Part 4: Episode IV: A Man of Faith

Episode IV: A Man of Faith



Between scenes we’ve successfully prevented Edward from succumbing to the wrath of Welsh cuisine and resume our exploration of Nemeton Monastery. Quite the expansive kitchen they have here, no? There is a knife on the blood soaked table Edward thought was a good idea to eat scraps from. It’s the same sort of knife Koudelka began with so we’ll opt out of looking at its description.





There are a couple of exits out of the kitchen. The one in the northeastern corner leads to progress. So we’ll skip that one for now and check out the northwestern exit, behind the counter. But first, an important discovery...



Cheese has finally returned to us! Always a cause for celebration. Cheese is a consumable that restores 250 HP, making it slightly better than bread. That’s just science. One decent thing the game does that I haven’t mentioned is every item pick-up comes in multiples. We actually got three pieces of cheese. Granted... the amount we picked up is randomized. But hey... it could just be one item and that’s a wrap.





Heading out from the northwestern door from the kitchen leads us into a courtyard of sorts with a moss covered well.



As we all know, all Welsh wells are universally haunted. In this case, by humanoid ghosts known as Shams which come packing a whole array of elemental spells exclusively. Ghosts can’t punch people. That’s just ridiculous.



Ghosts can, however, be punched. Not all ghosts, mind you. Just those in Wales. Do not attempt to punch a ghost in any other region in the British Isles. Scottish ghosts are absolutely not susceptible to fisticuffs. It will go very poorly for you if you try to duke it out with a Scotch Ghost.



We’ll investigate the well momentarily. First let’s check out the item discarded nearby. That may look like a Green Herb at a glance. But everyone knows Green Herbs are native to the Arklay Mountains in the Midwestern United States. And Notspain... And death camp islands in South America. And Antarctica... Occasionally on cruise ships. The Balkans. China. Louisiana... But definitely not Wales.



Instead, this is a Panacea the designated status effect curing item of the game. There is actually a curative item exclusively for Poison. Just poison. Everything else needs chowing down on one of these to be cured.



Returning to the well, there isn’t much that can be done here at the moment. All Koudelka can do is peer into the well’s depths. If you look closely, you can see there’s a shiny golden object at the bottom of the well. Didn’t we lose something like that during the intro? Nah... Must be a coincidence.



That is all we can do with the well. For now, let’s return to the kitchen and head through the other exit, leading to...



The... tool storeroom? I mean... that’s not what I’d put right next to the kitchen. But I’m not a Welshman from the late 1800s. So what do I know? A couple new items crop up in this room. There’s a bottle to the right of Koudelka which is...



Now remember: Red wine restores a significant amount of health and stamina. Rose wine restores magical abilities. When drinking, please be responsible with which restorative agents you are sampling. I’ll have to get back to you what box wine restores...



We also have another melee weapon – a hammer. This is actually an extremely fortunate pick-up as the RNG gods decreed this is a Fire Hammer. This might make an upcoming encounter tremendously easy.



Speaking of encounters, this storeroom is guarded by a Spectre. You wouldn’t know it by a glance, but Spectres are electrical ghosts which falls under the banner of Light Elemental. Not that we have any means of inflicting Light damage at the moment, which it would absorb like the spirit of a malicious Pikachu.



As everyone know, fists deal only in the Punch Element of which electrical beasts have little in the way of defenses. Setting them on fire works as well. Or even shooting ‘em. Turns out ghost busting was significantly easier in the 1800s.



On the far end of the room is another door leading further into the building next to a couple of rusted over boilers. Another weapon is discarded on the ground here – a pipe.



Fun fact: All weapon elemental attributes are randomized based on the second they’re picked up. I mean literally, the second the timer is on will randomize what the elemental type it is assigned. I decided to test this messing with the emulator. Picking it up immediately after the save state resulted in a Fire Pipe. Two seconds was a Water Pipe. Five seconds was a Mystic Pipe. This was 100% consistent with several reloads. Not that I was planning on save scumming an elemental type. Just worth peeling back the insane layers of randomness this game employs occasionally.



Heading into the next room, we find a dimly lit greenhouse of sorts with an unconscious man lying on the floor and an ominous message as soon as we enter. The prompt “...Something’s not right...” is Koudelka being nice and informing us there is a boss battle present further in this room and we should prepare accordingly. So that’s a rare nice thing the game does for the player.



We’re going to do a tiny bit of prep work here such as topping off Edward and Koudelka’s HP/MP as needed. We’re also going to mess with the Formation of the party. Koudelka is going to hang out in the back in most instances as she is our designated caster. Edward, however, we’re going to move up to the front lines in and center so he can go start punching enemies as quickly as possible. As you do...



We’re also going to equip Edward with that Fire Hammer we just picked up. You might notice equipping this weapon buffs several of Edward’s stats. That’s another weird randomized quirk of weapons on top of their elemental attributes. They’ll buff (and in some cases debuff) several skills on equip. Just equipping Edward with this hammer gives him nearly a 100 extra HP. But that will all go away if the thing happens to break. There is no downside to giving him a huge boost against a boss, even if we’re sculpting him toward punchman duty against random encounter jobbers.



Seems the definitely not third playable character who is on the boxart is still breathing, just passed out. There is nothing we can do for him at the moment until we sort out whatever evil presence is plaguing this garden.



...a giant plant attacks you!


New Music: Incantation Again (You should probably listen to the boss battle music at least once.)





Behold the first boss of Koudelka, the giant plant of the Nemeton Monastery garden – err... No, its name is actually just “Giant Plant”. Audrey 0 here comes sporting 1500 HP which is a step up from the 150-300 HP enemies we’ve been facing thus far. But... not really.



Giant Plant, being a err... plant is highly weak to being set on fire. Which is very fortuitous since that is the only offensive spell we happen to possess at the moment. We’ll just get Koudelka on top of casting that, so she can at least feel like she’s participating a tiny bit.



I say that because Edward has a Fire Hammer. A hammer that does fire elemental damage. This is not a tool that is friends with a giant flammable overgrown weed. We’ll just need to trot Edward up there and...



...There goes nearly a third of its total HP in a single strike. This isn’t a particularly hard boss. They’re thankfully putting on the kiddy gloves briefly in the same game that has a random battle that can kill you in the second room. But this just makes it kind of a sad joke.





Giant Plant has some Earth based spells that it really seems like it wants to hit Koudelka with here. But due to its distance and Koudelka having more PIE from that level-up, she just completely no-sells it.





That said, the spell casting distance also makes her Flare pitifully weak. But a double digit damage spell gains just as much EXP as one that hits for full damage. So that’s fine.



We need to move Koudelka closer to the Giant Plant if she’s actually going to remotely help out. That’s because the boss lacks the ability to move anywhere from its initial placement at the far end of the grid. Since it’s a plant. Roots aren’t really the best for movement, as it turns out. Go figure.





The Giant Plant’s only other attacks is vomiting spores in anyone in its proximity’s face for 40-60 HP of damage and a Poison status inflicting. I don’t think that is going to put Edward’s molten hammertime out of commission anytime soon.







Nope... it’s napalm all the way down for poor Giant Plant. Thus takes care of the first boss of Koudelka! They won’t all be that easy. But nobody is going to blame a boss in the first half hour of the game for being a pushover.


Music: Level Up!





Koudelka gained another level thanks to this boss fight. We’ll just pump the same stats as last time. We’ll probably swap AGL for VIT next time just to make her a bit less squishy. But that’s about it.



Additionally, we gained a new magic spell – Geyser, the Water Elemental magic attack. I guess plants need to be watered and that’s why a giant plant would yield that. I dunno. I’m not a botanist.



We also gained a key item, the Icon’s Necklace. No idea what this does or why we would want it. But we may as well bring it along anyway unless we want to fancy up a random statue with some bling or unlock a hidden passage to a secret lab. You know how these old creepy mansions can be.

Music: ENDS



Now that the first boss of Koudelka has been sorted out, I suppose we should investigate what is the deal with the KOed man we skipped past earlier.



Ahhh... My head... Ooh... What happened? Oh... Yes, that's right. That monster... Ugggh...
_{Ugh... Is this guy some kinda priest? Can already tell he’s going to be a real piece of work.
Says the man I’ve already had to save from dying twice in an hour...}



<looks over Koudelka and Edward> Who on earth are you two?
Hey! We rescued you and that's your way of saying thanks?!
Little did I know that thieves these days were into rescuing perfect strangers.
You...



Koudelka stops Edward from kicking this guy’s ass. Look, there’s no reason to immediately assume this guy is a total dick just yet. Maybe he’s just having a rough day. And... to be fair, they both did break into this place with Edward expressedly saying he was going to fuck up a one-percenter’s workweek.



<helps up the man> My name is Koudelka. And this is Edward. Would you mind telling us how you ended up collapsed down this path?



<rubs head> My name is James – James O' Flaherty. I've been searching for something and it took me to the monastery. Little did I know it had become a breeding ground for... demonic spirits.
Then how did you get in here dressed like that?
Through the main gate, of course. The caretakers welcomed me with open arms.
That husband and wife team? And the food? Was there no poison in your food?
That is no way to speak of the local cuisine, even if it is an... acquired taste...
No, Padre. I mean actual poison.
What are you talking about? Are you out of your mind?!
These caretakers tried to poison and kill us.
That's not funny! I find it inappropriate for you to try to dupe an upstanding member of the Christian faith!
You can go check out that kitchen if you want to see a couple liters of potato soup I ended up having to puke out...
Let’s never speak of that again...
Just sayin’...
So nothing happened to you then?
Of course not! Not until I encountered that monster.
Yeah...? And we are the ones that took care of that monster! Far be it from me to expect any word of gratitude from you!
I see. But I can tell from your appearances that the power of faith alone wasn't enough to smooth things out with that monster.
Father, pretty sure you got your ass kicked by that thing so hard it knocked you out. Was Jesus out here personally fighting it off from eating you until we arrived? Funny, I didn’t see him.
It wasn't the kind of problem that faith alone could solve.
Ugh! <turns back on them>



<looks over the water font> Look at this plinth... It's broken now, but holy water ran from it until recently. But I’ve... become distracted. Almighty God, please give me the strength to ward off these monsters.



I can see that we have wasted our time here.
Mhm.
Told you this guy was going to be a piece of work...
Mhm...
Let’s go, Koudelka. <both start walking away>



Just a minute...
<turns back and impatiently crosses arms>
<turns impatiently puts hands on hips>
Although I am under the protection of the Lord... it doesn't hurt to take precautionary measures. I think I will go with you.
<look at each other>
We’re gonna regret this.
I am regretting all of this.



And so our third and final party member, Father James O' Flaherty, joins the party. Tune in next time for more ghouls, goblins and increased animosity out of our trio as Koudelka continues.






Video: Episode 4 Highlight Reel
Skip to Cutscene: Click Here.





James O' Flaherty Concept – Christianity is all about the sweet sideburns.