Part 89: In Honor of FF5's Influence, Tiz Should Rightfully Be Called 'Butts'

Entry 81: In Honor of FF5's Influence, Tiz Should Rightfully Be Called 'Butts'

Barras Lehr, Holly Whyte, and Ominas Crowe have been taken down by the party, again.



Agnès stole this rod from Ominas. As you might guess from the description, these can be bought from Eternia City's armory as well! It's always nice when datalog entries are relevant to gameplay.

Also, as Dartonus pointed out, there is another interesting item that Ominas dropped: Ise-no-Kami, the blade that Swordmaster Kamiizumi gave to his prize student Edea for her first mission. But why would Ominas have it? Just what happened here before we arrived, and how much fire was involved?



Going after more Eternians might help explain things, though the delay'll irritate Airy. Given the opinion some of you have of Airy, I guess that's just an added bonus.



Lontano Villa is occupied by the leader of the Eternian Sky Knights, Argent Heinkel. From what we've read in various places, he seems like he's normally a fairly laid-back and trustworthy fellow.

Maybe this time we can talk with him before he gets any crazy ideas about, say, kidnapping the king and killing a bunch of Caldislan soldiers.



Heinkel's near the top of the fort and, as you can see, we're already off to a great start.

I know not who your companions are, Edea, but you had better change your tune, or else! For better or worse, you are the grand marshal's daughter, and still hold at least some sway in the duchy!

Agnès isn't recognized as the wind vestal, but Edea's still known as a traitor. Interesting.

Also, Heinkel's dialogue here is the same whether you've killed Barras, Holly, and Ominas or not.



Anyway, Heinkel may have treated Alternis as a friend, but he gives Edea with the same parental disdain as everyone else.

Agnès, meanwhile, has noticed the version difference herself, and whispers to Tiz.

He doesn't seem to realize I am the wind vestal.

The king has not been captured, either. Why?

Edea, you know full well what will happen if you revolt against the duchy! Consider this carefully! Do you really intend to take up with these ruffians who accompany you?

They are no ruffians! They are my friends!

I could not follow the path the Knights of the Eternian Sky had taken...

So I set out to see the world with my own eyes, and now I have settled things with my father...

But perhaps that was all a dream...?

Your words make no sense!





Take a moment to recall the background on Heinkel and Edea, here.



Braev entrusted Heinkel with overseeing his only child's first foray out of Eternia. Edea joined the Sky Knights pretty much a naive kid and was treated as such. Heinkel's command was weak, with Holly, Barras, and Ominas each being allowed to wreak their own brand of havoc. At some point, Edea disagreed with Ominas and took off with some hooligans, or at least that's the rumor. Does Heinkel know the details of what happened, or was he turning a blind eye to Edea's trouble with Ominas, on top of everything else?



That is why he assigned you to the Eternian Sky Knights! But you throw it back in his face! For shame!

In any case, Heinkel was presumably told to keep a close eye on Edea and failed to do so. Eventually, Edea returned to Heinkel. His first response was to try and kill her, despite her attempts to talk.

If he succeeded, I'm sure that would go over swimmingly with Braev.



Anyway, Heinkel, prepare to die and all that.



Heinkel is described as leader-like by others. He may have the outward confidence of a leader, but his plans and wisdom seem to continually fall short here in Caldisla. When you aren't willing to oversee underlings who are prone to impulsive violence, and your best plan then killing yourself and destroying your country's brand new precious airship, leaving no one in charge of the region and failing to bring the wind vestal in alive, you may not be the best person to take charge.



Heinkel's so laser-focused on doing his mission at whatever cost...



...He doesn't notice problems and fix them before they can sabotage said mission.

Can't complete missions when you're dead, buddy.

...



If only we could have spent more time talking, and hearing each other out.

He reminds me of someone.

Who?

Someone with a strong sense of justice and quick to anger...

Ah...

...and who won't budge once a decision has been made.

Oh...

So, who is it?

Someone with whom you can't have a calm discussion about anything.

Are you going to tell us who it is or not!?

If things had gone differently, Edea might have ended up like Heinkel, but maybe not. She was open-minded enough to join the wind vestal after growing up surrounded by Anticrystalists. That's no small thing.



Caldisla's now free of Eternian threat.



Before moving on, let's check in on the king and the still-alive Owen.



You've been doing our work for us, Tiz. I'm starting to lose count of the times you've saved us.

Ahh, Tiz! I hear tell you vanquished that wicked mage! You have my undying gratitude, Tiz. You and your friends both.

Since the team was so preemptive in stopping the Sky Knights, Heinkel never got a chance to do anything in Caldisla directly. He was never even known as a threat.



With danger out of the way, Tiz tries jogging the locals' memories one last time.

Hmm? Egil? Let me think... No, I cannot say that I have heard of him.

You gave him the badge of a young soldier...

Ah, the young soldier's badge. That takes me back. How do you know of this badge, Tiz?

Well... You see...

It's simple, just tell him:

We found out after you were killed in battle by the guy we just killed. Not by his corpse or anything. He was alive back then and stormed the capital and kidnapped the king, but this time he didn't and the king's not traumatized and the Eschalot's still docked and you're still alive so now maybe your Dad won't get terribly depressed and be willing to take in an adoptive son who was an orphan boy we rescued from slavery during a war we almost singlehandedly won earlier but haven't participated in yet, in fact we should probably go check in on things because if Egil isn't here the war might still be going on in Eisenberg and that'd mean Qada's still alive so we should make sure to stop the chemical weapons that were thrown into lava but not yet this time--

Then again, that might just confuse him. Let's stay quiet instead.



When he was a young man, he was determined to become a soldier of this realm.

It is embarrassing to think of now...

Since then, Owen is the only one to whom I have bequeathed the badge.

I see...

We've covered Caldisla as well as we could. If we want answers, we're going to have to leave.



Let's take Airy's advice and start with good ol' Harena and the Wind Crystal.

On the way there, Ringabel talks with Zatz and Datz while the rest of the party checks over Grandship.



What's going on?

Well, I was just talking to Datz and Zatz about the Eschalot. They had an idea...

An idea? About the Eschalot?

That's right! We're using her as sea vessel now, but as you know, the Eschalot was originally an airship.

Right. The skystone that allowed her to fly was shattered.

Right. I've heard that story before.

But she's still an airship. Sure, she can sail the open sea, but not as well as a real sea vessel.

Lucky for us, Grandship has plenty of seaworthy vessels stowed away. You can take your pick.

If you want, we can get one of them ready for you to use. That's what we were talking about.

Another ship? But I don't have any problem with the Eschalot just the way she is.

And she's fast enough for our needs.

I agree. But above all, we have become quite attached to the Eschalot.

Yes, it's where I fought my very first battle, after all.

And even though I don't recall ever sailing it, I took to the helm with almost frightening ease.

We had a hard time at first when it attacked us, though.

True, but that led to me meeting Tiz and the others.

The Eschalot has been like another member of our party ever since.

I suppose that settles it.

You folks have become attached to the old girl. And I don't think anything I could say would change your mind.

You could say that again.

But we're counting on you to keep the Eschalot shipshape and seaworthy.

Course we will. Just leave it to us.



The party would have a lot more trouble if they didn't have Zatz and Datz watching their back.



Even if they are just as confused as we are.



Somewhere between the Pillar of Light and now, Zatz got ahold of the ultimate black, white, and time spells. There's pretty sweet stuff here for magic-users.



Also, the tavern also picked up a new fuzzy visitor.



Five chapters and an extended prologue in, we've gotten the ability to change character names.



But considering we've gone this far with the defaults, we're not going to switch now.



Oh, hey, look out on deck! We can see Grandship below Grandship! Let's buzz them, that might wake up the Sleeping Council.

(Also, yes, we are flying the wrong way to get to Harena. No wonder it's taking so long.)



The party finally makes it over to the Flor-Cheim Inner Sea, once again one of the only spots of clear water in the world.



As in Caldisla, the monsters here are far more powerful than they were before, as though they underwent a slightly different, more volatile evolutionary path.



Or maybe they were here before, too, but the party managed to avoid them? It's just another mystery to throw on the pile.



In any case, these monsters are substantially harder and will kill you if you get too careless.



Vampires are excellent for taking 'em down, due to their wide range of elemental multi-target genome skills.



Once on land, the party fights their way across the desert to Ancheim.



...Here's a question: if the wind's stopped, why are the clouds overhead still moving?



What's the point of adding crystals that control the elements if you aren't consistent about their effects on the environment?



Video games are a playground where we can experience worlds different from our own. It can be frustrating to see such potentially interesting concepts fall flat.



Some power in the world animates corpses. What is it? No idea. The cait sith are apparently sentient and have a whole civilization, but all we do is kill them.

Of course, you could argue that having interesting things unexplained in the background is the point and a reflection of reality, where each of us only ever experiences a tiny slice of what's going on in the world.



Anyway, in Ancheim, things have reverted to how they were when the party first arrived in Chapter 1. Not surprising, but disappointing.



King/Time Mage Khamer is on the throne, and Profiteur is still being the mascot of unregulated capitalism.



We might need the crystals to live, but we don't have to like it.

Most of the townspeople adore the wind vestal, but there are some exceptions who support Khamer's Anticrystalist view.



All the areas in Harena, such as Harena Ruins (the thieves den) are open to us, but let's check the Wind Crystal first.



Airy has a ton of dialogue depending on area and state of the main quest, so I'm only showing off some of them. Trust me, most are some variation on 'stop goofing off, crystals crystals crystals'.



She also always cheers up once you get to a temple like you're supposed to.



Most areas have new enemies, and since we're going through so quickly, we're meeting a lot of them one right after another.



This also means we're filling out the bestiary at a good pace. This is the last entry in the humanoid enemy section (doesn't count bosses)!



Shadowy ones? Come to think, we still don't know who or what is calcifying the crystals, or how exactly the ___ of Doom bosses fit into this.



Is this a natural version of the mini-dragons used by Eternia, or one that's been affected by darkness and the 'shadowy ones'?



None of this bodes well for the state of the wind crystal.



The crystal has reverted to its pre-awakened state. Do you know the cause of this, Airy?

The crystals have never been awakened before, so I'm new at this, too...

But you are a cryst-fairy, right?

Yes, but that doesn't mean I know everything...

Should we perform the Rite of Awakening?

I think so...

*ROOOAAAAR*



Ah!? That's...Orthros, the Bringer of Doom!

So the creature is back as well!

We'll just have to defeat them again!



This wasn't mentioned in the LP proper before, but a commenter at the time pointed out that Orthros is actually the brother of Cerberus, with two heads instead of three. It is also yet another on the long list of creatures killed by Heracles/Hercules.



Orthros is the same as before but with higher stats. With elemental protection, it's such a fast and easy fight it's not worth mentioning.



Nevertheless, the party's winded after the battle.

Phew, that was rough... I don't remember that being as hard last time.

I thought the same...

Hurry up and awaken the crystal before we are beset by more beasts!

Of course.


Next: The second awakening, and the aiding of Ancheim.

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Event Viewer
Main Scenario:
Creatures of Doom
Escalating Doom

Sub-Scenario:
Heinkel's Speech
Heinkel's End
Of the Young Soldier's Badge

Party Chat:
Reminds Me of Someone
Naval Attachment