Part 2: Step Closer To Freedom

Gfy

Music: Downside Ballad

: You arrive in Downside Prairie, where the road ahead is forked. There is a lack of consensus about which way to proceed.

: I’m telling you we ought to take the northern pass! Got an associate holed up in Hollowroot I’ve got to pay a visit to, besides!

: Fie on your associate. Best we head to Bloomingpool, and avoid attention.

: And get stuck in a bog while we’re at it!



: What if the Reader settled this? He marks the way, we get us there. If these Rites are meant to test our faith, then we’d best learn to trust the Reader’s instincts on our path. No second-guessing him along the way. Can we all live with that for now?

: … Yeah, sure.

: If necessary.

: Then it’s settled! Just point the way, my friend. The stars guide us through you.





: Pyre gives you a number of choices to make throughout the course of its game, and among them is to choose which fork in the road for your blackwagon to traverse on the way to your destination. As the previous discussion suggested, there are reasons why we might want to take one path over another.



: As Rukey said, he’d rather take the northern pass in order to reach a small settlement known as Hollowroot. He knows someone there that owes him, and we could make use of whatever Rukey would be able to hustle out of there.



: Whereas Jodariel would rather us go south, in order to avoid detection. From what? We’re all fugitives here in the Downside. But she also thinks that if we were to head south, we’d find some rare flora that may be able to assist us. Naturally, when we make our choice, we can’t go back and do it again (unless you reload, of course).

: There are going to be dozens upon dozens of forks in the road, so it’d be unreasonable to ask for a vote on each one. Instead, I’ll be biased towards the character that the thread is currently showing favoritism towards – I’ll give more detail once we have more characters and have explored more areas.

: That said, this decision is up to me. What we know is that Hollowroot is a settlement that definitely has people, whereas Bloomingpool is a dangerous hot spring and that Jodariel thinks she might be able to find a… rare flower? No offense meant, Jodi, but Hollowroot is looking like the more attractive option, here.


Gfy



: I’ll, uh, take your word for it, Pyre.

: Oh, uh, hey chum! Just wrapping up a real important exchange back there. Hang onto this for me, will you? We’ll have to drop it off if we head further north.



: Whatever it is, it can be sold at the Slugmarket, and it’s worth thirty whole coins. Without giving too much away, thirty coins is pretty significant, and the Plain Parcel exists specifically to be sold. The more money we get, the better (as is true with most things).


Gfy

: The blackwagon grinds to a stop at the base of the Ridge of Gol. The others ask you to assist with making preparations for nightfall, and the commencement of the Rite.



: We’ll be seeing this screen an awful lot, too, and always when we have the option to commence with the next Rite. There are only two things to interact with on this screen (currently, anyway): we can either get right to it and move on with the Rite, or we can head into the blackwagon and mingle with our fellow convicts. Whenever you see the speech bubble on top of the blackwagon icon in the lower left corner, it means there’s someone in there that would like to have a word with you.



: It’s Rukey this time. It looks like he’s awfully... contemplative.

: A number of objects in the blackwagon are sparkling, trying to get our attention. One of them is the book, because we’ve recently unlocked another page of it, but most of them are various knick-knacks and baubles that either belong to our companions, or are souvenirs that we’ve picked up from the locales we’ve been visiting.






Gfy



: Anyway, that’s enough milling about the blackwagon as if Rukey didn’t have something to talk about. Let’s see what’s on his mind.

: Hey chum! Appreciate you taking us up through Hollowroot back there.

: About that. Are you certain that parcel will fetch us an adequate price at the Slugmarket? Surely we could have procured some sort of rare fungus had we gone the other way.

: Uh, much as I love the idea of procuring rare fungus, there, Jodi, we said we wouldn’t go around second-guessing our good chum’s decisions, right?

: Jodariel says nothing in response, but soon changes the subject.

: Night falls soon. Come along, Greentail. We have much left to prepare.

: The two of them soon go about rummaging through the raiments and the books strewn about the wagon, leaving you to your own devices.

: Uh, okay, good talk, team.



: Now that we’ve moved on from the tutorial, we’ve unlocked the Common Room within the blackwagon. This little wagon is a lot bigger than you might think, if it has a common room! In here, we can examine our team a little more closely:



: We can learn everything about our friends here in the Common Room, including their backstory; how long they’ve been in exile, and why they were sentenced in the first place; along with practical information, such as their stats and equipment. I’ll post everyone’s bio when they come up, and again when they’ve been filled out.




: For a quick rundown on stats:

• Enlightenment is a character’s Experience Points. Everyone starts at level 1 and caps at level 5. You can see how spaced the levels are on the bar, and how much effort it’ll take to go from one level to the next.
  
• Glory determines how much damage a character does to an enemy’s pyre when they strike it with the orb, whether it’s held or tossed.
  
• Quickness is exactly how it sounds: how quickly a character runs or walks, with or without the use of stamina.
  
• Presence is how large a character’s Aura is, which determines how much of the playfield that can take up at any given time. When two friendlies stand within close proximity together, both of their Auras gain a significant boost, which they lose when they move apart.
  
• Hope determines how long a character is knocked out when they are banished by an enemy’s Aura. The higher the Hope, the faster they’ll return after banishment. This obviously does not apply if the character’s been banished from getting a dunk on an enemy’s pyre.
  

: We’ll talk about the empty boxes to the left and right of each character once they become relevant.



: In any case, we’re here for a reason. Let’s play some goddamn Sportsball.



: Keep telling you there’s nothing here!! What a bunch of idiots we are.

: If we traveled all this way for nothing…

: I don’t think we did. Look up.


Gfy


: Step Closer To Freedom – Gameplay
Music: Path To Glory



Music: A Step Closer

: After a Rite, whether or not you’re successful, you gain Enlightenment based on your performance. Obviously, winning will get you more, so, try to do that.

: Hedwin and Rukey both gained a fair amount of Enlightenment, but Jodariel in particular gained enough to level up.





: With each level up, we get ourselves a perk. Each exile can only level four times, meaning we get four perks. There are two trees, each with four perks, for a total of eight to choose from. While you don’t have to fill out an entire tree, you do need to get at least one perk from the level below the next one in order to advance down the tree.

: The two perks immediately available to Jodariel are Long Stride, which allows Jodariel to Rush twice in a row (Jodariel lunges forward rather than sprinting, and the game calls that a Rush, so, this is effectively doubling her run duration), and Relentless Vigor, which grants her all her stamina back once she banishes an enemy.

: Both those are both first-level perks. You’ll want to focus on the long game when it comes to perks, and thankfully enough, the game lets you preview what late-game perks will be available to you, should you fill out a tree enough to reach them.



: In particular, I really want this level three perk. When any character is holding the Orb, they’re essentially defenseless and must rely on their maneuverability in order to get a score on an enemy’s pyre. Jodariel, as you saw in the video, is about as graceful as a tractor, so her having the Celestial Spike perk will help her a lot when it comes to self-defense.

: Just for reference, her other level three perk is called Greater Banishment, and it makes any enemy banished by Jodariel take 30% longer to return. That doesn’t sound as useful as being a tank that shoots people to me, so I’m going to work toward Celestial Spike, which means taking Long Stride for now.




Gfy

: The getting-out-of-here club! Next up on the agenda, keep chasing stars until we’re free!

: Until we are free….

: Until we’re free.

: Hear, hear!! Sounds fine. Might as well be us instead of Lendel back there. Anyway! Guess we better start packing.

: As the others go about their business, Hedwyn turns to you.

: Reader. Come walk with me, while the stars are still out.



: You have questions. Come, ask away. We need you in on this for the long haul.



: Hmm. These are all good questions to ask, but, let’s think this through before we ask something stupid.

: We already know what happens if we refuse to help – it doesn’t take a genius – so there’s no real point in asking that. And there’s no sense in asking Hedwyn why we can’t conduct the Rites ourselves, since the guy knows exactly as much about the Rites as we do, starting yesterday. That leaves why he was exiled, and how he got the blackwagon.

: We could up and ask why he was exiled. If we’re going to need to work together to get out of here, we might as well get to work on trusting one another, and that includes opening up about ourselves and our histories. But, at the same time, that may be a personal question, and we’ve only known each other for two days.

: The blackwagon, however, immediately affects everyone in the Nightwings, and it’s already proven to be quite the useful tool. I’m more curious about some other topics, but I think asking where Hedwyn got the blackwagon, and how, is the ‘safest’ question to ask, so let’s go with that.



: Good question, my friend. We’re going to have a lot of time to discuss that, and many other things. Make you a deal. Read the stars for us again, and I’ll tell you all about it on the way.

: You sense he speaks truly as he beckons you toward the fading dark above.



Gfy

: That’s a long way north and west. We’ll see if this old wagon’s fit for it.

: How’s it going, Rukey?

: Imps fed, wheels clean!

: Status, Jodi?

: No sign of howlers. Everything is secure.

: Good. Then get some rest. We’re headed to the Spring of Jomeur. At dawn, we’re off.



: It looks like someone wants to have a word with us before we shove off once more. It’d be rude to keep them waiting.



: It’s Rukey again. I wonder what’s on his mind this time.

: You find Rukey rummaging in the corner of the blackwagon.

: Hey chum! Know what, it’s good having somebody else around besides those two!

: So, come to think of it, there’s something I wanted to get your take on, and you have to promise to tell me honestly.

: Would you say…

: What I mean is, um…

: He hesitates, trying to find the words.

: Argh! Look, what I’m trying to say is, um!

: You sense something serious is troubling him.



: … It’s about my mustache.

: I’ve been getting some conflicting reports about it. Would you say my mustache, that it makes me look a bit, you know…

: … unscrupulous…?



: Rukey is asking us if his mustache looks fine on him. If we tell him it’s fine, then he’ll keep it, but if we tell him that he might be better off without it, he’ll take our advice to heart and shave the whole thing clean off. What do you think? Should Rukey keep his mustache?

: Alternatively, of course, we could just gawk in incredulity at a talking dog.