Part 50: Garlyle Base 2

And a proper update for those who skip the NPC chatter.

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Welcome back! Last time, we tried to escape from jail and got the snot beaten out of us by angry soldiers.





No cellmates, tied up and hanging from the ceiling. The situation's looking pretty dire.

: Drat, only one more step away! Rats! Let me out of here! What are you going to do with us!? Say something!

: Shut up! Quiet in there!

: Lookie here! We're gonna escape! Remember that!





: They've kept on shouting ever since. They don't quiet down at all.



Aaaaand we're being interrogated by the third-in-command of the entire Garlyle Forces.



And things are already off to a rosy start.

: What are you saying?!! Look how bad you treated us at Sult. Now, untie this rope right away! Let me see Feena!

: Shut up! I will not allow you to mouth off like that!

: You know too much about military secrets, ancient cultures, and humanoids. The punishment for you three will be decided within a week. It should be the death sentence.

: You think we'll go quietly to a death sentence!? I'll break out! I'll show you!

: I said, DON'T MOUTH OFF!



: Aw, crud! I dare you to do it.



: Waaaaah!

It's been too long since we've gotten to increment our Justin Cranial Trauma counter.

Also, I didn't notice until I made the gifs, but Justin actually rises and falls a little as the rope spins. A very neat, if subtle, addition.

: Unngh! I'll re-re-remember this!

: ...... Do you seriously think that you can escape from here?



: Huh... A-a military train...?

: All you can do right now is wait until we carry out your sentence. Be quiet until then.



: But, Lieutenant Leen, don't we have to watch this punk?

: Leave him alone. If he makes any more ruckus, I won't mind if you kill him.

: Yes, Ma'am! Excuse us!





Aah, that Leen. Heaping verbal and physical abuse on us one minute, and giving us an escape plan and the jail key the next.



: Well, what do I do now? First I have to do something with this rope....





: Uhhnnngh! Somehow....



: Unngh



: A little more....





And the ropes are conveniently loose enough to escape.



: That woman called Leen dropped it. Heh heh heh. She's really a dunce.



And, with the jail key once again, we... walk to the next room.



: Wait Feena! I'll open it for you now! ... Great! It opened!



: Hee hee. That was an easy one!

: I'm amazed you got out of your cell. What kind of magic did you use?

: Heh heh. The truth is, a soldier came around a little while ago, and I heard a few things.

I had a joke here about Justin spending that last Mana Egg on Knock, but then remembered that it was already given to Feena.

: Then she dropped the jail key. She was so stupid. That's how I escaped.

: Wow. That's a little hard to believe. So you were saved thanks to her.

: Hey, Justin! Before we escape, let's go rescue the humanoid boy.

: Of course we will!

: Well then, hurry. Let's go look for that child before they come after us.

And with that we're finally done.

With the cutscenes. Off we go into the dungeon proper!







The save point's hint is "Hey, lower-leveled skills gain more XP per use than higher-leveled ones do". The potion...



... Is going to come in handy. At some point. Dunno when.



Looks like we'll need to find a way around this door. Hmm...



CRAAAAAAAWWWWWLING IIIIIN MY DUUUUUUUUCTS!

Yep, can't have a JRPG without the inevitable duct-climbing and eavesdropping segment.

The worst part of the ducts is that you can't run while in them. Makes sense, but they're long, tedious, and you move slowly through them.

Which is why I've decided to have the next several months' worth of updates dedicated to a frame-by-frame retelling of the whole experience!



Oh, also twisty and they loop back on themselves. But I'm getting ahead of myself. There's only one way to go for now...





Surprise! More cutscene! And more Humanoid language!

: What!? That voice...

Justin's still at that age where he thinks Alucard from Symphony of the Night is the coolest.



Oh, hey, it's the kid. And Mullen.



And they're talking to each other.



The kid isn't having any of it, though, and runs to the other corner of his cell.

: Aww... it's still useless! He's still so frightened.



Thankfully, Leen shows up to goad Mullen into expositing for us.

: No. He's so scared his mind is shut. He wouldn't even say his own name, much less the location of the village.

: Nana's group probably went too far. They always do. They're ruthless. I'll have to caution them.

: Herr Mullen, what do you intend to do with that humanoid child? You can't be thinking of....

: Well... Gentle Leen, is that weighting on your mind?

: No... not really.

: Don't worry. We won't rough him up. We have justice on our side. This operation is meaningful.

: Still, I think we should go with the plan we discussed earlier. Well then, don't dilly-dally Leen!

: Yes sir, Herr Mullen.



: Sure, I found him. And THAT guy was there too. The one we met at the Sult Ruins called Mulley or something.

: What? That blond guy!?

: That's the one. He said he would flatten Justin.

: Well, was I flattened? It was just a rough fight!

Wait, are they implying that the big group of soldiers wasn't enough to recapture Justin and Sue? That Mullen himself had to get involved?

: But that guy.... How can he talk to that boy? Who in the world IS he!?

: First, we have to save that boy. So let's go!

They, uh... they really don't want to let us forget to save the kid. Anyway, the catwalk leads to another duct. Which, itself leads to...





... Here.





An eight-digit, four-directional code. Clearly there is only one thing to try.



: Don't do anything foolish. Look for a way to open the door, Justin!

Hmm. If it's not the Konami code, then we'll have to try and find out the code. We could either try and interrogate some soldiers, or just manually exhaust the 65,536 possibilities.

Or have seen it before, as it's always the same code.

If you do manage to open it before finding out the proper code, though...



: Isn't it enough that it opened? Our goal is to rescue a child. So let's go!

Hear, hear! ... Next time, though.

See you then!