Part 72: The Healthcare Debate

Entry 69: The Healthcare Debate



Braev's turtling in his fortress and the world's not ending just yet...



Yeah, we've got time to visit Edea's hospitalized madre.




The Central Healing Tower feels somewhere between sterile and tranquil.



Most of the tower is blocked off to us, but we can speak with some nurses.

Hopefully there aren't any patients in the emergency room.



Month after month it came, and always anonymously. It went on for years. Whoever it was, she must have been very dear to them...

I wouldn't still be alive if I didn't get to come live here.

Lucky the kid's now healthy enough to survive. Maybe someday we'll meet her mysterious benefactor. Probably not today.

Also, apparently Eternian healthcare is not government-provided, thus the 'Immortality' thing only applies to those who can afford it. Either that or this girl needed extra care beyond the standard amount provided by government services. You can bet your bottom the game's not going to clarify.



Further up the tower, Edea's mom is in one of the swank private rooms, as befits the wife of Eternia's de facto leader.



You know, hopefully Braev isn't expecting the party to visit Edea's mother. It'd be a smart, if depressing way to trap the party.



Never mind that; are you alright!?

Of course I am. You mustn't trust everything you hear. And I've been feeling quite a bit better since I came here.

Yes, but--

Well, aren't you going to introduce me?

Oh, um...about that. You see...I...uh...

I am Edea's mother, Mahzer Lee. Thank you for looking after my daughter.

This is a 2/10 on the pun scale.



Oh sh--

...!

Mother, how could you possibly know that!?

I am the grand marshal's wife, after all. I hear much to which others are not privy.

And I am particularly well informed about the wind vestal's traveling companions. Sir Alternis provides me with the latest news.

Alternis! I wish he'd mind his own business!



Oh, relax. I won't report you. After all, it's not that often that I get to see my darling daughter.

Mother...

My, you look almost grown up now, Edea. And to think you were such a spoiled little thing when you left.

Mother, you're embarrassing me!



Ah, what a wonderful friend you've made.

To be in your daughter's company...the pleasure is all mine.

You stay out of this, Ringabel.

How wonderful to see you so full of vim and vigor!

I'm...I'm sorry if I worried you, Mother.

If that is truly so, then there is one thing you could tell me. Why did you defy your father so? You must have a good reason, I'm sure.

...The world...it is being consumed in darkness.

Many have already suffered greatly as the shadow envelops the world. Tiz here counts among them.

And the suffering and sorrow will only multiply if we fail to stop it. Agnès has been risking life and limb in her quest to rid the world of this darkness.

Yet my former comrades in the Knights of the Eternian Sky sought to capture and even kill her.



They've done nothing but cause pain and suffering, and taken many upon many lives.

I used to believe Anticrystalism was the true way, but...

I know now that is not so. After traveling the world, there is so much I've seen for the first time.

I've taken in all I've seen and all I've learned. And there, deep in my heart, I've come to know what is black and what is white.

That is why I am here now with my dear comrades and friends.



No, you don't understand. We haven't come seeking battle. We've come to awaken the Earth Crystal.

Awaken it?



There's no need for that.

No need? Mother, what do you mean?

There's no need to worry about me.

Edea starts to speak, but a nurse enters the room, interrupting her.



Forgive me, but this is where we must say goodbye. Please, do look after my daughter.

Mother...

Mahzer leaves with the nurse and the party exits the tower. As they walk away, Agnès turns back to look at the building.



I wonder to where they all lead.

...To the Earth Crystal.

What's this!?

Eternia has advanced its medical arts by extracting the crystal's energy.

My mother once suffered from a debilitating disease.

That she could speak with such vigor today is due to the Earth Crystal.

But how could such a thing be possible? Even vestals are incapable of extracting power directly from the crystals.

It seems Eternian scholars long studied how to extract such power, and finally succeeded, but I know no more than that...

Wait. What would become of the Central Medical Tower if we were to awaken the Earth Crystal?

What of your mother, Edea, and the many others receiving treatment there?

If the power provided by that cable were to suddenly cease, the people that depend on it to survive...they might all...

......

As a vestal, I can only say that this white magic cable is a desecration upon the Earth Crystal.



...There are people whose lives depend on it?

But...but... Only the Eternians benefit.

I mean, not awakening the Earth Crystal is like... It's like abandoning the rest of the world to suffer darkness.

It's not an easy choice, but we have to try. We can't let the whole world be covered in darkness!

Airy continues to say things that are technically correct, but stated in the most callous way possible.



In another circumstance, this might make for an interesting moral dilemma, but here, there is no choice. It's either the entire world (including Eternia) dies or Eternia suffers.

And I shall not stand for it. That's why I'm here with you. And that's why you must awaken the Earth Crystal, Agnès.

Agnès!

...Alright, then.

I'm glad you understand. Now, to reach Everlast Tower, we must make our way through Eternian Central Command.

There are three passages leading there from here in the city. We must pass through one of them.

But be warned. My father has no doubt deployed an ironclad defense.



......

Er, right. We're listening. Just...go on.

Three paths connect Central Command to Eternia proper, each of them different.

The central passage is the shortest. BUT, the enemies we'll find there are all nightmares.

The western passage is longer and the enemies tough, but not as tough as on the center path.

None of the guards along the east path are very strong, but the distance is extremely long.

There are no easy options here, but the choice is ours. What do we do?

This would be a great place to open the LP to a vote, except there's really only one answer: D - All of the Above.



Mahzer has nothing else to say to us. At least she didn't turn us in? And at least Braev didn't have the foresight to stake the Central Healing Tower out once he learned his daughter was heading to the place where her mother was hospitalized.

In retrospect, Einheria was one of Eternia's smarter tacticians. She managed to successfully capture the vestal by assessing and taking advantage of the party's past heroic behavior. Luckily for the party she underestimated their power level.



It's not a place to go mucking about in if you've no business there.

This man on the west side of town warns us off continuing on. Don't worry, sir, we have business.



Our crossroads comes up once we're north of the city.



Our choices are west, east, or north first.



You can see the three paths on the map.



Here's a close-up. We're the big glowy yellow dot.

-The light yellow path is the easy mode long route. You might notice there's an interesting side road we can visit along the way.

-The medium blue path is the medium mode route with a mini-mini boss at the end. There's a side road there, too, but it's less interesting at the moment.

-The dark red path is the short hard mode route with a decently tough boss in the middle.



Let's take the west (blue) path first.



As promised, Eternia's military has some powerful foes along the way.



Ringabel



The battle backgrounds in this game are almost always nice to look at.



Is... it a violent animatronic bear? Or just a trained bear? Or a trained soldier in a bear suit? It's not like it fires cannons or anything -- it just swipes a big bear claw at you.




The western route's side road leads to a castle surrounded by forest. Curious...



Hell, you know what this game really needs? Vampires.

The craze is dying off nowadays, but when Bravely Default came out, vampires were all the rage.



By the way, not sure why everyone's speaking style changed this chapter. Their English has gone from situationally casual to formal and old-fashioned.

What is this place?

Castle Frostcoffin... It's been abandoned for two thousand years. The people of this land call it Vampire Castle and fear to tread anywhere near it.

Vampire Castle? Sounds like an adventure! What're we waiting for?

Oof! The door won't budge. It seems the way is barred.

They say this door suddenly appeared one day amid a fierce blizzard. But it has been shut tight ever since.

Let's move on. Our quest lies with the Earth Crystal.




There's nothing to do here. Edea leads the way out.



Back to the main path and further on, a giant dragon is blocking the road. This is the western route's mini-mini boss.



Zombie dragon spews poison but is otherwise not very tough. Just don't use drain attacks, as they'll harm the character instead of healing.



As a member of the undead, it is weak to light and fire damage. It also has very little in the way of HP!



The dragon has one trick: the first time it reaches 0 HP, it will resurrect itself at full health.



It's easy enough to defeat normally, but there's an even easier method, an old trick used in some Final Fantasy games.



If drain attacks heal the enemy, guess what healing items do to them?



All it takes is throwing a couple of phoenix downs, one per undead life, and that's a third of Eternia's defenses obliterated.



Guessing Eternia is not approved by Luxendarc's animal rights groups.



With the western path done, the entrance to Central Command is right in front of us. But that's no fun.

There's a big fellow south of us. Let's go visit them next.



After backtracking to the start, we're now going up the central, hard mode path. Remember those cannons from when we were on Grandship?



The boss for the central route is this guy, accompanied by artillery fire.



The boss hits really hard, has decent HP, and raises its evasion to boot.



In addition, every few turns the boss will take a break and let the surrounding cannons have a go. They'll always hit for 1500, ignoring Default.



The boss will occasionally lower its defenses, giving the party an opening to strike. Lightning will give your damage an extra kick.



Keep HP topped off and eventually the second division of Eternian's defenses will fall.



It's an improved version of the machines Qada used to guard his toxin.



Not sure your turtling strategy is working well so far, Braev.


Next: More death!

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Event Viewer
Main Scenario:
Mother and Daughter Reunited
A Daughter's Decision

Sub-Scenario:
Vampire Castle

Party Chat:
Three Passages to Central Command