Part 4: Not Exactly The Expected Outcome

Welcome back. Last time on Exit Fate, we beat Jargo's defenses into paste, then suddenly got attacked and... well, we're not quite sure what happened after that. So our first order of business is going to be figuring out what's goiAAAAUUUGHHHHH OH GOD!



THAT IS NOT A FACE I WANTED TO WAKE UP TO JESUS CHRIST

The attack! What happened!? Are we in Zelmony territory? How did I end up here? Tell me!



But uh, the Elder told me to take you to him as soon as you woke up... All right! I'll take you to see the elder, and I'll tell you what happened there, okay? He lives at the north end of town. Let's go!



Oh joy, now we're going to have those soulless eyes staring at us all the goddamned time. Where are Angel and Jovian when you need 'em...?



Music: Alfheim - Final Fantasy IX, "Border Village Dali"

Let's take a look at our new party member, shall we?



Fitch is built for one thing and one thing alone: speed. His strength isn't great, nor is his magic, but this kid will be going first in every battle and will often find himself taking two turns in a row. Unfortunately, high speed isn't much when you don't have anything you can do with it. Fitch can be useful as an item thrower, but that's unfortunately his only real use.

Fitch is also our first example of a character with a long-range weapon. This means he will do the same amount of damage no matter where we place him in our formation. With this in mind, there's no reason to put him anywhere but the back row.




Heading downstairs, we find ourselves in an inn of sorts. Huh, there's an awful lot of pointy ears here. Did we somehow get transported to Hyrule?



Like every inn in every RPG, we can spend a bit of cash here to stay the night and fully restore our health. However, there's no need to do so at present. Right now, we want to figure out what the hell is going on, so let's start by chatting up the locals.





All right, we know a few important things: We're still on Helman Island, in some quiet village that Kirgard hasn't ransacked yet, and apparently whatever happened to us fucked us up pretty bad. Still no idea yet on what actually fucked us up, though.

The guy up top has a portrait, which means he's obviously unimportant.



Me? I'm just an adventurer. I came to this island through Kirgard, but it looks like I picked a bad time to visit.



A few more locals are milling around outside. Maybe they can help us out?





Hmmm, nothing useful from these guys.




It also seems like we're stuck here, as these guys are blocking the only way out of town and won't let us through. Well, as long as we're here, might as well check out what this town has to offer, right?





Directly south of the inn, we find a basic item shop. Nothing too fancy here: an accessory that provides +1 PDF, some herbs, and some items for curing poison and blindness. There's no real need to buy anything here yet.




In the southeast of town, we also find a blacksmith.



Unlike the blacksmith in the St. Reinard castle, this one is willing to sell us armor in addition to upgrading our weapons. Most future blacksmiths will offer both services.



He's also level 2, so we could go ahead and upgrade our weapons if we wanted, but it's rather expensive.




Upgrading Fitch's slingshot to level 1 is much more manageable, so I go ahead and do that instead.



His armor is a collection of leather items. Daniel's equipment is all slightly more protective than this, though it's worth noting that all of the leather armor has lower WGT than Daniel's. Fitch, on the other hand, is wearing nothing but a leather jacket, so I go ahead and pick up a hat and boots for him.



Fitch also comes equipped with a woolen scarf, which provides +1 SPD, and a brown herb.




Next door to the blacksmith, we find this building with a crystal ball sign on it, which turns out to be a magic shop.



Mend and Spark we've seen before, but Lightray and Splash are new: they are the basic light and water attack spells, respectively. One of the interesting things about attack spells in this game is that they all have different areas of effect. Spark, as we've seen, hits all enemies on the field. Lightray, on the other hand, hits a single enemy, and Splash hits a row of enemies. We also have the Lightning spell we won from the war battle, which hits enemies in a plus pattern.



Anyway, that's about all that there is to do in this town, so let's go see the elder like Fitch told us to.




I am Lothis, Elder of Alfheim, and ruler of all elves.
Greetings, Elder. My name is Daniel Vinyard. I'm a colonel in the Kirgard Royal Army.
A Kirgard colonel...? Curious. I wonder how you ended up like you did. You are lucky that Fitch found you at the north end of the forest. He said you were barely conscious.
The edge of the forest? Near the Kelsinger pass? Elder, I have to admit that I don't remember exactly what happened, but I'll tell you what I know. I arrived here on the northern shores of Helman Island together with the rest of the third legion. Our mission was to seize Jargo Port City, which we did with little effort. After that, we set up camp on the north side of the Kelsinger pass to prepare for the coming battle. That night... --Wait, for how long have I been unconscious?



So it was... two nights ago, probably. It was already past midnight, but I had trouble getting to sleep. I remember hearing sounds in the distance. Shouting. The clashing of swords. Yes, that's right! There was a sneak attack on my division! I remember a friend of mine, coming to warn us. The general ordered me to head back to my camp, when...
When what?



I... I have to return immediately! I need to find out what happened!
I understand. According to our scouts, the Kelsinger Pass is now under Kirgard control. You will probably find your allies there. Leave the forests, then head straight north to reach the pass.




Actually, it may be better if you take him with you. He knows the way well.



Erm, care to tell us WHY you have that feeling, exactly?



Yay! Let's go!

As we turn to leave...



You've been surprisingly open about these events, considering you are alone in enemy territory. Aren't you worried that we're not on your side?



You want to stay neutral in this conflict, don't you? I don't think you'd do anything that would endanger that.
I see. You know us quite well. Well, then I wish you good luck.
Thank you, elder.



And with that stunning display of diplomacy, the guards at the village entrance now step aside for us and let us pass.



They're even kind enough to wish us well.

Music: Zelmony - Final Fantasy Tactics, "A Chapel"



We find ourselves on the world map. Despite being able to walk all over them in war battles, the forests on the world map are impassable for us. So let's head out of this enclosure and head north like the elder suggested.



Of course, being on the world map means we can run into enemies again. Bribes work just as well on the world map as they do in dungeons, but we're not in a bad enough situation that we need to bribe anyone. So it's time to see what Fitch has to offer in battle.



All right Fitch, you're fast enough to grab the first turn, let's see what you can do.





...

...

...

Get your soulless eyes the fuck out of here.

(Actually, Daniel will also hit for 0 damage against these enemies. Like Flans from Final Fantasy, these Puddles have absurdly high PDF and it'll be a long while before we can ever damage them with physical attacks.)




(Magic, on the other hand, will kill them in a single hit.)



At this point I also realize that I have to make a small addendum to the description I gave of the "Healing Used" window. When a battle ends, it's true that you will automatically use all the healing spells you have left... but only those that you have the MP for. It actually makes it a decent strategy to end battles with a short string of physical attacks, so you can build up MP for auto-healing.

The Puddles also leave a Blue Drop for us. The Blue Drop is an attack item that casts Splash, which deals minor water damage to a row, as mentioned previously.



As it turns out, the Kelsinger Pass is right next door. It's close enough that the battle with the Puddles above is the only fight we run into.

Music: None





Hmmm. Well, this is a promising start.



... oorrrr maybe not.



Music: Suspicion - Suikoden V, "Suspicion"



Wait, what?!



Daniel is about as shocked as we are.

Hold on! There has to be some kind of misunderstanding! I have to speak to the general!
The general? Yeah, I bet he'd like to see you too. Throw away your weapon, and get over here, slowly!



Don't even think of running! If you try to resist, we'll take you in by force!
Maybe... Maybe you're right, Fitch. I don't know why you're calling me a traitor, but I refuse to let myself be treated like this when I have no idea what's going on.



If you try to stop me... we'll just have to break through!
You're not going anywhere!

Music: Battle - Suikoden II, "The Will"



Well, this is a fine mess we seem to have landed ourselves in.



We're thrown into battle against two members of the Kirgard 4th Legion. Which means we're fighting Leonius's men, not Jovian's.




They're a little stronger than the bandits we faced a few updates ago, but they're still just regular enemies.






It only takes a few physical attacks to bring them down.

Music: None




Fitch has the right of it here. We still have no idea what's going on and it seems we now have a full two legions of the Kirgard army out for our blood for some reason. It's time to hightail it.






Alfheim is just a short walk away, but on the way back we run into a couple of Puddles who are kind enough to demonstrate the Splash spell for us.




We thank them by blowing them up.

Music: Alfheim - Final Fantasy IX, "Border Village Dali"





After a quick stay at the inn...



... we go to see the elder.

You've come back? Is something wrong?
Yeah, you could say that.

One fade to black later...



So you don't wish to return to your army in this situation?
It's not that I don't want to go back, but it seemed like they were accusing me of something I didn't do. Something important must have happened that night at the pass. If only I could remember...
As long as you don't know what happened, it would be difficult to do something about it.



They must be certain about this. If there was any doubt, they wouldn't have reacted so strongly. I don't know, it's all too confusing to me. I was afraid to go with them when I had no idea what would happen.
Then what will you do now?
I have to find out what happened during the attack two days ago. That's the most important thing now. It seemed like a Zelmony counter-attack at the time, but clearly there was more to it than that. There's nothing I can do as long as I don't know exactly what went on that night at the Kelsinger Pass.



If Zelmony was involved in this, maybe someone there will know about it! And... I've always wanted to go there at least once!
Very well, Fitch. But don't get in the Colonel's way.
Hurray! Let's go!
All right, we'll take a look around Harlinton and see what we can find.



Well, that's all well and good, but we still don't know where Harlinton is.



Oh. Well. There's that then I guess.



Also, this guy cracks me up.



Before we head out, I grab another copy of Mend from the magic shop. You can never have too many of these.

Music: Zelmony - Final Fantasy Tactics, "A Chapel"



This time, we head out of the forest that Alfheim is in and head south instead of north. But it isn't long until we run into...



Oh dear lord! Bees!





Killer Hornets have the Poison Sting ability, which, well, poisons the target. Posion deals a small amount of damage to a character every time their turn comes around. It's generally not worth worrying about.





One thing I haven't mentioned yet about battles is that there is a lot of missing going on in the early game, especially on the enemy side. Unlike most non-strategy RPGs, where accuracy is kind of an afterthought because you hit 99% of the time, weapon accuracy in Exit Fate is a serious consideration. If you neglect to upgrade your weapon's accuracy when you can, you won't be able to hit a goddamn thing. Similarly, most early-game enemies have low ACC and will probably miss you more than half the time.



More importantly, it's time for us to try out that Lightning spell we won from the war battle. Lightning hits enemies in a plus pattern, so this is the perfect setup for it.





And that's how it's done.





Harlinton is a little further away than the Kelsinger Pass, but it still doesn't take us all that long to get there.

Music: Harlinton - Final Fantasy IX, "Cleyra Settlement"



Where should we start looking? We probably won't get to speak to the governor himself. Let's try to find an army officer around here.





The inhabitants of Harlinton, as is to be expected, all have the war on their minds.



There's also this classy gent.



Harlinton has the usual amenities, including an inn, an item shop, a blacksmith, and a magic shop.



The item shop has a few new things for sale. The White Bandana increases SKL by 1, while the White Glasses increase ACC by 1. The Iron Orb and Bracer are defensive items, increasing PDF and MDF by 1, respectively. There's also Voice Boxes available now, which cure the Silence status.




The blacksmith, on the other hand, is only level 2 and doesn't sell any armor we haven't seen before.




The magic shop has the basic ice spell, Icicle, in stock. It deals ice damage to a column of targets. Unfortunately we can't afford it just yet.




In the northwest corner of town, we find the governor's mansion. Unlike every other RPG ever, we actually cannot just waltz in and demand to see him, even with the open doorway.



The guy to the right, however, has some answers.

I was wondering if you knew anything about the attack on the Kirgard camp at the Kelsinger Pass.
What? Attack on the Kirgard camp?
Do you know what happened? My brother was at the pass, and I'm worried about him.
Are you talking about the attack on our base at the southern side of the pass? It's only been a few days, so we don't know much about the casualties yet.
No no, I mean the night before that. Wasn't there a surprise attack on the Kirgard camp?



Oh, it was just a rumor I heard. You mean there's no truth to it? Or maybe it happened without you knowing about it.
Listen, I'm in command of half the forces here at Helman Island. If something like that happened, I'd know about it.



Hmm, okay. Well, thank you for your time.



I didn't get the impression that he was lying. Why would he? But then... what -did- happen? It's useless. I don't think we'll find anything here. Let's go back to Alfheim.

Well, that exchange left us with more questions than answers. If Zelmony didn't order the surprise attack, who did? Where else can we look?

As we try to leave the city, however...





Well, balls.

Next time: