The Let's Play Archive

Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight

by Ragnar Homsar, Dr. Fetus

Part 15: Snake Joke

Update 10: Snake Joke



Time to wake everyo--Ranger?
Good morning.
How long have you been up?
I took a one hour nap. Then I walked around town.
One... I'm not even going to question that by this point. Can you go to Colette and Ursa's room and wake them up while I try to drag Milly out of bed?

I grinded for a bit to get some Gel Cores to get unlocks I was missing. If you want an idea of how painful that was, not only did nearly everyone gain a level, but:

* Out of roughly 30 battles or so, I had TWO CUBE GEL ENCOUNTERS, and only ONE gave a Gel Core drop.
* I ran out of hard drive space on my SSD trying to record it and didn't notice until I'd distributed everyone's skill points.

So I lost the footage of the level ups. They were all uninteresting anyway.




The results of the latest ad campaign.



I also upgraded the East Ward to the point where the Clinic Medics moved in. I have my reasons for this.



And before we go, I set up some new ad campaigns.




If you'll remember last time, we absolutely trounced the Boar Captain that's supposed to be the backbone of a puzzle in the lower left section over there. We'll be going through the area you're intended to go through before proceeding.



Why bother with a sword if you already got tusks like that?

Oh yeah, I didn't post the Wereboar profile last update since we didn't really fight them.


Wereboar
HP: 204, STR: 15, VIT: 12
Skills:
Drops:
Damage resistances:
Ailment and bind resistances:

A boar that wanders Ginnungagap. It prefers to stampede first and ask questions later.

Pretty unremarkable enemies. They don't hit that hard and go down pretty easily. Be wary of them when they're summoned by a Boar Captain, though, since Boar Captains use them for Command Boars.



The Wereboar didn't even get a chance to hit me.



Even given how old these ruins are, I still don't see the point to this empty hall.
Maybe it was a mess hall at some point? This place might've been a monastery or something.

There really is nothing interesting about this area, it's just a bunch of dead ends you have to go through to set up the puzzle.



Seven heads... It must have seven stomachs, too.

Ah, something interesting.


Dread Hydra
HP: 381, STR: 17, VIT: 15
Skills:
Drops:
Damage resistances:
Ailment and bind resistances:

The central head directs all the others, with their sharp, fearsome fangs.

Dread Hydras got demoted from being lategame FOEs in EO2 to a normal Ginnungagap B1F encounter here. Horror Banquet can pretty easily kill one or even two people if you get unlucky with the random-target RNG, but the Dread Hydra's weakness to head binds will make them completely worthless. These things shouldn't give you too much trouble.



You can see how much damage Horror Banquet normally does here. Ursa would be pretty seriously hurt if the Dread Hydra wasn't blinded.


Now, where would its stomachs be...
Ranger, p-please stop cutting that thing open...
I am taking a hydra head for reagent purposes, and we are moving on, Ranger.




If the Boar Captain were still alive, we'd be able to bolt for the door before it could catch us once the bridge is lowered.


Rr rrr rerr...

If Hit-Taker was one level higher, Ursa would've died from tanking that last hit. That's something you have to be very careful with when using a Beast: they're effective tanks, and have lots of HP, but they can still only take so much damage.



Dread Hydras pretty much only ever show up in battles alone, though, so while Horror Banquet can hurt pretty badly, they generally don't have any follow-up to capitalize on the damage.


I don't feel like killing this boar. Can we just go around it?
Wh...why?
If we kill all the boar brothers, they'll be really upset.

I could just kill every Boar Captain we come across, but having to go back to town for every single one would get really annoying, really fast.



So here's the puzzle for this boar. You remember how we could get around the Raptors by just circling around piles of rubble?






Same principle here. If a Boar Captain doesn't have a path to chase you with, due to drawbridges being raised, it'll de-aggro and just walk to a certain spot.



Can never have too many of these.


Man, the boar family must be pretty big.

It's kind of hard to see here, but there's anther 3x3 tile area with a hollow center to the south of where we're standing. The goal here is to lure the boar we're looking at right now to that area, then lure the other one near the door to where we are right now. Seems simple enough, right?


I've been wondering for a while now... How do these boars get out of here when we do this? They can't raise the drawbridge from there.
That's what their brothers are for! Everyone, even monsters, will do anything for their siblings.
I wouldn't know, I don't have any.

One down.



And we can proceed now. This is why I'm opting to do the puzzle instead of killing every Boar Captain--my strategy of using everyone's Force to guarantee they die would mean I'd have to go back to town for every single boar.



Ginnungagap B1F has no shortcuts aside from the one at the very start, but the bridges are pretty much half parts of puzzles, half shortcuts. Given that we now have easy access to here, I head back to town.



Didn't unlock anything at Sitoth. Just bought a bunch of Medica IIs since Ursa's been tanking a lot.


Man, this place is huge. Is the maze in that big tree this huge too?
Nnrr.

We're nearly done with Ginnungagap B1F--just one more puzzle to go through before the end. Ginnungagap floors tend to be much, much longer than your standard Yggdrasil Labyrinth floor.



I'm skipping pretty much every random encounter because they're all really, really boring. They're either a single Dread Hydra, or some combination of Wereboars and Haggises.

Nadia got a level up from one of said unremarkable battles. Another level into Paralysis Arrow, which increases the damage a slight amount.




Encounters like this are kind of a pain, given that you want to kill the Haggises really quickly, but they're positioned in the back row.


Do you clone yourself when you do that?
Nope. It's all about moving really, really fast!




Therica As purge all binds from one party member. There's a food at FOEbucks that increases the range to line-target, as well.



I'd like to take this time to comment on how FOE vision works on the map. Notice how we can see a Boar Captain on the map, despite the fact that we haven't entered the room it's in yet. This is because any given map tile is considered "undiscovered" until the player walks within a certain distance of it, with the player's vision field being a 4-tile radius circle around them. Once a tile is within that vision range, it is considered "discovered," and outside of a few specific FOEs later on, will always show where an FOE is and what direction they are facing.

This system was introduced in EO4, although actually seeing what tiles would display FOEs and what wouldn't was introduced in EOU.


The boar family is pretty big. They must have cousins working here as well.
Why the hell are you so hung up on this boar family idea?
Or maybe they have boar grandparents working here, too...
Ugh.

So we have a couple Boar Captains to deal with in this room. The idea is to lure the boar in this area over to the area in front of us...


Great. Nice navigation, Miss Survivalist.
Oh, shut up.

But what actually happened was I fucked up and got sandwiched between two Boar Captains.




Good thing Boar Captains are easy fights. Still came pretty close to disaster here; if that other Boar Captain had joined in on the fight, I would've been forced to try to run, since everyone's Force was expended by that point.


I don't know why you thought that'd work.
Maybe the drawbridge is strong enough that it'd catapult the boar into the wall.
What I'd give for a day in your world, Ranger.

Unfortunately, taking that long with the fight poses an issue. The Boar Captain is now one tile behind me, which means I can't close the drawbridge on it.





What follows for a solid two minutes of raw footage is me being an idiot and not understanding how to get out of this situation to proceed.



I finally realize that I just had to let the boar return to its original position before luring it over here, which means we can finally proceed.



So. This boar.



You might think it's as easy as luring it down to this area and bolting for the treasure chest, followed by the door.



Until you remember that drawbridges can only be raised from one side. I probably could've just raised the drawbridge from inside the loop and then made for the door, but the thought didn't occur to me while recording.


Alright, the door! Everyone, over he--


Treasure first.
Are you SERIOUS?! Now that boar's blocking our only way out, and I dunno about the rest of you, but I'm exhausted!
Is this not what we carry Ariadne Threads for?

Somas restore the entire party's HP for a bit more than a Medica. Very, very useful items, especially if you don't have a Medic, support-oriented War Magus, or Sovereign on hand.



Even with Floor Jump making Ariadne Threads not as ueful in some situations, you still always want to have one on you just in case something like this happens.




Dragonscale Bow is unlocked by selling 1 Bony Scale. It gives +2 ATK compared to the Kagenui, at the cost of lacking the TP and VIT bonuses. No thanks.




Ad campaign results. I didn't start a new one after this because most of the food we have is out of ingredients.




Anyway, beyond the door...



Another door, as well as a drawbridge shortcut. When we approach the door, this happens:


SYSTEM: Check your current status. If you think you are prepared to take on a powerful enemy, then enter with weapons drawn!

Well, I just rested up at the inn. Charge!





W-who wants to go back to town and see if anyone else wants to kill this thing?
Rr! Rrrr!
S-same. Retreat!
Four arms... No legs... How does it move?
Ranger, now is not the time to be lost in your head, can you please retreat?!


Oh, that's how.

You might be wondering, shouldn't there be a boss video link here? Well, uh, funny story about that. See, I didn't actually go into the Basilisk fight here expecting to win, so I didn't have audio recording set up. And, not to spoil anything, but after I won, I overwrote the save file I made right before the fight. Whoops. Oh well, a video would be kind of extraneous for this fight, for reasons you'll see shortly.





Basilisk
HP: 4320, STR: 19, VIT: 18
Normal attack type: Cut
Skills:
Drops:
Damage resistances:
Ailment and bind resistances:

A snake-like monster guarding Ginnungagap with its awesome power of petrification.

Basilisk is a really annoying boss. It has less HP than Chimaera did, even after the pits, yeah, but Basilisk has an extra annoying thing it'll show off in a few turns that makes it a shit-ton more annoying to deal with.

Dark Moon is very annoying, as arm binds shut down pretty much every front-row damage dealer class.

Impairing Claws is pretty much a roulette: it'll either leave a good portion of your party injured but alive, or leave one or two characters dead.

Pound is very dangerous. It already hits quite hard, and is all-target, but the killer part is the high-chance paralysis. I've had quite a few Basilisk attempts in other runs ended when it was so close to dying through Pound paralyzing a majority (or, in a few cases, ALL) of my party.

If you're using a Beast, you may want to keep them in the back row so that Doom Breath probably won't hit it--in my experience, Basilisk targets the back row with Doom Breath very rarely.

Basilisk's pattern roughly goes as follows:
100% HP to 80%: Attack or Dark Moon.
80% to 50%: Attack, Dark Moon, or Impairing Claws. Prioritizes Impairing Claw after destroying the first Eyes.
50% to 40%: Opens the phase with Doom Breath. Then, Attack and Impairing Claws. Will re-use Doom Breath every 5 to 7 turns or so.
40% to 20%: Attack, Dark Moon, Impairing Claws, Pound, Doom Breath. Doom Breath is used rarely. Begins prioritizing Impairing Claw and Pound over Attack and Dark Moon.
20% to death: Starts using everything pretty equally.



I opt to believe in the RNG being on my side, so I don't enable War Edge Power on Colette yet.



I...don't entirely know why I casted Self-Defense, in retrospect. It's a very minor defense buff at its current level.



Ranger prepares to end games.



Basilisk nulls paralysis and sleep, so Nadia's only disable option is blinding it.



And Milly will open, as usual, with Warrior Song.


Those tiny eyes aren't doing much for you now, huh!?

Sometimes, the RNG blesses you with the holiest of gifts.


Kill that thing before it can see us!


Hrr hrr!


What reason does a monster have for skipping legs?



With Colette outputting this much damage, and not having used War Edge Power yet, along with Ranger, the fight should be over pretty soon, right?


No legs...



ＭＡＫＥＳ ＮＯ ＳＥＮＳＥ！

And the demolition derby begins.



I'll hold off on Shelter Song, given that Basilisk is blinded. I'll give a minor buff to Ranger's damage, instead.



Around 260 damage or so from Thunder Wave...


Ａ ＳＷＩＦＴ ＳＨＯＣＫ ＴＯ ＳＴＯＰ ＹＯＵＲ ＨＥＡＲＴ！

Plus that.


H-hey, what's going on with the thing's eyes?
I have read myths of a monster woman who could turn people to stone with her gaze. Perhaps this Basilisk is related...
I'd rather not be a statue! Let's kill this thing NOW!

And say hi to Basilisk's main gimmick: the Basilisk Eye.

[NO IMAGE]
Basilisk Eye
HP: 680, STR: 0, VIT: 16
Skills:
Drops:
Damage resistances:
Ailment and bind resistances:

When Basilisk drops to 80%, and later 40% HP, these things will appear. Kill them immediately, even if you don't have good multi-target damage. Petrification is, for all intents and purposes, death that can be treated with Therica Bs and Refresh--this includes causing the row swap that normally happens when one row dies, and if your party is either all dead, petrified, or some combination of the two, it's game over. You basically have no time to treat the Stone Gleam petrification; even if you get a line-target Refresh or Medical Miracle off, your back line will probably die before you can swap the rows back to normal.

If you have a Sovereign, Prevent Order does block petrification, so it can buy you two extra turns to deal with the Eye, or, if your Sovereign is fast enough, basically trap the Eyes in an infinite loop of casting Stone Gleam on a Prevent Ordered row. Beware that the Eye can cast Stone Gleam on the back row, though, and Pound can fuck up this strategy if it tries to inflict paralysis.



Given that we have Ranger and Nadia, I'm taking a bit of a gamble. I'll have Colette keep hitting Basilisk with Ailing Slash to damage it as much as possible, instead of going for the Eyes.



Ranger will prepare to destroy the Basilisk.



And Nadia'll use Summer Rain to damage the Basilisk and the Eye.


What's wrong? Am I too swift for you?

Just short of half of the Eyes' HP, and around 320 damage to Basilisk. Not bad.


Hrrr hrhrhr HRR!
Try again.


ＹＯＵＲ ＤＥＡＴＨ ＩＳ ＩＭＭＩＮＥＮＴ.



The blind on Basilisk wore off, so I have Colette enable War Edge Power.



This is gonna be fun.



And Milly will demonstrate why Troubadors are amazingly broken supports.


Crush that thing now! Those eyes are looking mean!



Around 400 damage to open Accelerate...



We are up to around 1000 damage from Accelerate now...


ＹＯＵ ＡＮＤ ＹＯＵＲ ＥＹＥＳ ＡＲＥ ＡＦＦＲＯＮＴＳ ＴＯ ＬＩＦＥ ＩＴＳＥＬＦ！ ＰＥＲＩＳＨ, ＦＯＲ ＴＨＥ ＢＥＴＴＥＲＭＥＮＴ ＯＦ ＡＬＬ！

And Ranger dealt around 1800 damage in one turn. Accelerate is already really goddamn powerful, but Crusade + other buffs pushes it into "obscenely broken" territory.


Eitt síðasta verkfall.


That was...really easy, actually.
I mean, it couldn't see us for a lot of the fight. Ranger, though...
I must know your secrets! How do you move that swiftly, and where do those golden rays come from?!
Iiiiiii donnnnnn't knooooow whaaaaaatttttt you'rrrrrreeeee taaaalllking abouuuuuut!

Basilisk normally gives me fits in my other EO2U playthroughs, so trashing it in 4 turns gave me a very good feeling, to say the least.

I should note, by the way, that Ginnungagap bosses are one-time fights only. You can't ever fight them again after killing them the first time.



SYSTEM: You have successfully defeated the cruel monster known as the Basilisk! ...Catching your breath, you survey the remains of the creature, and determine it to be the beast you were ordered to slay. All that remains is to report your success to the bar, and draw this mission to a close.

Before we ditch Ginnungagap, there's two more doors left in this room.



And in this treasure chest: garbage! Wisdom Horns mean that you will always spawn a Grimoire during a Grimoire Chance. You have no control over the skill the Grimoire has, though, which makes the Wisdom Horn pretty much just vendor trash. It sells for a nice amount, at least. And through the other door:


Ranger. No. We are going back to town, and going back into Yggdrasil. We've had enough of this place for now.
...fine.
SYSTEM: Perhaps later, once you have taken a new request and it becomes necessary, you may have some interest in exploring further.

Yeah, the game just kinda arbitrarily limits us from going further here. Oh well, back to town.



Ah, yeh're back safe and sound. Wasn't too much trouble, was it?
Not with this guy, no.
That bottle's either red wine...or strawberry soda.
Aaaaaaanyway, we had to kill this gigantic snake-lizard-thing.
Whassat? A huge lizard monster...! Hah! I guess an adventurer is an adventurer, no matter where it is they're adventurin' through. Well, anyway, yeh did a good job! Hope we'll see yeh in here again soon!





A minor damage boost for Ailing Slash.



A minor debuff increase for Beast Roar. In some ways, Self-Defense is the better skill for reducing the damage your Beast takes, but Beast Roar has the advantage of having Preemptive Roar alongside it, which I'll explain once we get it.



Maxing out Delayed Chase/Blade Recoil would bump the TP cost pretty significantly, so I opt for investing in Freeze Saber instead.

For the record, Fafnir's Custom screen is a little special. Any skills that give extra skills while Transformed have the Transform skill to the right of the original.



And a minor boost to Shelter Song. If Ursa's in the party, it's kind of redundant due to Beast Roar, but oh well.



Alright, let's take on those other 6F quests now.

Medicinal research:

Oh, yeh settled on that one. That's from the Trader's little missy, and she was really hopin' yeh'd take it. There's a little more to this... But hey! I've talked enough. If yeh wanna know the details, yeh'd better go ask her. Welp, g'luck!

Urban planning:

Ah, this one, eh? This is a request from some farmer that wants the East Ward to be developed more. What's that? Why he's requestin' somethin' on such a grand scale? Weren't yeh the ones who were given authority over this stuff? The fella must have heard rumors about it, and decided it'd be better to come to me than go to the Duke's Palace and all.
Going to a bartender to discuss matters of city planning... Oh, whatever. What's he want?
If we can get some medics livin' in the East Ward, this guy could sell his herbs directly to them. Lot more convenient. ...So there yeh have it. Yeh think yeh could take care of this for me? Gotta keep a certain amount of respect, yeh know? Haw haw haw! Thanks! Actually, I'm the one that spread the rumor that yeh're the ones doin' town development! I told them I've got connections, so if they ever got a problem, they should come to me. So... I'm counting on yeh!
I'm expecting discounted drinks for this, Cass.

Man down:

Ah, I thought yeh'd ask about that one. It's a request from another guild. Yeh're in the same profession, so yeh're rivals in a way, but yeh gotta put that aside for now.
We've never insinuated that we have rivalries with other guilds, but go on.
Anyway, the lot of them were ambushed as soon as they set foot on a certain floor. Most of them escaped with their hides, but their alchemist wasn't so lucky... Ask them about the specifics. They're drinkin' at that table right there.



I'll talk to the other bar patrons in a bit. Firstly, the quest patron:

Hmm? Who are you? We appear to be in the same profession... What business might you have with me?
We took that quest. The one about a monster dumpstering your Alchemist?
So, you accepted the quest... I thank you for your assistance. I'll get straight to business, then... I believe Cass already briefed you, but we reached a new stratum, and...lost one of our valiant comrades. We were cornered by a monster...and to buy us time to escape, she threw herself into the front lines, despite her wounds...!
Our condolences.
As the guild's leader... I shouldn't have let this happen. If I had only listened when she suggested we fall back, and recover-- I'm...I'm sorry. I lost my composure... I suppose if I was going to change, I would take action instead of stewing in regret... Now, to the task at hand. My comrade used a certain technique to drive the beast back... a skill to control fire, to be specific. I've heard of some explorers that command fire, or jars containing the essence of fire. One of either would assist greatly. For our comrade's sake...we must return, and take our vengeance on the beast!

So this quest has two options, and is the first in a series of reworks of a certain type of quest from EO2. EO2 had a bunch of quests that required you have a guild member of a certain level, or with a certain skill leveled up. Here, the quests either give you the option to dispatch a guild member with very general and low-level requirements (all we need here, I'm pretty sure, is an Alchemist that knows Fire Formula), or do an alternate task--in this case, giving the man a Fire Jar.



I opted for the former. (Look at the bottom right.)

Ah, it's you. Have you found us some means of controlling fire, so that we might defeat our foe?
I'm told you need some firey special effects.
Oh, so you'll be assisting us? Then we'll leave immediately, if that's fine with you. We cannot afford to waste time. Be at ease. We'll protect your comrade with our very lives, if necessary. Now, to me! With hell's fires of judgment at our command, we will punish the vile beast that struck down our ally!


Good gods, that guy's the living embodiment of purple prose.
Language was very heavily emphasized at my schools. I assume the prince who just left's upbringing was similar.
Oh, hello, Rheine. You guys getting breakfast?
There ain't much else to do when we're not explorin'. I was in the Labyrinth for all of a few hours before we voted on a new team, dammit!


...Though it pains me to admit it... Your ally is far stronger than any of our guild. You have a fine comrade... Treat them well. Thank you and farewell, Lumen! Cass will hand over the reward in our stead! Let us cross paths again one day!
So what "terrible beast" did they have you kill, Stardust?
A Hedgehog.
...hrhr.



Oh yeah, that East Ward development quest. I already fulfilled it at the start of the update.

Ah, yeh lot did good! Thanks for doin' that. Of course, it ain't a good idea for the whole city to know what yeh're up to. I'll try to keep my mouth shut from now on.
So what led you to letting the farmer know to put that quest in?
Hm? Why I took that request in the first place? Well, uh... I actually get supplies for the bar from that farmer. Said if I did him a favor, he'd give me some discounts on veggies. What'm I supposed to say to that, right? Haw haw haw! Well, there yeh have it! I'll make sure it won't happen again! Here's yer reward. Yeh earned it!



Another status ailment weapon. This time it inflicts sleep, and is an axe. ~ w o w ~


Oh, yeh're back. Did yeh lend them a hand? Always nice to have people owe yeh, eh? Well, yeh did good. This oughta at least ease that alchemist lady's mind a bit.
...mind? Do you not mean spirit, Cass? She died protecting her team.
Huh? Whaddya mean? I went to their room to check on her and got the door slammed on me. Looks like she's feelin' better... What's with these faces...? Revenge? For her--No no no, whaddaya sayin'? That alchemist's still alive! ...Now that yeh mention it, that guild's boss kinda has a tendency to exaggerate... So that's what got yeh so riled up! Well, all's well that ends well, right? They got their revenge, and yeh got yer reward. No harm done. Here, this is yer reward for helpin' 'em get their vengeance! Yeh're gonna take it, aren'tcha? Haw haw haw haw haw!



Fire Mists considerably reduce Fire damage taken by the party and all enemies. It has a use at the end of the 2nd Stratum.



NOW we talk to the bar patrons.

Adventurers in matching gear:

Ey, have a drink! C'mon! You drinkin'? We just got back from bein' paralyzed!
...Y'know? Okay, list'n up. There's that Giant Shroom thing, right? Right, that one. Grumpy-lookin'. That guy. 'S ridiculous! Sprinklin' its spores, all...sporadic and stuff.
And suddenly we can't move! Paralyzed! Man. Not bein' able to move...sucks.
We really tried! We fought it! Fought like that shroom was hidin' our beers. Still nothin'!
'f you guys ever run into that Shroom... *hic* Beat it! Hokay?
Welp, if you can't, then you're in for some of that...spore paralysis. *hic* Sporalysis.

Well-informed man:

You know about Esbat? That's right, the most famous giuld of the entire Duchy. The great Guild Esbat! What's really amazing is that they're challenging the Labyrinth with just two members. I tell ya, that takes guts!
More like "it takes not having a brain."
The way it's usually done is making a five-person party, with balancing skills and strengths and all that, right? They just threw that out the window, and stormed the Labyrinth with just the two of them! It's like a class hero story!

Ostentatious woman:

Oh, you! You there! Have you heard about Lumen?
...for certain values of "heard about," yes.
They're the rising star guild that beat that ferocious monster. Everyone expects a lot from them! Why, I'm almost jealous. So...might you know if there's a young girl in that guild, by any chance?
Come to think of it, our guild's mostly women, actually. Why do you ask?
You see, my son is around that age, so I thought it might be a perfect opportunity... Hmm...but would it be bad to have an adventurer as my daughter-in-law? What do you think?
Go screw yourself. Ugh.

One-eyed gunner (couldn't find an appropriate portrait):

Oh...one more friend, lost to the forest... Hmm? What is it? Oh--I'm sorry, I didn't mean to speak so loudly. I'm sorry if you overheard that. In this town, it seems like our friends and allies are here today, and gone tomorrow. I thought I was used to it, but when someone like that leaves us... I... I-It's hard to...
...we haven't lost anyone to the Labyrinth yet, but I've lost friends to other forests before. Do you need any help getting through this?
...Look, do you all have some time? Here, come sit. Have a drink with me. And just like that...you and I are friends. Come to the bar tomorrow, too, alright? We'll drink and talk of lighter things.
We'll be back, I promise.

I always wonder if the guilds that have members die permanently in the forest just lack Nectars or a sufficiently-advanced Medic. It's not like we have any issues cheating death.

Girl in a white sundress:

The other day, I went to that new restaurant that the Duchy founded. The atmosphere was so different from the usual bars and pubs around here. It was really relaxing, so I was happy... But...the chef is...scary. It was a different kind of scary from adventurers just being rowdy...
Regina can be...abrasive, yes.
...Gah, I get scared just thinking about what might happen if I accidentally drop my fork, or something...!

Also, everyone in town has new Cafe dialogue now that we finished all the 1st Stratum recipes. Here's Cass's:

Heh heh heh... Yeh've got it tough, huh. Yeh got yerself a grumpy cook to look after. My customers told me. She's easy on the eyes, and the food's great, but the mood's as cold as she is! Score one for Stickleback! Haw haw haw! Sorry yeh had to be on the other end of it, but this is the cutthroat world of business, yeh know! ...Gotta be honest, it's a pretty big relief.
Cass, we're running a cafe, you're running a bar. Why are you acting like we're direct competitors? We don't even serve alcohol at FOEbucks.




Over to Regina.

Then don't bother talking to me. Get me when you're ready to order.
Yeesh, I can see why that blonde girl was so scared of this place.




I wanted to get Abigail's cafe dialogue, but taking Medicinal research overrides her dialogue.

Do you all remember getting the Blue Flower for that old lady, recently? Mister Bartender's request? I actually know that lady! She orders a lot of things, and when I was delivering a package, I asked to see the flower. And it was strange--it looked familiar, so I looked it up in one of daddy's books. It said the flower was a rare medicinal herb! I told the hospital workers right away, and they said that if they had more, they could use it to make a new kind of medicine. So, yes, the quest...um... Hold on, I wrote myself a note so I, um, wouldn't forget... Oh, here it is! Ahem! So here's what the hospital needs. The final ingredient for the new medicine is...one Mint Leaf! Let's see...it says here that you can get them by...using Take on the 2nd Stratum. If you get it, just sell it here like usual. I'll make sure they get it safe and sound! Good luck, everyone!

Easy enough. Mint Leaves are pretty common takes from 6F.



Snakeskin Shield is unlocked by selling 1 Stiff Skin. It provides a pretty decent DEF bonus, but also provides 25% resistance to petrification. Which would be nice if petrification ever showed up again before the 4th Stratum.




Marion's cafe dialogue.

Some of them appear to have complaints about the chef there. Her cold stares make them uncomfortable...? ...Ludicrous. What does any of that have to do with the quality of the food? What are people getting so worked up about?




Dubois's cafe dialogue.

Regina is quite a hard worker, but she tends to lose perspective at times. She needs to see the bigger picture. Oho ho ho ho! Of course, that part of her can be rather adorable.




Hanna's cafe dialogue.

I thought they might be competition for me because the cook's a pretty young thing, but I guess I was worried for nothing! I suppose my charms are just too much to compete with after all! Ahaha!
Why does everyone think we're trying to compete with them?! Gods.



And lastly, Quona.

She was having an argument with a man at the market... It was someone from the Grand Duchy, but she wasn't afraid at all... I got scared... I couldn't say anything to her... She's a very brave person. ...It must feel good to speak your mind like that...