Part 6: Toxa Episode 7 Chapter 4 - Vigilance Pt.1

Toxa Episode 7 Chapter 4


What is misleading here is that Vigilance is about to be attacked, it hasn't actually been attacked yet.


Well, first they set you on fire, then took you hostage. But hey, I'm sure they mean well


Misty's situation is kind of screwed either way. If she openly works against Akueldo, she'll be labelled a traitor and can never come back.
But if she does nothing, She will have a target painted on her back forever.
And if she openly attacks Asty, she'll be painted as a traitor aswell.
Even if she finds the truth and potentially, evidence about Asty's plans to murder her,
Misty has still worked against Akueldo.
In this case it's going to become an issue of the needs of an individual vs the needs of the group.
She really doesn't have a choice but to give up on ever returning to Akueldo.
It certainly isn't fair, but that's life.







MUSIC:Feel Uneasy
Shinon Mansion


I'm kind of unsure what Toxa means here. There is possibly a Shrine with a World Tree in Kainas, but I don't know.

"Lacryma and Troy can't handle this alone. We have to go back, Duran!"
"Let me go with you! I owe you a lot. How long will it take to get to Vigilance Headquarters?"

Unlike traditional JRPGS, Toxa joins the party, and not the other way around.

"We'll be there by tomorow if we leave now. That's if we don't take any breaks..."
"We have to defeat the enemy!"

It occurs to me that Toxa is kind of generic. My first impression was a guy who were pretty capable and had some experience.
But with these increasingly generic lines, I feel that my estimation was wrong.

"Don't we have to tell Count Shinon? He just left the estate and he will not be back until the end of the day."
If this were the real world, then Toxa running off to fight in Kainas, would endanger his employment to Count Shinon.
But then again, we can't create sour tangerines from paper anyways so maybe the comparison doesn't fit.


Maybe it was a bad idea to start sneaking around in a bright yellow and purple outfit. Oh and Ele is only there for a split second. Made it kind of annoying to screen cap.

"We don't have any time to waste. We have to go, Duran!"








Ofcourse the bored teen with independance issues, is gonna break the rules and sneak away with us.


So after spending time, fighting off Garum, the party then proceeds to patrol Shinon estate.
Misty learns of the attack, tells everyone and they then all rush to Kainas.
Long day at work today. Must be Monday.




"We got here too late!"








I'm starting to feel that even though Ele is a talentless teenager, she would still be a better protagonist than Toxa.


In the land of REBUS, God was too lazy to give everyone a unique "Surprised" expression. So he just copy pasted it. Even the stance is the same.


You know an oppertunist would grab Ele along, blame her for running off to Kainas and then keep their job, when Count Shinon starts asking questions as to where his damn guard is.
But Toxa is a Knight, who are pure and bla bla bla.

"That is not the issue! Please return to the estate at once."
"No!"
"This is great!"
"Since she came all the way here, let her do something."
"There you go! Listen to Alana"

I'm pretty sure this is violating several child labour laws.


"We came here to protect them, not you. Stop trying to be the hero."
"I am not trying to be a hero!"
"This is not the time to be arguing! We have to come up with a plan!"
"Very well... Miss Ele, please be carefull..."
"I'll be fine. Let's go, Alana!"

Wait what? What do you mean, "Let's go, Alana"? Isn't she coming with my group? Couldn't Duran go to the Shrine?!


And so the Fire Arm leaves.
So my exploding sword leaves my party yet again. Never give valuables to women, kids! They just run off with them.


"Yes, I am ready..."




The party runs over the edge of the world. Never to be seen again down the cliff

MUSIC: Lively Knight



Ugh, this woman is a rather unfortunate existance. But that's getting ahead of ourselves. For now just know that she indirectly the reason to why this mission has to end quickly.
She is ofcourse also a member of Vigilance.


This guy is Rimzan, leader of Vigilance. As such he pops up here and there. To borrow a term from Fire Emblem, he is our 'Jeigan'. A crutch character.
Ofcourse there aren't random stat gains in Kartia. But Rimzan is not a character we'll see often, so any experience he gains, might aswell be considered lost to the atheist afterlife.


It would seem that Rimzan is keeping himself on top of things. So he is not completely incompetent. The question is. Who is keeping him up to date? I can only speculate, but it isn't all that important regardless.
But it is somewhat important to note, as the members in Vigilance is only in the single digits. And as such, they only have limited manpower.

"I am Toxa... The sword that smites evil! Allow me to give a hand, sir!"
"I will accept your offer!"
"Duran! There are thieves at the Shrine also!"
"Go to the Shrine. I'm concerned about Lacryma."
"I sent Alana there. No need to worry."

I'm still not liking this idea of not having my exploding sword. I'm very attached to that thing.

Music: Unknown Title XIII
Meanwhile, slightly down the street.

"I havn't seen you in a while, sister. Or should I call you traitor..."
"I'm not a traitor..."
"Really? Then who is responsible for Mona's escape?"
"Garum I..."
"Lord Vandor saved our lives and this is how you repay him? I don't care if you're my sister.
"Your treachery is unforgiveable."

Okey, so now that we know how Asty and Misty interact, how can Misty have any doubt that Asty wants her dead. Likewise she should honestly also know why.
This is a case of where characters have questions they already know answers to, because the players need insight into what is going on. I mean I could understand it, if Asty
had more subtleness than holding a neon sign saying "Hey I'm a traitorous bitch"


"I believe it's more important to bring the Text to Lord Vandor."
"I guess you're right..."
"Good bye sister. We will continue this the next time we meet..."
"Asty!"

I'm guessing Asty isn't half as dumb as you'd expect, considering she doesn't believe the the mission to destroy Vigilance is going to succeed.
I mean, why else would she expect to meet Misty later on? Also, I expected more from Misty. Murdereous rage? A more fierce approach?




Alright, let's get this show on the road. All these words makes me kind of bloodthirsty, and if you think the lack of an exploding sword of death is gonna stop me from painting
the village walls red with blood, then you're the wrongest person in the universe of being wrong.


So while we were in the loading screen. Posha (yes that's her name. And it's not even the stupidest or most french part of her name either) managed to get herself surrounded by 5 Beheads.


Ah, but ofcourse... So this is Posha at level 2. She is actually WORSE than Ele, despite being a member of Vigilance, and has been for quite some time.
POSHA


It's kind of hard to see, because I sometimes make bad screenshots.
Anyways that's two thieves and 6 Morderes on the opposite side of Posha.
Needless to say, Posha is in incredible danger.


On the opposite side of our main group, is another 3 Mordere and a thief.
Summasummarum. Hella lot of dudes. (ignore my phantoms for now.)
There are also 3 chests and various pots and crates around.


Alright, so there are several things we need to do. But first of all, we take away this girls, clothes and give her something that doesn't completely suck.
In this case, I created some Ogre armor and gave her a Dark Katana. Ogre armor made by picking the E rank Leather items and adding "Goblin" Text to them.
Ogre armor decreases damage from a specific type of phantoms by 5. So since Posha has a full set. She takes -5 damage from all phantom types.


Next up is Rimzan who... Woah. Well okey. So Rimzan is lvl 10 and is ofcourse our crutch character, He has massive elemental defenses and a beastly equip rank.
(The highest to my knowledge is A so he can wield the best equipment in the game) His armor is nothing special, but that Zweihander +2 is actually a completely unique weapon.
I mean, we can make Zweihanders later on ourselves and we can get them to +2 aswell I believe. But even if we made a Zweihander +2 ourselves it would be weaker than Rimzan's Zweihander...
Anyways I don't need any damn cruches. Even if my legs were broken, I'd just transport myself via handstands and stubborness.
So I take Rimzan's weapon and give him an Iron Sword. Trust me He doesn't need his weapon.
Ofcourse the Zweihander is an A rank weapon. But we'll use it sooner or later.


Anyways the game has a ton of dudes. So I make a ton of dudes myself. I could make Mordere's but those actually cost me a Mithril to create now.
And I have... Plans for my Mithril. So I'm gonna hoard it a little bit. Beheads can be made entirely with Silk. I also I didn't show case the last missions Arena item. So let's have a double
showing this time around.


First off is the Athena Helmet.
Not only is it a respectable defensive boosting item, but it also increases all elemental defenses by 5. Nice.
The last item, I didn't get a screenshot off because I don't care much for phantoms. But it's the Behead Armor.
It gives a nice defensive boost too. But it also increases XP gain for that Behead, by 50%. Woah. I gave it to a Shadow Behead.


And that is the mission objective. But there is so much to do this mission.
First off we have to get Posha out of her dire situation. This means we'll be fighting on two fronts.
Secondly we have to grab all the stuff that's in the area. There are 3 chests and 4 crates/pots of stuff.
Also I completely forgot to mention that Rimzan takes over control of Alana's phantoms, but he himself only has 2 Kartia Combo. So I only have him create a few Kyau.
Finally, before you think this is gonna be a slog... I finish this in 4 turns. Let's just say that *heh* something big happens.


Since my mission success is largely determined by Posha's initial safety, I'll focus on getting her out of her shituation. Shituation is now a word.


Even if both Shadow Beheads, were neutered by my Doll Phantoms. They're still in the way. Unfortunately this is the best screenshot I can get of the action here.
This is largely due to how the game handles the camera. Every map has a default camera position.
When you cast Kartia, the game dims the screen and rotates the camera until it hits the default position.
You can sometimes get the game to flip out and rotate much more or less than it normally should.


Rimzan doesnt actually do anything here. I just move him down to serve as a block for Posha. The way I've
positioned my units, only a single Behead can actually hit Posha. As weak as she is, she can still survive a few hits.
But if 3 or 4 Beheads attacked her, she'd be in real trouble. Posha also have a height advantage, and every Behead
is wielding swords. So she takes even less damage than normal. She is as safe as she can get at this moment.


Meanwhile, in the other front. I engage with my two front Shadow Beheads. I also equip them with spear weapons.
This way, they'll get the terrain bonus and deal full damage.


Ugh... This camera sometimes. I swear. Here let me make up for it.



The two previously wounded Morderes die. Misty get's 87xp. Not quite enough to level up.

So let's talk a little about XP gains. See you get a predetermined amount of XP depending on what happens.
You get 10 xp every time you hit an opponent. 37 when you kill something. So when you use area of effect Kartia's and hit alot of dudes.
You get a ton more XP per turn, than if you simply had everyone run around and hit things once per turn.

Basically not only does Kartia let you go through missions faster, you also become stronger faster.
Kartia is also the best way to open up combat on an unwounded opponent due to how physical damage works.
What I'm trying to say here is that Kartia is really, really good. Which I guess is fitting in a game about Kartia.
It's not that physically attacking is bad, but rather that Kartia is just so much better. Ofcourse there is a price to pay for power.
But the game gives you plenty of money to pay for that power.

This is also what makes Phantoms value in the game weaker.
Phantoms can only physically attack. The only thing Phantoms can do, that humans can't is attack indirectly with physical damage.
This is why the game would have benefited greatly from units having skills or abilites, that would allow them to do other things than simply attack.
There are a ton of things you could have phantoms do, that are weaker than Kartia effects, and either be free or cost a non Kartia resource.
This also makes the early phantoms you get, still viable for later game, where you might need them for their abilities alone.

But this is getting out of hand. back to the regularly schedules childrens card game.


Toxa is already at a secure level. Misty needs to get caught up, so he is on item get duty.
No, I don't appreciate spending 1 silk to get 3 more, when I have 120 Silk. Come on game. Silk is no longer a reward.


This is the "Big" Text. Any of you Swahili speakers know if this is translated properly?
Anyways with this Text, I'm shaking with power.


THIS CAMERA


If a character doesn't flinch then they don't get hit.


Woah, a non Fire spell. Well I'm not using Fire because I want to watch the world burn. It's strategically better to set things on fire, than blow it away.
(Unless you're up against an immortal villain, then send those suckers flying into space.)


So fun fact, I set myself the goal of gif'ing every spell this mission. Unfortunately Fire Needle didn't pan out.
But the next one is gonna be a "Big" one.


Anyways, this is just the calm before the oncoming storm that is my hateful fury of all things Phantom.
Yes, Posha only took that little damage.


Fire Needle is a reverse sky laser. I then feed the thief kill to my Shadow Behead with the Behead armor. I honestly should have given it to Misty.
I kind of want to level up a Behead, now that I've got some armor for it. It'll probaly die down the road though.


Some more Force Wind. Kills one of the Doll Phantoms. It even hit my Kyau.


I. Noooooo. My vengeance shall be furious. Mark my words!


IT'S TIME. Plume of the battlefield, Let unto me thy power yield! Oh wait, wrong game.


Fuck your sky dragons. I have Kartia to slam the moon into your face. Or is it just a weird eye ball... thing? I don't have the slightest clue.
Either way you all fail your saving throws automatically. Get out of this LP right now.



I am DONE with this mission. You have so many dudes. You are spread out so far. Posha starts off in the worst position I have ever seen.
And don't think for a second that I forgot, you made me waste 3 turns last mission. Chasing down fucking Mordere assholes, that spend their turns doing nothing but run away.



Alright so, to cast Wide Quake, you need the "Big" Text we got this mission. It has a MASSIVE range. Deals 50 damage.
Later on it's gonna drop in effectivety, but right now I can flip these assholes off with it so yeah, that's what I'm gonna do.
This is also why it only takes me 4 turns to end this mission. . Posha gets the killing blow on the whole group except one of the thieves.
She gets a total of 2 LEVELS AND 40xp With one spell.

So fun fact. There are 4 elements in the game, but only 4 types of phantoms. Common are weak to Fire. Shadows to Wind and Dolls to Water.
Then logically Humans would be strong to Earth right? Nope.
Human elemental defenses can vary, but they are typically stronger against Wind and Water, and less so Earth and Fire.
So every enemy unit so far shares a single element as a weakness. Incidentally it's the same element with the largest hit area.

Now, before you think I'm gonna go total mad with power, note that Wide Quake costs 1 Mithril to cast. So this little skirmish cost me 3 Mithril to do.
Compare that to the 3 Mordere I could create and... yeah Wide Quake winds out by a large margin, because as I'm repeteadly saying, phantoms suck.
And they quickly grow outdated.


So a single thief and two Mordere survived. For all intents and purposes this mission is over. I'm only keeping these buttdonkeys alive so I can grab the last loot.
Of note is the "Unique Axe" in one of the chests. It's a terrible weapon. It's unique effect is that it restores 2hp when you attack.


This says "Lightning" It's a Mithril Text. One of the thieves we defeated earlier also gave us a "Tough" Mithril Text.
Combined with the "Big" Mithril Text, We could have missed out on 3 Mithril Texts.
Anyways I collect the last crap and kill the thief, ending the mission.


"How's Lacryma at the Shrine? Are they alright over there?"
"I guess their battle is over now."
"She is the best warrior in the group"

Toxa means Alana. Not Lacryma. Because how could he refer to a person he has never seen fight?

"No, the best warrior is Lacryma."

Listen Posha, it's bad form to post such things on the forum. We don't want none of your fan girl kind here.

"There is a warrior stronger than Alana?"
I'm kind of in disbelief too. I mean, not to rack on Lacryma, but she doesn't have an exploding sword. (Atleast I think so.)
But I guess that's not really Alana's strength. She was just lucky I gave her a really good weapon.

"You'll meet her soon. Let's get back to the group."
"OK."


Oh so it were 5 turns. Still 17 frigging dudes? Damn. Atleast I only lost 3 Phantoms. So I'm becoming a better pokeymans trainer.


See when the game gives me 40 Silk when I already have 93. Then I'll just take that as encouragement to use more Kartia. Which I almost can't really.
I think I can count on one hand, how many times I've physically attacked with a Human.
The Texts are "Long" and "Breath". They're both Silk Kartia. The gap in my Kartia list, kind of worry me. It makes me think I might have missed a Text somewhere.

Epilogue
This is a really long epilogue you guys.


I can see why you wouldn't want to talk about Misty. But there is no reason not to tell Vigilance, that
the thieves were kidnapping a Druid. It could give insight into what the thieves were trying to do.

Unless Toxa was being clever and withheld information because Vigilance could have spies.
But I think that line of thought should be credited to either Duran or Alana. The less people who know
about who saved Mona. The less likely they are to find her. After all. All the thieves who were part of the escorting
mission are either dead, or working for us.

Why yes I did just convince myself of something different. No I'm not crazy.


Well okey, with such a small group, it would be pretty easy to figure out any potential thieves. So now there is even less
reason not to tell everyone about Mona.

Yes I just reconvinced myself. No wait, don't run away. I'm not dangerous!


Correction, they attempt to protect the town by themselves, but things almost went wrong if Toxa, Duran and Misty hadn't shown up.
I really can't see Posha surviving that skirmish, Rimzan could probaly fight off the whole group by himself, because he is effectually immortal.



Music: Unknown Track XIV

Lying isn't really Alana's strong suit. Also wouldn't Misty be a Swordswoman?

"My name is Misty. It is an honour to meet all of you."
"She accidentally wandered into Count Shinon's estate when she got lost..."
"If we didn't meet her, we probaly wouldn't be here."

Duran is trying to sell Misty as Zoro. It is appearently a common trait in Swords(wo)men to have terrible navigational skills.


So this is the infamous Troy.


So like I keep saying. Encrypters are wizards, and Troy is a pretty badass wizard if memory serves.
In all of Vigilance Alana is the only one who can come close to him in terms of Kartia.
Alana is cooler because she wears a cape though.

"Thanks..."

Posha Saint-Amour..... So what? Fancy Holy-Love in French? Well I guess Posh is from UK, but still.
Or is "love" Armour? Well I don't frigging know. If anyone is fluent in French, do feel free to let this filthy savage know.

"Her parents forced her to join Vigilance when she was sixteen. Poor girl..."
"Troy... Can't you introduce us in a normal way?"
"I make it a priority to tell the truth."


"Posha, don't take Troy seriously, okey?"


Alana leaves the group and go talks to someone less unpleasant.
If this was meta-commentary on how players would view someone as weak as Posha appears to be, then that would be incredible.

"Troy, I think Posha did her best."
"Then I don't think her best was good enough."
"She fought bravely..."
"However, her skills are not good enough to be considered a member of Vigilance."
I have my own idea of Troy, but I'll just let you guys form your own opinion of him. He certainly makes the game more interesting.


Troy leaves the group and goes somewhere else
There is a difference between acknowledging you're bad at something and then completely giving up. This is the latter, and it's always bad.

"What a gentleman... Is he really a member of Vigilance."
"That is his personality. He was like that from the beginning."


Lacryma, tired of listening to Toxa's stories about being a guard, moves up to Misty and Duran.


"Yes..."
"I'm Lacryma. Thank you for protecting the town from the thieves."
"I didn't do much..."
"Lacryma, I'm thinking of letting her join us."
"I think that's fantastic. Misty, please join us."
"But, I..."
"No need to be concerned, You will be of great help."


----

Epilogue to be continued...

Right so we've met a few new characters and the update is getting rather long. It's quite possible you guys are getting tired of reading things already.
So I'm gonna do an update tomorow with the last bit of the epilogue, because that's were the plot will move forward. I don't want to overload people with all this new information.