Part 5: Geohound. Cold, unfeeling Geohound

So, Garmia Tower. The place is positively lousy with spiders. Or perhaps spidery with them.



Mottled Spider
Difficulty:

HP: 530 (from 250)
Attack: ~100
Special: on hit
Abilities: Web Shot (~70 damage, -2, Cancel)

If they somehow hit you with three web shots, you'll have enough -MOV to be fixed in place. This is basically the only way you could actually die to them. Still, it's a neat trick for the first enemy you encounter in the game.

Poison deals negligible damage every once in a while and, more importantly, slows acting speed. Taking damage from poison also briefly interrupts a character's current action. It's pretty annoying, but usually not life-threatening.

Anyway, Garmia Tower has four floors, and the first one consists of a circular corridor with a bunch of rooms on the outside and one central room on the inside. The outside rooms contain treasure, such as this Hand Grenade:



und Salbe -



Bug Count: 6

- as well as a Wind Charm, which gives five levels of Wind resistance.



Aside from these nice gargoyles in the middle room, that's about all for the first floor.







The second floor is pretty barren - just this catwalk sort of structure and no monsters. Even the music goes down in volume. These torches mute it entirely, so you can listen to the nice sound effect. At the end of the catwalk is 50 gold and the stairs up to the third floor.





The third floor has a somewhat similar layout to the first, but with rubble blocking paths to make you take the long way around. Also present are living versions of those gargoyles from the first floor, which aren't too hard to fight.





Treasure on this floor includes another Wound Salve and 150 gold. At the end is another convenient save point and the stairs to the top floor.



Oh dear.

VIDEO: Battle - Gargoyles

Gargoyle
Difficulty:

HP: 680 (from 300)
Attack: ~70
Abilities: Howl (~120 damage), Howlslash (~160 damage)

This set of two Gargoyles is the closest we have to a boss fight for this dungeon. They do respectable damage and they're tanky enough to require using a few Wound Salves over the course of the fight. They're also the first enemies to cast spells, which work about the same way as special moves, but don't tend to Cancel. The Wind Charm from earlier can be used to reduce their spell damage, but overall this is a manageable fight with no preparation.

In the above video you may notice that the animation for Howlslash is kind of weird. This is because spells that go in a line tend to bug out and become inconsistent with the spell animation. And while we're on the subject of bugs, another great one is the game's tendency to crash if you get a Game Over and then try to load and fight a battle again. Bug Count: 8

More importantly, oh god Tessa


(definitely listen to this)



The ceremony... failed... sa... save Elena...

Hang on. We'll get you out of here.

...

Dammit! She's dead...

Ryudo! No time for sentiment! Search for the others!

Yeah. We're in waist deep here...



This stupid door! It doesn't budge!

I'll look for another way in!

Dammit!

Ryudo, this window!









EEEK!





Images start flashing in Ryudo's mind.





That Darkness!? ... I know that Darkness!

There is... no Darkness inside me. You cannot... I forbid you.... Aaahh...

Ryudo! You there? Snap out of it!

... Dammit! I'm gonna save her.



The strange orb in the center of the room starts rumbling and spewing out purple smoke.

Ryudo, we've got trouble!

Let's ride!







MUSIC: Crickets



Say, are you feeling okay? You were acting a little strange back there in the tower.

...Yeah. Just some bad memories...

Oh... Hey, she's waking up.

Hey, wake up!

... Ooohhh. Stop it...! STOP IT!

Hey. It's alright now. Hey!



In the woods, near that Tower.

Huh? Why am I in such a place...?

Look over there.





That is... the power of Darkness... ...! Where is everyone? Wh- where is Tessa!?

You were the only survivor. Sorry. Come on, we've got to get moving.

NO! I'm... is...is everyone... ...everyone...

I am going back! They must have...

Hey! HEY! Princess! The power of Darkness isn't coming this way to tell us about the neighborhood bake sale. We need to leave!

Are they really... gone...?

Yeah, they're dead. You nearly didn't make it yourself; you weren't looking so hot, nevermind those wings you sprouted...

... We lost to the power of Darkness. To the power of Valmar...

You still with us, Songstress? Hey, time to snap out of it! The dead won't be joining us anytime soon...

The ceremony has failed. All have perished. Why should I alone have lived? Why should I alone keep living...

Because I've got a job to do. Now get up and get your butt in gear!



Geohound. Cold, unfeeling Geohound.

Harsh.

MUSIC: Silence



...

Anyway, I'll bring you back to the priest. That's what I was hired for, after all...

Ryudo, how can you kill so indiscriminately!?

I'm sorry... You are doing it to protect me...

... Don't worry. Part of the job.




This update is getting too long to actually get back to the church, so we'll settle for the inn. Don't worry though, there's plenty of awful things left to happen to Elena and everything she holds dear.

Official Art: Elena