Part 104: Twin Towers 5

Welcome back!



Not... not quite, Leen. This is the Room of Illusion. Y'know, like where we saw Liete in Sult and Dom?

Speaking of....





I... I'd imagine the glowing orb in front of you?

: This is a gizmo from the Angelounian Civilization. You can use it to talk to Icarians.



Great. Not only frogs, but also bright lights?

... Wait. She dislikes bright light, water makes her act funny....

Nobody feed her after midnight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j88vSRkVsV4

Hey, an FMV! It's been a while!

As always, skip down to "cutscene ends" to skip.





: Welcome, he who holds the Spirit Stone.

: Um, actually....



: He who is guided by the light of the Spirit Stone and the wings of the Icarians.



: It's me, Liete. Me, Justin. I've made it this far.



: Yes, I can feel you very clearly. You have come very close.



: From where you are, Alent is practically right before your eyes.



: Liete! Show yourself!

: Tell me where Alent is!



: Go east, Justin.



: You, the one who searches for answers.



: Liete!

And with that, the cutscene ends.



And on the glowy red line sigil thing, we find a medal. Specifically, a Medal of Wisdom.

: Liete... what's with this medal...?

: That is the key to Alent. It will show you the way there.

: To Alent, she said? Wait... that's not right! What about the Icarians?!

: Cross the inland sea and head to the east, Justin.

: I must wait until we meet again. Then I will tell you everything I know about the Angelounians.

: All right...! We're going to be in Alent soon! The Angelou mystery'll be solved at last!

: Liete said we have to cross the inland sea and head to the east. Come on, now's now time to be slow!

: Hey, we can use the Magic Circle to get sent from this tower! We can leave this place fast, Leen!

: "Leave"...? You call that "leaving", Justin?!

Um... yes?

: Do you even know how to use a Magic Circle?

: Sure, just get Mullen to attack me, then let the Spirit Stone do its thing.

: ...

: Oh. Right.



Y'know, the more I play this game, the more I realize how uncannily like Justin I wound up becoming.

: Incredible!

: Hee hee. I guess that's just the way you are, eh Justin?

: Here, I happen to know how the Magic Circle works, Justin. Stand back!



: Colonel Mullen taught me. Ph'nglui mglw'nafh wgah'nagl fhtagn!



Seriously, how else would I transcribe that? I can't find Greek letters that even vaguely resemble some of those.

Can't even it render it out in ASCII, as the hex codes are all above 0x80.



Wait for it....



Oh, hey, that's convenient.



: Oh, that's right. You only promised to help me escape. Still, couldn't you...?

: Justin... I want you to avoid going any closer than this to the Angelounians.

: What?! But... why, Leen?

: It's been my dream to find them!

: Yes... that's right. You're an adventurer, after all. Why should I even try to say such things?

Y'know, I can't tell if Leen's just being her usual sad self here, or if she's trying to guilt-trip Justin.

: Well, at least... just stay away from the Garlyle Forces, OK?



Wait, what?



If, for some reason, you want to hear idiots blathering on over the song, click on the video below and skip down to "cutscene ends". Otherwise, queue up that MP3 on repeat and get reading.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0wftGXfxRA

: ...... Give me your hand, Justin.

: Huh? B-b-but... why?

: Just do it, quickly!



: The Spirit Stone... Leen?! But why...?

: I thought I could sacrifice anything if it was to get hold of the Spirit Stone. Including actual characterization. But now... I don't know if that was right.

: So... you hold on to it.

: I never saw you in the Twin Towers and I never got the Spirit Stone.

: I get it. Thank you, Leen.



My girlfriend's reaction to this scene was to ask if Justin and Mullen had just swapped girlfriends.

The more I think about it, the more I realize it would probably improve Leen's character, if nothing else.

: Say, Justin? Tell me one last thing. What does the Spirit Stone mean to you?

: Eh?! Uh... that's a toughie....

: To me, the Spirit Stone is...?

: I know! The soul of the adventurer!

Not literally, I hope.

: ...... Hmph... hee hee...

: Ah ha ha ha ha ha!

... And yes, Leen's response to Justin's feelings is to burst out laughing.

: Don't laugh! I was serious.

: I-I'm sorry. It's sorta... funny.... That's all....

: I think I finally understand... why Feena is with you and... why I met you.

: I will never forget you....

: Good-bye, Justin!

And, once Leen dashes off, the cutscene ends.



Leaving us stranded solo in the maze. Thankfully, the Medusa Dancers are all dead. As they should be.



Before we can go too far, though, we get interrupted by a voice.

: Huh? Leen...? No, wait, that's Feena's voice!

: Feena! Feeenaaaa!



: Who, me? Of course I'm OK! I just got a little confused there, between your voice and Leen's....

: Oh? Leen, you said? Were you with her just now?

: That reminds me, Herr Mullen said that you guys were ejected by the Magic Circle.

: Huh?! Mullen?! You were with that evil Mullen dude?

: Yeah, well, he really helped me get out of that tower. He's not such a bad guy after all.

: What do you mean, Feena?! That Mullen, I could...!

: Hee hee. Anyway, let's discuss all this later on. Right now, our top priority is to find Sue and Gadwin. Let's go!



Thankfully, those two aren't much farther away, either.

: Hey, there they are! Yoo-hoo, we're over here!



: That's good! Gadwin got knocked out and didn't wake up for a while. I was so worried.

: I thought he'd take care of that Mullen guy in no time flat! Gadwin must be getting slow, I guess.

: I'm ashamed to admit, she's right.

: Even in such a wide world, I doubted such a master could exist.

: It means I haven't trained enough! Gyaah ha ha ha!

: Guess what? I met Liete again! But anyway, we're all together again. So let's get back to Gumbo!

Before we do that, though....



There's the Medal of Wisdom we picked up after Liete's FMV.

Unlike most of the other key items, this one won't be useful for a looooong while. We also got the Spirit Stone back.

Anyway, there's a few more items to pick up in this area.



Including our first combo element resist charm. I'm going to avoid commenting on how potentially use(ful/less) this is, as I seem to under or overestimate every single piece of equipment I've picked up so far.



We also pick up the Odd Hat, to go with our Odd Clogs. Good boost to defense, and it makes you teleport when attacking, so it's got that going for it.



Finally, we get our third Bond of Trust. Now the three living people can swap turns back and forth all day long.

... Or, I'd like to say "finally" but, on a whim, I decided to see if we could get back into the Vestibule area for more NPC chatter.

At which point I found that the door to the Western area was open.

I've played this game through several times, and I've just now learned that there's more shit to be looted from here.



Starting with this.



I'm starting to get paranoid about hording shit like this.

Oh yeah, I should mention that the place is once again lousy with Medusa Dancers.

Fuck that noise, though. I avoid or flee from every last one.



This would've been real fuckin' handy to have on the way in, game!



I swear to fucking God, Medusa Dancers. I'm studying the game's internal data structures, and I will remove each and every last one of you motherfuckers from existence.

Anyway, we head to the north section, pick up some gold and a Healthweed I missed the first time, and finally reach the entrance to the Vestibule. Our reward?



: Your work is done for today. You can leave now.

.... Whatever. At least we're finally done with this place.

See you next time!