Part 39: Revenge of the Cake

Update 39: Revenge of the Cake

In This Update:
- The return of Klesta.
- Bowen's tragic backstory.
- Cake!

---


It's been a while since we've seen fellow adventurers House Bowen.

Can you imagine Bowen introducing himself? "I'm Bowen of House Bowen." Such an ego.


Anyway, it sounds like Bowen got himself into a situation. We're bringing some Cloudy Sap, in case the situation isn't sticky enough.




It's been a while since we saw Klesta, hasn't it.


We can only bring three units to this battle. Imino's a Black Mage, Jalia is a Spell Blade and Tsing is a Ranger as usual.



: Do your worst, feathered fiend!

: Bowen! You can't go up against that monster alone!

: Clan Sawyer!? What are you doing here!? Flee! Flee at once!


Klesta pecks Bowen while his guard is down, sending him flying across the clearing.

: I've tracked you down... found your lair! Fowl fiend! I shall crush you this day, in all your dire rotundity! For Friese...



: Uh oh. He's blind with rage! Let's get in there and help him before it's too late!


Alright, it's us four against Klesta, and Bowen is mad--


Oh thank goodness, Tweigel has perfect timing.

Talk about mood whiplash though. Bowen's mad with rage because of his dead wife, but on the other hand, "dire rotundity" and Tweigel's Big Damn Heroes moment.

: You have come, too!?

: We are House Bowen! Whether we live or die, we do it with you.

: I trusted you with my back... Who would there be to protect me were you to fall out here?

: We move together, strike together. Did we not swear that after what happened to Friese?

: ... Yes. Yes, we did.



: Of course. Together with Clan Sawyer, we may just defeat Klesta this time! To battle!

So what are we up against?


To be honest, Klesta is largely unchanged. Still a bucket of HP, still has the same moves, still can't move. So let's just get in there and beat him up!


Nice.


House Bowen is the same as before, too. Tweigel's using his usual Blood Price Illusionist shenanigans, for example.


And Veis is still running away instead of doing anything useful.


Unsurprisingly, we're going to be doing the bulk of the damage here. We're 15 levels higher than everyone else.


Have I shown off some of the weirder Juggler abilities? Gil Toss lets you solve your problems by literally throwing money at them. This is the damage for 10,000 gil, the most you can throw. 40% accuracy is awful!


Weapon Toss is a lot better. It lets you throw any weapon from your inventory. Shown here is the damage from throwing a Fallen Angel, one of the strongest weapons in the game.

Please don't actually do this.


We'll stick with a nice, safe Thunder instead.


Klesta's first turn and we've already burned a third of his HP. Not bad!


Bowen still loves his Backdraft.


Tsing lands another great hit, and Klesta once again flies off.



: And again, it runs!?

: No... Not this time! Now, Clan Sawyer! You know what to do!

: Leave it to us!





: You've... stopped it from fleeing!? You've done it! Brilliant! Now attack! Attack! Attack! ATTACK!!!


Thanks for finally joining the battle, Veis!


Klesta's second and last turn.


Everyone gets hit, but it's not enough damage to make us fall back.

It's actually less damage than what he did the first time we fought him -- way back in update 1!


Even better, all the counter attacks bring Klesta ever closer to death.


And a few rounds later, Tsing finishes the deed.



: ... How long have I waited... And finally... Finally...



: We defeated it thanks to you, Clan Sawyer. Were Klesta to have escaped once more, I know not if I would have had the strength to continue. Time for us - for me - had stopped since that day. You freed me from the chains of my past. You have my thanks.

: I'm glad for you. Just take care of yourself better than you did today. I am sure your wife... Friese... wouldn't want you to join her too soon.

: Wha-!? How do you know of this!? ...

Bowen, you screamed it loud enough for the whole forest to hear.

: You, Tweigel! Your lips flap too loosely!

Or sure, blame your oldest friend. (He admittedly did tell us about it.


You can tell he's smirking. Tweigel, you little shit.

: ... No matter. I owe you much for coming after your wayward leader... Rest assured, I plan on taking you with me next time!

: You'd better. Allow me to offer my thanks as well, Clan Sawyer.

: Until next we meet! May it be as comrades on the field of battle!


The reward for beating Klesta is a piece of loot called "Demon Wing," which seems quite appropriate.

---

We're not done with House Bowen just yet!


Some time after helping them defeat Klesta, the clan will challenge you to a speed battle.




Be careful with buffs, Blood Price Summoner won't be too useful here, etc.


Four units this time. Zoe is a Hunter, because she's mastered every other Gria job, while Henri is a Gladiator. Frimelda is a Thief, training to become a Ninja.



: This is our quarry.


Ew.

: Quite a monster. You don't mess around, do you.

: It's no fun if it's easy. Well, what are we waiting for? You know the rules of the game.



: We do. Whoever lands the killing blow wins!




I think they cheat and let Veis go first. She's level 28 and we're all around 42. As usual, the boss is immune to all conditions.


The boss has a ton of HP! I forgot to look at its abilities beforehand, sorry.


The Rafflesia is weak to fire and absorbs water and earth damage, so Fire Tackle is actually really useful here! Look how much more damage it does compared to the regular attack.

"Rafflesia" is the genus of parasitic plants famous for the "corpse flower," a large flower that smells like rotting flesh. Basically Gloom and Vileplume for you Pokémon fans in the audience.


Sometimes giving someone else a move is better than using your own attacks.


We fought one of these giant plants a while ago. It has the same attacks, namely status-inflicting pollens. This one Confuses its targets, and for some reason I forgot to give Frimelda a Ribbon, which would have saved her.


House Bowen finally joins the fray.


They really don't change. Well, if it works it works, right?


Remember, this is a speed battle. The winner is whoever deals the final blow. The boss already around half health, so I'm going to back off and let House Bowen whittle it down a bit further.


The Rafflesia's other attack inflicts Blind, and of course Frimelda gets hit again.


Yep, Confused units' actions count against you! This is what I get for not being careful during mission prep.


Still, we'll win this. Henri backs off instead of attack, letting House Bowen get some hits in.


Except we're so much faster than House Bowen that we're getting almost two turns for one of theirs.


Even better, Bowen and his Ravager have been Confused. They'll be useless when their turns roll around.


Frimelda! Seriously, even Blinded she manages to land both hits. At least Imino has plenty of HP, thanks to all those Moogle Knight levels.


That's pretty poor timing for an Opportunity Command, Zoe, since we need damage right now. Imino and Henry have their turns right after Zoe, so we should have this in the bag -- barring any misses or other accidents, of course.


You too, Imino!?


No matter, a good Fira finishes it off.


Confused units flash purple, by the way.

: You're as sharp as ever.

: Guess our lightning-fast reflexes owe a lot to all the quests we've done!

: Don't get it go to your head, or you're like to lose it. It only takes a moment of weakness to rob a man of his life on the battlefield.

: But you've earned this victory, to be sure. Well fought!


I'll admit, it was hard to resist the urge to attack House Bowen instead. Can't lose the race if you're the only competitor, right?

---

That wraps up the main House Bowen quest line. We've brought Bowen some measure of peace by helping him avenge his dead wife, Friese, and in the process rid Ivalice of the scourge known as Klesta.

This isn't the last time we'll see House Bowen, of course. Just don't expect them to be our allies from here on out.


I've actually been looking forward to these two missions because they reward some rare loot. With the Water Sigils from House Bowen's Challenge, I can finally buy the Osafune, the last katana!

---

The second set of quests for this update is a tale of drama, familial heartache, and most importantly...


Cake.


This is undoubtedly one of the most important missions we've taken.


I don't understand the point of this law. None of the enemies are weak to lightning, and in fact the Lamia resists it.


Adelle is a Ninja, Hurdy is an Animist, Vaan is a Thief. That's Jalia as a Red Mage, not Lenolia like you're used to seeing!



: Makes sense -- cockatrices are well known to be pranksters at heart.



: I think it was six pages in all.


And we're off!


We're splitting the party in two. Adelle and Tsing will be taking the top path, while everyone else is staying in the low ground.


Adelle and Tsing are two of our fastest units, and they can easily take down the Adamantitan by themselves.


The Lamia and Bloody Orb will be easily handled by the rest of the clan, especially with a Hasted Black Mage to support them.


The last group of enemies is these three Cockatrices. My plan is that our two groups will meet in the middle and take down these three, though Adelle and Tsing will probably be the main attackers there.


This late in the game, we're seeing actual ability sets on regular monsters. Cockatrices have some nifty abilities, and on-demand Haste and Quicken are annoying to deal with.


Similarly, the Adamantitan has a very strong Munch, which fortunately misses.


The rest of the party is not so lucky.


OK, so maybe I should have checked Jalia's spells before starting this mission. At least Cure is useful!


Talf is packing the Sage ability set, so he has plenty of damage to throw around.


Up top, Adelle weakens the Adamantitan further.


And Tsing finishes it off next turn.


Down below, Jalia puts her Assassin abilities to good use and Stones the Bloody Orb before it can be too annoying.


Talf, with another Haste boost from Hurdy, starts engaging the Cockatrices.


Adelle and Tsing are engaging them from the other side of the stairs, too.


I really don't get to use Sage enough. Such raw power!


Only one Cockatrice and the Lamia left.


We haven't seen many Animist action at all. It's an OK job at best. Chocobo Rush is one of its cooler abilities, dealing damage in an infinite line.
Don't worry, Vaan dodged it.


Adelle picks up another page, and Tsing takes down the Cockatrice with some help from Talf.


Just three pages of the recipe left and we're out of here.


Done.

Wait, six pages?! What kind of cake is this?

: That's all of it. Every ingredient is rare, expensive, or both! Must be a real pain to make.


I'd seriously love to hear what kind of cake needs a six page recipe.

---


Hedychium is renowned in Ivalice for its sweet nectar, so I guess it makes sense as a cake ingredient. Most Hedychium flowers in our world are white, not blue.


This is just a delivery mission, but it's cute.



: I'd given up on ever making tha cake, but now I think there may be hope!

: It seems like an awfully difficult cake to make.

: Yes, it's my grandmother's special recipe. But...my father love sit so. I just have to make it!



: Now that I've got the ingredients, the rest isn't so bad. I'm no master chef, but I'll do my best. Thank you!

It had better be a damn good cake.

---


Oh no! What a tragedy. We must rectify this immediately!


Once again, Cockatrices are to blame.


Not the worst law. We have plenty of magick users and ranged attackers that we can use instead.


And Adelle's Heritor abilities can be used instead of her blades, of course. She somehow fell behind on XP. That's Lenolia as a Green Mage, everyone else should look familiar.



: Looks like we'll have more to deal with than a single cockatrice if we're going to find that cake!


This shouldn't be too hard. The enemies are all in the mid 30s, we're in the low 40s.


The Adamantitan is more annoying than dangerous, unless it starts destroying your equipment. Slow basically renders it useless, since it already has very low Speed.


But a dead enemy is better than a Slow enemy.


Of course, all the speed debuffs in the world don't matter when you have Quicken.


It doesn't go well.


I really enjoy battles like this: knock-down, drag-out fights with large groups of enemies. Maybe it's because I really enjoy AoE abilities.


Surprisingly, I don't mess up Adelle's turns this whole battle. We never run afoul of the law.


That's one down already. I'm skipping turns, obviously, I know how these battles can drag on when I show every single action.


This is extremely frustrating: the perfect casting spot is the vase buried in the sand, but for some reason we can't target that square. Every other location hits an ally or doesn't hit Lenolia.


On the other hand, the less-than-ideal attack is still really good.


Three down. We're just melting through them!


The enemies throw some chip damage at us, but I'm more annoyed by Quicken and Haste.


Oops. Always check all your targets when using an AoE attack!


Why do I bother with these chests?


One left. These last two enemies stayed out of earlier brawl, so they are still near full health.


Not that it really matters. Too bad about the low damage roll though.


It survives long enough to attack Imino, who is beefier than your typical Black Mage. Tsing buries it next turn.


The rest of the battle is just all six of us beating the sand out of this poor Ant Lion.



: Cockatrices are known to keep food in their nests... That's where it will be. A family's future hands in the balance here... Let's find that cake quick!


This is our most important rescue mission by far.

---

There's a note from Lea, the Cake quest-giver, waiting for us in the pub:




Maybe it's just me but I think you have some pretty legitimate complaints there, Lea.

---

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed our first proper post-game update.

Same as last week, it's up to YOU to choose the next adventure of Clan Sawyer!

Choose ONE of the following quest lines:

1. Finally meet The Witch of the Fens.
2. Investigate Ivalice's poaching problem.
3. Enter into the Ivalice Tournament Circuit.