Part 33: Adelaide and the Five Kings

Update 33: Adelaide and The Five Mages

In This Update:
- The final Heritor quest!
- Fighting the Five Kings!

---

Welcome back! Today's update wraps up two long-standing quest lines.


The first is Adelle's Heritor quest. We've been steadily unlocking her powers and collecting an impressive armoury. First, read this notice in the bar, which appears some time before the Hilo quest.



Once you've read "Don't Get Lost" and Adelle's mastered Hilo, this second notice appears in the pub.


Appropriately, a new part of The Neslowe Passage opens up for this quest. I've complained about it, but I do like how the map grows as the game progresses.





: This place... Look, over there.



: My instincts aren't half bad, if I do say so myself.

Funnily enough, the Heritor ability set is called "Instinct".


As Samuel and Adelle walk further in, monsters flood into the cave.



: Me? I didn't do anything!

: As soon as you took a step closer, all those creatures appeared near the chest. I was just standing here the whole time, so it couldn't have been -my- fault. If you weren't chasing after treasure all the time, this wouldn't have happened.

: Excuse me? Look who's talking! I can't be held responsible for the doings of every monster we come across!

I get the feeling Samuel is supposed to be joking here, but Adelle's reaction makes it sound like he's seriously accusing her. He's never really been worried about monsters before -- besides ghosts, of course -- so I don't get why he's all upset.

: Look, we don't have time to argue about this. Let's take care of these monsters first, okay?


That means no Lenolia, since she can't heal herself. Also, the objective is to just get the treasure, but it'll be more fun to clear all the monsters first.


Mostly melee attackers here, but everyone has some form of ranged attacks.


There's no way this can go wrong.


Most of the enemies are clustered by the treasure chest, but a few will try to flank you from below.


The Golems and the Lamashtu (the snake lady) are the biggest threats. The Grenade and Flying Eyeballs will harry us, but we have enough condition negation that they won't be a problem.


Plus we can try to use their strength to our advantage.


Wait what.


Yeah OK, the Lamashtu just doomed every single enemy. Henri fell asleep and Imino's doomed too, but everyone else is unscathed thanks to Ribbons and Orbs of Minwu.

So this went from a battle to a one-sided massacre.


Those are some nasty abilities, and she has Blood Price on top of it. Lamia/Lamashtu are usually pretty dangerous, but this is Scholar-levels of friendly fire.


Well I don't want to just sit here and wait for timers to run out, might as well thin the herd a little.


Wait what.


Turns out that Golem is wearing Mirror Mail, giving it inherent Reflect. Which caused us to break the law, because the game treats it as Imino targeting himself. That's really annoying!

(Quick refresher: Breaking the law means we lose our clan privilege (Bonus AP 3, in this case), we can't revive our KO'd units -- such as Imino once the Doom triggers -- and we don't get the Law Reward at the end.)


Up top, we keep bullying the monsters and Frimelda wakes Henri up.


Confusion isn't my favorite condition, since it's so unreliable. It ended up paying off here, the Confused Golem took out a huge chunk of the other Golem's HP.


A few turns later, the Doom counters are running out. Imino's the first to go.




That was way easier than it should have been!


Adelle's free to open the chest now that the monsters are gone.



---



: ...Nothing.

: huh? What!?

: Not a thing.



: No way!

: Now who's lusting after treasure, hmm? So the chest's empty. It's hardly the end of the world.

: Maybe not...


Yeah, some adventure this turned out to be!

: Well, I don't know about you, but I'm leaving. This calls for some comfort food.

: Now you're talking!


As Samuel walks away, the screen flashes white.



: What was that?


A glowing apparition that looks just like Adelle appears and giggles.



: What!?

: You opened the chest, didn't you? And I came out. Simple.

Adelle's apparition uses the same sprite as regular Adelle, so have this glowy, blue-eared version instead.

: Think of me as the... possibilities... that sleep within you. Unlocking the chest was just a crude metaphor for unlocking your true potential.

: Now what?

: Now for the real magick. Loosing your potential was only a formality -- a trivial thing.



: ...

: What? Are you frightened?

: Frightened? Me? Ha! If you're going to do something, do it and be done with it.

: As you like. Let's be done with it.


The apparition lunges forward and merges into Adelle.


Yours is the power of life.
Life in all its myriad forms.
Life in all its possibility.
It is a great power that can protect not only yourself, but others as well.



: Of course I will. It's me, after all.


Then, with another bright flash, the world starts turning again.



: Sorry, sorry! I think I've worked up quite an appetite today.

Samuel and Adelle leave the cave.


Yes, the last power Adelle learns is her own power: Adelaide.


And with that, she's mastered Heritor!


Since hers is the power of life in all its possibilities, Adelaide has the amazing power to... grant Regen.

It's not a terrible buff, but there's usually better things to do with your turn than give someone Regen. Especially when a Summoner can grant Regen over a huge area and cast another spell in the same turn.

Thus ends Adelle's Heritor quests. Seems kind of anticlimactic to me, honestly.

---


Way back in Update 11, we faced down the Red King of Cinquleur, a powerful Red Mage. Today we're going to blitz through the rest of the kings.


After Red comes Blue.


Unsurprisingly, the Blue King is a hume Blue Mage.


No spells? Not really a huge problem, considering how high the king's Magick Resistances is, but this also means we can't heal as easily.


The Blue King's strategy combines Magick Frenzy with Quake, the one Blue Mage ability that can be frenzied. He backs that up with dual wielded sabres. Also, he's level 55, a solid 15 levels above the clan.


The best defense is a good offense, so we're fielding our hard-hitting melee masters for this battle.



: I am Blue King Bliu... wielder of blue magicks!

: Seeing as he's next in line, I'm guessing he's even stronger than the Red King.

: If you would know, then fight me. The truth reveals itself not in chatter, but battle! We fight!

: This one's gonna be tough. Strike fast and hard!




So first of all, there's traps here, apparently.


Secondly, his counter attacks hit pretty hard.


And he doesn't need Magick Frenzy in order to ruin your day. (Quake costs 12 MP, so he can't use it yet.)


Fortunately, Cross-counter is as good as ever.


Just like with the Red King: 6v1 negates any advantage the Blue King may have had.



: The Green King will know of this! That is to be your next adversary.

: Not another one... Why exactly are we fighting again?


Like the Sequencer we won from the Red King, the Peytral's defense stat increases for every Opportunity Command we trigger. At this point, it has the same defense as the Genji Armor, which is the best normal armor in the game. The Peytral also gives small boosts to Jump, Evasion, Speed, Magick Power and Resistance.

Basically, the Peytral is the best heavy armor in the game.



---


As promised, the Green King is next.




You should have noticed the kings' names follow a theme.
Restoring HP isn't a terribly hard law to follow. The Green King actually has very little damage to throw around.


The only Green Magick the Green King knows is Tranq. To be fair, that's the best possible spell to go with her Assassination abilities, which are the real threat here. Last Breath is an instant KO and Nightmare inflicts Doom and Sleep.

Her gear is pretty impressive too. She wields Mjolnir, the best hammer in the game. More annoyingly, she's wearing Mirror Mail.


Melee fighters are our best bet still. Vaan is also coming along, because I might as well open that treasure chest.



: The Green King... is a lady? These Cinquleur are a mixed bunch. I wonder why they fight?

Wow that's kind of really sexist!

: We of Cinquleur were drawn together by a shared love of victory and strength in battle. Do you not know joy when victorious over your foe? This is all we seek - not reward, not fame, but victory.

: Sure, we fight to win... But that's not all we do!

Yeah, usually we just fight because we're paid to.




As promised, the Green King begins the battle by boosting her accuracy.


She's too far away to hit just yet, so everyone moves in while Vaan wanders off to check out the treasure.


Verre is kind enough to bring the battle to us and trades blows with Zoe.


Seriously, again?!.
Fortunately it's only a Leech, so Leed's still at full health.


The Green King has the Tank P-Ability, which lets her wear heavy armor like the Mirror Mail. In turn, this means she has neither Blood Price nor Half MP. Soul Crush depletes her MP, forcing the king to use her melee attacks. I'll take that damage over Last Breath any day.


Worth a shot. A free Ribbon would be nice.


Henri pulls off an excellent Air Render, and Vaan finds nothing of any real value.


Cross-counter is the best new ability in this game.


Nice! She's already in Critical HP so health damage wouldn't be very useful. Taking away her MP guarantees us an easy kill.


Like so.



: I will tell the Black King of the value I have seen in you today.

: Maybe now would be a good time for the Green King to rethink -her- values.


Save the Queen is a Knightsword that we've had ever since the Moorabella Auction became available. Even if you take this quest as soon as it's available, this isn't a great reward.



---


Three down, two to go.


Well this is annoying. Lemonade from lemons, though: that monster battle is "One-Eyed Evil."


It features these monsters, the Ahrimans. (or Plagues, as they're also named.) These creatures have a unique ability called Roulette.


Roulette selects one unit at random and kills them. It's 100% accurate unless the unit has something that prevents instant death, which only the Wygar armor and Master Sword do.


Or you can equip an Angel Ring and learn the ability yourself.


Anyway, onto the battle proper.


Debuffs would be great for slowing down the boss, but he has an Orb of Minwu and is therefore protected from most of them anyway.


Thanks to the two shields and the robe, the Black King absorbs the three basic elements -- the three elements that he casts, you'll note. "Calling" is the Animist ability set, and the only ability he knows is Toadsong, which turns the target into a toad. Don't underestimate it.


I'm hoping he'll go the left. Lian (as a Trickster) and Hurdy are on the far left. Tsing is a Lanista for this fight.

This team is extremely bad for this fight, as we'll see in a bit.



: That's the Black King of Cinquleur, huh? Not as scary as I imagined.

: Judge me by the size of my pom-pom, will you, kupo!? Ooh, I detest your kind so! Expect no mercy from me, kupo! No mercy!

: I guess I could be wrong... Let's fight!




Excellent, he went to the left like I'd hoped.


I'd love to use Snigger. Berserk would make the Black King's whole set up completely useless, because he wouldn't be able to use spells or heal himself. It's one of the few debuffs that the Orb of Minwu doesn't protect against. But the law forbids debuffs, so that's not an option.


I forgot that the king has Reflex, which causes all basic attacks to automatically miss. Even worse, his Magick Resistance is so high that Lian can barely scratch him!


So, uh, I guess Lian will throw Protect and Shell on Talf for now.





This just gets better and better, doesn't it.


Fortunately, the Mimic can't move very far (it has 2 movement) so Imino and Penelo will ignore it and come help fight the Black King.


Here's the king's main attack pattern: heal himself while killing you. Seem familiar? At least he doesn't have Blood Price, so he's limited to casting a spell every other turn -- the -aga spells are expensive at 18 MP each, and Toadsong is 22 MP itself.


Fortunately, Tsing is wearing Mirror Mail and Talf has the ice-absorbing Chill Rod. They're both safe, at the cost of the king being healed a second time. Hurdy is hit, but who cares, he'll survive.


Turns out the only useful attack Tsing has is Sword of Darkness, which heals him. Too bad about its lowered accuracy.

(I mean, he could use Mirror X-Potion too, but that would be cheating.)


Lian can use Mug, which deals a little less damage but hey it's better than his spells are.


And Talf has a nice Flare, which punches through the Black King's considerable defenses. Nu mou have to make up for their poor speed somehow, right?


This is when it sunk in that the Black King knew only the expensive -aga spells.


One of the lesser-used Alchemy spells is Rasp, which attacks the target's MP instead of their HP. These spells usually aren't too useful, but here's the perfect case. Even depleting only a few MP delays the king's spell casting for a turn.


Next turn, he'll be one MP shy of a Thundaga. It's enough to make a difference.


Imino finally reaches the rest of the party, and our damage is starting to add up.


It's a shame Rasp is calculated as a magick attack, but I'll take any MP damage we can get here.


Oh, and Talf accidentally targeted Tsing, whose Mirror Mail reflects the spell back at Talf, destroying all his stored MP. Oops.


Fortunately, Imino steps in and ends the fight in a blaze of power.


I honestly thought this fight was going to drag on forever. Honestly, bless Rasp. Blasp.

: Next you face Cinquleur's rearguard, the White King, kupo!

: Rearguard? Let's hope that means he's the last!


The Crown Scepter teaches the Holy-element Star Cross Illusion. It's also available at the Camoa auction.




Do you know how long I've been waiting to get Wind Sigils? I swear, they never drop from Law Bonuses or from any enemies. I wasted the ones I got from an earlier quest -- there's a particular katana that needs a Wind Sigil, but I thought it was available from an auction. (Still missing another component for it though.)

I may or may not have done this entire quest chain just to get these Wind Sigils.

---


Last one!


You may be wondering: just how difficult can a single White Mage be?


(Worst law in the game, I swear.)


The answer, of course, is that he's barely even a White Mage! He has Sagacity, the Sage skill set, and he knows the three highest-damage spells that aren't called "Ultima." Even worse, check out his stats!

For comparison, 156 Attack is significantly higher than Samuel's 133. No one has any stats above 200, even when you include equipment bonuses. (Except for our various Dual Wielders, who can pass 250 Weapon Attack with the right weapons. But they don't really count.)

And that's the White King's lowest stat. Of course, his level is twice as high as ours, so it makes sense. Just... this is gonna hurt.

To top it all off, he has Blood Price. Which actually works in our favor, assuming we survive the attack.


Melee attackers are good, but if I had more ranged attackers, I'd be using them instead. Magick is all but useless.


Wielder of terrifying ancient powers, more like.

: The White King...so you're the last.

: Yes. I am the pinnacle of the might that is Cinquleur! I trust you will make this last battle your best, Clan Sawyer!

: This one looks and sounds toughest of all... But we've come too far to quit!




Oh right, 101 Speed is faster than all of our units, too.


Holy shit.


Did I mention I love Sage? It's such a fun, hard-hitting job.


Still, that took 64 HP. (Scathe is 32 MP base, same as Ultima, and Blood Price doubles it.) That's a pretty significant advantage for us: with careful positioning, you can make him waste HP attacking individual targets.


He's faster than us, but he's not so fast that he takes multiple turns for each one of ours.


The Magick Frenzy damage only shows the spell's damage, and the White King's resistance is high enough to fully negate Leed's Wood Veil damage. The melee attacks are still hitting plenty hard.


Oh right, he does know some White Mage abilities. He gains 90 HP, since Cura is still cast using his HP.


Lucky shot! It was worth the risk of breaking the law.


This reduces his Defense and Resistance significantly. We'll hit a little bit harder.


Even Penelo contributes a little.


He can't out-heal our damage, and the battle is already almost over.


Leed lands the finishing blow.



: But it was a battle worth fighting!

: That should be the end of them... Can't believe it's over.


This would be a great reward, if we took this quest as soon as it was available. Instead, we picked it up at the Fluorgis auction.


And with that, the mage clan Cinquleur has been defeated.

---

Thank you for reading!

With her quest resolved, what lies in Adelle's future? Should she train in another job? Maybe return to her Thief/Ninja roots?

Cinquleur is little more than a series of challenge battles wrapped in a flimsy story. The dialogue is the same no matter what units you bring -- not even Samuel has unique lines. That doesn't diminish from the fun of figuring out how best to handle them, just don't expect anything story-related to come from them.

It says something about our power level that the strongest clan in the land barely posed a threat to us.

This is totally the last we see of them, absolutely, for sure, there's absolutely no later battle where we face all five at once and they form Voltron Mega Moogletron.