Part 17: In Which Will Purifies the Well

“Is there any reason for you to expect this?”

“Well, to the ocean!”



“Neil, you say that, but isn’t the ocean getting a bit…”

“Huh. Yeah, that’s a problem. What’s the weight limit on this thing?”

“You’re the one who designed it, you tell me!”

“The math is kind of complicated. Everyone out!”



“Neil’s a good inventor, but it seems there’s always something missing in his inventions…I guess nobody’s perfect, including Neil.”

“It’s great that you’re taking this so philosophically, considering that we just CRASHED.”



“Ugh… I can’t remember anything since the water landing. Is everyone safe?”

“And now I’m talking to myself. So, this is a concussion.”



“Yep, definitely not seeing that either.”



“…and now I’m hearing voices. And… seeing a shimmering ghost version of Kara?”



This, on the other hand, is always welcome.



“This is the Palace of the Vampires…the fountain in this palace produces demons continuously…”

“So that was a REAL skeleton? Wait a second…”



“What’s your answer to that, ghost voice?”

“In the basement of the castle is a strange fountain. The stone is there… Hurry! Hurry!”



“You can see me? Wait, are you really… real?”

“I practically had a heart attack!!”

“Yep, that’s Lilly alright.”

“I saw Erik in the other room, but something’s strange. His body is half transparent. I can see through it. And he seems unconscious, as if his spirit is lost…”

“Yeah, Kara’s in the same boat. Lance probably got eaten by another sea monster or something.”

“Let’s stick together. We don’t know what will happen.”



“The Purification Stone… in the castle…”

“Not. Helping.”



“Sorry, mom isn’t coming. At least, I hope not. This is bad enough already.”



I don’t even remember what I had to do to trigger this one at this point.



Continuing down toward the bottom of the palace we start having these blue slimes appear. They’re called Skippers and will kind of hop in your general direction. They’re not terribly dangerous.




“Wait, isn’t there a hole in the coffin? I could get in through the hole. I better have a look.”

“Well, if you insist…”

“Strange… there’s a key fastened inside the coffin. No wonder it didn’t open.”

“Oh. Huh. Probably so the vampire could let himself out.”

“VAMPIRE!?”

“Oh. Huh. Probably should have told you about that.”

“Well, at least it’s not here. But there is a strange stone inside the coffin.”

“That’ll do.”



The next enemy we run into is a Skuddle, which is a kind of silver slime that will leap through solid objects if necessary to get to us. They’re even weaker than the Slippers, but have a habit of kind of dropping down on you unexpectedly.



Nearby we find our third and final Red Jewel for this particular segment. It’ll be a bit before we can turn these in, of course, but that’s okay.



“Could there be a connection between this and the rock…?”

“I have no idea how you figured that out, but yes.”



“I… think that did something? Let’s go back and see.”



“I was brought to this palace from Freejia and changed to a demon…”

“What?! All the demons we saw before were human beings…?”

“On the upside, at least we didn’t kill them before we found that out.”




“Listen, you’re not going to turn me off of bacon with argument like that.”

“Just don’t let Kara here you say that. Wait, what ever happened to her pig?”

“I’ve been very carefully not asking myself that question.”



“Wait, that’s a crime? But they were so up front about it in Freejia!”

“We don’t know how long he’s been here. Things could have changed.”

“The party officials sold us to a vampire! I can’t believe it…”



“Tell me about it.”



“You’re right, but I’m seeing a theme here.”

“Wait, does that mean there are two vampires?”



“They bring people here, turn them into demons, and use them for labor.”

“That seems like a really complicated scheme with some extra steps involved that really don’t need to be there.”



“We were almost changed into demons. I’m afraid of what might have happened if you had come later…I overheard the vampires say something like the Mystic Statue can be found in Mu.”

“I think those are kind of important. Thanks for the tip.”




And with that, we get entrance into the next dungeon. So.. maybe I wasn’t quite accurate about saying Mu was next.

Next time: Mu. For real, this time.