Part 57: Monstrous Fish

Update 57: Monstrous Fish

In This Update:
- Fish!
- Monsters!
- Dubious pet choices!

---

Welcome back! Today, we are finally going to teach a man to fish.


Or, because this is FFTA2, we're going to watch a nu mou teach himself to fish.


Fishing in the Tramdine Fens seems like a bad idea to me. I would expect to catch ghosts or man-eating plants or zombies.


But I guess we're the clan that chased the head of a shadowy criminal organization into a magickal lawless realm in order to kill a demon, so maybe we can't judge.



: Do you know how he catches the fish?



: With his two bare hands! They are all you need to catch a fish. Once, I had the fortune to witness a master fisherman at work.


That sounds like high level Beastmastery to me. Maybe you just need to change your job?

: I will go on training until I can do the same. Perhaps you could keep those monsters at bay for me?



: Never heard of fishing that way, kupo. Kupo-po! Let's drive off these monsters!


So this battle is actually a little rough, if you're underleveled.


This Hellhound isn't necessarily the most threatening thing, though it does have a good amount of HP and Speed.


But three Shellings (two Rocktitans and an Adamantitan) present a huge pile of HP and defenses.


It would be more threatening if we weren't hitting for 100+ damage on every attack, of course.


Don't forget we have two goals: kill all enemies and keep Enchan safe. Enchan is defenseless and takes no actions on his turns. He does have some sense of self preservation and will move towards your team.


However, he has low defenses, and the nearly 600-HP Nagaraja can easily attack him from across the battlefield.


At least the other enemies need to go through us first.


Again, we're doing tons of damage each turn, so I'm not too worried. Unless that Headless manages to reach Enchan soon, we'll be fine.


Zapping the Headless helps though.


Lian and Adelle bag our first two kills, significantly easy the pressure, if there was any to begin with.


Wait no there definitely is some pressure.


Really need you to back off, dude!


Enchan does his best, but as a White Mage, he really should have at least Cure.


Penello will take care of it instead. Slapping Regen on him isn't a bad idea either.


The Nagaraja is moving in, though I think Lian has a handle on it.


Can't ignore the Shellings though. The Nagaraja resists Fire, Lightning and Ice, so Montblanc is better off focusing on these two.


Meanwhile, the second Rocktitan moves in to attack Montblanc.


Adelle weakens it a bit further, and Cid goes for a risky attack that slaughters the Nagaraja.


That just leaves these two.


On reflection, this battle presents some interesting tactical choices.


You have essentially three groups of threats: the Hellhound, who can charge in early; the Headless and Nagaraja, who come from the left; and the Shellings, coming from the right.


If you're not absurdly overpowered, it'll take you some time to deal with each group. Given how they're spaced out, the Nagaraja will be attacking as you're dealing with the Hellhound.


Then, as you're trying to chew through nearly 1000 HP that's right on top of Enchan, the Shellings will hit your flank. This almost happened in this run, if you look at when the Rocktitan attacked Montblanc.


If you're forced to deal with only one or two enemies at a time and can't burn them down quickly, you could be overwhelmed and lose the mission.


I can't recall any of other battles that are so clearly structured. Maybe the one against Illua? It's pretty interesting, for a one-off side mission.

: Ah, thank you. Finally, I can concentrate.

: Good luck, kupo!



---


Of course, it being the fens, driving off one pack of monsters is never enough.


How many giant, man-eating monsters have we seen and slayed so far? How do these continents sustain so many of them?


Not too bad, I just need to keep my wits about me.



: What a fix I find myself in!




Oh no the plant converted Enchan! We're too late!


As you can see, we're split into two groups. This doesn't actually have any kind of impact on the battle.

: Kupo-po! Get away from there!

: You have answered my request! ... I am afraid that my legs do not seem to be working properly.


The poor guy is panicking, so it's up to us to rescue him!




I think this is the sturdiest Rafflesia we've seen. As usual, the key to the Copycat law is to use unique abilities instead of attacks. Since there are 2 women on the team, Flourish does +50% damage, so it's no hardship to use.


The giant plant will try to disable your units from afar, which you should be used to dealing with by now.


Enchan is completely immobilized and will do nothing on his turns. Fortunately, the Rafflesia seems happy to ignore him.


Besides its pile of HP and handful of status effects, the Rafflesia is slow and weak to fire. This battle isn't very hard, even though the enemy is at our level.


So, you know, get in there and punch it in the face-analogue, I guess.


Fire spells are also very useful here! Doublecasted summons would probably do almost 400 damage total, I think.


It takes a while, but we eventually drag it below 1000 HP, and it decides to ramp up its attacks a bit. (This is only its second turn. It really is quite slow.)


It's no problem to leave Enchan asleep, and Cid easily wakes up Tsing with a nice Aurablast.


I almost feel bad for how we're tearing it apart.


It's the monster's third turn, and...


It summoned a Malboro.


Go away, I don't have time for you.


Getting pretty close now!


The poison wakes up Enchan. He'll be fine.


Might as well finish it off with style, right?




Awesome.

: Kupo! Glad that's over!

: Thank you, you've saved my life. I was following the fish-shadows with my eyes, when I saw it: A great shadow gliding through the water below!

: Without stopping to think, I set about trying to entice the thing... It was only when it came that I realized how foolish I'd been. I'm lucky it didn't choose to attack before help arrived.


A sensible suggestion. Tramdine Fens is just not a good location!

: It is... embarrassing to practice where others might see me. But perhaps that, too, is part of the training. Very well. I shall go back to Fluorgis, there to hone my skills.

: Here, have this. It is but a small token of my gratitude.


Uh huh, all right...


Free Ribbon!! This is excellent and awesome. I would have taken this quest a lot sooner had I known!


Overall, a fun, interesting and rewarding quest.

---

Way, WAY back in Update 15, we helped a young woman prove herself to her father by helping her slay an Ivory Wyrm. And by "helping her" I mean we did all the work and she took all the credit.


No hard feelings though. It seems her father doesn't quite believe her, and now we have to help her prove herself once more!


Honestly, it's basically the same set up as the first mission, except we explicitly aren't killing the target.


Though this law is definitely going to make things interesting.


Very interesting. Or annoying.


I don't trust myself not to break the law, so I'm taking Move +2 to help us get up to the wyrm as fast as possible.



: The wyrm I wish to capture is there.


Scary looking thing, isn't it.



: It is the same wyrm we defeated in our battle. If I am to prove to father that I defeated it, no other will do.



: I don't know who to feel sorrier for, us or the wyrm...


Alright, let's see if we can do this without breaking the law.


Jalia is wearing boots that boost her jump, so she can just walk up the side of the mountain.


Zoe, on the other hand, can just fly up.


I was hoping to take down the monster in one hit, but Raptor doesn't really pack high-damage abilities. Ravager's Sneak Attack would probably have done the job.


Tsing has Faeries Shoes, letting him teleport up the mountain. With no powerful attacks, I'm hoping an indirect method will work. These Sten Needle traps will cut the wyrm's HP in half, so we should only need 2 traps to weaken it sufficiently.


Syrenead can't actually get up to us easily.


The wyrm completely ignores Tsing's wide-open back and attacks Jalia instead.


Assuming it'll continue to target her, Jalia heals herself and Tsing sets another trap.


At the base of the mountain, the rest of the team is slowly winding their way up.


Let's set another trap, just in case.


This wyrm has no respect for me, does it.


Slowly climbing up!


Syrenead tries to do something, but doesn't get very far.


Some day, I swear, one of these traps will catch this wyrm!


Oh so NOW it decides to actually attack him directly?!


Alright, I've had enough.


The wyrm's not playing nice, so I'm not going to either.


Since his was the last attack, Tsing doesn't break the law.

: Even so, that is what I mean to do. Father cannot deny my claim in the face of such proof. And who could ask for a more unique pet?

: A wyrm for a pet... That sounds like trouble in the making.

: You've earned my gratitude again. Well done!


A pet wyrm sound awesome. Can't wait to see what kind of shenanigans this leads to.

---


- Syrenead Sie Hyskaris
Not very fun shenanigans, it sounds like. Just how sheltered are these NIMBY neighbors of hers?


I feel kinda bad for the wyrm, honestly.


It's like declawing a cat, and that's just cruel, you know? This law is a lot less worse than it might sound: it just means we can't use the Attack action. So it's Copycat-lite, basically.


And hey, it's way better than Harming the Weak.



: My wyrm is there. Shall we proceed?



: We can't have you going into a rage while we trim the horn, Vasuki, so we must weaken you first. This may hurt, but you're a wyrm -- you'll survive.



: Vasuki, kupo? Whatever its name, let's be careful not to hurt it too much.


Weaken, but don't kill. Got it.


Vasuki is apparently pretty well trained and will just sit here passively.


The first few turns are spent getting close enough to attack.


OK, now I feel even worse. It can't fight back at all.


Syrenead status: Still kind of useless.


Just imagine a few turns of everyone slapping the dragon while it stands there, defenseless.



: But what if this isn't enough to quiet the complaints, kupo?

: You must forgive his anger. There was no other way. If still they will not accept him, I will hear no more of their petty complaints!


OK but maybe you should have stood up for him before mutilating his horns?

: You're certainly devoted. I hope this is the end of your troubles, kupo.

: I should not think to need your help again. Go, and know I am ever grateful.


Maybe they'll grow back because it's a wyrm?

---


Hmm? This quest again?



: Let's see... "To the clan who accepted my quest. Urgent business has called me away. Please meet me in the land of the setting sun. I still require the delivery be made on time. Ezel Berbier."

: Land of the setting sun, huh? I guess that means we're headed west.


Indeed, heading across the channel to the Ruins of Delgantua -- the westernmost area we know of -- leads us to Ezel.

: I ran into more of the same brand of trouble. Have I mentioned how incredible the Mist is in these ruins? From a distance you'd almost swear the ruins themselves were shimmering and shifting... as though they were moving through space and time.

: Maybe they are. Oh, before I forget, here's the ether you asked for.



: Ah, yes. Thank you. I think I may explore these ruins a while longer. Farewell, Samuel.

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Thanks for reading! This was a pretty fun update, I enjoyed doing these quests.

Let's tackle one of the longer quest lines next. There's only a handful left, so vote for 1 of the following:

1. Someone's asking after Lethean Draught, which we should probably look into.
2. The Chocobo Rancher is looking for some help with catching some birds!
3. Or we could help the Culinary Crusaders!