to you. The Empire has seized what we call the Celestial Tree's Veinroots, which lie beneath our soil. All life in Anuenue stems from the Celestial Tree. Her roots span the entire continent, but the Veinroots are where they grow thickest. The Empire must be planning to promachinate those Veinroots. Can you stop them?





Sagi reacted favorably to both options, so I picked the reminder option so Guillo doesn't have to do it.


Oh yeah! Umm, we have one more favor to ask, Your Grace.

What would that be?

Could you spare us some of the Celestial Tree's fell-branches?

I will consider it. But that discussion can come later. Right now we haven't a moment to lose.

I understand. We'll be on our way.


Team Sagi leaves the Palace, but the camera remains focused on Corellia.


My queen, is this wise? This year's fell-branches are more potent than usual. Besides, we already had another use in mind, did we not?

I never said I would give them any branches.

Yes...Yes, of course. Such treasures aren't meant for the likes of them.

…


Why do we care about helping these people, again?







Music: Rolling Rivers, Rolling Clouds


Only a machina arma would scar the roots like this. They must have one further in.

No surprise there. But we're not losing again, guys. We have to stop them, no matter what.


I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I'm afraid I can't say that I share it. We're just not strong enough to take one of those things on. Maybe if Guillo goes into psycho mode, but it doesn't seem to do that any more.





I'd forgotten Cliffsunder even exists. I don't think I've used it (or had any reason to use it, frankly) since the very starting areas of the game.

Now then, let's follow the burn marks.







Sagi complained when I told him to jump, so I picked this option, but...


We can't just give up. What if they've already started promachination?


...he complained about this choice, too. Figures.





The glowing blue path is, of course, our destination. Unfortunately, there just isn't any way to get there at the moment. Let's turn back.





Lolo! What are you doing here?

I came to see the Celestial Tree. I felt bad asking you to do all the work.

Well, your timing is great! We have a favor to ask.

Huh Oh, OK. Sure!


fade out/in


I get it. So I just need to make something that'll help you cross where the roots are broken. Well, that's easy enough. And for materials, we can make do with some dagroots.

Dagroots?

Yeah, the little root pieces you can find at the ends of the Celestial Tree's roots. They're not super potent, but they should be strong enough for me to throw something simple together.

OK, we'll go look for a dagroot.

Hey, wait a sec! I need more than one or it won't work. Dagroots come in five different types, each with a different element. I need one of each kind or I can't use them. Plus they're hard to reach because of how the roots tangle together and block the way.

This sounds hard...Just how are we supposed to get into the tight spots? Shove the dingbat through?

Oh, you can use this little fellah. He won't have any trouble getting into the narrower places.

So if we run into a tight spot, we just use this toy? All right, then. We'll go get all five dagroots. Be right back!











Right, so this dungeon is deceptively long. There are four paths forward from this central area. One leads to the burned away root, the other three lead to places where I can find dagroots.







Naturally, each dagroot area is blocked off, so we have to use Woodfellah to get to them. By using Woodfellah, we take control of it (the idea is Sage can control it with his Wings of the Heart. Or something. I don't really know how it works but we'll breeze past that)





So we move it over to a dagroot, examine it, and then start dragging it back.

Of course, it's not that easy. This place is swarming with monsters, and if Woodfellah touches one it will panic and run back to the start (sans dagroot).







I don't know how the monsters fit through that little hole. Actually, I don't know how the dagroot does, either.





Oh, and Woodfellah moves super slowly when it is dragging a dagroot, making the return trip even harder. Thankfully, defeated monsters stay defeated so each failed attempt makes it easier to succeed next time.





Phew! That's one down.





...Look, I'm not going to pretend that this dungeon is fun or objectively good in any way. But in all honesty I just can't bring myself to disdain it the way I do the rest of Anuenue because Woodfellah is just too damn cute and I want one.





By the way, the first time I played through this, I wasn't paying attention to my inventory layout and Pac-Man wound up eating two of my dagroots. Thankfully I remembered that and made sure he was blocked off this time.







This second screen is a bit different form the others. There are two dagroots here. This one can be collected normally.







The Dark Dagroot, however, is completely blockaded by bats. Unlike other monsters, the bats won't chase Woodfellah back to us, so we can't even kill them to get them out of the way. Instead, we'll have to find a way to get over there ourselves.





Hey, a torch!







All the better. Now we can just walk through and take the dagroot ourselves.

…...At this rate, we're no better than the Empire.

Well, there's no use crying over it now. Let's just hurry up and move on.

I guess you're right...sigh...I'm sorry.





Okay, only one more to go. Hopefully this one will involve less whining from Sagi.







All right!







The fell-branches are here, but we can't get to them right now. It's nice to know where they are, at least.





Just give me a second and I'll throw something together.





This is great! Now we can get to the Veinroots. Thanks, Lolo!

Can we really trust this thing? It looks like some kind of deathtrap.

You don't have to worry! Lolo-brand gadgets are famous for their durability!





So Lolo hands over this defense magnus, and we can finally reach the boss chamber!





But before we do that, there's a semi-secret area over here...





...uh. What is this? Some kind of spider lair? Those shapes...they look kinda vaguely familiar...


As far as I know, the game doesn't ever directly explain what this room is, but there's an NPC over at the port who claims to have seen this room and mentions that it must be how “she” keeps her everlasting youth.

Which is to say, Corellia may be some sort of benevolent-ish Eldritch horror who sheds her skin to remain young and beautiful forever. This would also explain why she looks almost exactly the same in between games despite a twenty year gap







There are also goodies here, so it's worth stopping by.





Well, this seems like a good place to stop. Join me next time as we reunite with an old foe and face a gimmick boss!


-


Decision Time!




I don't want to kill the boss!


> We shouldn't.

> Pansy.




Let's be helpful.

> We are helpers!

> Are you feeling okay?




Heed my call O Dark Master!


> I hereby pledge to uphold the will of evil!

> What? No...